Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2020, jazz-pop singer/pianist Norah Jones issued a 7-song, 12-inch vinyl EP titled Playdate , containing songs recorded in 2019 and 2020 which were otherwise unavailable on vinyl. The EP was limited to 2,000 copies. According to the Record Store Day website, Playdate collected B-sides and bonus tracks from Jones’ 2020 studio album Pick Me Up Off The Floor . In truth, only three of the tracks actually seem to fit this description: “Tryin’ To Keep It Together” and “Street Stranger” were bonus tracks on Target stores’ exclusive CD version of the album (as well as some European and Japanese editions), while the former track and “I’ll Be Gone” (the latter a smooth soul duet with r&b veteran Mavis Staples) were both bonus tracks on the digital Deluxe Edition of the album. The other four tracks were issued on non-album digital singles the previous year, those tracks being two collaborations with Brazilian folk-rocker Rodrigo Amarante and two other t...

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2020, Juliana Hatfield issued an exclusive 7-inch single titled “Christmas Cactus”. The single was limited to 1,500 copies, and was pressed in magenta-colored vinyl. The single’s two sides had more of a flower-related theme than one related to the holidays. The B-side track was titled “Red Poinsettia”, and the disc’s center sticker denotes the sides with plant graphics instead of song titles. Hatfield is a ‘90’s alternative-rock veteran who has been making girlish-voiced, guitar-fuzzed alt-pop since before Beabadoobee was born. Hatfield’s lyrics have often described disappointment and failed romances, and these two tracks certainly uphold those lyrical traditions. The A-side, “Christmas Cactus”, is a melancholy ballad which seemingly uses dissatisfaction with the growth of a plant as a metaphor for a discontented life. The equally downcast B-side, “Red Poinsettia”, only suggests the holiday season by its title flower imagery; otherwise, the song d...

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2015, Omnivore Recordings issued a limited edition 10-inch Big Star EP titled Jesus Christ . This EP heralded the 2016 release of the 3-CD set Complete Third , which compiled the complete known recordings from the sessions of the third and final Big Star album Third (which was alternately known as Sister Lovers , and was essentially an Alex Chilton solo album). The 10-inch Jesus Christ EP was pressed in blue translucent vinyl, and its Three Wise Men cover art was reproduced from a 1973 Big Star promo poster. The EP is a good holiday-themed collectible for fans of the early-'70's power pop band. The titular track from the Third album leads off the EP, without the short “Mañana” instrumental which served as its intro on the album. The song is a jubilant jangle-pop tune about the birth of Jesus, using echo-chamber production and baroque horns and drums to add a feeling from another time and place. The EP's second track is an acoustic d...

The 45th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in October of 2020. 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, and is 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 45th Vault package contained a previously unreleased live double-LP by the late country legend Johnny Cash, along with a companion DVD containing video footage of much of the same concert, and a 7-inch single featuring two new recordings by modern artists based on Cash’s writings. The live Johnny Cash album A Night To Remember was recorded on May 5, 1973 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. Cash’s show was the final concert in a week-long event called A Week To Remember, which was hosted by Clive Dav...

For Record Store Day 2020, a live LP was released from The Gun Club, the long-defunct American punk rock band which was led by the late, enigmatic Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Live In London 1983 was limited to 1,700 copies, and was released on September 26, 2020, the second of three RSD “drop dates” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Live In London 1983 was recorded at the Lyceum at a particularly odd time in the Gun Club’s history. This show was performed by an almost entirely different lineup than the one which had previously played on the band’s first two studio albums, which are regarded as being among the first recordings to incorporate blues and country elements into punk rock. Along with singer/guitarist Pierce – who was the only constant member – this lineup included bassist Patricia Morrison (later of The Damned and Sisters Of Mercy), guitarist Jim Duckworth (from Tav Falco’s Panther Burns), and drummer Dee Pop (from Bush Tetras). This is almost the same lineup (excluding Mor...

For Record Store Day 2020, the self-titled 1984 debut album by the British goth-rock band called And Also The Trees was released in America for the first time, as an expanded limited-edition double-LP. The two discs were pressed in green and black splattered vinyl, and the set was limited to 2,000 copies. It was released on August 29th of 2020, the first of three unusual RSD “drop” dates resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This album will be of interest to fans of The Cure, because it was produced by original Cure percussionist Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst, who gave the debut a more Cure-like aura than most of the Trees’ later work – none of which, to the best of my knowledge, has ever been released in the U.S. in non-digital formats. Most recordings by And Also The Trees – who are still active to this day – may be too esoteric for American tastes, and possibly for others as well. After all, this band’s sound was once described by the late English DJ John Peel as “too English for the En...

