Category Archives: The TVD Storefront

Anyone who thinks the first wave of English punk was an all-lads affair has never listened to X-Ray Spex. Band vocalist and songwriter Poly Styrene spit as much bile as anyone, but she came at it from a woman’s point of view; the famed first words out of her mouth on the band’s 1977 debut single were “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard/But I think… oh bondage up yours!” And from there on X-Ray Spex one-upped most of the bands in punk’s boys’ club. And they did it with the assistance of a very unpunk instrument, the saxophone.

X-Ray Spex were self-described “deliberate underachievers,” which helps explain why they only released four excellent singles and one album, 1978’s Germfree Adolescents. (Almost two decades later they released a second album, 1995’s Conscious Consumer, but I’ll be damned if I’ll count it.)

The only problem with Germfree Adolescents is it doesn’t include the singles, which include “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” This is a serious omission, but Caroline Records corrected things in 1991, when they re-released Germfree Adolescents with singles included. Who says record labels are all spawn of the devil?

It’s hard to escape the suspicion that X-Ray Spex didn’t receive the same acclaim as their as their contemporaries because they were fronted by a woman unafraid to express her opinions and keep up with the boys, Punk—and later hardcore—were primarily the preserves of the males of the species, although X’s Exene Cervenka certainly held her own.

Styrene, same deal; one listen to that thick accent and the band’s pure punk thrust belies any such prejudices. And anyone who doubts the band’s ferocity need only listen to 1977’s Live at the Roxy (which wasn’t released until 1991) and the band’s 2008 reunion LP Live @ the Roundhouse London—one of the small handful of reunion LPs I’ve ever loved.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and the number-one selling duo in music history, Daryl Hall and John Oates, are releasing Live At The Troubadour for the first time ever on vinyl.

The album, which will be gracing the shelves in 3LP vinyl format on November 26th (Black Friday) is a collection of live, stripped-back classics, including hits such as “You Make My Dreams’” Maneater,” “Sara Smile,” and many more. Alongside this, the album will also be released in 2CD format and is available to stream on DSPs.

John Oates explains; “Playing the Troubadour in LA has been a “rite of passage” for live musicians for 64 years and Daryl and I played our first show there opening for the late great Harry Chapin in 1973. Over the years I always loved seeing shows and hanging out there with musicians and friends…returning to play again in 2008 was a full circle moment for me and the vibe was amazing.”

Live At The Troubadour was initially released in CD and DVD format in 2008, however this is the first time the album will be available for fans in vinyl format—and it’s sounding bigger, better and more iconic than ever! This release adds to Daryl Hall and John Oates’ extensive and highly successful discography, which is still resonating with existing and new fans across the globe. Reflecting on the recorded shows, Daryl Hall whimsically adds; “It’s always interesting to return to the scene of the crime.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | As the summer months come to a close, one can’t help but look ahead and begin daydreaming about the holidays to come. And this year, legendary New York rock band Blondie are bringing a little more fun to the holiday season with the release of their EP “Yuletide Throwdown.” The 3-track EP, released digitally October 8th, and on 12” limited edition vinyl in both magenta and black, on November 5th (via UMe-Capitol/Numero Group) features the ultra-rare ’80s Christmas-inspired track “Yuletide Throwdown,” co-written and performed with Fab 5 Freddy, along with a new, exclusive remix of the song by Cut Chemist.

The ultra-rare 1981 holiday flexi-disc, now being reissued for the first time on 180gram vinyl, was originally given away by the UK magazine Flexipop and then rediscovered as the band was researching and reviewing material from their personal archive for their forthcoming box set, to be released in August of 2022.

If it sounds familiar, here’s why: the track was actually the original recording for what would later become one of Blondie’s biggest hits, “Rapture.” After shelving this version because the tempo was recorded too slowly (it was later recut into what became the global hit song), Chris Stein decided to go back into the studio a year later with the original track to record Debbie Harry and Freddy’s “Throwdown” vocals for this cheeky, holiday masterpiece.

“It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!! Some of my best times have been making music with Chris Stein and Freddy B,” notes Debbie Harry, with Chris Stein adding: “Freddy has done as much as any multi-platinum selling Hip-Hop star to promote rap culture.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of Death Cab For Cutie’s The Photo Album, which was released on October 9, 2001 via Barsuk Records.

In celebration of the record’s anniversary, the band and Barsuk will release a special deluxe edition of DCfC’s third studio album. The Photo Album (Deluxe Edition) is a 35-track reissue featuring a newly remastered version of the original album, and includes the three bonus tracks released with its first CD pressing, which were later released in 2002 as “The Stability EP.” The extensive reissue includes covers of Björk’s “All Is Full of Love” and The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored,” previously unreleased tracks, rarities and UK B-sides which have never been available on digital services and, finally, all of the band’s original demos for the album.

