Archival Posts 2003 May 25-31

May 30, 2003

We've reached the end of another week. And it's June around the corner. Summer's here and all that cool music is popping out all over the place. We know that a new Strokes disc is just around the corner. I had an email from several Home fans alerting me to CD versions of their material. Thanks to Dustin Chapman and Bob Metcalf for the info.

We have Duane's latest issue of Pit Stop up and a review from Dw Dunphy of Longwave's debut, The Strangest Thing. Come next week, we have upcoming reviews for King Biscuit Flower Hour's live discs for Robin Trower, April Wine, Humble Pie, and Kansas. Plus we have an interesting Pink Floyd tribute disc from Stanley Recordings.

It is unusually quiet out there in release land. The calm before the storm? I hope so.

Virgin will release the new Iggy Pop disc, Skull Ring, on September 30. And I've heard that Capitol Records is gearing up a new Queensryche package of rarities called, Unreleased Rarities. It's expected to be released on January 20 of 2004 but you can bet that may be an interim date until a clearer picture gets made of the set.

If you were expecting the release (reissue) of Real Life from Simple Minds, you're going to have to hold on for a bit. That title has been put on hold. This does not affect the other titles.

Enigma fans, take note. Virgin Records has a title TBD from Enigma scheduled for release on September 30, the same date for the upcoming Bonnie Raitt package, Greatest Hits. And not slotted datewise but still very much on the board is George Harrison's Bangla Desh.

Van Morrison's scheduled September 16 release, What's Wrong With This Picture will be a nice disc to acquire. Also scheduled for the same date is a Greatest Hits for Steve Miller Band from Capitol Records.

On July 22, Interscope releases an SACD for Dredg. The disc, El Cielo, joins a country title SACD addition from George Strait, Honkeytonkville. That disc is expected on July 15 from MCA Nashville. While we're on George Strait, he has another title in the works for November 11 entitled 50 #1s.

Nickelback fans get a new disc with title TBA on September 9.

That's it for the week. Sorry for the quick post. See you in June.

May 29, 2003

Folks, short post for today but we're going the quality route. We have a batch of reviews to post today so it won't be a bad one at all.

I need to make a comment concerning Randy Stanley's review of the Muddy Waters discs. The complications were due to my haste in getting up the review for your benefit and the fact that Randy is a new reviewer to the staff and thus is unfamiliar with our sidebar info. It always take a reviewer a few reviews to get used to that. I have plans to simplify the sidebar making it easier for me to communicate info. Lots of that stuff is easily found on the disc anyway and so readers are probably disinterested. Having said that, the review is clarified and version 2.0 is now up. We're excited to have Randy with us and look forward to more of his reviews.

The reviews for tonight are Brett Rudolph's feel for Chesky Records' 4 Generations of Miles as well as Duane Leyva's listen to Stanley Records' Sally Semrad. Her album is titled Left of Me. Duane has saw fit to give it a 5 star rating. Now, all reviewers on MusicTAP know of my penchant to stay away from 5 stars unless the disc can/will hobnob with the likes of Stones' Exile on Main Street or Springsteen's Born to Run, stuff like that. But Duane feels that this disc is in that company and if he does, you owe it to yourself to hop in and check out why he thinks so. Finally, I give a long overdue review of two of Grateful Dead's classics, reissues from Rhino, titled American Beauty and Aoxomoxoa.

I have a bit of a gripe tonight concerning the upcoming proliferation of digital distribution by pay services. It has absolutely nothing to do with the likes of Kazaa and its distribution of inferior quality files of which I have no use for anyway. The gripe is this - I know that music distribution is upcoming (don't know why) but what about us folks who want to get our hands on the 'out of print' oldies and obscurities. That is quite simply unavailable to us. If I had the bux, you can bet that I would foster some sort of licensed distribution of music that is unavailable. Call it a RetroService but I'm wondering just how many of us would love to have some of those tunes. I have been searching high and low for stuff from Home (CBS 70s band that yielded 2 fine albums and Laurie Wisefield), from Kim Fowley (especially his International Heroes) and others.. I think there's an audience here, don't you? I'll watch and see what you folks have to say on the subject.

I'm going to give a few upcoming Warner releases and then sign off for the day. I'm willing to bet you get excited for a few of these titles.

You folks might be interested in learning that Metallica is also releasing their St Anger album as an LP on June 17.

