Monthly Archives: April 2022

Record Store Day is on its way, but do you ever stop to think about the hard work that goes into such an event?

All of the special issues need to be cleared for copyrights and publishing. Designs and packaging have to be created and manufactured. Of course, the music must be mastered and actually pressed onto those vinyl discs that we love so much. There’s a lot that happens before you bring your chosen clutch of albums to your local record store clerk for purchase. On this episode, we’re fortunate to speak with Andrew Rossiter, General Manager and Partner at ORG Music who will give us a glimpse into the herculean task that goes into running a record label around this time of the year.

ORG Music, of course has some great Record Store Day releases in the pipeline, and Andrew is here to discuss them all in detail, as well. We’ll talk about a fabulous Brazilian compilation titled, Atenção!: Novos Sons do Brasil; there’s a reissue of The Sheila Divine’s, Where Have My Countrymen Gone; Jeannie C. Riley’s no nonsense Harper Valley P.T.A. album will be available on the shelves; Michael Des Barres’ 1970’s Zeppelinesque band, Detective finds itself re-released on glorious, super-glam silver vinyl, and—as ORG Music does each Record Store Day—there will be a carefully curated compilation of music from the Sun Records vaults; this particular release being their ninth. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s previously unreleased “Travelin’ Band,” Live at The Royal Albert Hall will be available as a limited-edition 7-inch single as well.

So, pull up a chair and eavesdrop on my chat with Mr. Rossiter who kindly allows me to ask him all sorts of questions about the new releases, but also about the behind-the-scenes mechanisms involved in running a record label, producing vinyl, developing meaningful liner notes, and offering a little something for everyone this Record Store Day.

Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.

It seems like just yesterday I had hair down to my ass and was rolling in the mud at Woodstock. What a time! The dope was good, the music was far out, and even the brown acid was groovy, once you got past the part where your decomposing grandmother was squatting by your side, her breath reeking of grave dirt and burning sulphur. It was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and peace would soon be guiding the stars.

Odd, though, that “Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” was the product of a very square Black chorale group that would have been more at home in a Las Vegas nightclub than Woodstock (where they didn’t play) or Harlem’s Cultural Festival that same year (where they did). The vocal group’s repertory of styles—which included R&B, jazz, pop and soul—was labeled “champagne soul,” perhaps because their musical stylings were all bubbles and no kick.

It’s hard to imagine a group less qualified to sum up the era’s Zeitgeist. To the hippies and yippies wearing psychedelic paint on their faces and nothing else, The 5th Dimension—whose best known songs are compiled on 1999’s Master Hits—had zero freak cred. At least you knew they weren’t narcs, because narcs made it their job to fit in. Amongst the Jimis and Joplins of the time, The 5th Dimension stood out like a house cat in a panther cage.

“The Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”—which first appeared in 1967’s risible Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical—is an example par excellence of cultural appropriation. The song took the revolutionary spirit of the time and diluted it, and by so doing offered the non-LSD crowd a reassuring lense through which they could catch a glimpse of a youth phenomenon they found threatening. How much of a menace could America’s young people be if their anthem was a song like this?

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | UMe today announces the 50th-anniversary reissue of Elton John’s Madman Across The Water. Available to pre-order now on stunning 3-CD and 1 Blu-ray Super Deluxe Box Set, 4-LP, 1-LP Limited Edition colored vinyl, and 2-CD formats, the album will be released on June 10. Pre-order here.

Spawning the hits “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon,” Madman Across The Water was Elton’s fourth studio album, released only two years after his debut. Recorded in 1971, it was a foundation stone of what was to become a dazzlingly prolific decade for the global-icon-in-waiting. Madman Across The Water was largely written after Elton had made his initial foray to America, offering the opportunity for lyricist Bernie Taupin to witness first-hand the landscapes and people he’d only seen on a screen or on the page. Recorded at Trident Studios in Central London in February and August 1971, it was the first album where all five players of Elton’s fabled band lineup (Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, Davey Johnstone, and Ray Cooper) were featured. The album also featured Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, who plays Hammond organ on three songs.

