Archival Posts 2003 February23-28

February 28, 2003

There is a newly scheduled Sony SACD listed for Five For Fighting and their "America Town", originally released on Sept 2000. The SACD will street on April 22.

The response was so great for Greg's "Who's Next - Deluxe Edition" that I'm going to mention it again for those who may have missed it. Greg's review may very well be one of the first available for the disc judging by the remarks and excited finger pointing on various music boards around the internet. And we know just how anxious you fans are for this title. We are too. So, if you missed it the first time around, here it is again. "Who's Next - Deluxe Edition"

We also have the promised Duane's Punk Pit column for this week. And the updates that you love are here too.

Joining Mountain's two upcoming remastered reissues (Nantucket Sleighride and Climbing!) is "The Best of Mountain" streeting on April 15. It's good to see West and the boys get revisited.

Some interesting action from EMI: We are seeing a Vanessa-Mae DVD scheduled for May 6 titled, "Live at Albert Hall".

From Capitol, a Bing Crosby title, "From The Capitol Vaults" for May 20. Also on May 20, again from Capitol is reissued, remastered "Hollies Greatest Hits". But if you think that's special, wait til you hear this next great piece of news. Capitol is reissuing three remastered Jethro Tull titles. The discs are:

A Passion To Play
Songs From The Wood
Heavy Horses

We'll let you know more about those titles as info becomes available. But there is still more up Capitol's sleeves. They have scheduled for May 20, The Stranglers' "Singles BoxSet, Vol 2". We've already told you about the Teddy Pendergrass and The O'Jays "Anthology" discs also due on the 20th of May.

Flipping the calendar pages over to June, Capitol has penciled in The Buzzcocks' "Inventory - Singles Box Set". June 10 also brings two Slaughter reissues and two Vinnie Vincent Invasion reissues. For Slaughter - "Stick It To Ya", and "The Wild Life" and for Vinnie Vincent - "All Systems Go", and "Vinnie Vincent Invasion".

Virgin has planned, on June 10, two TBD discs from Crash Radio and Drag-On with a June 24 date for Izzy. The bad turn of events, unfortunately, is for an anticipated Johnny Winter release with title TBD. The projected disc is now put on hold with the previous release date of June 24 hanging on. Keep your fingers crossed for that one. Wouldn't it be nice to have some Columbia SACDs of his Columbia years/Blue Sky years? I'm thinking "Nothin' But The Blues", and "Live" for starters.

The upcoming Jimmy Page disc, "Have Guitar, Will Travel", is a collection of songs created while he was honing his craft as a session player during the years, 63-68, and some unreleased Yardbirds material. This remastered, 20 song disc features his guitar work for such interesting personas like Nico and Gordon Lightfoot. This set also includes a smoker of a song in "Train Kept a Rollin'" by The Scott McKay Quintet. From Varese Sarabande's Fuel2000 on April 8.

Finally, the upcoming David Sanborn, scheduled for June 3 gets a title. The disc, "timeagain", is new from Verve.

And now...Duane's Punk Pit

Welcome to another edition of Duane’s Punk Pit for the Week of 2/23 through 3/1. And I do apologize for the long delay. I’m back and I have a whole bunch of punk bits for you today as well a link to a real cool punk station that you'd be able to hear on the web from Loyola Marymount College, Los Angeles' only Punk Station heard from 6 AM til 6PM, Monday through Friday, PST. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. Now off to the news.

On a sad note, Saturday, February 22, 2003, The VINDICTIVES had lost founding member Robert "DR. Bob" Nielsen to a heroin overdose. He was 49 years old. We, here at MusicTAP, wish his family the best during this ordeal and also hope that he’s finally at peace with himself.

Local H To Release Next Album On Thick Records -- Local H, the loud rock band that features a duo who were staples on MTV and radio back in the mid 90s will be releasing their new album on Thick Records.

Death By Stereo MP3 Now Available -- Death By Stereo have a new MP3 posted on the Epitaph website proving Death By Stereo are still one of the kings of hardcore/metal/punk. (Editor's Note: While you're there, do not f@#$in' leave without checking out Ikara Colt.)

Further Seems Forever tour With The Ataris And The Juliana Theory with the tour beginning in late March. Tour dates can be found at furtherseemsforever.com.

