Thursday, January 19, 2012

Vinyl Record News & Music Notes

in yesterday's post I made a mistake with a link, here is the correct link to see the story A Dead Format? written by Sammi Chichester from mindequalsblown.net  sorry about that folks........

very impressive article, well worth the read. not sure if everyone who buys vinyl is an audiophile, i don't consider myself one. hey, if you play your 45s on your grandmother's old suitcase-style turntable and you enjoy your music, that is what it is all about......

A Dead Format?

by Sammi Chichester

For what many may think is a dead format, the fact is that sales of vinyl records are increasing year after year. Nielsen SoundScan projects vinyl in 2011 to have a 25 percent increase in sales from the
previous year. But how much is really sold, who buys it, and why?

For perspective, Nielsen has reported about 1 million vinyl sales every year in the past decade stating in 1995. Then in 2008, sales jumped to 2 million and then another half million the following two years.

The projections show this year to have a total finishing sale of 3.6 million, including many from top-selling artists such as Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Mumford & Sons. While it is true that digital downloads account for more than half of all music sales, the June mid-year report by Nielsen showed 155 million records were sold in all formats. Rock is the most popular genre with 52 million sales and rock’s close partner genre, alternative, makes up another 27 million in sales. “About 93 of the 100 best selling vinyl albums in 2011 fall within the rock or alternative genres,” the report states.

Even if vinyl records only account for about 2 percent of the music industry’s sales, the trend cannot be ignored because of one of the final statements worth noting – “Two out of every three vinyl albums are purchased at an independent music store.”

Please read the rest at mindequalsblown.net

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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TO RELEASE NEW STUDIO ALBUM 'WRECKING BALL' ON MARCH 6

Bruce Springsteen's new album 'Wrecking Ball' has been set for March 6 release on Columbia Records. Marking his 17th studio album, 'Wrecking Ball' features 11 new Springsteen songs and was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen and executive producer Jon Landau. A special edition of 'Wrecking Ball' will also be available and include two bonus tracks and exclusive artwork and photography.

'Wrecking Ball' Song Titles:
1.We Take Care of Our Own
2.Easy Money
3.Shackled and Drawn
4.Jack of All Trades
5.Death to My Hometown
6.This Depression
7.Wrecking Ball
8.You've Got It
9.Rocky Ground
10.Land of Hope and Dreams
11.We Are Alive



Said long-time manager Jon Landau, "Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can't hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative in recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on 'Wrecking Ball.'"

Bruce Springsteen will make an appearance as the keynote speaker at SXSW 2012. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be touring extensively in the US and Europe in 2012. 

'Wrecking Ball' is available for pre-order now Wrecking Ball (Vinyl LP)

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something we all know, glad it is being recognized!!

Two-Thirds of All Vinyl Records Are Sold at Indie Record Stores

According to stats recently shared with Digital Music News by Nielsen Soundscan, more than two-thirds (or 67 percent) of all vinyl albums in the US were sold by indie record stores last year. And this is a booming niche: last year, vinyl sales reached 3.9 million units, the biggest mark in two decades and a 39 percent gain over 2010. That's still about one-percent of broader album sales, but a rare example of growth in the physical category.

All of which raises a major problem: vinyl is on a serious comeback, but the main driver of those sales is drying up. Last year, neighborhood fixtures like Atlanta-based Criminal Records were threatened with shutdown, and even bigger outlets like Amoeba Records are struggling to find their footing.

In 2010, indie retailers accounted for an even more impressive 71 percent of all vinyl sales in the

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Legacy Recordings Commemorates Janis Joplin's Birthday With Announcement of The Pearl Sessions

Definitive Two-Disc Edition of Janis Joplin's Farewell Album Masterpiece Debuts Newly Discovered Studio Outtakes, Banter & Rarities Including Nine Previously Unavailable Tracks

Janis Joplin - The Pearl Sessions Available Everywhere Tuesday, April 17, 2012

NEW YORK, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- On the occasion of Janis Joplin's birthday (January 19), Legacy Recordings is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Pearl Sessions, a newly-curated definitive two-disc edition of Joplin's final studio album premiering, for the first time, newly discovered studio outtakes, live performances and other sonic rarities recorded during her dynamic last chapter of accelerated tumult and creativity.

Originally released on January 11, 1971 (three months after her passing on October 4, 1970), Pearl debuted Joplin's final finished studio recordings as well as intimations of what the influential American country-soul-blues-rock singer was capable of delivering.

