New Music Releases - August 2013

August 6

Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny 
Barbarossa - Bloodlines
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks (vinyl) (reissue)
Brendan James - Simplify
Cannibal Corpse - Gore Obsessed (vinyl) 
Centuries - Taedium Vitae
Chelsea Grin - My Damnation (vinyl) 
Dead In The Dirt - The Blind Hole
Dinosaur Bones - Shaky Dream
Exhumed - Necrocacy (reissue)
Hell Or Highwater - The Other Side
Iwrestledabearonce - Late For Nothing
James LaBrie - Impermanent Resonance
Karnivool - Asymmetry
Last Chance To Reason - Level 3
Lumerians - The High Frontier
Medicine - To The Happy Few
Minks - Tides End
Moderat - II
Newsted - Heavy Metal Music
Norma Jean - Wrongdoers
Nothnegal - Nothnegal
Paul Allen & the Underthinkers - Everywhere at Once
Pond - Hobo Rocket
Revocation - Revocation
Santana - Santana III (vinyl)
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Give The People What They Want
Superhumanoids - Exhibitionists
The Civil Wars - The Civil Wars
The Defiled - Daggers
The Icarus Line - Slave Vows
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust (Vinyl)
Wintersun - Time I
Witherscape - The Inheritance

 
August 13

.38 Special - Special Delivery
Bent Life - Full Skul
Bloc Party - The Nextwave Sessions
Christa Wells - Feed Your Soul
Creep - echoes
David Liebe Hart Band - David Liebe Hart Band
Feuding Fathers - Kid Tested, Father Approved
Harry Nilsson - Flash Harry (reissue)
I See Stars - New Demons
Jagwar Ma - Howlin
Kim Carnes - Barking At Airplanes
Kim Carnes - Lighthouse
King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
No Sir - The Future Is Bright
Sam Phillips - Push Any Button
Serianna - Define Me
Strengthen What Remains - Turning A Blind Eye
The Greenery - It's Looking Grim
Tommy Bolin - Whirlwind
Transitshop - Velocity
TRC - Nation
Valerie June - Pushin' Against A Stone
Washed Out - Paracosm
XNY - Orange


August 20

Amorphis - Privilege Of Evil (vinyl) 
Anthrax - Snapshot 
Between The Buried And Me - Snapshot
Blessthefall - Hollow Bodies
Born Of Osiris - N/A
Braids - Flourish // Perish
City In The Sea - Below The Noise
Crocodiles - Crimes Of Passion
Crossfaith - Apocalyze
Destruction Unit - Deep Trip
Diamond Plate - Pulse
DIANA - DIANA
Dio - Snapshot
Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
Early Graves - We: The Guillotine (vinyl)  
Enemies - Embark, Embrace
Ephemeros - All Hail Corrosion
Facebreaker - Dedicated To The Flesh 
Fleetwood Mac - 1969-72 (vinyl box set)
Fleetwood Mac - Then Play On (reissue)
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Labyrinth
Ghoul - Intermediate Level Hard-Core
Horseback - A Plague Of Knowing (3-CD)
Julia Holter - Loud City Song
Kissaway Trail - Breach
Murray A. Lightburn - MASS:LIGHT 
Native - Orthodox
No Age - An Object
O’Brother - Disillusion
Oathbreaker - Eros|Anteros
Pelican - Deny The Absolute (7")
Porcelain Raft - Permanent Signal
Primitive Man - Scorn
Saint Vitus - COD (reissue) 
Saint Vitus - Die Healing (reissue) 
Sarah Neufeld - Hero Brother 
Shakhtyor - Shakhtyor
Shigeto - No Better Time Than Now
Soil - Whole
Still Life Still - Mourning Trance
Superchunk - I Hate Music
Sworn In - The Death Card
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Made Up Mind
TGT - 3 Kings
The Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate (vinyl) 
The Black Dahlia Murder - Unhallowed (vinyl) 
The Monkees - Headquarters (deluxe edition)
The Ongoing Concept - Saloon
Ty Segall - Sleeper
Underoath - Act Of Depression (reissue) 
Underoath - Cries Of The Past (reissue) 
Watain - The Wild Hunt
White Lies - Big TV
Zola Jesus - Versions

August 27

Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King
Beach Boys - Made in California (box set)
Big Sean - Hall Of Fame
Black Joe Lewis-  Electric Slave
Bonedance - Snakecharmers (reissue) 
Calculator - These Roots Grow Deep (reissue)
Dent May - Warm Blanket
DevilDriver - Winter Kills 
Disappears - Era
Flaamingos - Flaamingos
Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Gojira - From Mars To Sirius (vinyl)
Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh (vinyl)
Goodie Mobb - Age Against The Machine
HBS - In Deep Owl
Maps For Travelers - Change Your Name
Puscifer - All Re-Mixed Up
Self Defense Family - The Corrections Officer In Me
The Dodos - Carrier
The Rides (Stephen Stills & Kenny Wayne Shepherd) - Can’t Get Enough
 
 

Ask Mr. Music by Jerry Osborne

FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 15, 2013

DEAR JERRY: Years ago you addressed a strange word in the lyrics of "Moody River."

