Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

For Record Store Day 2024, an interestingly conceived double-LP is being issued, pairing two related disco albums from 1979. The first of the two vinyl LP's in the set is No. 1 in Heaven by Sparks, which was Ron and Russell Mael's foray into electronic music. The other LP in the set is an album by a mysterious female singer named Noël, written and produced by the Mael brothers, titled Is There More To Life Than Dancing . This 2-LP set will be limited to 1,500 copies. Both albums will reportedly be reissued on CD one month later, on May 17th. If there was any such thing as "alt-disco" or "alternative dance" circa 1979, it was arguably created the previous year by either Blondie or Kraftwerk. But 45 years later, this RSD release makes a case for the duo of Ron and Russell Mael as similar pioneers when it came to bridging the gap between new wave and dance-pop in the late-1970's. First off, the Sparks album No. 1 In Heaven , which is currently availabl...

For Record Store Day 2024, the Culture Factory label is issuing yet another live album by Nico, the late German chanteuse best known for her association with the Velvet Underground. Nico At The Live Inn, Tokyo '86 was recorded at Shibuya Live Inn in Tokyo, Japan on April 11, 1986. This RSD LP is pressed in transparent green vinyl, and is limited to 2,000 copies. The Record Store Day website states that the album "has never been released on vinyl", but that is not exactly true. Although this album has never before been commercially issued in the U.S., it was released on vinyl in the U.K. and Japan in 1987 as Nico In Tokyo , and was issued on CD during the '90's in those same territories under the same title. Also, the album was released on vinyl in Italy for Record Store Day 2017, under the title Live In Tokyo 1986 . The sound quality of the album is usually excellent, and the album itself is quite good as well. Nico, who was born in Germany in 1938 as Christa...

The 59th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in March and April of 2024. 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 59th Vault package was titled Elvis Presley at 706 Union Ave: The Sun Singles 1954-55 , and contained five 7-inch vinyl reproductions of Presley's first five singles, which were originally released on Sun Records seventy years earlier. These five discs were pressed in yellow-and-black-marble-colored vinyl, resembling the colors of the Sun Records logo. An additional 7-inch disc contained four more tracks recorded during Elvis' sessions at Sun Records, pressed in a different design of yellow and...