The only album Joplin ever recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, the touring ensemble that had backed her on the Festival Express (a mythic 1970 concert tour by railroad across Canada with the Grateful Dead, the Band and others), Pearl included canonical studio recordings of songs that had been introduced to audiences on tour.

Peaking at #1 on the Billboard 200, a position it held for nine weeks, Pearl included some of Janis's most familiar and best-loved performances including her cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" and her off-the-cuff a cappella "Mercedes Benz."

When putting together material for a 40th anniversary edition of Pearl, researchers discovered a treasure-trove of previously uncatalogued audio tapes from the album's sessions, produced by Paul Rothschild. An industry legend, perhaps best-known for producing the first five Doors albums, Rothchild further solidified his position in music history with his work on Pearl.

The Pearl Sessions brings together, for the first time in one package, the original mono versions of the album's 45s alongside the original LP tracks as well as the revelatory newly-discovered alternate versions, outtakes and vocal takes of Pearl's classic tracks.

The Pearl Sessions includes newly discovered recordings of Janis in the studio, joking with producer Paul Rothchild and her Full Tilt Boogie bandmates as they work through what would become an essential part of Janis Joplin's core catalog.

Disc One of The Pearl Sessions includes the original album as well as the original mono singles from the album ("Cry Baby," "Get It While You Can," "Me and Bobby McGee").

Disc Two is a collection of behind-the-scenes recordings illuminating the Pearl sessions with highlights and insights revealed in candid studio dialogue, song demos and alternate takes including nine previously unissued tracks.

Janis Joplin - The Pearl Sessions

DISC ONE:
The Pearl Album - produced by Paul Rothchild
Move Over
Cry Baby
A Woman Left Lonely
Half Moon
Buried Alive In The Blues
My Baby
Me and Bobby McGee
Mercedes Benz
Trust Me
Get It While You Can

Bonus Tracks - the Mono Single Masters - produced by Paul Rothchild
Me and Bobby McGee
Half Moon
Cry Baby
Get It While You Can
Move Over
A Woman Left Lonely

DISC TWO:
The Pearl Sessions & more...
Overheard in the Studio...
Get It While You Can (take 3) - previously unissued
Overheard in the Studio...
Get It While You Can (take 5) - previously unissued
Overheard in the Studio...
Move Over (take 6) - previously unissued
Move Over (take 13) - previously unissued
Move Over (take 17) - previously unissued
Me and Bobby McGee (demo version)
Me and Bobby McGee (take 5 - alternate) - previously unissued
Cry Baby (alternate version)
A Woman Left Lonely (alternate vocal)
Overheard in the Studio...
My Baby (alternate take) - previously unissued
Overheard in the Studio...
Get It While You Can (take 3) - previously unissued
My Baby (alternate take)
Pearl (instrumental) - Full Tilt Boogie Band

Bonus Track
Tell Mama (Live) - June 28, 1970 - Toronto

The release of The Pearl Sessions marks a renewed focus on Janis Joplin and the continuing influence of her music. Columbia/Legacy Recordings recently announced the release of Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968, a previously unavailable live concert recording of Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, recorded June 23, 1968 by legendary soundman Owsley Stanley, a/k/a "Bear," who supervised the mastering of this release before his fatal car accident on March 12, 2011, in his adopted homeland of Australia. Dedicated to Bear, the album will be released on March 13, 2012, marking the one-year anniversary of his passing.

Pre-Order Your Copy Today!

SOURCE Legacy Recordings

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this from our friends at vinylcollective.com

Two Fun. Albums on Vinyl Feb 21

Fueled by Ramen and Nettwerk Records will be issuing their Fun. releases on vinyl February 21. The Nettwerk release, “Aim and Ignite” will be pressed on a deluxe double lp, embossed metallic gatefold with an etched picture disc. Fueled by Ramen will release “Some Nights” on a 180 gram vinyl which includes the CD. Pre order is up now!

Fun. – Some Nights LP

Fun. – Aim and Ignite 2XLP






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love this cover.....

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE: 'Behold Almighty Doctrine' Artwork Unveiled

South Carolina-based extreme metal band LECHEROUS NOCTURNE has set "Behold Almighty Doctrine" as the title of its third album, due later in the year via Unique Leader Records. The CD was recorded at SoundLab Studio in Lexington, South Carolina with longtime engineer Bob Moore.

Read more at Blabbermouth
















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oh, this cover art won't turn some heads....