On August 5, Rhino is releasing a Very Best of The Grateful Dead title. So my review is timely after all. Continuing on the same date and with a title that I'm very interested in is the newest Mike Oldfield album, Tubular Bells 2003.

On August 12, Warner is readying a Deep Purple DVD-Audio title called Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

The 12th of August will also bring a planned and scheduled release of a new Doors hits package, a 2CD The Absolute Best of The Doors.

We've mentioned the upcoming Rhino Expanded and Remastered series for Yes in the past. These come out on August 26 and is now joined by a new addition, Yes' Big Generator. The others, Close to the Edge, Tales From Topographic Oceans (2CD), Relayer, Going For The One, Tormato, Drama, and 90125.

I have a whole lot more to mention but will only whisper band names for now...

Talking Heads

Paul Simon

Peter Paul and Mary

Black Sabbath

James Taylor

The Band

It serves to mention here and now that the above bands mentioned are NOT DVD-Audio titles. But there is product coming nevertherless. More later on these.

Ok...we'll see you back here tomorrow for the weekender. Ciau for now!!

May 28, 2003

For Projekt fans who haven't clicked through on the above banner yet, the mystery signing has been solved. I'd tell you here but it would take the fun out of it. Click through and find who Projekt has signed. Congrats Sam!!

For those concerned parties...you know who you are, The Neil Young discs are STILL a go for June 24. We're going to review some of these titles although my first will be American Stars N Bars. But I am curious, which title really gets you to slobberin' for June 24? Drop me an email.

We have a few more reviews for you today. We've promised the Miles Davis SACD from Mobile Fidelity as written by Brett Rudolph. We also have Randy Stanley (the new guy - drop him a line to say hi) and his review on the comparison of Muddy Waters' Folk Singer for both SACD and 24/96 DAD. How can you ignore these?

Tomorrow, we have Brett Rudolph's review of Miles Davis' 4 Generations of Miles from Chesky Records. I'm putting together a review on Roger Water's The Wall-Live in Berlin and will have it up very quickly. Tomorrow, I will have a 'two-fer' look at a few of the recently released Grateful Dead titles, American Beauty and Aoxomoxoa from Rhino Records And we're getting more discs all the time, faster than we can review them. I've soon to acquire the Lou Reed retrospective, which I'm excited about. Watch for that review. Plus we have a wealth of classical Telarc and Sony titles and XRCD2 discs to listen to. Whew!!

Additionally, we're starting to get some SACD titles to show up on our doorsteps. Busy, busy.

For release info, Rhino is releasing a box set for the Spinners called, The Chrome Collection on July 8. There is no info on the contents but once I find out, I'll let you know. Also from Rhino for July 8 will be a George Benson album, The Greatest Hits of All, and an interesting title from Yes, Yes Remixes.

From Jive/Volcano Records on July 22 will be 311's latest, Evolver.

Sanctuary has alerted MusicTAP to another scheduling change for their often delayed 2CD live set from Foghat, Decades Live. It will be a great set when it comes out. We're looking forward to it.

Sanctuary has an interesting title for you with, well...let me just give you to you straight, Symphony: Alive IV by KISS. This will be a 2CD set designed to celebrate their 30th anniversary (NO WAY!! Am I that bleepin' old?). Additionally, the set will be available in a Limited Edition Digipak as well as a 3LP vinyl set. The only bummer is that Ace Frehley will not be a participant in this Australian extravaganza. The concert will backed by a 60 piece orchestra and performed in 3 Acts. Release will be on July 22 by Sanctuary/Kiss Records and will be Kiss Records' debut album.

On July 1, Arista and BMG Heritage will release a Carly Simon disc from the Platinum and Gold series. This title is bumped from its original release of June 16.

In DVD news, Sanctuary will release a Utopia show titled, Live in Columbus OH 1980. 1980 was a pretty productive time for the Todd Rundgren vehicle. I've seen them several times during this period including a show in Park West located in Chicago. There I go, all nostalgic again. This DVD streets on July 22.

Sanctuary is also releasing a Siouxie and The Banshees live CD and a DVD, The Seven Year Itch. The set highlights their last ever live performance in London. These come out on July 22. The DVD will present the material in DTS 5.1 Surround and Stereo.