For Record Store Day 2020, Def Leppard’s live performance at the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony was issued on a limited edition EP. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 29 March 2019 was limited to 4,000 copies. It was released on August 29th of 2020, the first of three unusual RSD “drop” dates resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2019 induction ceremony took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the titular date of March 29th. The British metal band were certainly deserving of their induction into the Rock Hall. After they rose out of the so-called “new wave of British heavy metal” in the early ‘80’s, Def Leppard went on to define the type of pop metal (now commonly referred to as “hair metal”) that flourished during the remainder of the 1980’s with their mega-selling Pyromania (1983) and Hysteria (1987) albums. And who can forget the incredible story of how Rick Allen continued to perform as the band’s drummer after losing his arm in a late-1984 car acci...

For Record Store Day 2020, Billie Eilish’s November 2019 performance at the Third Man Records Blue Room in Nashville was released on a limited edition LP. Live At Third Man Records was pressed in blue vinyl, and was limited to 17,000 copies. It was released on August 29th of that year, the first of three unusual RSD “drop” dates resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after the teenage art-pop sensation’s performance took place at Third Man on November 9, 2019, this album was sold in two earlier limited editions exclusively at Third Man’s retail stores. One of these was pressed in blue-and-black-split vinyl, and was packaged in sleeves with blue paint-splatter marks made by Eilish herself . This edition reportedly had only 220 copies printed, and was sold only at Third Man's Nashville store. Another limited edition, sold only at Third Man's Nashville and Detroit locations, was pressed in lime green vinyl. The Third Man catalogue number for both of these two editions wa...

Someone who has detailed knowledge of the Beach Boys’ long history would probably agree that the late-1970’s marked a bad period in the band’s career. By that time, the former ‘60’s surf-rock legends had risen, fallen, risen again, and then fallen again. The band nearly disintegrated over disagreements about their musical direction, and Brian Wilson was regressing back into a withdrawn mental state after he had been showing signs of increasing activity. The M.I.U. Album from 1978 and the L.A. (Light Album) from 1979 showed how tired the aging Boys had become, and how badly their chemistry was hurt by their internal struggles. If there was a bright spot for the Beach Boys during this time period, then Mike Love’s short-lived side band Celebration was not it. Celebration apparently began as a casual throwback to the pre-psychedelic ‘60’s, and then went downhill from there as they attempted to update their sound to fit the late-‘70’s pop mainstream. Among the various musicians who t...

The 44th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in July of 2020. 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, and is 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 44th Vault package contained a 2-LP set celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the White Stripes’ 2000 sophomore album De Stijl , along with a DVD containing two White Stripes live performances from that year, and a book of photos taken during that era. The White Stripes’ second album De Stijl from 2000 found the duo progressing from the minimalist blues-rock of their 1999 self-titled debut album. It was no larger in scale, but was larger in scope, with more variance in its folk-, blues-, and punk-inspired ...

The 43rd set of exclusive vinyl items offered to Platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in March of 2020. 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, and is 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 43rd Vault package contained a triple-LP live set by the Raconteurs, a Blu-Ray disc featuring two live performances by Jack White and Brendan Benson, and a Raconteurs flexi-disc. The 3-LP set Live In Tulsa – pressed in green, black, and “gold foil” vinyl discs – culls recordings from three concerts performed by the Raconteurs at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma in October 2019. It was certainly not the first live Raconteurs album to be issued through the Vault, but it was the first one to be iss...

Something that I’ve wished for for decades has finally happened: the 1980 album Nobody’s Perfect , a rare gem recorded by a short-lived band called the Distractions, has been reissued on CD – at least in the U.K. The album was originally released on Island Records. When it failed to sell, the label dropped the band in favor of U2 – a decision that certainly paid off well for Island, but sadly led to the demise of the Distractions, a new-wave-era band who drew inspiration from all three decades of rock and roll that preceded them. Nobody’s Perfect was the only full-length album recorded by the quintet from Manchester, England during their original existence, and it quickly disappeared from the face of the Earth after its commercial failure. In 2020, Nobody's Perfect was finally reissued in the U.K. by the indie label Man In The Moon, on vinyl LP and in a 2-CD expanded edition. (Although the band split up in 1981, singer Mike Finney and guitarist Steve Perrin eventually reunited ...