Soulfly Reveal Artwork for New Album

Soulfly have just unveiled the album art for their new full-length album called 'Enslaved.' It is the band's eight studio effort and is scheduled for release on March 13 on Roadrunner Records. The album was recorded at Tallcat Studios in Phoenix, Arizona and was produced by Zeuss (Shadows Fall, Hatebreed.)


















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STRAPPING YOUNG LAD Vinyl Box Set On The Way

Finnish extreme metal non-profit Blood Music has announced an incredibly long-overdue vinyl worship session of every last bit of STRAPPING YOUNG LAD's music one could ever ask for.

The monstrous limited edition 7xLP box set discography will contain all five STRAPPING YOUNG LAD full-lengths, as well as extra vinyl dedicated to the band's non-album material, plus other special gifts yet to be announced.

The genre-busting Canadian industrial/death band has never seen their seminal albums "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing", "SYL" nor "The New Black" touch wax before. Their other two records — "City" and "Alien" — were pressed in ultra-limited numbers of 500 copies only and sold out within months of their release.

Get more information at our friends at Blabbermouth

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what a trip, love to visit.......

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Announces Its Newest Featured Exhibit: Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip

CLEVELAND, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is proud to present a major exhibition devoted to a truly unique American rock and roll band, Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip. The exhibit will open to the public on Thursday, April 12, as a part of the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Week events. The Mickey Hart Band, featuring the Grateful Dead drummer, will perform on the Rock Hall's Main Stage for an exhibit opening event on Wednesday, April 11.

"The Grateful Dead is a band that is identified with a remarkable era in American history, and, inasmuch as they embody that era, their work is timeless," says Jim Henke, vice president of Exhibits and Curatorial Affairs. "They've inspired many performers and bands, but none has exhibited their musical depth and cultural resonance. In a 30-year career, this group wrote their own rules and created a community unlike any band before or since."

Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip explores the band from a non-linear point of view. Individual sections within the exhibit will be devoted to Grateful Dead as a recording group and a touring band, the fans who devotedly followed them, tapers and fellow travelers (people who were important to the band). It will include finished and working manuscripts for classic songs, handwritten notes from legendary taper Dick Latvala, artifacts from original sound designer Owsley "Bear" Stanley, and promoter Bill Graham's Father Time robe and Grateful Dead Hotline answering machine.

Art and design have always been closely associated with Grateful Dead, and this exhibit will include an unprecedented collection of original artwork that is immediately recognizable from the band's album covers and posters. It will feature numerous instruments used by the Grateful Dead over the years, including keyboards, drums, percussion, guitars and elements from the legendary Wall of Sound PA system. The Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California-Santa Cruz has loaned a significant number of items from their extraordinary collection, which will open to the public in spring 2012.

Additional highlights include:
•Five Jerry Garcia guitars, including his Travis Bean TB5
•Mickey Hart's custom-painted drum kit
•Two Bob Weir guitars, including his first Ibanez "cowboy" custom guitar
•Several original lyric manuscripts, including "Truckin'," "Box of Rain" and "Sugaree"
•Several original Grateful Dead-related artworks, including images from Workingman's Dead, Without a Net and Fillmore Auditorium poster art
•Bill Graham's "Father Time" robe

Formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965 from a previous incarnation as a bar band called the Warlocks, the Grateful Dead were at the epicenter of the sweeping cultural event that was San Francisco in the Sixties. Their music was informed by a diverse set of influences – contemporary classical composition, bluegrass, rhythm & blues, free jazz, rock and roll and the blues. Fueled by a cultural underground of writers, poets and bohemians that stretched from Oakland and Berkeley in the East Bay to Palo Alto on the peninsula, the Grateful Dead developed an ethos that embraced true artistic pursuits over commercial concerns, improvisation over rote arrangements and mind expansion through the use of psychedelic drugs.

At the exhibit opening event on the 11th, Mickey Hart Band will perform new songs from his forthcoming album to be released this spring as well as Grateful Dead classics. Hart will be touring this spring in support of his new album which he told Rolling Stone features samples of "light waves from the cosmos, starting 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang."

This exhibit will be open through December 2012.

SOURCE The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

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and in music history for today, january 19th:

The legendary Janis Joplin was born today in 1943 (died in 1970).



In 1959, the Platters reach the number one spot on the US Pop chart for the fourth time with "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," a ballad that was written by Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern in 1933. The record will top the UK chart next month.

