We’ve closed TVD’s HQ for the Memorial Day holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores?
Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here Tuesday, 5/28.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Before they achieved stardom the world over with “It’s Raining Men,” Weather Girls Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes Armstead made waves in the thriving San Francisco music scene as Two Tons o’ Fun (and, later, The Two Tons). The powerhouse duo began working with gender- and genre-defying artist Sylvester at Fantasy Records, singing background and lead vocals on many of his most memorable recordings.
In 1980, they struck out on their own and teamed with legendary Motown veteran Harvey Fuqua (who had also helmed Sylvester’s beloved albums) for two remarkable LPs on his Honey Records imprint. Fusing disco, dance, soul, funk, and R&B with roof-raising, gospel-tinged vocals, both Two Tons o’ Fun and Backatcha put the extraordinary voices of “Queen of Clubland” Wash and Armstead out front. Now, Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are thrilled to celebrate the Two Tons with a complete 2-CD anthology that serves as a companion to last year’s acclaimed Sylvester release, Disco Heat: The Fantasy Years 1977-1981.
Two Tons o’ Fun’s Get the Feeling: The Complete Fantasy/Honey Recordings brings together, on 2 CDs, both of the Two Tons’ albums—the first of which features Sylvester himself in the band—plus a host of rare single versions, remixes, and extended versions. Among the highlights are the top five Dance smashes “Earth Can Be Just Like Heaven” and “I Got the Feeling” as well as such R&B and Dance hits as “I Depend on You” and “Never Like This.” Both albums have long been overlooked; their last CD reissue was more than thirty years ago in the UK; this collection marks both albums’ US CD debut, while most of the bonus tracks are also new to worldwide CD.
For the occasion, all audio has been newly remastered by Mike Milchner, and we are remastering the two albums straight from the original tapes, so this collection will offer a big sonic upgrade. The collection also contains a deluxe booklet featuring liner notes by The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese and unseen photos. With the return of Two Tons o’ Fun, only one exclamation is appropriate: Hallelujah!
Celebrating Albert Bouchard on his 77th birthday. —Ed.
When it comes to 1970s faux evil rock bands that didn’t have a bone of true evil in their bodies, Blue Öyster Cult comes in right behind Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath.
BÖC flirted shamelessly, tongues planted firmly in cheek, with the iconography of the dark side (they sang about S&M, made references to Martin Bormann and put Nazi jet fighters on their album covers, and let’s not forget the Patti Smith-penned “Career of Evil”) and people bought it until, like the previously mentioned bands, the boys from Long Island took it right over the top, and it became obvious that it was all a big joke and they were about as evil as Debbie Gibson.
But if it was all a shuck—and it was: even the rock critic Richard Meltzer, who wrote some of the band’s songs including “Burnin’ for You,” noted, “This is really hard rock comedy”—it led to some pretty great music, culminating Agents of Fortune, which was so wildly successful Robert Christgau dubbed BÖC “the Fleetwood Mac of heavy metal.”
Formed in 1967 as The Soft White Underbelly, the band subsequently changed its name to Oaxaca, then the Stalk-Forrest Group, then and the Santos Sisters before finally settling on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971. They were the first band to employ an umlaut in its name and came up with the most instantly recognizable band logo this side of Black Flag, and were guided step by step by manager Sandy Pearlman, who got them signed, wrote a lot of the band’s lyrics, helped produce their LPs, gave them their name, etc.
PHOTO: LOUIS BOO | It’s miraculous, really, that great new music is revealed to us each passing week; we need only to be open to exploring it to enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with reveling in your favorite songs, artists and albums that are deemed classics by some listening community, but it’s continuing to explore new releases that really gets us thinking about music: both where it’s been and where it’s going and how new sounds might enrich our busy lives.
That’s when it’s fun to discover an artist like Liam Bailey who offers a slice of many of your favorite records on his newest release, Zero Grace, yet he maintains a voice that is all his own. Liam is not really a “new” artist, but his latest album is a bit of a rebirth. His first full release dates back to 2014 and jointly came out on the Sony Masterworks and Flying Buddah labels. But his latest album on the Big Crown label feels like a return to Bailey’s roots; a true representation of who he is rather than someone else’s idea of who he should be.