I'll tell you who I miss and would absolutely love to get some updated reissues from...Slade. Anyone remember that band? I sure loved them back in the day. I still listen to them quite frequently. Warner...you had the American rights. A DVD-A...please? Make it Sladest, their greatest hits package. And Polydor can give us SACDs of Slayed...

That's it for today. See you again tomorrow.

May 27, 2003

What a weekend. My hands are so sore from utility knife wielding. I know...I'm wimpy but I'm just used to pounding keyboards. But...here's hoping that everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend. Some of you readers outside of the States don't have this one but I'm hoping that you enjoyed your day regardless. Getting back to the remodeling update, the final room has all the walls up with the exception of a few tricky pieces but otherwise, we're soon to be finished. After that, it's paint and back to normalcy...whatever that is.

For the winners of the Steve Miller XRCDs, your discs are officially 'in the mail'. Sorry for the extra week wait.

We have a few reviews for you today. There's Dw Dunphy's review of the latest Blur disc, Think Tank. We also have Marco Passarelli's opinion of Robbie Williams' Escapeology. Additionally, there is a new member of the MusicTAP group (yeah...I like the sound of that one). His name is Randy Stanley. We hope to hear a lot more from him. He has turned in a detailed comparative study of the SACD and DVD-A versions of Muddy Waters' "Folk Singer" which we'll run tomorrow. This has been a busy weekend after all. We'll also have Brett Rudolph's review of Chesky Records' "4 Generations of Miles" by Miles Davis. I'm still transcribing Bob Olsen's Byrds Parts 2 for posting. There's definitely lots of reviews to look forward to.

For folks wondering about the upcoming Verve Impulse John Coltrane title, A Love Supreme, the disc is a single edition of the original with remastering. It was an answer to a call for a no-frills package of this classic. Before this upcoming CD was an SACD version and before that was a 2CD Deluxe Edition. So there's the scoop.

Have many people read the latest issue of Sound and Vision? I'm becoming more and more impressed with this magazine. Not that I didn't like it before. As a matter of fact, I have been a subscriber to Stereo Review since I was 20. This was before it was absorbed into Sound and Vision along with a video magazine. Regardless, it's has been looking at the SACDs/DVD-As pretty closely lately. This latest issue has a complete view of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. It not only gives a review of the disc but talks with James Guthrie as well as Alan Parsons. The result is a very interesting read over several articles. Thanks to Ken VanTassell for suggesting that this would be an interesting read for Tappers.

Maverick Records is releasing the latest from Mest, their third release. I've been a fan since I heard "Cadillac" from their last album. The new album, called Mest, is out on June 10 and will contain 13 songs. This South-side Chicago bunch (hope they're Sox fans) is also on a nice extended tour to promote the album. Check them out.

Up on June 24 are DVD-Audio versions of Chicago II and Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad. The discs are from Rhino Records.

Chicago II features the popular songs, "Colour My World", "25 or 6 to 4", and "Make Me Smile". Additionally, you can expect the disc to include Advanced Resolution 5.1 Surround 96/24k as well as a 192k Advanced Resolution Stereo mix.

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen gets his Kamakiriad redone in 48/24k Advanced Resolution for both 5.1 Surround and Stereo. This 1993 solo outing will also contain videos for "Snowbound" and "Tomorrow's Girls". There is also a 'Behind The Scenes' for the making of the album and of the video, "Tomorrow's Girls".

Shout! Factory is releasing a concert DVD for Joni Mitchell, circa 1979 from a performance in Santa Barbara at the County Bowl titled Shadows and Light. The show has been issued on VHS but has been out of print for some time. It's great to get a copy of this in a new standard AND get some extras. The extras include photos selected by Joni Mitchell from this tour. This disc will feature 5.1 Surround as well as the stereo track. But there's a bit more. As if this DVD wouldn't be enough for Joni Mitchell fans, there is a second DVD due in late July/early August. It is titled Refuge of the Roads. Lots to expect from Joni. This DVD appears on June 24.

If you're a Dead or Alive fan then you're going to like this hits package. On June 24, Epic Records releases Evolution:The Hits. It has 18 tracks including 2 of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". The first track is the radio standard while the second track is a 7" Metro Edit. There are several 2003 remixes that should be interesting.

Well, it's once again signoff time. Did we alert you to anything cool? We hope so. We'll be back again tomorrow with more news, some reviews and other cool stuff too numerous to mention. We'll see you back here.