In 1963, the Beatles make their first ever TV appearance on the UK TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars, where they perform their current #45 hit, "Please Please Me."

In 1967, the Monkees were at #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “I’m a Believer,” the group’s only UK #1.

In 1967, at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, the Beatles began recording "A Day In The Life," which had the working title "In the Life of..." The basic track was refined with remixing and additional parts added at recording sessions the next day and on February 3. The track was completed with the recording of the orchestral part on February 20. The total length of time spent recording "A Day in the Life" was 34 hours. By comparison, their first album, "Please Please Me," was recorded in its entirety in just 10 hours.

The song is the final track on the group's 1967 album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.' Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions. While Lennon’s lyrics were inspired by contemporary newspaper articles, McCartney’s were reminiscent of his youth. The decisions to link sections of the song with orchestral glissandos and to end the song with a sustained piano chord were made only after the rest of the song had been recorded.

The supposed drug reference in the line "I’d love to turn you on" resulted in the song initially being banned from broadcast by the BBC. Since its original album release, "A Day in the Life" has been released as a B-side, and also on various compilation albums. It has been covered by other artists including Sting, Bobby Darin, The Fall, Neil Young, Jeff Beck, The Bee Gees, Robyn Hitchcock, Phish and since 2008, by McCartney in his live performances. The song is frequently listed among the greatest songs ever written.



In 1971, at the Charles Manson murder trial for the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others, several tracks from the Beatles' "White Album," including "Helter Skelter," were played as prosecutors attempted to find out if any of the songs could have influenced Manson and his followers to commit murder. At the scene of one of the gruesome murders, the words "helter skelter" were written on a mirror.

Also in 1971, during court proceedings held to dissolve The Beatles' partnership, Ringo testifies under oath that "Paul behaved like a spoiled child."

In 1974, a song called "Show and Tell" by Al Wilson overcame all odds and rose to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune had failed to become a hit for Johnny Mathis and was relegated to the "B" side of Wilson's single, but still ended up selling over three million copies and had a chart run of sixteen weeks.

In 1974, Black Oak Arkansas appeared at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. Support act was Bruce Springsteen. Tickets cost $4.

In 1976, American promoter Bill Sargent issues a $30 million offer to The Beatles to re-unite for one show. He proposes that the band play together for at least twenty minutes at any venue they choose on July 5th. The former members of the group wasted no time in turning him down, but Sargent would later say that he was shocked by the refusal.

In 1978, Johnny Rotten was fired from the Sex Pistols for “not being weird enough anymore.”

In 1980, Pink Floyd’s The Wall started a 15-week run at #1 on the US album chart. The group’s third US #1, it went on to sell more than 8 million copies.

In 1993, an inaugural concert was held in Landover, Maryland to honor President-elect Bill Clinton. Aretha Franklin sings "I Have A Dream" and Fleetwood Mac perform "Don't Stop", a tune that the Clinton campaign used as their theme song. Others appearing were Michael Jackson, Judy Collins, Chuck Berry, Michael Bolton and Little Richard.

In 1994, Paul McCartney inducts John Lennon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying "The thing you must remember is, that I'm the number one John Lennon fan. I love him to this day and I always did love him."

In 1998, rock 'n' roll pioneer Carl Perkins died of stroke related causes at the age of 65. Carl wrote and recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" which went to number 2 for him in 1956, selling 2 million copies. The Elvis Presley version topped out at number 20 the same year. Alcoholism and a car accident kept Perkins from fulfilling his full potential, as he never reached the US Top 40 again.

In 2006, soul singer Wilson Pickett died in hospital near his Ashburn, Virginia, home of a heart attack at age 64. Pickett recorded the soul classics “Mustang Sally,” “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “In the Midnight Hour” plus he scored 15 other US Top 40 singles.



In 2007, Canadian singer songwriter and former Mamas and the Papas singer Denny Doherty died at the age of 66. He died at his home near Toronto, Canada, after a short illness.

In 2008, singer-songwriter John Stewart, who wrote the Monkees hit “Daydream Believer,” died at age 68 after he suffered a massive stroke or brain aneurysm in San Diego. Stewart was a member of folk group The Kingston Trio and went on to record more than 45 solo albums with his biggest solo success being a U.S. top five single, “Gold,” in 1979.

birthdays today include (among others): Phil Everly (Everly Brothers) (73), Joe Butler (Lovin' Spoonful) (71), Martha Davis (Motels) (61), Dolly Parton (66), Dewey Bunell (America) (60), Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs) (34)