And Liam wouldn’t have things that way anyway. As you’ll find in our chat, he’s his own man and he resists any temptation to avoid the truth; he approaches things head-on and makes no excuses. And for someone who is a music lover, and who appreciates a steadfast creator making music on their own terms, it can be an exciting experience to discover Liam Bailey. So, let’s do it!
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.
Well here it is, the “lost” album—or part of it—The Velvet Underground recorded after 1969’s The Velvet Underground, their first and only album with MGM Records. The songs on VU were intended as their second MGM release. But in the meantime the druggy-hating Mike Curb (leader of the totally Squaresville Mike Curb Congregation) was brought in to save the struggling label, which he accomplished by engaging in a Stalinesque purge of the label’s less popular and more controversial acts. The Velvets fell into both categories. As a result what would have been the VU’s fourth album ended up on a shelf and didn’t see the light of day until the release of 1985’s VU and 1986’s Another View.
But it’s not that simple, because both VU and Another View include songs that wouldn’t have been on the lost album. They’re five in number, and they date back to 1967–68, when John Cale was still the band’s Welshman in residence. And “lost” is a relative term—it wasn’t as if most of these songs had never been heard before the releases of VU and Another View.
Many had been bouncing around for eons. Some were part of The Velvet Underground’s live set; two of the songs on VU appear on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, released in 1974, while two others can be heard on 2001’s Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes. And six appear, in reworked fashion, on Lou Reed’s solo albums. Only three of the songs on VU came out of the blue, and one of them dates back to Cale’s tenure in the band.
None of which diminishes the power of VU. These may not have been “finished” tracks, but the engineering remixes vary from good to excellent, making VU an exquisite listen as well as a historical marker of where the band stood, in terms of sound and style, between The Velvet Underground (the least of the band’s studio releases unless you count 1973’s Squeeze, which no sane person does) and their sublime parting shot, 1970’s Loaded.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 1971, Atlantic Records released a pair of Dusty Springfield singles produced by the legendary songwriter/producer Jeff Barry (one-time songwriting and romantic partner of Ellie Greenwich, and author of too many hits to name): “Haunted”/”Nothing Is Forever” and “I Believe In You”/”Someone Who Cares.”
A restless Dusty, freshly relocating to America from her native England, then departed the label and left an additional 9 songs recorded with Barry in the can, where they stayed until Rhino issued one track, “Faithful” (in mono), as a bonus track on the 1990s CD release of Dusty’s 1970 Atlantic album A Brand New Me.
The other tracks didn’t surface until a subsequent deluxe reissue of Dusty’s landmark 1969 album Dusty in Memphis included them as bonus cuts. Then, reissue producer Jim Pierson—who tracked down the missing masters after being lost for over two decades —assembled Dusty’s Barry-produced masters and put them together in a single package for the first time to create the third Dusty Springfield Atlantic Records album as planned in 1971.
Real Gone Music’s release of Faithful on LP presents these historic Barry-Springfield collaborations exactly as they were originally intended to be heard, with the 12 tracks meant for the album release out on vinyl over 50 years later.
All tracks are in stereo, while the liner notes on the new gatefold spread, penned by The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese, feature a number of rarely-seen photos of the legendary singer. These stunning pop, soul and gospel flavored selections showcase the iconic singer at the height of her vocal magic. A missing/ jumbled part of Dusty’s august recorded legacy, finally set right and available in its intended format. Out on metallic gold and purple “royalty” vinyl as befitting The Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul…limited to 1,500 copies.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Verve Records is proud to announce Louis in London, the last great performance by the most influential American musician of all time, Louis Armstrong.
Recorded live at the BBC on July 2, 1968—just weeks after the groundbreaking GRAMMY® Award-winning artist hit the #1 spot on the UK charts with “What A Wonderful World”—the 13-track collection will be released on standard black and exclusive blue vinyl, CD, and digital, accompanied by extensive liner notes by Armstrong’s biographer and Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum, Ricky Riccardi, on Friday, July 12. Pre-orders are available now.
From redefining jazz with his revolutionary trumpet playing to singlehandedly inventing popular singing, Louis Armstrong made a greater impact on American popular music than any other single artist before or since. In July 1968, Armstrong and his renowned band, The All-Stars, traveled to England and entered the BBC’s London studios to record a performance, full of vitality and joy, that manifested some of the most inspired singing and trumpet playing of his remarkable career.
