Category: music
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Steve Earle, Townes: The Basics, 2021 on New West
As the back cover explains, the album Townes (a collection of Townes Van Zandt covers) was released in 2009 – but this LP collects the solo guitar and vocal tracks Earle originally recorded. This was issued as a bonus CD – The Basics – along with the CD release of Townes, but then issued for…
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Depeche Mode, Speak & Spell: The 12″ Singles, 2018 on Mute
Reissued box of singles by Rhino / Sire / Mute. The singles: “Dreaming of Me,” “New Life,” and “Just Can’t Get Enough” all came out in 1981, the same year as Speak & Spell the band’s debut album. This reissue from 2018 also includes a flexi-disc with “Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead” (which was…
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Let’s Active, Cypress, 1984 on IRS Records
Mitch Easter, Faye Hunter, and Sara Romweber’s debut full-length as Let’s Active, following after the Afoot EP. My copy is UK pressing – “A & M Records Ltd are the exclusive licensees for the UK. Made in England” on the label – but still has the IRS logo. Hunter and Romweber would both move on…
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Weather Report, I Sing The Body Electric, 1972 on Columbia
Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous, Eric Gravatt, and guests, in a foundational fusion album from the early 70s. This was their second album after a self-titled debut. Side A is new studio work, Side B is live from a concert in Tokyo. I’m certain I actually had a copy of this back in the…
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Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger, 1962 on Prestige International
Van Ronk was a key figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 60s, sometimes called the Mayor of MacDougal Street. He’s the most visible model for Llewyn Davis in the Coen Brothers film. This was his third studio album and first for Prestige, and was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. Per the liner…
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American Aquarium, Lamentations, 2020 on New West
How could you not love a band that takes its name from “I am trying to break your heart”? BJ Barham’s writing here is based on the book of Lamentations in the Bible, transposed to modern American life. My copy is a limited edition colored vinyl (gold with silver & red marble) that New West…
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Depeche Mode, Live at Crocs Night Club Rayleigh Essex 27th June 1981, unlabelled bootleg, 2018
Per discogs, this seems to be a 2018 Spanish pressing of a bootleg that first appeared in the UK in 2006. Track A6 is listed just as “Boys” before being renamed “Boys Say Go!” on the album Speak & Spell. Someone’s uploaded it to YouTube: You can listed to (and download) a soundboard at dm/live…
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Aztec Camera; High Land, Hard Rain; 1983 on Sire
Aztec Camera were a Scottish new wave band led by Roddy Frame – this was their debut album recorded for Rough Trade in the UK and distributed in the US by Sire. Best well known hit was “Oblivious,” but really the whole album is wonderful My copy via Academy Records in NYC
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Steve Goodman, Steve Goodman, 1971 on Buddah Records
Steve Goodman’s an under-appreciated American singer songwriter, mostly known as the guy who wrote “City of New Orleans” (as in, Good Morning, America, how are ya? Don’t you know me I am your native son . . . ). He also hung out with John Prine and Kris Kristofferson in the Chicago folk scene before…
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The Suburbs at the Icehouse, November 3rd 2023
While I was in town for my mother’s 80th birthday, I was able to pick up tickets to see The Suburbs at Icehouse. (I guess this is the time of the 80s bands for me, having seen The Violent Femmes, U2, and now The Suburbs all in the course of ~4 weeks). It’s an all-GA…
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Nancy Sinatra, Movin’ With Nancy, 1967 on Reprise
Full subtitle: The Soundtrack from Her Television Special with Special Guests Dean Martin, Lee Hazlewood, and a very close Relative. The “very close relative,” of course, would be dad (and Reprise label CEO) Frank – perhaps not credited by name for legal reasons? Dean Martin takes a duet on “Things” and Frank takes “Younger Than…
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Bob Marley & The Wailers, Legend (The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers), 1984 on Island Records.
This was required listening and a mandatory part of any healthy CD collecting heading into college in the 80s. It didn’t matter what musical subculture you came from, this was the lingua franca. I went on to many other Marley albums and deeper knowledge of Reggae and Caribbean music, but this was the one everyone…
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Washboard Sam, with Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Slim, Feeling Lowdown, 1971 on RCA Victor
Released as part of the RCA Victor Vintage Series, “created to bring you selected reissued performances, unavailable for some years, by great personalities of the popular, jazz and folk music worlds.” Washboard Sam, aka Robert Brown, recorded for Victor and Bluebird between 1935 and 1949 – these recordings all come from sessions in 1941 and…
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Astrud Gilberto, The Astrud Gilberto Album with Antonio Carlos Jobim, 1965 on Verve
A few weeks back I posted Getz Au Go Go from 1964 – this was released about a year later, and recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood in January of 1965, mastered by Rudy Van Gelder and produced by Creed Taylor. The liner notes (by Jack Maher) start off: “Astrud Gilberto is no longer just…
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U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere in Las Vegas (10/18)
I’m not really a Las Vegas person. I don’t gamble, I don’t love the desert, and I’m not in to high-end shopping, strip clubs, or whatever else Sin City is supposed to offer. To me it’s usually just a hot, crowded, series of smoke-filled rooms and broad streets I have to navigate through in search…
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Santigold, Santigold, 2008 on Downtown / Lizard King
My copy is the recent Vinyl Me Please reissue on “gold nugget” vinyl. This is a 15th anniversary edition with an “art print” by Isabelle Lumpkin (Narcissister) who designed the original cover. Originally released as a self-titled album by Santogold, she later changed her name to Santigold based on legal action – so the later…
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Stephane Grappelli, with The Hot Club of London, I Got Rhythm, 1974 on Black Lion
Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London November 1973, and featuring Diz Disley, Denny Wright, and Len Skeat along with Grappelli. Liner notes by Alan Morgan. My copy via Mystery Train Records in Gloucester MA, which has a pretty impressive Jazz selection
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Jelly Roll Morton, Mr. Jelly Lord, RCA Victor, 1967
My copy is a slightly later pressing – 1973 – but this compilation first came out in 1967 as part of the RCA Victor Vintage Series. These tracks were originally recorded between 1927 and 1930. Yes, this is the Jelly Roll of “stoned me just like Jelly Roll” in Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me.”…