The deluxe edition will be available on all digital platforms on October 29th, and a limited edition LP+12” EP version of the album, also newly remastered for vinyl, will be released in the spring of 2022. The gatefold vinyl will include the original album on one disc and “The Stability EP” on the second disc. “The Stability EP” has only been issued on vinyl once, as part of the long out-of-print limited edition 2013 Death Cab for Cutie: The Barsuk Years box set released by Artist in Residence. The vinyl reissue will be on clear 180-gram vinyl and limited to 5,000 copies worldwide.

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Celebrating Dan McCafferty on his 75th birthday. —Ed.

The Scottish clods o’ peat in this hard-working, hard-rocking man’s man band never won any originality awards, and weren’t exactly well-versed in the songwriting arts either, and given their high scunge factor, I doubt they’d even be allowed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as paying customers, much less as inductees.

They’re not going to be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame anytime soon, either. Hell, they only hit two homers over the course of their long career, and their lifetime batting average is in the .233 range. Forget about Cooperstown; these guys would be lucky to earn a spot on the bench of the 1962 New York Mets.

But I’ll say this for ‘em–way back in 1975 every badass or wannabe badass in my home town was blaring Nazareth’s Hair of the Dog out of their car 8-track speakers, whether that car be a GTO or a rusted-out Ford Pinto. The title track–with its “Now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch”–was a blast of pure unbridled belligerence and without a doubt the orneriest cut of the summer, hell the whole year probably. Alice Cooper may have put out “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” but that was play acting; Nazareth’s Dan McCafferty came on like the Real McCoy.

As for the album title, me and my buddies prided ourselves on knowing what it meant even though we’d never cracked a beer (much less suffered a hangover) in our lives–it made us feel adult, worldly even, just as that “Now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch” made us feel tough, when in effect we were probably the wimpiest band of geeks to ever gingerly trod the halls of Littlestown High School, on the lookout for the real sons of bitches.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Bernard “Pretty” Purdie is an American drummer who needs little introduction. At an early age he began hitting cans with sticks and learned the elements of drumming techniques from overhearing lessons being given. Considered an influential and innovative soul-jazz-funk musician, he is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature/unique drumming techniques—considered one of the greatest drummers of his generation, in 2013 he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.​

​In 1961 he moved from his hometown to New York City where he was contracted to play session work for James Brown (Purdie can be heard on the albums ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’, ‘Cold Sweat’, ‘Say It Loud-I’m Black and I’m Proud’ and ‘Get on the Good Foot’). These JB sessions display some of the most sophisticated and driving shuffles ever recorded for Brown’s catalogue. Purdie then started working with Aretha Franklin as her musical director in 1970 and held that position for five years as well as drumming for Franklin’s opening act, King Curtis.

Bernie Purdie was credited on countless albums (spanning several decades) by legendary artists like Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, Isaac Hayes, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Steely Dan, Cat Stevens, B.B. King, The Rolling Stones and Gil Scott-Heron.​

Purdie recorded his first solo album Soul Drums as early as 1968 and other milestone solo albums include Purdie Good (1971), Soul Is … Pretty Purdie (1972) and the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Lialeh (1973). With such an extensive body of work (Purdie laid down the beat on over 3,000 recordings) it comes as no surprise that his rhythms have appeared as samples on groundbreaking tracks from high profile acts such as The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Beck, DJ Shadow, The Prodigy and many others.

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Though the music they produced was only fitfully successful, the Denny Laine-fronted incarnation of The Moody Blues deserves to be remembered for more than a momentary chart fling topped by a gem of a single. In ’65 they released an album at home and another in the US under distinct titles, both holding a dozen tracks and with a third of each LP also unique. The better of the two, Go Now–The Moody Blues #1, was issued in the States by London Records.

Heavy on covers and by extension lacking in gestures toward originality, the ’64-’66-era Moody Blues are unlikely to be many people’s (I’ll stop short of saying anybody’s) most beloved component in the British Invasion. In fact, talk of the group today reliably focuses on the post-Denny Laine/Clint Warwick lineup that saw new members John Lodge and Justin Hayward helping to transmogrify the Moodies into one of the leading if artistically lesser examples of Symphonic Rock. I won’t sully the Prog genre with an inapt association since there was hardly anything progressive about The Moody Blues Mk 2.

