Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

This week I received the 21st set of exclusive vinyl items offered to platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service. 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 as well. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (one full-length album and one 7” single) to its platinum members every three months. According to the postal service, my package was sent on October 24th. I received it on the 27th. This twenty-first set of items includes a live double-LP from the White Stripes recorded in Japan in 2000, and a single with two new studio tracks from the Dead Weather. The live White Stripes double-LP Live Under The Lights Of The Rising Sun captures two October 2000 club shows performed in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan, marking Jack and Meg White’s very first overseas concerts. (The cleverly designed gatefold sleeve...

Eat your hearts out, hipsters! All of you hipper-than-thou alternative and indie artists who release recordings of white noise and think you're so cool and defiantly anti-mainstream for doing it -- guess what? Taylor Swift, of all people, has now one-upped all of you, without even trying. This past week, Ms. Swift (accidentally) achieved a new avant-garde milestone: she briefly had a #1 hit on the Canadian iTunes chart with something called "Track 3", which only consisted of eight seconds of white noise. And how did the American country-pop darling pull off this feat? The existence of "Track 3" was caused by an iTunes glitch, which made it appear to be an actual recorded musical track from Swift's soon-to-be-released new album titled 1989 . The accidental eight seconds of TV-static-like sound then became the top selling track on Canadian iTunes. Don't believe me? Here is the MSN article: http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/taylor-swift-tops-canadian-it...

I have just learned that White Duck's In Season , the rare 1972 album on which John Hiatt made his recording debut , is now available on CD in South Korea. The distributor is Big Pink Music, which specializes in CD-sized album replicas of rare '60's and '70's singer/songwriter, country and folk LP's. It makes perfect sense that a label with that name and specialty would take an interest in White Duck, because the band bore some musical resemblance to The Band, as well as to the Flying Burrito Brothers, although their tone was more upbeat than either. This is the first time that In Season has ever been issued on CD anywhere. (Thanks to Perfectly Good Cigar: The Unofficial German John Hiatt Page for this information). In Season was the second and final album from White Duck. (Their self-titled debut album White Duck from 1971 has also been reissued in South Korea by Big Pink, but Hiatt was not involved with that album -- and I do not recommend it). Hiatt...

This one goes under the better-late-than-never file. A decade ago, I reviewed the 2-CD set titled Message To Love: The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 , the soundtrack album to the 1996 documentary film about the event, on my website . The CD set contained an instrumental recording of "Amazing Grace" by a band called the Great Awakening, because that recording was played over the PA system at the 1970 festival. But the CD liner notes provided no information about who the Great Awakening were. At the time, I could not find information anywhere about the band, finding only an article in Relix magazine saying that they were "rumored to consist of a well-known but mysterious guitarist". I went so far as to speculate (incorrectly) here on this blog that David Gilmour from Pink Floyd may have been the rumored mysterious guitarist. Fortunately, the information superhighway has accumulated more information over the last ten years. After I was recently reminded of the subj...

This week, it was announced that the long-lost 1968 Doors documentary titled Feast of Friends will be officially released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 10th by Eagle Rock Entertainment. This will be the first time the much-bootlegged film will be properly issued. According to an Entertainment Weekly article , the set will also be loaded with extra features: The DVD/Blu-Ray edition includes not only a complete cut of the film but a companion compilation of outtakes called Feast of Friends: Encore , plus a 1968 Doors doc produced for British television called The Doors Are Open , as well as a 1967 performance of filmed for a Canadian TV pop-music variety show where they drop a full 10-minute version of “The End” on a group of stunned Torontonians. Here is an official trailer: As it’s been presented in bootleg form, Feast Of Friends runs approximately 38 minutes, consisting of concert footage and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the band members. The first third of the short ci...

If you flip through the bins at a used record store -- something I hope you are still able to do in your area -- then it is possible that you may find a few interview albums among the regular LP stock. Interview LP's were sent to radio stations in the '70's and '80's, and were not intended for retail sale (and you will usually see stamps or stickers that say so on the packaging and/or record). Interview albums contained spoken-word statements by recording artists that could be used to make it sound as if the artist was being interviewed at a local radio station. Some interview albums contained full question-and-answer audio, along with sound clips of music from the albums that were being referenced (read: promoted). Other interview albums contained no music, and only the artists' answers to suggested questions. This type of interview album was designed so that the DJ at a local radio station could be made to sound like he or she was interviewing the artist in pe...

Following up on my recent post about the two solo albums by Richard Wright , the late keyboardist of Pink Floyd, I also wanted to point out an obscure side project which Wright recorded while he was temporarily ousted from Pink Floyd. Zee was a duo consisting of Wright and Dave (De) Harris, the singer/guitarist who had fronted the new wave band Fashion on their 1982 album Fabrique (aka Height Of Fashion ). Zee's only album was Identity , released in Europe in 1984. On Identity , Wright and Harris co-produced (with Tim Palmer) and co-wrote all of the songs; both of them are credited with keyboards, percussion, and Fairlight synthesizer (which is used quite prominently). But Identity comes across as being mainly the project of Dave Harris, who wrote the lyrics, sang the lead vocals, and played guitar. Still, the music tends to have a bit more in common with Floyd’s art-rock than with the intense dance-pop of Fashion. Despite the mostly electronic instrumentation, most of the song...

By now, you've probably heard the news that a new Pink Floyd album, titled The Endless River , is set for release this fall. The official press release describes the album, which will be the Floyd's first in 20 years, as "an album of mainly ambient and instrumental music based on the 1993/4 Division Bell sessions which feature David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright". The way that the news originally was leaked was by a way that could not have been used the last time the Floyd released an album: via Twitter. On July 5th, Gilmour's wife Polly Samson casually tweeted : "Btw Pink Floyd album out in October is called "The Endless River". Based on 1994 sessions is Rick Wright's swansong and very beautiful." (Update: the album is now scheduled to be released on November 10th). There is at least one word of Samson's tweet that would not quite fit its proper definition. A "swan song" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the ...