Captured in high fidelity audio and video, Louis in London presents Armstrong delivering everything from the first composition he’s known to have played in public—W.C. Handy’s “Ole Miss”—to the chart-topping “What A Wonderful World” and classic versions of such worldwide hits as “Mack The Knife” and “Hello, Dolly!,” the latter of which premieres today alongside a high definition official performance video streaming now at YouTube.
First broadcast on September 22, 1968 as BBC TV’s “Show Of The Week–Louis Armstrong,” the session poignantly proved to be Armstrong’s last great performance. From the moment Armstrong received a copy of the 1968 London recording, he became determined for the world to hear this music, affixing a note to the outside of the tape box on which he wrote, “For The Fans.”
Celebrating Bob Dylan in advance of his 83rd birthday tomorrow.
—Ed.
Lots of supposedly sane folks shouted “Masterpiece!” when Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind came out in 1997; Elvis Costello, to pick a seemingly sober-minded celebrity name out of a hat, said, “I think it might be the best record he’s made.”
Hoo ha, said I. Sure, Time Out of Mind was a marked–no, make that very marked–improvement on the rather desultory couple of albums he’d released before it. So if you wanted to call it a resounding comeback, that was fine by me. But masterpiece? Forget about it.
Well, time has softened me some. I still wouldn’t call Time Out of Mind a masterpiece–so far as I’m concerned Dylan stopped producing them in the mid-seventies, at latest. But it includes at least one song that stands with the very best of his work and a couple of others that are pretty damn good, and that’s not bad for an artist who was born before America entered WWII.
And the album as a whole is noteworthy for its unremittingly dark tone. Dylan sounds lost, desperate even; love makes him sick and has him all mixed up, things are disintegrating, and while it’s not dark yet, it’s getting there. This baby is one long twilight stroll through the graveyard of Dylan’s mind, and he’s not whistling; he taking a reckoning, and wondering whether the journey was worth the cost.
Time Out of Mind is an autumnal, and even elegiac, work; you can practically hear the shadows gathering. The dark and sublimely lovely “Not Dark Yet” is the album’s linchpin and one of the greatest songs Dylan will ever write. On it Dylan finally looks back, if only because there doesn’t seem much ahead; “Behind every beautiful thing,” he sings, “There’s been some kind of pain.” This is the sound of a man sinking beneath his burden of years, and you’re forced to wonder; does he fear the darkness, or look forward to it?
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Today details are announced of new album formats to celebrate Oasis’ 1994 iconic debut three decades after its original release.
Available on 30th August 2024, Definitely Maybe (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) formats feature tracks from the discarded original recording session at Monnow Valley Studios, along with outtakes from the definitive album recorded at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, newly mixed for the first time by Noel Gallagher and Callum Marinho. The album also includes an unreleased demo version of “Sad Song.” Originally released as a bonus track on the LP, this alternative version features Liam Gallagher’s vocals.
The package also features brand new artwork by the original art designer Brian Cannon for Microdot and original sleeve photographer Michael Spencer Jones, plus new sleeve notes from Creation Records boss Alan McGee and journalist Hamish MacBain.
The Definitely Maybe (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) album is available to pre-order now on Limited-Edition Deluxe 4LP and Deluxe 2CD formats plus exclusive coloured vinyl – ‘Up In The Sky’ “Learning to fly” lyric inspired blue and white marble 2LP, and ‘Digsy’s Dinner’ “Strawberries and cream” lyric inspired pink and white marble 2LP. It will also be available on Limited-Edition blue cassette and digital formats. All formats include the 2014 remastered version of the album.
In August of 1994, Definitely Maybe’s release marked a critical moment in British youth culture, with Noel Gallagher’s songwriting and Oasis’ assured cacophony of sound heralding a new beginning. It embodied an entirely new mood of rock and pop—hedonistic, guitar-driven, and optimistic. The UK, soon to be unshackled from 18 years of Conservative rule, had a growing sense of change and hope in the air, and Oasis captured that mood.
With the release of Power Vibe, NYC-based improvisor, composer, bandleader, and collaborator Steph Richards has guided a striking combination of vigorous abstraction, innovative strategies, and warm melodicism. Trumpet and flugelhorn are her instruments, and joining Richards on the album’s six pieces are Joshua White on piano, Stomu Takeishi on upright bass and electric bass guitar, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and Max Jaffe on sensory electronics and for one track, drums. Accomplished and ambitious, the record is out now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Northern Spy.
