Archival Posts 2004 January 25

January 30, 2004

Well, how's that for movement of time? We're almost into February. But at least we have some interesting things to report as well as another entertaining Pit Stop. Now, if I can just keep Duane away from the MJ trials, we might get more out of him.

No reviews got formatted today but will be there on Monday. We'll make this short while we move into the weekend. But be sure to come back on Monday as we do have finished reviews for you and some interesting news on Radiohead and some re-issues of Pat Benatar. We also have another date change for the Queensryche set, Unreleased Rarities...still coming but moved to another page on the calendar. and of course, more.

We have some more insight into the debut Nonesuch David Byrne release arriving on March 16. This album will contain 14 tracks and will be quite an interesting directional change for David. Even so, we're used to Byrne and his path changes. There will be ballads, pop songs, jazz, a duet with Rufus Wainwright, a spin with the Carla Bley Band, and operatic arias. Sound divergent? Sounds great!

The Gipsy Kings upcoming release, Roots, also expected on March 16, will contain 16 tracks. This release will be an all acoustic album and will enjoy assistance by Garth Hudson of The Band as accordionist. This will be quite a release for fans of the band and the genre.

Sanctuary Records and their Castle imprint will issue a Renaissance 2CD called Innocents & Illusion on April 6.

AAL/Bluebird Recordings will issue Young Blue Eyes: Birth of a Crooner on April 6. I wonder who's on this recording?

Fans of Windham Hill music will be pleased to know that they will issue a 2CD collection entitled Lullaby: A Windham Hill Collection on April 6.

January 28, 2004

We're back to more normal conditions today with a batch of fun things for you including some very interesting news for releases, the awaited Patrick O'Hearn interview, and the two Deep Purple reviews. Whew!!

Thanks for all your emails even though they been hidden under a literal avalanche of virus induced emails and I have had to search and rescue. I'm still waiting for the deluge to stop. I have taken to going to my webmail and choosing all to delete, hunt for good emails and then wipe the bad ones out like a mad president with a finger on a nuke button.

We have stuff to get through so here we go. One more word. Remember that Thursdays are our day off but we'll be back Friday with a new Pit Stop and some more reviews by Dw, Marco, and myself. We'll have the Sirius Satellite article completed for your reading on Monday. We'll also announce winners of the Casey Stratton contest as well as the SACDs of John Mayall on Monday.

March 30 brings a Legacy title to you in the form of The Essential Bangles. I believe that we have mentioned this before but that it has been delayed. More details on this title as it becomes available.

Legacy also has a collection coming out from Branford Marsalis called The Steep Anthology and will be available on March 2.

Columbia Records will release a new Cypruss Hill on March 23. The issue will be Til Death Do Us Part and will be available as both a clean edited version as well a PA version.

Legacy continues the Essential series with Fred Astaire. The Essential Fred Astaire will street on April 27.

Columbia and Legacy team up to bring you The Paul Simon Songbook. This release will hit stores on March 23.

Slade fan? If you're like me, you'll be salivating for this upgrade of Get Yer Boots On: The Best of Slade. This is being issued by Shout! Factory. I've got an email in to get some more info on this title. Cuz we're excited. We're hoping that it contains Polydor material and Warner stuff. Regardless, this title is anticipated here at TAP. Watch for a review. Also, see below for DVD info on another Slade title. This one comes out on March 23.

Damien Rice's O will get a Limited Edition on February 24 that will include a 3 song DVD. This album has made 'best of 2003' lists everywhere.

Warner Brothers will issue The Von Bondies' Pawn Shoppe Heart on March 9.

To help compensate for the delay of Jackson Browne's DVD-Audio of Running on Empty, Elektra will issue a 2CD Digipak of a Jackson Browne 'best of' called The Very Best of Jackson Browne. You can expect this one on March 16.

Also on March 16 and coming from Nonesuch Records is a new David Byrne title called Grown Backwards. With it being a Nonesuch title, I'm a little more intrigued and interested than I may have been otherwise. More info coming.

Gipsy Kings have a Nonesuch title coming on March 16 called Roots.

