Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

It's sixteen, it's beautiful, and it's mine! That's how I feel today about my website, Rarebird's Rock and Roll Rarity Reviews . It was 16 years ago today when I first published my website about out-of-print rock albums on May 31,1999. On that day, the site consisted of four pages and six album reviews. I knew the site would grow bigger, but I had no idea that I would wind up creating over 35 artist pages. At the beginning of 2003, I began to create simpler "Spotlight Review" pages focusing on one album apiece, instead of on numerous albums from one artist. Even that part of the site has grown larger in size than I originally thought it would. So, at the end of 2004 (over a decade ago already!) I began to publish this blog as a forum for reviewing out-of-print albums that I've eagerly continued to discover. And, for as long as I continue to enjoy discovering rock and roll's recorded rarities, I will continue to use this blog as a means to publish ...

On Record Store Day 2015, Robert Plant issued a 10-inch EP titled More Roar , which contained a few live tracks recorded with his band called the Sensational Space Shifters during their 2014 tour in support of the album lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar . Three of the four selections on the EP were drawn from that album. The vinyl-only EP was limited to 10,000 copies. Of course, neither the album nor the EP emits the type of heavy metal “roar” that Plant once epitomized. The legendary Led Zeppelin screamer has evolved into an eccentric crooner, and his latest album is an arty and unusual mixture of blues and Eastern folk music. It’s very unlike the music Plant is best known for, although it does sometimes echo Zeppelin’s otherworldly qualities. Plant’s now-understated vocals just seem to naturally fit the material, because he owns it. The EP contains live performances of three songs from the lullaby album, and – even in the strange case of “Arbaden (Maggie’s Babby)” – they are faithf...

On Record Store Day 2015, the Parlophone label issued a 7-inch single (pressed in pine-green vinyl) consisting of two songs recorded by Supergrass in 1994, when the now-defunct Britpop band’s 1995 debut album I Should Coco was made. The single was limited to 500 copies. These two tracks previously appeared on a radio promo CD in 1995. The A-side track is a radio edit of “Sofa (Of My Lethargy)”, the most sophisticated song on the I Should Coco album. The album version of that song runs over six minutes; this radio edit comes in just under four minutes, with the long instrumental coda clipped off the end to make it radio-friendly. The intricately Beatlesque song resembles what “Norwegian Wood” might have sounded like if the Fab Four had recorded it for either the Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road album instead of Rubber Soul . Hearing it on vinyl makes it even more reminiscent of the pre-digital music era. The B-side, “I Believe In Love”, is an unfinished outtake from the I Should Coco ...