Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Cats were a rock band based in Philadelphia, who were active from 1976 until 1981, and released one self-titled new wave-era album in 1980. The band Cats had no connection to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical; the very first stage performance of Webber's Cats took place one year after the Cats album was released. One of Cats' songs, "(He's Got) The Rest Of His Life", sounds lyrically similar to Billy Joel's hit "You May Be Right", which was released the same year. However, that Cats song had appeared the previous year on a 1979 various artists compilation which showcased Philadelphia musicians, so it predated the release of Joel's song. Also, since this band bore some musical similarity to Queen, you might suspect them of lifting the title of their album's opening track "On The Prowl" from Queen's "Man On The Prowl", but -- guess what? Cats predated that Queen song by four years. Considering the band's 1976 ori...

For Record Store Day 2026, Rhino Records is issuing a live album from the Cars, titled Heartbeat City Live . The album contains 17 songs performed by the new wave quintet on September 11, 1984 at The Summit in Houston, Texas. The 2-LP set will be limited to 3,500 copies. This concert was part of the tour to support the band's multi-platinum 1984 album Heartbeat City . The show was recorded for broadcast by the Westwood One radio network. The Record Store Day website previously stated (but no longer states) that the concert was "previously unreleased on any audio format - physical or digital". I'm glad that text was removed, because it is not quite accurate. All 17 of the tracks were included on the recent Deluxe Edition of Heartbeat City , issued in 2025 in both physical and digital formats. 13 of the songs were issued on a home video release of the concert in 1985 -- which, I realize, is considered a video format as opposed to an audio format. That videocassette w...

For Record Store Day 2026, Stewart Copeland's 1985 solo album titled The Rhythmatist is being reissued by Demon Records, in a limited vinyl edition which will be pressed in blue translucent vinyl, and limited to 1,200 copies. This edition has new cover art, and each copy will come with an exclusive art print signed by Copeland. The album will be also be reissued on CD on May 29th, with seven bonus tracks consisting of alternate versions of the album's singles "Koteja (Oh Bolilla)" and "Gong Rock". The first post-Police album by that band's former drummer, The Rhythmatist was the soundtrack album to Copeland's 1985 film of the same name, which was released on home video (A&M Video VC 61008). Directed and produced by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, that amusing 57-minute curio showed Copeland undertaking a series of National Geographic -like adventures in East and West Africa, with the stated intention of studying the influence of African rhythms on mu...

A new edition of Queen's 1974 sophomore album Queen II is expected before the end of 2026. While speaking about the reissue on his Planet Rock Christmas radio special in the U.K. on December 22nd, Queen guitarist Brian May played a previously unreleased outtake from the album, titled "Not For Sale (Polar Bear)", which will be one of the bonus tracks on the new edition of Queen II . Here is the snippet of the program during which May played the song: The song is a sensitive ballad about a Christmas decoration in a store window, written by May in 1969. May commented that the song was originally recorded by his pre-Queen band called Smile, and that the Smile version has been heard on bootlegs. However, the Smile version of the song was actually issued in Japan and the Netherlands on legitimate, if not exactly band-approved, releases. First of all, who were Smile? Smile were a British progressive rock trio formed by college students Brian May and singer/bassist Tim ...

You may have heard about the upcoming Beach Boys box set titled We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years , set to be released on February 13th. Among many other tracks recorded between 1974 and 1977, the 3-CD set will include the entire 1977 album Beach Boys Love You , which is generally considered a Brian Wilson solo album with some participation from the other Beach Boys. And included among the box set's bonus material is most of the unreleased 1977-recorded album Adult/Child , which was the intended follow-up to Beach Boys Love You , and was also mainly a Brian Wilson solo project with some help from other Beach Boys. That album was shelved in favor of the weaker 1978 M.I.U. album, which was a discouraging work by middle-aged "boys" who were seemingly pretending it was 1963. Some Beach Boys fans describe Adult/Child as "another lost masterpiece", in allusion to the legendary unfinished Smile album which was expected to be revealed to the world a decade...

Bob Weir, the guitarist and vocalist who co-founded the Grateful Dead in 1965, has died at age 78. Weir reportedly overcame cancer, but then died from underlying lung issues. Weir had certainly kept himself busy for 60 years, doing plenty of touring from the time he was a teenager until his final years. Even after the demise of the Dead in 1995, Weir had toured and recorded with numerous bands, some of whom featured other former members of the Dead. And when the Grateful Dead went on hiatus during their existence, Weir would then also find time to work with other bands, or record solo albums. Weir's second solo recording, Heaven Help The Fool from 1978, is currently unavailable. Heaven Help The Fool was produced by Keith Olsen, who had recently worked with the Dead on their 1977 Terrapin Station album. Six of the eight songs on Heaven Help The Fool were co-written by Weir and sometime Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. Weir was supported by such musicians as Waddy Wachtel, To...

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2025, the dBpm music label -- founded by the band Wilco in 2011 -- issued an LP titled dBpm 15 , to mark the 15th year of the label's operation. The LP was limited to 3,400 copies, and was pressed in red vinyl. The LP contained 12 tracks, mostly rarities from the label's history, some of them previously unreleased. Seven of the tracks were recorded by Wilco, while four were Jeff Tweedy solo recordings. Also, it included a track which Tweedy recorded with the late Daniel Johnston. This compilation is not likely to make a household name of the dBpm label, but it certainly does Wilco proud. Their seven tracks are good ones, including a newfangled Neil Young-like ballad recorded in 2010 ("Art of Almost"), a dreamy retro-'60's folk-rocker ("Tell Your Friends"), a gentle country-rock Beatles cover ("Don't Let Me Down"), a quirky Sleater-Kinney cover ("Modern Girl"), and a live alt-country track re...