Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

The 58th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in December of 2023. 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 58th Vault package featured a 3-LP live album by the White Stripes recorded in 2003 during the Elephant tour, as well as a 7-inch single containing two additional live performances of "Ball And Biscuit" -- one of them performed as a duet by Bob Dylan and Jack White. As bonus items, the package contained a patch, a bumper sticker, and two art prints by Rob Jones. The 3-LP set Live In Las Vegas 2003 was recorded at a September 2003 White Stripes show at the Joint in the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas,

Apparently, the former child actress-turned-contemporary alt-pop singer Olivia Rodrigo was able to write a song before she was quite able to spell. On Christmas Eve in 2021, Rodrigo posted a snippet of an unreleased song titled "the bels" (her spelling) on Instagram. She wrote: "in honor of Christmas Eve may I present to you my very first Christmas song “the bels” written by 5 year old me lol. happy holidays!!!!" View this post on Instagram A post shared by Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) The following year, on December 17, 2022, the full version of the song, running 2 minutes and 18 seconds, was shared by Rodrigo through a link sent by e-mail to members of her fan club. Here is the link to the full downloadable track, which is not commercially available on streaming services: https://digital.umusic.com/livmas-thebels Rodrigo certainly does sound like a small child singing on this track, although the hip-hop beats and bits of instr

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2023, country singer-songwriter Margo Price issued a limited edition vinyl LP titled Strays Live at Grimey's , recorded at Grimey’s New and Pre-loved Music store in Nashville on January 23, 2023. The LP was limited to 2,000 copies, and was pressed in sangria marble colored vinyl. This six-song live set was recorded on the release date of Strays , the fourth studio album from Price. The Strays album purveyed an adult-alternative style of country music, written under the influence of psilocybin and distinguished by psychedelic sounds, with lyrics about the difficult healing of wounds from the past. In November of that same year, Price released a limited-edition companion album titled Strays II , containing outtakes from the proper album, recorded during the same sessions at producer Jonathan Wilson's studio in Topanga Canyon, California. Strays II offered a more down-to-earth ennead of alt-country tunes. That album was limited to 1,000 LP cop

The 57th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in November of 2023. 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 57th Vault package featured a 3-LP set containing all three of the solo albums of Syd Barrett, the original founding lead singer and guitarist of Pink Floyd, as well as a 7-inch single containing live renditions of two of Barrett's songs by Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. The three 180-gram colored vinyl LP's were packaged in a slipcase with cover art by Greg Ruth. Syd Barrett was born as Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge, England in 1946. Barrett co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965 with Roger Waters, Ri

Yes, it's that time of year again. It's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but certain radio stations have already begun packing their playlists with Christmas music -- in some cases playing it round-the-clock -- and in-store broadcasting networks are also constantly playing holiday tunes to provide a real-life soundtrack for customers' Christmas shopping activities. One song you have probably been hearing is the comedy novelty song charmingly titled "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer", by Elmo & Patsy. The version of the song that people have been typically hearing for the last 40 Christmases or so is the re-recorded version from 1982. Many people have understandably forgotten the original recording of the song from 1979, which was released on an independent label based in Tennessee. In this earlier version, the vocal tone was much more understated, and the steel guitar sounded a bit more somber, making the song come across like a more straight-faced black comedy.

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2023, Rhino Records is issuing a previously unreleased live album from The Doors, in both CD and LP formats. Live In Bakersfield will be limited to 7,500 vinyl double-LP's, and 12,500 double-CD's. The album was recorded on August 21, 1970 at the 3,000-seat Bakersfield Civic Auditorium in California. The documented concert was one of the last ones performed on the band's 1970 Roadhouse Blues Tour, on which they promoted their album Morrison Hotel . Notably, it took place during the same month in which Jim Morrison went on trial in Miami, FL for allegedly exposing himself on stage. This Bakersfield, CA concert was recorded by road manager Vince Treanor, using a stereo tape recorder with a pair of microphones placed on different sides of the stage. Bootlegs of the concert have circulated, with sound that is usually fairly clear but sometimes flat. It will be interesting to hear how the sound quality has been enhanced for this official re