Instead, they exemplified the Middlebrow impulse, though that’s ultimately a separate discussion. This piece concerns a band that came together when the leader of Denny Laine and the Diplomats joined up with a bunch of nameless Birmingham hopefuls, their main desire hitting it big or even just making a good living; they briefly played as the M & B 5, the initials an attempt at landing sponsorship from two local beer brewers (last names Mitchell and Butler). And similar to many of their contemporaries, The Moody Blues’ method at least initially was the borrowing and alteration of Rhythm and Blues.

And they did storm the charts with “Go Now,” in the process overtaking in popularity the terrific Leiber and Stoller-produced original by Bessie Banks, though the idea of the cover destroying the source’s commercial hopes is basically a myth. Banks’ tune was released by the Tiger label in January of ’64 while The Moody Blues’ version didn’t emerge until the following November, eventually peaking at #10 in the US in February of ’65 (it took top Brit honors a month earlier).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Live At Blues Alley, the only solo album released during the late singer Eva Cassidy’s short lifetime, will be released on December 3, 2021 as a specially remastered 25th Anniversary Edition from Blix Street Records via its new distribution agreement with ADA. It will be available in CD and digital formats as well as a 180g 45rpm double LP set created to fully showcase the recordings’ phenomenal sound. This will mark the recording’s first appearance on vinyl.

Eva Cassidy’s now legendary concert at Washington, DC’s Blues Alley nightclub on January 3, 1996 was in some ways a happy accident. Although Eva had spent years in the studio with producer Chris Biondo creating an eclectic body of work, the pair decided that a live album was the quickest way to achieve their immediate goal of creating a CD to sell at live shows.

Eva cashed in a small pension from her day job at a local nursery, her Aunt Claire contributed toward the venture, the Blues Alley venue booked them during their slowest time of the year (just after the New Year’s Eve blow-out), as was a live recording truck with a goal of generating enough profit to purchase a proper PA system for future shows. The result was Live At Blues Alley, released locally a scant few months before Cassidy’s untimely passing from melanoma at the age of 33. Her first studio album, Eva By Heart, was in the works at that time, but would not be completed until after her death.

25 years after its release in the summer of 1996, Live At Blues Alley is known the world over, becoming the cornerstone of a posthumous career. To celebrate this milestone, the original album recordings have been carefully re-mastered by Robert Vosgien, who mastered the original album, from the “first generation” unprocessed mixes. Vosgien elected to master in the digital domain to preserve the clarity and dynamics of Eva’s incredible vocals, which now, more than ever, transport the listener back to the time and place.

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The musical achievements of Alicja Trout are considerable. From her home base of Memphis, she’s played in numerous bands, a few of them still extant, she’s operated her own label, and she’s worked at her project Alicja-Pop, which Trout describes as both a “solo endeavor and a group venture…” On Howlin’, her second LP of Alicia-Pop material, available on 180g black vinyl and digital on October 15 through Black & Wyatt Records, the dozen tracks reinforce Trout’s stated duality as they unwind with nary a hiccup. Amid stylistic range, the common threads are strong songs and inspired execution.

The highest-profile outfit to benefit from Alicja Trout’s skills is surely Lost Sounds, a group she started alongside Rich Crook and the late Jay Reatard way back in 1999. But she was in The Clears before that, and has additionally completed the lineups of The Ultracats, C.C. Riders (with Monsieur Jeffrey Evans, formerly of the Gibson Bros.), Black Sunday, Destruction Unit, The Satyrs, Fresh Flesh, The Fitts, Nervous Patterns, Mouserocket, River City Tanlines, and Sweet Knives (the last three are listed in Black & Wyatt’s Alicja-Pop bio as being currently active).

Alicja-Pop’s prior LP, Rats (Home Recordings 2009-2013) came out in 2016 on Certified PR Records, that label also dishing a pair of Alicja-Pop 45s in 2010-’11. Before that, there was Alicja’s Home Recordings, released in 2004 under her given name on CDr by her own label Contaminated Records. And reaching back to ye olde 20th century, she even cut a couple songs as Daphne Diaphanous (issued on a Chunklet magazine CD and on the soundtrack to the grindhouse-psychotronic homage The Sore Losers).

