Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

On Record Store Day 2014, Garbage released a 10-inch single, limited to 4,000 copies, pressed in green translucent vinyl. It contains two previously unreleased tracks. The A-side, “Girls Talk”, is a duet between Shirley Manson and former Distillers and Spinnerette frontwoman Brody Dalle. (Manson also appears on Dalle’s new solo debut Diploid Love ). The B-side, “Time Will Destroy Everything”, is an outtake from the sessions for Garbage’s 2012 album Not Your Kind Of People . Eric Avery, the original Jane’s Addiction bassist, is credited with playing bass on the single. The single is a worthwhile item that Garbage fans certainly will want to track down. “Girls Talk” is a potent, profane screech against gossiping women, with Manson’s and Dalle’s vocals becoming increasingly angry as the song goes along. It’s definitely a punk rock song in spirit, although the producers/musicians in the band give it a sophisticated kind of unsettledness. (This “Girls Talk” is not to be confused with the ...

After ending a 17-year recording hiatus with their 2013 album Seasons Of Your Day , the alternative dream-pop duo Mazzy Star -- vocalist Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback -- next issued a 7-inch vinyl single on Record Store Day in 2014, consisting of two previously unreleased tracks: "I'm Less Here" and "Things". Colm Ó Cíosóig, the drummer from My Bloody Valentine and Sandoval’s collaborator in the Warm Inventions, is also credited with playing on the single. The RSD single was pressed in “Coke bottle clear” transparent vinyl, and was limited to 3,000 copies. “I’m Less Here” is a song that the duo has previously performed live under the name “It Speaks Of Distance”. The song certainly does speak of that, as Sandoval’s eerie vocal icily addresses the emotional detachment between her and a lover. Roback’s guitar gives the song an ominous acoustic folk backdrop. The B-side “Things” has a dreamy, reverb-heavy guitar sound, combining with Sandoval’s gentle ...

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the day when Kurt Cobain, the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of Nirvana, was determined to have died at his home in Seattle from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 5th, 1994. His body was found three days after that date, on April 8th. It’s hard to believe that two decades have passed since then, because I can remember that latter date very well. When I was at work earlier that day, Cobain had actually been on my mind. About one month earlier, Cobain had apparently made another suicide attempt when he was hospitalized in Rome after overdosing on pills. Nirvana had planned to play at the Lollapalooza festival that year, but it then became doubtful that Cobain would be well enough to tour and perform. I remember wondering to myself how that whole situation would turn out. Sadly, my question was answered when I got home from work that day and heard the news that Cobain had taken his own life. Upon hearing the news of her son’s death, Coba...