The 56th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in July of 2023. 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 56th Vault package featured a 3-LP live album by the late jazz legend Miles Davis, recorded at the Fillmore East in 1970, as well as a 7-inch single containing renditions of three of Davis' works by contemporary Austrian jazz artist Muriel Grossmann. As bonus items, this package contained an embroidered patch and a bumper sticker, the latter of which reads: "Miles Davis changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done...?" The 3-LP set Fearless: March 7, 1970 - Live At The Fillm

The Distractions were a new wave band from Manchester, England who recorded only one full-length album -- 1980's Nobody's Perfect -- during their original existence. The band folded in 1981 after being dropped by Island Records in favor of U2. But two of its founding members, singer Mike Finney and guitarist Steve Perrin, would occasionally perform and eventually record with different lineups of the Distractions. Surprisingly, the Distractions began to issue new recordings in the 2010's, long after the unjustly overlooked band seemed destined to be forgotten forever. After two EP's were released in 2010 (one of which, Black Velvet , had been recorded in 1995), Finney and Perrin went on to record two full-length Distractions albums: The End Of The Pier (2012) and Kindly Leave The Stage (2017), both of which showed that the former new wavers had mellowed with age, and apparently felt no need to aim for commercial success by that time in their lives. Finney and Perri

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2023, Rhino Records is issuing a limited edition LP of INXS rarities, related to the Australian band's 1982 album Shabooh Shoobah , which was their first album released in the United States. The Shabooh Shoobah Rarities LP is pressed in colored vinyl and will be limited to 3,500 copies. Shabooh Shoobah helped INXS achieve a strong breakthrough in the U.S. and elsewhere, as it corrected the shortcomings of the band's two earlier dance-rock albums which were released overseas. Still, the related rarities collected on this Record Store Day LP will mostly only be of interest to diehard fans. All of the eleven tracks were released digitally last year as part of a 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Shabooh Shoobah . Four of the tracks are obscure B-sides which I have previously covered in an earlier blog post and YouTube playlist . These tracks tend to be unlike most INXS recordings. This is especially true of two tracks which appeared as

It is the end of (another) era. After 25 years, Netflix has mailed out DVD movie rentals for the final time on September 29, 2023. Netflix began their service of renting DVD's by postal mail in March of 1998. The company says that Beetlejuice was the first DVD title rented through the service, at a time when DVD was a new medium, and only about 300 DVD titles were available. The company has posted a video on YouTube bidding farewell to their DVD-by-mail service, also known as DVD.com: As depicted in the video, the company's DVD service began way back in the days of dial-up internet. My personal Netflix experience began in 2005, when I signed up for the service after a long-running brick-and-mortar video store in my city finally closed down. When that store ceased to exist, and I no longer had access to its reliably large selection of hard-to-find video titles, I did not think I would find a good replacement for it, since a brick-and-mortar video store of the same caliber

Haircut One Hundred were a fairly short-lived English band from the early-'80's new wave era. The sextet's 1982 album Pelican West -- their only album released in the U.S. -- spawned two American radio hits in "Love Plus One" and "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)", which were infectiously droll ska-influenced pop numbers with irresistable hooks and horns. "Fantastic Day" (a U.K. Top 10 single) and "Calling Captain Autumn" are almost as good, but most of the other songs on Pelican West are less catchy and memorable, especially when they venture into funk territory (where "Love's Got Me In Triangles" plods). Although it falls short of essential new-wave classic status, the album is still a pleasant happy-go-lucky pop offering, particularly well-suited for late-summertime listening. In any case, Haircut One Hundred have reunited (not for the first time) as of 2023, with a lineup featuring four of the six members who pl