The conclusion then was that even though it clearly sounds like "the vainest knife," it makes very little sense.

A friend of mine has a different theory. He thinks it's veinist's knife, believing a veinist to be a regional or colloquial term for one who bleeds people for health reasons.

Thus the word would be a form of vein, not vain. If so, the knife would be sharp and the lyrics, to him, make sense.

Yet another friend disagrees, saying the veinist theory doesn't work because that person's knife would be aimed at doing good, not harm (i.e., "more deadly than the veinist's knife").

This man therefore votes for vainest, meaning the knife of a very vain person.
—Dave Leveton, Gainesville, Va.

DEAR DAVE & FRIENDS: I agree with Friend No. 2, and not just because he agrees with me.

The process of obtaining blood by intravenous access, be it for therapeutic reasons or for testing, can be done by many different health professionals, from staff nurses to phlebotomists and venipuncturists.

But nowhere do I find any references to such a thing as a veinist.

Also, vainest and veinist's are not exactly homophones, and no matter whose version you play you'll hear vainest.

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, every piece of sheet music I've seen for "Moody River" has "the vainest knife."

In order to have it make some sense, I assigned a personality to the knife. Might even give it a name.



DEAR JERRY: Occasionally you and your readers ask "how could this record not have been a hit." Well, I can't disagree with any of the songs that prompted that comment.

Now here is one I don't think you've ever discussed, and for my money it not being a hit is one of the mysteries of the universe: "School of Rock 'N Roll" by Gene Summers and His Rebels.

Did the record reviewers and programmers realize this would eventually be regarded as one of the greatest rock and roll records ever made?

Oh yeah, is there any connection between Gene Summers and the Tom Toms ("Big Blue Diamond") and Jac & Jay with the Tom Toms ("Monkey's Uncle")?
—Walter Tobin, Nanaimo, B.C.

DEAR WALTER: Obviously the media's collective crystal balls were foggy in 1958, at least with regard to the lofty status now enjoyed by "School of Rock 'N Roll."

However, the reviews at the time were relatively favorable.

Billboard, in their March 3, 1958 issue, included Gene's record among the week's 10 new releases most likely to be hits.

Both "School of Rock 'N Roll," and the flip side, "Straight Skirts," received better comments and higher ratings that week than Ed Townsend's "For Your Love" and Bill Haley's "Skinny Minny," and both of those wound up in the Top 25. "School of Rock 'N Roll" just never took off the way it seemed it would.

It wasn't helped much by being the first release for a brand new label (Jan 100). It would have been interesting to see how much better this, and some of Gene's other tunes, would have done on one of the major labels.

Summers' involvement with the Jac & Jay single is a bit more complicated than just he and they both being backed by some Tom Toms.

Realizing no one could explain this story any better than Gene Summers, and since he has often encouraged me to call him whenever I needed info, I did just that.

Interestingly, when I spoke with him (July 3) he was on his way to DFW to board a flight to London. He, Jack Scott, and Hayden Thompson are headlining "The Wildest Cat in Town Summer Weekend" in the UK. All three are members of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Here then is the scoop from Gene on the Jac & Jay record, issued in 1964:

"The A-side, "Monkey's Uncle" (Shane 47-2), is properly credited to Jac and Jay with the Tom Toms. Jac (Jack Castleberry) and Jay (James McClung II), along with Charlie Mendias; C.B. Williams; and Ernest Walker, were in fact all members of the Tom Toms, who backed me on other recordings. One of those was my best seller, "Big Blue Diamond" (Jamie 1273), also released in 1964.

"On the flip side, "Peanut Butter," I am featured, but the backing is by the same quintet (a.k.a., Tom Toms) heard on "Monkey's Uncle."

Even so, I am not identified. The label credits only Jac & Jay with the Tom Toms."

Travel safe old friend. I know you and Jack Scott will have those Brits rockin' in the aisles.


IZ ZAT SO? The Shane disc, with Gene only on one side, is valued in the $40 range, but a few of his other singles are a bit more pricey, especially these three 78s which were quite scarce even in 1958:

1958 "School of Rock 'N Roll" (Jan 7-100) $700
1958 "School of Rock 'N Roll" (Apex/Canada 76278) $200
1958 "Nervous" (Jan 102) $400

Jerry Osborne answers as many questions as possible through this column. Write Jerry at: Box 255, Port Townsend, WA 98368 E-mail: jpo@olympus.net   Visit his Web site: www.jerryosborne.com

All values quoted in this column are for near-mint condition.

Copyright 2013 Osborne Enterprises - Reprinted By Exclusive Permission