The Ataris With Rock'n'Roll High School -- Hardplace.net got their hands on an exclusive track by The Ataris that you probably will hear nowhere else. The song is called "Rock'n'Roll High School" and is yours to download and keep --no streaming this, or sample that. What do you have to do to get it? Just click here.

Elliot With "Songs In The Air" -- April 29, 2003 is the date for Elliott’s 3rd full-length album, "Song In The Air". Elliott is currently on tour with Further Seems Forever.

Voice Of A Generation Update - Voice Of A Generation got a brand new website and it looks really cool. Check it out here. Also, the band will release two split 7" singles during spring 2003. The first one with The Creetins on Diapazam/Vitaminenpillen, and the second one with Berlins' kings of punk, Frontkick. This one will be released by the Spanish label, Bronco Bullfrog.

Strike Anywhere Northeastern U.S./Canadian Tour -- Strike Anywhere is currently on tour. They have gotten a lot of questions about how to get tickets for the upcoming spring tour, so they put up some links for ticket information on their 'shows' page. South East and Midwest Shows in April.

Throwdown Signs To Trustkill -- The Orange County locals are wrapping up their album up as we speak. They should have it out in stores by June on Trustkill.

Ultimate Fakebook EP- Ultimate Fakebook will be releasing a brand new EP "Before We Spark" on May 13. It will also include extras such as "Inside Me, Inside You" and "When I'm With You, I'm Ok" videos. Also, UFB will be embarking on it's first ever European tour this May, with the Swiss band, The Plus Nomination for 5 weeks that will take them through Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, The Netherlands and more.

That’s it for now. Stay dry and remember... “More Punk & Less Junk”

We'll see you on Monday with, hopefully, the SACD review of The Byrds' "Greatest Hits". Have a superior weekend.

February 27, 2003

We've got a few things today for you as well as the usual updates. We have the Patrick Ogle interview up. Tomorrow, is Duane's triumphant return with his PunkNotes. So off we go.

We're reading of a Radiohead release from Capitol on June 10. No other pieces of information regarding that release is available. But it's a great piece of news, regardless. Watch for confirmation of this in these pages.

For those that like to watch their favourite acts on the telly, you have your choice of Springsteen for Friday on CBS Primetime and newcomers, The Coral on The Conan O'Brien Show, also on Friday.

The word is now official on the new Essential title, "The Essential Byrds". It streets on April 22, however we are not aware of the track listing as of yet. We have better quality artwork for one of those shoddy looking Essentials I posted the other day. It's the only one available for now but we'll repost as we get them. For fun, run your mouse over the image and see what I posted the day before and how much better the image looks now.

If you were looking forward to the upcoming April 15 reissue of Mott the Hoople's "Greatest Hits", the bonuses are two added tracks. The tracks are album versions of "Sweet Jane" and "One of the Boys".

The AC/DC updated CD rollout from Epic Records continues on April 15 with "Powerage", "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)", "Let There Be Rock", "Who Made Who", and "The Razor's Edge".

A disc from Serj Tankian (System of a Down singer) is expected to street on April 22. the title is "Serart". The music is to be released on both CD and LP. Also on April 22 is the resizing of the Tony Bennett Box Set, "Forty Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett" issued in 1997. The size gets pared down to that of a standard CD so as to allow placement in CD racks, etc. You get the same songs, etc...just a smaller box.

The Peter Gabriel catalogue conversion to SACD takes another scheduling bump to sit on April 29, down two weeks from it's last street date. At this rate, they'll make great holiday gifts. As an interesting note, Universal has a notation for a 10 CD Limited Edition Collection in the works. Also in the 'shhhh' stage is a Peter Gabriel "Secret World Live" 2 CD remaster. The odd thing is that 2 separate sets of that title are mentioned...could one evolve into an SACD? Just a guess. Regardless, it's pegged for the future as is "Up" for SACD.

Warner announces a new DVD-video release from Rhino entitled "Ramones Around The World". The DVD is expected April 8 and contains 17 live performances. Also from Warner, on April 8, is a "best of" collection of James Taylor that includes all of his hits from all the labels, Apple, WB, and Columbia. The disc features 20 of his songs with a very impressive tracking list.

From WEA for April 8 are the following:

The Deuce Project - Stone Cold - Maverick Records
Point of Grace - 24 - 2CD - Word Records
Seventh Day Slumber - Picking Up The Pieces - Crown Music
VonRay - VonRay - Elektra (toured with Creed)
Lizzie West - Holy Road: Freedom Songs - Warner Bros

Finally, a new disc of new music in a beautifully produced package from Righteous Babe Records, Ani DiFranco's "Evolve". This release is due on March 11. And we have the disc now. We are listening to it so that we can bring you our thoughts on the disc. Watch for it.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Duane's Punk Pit, a review (maybe two), and the usual updates.