The city of Detroit, Michigan has spawned many a rock legend since the 1960's. Over the last six decades, the Motor City has provided the world with a wild managerie of colorful characters, creative risk-takers, and gritty garage rockers -- some of whom (like Bob Seger and Jack White) evolved into musical refinement and commercial success, while others (like the Stooges and the MC5) are legendary for having been too wild for the mainstream. The man who first put Detroit on the rock and roll map and paved the way for later Motor City rockers was Mitch Ryder (who was born as William Sherille Levise, Jr. in 1945). Influenced by the city's Motown soul scene, Ryder added his own high-energy rock and roll intensity to his brand of blue-eyed soul. With his '60's backing band known as the Detroit Wheels, Ryder scored three Top 10 singles between 1965 and 1967, the best-remembered one being "Devil With A Blue Dress On" from 1966. Ryder never matched that success after

The three members of The Police seemed like an unlikely trio to form a reggae-influenced new wave band, when you consider the previous work that each of them had done. Guitarist Andy Summers had a career dating back to the '60's, when he played with r&b outfits (such as Zoot Money's Big Roll Band) and psychedelic bands (such as Dantalian's Chariot). Drummer Stewart Copeland had previously played on two albums with progressive rockers Curved Air. And what about Sting? The singer and bassist, who was born Gordon Sumner in Wallsend, England, had previously been a jazz musician who played with three bands who recorded for the U.K. Wudwink label. In 1972, Sumner played bass on a mostly instrumental album with a British jazz collective called Newcastle Big Band, as well as on a single with a group called the Phoenix Jazzmen (who were fronted by a singer and trumpeter named Ronnie Young). After leaving those relatively old-fashioned jazz bands behind, Sumner then co-fo

For Record Store Day 2023, a limited edition LP was issued featuring a 1980 live recording by Nico, the late German chanteuse who was best known for singing on the first Velvet Underground album in 1967. Live At The Library Theatre '80 was limited to 2,000 copies, and pressed in translucent light-blue vinyl. The LP documents a concert performed by Nico (aka Christa Päffgen) in the small theatre beneath the Manchester Library in England. The sound is very understated, suitably scaled for such a tiny venue, as Nico sings in her eerie, unmelodic voice accompanied mostly by low-volume harmonium. Notably, the recording quality is remarkably clear, in contrast to two other recent Record Store Day live Nico releases . Besides renditions of two of the Velvet Underground songs she was known for (an acappella "All Tomorrows Parties" and a cocktail lounge piano version of "Femme Fatale"), the set list is otherwise drawn from Nico's solo albums from many years earlie

For Record Store Day 2023, an alternate version of Ivy's 1997 album Apartment Life was issued, limited to 2,500 LP copies and pressed in very translucent "Coke Bottle Clear" vinyl. Apartment Life Demos contained the track-for-track demo recordings of the album's 13 songs, including the Japanese-only bonus track "Sleeping Late" (which is also included on the recent 25th Anniversary Edition issued by Bar/None Records), with inner-sleeve liner notes by Andy Chase which describe each song's creative development. Ivy was an alternative pop trio based in New York, consisting of the late Adam Schlesinger (also of Fountains Of Wayne and Tinted Windows), fellow multi-instrumentalist Adam Chase, and French-born singer Dominique Durand. Ivy received critical acclaim for the six albums they recorded between 1995 and 2011, but met with little commercial success. To wit: Apartment Life was their second full-length album overall, but was the only one released on A

The 55th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in April of 2023. 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 55th Vault package featured a 20th anniversary edition of the White Stripes’ Elephant album from 2003, consisting of two LP’s with new mono mixes of the album's 14 tracks, as well as a 7-inch single containing demo versions of two of the songs, a DVD featuring bonus video material, and a picture book full of related visual memorabilia. The 2003 Elephant album was a major breakthrough on all fronts for the Detroit-based indie-rock duo, charting in the Top 10 in the U.S. and several other countries, and go