Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

The 25th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in late September of 2015. 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. The twenty-fifth Vault package focused on the Dead Weather’s 2015 album Dodge And Burn , which was properly released on September 25th of that year. The package contained a limited edition vinyl version of the album, and a 7-inch single which served as the only physical version of the album’s first single, “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)”. There is no rare music in this package, only rare vinyl. The single is pressed in “inclement weather” colored vinyl, which is opaque yellow with bl...

The Colorado band Zephyr, founded by the wife-and-husband team of Candy Givens (vocals, harmonica) and David Givens (bass, guitar, synthesizer), are best remembered as the band that launched the career of the late Tommy Bolin , the highly regarded guitarist who later became a member of the James Gang, Deep Purple, and a solo artist before his death in 1976. Zephyr's self-titled debut album from 1969 mixed hard rock and blues in ways similar to the first Led Zeppelin album (released that same year). It's a fine album, to be sure, although Bolin's guitar work made a better initial impression than the contributions of frontwoman Givens, whose Janis Joplin-like wailing and blaring blues harmonica often sounded shrill on this album. The second album, Going Back To Colorado (1971), found the band moving toward less powerful hippie-era folk-rock, diminishing Bolin's guitar presence and putting more emphasis on Givens' vocals, which were considerably scaled down to better ...

The 24th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in June and July of 2015. 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. The twenty-fourth Vault package mainly focused on Loretta Lynn’s 2004 album Van Lear Rose , which was produced by Jack White. The package contained a new vinyl edition of the album, and a related DVD. The 7-inch single included two previously unreleased White Stripes covers of Lynn’s songs. Van Lear Rose is the highly respected 2004 album by the seasoned country legend. It earned wide critical acclaim, crossover success, and two Grammy awards (including Lynn’s first ever in the category ...

On Record Store Day 2015, the Cold War Kids issued a 10-inch EP titled Five Quick Cuts , which contained five previously unreleased tracks. The vinyl-only EP was limited to 10,000 copies. True to its title, the short-and-satisfying EP barely takes fifteen minutes to breeze through its five tracks, which were recorded in March and April of 2014. As was the case on the California alt-rock quintet’s two most recent albums, current guitarist Dann Gallucci co-produced the tracks with Lars Stalfors; it is therefore not surprising that the first two tracks sound like they were made by a more disciplined variation of Gallucci's former band Modest Mouse. Those two tracks also take something of a retro-‘80’s approach: “Stop/Rewind” has a synth-rocking sound that recalls that decade, while “Amazing” is reminiscent of that era’s cleanly produced blue-eyed soul. On the EP’s second side, the Kids sound quite similar to the Killers, with lead singer Nathan Willett coming on very much like Brand...

Ah, the 1980's. You know what they say: it wasn't rock and roll's best decade. But that was the decade that I grew up in. People who grew up in the '60's had the Beatles, people who grew up in the '70's had Springsteen, and people who grew up in the '80's had...Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince...I don't even want to keep going down that list! Those were the artists that my friends were listening to while we were coming of age in that era, but I was (and still am) a stubborn lover of rock and roll -- even when it is out of fashion, and even when it is going through a period of qualitative weakness. So, while my friends were listening to that era's dance pop, my FM radio dial immovably stayed tuned in to my local rock and roll stations during the '80's. There was good music that came out of the '80's, but much of it has not aged well. Still, many modern alternative bands show a clear '80's influence, so that decade...

It's sixteen, it's beautiful, and it's mine! That's how I feel today about my website, Rarebird's Rock and Roll Rarity Reviews . It was 16 years ago today when I first published my website about out-of-print rock albums on May 31,1999. On that day, the site consisted of four pages and six album reviews. I knew the site would grow bigger, but I had no idea that I would wind up creating over 35 artist pages. At the beginning of 2003, I began to create simpler "Spotlight Review" pages focusing on one album apiece, instead of on numerous albums from one artist. Even that part of the site has grown larger in size than I originally thought it would. So, at the end of 2004 (over a decade ago already!) I began to publish this blog as a forum for reviewing out-of-print albums that I've eagerly continued to discover. And, for as long as I continue to enjoy discovering rock and roll's recorded rarities, I will continue to use this blog as a means to publish ...

On Record Store Day 2015, Robert Plant issued a 10-inch EP titled More Roar , which contained a few live tracks recorded with his band called the Sensational Space Shifters during their 2014 tour in support of the album lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar . Three of the four selections on the EP were drawn from that album. The vinyl-only EP was limited to 10,000 copies. Of course, neither the album nor the EP emits the type of heavy metal “roar” that Plant once epitomized. The legendary Led Zeppelin screamer has evolved into an eccentric crooner, and his latest album is an arty and unusual mixture of blues and Eastern folk music. It’s very unlike the music Plant is best known for, although it does sometimes echo Zeppelin’s otherworldly qualities. Plant’s now-understated vocals just seem to naturally fit the material, because he owns it. The EP contains live performances of three songs from the lullaby album, and – even in the strange case of “Arbaden (Maggie’s Babby)” – they are faithf...

On Record Store Day 2015, the Parlophone label issued a 7-inch single (pressed in pine-green vinyl) consisting of two songs recorded by Supergrass in 1994, when the now-defunct Britpop band’s 1995 debut album I Should Coco was made. The single was limited to 500 copies. These two tracks previously appeared on a radio promo CD in 1995. The A-side track is a radio edit of “Sofa (Of My Lethargy)”, the most sophisticated song on the I Should Coco album. The album version of that song runs over six minutes; this radio edit comes in just under four minutes, with the long instrumental coda clipped off the end to make it radio-friendly. The intricately Beatlesque song resembles what “Norwegian Wood” might have sounded like if the Fab Four had recorded it for either the Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road album instead of Rubber Soul . Hearing it on vinyl makes it even more reminiscent of the pre-digital music era. The B-side, “I Believe In Love”, is an unfinished outtake from the I Should Coco ...