Music News & Notes

Heart Children's Book

Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson are inseperable, joined at the hip within their musical adventures. Rock and roll ballads come easy for the talented sisters and now the two have collaborated on a children's book. The book, Dog & Butterfly and Nancy's new lullabies album Baby Guitars are set to be released October 6 exclusively on Amazon.com. The release also coincides with the 30th anniversary of Heart's legendary album Dog & Butterfly and a new version of the title cut has been recorded by the Wilson sisters and will be available as a free download with the purchase of the children's book.

Baby Guitars, Nancy explains, has been well "road-tested" on children. She wrote and recorded the songs with Heart guitarist Craig Bartock five years ago as a gift for a pregnant friend. Up until now, the recordings have been heard only by family and friends. (When Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes became parents in 2006, Nancy passed along a home-burned copy to his team for daughter Suri.)

Baby Guitars features "pure, innocent" sounds like acoustic guitars, mandolin, harp and Japanese koto. The tracks are instrumentals, recalling Nancy's work scoring Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, written and directed by husband Cameron Crowe. Her 10-year-old twin sons, Billy and Curtis, drew the cover art, and Billy's beloved blanket inspired Nancy's favorite song on the album, Silky.

The book's illustrations were drawn by Ann and painted by Nancy, just one more collaboration between the sisters. They're on tour with Heart through October and at work on their next album, out in 2010.

=====================

YouTube & Warner Talking New Deal

Warner Music Group and YouTube have reportedly agreed on a new deal that will bring the major label’s videos — including work by artists like Madonna and Green Day — back to the video streaming Website. According to AdAge.com, while the two sides haven’t officially announced the new contract, WMG is also moving on to negotiations to possibly join Vevo, a video stream venture between YouTube, Sony and Universal.

=====================

REO Holiday LP

REO Speedwagon is jumping on the holiday bandwagon and releasing a Christmas album. Not So Silent Night… Christmas With REO Speedwagon will be released October 27 on Sony Legacy and will include numerous classics like The First Noel, Winter Wonderland, Deck the Halls, Little Drummer Boy and Joy to the World.

=====================

Vinyl Collective Top 10 Sales of the past week

Virgil has posted the top sellers for the week, stop by www.vinylcollective.com and pick up some great vinyl!

1 WHATEVER 64 copies
2 THE SWELLERS “Welcome Back Riders” 7″ black vinyl 49 copies
3 FRANK TURNER “The First Three Years” dbl LP red w/ white splatter vinyl 31 copies
4 MURDER BY DEATH “Finch: Instrumental Album” 10″green vinyl 25 copies
5 CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ white vinyl 23 copies
6 CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ brown vinyl VC exclusive color 14 copies
6 THE SWELLERS “Welcome Back Riders” 7″ pink w/ blue splatter vinyl 14 copies
6 HEAVY HEARTED “S/T” 7″ mixed color vinyl 14 copies
9 HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW “Turtle Nipple…” LP brown/pink 13 copies
10 CHUCK RAGAN “Gold Country” LP black vinyl 11 copies
10 LIZZIE HUFFMAN AND HER BROTHER BAND “S/T” 10″ red/burgandy vinyl 11 copies

=====================

New Morrissey B-Sides On The Way

2009 has been quite a year for Morrissey. He's toured relentlessly, performing to sold-out audiences around the world. His 9th studio album, "Years Of Refusal," saw Morrissey tie his highest US chart debut on the Billboard 200, and he's overseen upgraded and remastered versions of his ‘90s works Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted. Crowning what is undoubtedly his most productive year since his solo career began in 1988, "Swords" compiles 18 select songs released as b-sides of his 13 hit singles from his last four albums.

As an artist who has always ensured his b-sides are of as outstanding quality as his singles and album tracks, "Swords" features some of Morrissey's finest material. 12 songs are collaborations with guitarist Alain Whyte, the rest co-written with guitarists Boz Boorer and Jesse Tobias, and former keyboardist Michael Farrell. In keeping with the three remarkable studio albums covered in his period - 2004's "You Are The Quarry," 2006's "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" and "Years Of Refusal" - the music is powerful and adventurous. The richness and expression of Morrissey's voice has never been greater. With unmatchable style, wit and insight, truths beneath the surface are laid bare. There are moments of personal reflection; "Munich Air Disaster 1958," for example, is a heartrending lament for the Manchester United players who died in the infamous plane crash, and for those who were left behind. The live cover version of David Bowie's 1973 song "Drive-In Saturday" reveals a little more of Morrissey's own teenage self, with its lyrics of amorous confusion modified to rhapsodize over The New York Dolls rather than the Rolling Stones. Chrissie Hynde makes a rare appearance, singing backing vocals on "Shame is the Name."

The album was compiled by Morrissey who is surely in the rudest of creative health. They're subtly assembled and sequenced -the feeling of approaching extinction in the beautiful "The Never-Played Symphonies" followed by a promise of a reunion in the afterlife on "Sweetie-Pie." As Morrissey said of the Tour Of Refusal in March, "all of our answers will be in our songs."

Initial quantities of "Swords" will come with a bonus disc featuring eight superb live performances recorded in Warsaw in July this year. This will include songs from Morrissey's last two albums and 1994's "Vauxhall And I," plus The Smiths' "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby," first heard on the group's 1986 b-side collection "The World Won't Listen." In October and November Morrissey and his band will also tour the UK and Europe, with new American dates scheduled for later in the year.

"Swords" will be released in the UK on October 26th and November 3rd in the US.

=====================

The Prodigy Ready New Single

The Prodigy release the third single "Take Me To The Hospital" on October 20th. Still riding high in the UK charts, their album ‘Invaders Must Die' is among the top five selling albums of 2009 and has reaffirmed the band's status as true legends of both dance and rock.

=====================

Rhino Suffering In The Digital Age

In the latest indication of the shrinking market for compact discs, Warner Music Group's catalog arm Rhino Records laid off between 30 and 40 staffers last week. Job losses came in all departments, including A&R, marketing, promotion and publicity.

A statement from Rhino cited a "fundamental transformation of the physical new release and catalog business" as a reason for the cuts.

Rhino founder Richard Foos, speaking in dejected tones, said that it "had become very apparent that it was too difficult to go on." The store's lease expired and Foos opted to lock the doors. The store plans a Jan. 21 parking-lot sale that will be part wake, part fire sale.

"But we are hoping now for a white knight to show up and buy the inventory and the name and hopefully carry on the tradition," he said. "It was a very emotional decision but this is where it's at. Now in Westwood you have no free-standing record stores. You have one of the largest colleges in the country and no independent record store. That says a lot."

Rhino will evolve into an entity that "handles WMG's global digital catalog initiatives, film, TV, vidgame and commercial licensing, and name and likeness representation for legendary artists." Rhino has long been considered the industry standard for boxed set retrospectives, but demand for such high-ticket items has been strangled by the music market slump and shift to digital sales.