Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

The 49th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in September of 2021. 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 49th Vault package featured a 4-LP vinyl edition of Bob Dylan’s box set titled Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) . This edition contained 42 songs recorded by Dylan in the early-to-mid-‘80’s, 40 of which were previously unreleased. This edition is slightly condensed from the commercially released 5-CD edition, which contained 57 tracks. However, it should not be confused with the 2-LP vinyl highlights version which was released commercially. That 2-LP set contains 11 of the 57 t...

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2021, a previously unreleased live album from the Gun Club – the early punk rock band led by the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce – was issued in a limited run of 2,000 gold-colored vinyl copies. Sex, Murder, Drugs, and Bad Vibes – Live at the Starwood 1981 was recorded at the titular Hollywood club on January 20th of ’81. This live show took place before the release of the Gun Club’s 1981 debut album Fire Of Love . The show was performed by the lineup which recorded that album, which was comprised of Pierce, guitarist Ward Dotson, and former Alice Bag Band members Rob Ritter (bass) and Terry Graham (drums). (Contrary to what the Record Store Day website states, this should not be confused with the original lineup which included Kid Congo Powers). The Starwood Club in Hollywood was known as a venue which helped to launch the careers of many heavy metal and punk bands between 1973 and 1981. This show was performed five months before the club was closed dow...

On Record Store Day Black Friday in 2021, a limited edition live LP by two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Carole King was issued. Carole King In Concert: Live At The BBC, 1971 was recorded during the year when King’s hugely successful Tapestry album was released. This vinyl LP was limited to 6,550 copies. This concert was performed on July 15, 1971 at the BBC Television Centre in London, and its original BBC broadcast took place on October 2nd of that year. King was backed by the band Jo Mama, which included King’s former collaborators in the folk-rock trio known as The City: her then-husband Charles Larkey on bass, and Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar on conga and electric guitar. James Taylor, another frequent collaborator, made a guest appearance playing acoustic guitar on “So Far Away”. For a time during the ‘70’s, the Tapestry album held the title of the best-selling album of all time. As of this writing, the album is the 38th all-time best-seller, having sold over 13 mi...

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2021, Aerosmith issued a limited edition album in LP and cassette formats, containing their first known recorded tracks from 1971. The vinyl LP was limited to 10,000 copies, while the cassette had a print run of 2,000 copies. The seven tracks on 1971 – The Road Starts Hear (the actual spelling) were just recently discovered by the band. No one remembers exactly where they were recorded or for what purpose, but Mark Lehman (Aerosmith’s first roadie) guesses they are rehearsals which were recorded in the basement of a women’s dormitory at Boston University, while singer Steven Tyler thinks they may have been soundchecks recorded inside an empty club shortly before a gig. The source tape was recorded on a reel-to-reel machine that belonged to guitarist Joe Perry. The resulting sound quality is clearly not studio level, but is better than that of a typical demo. The recording took place in October of 1971, about one year after Aerosmith’s first show, an...