Given all this activity, one might gather the impression that Trout enjoys making music. Howlin’ easily substantiates this notion, with the opening track “Incandescent Time Continuum” falling on the “group venture” side of Alicja-Pop’s spectrum (the participants are listed as Lori McStay, Jared McStay, and Andrew Geraci). While there’s a persistent layer of electronics running through its New Wavy sensibility (an aura enhanced in no small part by Trout’s singing), there is also a surplus of raw, stinging guitar, no surprise given the background detailed above.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Trinidad López III was born in Dallas, Texas on May 15, 1937, and at the tender age of 15 formed his first band, The Big Beats. Lopez played guitar; his repertoire consisted of Mexican folk songs, rhythm and blues hits and rock ’n’ roll favorites. The Big Beats played the local clubs, where Lopez met Buddy Holly. Holly referred him to his producer, Norman Petty, who helped The Big Beats and Trini get their first record deal with Columbia Records. Unfortunately, Petty wanted them to be an instrumental outfit. Trini was not interested in that style of music and soon left the band. He then cut some solo sides for Volk and King Records. But by 1962 he was without a label and started playing clubs in Los Angeles.

Living and playing in L.A., Lopez developed a considerable following. Soon he established a residency at one club in particular, PJ’s, in West Hollywood. Record man Don Costa, who worked for Frank Sinatra’s new label, Reprise Records, brought the boss to one of Lopez’s shows one night. And soon thereafter, Lopez was signed to Reprise and released his first album, Trini Lopez at PJ’s. The album reached #2 on the Billboard album charts and Trini’s live cover of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer” soon went gold, notching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. His output with Reprise was plentiful: 20 albums from 1963–1969 established Lopez as one of the first Latin acts to cross over to the pop charts. But the long player wasn’t the only place one could hear new Trini Lopez music, as he released several non-LP A- and B- sides throughout the years.

Omnivore Recordings is proud to announce the release of The Rare Reprise Singles, a 24-track compilation that amasses most of the non-LP tracks that Lopez would record for Reprise from 1962–1970. Hear many of these songs for the first time on CD, including the studio version of “A-Me-Ri-Ca,” “The Bramble Bush” (from the MGM production The Dirty Dozen in which Trini starred), and a cover of Randy Newman’s “Love Story,” produced by Bob Gaudio of the Four Seasons. With liner notes from former Warner Bros. scribe Gene Sculatti, photos and ephemera from Trini’s career with Reprise, this is the ultimate Trini Lopez rarities collection.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Singer, activist, author, fashion icon, actress, U.S. cultural ambassador, motivational speaker, dancer, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, trailblazer, legend, Supreme: Mary Wilson earned her place in music history.

She was the only original member of The Supremes in every incarnation of the groundbreaking group from beginning to end (1961 to 1977) but her story didn’t end when The Supremes did. Wilson the world-renowned performer was an advocate for social and economic challenges in the U.S. and abroad and used her fame and flair to promote diverse humanitarian efforts including ending hunger, raising HIV/AIDS awareness and encouraging world peace. She continued making music, performing to adoring fans around the world, wrote several best-selling books, and continued to protect artist rights and promote the legacy of the Supremes.

Now, the late legend’s remarkable legacy of music is being collected for the very first time in a deluxe 2-CD set. Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are proud to present Mary Wilson’s The Motown Anthology. Slated for release on December 3, 2021, this first-ever comprehensive overview of Wilson’s Motown discography presents 38 songs, including a whopping 33 tracks only available physically on this collection. It boasts nearly two dozen Supremes classics, deep cuts, and never-before-heard songs (most in stunning new mixes) from a host of songwriters including Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Deke Richards, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Thom Bell and Linda Creed, and others.

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The saga of The Beach Boys is a long, complicated tale of family, music, the ’60s and the California dream. Their early surf, girls, cars, and pop sound and mythic Pet Sounds/Smile period may be their most celebrated and chronicled, but they were for years also a great live act. While the group’s sound is often pegged as purely a ’60s phenomenon, the group made some excellent recordings post-Pet Sounds, well into the 1970s, that sounded great when they were released and hold up well even today.

A new reissue, Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 (Universal/Brother/Reprise), fleshes out a period of the group’s early-’70s history that was highly productive, saw the group collegially collaborating amongst themselves, and working hard to transition from its ’60s glory days into the ’70s. The reissue is available as a 2-CD, 2-LP, 4-LP, or 5-CD configuration. The release of Feel Flows was highly anticipated and held up several times due to inter-band differences and circumstances related to the virus.

The 5-CD set includes 207 tracks. Of the 207, 108 are previously unreleased. The previously unreleased tracks include alternate versions, alternate mixes, outtakes, instrumental and a cappella versions, along with radio promo spots. Some of the previously unreleased tracks were part of what was supposed to be a Dennis Wilson solo album entitled either Poops or Hubba Hubba. In spite of the silly album titles, this material as presented here is quite strong, focusing on the excellence of Wilson’s songwriting and vocals at this time.

The Beach Boys released their masterwork Pet Sounds in 1966. The four albums released post-Pet Sounds—Smiley Smile and Wild Honey in 1967 and Friends and 20/20 in 1968—are a mixed bag of music and came out during a period when Brian Wilson was half out of the group and half in and struggling with drug and mental problems. These would be the group’s last four albums for Capitol Records, there one and only album recording label since 1962.

