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Showing posts from February, 2024

The Doors "Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20, 1968" (2024 Record Store Day release)

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For Record Store Day 2024, Rhino Records is issuing a previously unreleased live album from The Doors, in both CD and LP formats. Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20, 1968 will be limited to 6,000 vinyl 3-LP sets (pressed in light-blue translucent vinyl), and 8,000 double-CD sets. The album documents two live shows performed on that day at that concert hall in Sweden, recorded for a radio broadcast. The documented concerts were performed during the final date of the band's only European Tour. The recordings have been used for bootlegs many times, but this is the first time the concert is receiving an official release. The sound quality on the unofficial releases was often quite good; if it has been cleaned up further for this official release, then it may end up sounding great. Musically, it sometimes sounds as though the Doors were tailoring their act just a bit to adjust their music for the tastes of European audiences. The earlier show of the day is the one featur

Gram Parsons And The Fallen Angels "The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Café in Philadelphia, 3/16/73" (2023 Record Store Day Black Friday LP)

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For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2023, Amoeba Records issued a previously unreleased live album by the late country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons, recorded in Philadelphia in 1973. The double-LP titled The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Café in Philadelphia, 3/16/73 was limited to 7,500 vinyl copies. The concert documented on this album took place on March 16, 1973, six months before Parsons died at the age of 26. Gram's singing partner was the then-unknown Emmylou Harris. The Fallen Angels also consisted of Neil Flanz (pedal steel guitar), Kyle Tullis (bass), Jock Bartley (lead guitar), and N.D. Smart II (drums). The double-LP was sourced from the soundboard recording made at the intimate Bijou Café venue in Philly, and the sound quality -- though not 100% squeaky clean -- is closer to that of a commercial release than of an unofficial recording. The set list was drawn from Gram's first solo album GP and from his work with the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds, and

Sparks "Live At The Record Plant 1974" (2023 Record Store Day Black Friday LP)

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For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2023, a live LP by Sparks was issued in a limited edition of 3,500 copies, pressed in clear vinyl. Live At The Record Plant 1974 documents a live-in-the-studio eight-song set from a lineup consisting of most of the personnel from that year's Propaganda album. This live album has frequently appeared as a bootleg in the past. This RSDBF LP marks its first official release, on Sony's Sound City imprint. For those not familiar with Sparks, they are an art-pop duo with a long and complicated 50-plus-year history that isn't over yet. (Their 26th studio album, titled The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte , was released last year). The Mael brothers -- the only two constant members -- were born in Los Angeles, but you wouldn't know it from their seemingly Euro-centric sound. In fact, they never achieved much commercial success in America, but they were all the rage in England in the mid-'70's, when they successfully appealed to that co