Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl album has been out of print for decades, but it will be released for the first time on CD and digitally on September 9th, 2016. The reissue, now titled Live at the Hollywood Bowl , contains four previously unreleased tracks. It was sourced directly from the original three-track tapes of three concerts performed at the L.A. venue in August 1964 and August 1965. The reissue was remixed and remastered at Abbey Road by George Martin's son, Giles, and engineer Sam Okell. More information (including the updated track list) is at the Rolling Stone site: http://rol.st/29We6ib The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl album was originally released in 1977. According to the late producer George Martin's liner notes for the original LP issue, the shows were recorded "for posterity" by Capitol, but neither Martin nor the band wanted the recordings released at the time because it only consisted of songs that were previously released on studio alb...

The 28th 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 2016. 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-eighth Vault package contained a 2-LP set and a DVD, featuring live acoustic concerts from Jack White performed in Idaho and Alaska in April of 2015. As a bonus item, it contained a travelogue photo book. These items were packaged together in a box with the title Acoustic Tour 2015 . These two shows were part of an acoustic tour that White undertook for the purpose of performing in the only five U.S. states in which he had never performed previously (Wyoming and North and So...

Having recently examined the 20th anniversary reunion of the Monkees , we now turn our attention to another Monkees reunion of sorts, dating from the mid-1970's. This took place in or around their 10th anniversary year, but it was not exactly sold as a 10th anniversary tour by the Monkees. Instead, the band that coalesced came to be known as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, & Hart. The tagline for their tour was "The Golden Hits of The Monkees: The Guys Who Sang 'Em and The Guys Who Wrote 'Em". Why was this? Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones were the only original Monkees who took part in the reunion. Michael Nesmith was invited to join, but (as usual) declined, while Peter Tork could not be contacted at the time. They were replaced by two "Guys Who Wrote 'Em" -- namely Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Boyce and Hart had written and produced many of the Monkees' songs, including their TV show theme and the #1 hit "Last Train To Clarksville". This song...

The Monkees released a new album titled Good Times! on May 27th. It's their first new studio album in 20 years (since Justus in 1996), and their first album following the 2012 death of founding member Davy Jones. In short, Good Times! is very good, and has been well-received, both critically and commercially. The album was recorded by surviving original Monkees members Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith; one lead vocal track recorded by Jones in 1967 is utilized for the song “Love To Love”. Also, Dolenz and Tork have embarked on a North American tour which will run until October. What brought about these events? 2016 marks the Monkees' 50th anniversary. I was not yet born when the Monkees debuted -- on TV and on record -- in 1966. However, I do remember when the Monkees embarked on a 20th Anniversary Tour in 1986, and the recordings that resulted from that particular reunion 30 years ago. During their 1986 reunion tour, the Monkees played in over 100 North Am...

Twenty One Pilots, the Ohio-based alt-pop/hip-hop duo, released a 7-inch single on Record Store Day 2016 titled Double-Sided . Limited to 7,500 copies, the single contained two previously unreleased live tracks recorded at the Fox Theater in Oakland, CA. The single was part of a series of 7-inch singles labeled "Disquaire Day", to show solidarity with French record stores after the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris . The A-side, titled “A Few Older Ones”, is a live medley of songs from the first three albums: Twenty One Pilots (2009), Regional At Best (2011), and Vessel (2013). The mashed-up songs include “Pantaloon”, “Semi-Automatic”, “Forest”, “Screen”, “Ode To Sleep”, and “Addict With A Pen”. This live medley is built on a piano-and-drums combo, without the electronic instrumentation of the studio versions. The duo does well performing in this fashion, and they skillfully segue between the different song passages to create a coherent-sounding whole. The only pr...

The 27th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to Platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in April of 2016. 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-seventh Vault package contained a 3-LP set, featuring live concerts from three bands that Jack White was involved with in 1998 and 1999. The 7-inch single from the Dead Weather contained two tracks from their 2015 Dodge And Burn album. The Live at the Gold Dollar box set contains three full-length live LP's recorded at the now-defunct Detroit venue in the late 1990's. The three discs are housed in a telescoping box, which also contains soft-touch record sleeves for each indi...

As you've probably heard by now, Metallica are the official ambassadors of Record Store Day 2016, which falls on Saturday, April 16th. The band that released a cassette on last year's Record Store Day will this year release a CD, entitled Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Metallica! - Live at Le Bataclan. Paris, France - June 11th, 2003 . As the title indicates, the CD documents a nine-song live set performed at the Bataclan in Paris in June of 2003. In light of the recent terrorist attack at that venue in November 2015 , proceeds from sales of the CD will be donated to the Fondation de France's Give For France charity. This concert was performed at a strange time in Metallica's history, just days after the release of their chaotic St. Anger album. This was the first year that the band employed current bassist Robert Trujillo, after they weathered two years of troubles documented in the film Some Kind Of Monster . This show was the second of three shows that the band ...

For Record Store Day 2016, ABKCO is reissuing the Animals' 1965 EP Animal Tracks in a 3,000-copy limited edition. This EP was originally released in the U.K. and Europe in 1965, and has never been released in the U.S. Animal Tracks was originally pressed as a 7-inch 45; the Record Store Day EP is pressed in 10-inch vinyl for better fidelity. This EP is not to be mistaken for the full-length Animal Tracks album, which was also released in 1965. None of this EP's four tracks appeared on the American version of that album, although all of them were included on the U.K. version of the album. The first three tracks find the British Invasion quintet playing covers of R&B classics from Chuck Berry ("How You've Changed"), Ray Charles ("I Believe To My Soul"), and Louis Jordan ("Let The Good Times Roll"). On each of these three tracks, Eric Burdon croons soulfully over Alan Price's restrained yet intricate piano arrangements. These tr...