Monday, December 27, 2010

New Album Cover Art, Music News & Notes

Ripple Music: 2011 Releases - Great Stuff in the Works

Venomin James to re-issue their debut album, 'Left Hand Man,' on vinyl! The album will be specifically mastered for the vinyl format and will include unreleased/live bonus material. Left Hand Man will be available in the first half of the year.

Poobah will be returning in 2011 with a brand new studio album entitled Peace Farmers. Originally self released by Jim Gustafson to a limited run of less than 500 copies, Peace Farmers acts as a great follow up to the re-issue of Let Me In and features a couple of updated renditions of some Poobah classics. Initially, Peace Farmers will be released on CD only, but as the case always seems to be, the door is open to press limited runs of vinyl to accompany the CD edition.

Stone Axe, will be releasing the Heavy Ripples compilation double 7”, which will include the return of Brooklyn-based stoner-fied punks Mighty High, the introduction of blues-based retro rockers from the UK, Grifter, and on loan from the incomparable Small Stone Records, Sun Gods In Exile. The 7” will be packaged in a double gatefold jacket featuring the glorious artistic touch of Wayne Braino Bjerke. Expect to see this monstrous beast of sonic debauchery in April.

For more new and information visit RippleMusic.blogspot.com

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URIAH HEEP Begins Recording New Album

Legendary progressive rock veterans URIAH HEEP have entered Liscombe Park Studios in Buckinghamshire, England to begin recording their next album of all-new material for a 2011 release.

URIAH HEEP recently announced plans to release a new live album, 'Official Bootleg Volume II – Live in Budapest, Hungary 2010, which contains recordings from the band's May 4, 2010 concert at the Petofi Hall in Budapest Hungary. The band said, "There are going to be many more recordings from around the world, as this will be an ongoing series, giving fans the chance to hear the band in many different countries.

"These recordings are true official bootlegs in every sense and they reflect that nights performance as it happened, totally untouched. You can almost feel that you are at the concert, so put the CD on, turn it up loud, close your eyes and enjoy a night in Budapest with URIAH HEEP."

"Celebration", the latest album from URIAH HEEP, was released in North America on March 16, 2010 via a new deal between DisManic Distribution and Knife Fight Media.

HEEP history has been an extraordinary journey and it was time that their greatest classics were recorded in studio by the lineup playing them live to fans all over the world for more than 20 years.

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WHITESNAKE: New Album Cover Art Revealed

Legendary rock band WHITESNAKE has set "Forevermore" as the title of its new album, tentatively due at the end of March 2011 via Frontiers Records. Regarding the release's title, WHITESNAKE mainman David Coverdale stated, "Don't forget, 'tis ONE word. Otherwise it sounds like a bleedin' Valentine's Day card, which it ain't!"

WHITESNAKE's the follow-up to 2008's 'Good To Be Bad will be "a solid, natural progression from the band's last opus, which was awarded by the influential Classic Rock magazine as 'Best Album of the Year' in 2008."

"As always, we want to take it to the next level," stated David Coverdale. "I feel that with the last album we achieved a strong WHITESNAKE 'cocktail' that comfortably embraced and mixed all the previous musical aspects and styles of the band's history, while taking our identity a little further… all on one album."

"The new songs are in the very familiar and recognizable WHITESNAKE territory of soulful, bluesy, melodic power rock, with a couple of ballads thrown in for good measure," the singer said. "It can't be a WHITESNAKE album without ballads, mate!"

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STRYPER: 'The Covering' Cover Artwork Unveiled

'The Covering,' the much-anticipated covers album from Christian hard rockers STRYPER, will tentatively be released on February 1, 2011 via Big3 Records.  The band has already released its cover versions of BLACK SABBATH's "Heaven And Hell" and KANSAS' "Carry On Wayward Son", which are available for download from iTunes.

Produced by frontman Michael Sweet, "The Covering" will be unlike any previous STRYPER recording in that it's a collection of cover songs from bands that inspired them and helped to shape their sound and musical identity, including hits from JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, LED ZEPPELIN, KANSAS and many others. "The Covering" will also include "God", a new original recording from STRYPER.

"The Covering" cover artwork, which was recently described by Michael Sweet as "modern, powerful, edgy and thought-provoking."   You forgot weird.....



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Teena Marie Dies At Age 54

Teena Marie, real name Mary Christine Brockert, passed away in her sleep at her home in California. The singer’s death was confirmed by her manager Mike Gardner, reports BBC News. The details and cause of death have not been announced, but the website babble.com has said that her 19-year-old daughter found her body and that Marie had suffered a serious grand mal seizure about a month ago.

Teena Marie was one of the rare white artists signed to the Motown label and won four Grammy nominations. After initial scepticism, she won huge acclaim from the black audience, who dubbed her “ivory queen of soul".

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New record stores in Istanbul keep old music format spinning

ÖZGÜR ÖGRET
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Far from becoming obsolete in a digital era, as many expected, the record format for music has remained popular enough for brand-new stores to be opened in Istanbul specializing in new and used vinyl.

Though sales can be slow, the collectors-turned-entrepreneurs who own these stores believe records will keep spinning well into the future.

“Vinyl records can be used for approximately 60 years,” longer than any other format, Mete Avunduk, owner of Vintage Plak in Istanbul’s Kadiköy district, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. A record collector since the mid-1980s, Avunduk said opening the store was “a natural result of collecting” and the best way to get introduced to more records.

Vintage Plak sells every type of record, at prices ranging from 3 to 300 Turkish Liras. Avunduk purchases records from antique shops domestically and from flea markets and tucked-away little stores abroad.

Read the rest here: New Record Stores in Istanbul

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90 Notable Album Covers From 2010
(Various Labels)


Notable Album Covers From 2010


Artwork by Kai Wong, freelance illustrator and graphic designer, and member of Drum Eyes.











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The Worst Album Covers Of 2010


See more of the Worst Covers


This gets my vote.....









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Vinyl never sounded so good.

By Gary Brown
GateHouse News Service

A vision of the Christmas celebrations of long ago came to me last weekend in a Best Buy store.

I had wandered down an aisle in the store — obviously some musical portal to my past — and artifacts from it were snuggled between iTunes or Napster gift cards and CD gift boxes of the best of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

Vinyl record albums.

I had stumbled upon the music of my youth. I received record albums as Christmas gifts when I was younger. I bought vinyl LP albums for siblings and friends.

“Do we even have a turntable anymore?”

Read the rest here

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