A newly unveiled Piano Demo of “Tiny Dancer,” taken from the archives and previously unheard, will be available to stream in full later today. Recorded at Dick James Studios in central London in Spring 1971, it is an intimate performance of the song with Elton alone at the piano as a guide for the band later to follow.

While the UK’s love affair with Elton was on the precipice of exploding upon Madman’s release at the start of the ‘70s, these nine tracks immediately struck a chord with US audiences, reaching the Top 10 of the Billboard album charts. It also spawned two hit singles, “Levon” and “Tiny Dancer,” both reaching the US Top 50. After years as a best-kept secret to Elton’s fans, “Tiny Dancer” has gone on to become one of his most loved songs with his worldwide fanbase, third only to “Rocket Man” and “Your Song” in global streaming numbers.

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Formed in early 2020, Los Angeles based duo Brian DaMert and Brian Tarney began writing and producing glittering and emotional post-punk.

Few bands are able to reinvent their influences, and with Sacred Skin the source material is clear. New wave, synthpop, post-punk, Talk Talk, and The Fixx all shape this band, but their unparalleled sound is utterly their own. Subtle in their aggression, the power of Sacred Skin is in their perfect arrangements, their use of vintage studio gear, and DaMert’s mysterious voice. This band is potent and on the rise. This past March saw them opening for AFI at Hollywood’s legendary Palladium.

“No Surprise,” the fifth release from their forthcoming album, Decline of Pleasure, hits with that distinctive Fixx guitar tone through a number of different synths: Moog Source, Prophet VS, and Emulator II (used by Depeche Mode and Genesis). “This song came together in one late night session” they told TVD. “We wanted to make a track reminiscent of early Ministry and Duran Duran. Something dancey, but with a bit of edge.”

Much like the rest of their releases, it’s a brilliant, dreamy track. And there hasn’t been one disappointing song, just climactic tunes building the anticipation for their highly awaited album. Their aesthetic—more novel at this moment than purely nostalgic—is an early ‘80s nod to a time when our culture was not so overproduced. Sacred Skin is a band worth getting acquainted with—one that will draw you in.

Stay tuned for the Decline of Pleasure out on NYC label collective SYNTHICIDE this May. You can pre-order it here on Bandcamp.

The emergence of any unheard music from the great bassist, composer, and bandleader Charles Mingus is a noteworthy occasion, but The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott’s, which offers Mingus’ sextet at the titular nightclub in London as part of an two-week engagement on August 14–15, 1972, is cause for jubilant celebration. It’s the latest historical unveiling from Zev Feldman and Resonance Records, presented as a 3LP set just in time for this weekend’s Record Store Day shindig (one day after Mingus’ 100th birthday) and with the 3CD following on April 29. Captured by mobile recording truck, the fidelity is wholly satisfying. The collective artistry, with Mingus the catalyst, soars even higher.

Yes, just last year Run Out Groove and Atlantic Records, in connection with the Jazz Workshop Inc. (the entity that controls the music of Charles Mingus, having extended from the label he founded in 1957, and with supervision by his widow Sue Mingus) issued a 3LP expansion of Mingus at Carnegie Hall, a reissue so stellar it landed on this website’s Best of 2021 list.

Now, non-aficionados of jazz might consider this set’s arrival, hot on the heels of Carnegie Hall, to be tantamount to overkill. But I’m afraid it’s just not that way. For starters, the band on this record is markedly different from the one heard on Carnegie Hall. Alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, trumpeter Jon Faddis, and of course Mingus are the musicians the releases have in common. The players unique to Ronnie Scott’s are Bobby Jones on tenor sax and clarinet, John Foster on piano, and Roy Brooks on drums and musical saw.