Automatic Black gets their release of De-Evolution from Arista Records on April 6.

Ronnie Milsap gets an Ultimate title on March 9 from BMG Heritage.

The Presidents of the United States expected title is no more. This album has been scratched from the slate of releases.

We've reported a few days back on the DVD-Audio re-issue of Jackson Browne's Running on Empty. Well, let's get the bad news out of the way. The title has been placed on the TBS (to be scheduled) list. We'll watch for it for you, however.

Deep Purple fans will be excited about another of their albums being converted to DVD-Audio. Burn is expected to get the treatment and delivered by April of this year although delays may be inevitable. We'll watch this for you.

I've got exciting news for Tomita fans. TAP reader, Marc Comfort, all the way from Japan, alerts us to the impending release of Tomita -The Planets on DVD-Audio. Being released by Denon Japan, the disc will offer a mix of 96kHz/24-bit and in Multi-Channel 5.1. This disc is expected on March 29 and is supposedly containing some "killer content". I'm excited about this one.

A date has been set for the Who DVD-Audio of Tommy. The date for those who don't already know is March 23. Now for Quadrophenia...

Columbia has a DVD on the schedule for the old grand dame herself, Barbra Streisand. The title of the DVD is The Concert - Live at the MGM Grand. This is pencilled in for a release on March 30.

On March 9, Epic will release the Michael Jackson DVD of The One. Duane should be real excited for this title.

Shout! Factory is issuing a Slade DVD ('bout time someone did). This DVD titled Slade in Flame (a US Warner title...hmmm) will release on March 23 along with its sister CD release. See CD section for more Slade news.

Switchfoot will get a live DVD called Live in San Diego on March 23.

R.E.M. will release a DVD called Perfect Square on March 9. More details to follow on this title.

January 27, 2004

It's been a rough and tumble kind of day today folks. So rough with all those virii spreading 'round our PCs like crows around a bag of chips. But that wasn't all. I had a doctor's appointment that ended up being almost three hours in length. Appointment at 4. Entrance at 5. Evaluation until 7:15. But don't worry, folks. It's nothing serious. And I have a batch of news but this brain is absolutely shut down. I hope that you'll come back tomorrow and I'll tell you some stuff about REM DVD coming in March called Perfect Square. I've also got some Jackson Browne 'best of' info as well as something new from David Byrne. So you see, there is stuff to report, just not the time. Sorry. We'll post up those Deep Purple reviews and the Patrick O'Hearn interview. We have a great Blues compilation review from Telarc on the burner as well for later in the week with other cool stuff. We're also going to approach more reviews in a different manner. We have so much music to get through that we'd like to offer a page of paragraph reviews. Watch for those. Also, I'm going to start up retro reviews and a new feature that will allow all of you to participate. The new feature will be multiple pages of your takes on your favourite music. We're going to have fun.

One final thing. A reader had sent me a review several months back but it got diced and sliced. I'm looking for you. You said something about a degree in communications (I believe..but don't remember). Get back with me with lost review in the subject line.

We'll be back.

January 26, 2004

To quote one of TAP's readers, "Don't get under the hood again." Well..I couldn't live with the last change very well and so I did it again. However, this time I had help from several of you. With some suggestions and screen shots and a little of my own brainpower and LOTS of elbow grease, I made an acceptable page. I posted it over the weekend and I have had 100% positive email. I must have hit on a winner. Of course, it's not to say I won't do it again but if I do, it will be lots down the road and will be very pro. I'm done for a while, folks so go ahead and breathe your sighs of relief...collectively.

OK, besides this remanufacture of pages, we have put together the best of 2003 as felt by readers of MusicTAP. And we dug up a little news as well. So that oughta make for an interesting Monday.

We have your Best of 2003 list available so have a great time with it. Bear in mind that despite the obvious winners, there was a lot of subjectivity involved. Regardless, it's an opportunity to become acquainted with new music. You asked...you now have.