February 26, 2003

Man, do we have a lot in store for you today. I promised you a "Who's Next Deluxe Edition" review. It's here. I promised to introduce you to our Jazz Man. Will do! Plus we have updates and stuff. Sit back, we've got a lot to enjoy here.

First off, let me introduce you to John Grace. John has actually written a review for us some time back and then got very busy elsewhere. He's here to regale you with a weekly column on Jazz. We hope that you'll find his column interesting. Drop him a line at jgrace@musictap.net to say hi.

Our review of The Deluxe Edition for "Who's Next" by The Who is here as well. Reviewed by Gregory Warner, his take on the upcoming March 25 release is fascinating. Remember that the review is a preliminary review as we do not yet have the final copy. Therefore, we do not touch upon the packaging and booklet. We've listened to the music and ..well, judge for yourself. Drop Gregory a line at gawarner@musictap.net and chat with him on The Who. He'd love it.

We're going to go with the Jazz Notes on this front page until it expands into a larger column.

JazzNotes

This is often a bittersweet time of year for jazz fans. The Grammy Awards, ostensibly a showcase for the best in recorded music, virtually ignores the jazz world. This year's show was no exception. Herbie Hancock did take part in presenting an award, and Diana Krall's face did flash on the screen for a second or two, but that's about it. As for the big winner, Norah Jones, she does record for Blue Note Records, but it's a bit of a stretch to call her a jazz artist. Someday I'll tune in again, when I'm convinced jazz is getting a fair shake. Until then, I'll stick to radio, CDs, and the occasional jazz film.

A few last Norah items: by the time you read this, her first DVD, "Norah Jones Live In New Orleans" should be in stores. Also, Norah hits the road this summer, sharing the bill with Gillian Welch and Richard Julian.

It's been several years now since I first listened to the 4-CD "Verve Story 1944-1994" box set. If you're not familiar with the label, suffice to say that Verve has showcased some of the true pioneers of jazz. If you get a chance, take a look at the box the next time you're in a record store. You'll see names like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Stan Getz, and countless more. It's a wonderful anthology, in terms of recording technology, song selection, and price, to name a few categories.

Coming soon from the Verve Music Group (which includes the Verve, GRP, Blue Thumb, and Impulse labels):

Stan Getz, Cafe Montmartre: 3/4/2003
The Crusaders, Rural Renewal: 3/4/2003
Pee Wee Russell, Ask Me Now: 3/11/2003
Archie Shepp, Attica Blues: 3/11/2003
Albert Ayler, Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe: 3/11/2003
Steve Kuhn & Gary McFarland, October Suite: 3/11/2003
Earl Hines, Once Upon a Time: 3/11/2003
Wayne Shorter, Alegría: 3/25/2003
Gabor Szabo, High Contrast: 3/25/2003
Ray Brown, Jazz Cello: 3/25/2003
Jim Hall, Live: 3/25/2003
Buddy Emmons, Steel Guitar Jazz: 3/25/2003
Stuff Smith, Sweet Swingin' Stuff: 3/25/2003
Betty Carter, Finest Hour: 4/8/2003
Erroll Garner, Finest Hour: 4/8/2003
Various Artists, "It Runs in the Family" Soundtrack: 4/8/2003
Regina Carter, TBD: 4/22/2003
Richard Elliot, Ricochet: 4/29/2003

Kudos to Matt for noting the release of a new Brubeck album. Dave and company are, quite simply, the epitome of legend. Did you know Brubeck performed at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit years back? Imagine the politicos of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. sharing, dare I say, *agreeing* on music! Dave was there, performing for the leaders of the free (and not-so-free) world. Naturally, I've got a recommendation. If you're at all interested in rhythm, jazz, or just the creative process, check out "Time Signatures," the 4-disc Brubeck retrospective.

Ah, the jazz realm. It's always ecletic, never easy to pin down. My favorite tagline comes from a Bob James album of years past, "All Around the Town." Jazz, it stated, is "music by, and for, individuals." Quite true.

The April 1 releases from Universal already. Time amazes me.