Having played with such august names as Roscoe Mitchell, the Kronos Quartet, Yoko Ono, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, and Vinny Golia, Steph Richards is a versatile heavy hitter, exactly the sort of player who gets the call to assist high profile figures in the “pop” sphere; for Richards, these artists include David Byrne and St. Vincent.
Contemporary musicians with whom Richards has collaborated include Jason Moran, Kenny Wolleson, Ravi Coltrane, Mary Halvorson, Tom Rainey, Tomeka Reid, Jean Cook, Taylor Ho Bynum, Nicole Mitchell, Tomas Fujiwara, Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Filiano, and Nate Wooley. Additionally, she is a founding member of the ensemble Asphalt Orchestra (an offshoot of Bang on a Can).
Power Vibe is her fifth full-length record following Fullmoon (Relative Pitch, 2018), Take the Neon Lights (Birdwatcher, 2019), Supersense (Northern Spy, 2020), and Zephyr (Relative Pitch, 2021), this last set documenting Richards in duo with pianist Joshua White, who returns for Power Vibe. Notably, Richards began recording Zephyr while she was six-and-a-half months pregnant, a reality that illuminates her dedication carrying over into tenacity.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Singer/songwriter, five-time Grammy Award winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Michael McDonald’s What a Fool Believes: A Memoir—written with actor, comedian, and bestselling author Paul Reiser—is out now via Dey Street Books. The book is the subject of extensive critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press and many more.
Interwoven with unforgettable tales from his storied career and a cast of music greats including James Taylor, Ray Charles, Carly Simon, and Quincy Jones, What a Fool Believes finds McDonald reckoning with the unshakeable insecurities that drove him and the highs and lows of fame and popularity. Along the way he relays the hard-earned lessons he has learned.
Co-authors McDonald and Reiser first crossed paths at a party a number of years ago. McDonald was aware of Reiser’s work as an actor and bestselling author, but that night he learned of Paul’s love for music and his own skill as a pianist and songwriter.
Reiser invited McDonald over to check out his home studio; the two ended up jamming into the wee hours and a friendship was born. It was Reiser who convinced McDonald that he needed to tell his story.
A member of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan as well as a chart-topping solo artist and collaborator with some of the biggest names in music, McDonald’s unmistakably smooth baritone voice defined an era of popular music with hits like “What A Fool Believes,” “Takin’ It to the Streets,” “I Keep Forgettin’,” “It Keeps You Running,” “You Belong to Me,” the James Ingraham duet “Yah Mo B There,” the Patti LaBelle duet “On My Own” and many more. Hailing from Ferguson, Missouri, McDonald chased his musical dreams in 1970s California. As a rising session musician and backing vocalist, a series of encounters sent him on a wild ride around the world and to the heights of rock stardom.
The Rolling Stones are currently out on tour continuing to earn the moniker greatest rock and roll band in the world. While some can argue if they are indeed the greatest, it’s safe to say they are certainly the best live act in rock and roll history. They are also one of the longest running groups of all time. Additionally, they released a quartet of albums between 1968 and 1972 (Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St.) that are as strong a streak of classic and iconic albums as anyone in rock history.
The group also released a string of singles since their inception through the early ’70s that constitute what has come to be known as their Decca/London period. The singles have been celebrated in two massive box sets of 45 RPM vinyl singles. The first was The 7” Singles 1963–1965 box set, released in 2022, and this follow-up is the second. Both are comprised of 18 singles each.
That first box primarily featured the group’s singles since their recording debut in 1963 through 1965. Heavy on R&B, blues, and rock and roll covers, that set’s latter singles boasted the maturation of the new-found songwriter prowess of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction),” “Get Off Of My Cloud,” “As Tears Go By,” and “19th Nervous Breakdown” closing out the box.
This new box picks up where those gems left off. The singles in this set show a further evolution of the songwriting partnership of Jagger/Richards, but also how Brian Jones and his multitude of instrumental talents on a wide variety of instruments helped the group grow and make their music a step above the pop singles of the period. The first seven singles here coupled with the last four on the first box reflect the group’s peak as hitmakers in the 1960s.
