Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Almost a year to the day of the announcement of the White Stripes' breakup comes a more encouraging announcement: Jack White's first solo album, titled Blunderbuss , is going to be released in late April. The first single, titled "Love Interruption", is being released on February 7th, with the non-album B-side "Machine Gun Silhouette". The Jack White-directed video for "Love Interruption" can be viewed below. The song serves as a very intriguing first taste of the album. It's a moody ballad that makes haunting use of an organ, acoustic guitar, and woodwind. White's lyrics use violent-sounding metaphors to describe how the singer feels about love. It almost sounds like a dark variation on the popular Fleetwood Mac sound from the '70's; Ruby Amanfu provides a Stevie Nicks-like harmony vocal that complements Jack White's disturbed Lindsey Buckingham. Let's hope that the rest of Blunderbuss is this strong.

Earlier this month, on January 10th, 2012, Alex Chilton’s 1970 album was reissued by the Omnivore Recordings label, under the title Free Again: The “1970” Sessions . My review of the original 1996 release is here ; in my previous blog post , I discussed the vinyl edition of the new reissue. This post focuses on the new CD edition. This CD features new liner notes by Bob Mehr, who gives new and welcome insights on the sessions. Contrary to the album’s title, these recordings were made during the second half of 1969, while Chilton was still a member of the Box Tops. The sessions for this album were recorded virtually in secret, because Chilton was still under contractual obligation to the Box Tops; the reason the album was titled 1970 when it was released in 1996 was to avoid any potential legal troubles that may still have arisen from the recording dates. Also, the liner notes tell the tale about the initial search for a distribution deal for the album when it was first recorded. Som

This past week, on January 10th, 2012, Alex Chilton’s 1970 album was reissued by the Omnivore Recordings label, under the title Free Again: The “1970” Sessions . The sessions for this album were actually recorded in 1969, shortly before the breakup of Chilton’s popular blue-eyed soul band The Box Tops, and before the formation of his revered power pop band Big Star. The album was never released until 1996, when it was issued as a CD titled 1970 by the Ardent label. That CD has been out of print for some time. The reissue by Omnivore comes in vinyl, CD, and digital formats. This post focuses on the vinyl edition, as well as a 7-inch single associated with it. Unlike the CD and digital versions of the album, which contain several bonus tracks , the vinyl LP version of Free Again features only one previously unissued track, in place of the omitted “Sugar Sugar/I Got The Feeling” medley. The song is a Chilton composition titled “All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain”. It’s a somber folk

Last week I received the tenth pair of exclusive vinyl items offered to platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, who is the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (one full-length album and one 7” single) to its platinum members every three months. According to the postmark, my package was sent on January 4th. I received it on the 6th. This tenth set of items consists of a live album (pressed in black-and-blue split-colored vinyl) by the Raconteurs, recorded at the Third Man Records studio, as well as a 7” single containing “celebrity” remixes of two songs from Jack White-led bands, and a DVD documenting Third Man’s 2010 Halloween festival. The single contains a remix of a White Stripes song by Beck (Hansen) on one side, and a remix of a Dead Weather song by Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan on the other. B