I've been asked to provide to you a link to some new music by Bonnie McKee. When you hit the link, you need to know that you need to have any pop-up blockers disabled as it opens up a new screen. Click on 4 song exclusive and then you'll be able to choose from the usage of Quicktime or Windows Media. There is even a video EPK to have a look at. This is pop music, folks. But Bonnie has had a go of it. She's 18, from Seattle, a reformed Meth-raver, well...check her out at the above link.

TAP reader, Marc Comfort gave us this link to an interesting article on hybrid DVD-Audio flipper discs.

You'll notice the Sirius logo over on the right there in our new Special Features box. We have a special article all cooked up for you. Bill Hunt and myself ran a Kenwood Sirius system through the ringer for months. We evaluated every little thing while waiting to see if we'd get bored of it. In a few days or so, you'll get our views and evaluation as well as a deep peek into the service. Watch for it.

Reviews. We have a few coming. First off will be a twin review of two Deep Purple titles. The first is Audio Fidelity's recent re-issue of Deep Purple: Live at the BBC in SACD Stereo while the second review is of Rhino's re-issue of Machine Head as a DVD-Audio. These are expected to post tomorrow.

Through the week, we'll have more reviews. We have 3 Ben Folds releases as evaluated by Dw Dunphy. We also have Marco Passarelli's review of Earl Slick's latest, Zig Zag. We also have that interview with Patrick O'Hearn that I'd thought would be formatted by now but I've already spent 48 hours sitting at this desk both this weekend and last. But it's coming.

We're happy to bring you today's issue of MusicTAP with all its changes. We hope that you enjoy it. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

Mercury Records will release a 2CD set for The Allman Brothers Band called Anthology. This expected release is scheduled for June 15.

June 15 is the date for A&M Records' release of a remastered Joe Jackson album. The album getting the overhaul is Body and Soul.

Deep Purple's Burn is getting remastered for expected release in April. There is nothing in stone as of yet but you can count on us to let you know when exactly. Check below for an announcement of Burn's conversion to DVD-Audio.

Everlast's new album from Island Records will issue on April 27. The album will be called White Trash Beautiful.

Universal issues a Godsmack album on March 16. This album is an all acoustical collection of their best hits and will include 3 new songs. The new songs are "Running Blind"; "Touche"; and "Nobody Cares". This 7 track collection will contain the hits "Realign"; "Keep Away"; "Spiral"; and "Asleep". Here's a cover shot for you.

Hollywood Records will issue an 'as yet untitled' album for Polyphonic Spree. You can put this one on your calendar for May 11. This is the followup to their 2003's Beginning Stages.

Universal issues Radford with their followup to 2000's RCA debut. The 2nd album, Sleepwalker, was worked on for 2 years and features a crew that hails from several well known bands including A Perfect Circle. This one comes out on March 16.

Weezer gets a Deluxe Edition over 2CD that will come forth on March 23 from Geffen Records. This Deluxe Edition will be of their 1994 debut album, Weezer, also known as 'the blue album.' That ought to make lots of you happy. See below for a word on an upcoming Weezer DVD.

Hip-O Records will issue a Box set for Bob Marley & The Wailers on March 23. This set will be known as Grooving Kingston 12 (JAD Masters 1970-1972). Check below for DVD info. Cover shot? Check!

A date has been set for the Who DVD-Audio of Tommy. The date for those who don't already know is March 23. Now for Quadrophenia...

If you miss Olivia Newton-John, fret no more. Universal is going to release a Millennium Collection DVD set for this Aussie on April 20. The actual releasing label is Hip-O Records.

Video Capture Device for Weezer comes out on March 23. This DVD will issue from Geffen.

Bob Marley & The Wailers will have a DVD released by the name of Legend: The Deluxe Sound and Vision DVD. This one comes at you on May 4 from Island Records.

No Doubt will get two separate DVD titles, both issuing on March 23. The titles are Live in the Tragic Kingdom and The Videos (1992-2003).

Blondie's upcoming Sanctuary album, The Curse of Blondie, was scheduled as an LP release in addition to CD. As of yesterday, Sanctuary had cancelled this LP issue. It doesn't look like it will be rescheduled. The CD is still coming on April 6