Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Who created the folk-rock genre? Most pundits (as well as Google) will credit the Byrds for this achievement, as their 1965 debut album Mr. Tambourine Man effectively bridged the gap between Dylan-esque folk music and British Invasion-style rock music. Another music history question: What was the first country rock album? Most will argue that it was either the Byrds' 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo , or the Flying Burrito Brothers' 1969 debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin , and it's hard to argue against them in either case. However, there is an obscure album from 1963 -- predating the aforementioned albums -- which could be said to mark an earlier beginning for both of those genres. And one of the members of the band who recorded it was a teenage mandolin player named Chris Hillman -- who would later become a founding member of both the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Before the Byrds formed in 1964, Hillman had played in a San Diego-based bluegrass band cal

The 60th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in July of 2024. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, and now a solo artist. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (usually one full-length album and one 7” single) to its members every three months. The 60th Vault package featured a 3-LP set titled Third Man Live , containing live discs from Jack White, Dinosaur Jr., and W.I.T.C.H., recorded at the three different Third Man Records locations in Detroit, Nashville, and London. The 7-inch single offers three live cuts by Mudhoney, recorded at Third Man in Nashville. All of the discs in this set were pressed in beautiful "skycloud" colored vinyl, a blue-and-white marble blend based on the color of the walls in all three Third Man venues. Each of the three LP's

Jack White has once again boldly bucked music industry convention. On July 19, 2024, White secretly guerilla-released a new limited-edition, vinyl-only studio solo album through his Third Man Records imprint. The album, simply titled No Name , was distributed only at the Third Man Records stores in Detroit, Nashville, and London as a free item given out with any purchase at the stores. Some copies were randomly sent to Third Man Records Vault members. (I was not one of those members who received it). The number of copies printed and distributed was not disclosed. The album was not initially available from streaming services, but White’s official Reddit page provided a link (now deleted) to a Google Drive featuring various formats of the album for download and distribution. Besides having no name, the album also has no cover art, as it's packaged in a plain white sleeve, with a plain white center label which has "NO NAME" stamped on Side A. It's pressed in natural-colo

For Record Store Day in 2024, the British alternative band Keane issued a live album titled Live At Paradiso 29.11.04 . Limited to 2,500 vinyl copies, the album documents a concert performed by the band in Amsterdam in late November of 2004, the year in which their debut album Hopes and Fears was released. The double-LP was pressed in one red vinyl disc and one white vinyl disc. During the titular concert at the historic Amsterdam venue, the band performed 11 of the 12 tracks from Hopes and Fears , as well as the non-album B-side "Snowed Under", and two songs ("Nothing In My Way" and "Hamburg Song") which would later be recorded for Keane's 2006 sophomore album Under The Iron Sea . The band did an amazing job of performing the songs live, suggesting that the material had been developed over time. Tom Chaplin's falsetto vocals do not soar quite as high in this live setting as they do on record, but his soft and emotive tenor is still powerful,

As someone who remembers the days before the internet was available to the public, I am still often amazed by how much easier it has become to access rare recordings. Once upon a time, if a certain obscure album only had a single pressing of, say, 100 copies, way back in a year like, say, 1971, then there seemed to be little or no possibility of the album ever being obtainable by almost anyone. Before the digital age, physical media was usually the only way to hear such an album -- and what were the odds of getting one's hands on an album as obscure as that? It was highly unlikely that you would find such an album in a record store, and even if you did, why would you have any interest in purchasing a recording that was so unknown? It was equally unlikely that such a record would get played on a radio station, even a hip college station or anything like one, except maybe in the artist's home town. Would homemade cassette tapes have circulated? Probably only within a small commun

For Record Store Day 2024, an interestingly conceived double-LP is being issued, pairing two related disco albums from 1979. The first of the two vinyl LP's in the set is No. 1 in Heaven by Sparks, which was Ron and Russell Mael's foray into electronic music. The other LP in the set is an album by a mysterious female singer named Noël, written and produced by the Mael brothers, titled Is There More To Life Than Dancing . This 2-LP set will be limited to 1,500 copies. Both albums will reportedly be reissued on CD one month later, on May 17th. If there was any such thing as "alt-disco" or "alternative dance" circa 1979, it was arguably created the previous year by either Blondie or Kraftwerk. But 45 years later, this RSD release makes a case for the duo of Ron and Russell Mael as similar pioneers when it came to bridging the gap between new wave and dance-pop in the late-1970's. First off, the Sparks album No. 1 In Heaven , which is currently availabl

For Record Store Day 2024, the Culture Factory label is issuing yet another live album by Nico, the late German chanteuse best known for her association with the Velvet Underground. Nico At The Live Inn, Tokyo '86 was recorded at Shibuya Live Inn in Tokyo, Japan on April 11, 1986. This RSD LP is pressed in transparent green vinyl, and is limited to 2,000 copies. The Record Store Day website states that the album "has never been released on vinyl", but that is not exactly true. Although this album has never before been commercially issued in the U.S., it was released on vinyl in the U.K. and Japan in 1987 as Nico In Tokyo , and was issued on CD during the '90's in those same territories under the same title. Also, the album was released on vinyl in Italy for Record Store Day 2017, under the title Live In Tokyo 1986 . The sound quality of the album is usually excellent, and the album itself is quite good as well. Nico, who was born in Germany in 1938 as Christa