That’s right, the musical saw, which Brooks plays quite well during “Noddin’ Your Head Blues.” It’s just one of this recording’s unique aspects. Brooks also utilizes his invention the “breath-a-tone,” described in the notes as essentially a pitch-control apparatus for his drums, though its use is rather subtle in the overall scheme of the album. And by subtle, I mean I’m not sure exactly when Brooks’ device is in operation. Honestly, the music’s so good I hardly think about it.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Born out of turmoil, Wilco’s fourth album was a stone-cold classic.” —Uncut

Nonesuch releases seven special editions of Wilco’s landmark 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on September 16, 2022. The now-classic record has been remastered and will be available as part of each set. The Super Deluxe version comprises eleven vinyl LPs and one CD—including demos, drafts, and instrumentals, charting the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot—plus a live 2002 concert recording and a September 2001 radio performance and interview.

That box set includes eighty-two previously unreleased music tracks as well as a new book featuring an interview with singer/ songwriter/ guitarist Jeff Tweedy, drummer Glenn Kotche, and Jim O’Rourke, who mixed the acclaimed 2002 album; an in-depth essay by journalist/ author Bob Mehr; and previously unseen photos of the band making the album in their Chicago studio, The Loft. For the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot recording, Wilco was Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, and Jay Bennett with Craig Christiansen, Ken Coomer, Jessy Greene, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Jim O’Rourke.

A live version of “Reservations” from a legendary concert contained on Snoozin’ at The Pageant – Live 7/23/02 at The Pageant, St. Louis, MO—a recording that is part of the Super Deluxe LP and CD sets as well as the Deluxe LP and digital sets—is available today, April 19. Full details of each of the seven versions is below; album pre-orders are available here. A limited-edition vinyl 7” with versions of “I’m the Man Who Loves You” and “War on War,” from the Super Deluxe box set, is available now from wilcostore.com.

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Pink Floyd has been extremely busy over the past several years in releasing ambitious reissue projects. The two most talked about have been The Early Years (2016) and The Later Years (2019) mammoth boxes. Both sets are sold out, but available on the used market and fetch high prices.

As a consolation for those who missed out on the sets when they were released, or who would prefer to only have various parts of the sets, several live releases have come out in the past few years. So far, The Delicate Sound of Thunder (2019) was released on its own from the upgraded The Later Years box version, and Live at Knebworth (2021), available in full for the first time in The Later Years box, has also been issued on its own.

Both reissues, in addition to the new PULSE Restored & Re-Edited, are from the post-Roger Waters years. All three are released on vinyl, CD, DVD, and Blu-ray, except the new PULSE which is being re-released on DVD and Blu-ray. The PULSE audio reissues on CD and all-analog vinyl came out in 2018. The vinyl reissue is already out of print and commands hefty prices on the used market.

PULSE, directed by David Mallet, was originally released in 1995 on VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc. It chronicled the group’s October 1994 concert at Earl’s Court in London on its Division Bell tour. It was also released on CD/MiniDisc, vinyl, and cassette. The original CD release featured a red pulsing LED light, and the four-LP edition is also a collector’s item. The music releases were mixed in QSound to provide a 3D sound effect on two-channel stereo sound systems and the vinyl was mastered from analog tapes.

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The creation of the Manchester music scene in England can be traced in many ways to one man—a bespectacled TV journalist there named Tony Wilson. His work in signing Joy Division and creating Factory Records inspired dozens of other bands and made the industrial city in the North a kind of beacon for a type of post-punk, industrial sound before he died in 2007 at 57.

Also from Manchester, the writer Paul Morley chronicled the rise of the city’s sounds and the particular character of Wilson over the years for New Musical Express and other publications. More recently, he’s spent 10 years writing the eventual biography, From Manchester to Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson, which is just now getting a US release this month on Faber Books. We talked via Zoom with Morley from London about the effects one man could have on a city, and culture.

Why did it take a decade to complete the book?

It was something I wanted to get right. I think technically a few years ago I could have finished it. I wanted more perspective on it, to see how he would develop as a character as times were changing very quickly. The kind of iconoclast that Tony Wilson was in the 20th century—those kinds of figures don’t exist anymore.