The Stooges, the Ann Arbor, Michigan band that launched the career of Iggy Pop, are widely regarded as progenitors of punk rock, much like their fellow ‘60’s fashion-resistors in the Velvet Underground. How fitting it seems, then, that the Stooges’ self-titled 1969 debut album was produced by John Cale, who had recently left the Velvet Underground. The first two VU albums recorded with Cale were groundbreaking creations that inspired legions of musical innovators despite their lack of commercial success; the remaining VU albums recorded after Cale’s departure were mellower and less groundbreaking. It is therefore not surprising that Cale’s original mix of The Stooges was rejected by Elektra Records for being “too raw”. The album was subsequently remixed by Iggy Pop (then known as Iggy Stooge) and Elektra president Jac Holzman for its 1969 release. Cale’s mixes of the songs remained unreleased for over 35 years, until four of them appeared on a 2005 expanded edition of the album, albei...

By now, I’m sure you are aware that Record Store Day 2020 has been postponed until June 20th due to the coronavirus. Certainly this is a sad circumstance, but hopefully we will be able to safely browse through the bins in independent record stores two months from now. Whatever happens, we will get through this terrible pandemic together. In the meantime, I would like to talk about one of two Record Store Day 2020 releases from the late David Bowie. I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) will be issued in both 2-LP and 2-CD editions, in limited quantities. This live double-album mostly documents Bowie’s October 20, 1974 concert at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, with three added encores from his show at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville on November 30th of that year (marked with an asterisk in the track listing below). The “soul tour” which the title refers to took place in late 1974, during a break in the Diamond Dogs tour. This “soul tour” added then-unreleased songs from the Philad...

By now, I’m sure you are aware that Record Store Day 2020 has been postponed until June 20th due to the coronavirus. Certainly it is a sad circumstance, but hopefully we will be able to safely browse through the bins in independent record stores two months from now. Whatever happens, we will get through this terrible pandemic together. In the meantime, I would like to talk about one of two Record Store Day 2020 releases from the late David Bowie. ChangesNowBowie will be issued on both LP and CD in limited quantities. The album's nine tracks were recorded and mixed at Looking Glass Studios in New York in November 1996. Bowie was accompanied by bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, guitarist Reeves Gabrels, and keyboardist Mark Plati. Although the album's physical release has been delayed, it is now available for streaming, one day before the originally planned Record Store Day date. Here is the description from the Record Store Day website: "CHANGESNOWBOWIE is a 9-track session rec...

Before the late Chester Bennington became the frontman for Linkin Park, he was the frontman for an unsigned Arizona-based grunge band called Grey Daze. In April 2020, an album titled Amends is set to be released, containing 11 songs from Grey Daze’s ‘90’s repertoire, using Bennington’s original recorded vocals but with the music rerecorded by surviving Grey Daze members Sean Dowdell (drums, backing vocals) and Mace Beyers (bass), and new guitarist Cristin Davis. Grey Daze originally self-released two independent CD’s in the ‘90’s: Wake Me (1994) and …no sun today (1997). On both CD’s, Bennington co-wrote the lyrics with Dowdell. These two CD’s have long been unavailable, and have been much-bootlegged in the past two decades following the success of Linkin Park. The 1994 CD Wake Me mostly has the type of Seattle-style grunge sound which was then fashionable, and is particularly reminiscent of Alice In Chains. The guitarist on this CD was Jason Barnes, and the bassist was Jonatho...

On Record Store Day 2018, Billie Eilish issued a 7-inch single, pressed in pink vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies, featuring an acoustic version of her song “Party Favor” on the A-side, and a similarly acoustic cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” on the B-side. The teenaged alternative pop artist often performs these two songs together live, presumably because cell phones figure prominently in the lyrics of both songs. Now that Eilish has become a chart-topping, Grammy-winning sensation, this limited-edition single has become quite pricey on the collector’s market. The acoustic version of “Party Favor”, the original version of which appeared on Eilish’s 2017 EP dont smile at me , finds Eilish strumming her ukulele and singing without the studio effects, with mild musical accompaniment by her brother/producer Finneas O’Connell (who makes his own recordings under the name FINNEAS). This track presents a scaled-back variant of the EP’s Lorde-meets-Lana Del Rey aesthetic; Eilish sounds part...

I have long been an enthusiastic collector of rare recordings. Searching out a musical rarity has always been something I’ve enjoyed doing, although it can sometimes get frustrating when a song or record takes a long time to track down. But, so far, I can’t say it has ever taken me 37 years to track down an elusive song. It did, however, take some record collectors that long to find a mysterious song from 1979. That song was titled “Ready ‘N’ Steady”, by an unknown recording artist called D.A. One person who tried for decades to find this song was music historian Joel Whitburn, who has written numerous books compiling chart data from Billboard magazine. This song showed up on the Billboard singles chart for 3 weeks in 1979, peaking at #102, meaning that it was “Bubbling Under The Hot 100” in official terms. But there seemed to be no sign of this single’s actual existence on the planet. Whitburn and other collectors were unable to track down any copy of this record, even after the...