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Based in the English town of Cornwall, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sarah McQuaid has released five full-length records, but never a live album. That is, until now. The St Buryan Sessions isn’t a standard performance document however, as it was captured on July 1 of 2020 in the St Buryan church in Cornwall but without an audience, McQuaid having altered her plan, foiled by COVID-19, to cut a conventional live disc while on tour last year. Sharply recorded and produced by her longtime tour collaborator Martin Stansbury, it’s out October 15 on 180g blue vinyl in a gatefold sleeve and on CD through Shovel and a Spade Records.

The idea of cutting a live record sans audience might not seem like a big deal given the post-Coronavirus proliferation of virtual performances, but what sets McQuaid’s endeavor apart is its seriousness; while so many pandemic-era livestream happenings, at least in my experience, have been loose and modest, occasionally unfocused, and too often uninspiring, The St Buryan Sessions is distinguished by rigorous conception and expert follow-through.

To expand on the above, McQuaid was on the road in early 2020 when the first upsurge of the virus left her and crew, including Stansbury, little choice but to ferry back home with the goal of a live record dashed. Except then the idea was formulated, partly inspired by the increase of performances without crowds, to record in the church in Cornwall, not a random decision, as McQuaid had been singing in the choir at St Buryan since moving to the town.

In his notes for the disc (McQuaid also contributes her own), Stansbury gets to the gist of it: “There was a set list and she was to play her set and we would record it.” He also adds that that there were a few concessions, like the sensible one of stopping for bathroom breaks. And also, camera adjustments, as there is concert film of the performance, along with a documentary (both are available on a 16GB engraved wooden USB stick purchasable separately or as part of the vinyl and CD bundles).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On November 12, Merge will reissue two crucial releases from The Clean’s distinguished discography. The “Tally Ho!” b/w “Platypus” 7-inch and the “Boodle Boodle Boodle” 12-inch EP, the Dunedin trio’s first official recordings as a band, both celebrate their 40th anniversary this year.

These reissues have been remastered by Tex Houston with assistance from the Alexander Turnbull Library New Zealand, and The Clean’s David Kilgour and Robert Scott oversaw the careful re-creation of the original packaging. Merge is thrilled to make these records globally available for the first time since their release in 1981.

Pitchfork described “Tally Ho!” as “a classic of immense proportions, from its Velcro melody, absurdly mixed garage organ and motorik beat, to the crusty, hiss-laden home eight-track recording that embodies it.” Recorded in the middle of a New Zealand tour for a humble NZ $60, the song broke into the country’s Top 20 singles chart at #19, surprising everyone including the band.

Its B-side “Platypus” was recorded live at a show just days prior, capturing the band’s buoyant and elastic sound on stage. The 7-inch reissue will be available on limited-edition silver Peak Vinyl and standard black vinyl, as well as limited clear vinyl exclusively in New Zealand.

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Celebrating Daryl Hall on his 75th birthday. —Ed.

While by no means an unknown work, it also seems fair to say that Daryl Hall’s first solo LP Sacred Songs gets nowhere near enough retrospective attention. This is mainly due to the inclusion of what many might consider to be an odd associate (at best) or an irreconcilable collaborator (at worst) in art-rock maestro Robert Fripp. Blue-eyed soul meets Frippertronics? Yes, indeed.

If the team-up of Daryl Hall and Robert Fripp remains an unlikely pairing from seemingly disparate areas of the ‘70s rock landscape, after some consideration their creative union shouldn’t really be designated as a case of strange bedfellows. The key to understanding how these two ended up in the same studio lies in getting beyond the surface perception of Fripp as a prog-rock outlier and Hall & Oates as simply a hit machine.

But folks who know Fripp’s contributions to Blondie’s Parallel Lines and especially Bowie’s “Heroes” have surely already comprehended that there’s more to the guy’s output than just King Crimson and (No Pussyfooting). And any fan of Hall & Oates that’s travelled back in their discography to their Atlantic Records period has been greeted with the unusual doozy that is Abandoned Luncheonette.

That 1973 album, their second after the pleasant but far from earth shattering debut Whole Oats, can be aptly described as a particularly ripe example of the commercial ambition of its decade. Not only does it include what’s maybe their best single, the sleeper 1976 hit “She’s Gone,” but the record’s second side heads into all kinds of unexpected areas, including the well-integrated use of electric violin on “Lady Rain” and even some fiddle and banjo on the seven minute album closer “Everytime I Look At You.”

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