The album by AFI, which releases on March 11 gets a re-release on April 1 as a limited special edition with enhanced CD product and a DVD. It also features a 60 page booklet in a hard book package. Additionally, the DVD contains not only a short film, "Clandestine" but also - get this - 5 audio tracks mixed in 5.1 surround. One of the songs, "Reiver's Music", is a non-album track. I find the 5.1 tracks an interesting addition. A new trend perhaps?

From Universal/A&M comes a double disc collection for Joan Armatrading titled, "Love and Affection: Joan Armatrading Classics (1975-1983)". This collection contains tracks extending from 10 of her earlier albums released during the time period 75-83 for a total of 43 tracks. This set also features remastering at 96k/24bit. So if you're an Armatrading fan, this set should be a nice pickup for your collection.

From Fuel2000 Records comes an old favourite, Jay and The Americans with "Absolutely The Best". This disc contains 60s and 70s hits, including "She Cried", "Cara Mia", and "This Magic Moment". Here's an interesting bit I'll bet a lot of you didn't know. In the backup group that made up Jay and The Americans were two upcoming musicians by the name of Walter Beckler and Donald Fagen who went on to form Steely Dan.

And from American Recordings and Lost Highway comes the "alt-country" favourites, The Jayhawks with their newest, "Rainy Day Music". This disc will be released on April 1 as a standard CD and as a CD that includes a 6 song bonus disc (alternate takes, demos, and live acoustic with an additional track not on the regular disc).

For April 8, Boomkat makes their Dreamworks Records debut with "Boomkatalog One". A brother/sister team are a mixture of HipHop, Soul, and Pop and is available as an enhanced CD that features a video.

John Grace, in his Jazz Notes, mentioned Erroll Garner and Betty Carter releases from Verve Records on April 8. Garner's "Finest Hour" is a mid-priced collection that highlights his years with Mercury Records while Betty Carter's "Finest Hour", also mid-priced, release details her spectacular career from the 60s through the 90s.

Also on the 8th of April is the luxurious release of Bing Crosby's "A Centennial Anthology of His Decca Recordings". This album is released to commemorate his upcoming 100th birthday and to showcase the wonders of his voice and his time. There are many reasons for this quality package to end up on your shelf. The package comes over two discs and features 50 songs from his long career. Many of the songs have never seen release on CD. There are 15 number one hits including the '39 Decca version of "Star Dust". The set also is newly transferred using the state of the art audio restoration techniques and then digitally remastered. This is a set to acquire, no doubt about it.

Finally, Fear Factory and Godsmack fans get the new releases on April 8. The discs, Fear Factory - "Hatefiles" and Godsmack - "Faceless" represent anticipated releases. Fear Factory's "Hatefiles" is a collection of B-Sides, remixes, and rarities from Roadrunner Records. Godsmack;s "Faceless" is a new album of music that is released as an enhanced CD in two modes, edited and regular issue. Godsmack comes from Universal.

There is a Hootie and The Blowfish disc coming out on March 4th from Atlantic Records, thier first in nearly 4 years. The new album contains twelve songs, eleven of them new compositions.

We're going to add some SACD excitement here from AudioFidelity. The following discs are upcoming:

Man of the World - Reflections on Peter Green - March
Bob James - In Hi-Fi - March
Lightnin' Hopkins - Broken-Hearted Blues - March

Available now from Audio Fidelity in SACD is :

Richie Valens - Greatest Hits
Sonny Clark - The Sonny Clark Trio
John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen
Carl Tjader Quintet - Latin+Jazz = Carl TJader
Buddy Rich - The Best Band I Ever Had
Mel Torme - The London Sessions
The Zombies - Greatest Hits

I've got my eye on this company.

That's it for today. But don't forget to check out the preliminary review for the upcoming "Who's Next - Deluxe Edition". We'll be back tomorrow with more. Is that possible?

February 25, 2003

The cold hasn't gotten much better. Which is depressing because who likes to be under the weather. I really thought that it would have healed up by now but you know colds...

In the news, I just read that EMI is in talks to buy much of the music arm of Warner. Which floors me. To see the storied music giant dish off its music to saty afloat is a sad story indeed. You can read about it here.

I was also given a shot of bad news in that one of my dear friends has passed away. He was the first in Southern California to befriend me some 17 years back when I first moved here. It's sad to hear of someone so young (he was 45) whose light becomes extinquished. And his light was indeed a bright one. He was a huge fan of Frederic Chopin, which will cause me to ache everytime that I hear a Chopin piece. Let's give him a moment...