I suppose it could have been difficult to know at what point to end the book as well.

That’s right. Because stories continue to change. And also it’s a story about a city, Manchester. And that’s been going through a lot of changes, a lot of them having to do with Tony’s presence and ambitions. For me the equivalence was the 19th century industrialists who set up the city and are already being forgotten about, apart from the occasional statue. I just wanted to animate that work. Because it’s a story not just about music, it’s about many other things as well.

Did you grow up in Manchester?

Yes. I grew up in Manchester, in a town just a few miles south, Stockport. Manchester consists of a lot of satellite areas if you like. The city center itself is very compact and small. It’s got a lot of resident history.

So I hit my teens in the early 1970s, I was just a bit younger than Wilson. At a time when Manchester seemed to be done as a place; its history seemed over, people like Tony Wilson, oddly enough, kept urging it to reconnect with its industrial heyday.

How did he try to make that happen?

I think it was simply the fact that he had a knowledge of it. Unlike the people in that area at the time, he was a Cambridge University student, which gave him an immediate difference to the rest of us; he’d been out there, and been out in the world and come back with a very different kind of presence than most Northerners, an intellectual presence, or the presence of a deeper, stranger thinker.

He was very aware of the history of Manchester and the history of things that were firsts: the first computer, first suffragettes, the first library. He felt that we considered ourselves in the North at the edges or margins of the universe, why not put ourselves at the center of the universe. And he had the ambition and energy and the desire to do that.

Of course he was also a great broadcaster, and what happened in the late ’50s and 1960s, a local TV company, Granada, started working out of Manchester, showing that it could be good. And it was very innovative and progressive, and had some of the greatest journalists in the country. It gave a great modern presence to the city in the ’60s as it was declining. Tony ended up there and that fed into the realization that he could make a change. He had a revolutionary sensibility as well, coming out being 18 in 1968, the year of all the great revolutions. And this all sort of coincided.

But it was music that he thought he would do this through?

Yes. The first visit in 1976 of the Sex Pistols to Manchester—that was a great catalyst for him. Not so much the music but their manager Malcolm McLaren, who he identified with as a figure very similar to him. He didn’t do anything specific. You couldn’t say he was a musician or an artist or a designer or a writer, it was this weird thing you have a lot of examples of in rock music, the impresario, the behind the scenes character, like Andrew Loog Oldham or Brian Epstein or Peter Grant—the ones who saw and made the myths. And he was a great myth-maker, so McLaren made him think he could do something. He was very good at broadcasting at Granada television, and he was a local celebrity. But he got bored easily, and he was just at a lull. He was bored and looking for an opportunity to do something else and make things happen.

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Anytime is a good time to be a fan of the late Karen Dalton, but ‘tis especially so in the spring of 2022, as Light in the Attic has assembled an expanded 50th anniversary edition of her classic second album, 1971’s In My Own Time, available now in Standard Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions. Adding six live tracks and three alternate takes to the original release’s ten selections, the additions deepen the portraiture of this frequently overlooked interpreter of song.

Karen Dalton emerged from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, a contemporary of the Holy Modal Rounders, Peter Walker, Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, and most famously Bob Dylan, whose enthusiastic recollection of performing with Dalton, and specifically the beauty of her singing, has helped to solidify her posthumous legacy.

Compared by Bob to Billie Holiday, Dalton preferred to cite Bessie Smith as a more formative influence. In truth, the two observations are complementary. To elaborate, Fred Neil is reported to have said of Dalton: “She sure can sing the shit out of the blues.” That hits the Bessie side of the pairing smack in the bullseye. But Dalton also possess a level of sophistication in her delivery that is in the tradition of Billie.

It’s also hard to deny that there’s a similarity in sound between Holiday and Dalton, though nobody’d ever mistake one for the other. Dalton can also be thought of as a stylistic predecessor to a handful of 21st century folkies; she’s particularly comparable to Josephine Foster, a singular contemporary artist who contributed the closing track to Remembering Mountains : Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton.

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