The rest of this box marks some major changes. First there is the experimental psychedelic period and inclusion of a single from Bill Wyman. From there the group’s next major surge as hitmakers spotlights a sound that’s leaner, tougher, and moves beyond the subtleties and textures of the key Brian Jones-era singles of the mid-’60s.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Sleaford Mods’ era-capturing, breakthrough album Divide and Exit will receive a reissue on July 26, 2024 via Rough Trade Records to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its release.
The duo embark on a tour celebrating the album this autumn, playing a series of intimate gigs across the UK at the kind of grassroots venues they were performing at when the album was first released. The remastered version of “Tied Up In Nottz” is out today—a vivid snapshot of UK grimness which remains a cornerstone of the duo’s live set, the single is accompanied by a restored version of the song’s 2014 video featuring the band riding around their native Nottingham on a “borrowed bus. Watch it below.
Originally released in May 2014, not only did Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson’s second “proper” album (or sixth if you go back through the early CD-R efforts), capture the “death by a million vested interests” malaise that was engulfing British society as contaminative politics oozed its core, but its union of strong words and minimal electronics saw a fresh voice articulated a much-needed rage, anger, hurt and hope.
Fully remastered, and with initial vinyl copies featuring a special new sleeve designed by the duo’s friend and collaborator British artist Cold War Steve, this new edition offers a chance to fully appreciate a band hitting their artistic stride while acknowledging (and commiserating) that its rebuttal of many of the dark forces that triggered its creation remains sadly relevant today.
In the labyrinthine realms of jazz, Sun Ra remains an icon of freedom and progress. With his ensemble the Arkestra, in smaller group recordings and solo, the pianist, composer, and bandleader’s discography is vast. Anybody looking for an introduction to the man on freshly released vinyl or compact disc should grab a copy of Sun Ra at the Showcase: Live in Chicago (1976–1977), which is available now through the set’s producer Zev Feldman’s Jazz Detective label, Deep Digs Music, and Elemental Music. And happy birthday to Arkestra horn man Marshall Allen, who will celebrate his 100th arrival day on May 25.
Upon first exposure to free jazz, some folks are immediately drawn to its expressiveness like a moth to a brightly burning bulb. But more frequently, those who don’t just as quickly reject the style (in one of its myriad manifestations) outright are curious and cautious in their subsequent interactions with the music; they often consult liner notes, reference books, and record store experts in an attempt to get a handle on what they’ve just heard.
Of course, the recording and the artist(s) providing the introduction are crucial to this scenario. Simply put, Sun Ra was one of free jazz’s gateway artists. In an interview excerpt included in the booklet for this set, the great pianist Dave Burrell makes this observation, and as Burrell witnessed the Arkestra in concert at NYC’s Slugs’ Saloon in the 1960s, the comment is based in experience and is particularly astute.
Sun Ra’s Afrofuturism and its performance aspects certainly intensified the gateway pull of the man and his band, but it also related to how the music could encompass old-school swing and bop, get tender with a ballad, invigorate a show tune, and integrate elements of the blues. In an era where a segment of the jazz scene was controversially going electric, Sun Ra was adding synthesizers to his instrumental arsenal. That early Rolling Stone Sun Ra cover is indicative of his crossover appeal.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | 2002’s Spend the Night was by far the band’s most popular album, hitting 62 on the Billboard charts. The LP boasts such Donnas devastators as “Who Invited You,” “Take It Off,” “You Wanna Get Me High,” and “Pass It Around,” one killer hook after another.
Having lovingly reissued the first four albums by our all-time favorite all-female punk band, we now turn our attention to The Donnas’ major label debut for the Atlantic label, where they went after recording a quartet of classics for Lookout! 2002’s Spend the Night was by far the band’s most popular album, hitting 62 on the Billboard charts, but it wasn’t just the major label distribution mojo that upped the sales.
This record doesn’t have a dud on it, and boasts such Donnas devastators as “Who Invited You,” “Take It Off,” “You Wanna Get Me High,” and “Pass It Around.” Indeed, with one killer hook after another, the big mystery about this record is, why didn’t it make them superstars?
Our reissue also includes “Big Rig,” which was on the original LP release but got left off the CD, and the insert featuring lyrics and a Freddy Krueger guest appearance. Hot pink vinyl.