To Antek, You will be missed greatly and then some more. And we will think of you forever and then some more.

Don't forget the cool discs that are available tomorrow. There's T. Rex's "Electric Warrior", Expanded and Remastered from Rhino. There's six Expanded and Remastered Grateful Dead titles, (American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Live/Dead, Aoxomoxoa, The Grateful Dead, Anthem of the Sun), also from Rhino. Tomorrow also marks the official US release of The Music, the band that we have been touting here at TAP.

On March 11, fans of old time get a Best of collection of Love. The Arthur Lee band, that is. Love helped pioneer psychedelic folk-rock in the sixties and was instrumental in helping The Doors get started and signed to Elektra Records. Incidentally, Love was the 60s Elektra's first signing. Anyone who have heard Love's "Forever Changes" already know how important and essential Love is...and how under appreciated. This new compilation contains 22 songs that spanned their career. We're looking forward to this release.

The upcoming Essential discs from Legacy on April 1 get some new workovers. First off, the discs no longer are limited editions, which means a bigger availability of these titles. Secondly, they'll now be available as a single disc rather than the usual 2 disc set. Nothing will change. You'll still get the quality booklet inserts. Additionally, the discs will be priced at a very friendly retail of $11.98. I'm providing the latest collection of cover shots of the Essential collection destined for April 1.

That's quite a collection, eh? Every disc in this collection is digitally remastered and will be quite a delivery. There are some in this collection that I'd love to get my hands on. I have track listings on all of these discs so if anyone is interesting in any of these titles, give me a hollar and I'll email 'em to you.

I'll check back with you tomorrow with more information. We'll have that Patrick Ogle interview up tomorrow. And someone to introduce to you. Someone to keep you informed on Jazz. Yeah! We also expect Duane and his punky self back to rundown the world of Punk.

February 24, 2003

I feel extremely vindicated as it relates to the controversial Jeff Buckley release, "Complete Live at Sin-e" which is both a DVD and a CD release. The release had come under scrutiny by the Jeff Buckley community causing me to continually check with Sony to make sure that my reputation would not be scalded. The story has a happy ending, however. One of the trusted members of that community have confirmed the releases. I still find it interesting that I was the only site to report on it. Regardless, the Buckley community is in a happier state of mind awaiting the April 1 release date. Check back here for eventual cover shots.

It's been a nasty weekend with me suffering a cold. I'm hoping that I get somewhat better over the next few days. Mrs TAP is taking very good care of me, as she always does, and I should be recovered shortly.

The news has been very slow considering that this is a short month and the companies appear to take the last week off where releases are concerned. Couple that fact with my cold and we end up with a short column. My apologies to those who like to wake up and read what's coming out in the world of music. But we do have a nice week planned, regardless. We have an interview with Patrick Ogle of illegal teenage bikini, who we reviewed earlier. Patrick also used to record for Projekt as Thanatos. His music is extraordinary. To throw a bit of fact into this mix, the present drummer for the important Interpol used to drum for Thanatos. One of the things that I love about rock music is it's ever expanding tree. We at MusicTAP wish Patrick every bit of luck with his present band. We feel that his music is equally important to the world.

We also have the review up for the important SACD release of The Who's "My Generation", a DSD remix of the earlier released "My Generation - Deluxe Edition" by MCA/Universal. You want to be sure to check that out. We also have more upcoming CD reviews including a comparative study of Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio's "In Full Swing" for both CD and SACD AND the preliminary review for The Who's "Who's Next - Deluxe Edition" by newest team writer, Gregory Warner. And, of course, the usual display of upcoming music and pre-release cover shots. It'll be a busy week but a fun one.

In 'we said it here' news, Norah Jones walked away with 5 Grammys for her spectacular "Come Away With Me" while technical awards for the album numbered 3. It is the second satisfying year for me as far as album of the year goes and the right selection of winners. The favourites deserved to be nominated but the trophies went where they should. My congratulations to Norah Jones and to the many winners of The Grammy Awards.

We'll be back tomorrow with more as I use the rest of this 24 hour period to shake this cold. enjoy the SACD "My Generation" review. Come back to check up on me tomorrow. There'll be lots more.

I'm leaving you with the cover shot of the 2CD Who's Next Deluxe Edition coming up on March 25.