Brought straight to your desktops by Lee at Vinyl Fever.

VINYL:

AA Bondy – American Hearts
Their latest (2008) release, now available on vinyl.

Amon Duul II – Yeti
“Yeti” was the second album by Amon Duul II and is quite a musical achievement. This is a double LP set and contains some of Amon Duul’s most impressive work – delivering their thick, full-fledged, multi-layered sound with dense instrumentation and a certain epic vastness. This is Krautrock in the full depth of its power: huge, towering, dark and completely devoid of any happy optimism, but still bound full of energy. An essential bit of the psych/prog era. Released with the original artwork.

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Deluxe reissue features the original album remastered and a bonus disc of 12 rarities, live tracks and B-sides.

David Bowie – Man Who Sold The World
David Bowie – Pinups
High-end Simply Vinyl label pressings.

The Clash – The Clash
The Clash – Give ‘Em Enough Rope
The Clash – Combat Rock
High-end Simply Vinyl label pressings.

The Dead Weather – Horehound
The latest musical adventure by Jack White epitomizes the alt-rock ethic: do the music you love, do it yourself, and do it fast. The Dead Weather brings together lead singer Alison Mosshart (half of the London-based lo-fi post-punk duo The Kills), Queens Of The Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita, The Raconteurs’ bassist Jack Lawrence, and White on drums and vocals.

Iggy & The Stooges – More Power
Digitally remastered collection of rare studio recordings from the Raw Power era.

Son Volt – American Central Dust
Now available on vinyl.

CDs:

Beastie Boys – Ill Communication
Deluxe re-issue features eco-friendly packaging with the original album remastered and a bonus disc of 12 rarities, live tracks and B-sides.

David Bowie – VH1 Storytellers
The CD/DVD features Bowie’s original televised performance of eight songs, plus an additional four songs that had been taped, but were not featured during the original air date.

Clutch – Strange Cousins From The West
The first new studio release in over two years — features eleven brand new songs.

CunninLynguists – Strange Journey Volume One
New album from the hip-hop stars features appearances by Slug of Atmosphere, Killer Mike, Khujo of Goodie Mob and Fishscales of Nappy Roots.

Dandy Warhols – Dandy Warhols Are Sound
Think of this CD as the director’s cut of “Welcome To The Monkey House.”

Daughtry – Leave This Town
New album features the single “No Surprise.”

The Dead Weather – Horehound

Chico DeBarge – Addiction: Reality Music
Sultry R&B crooner’s new album is filled with the passion and intensity that encompasses Chico’s sensual delivery and style. “Addiction…” is infused with rich melodic and soulful production and features guest appearances from Joe and Talib Kweli.

Discovery – Discovery
Discovery is the recording project of Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend) and Wes Miles (Ra Ra Riot). Guest vocals from Ezra Koening (Vampire Weekend) and Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors). Elements of European electronic dance music skittering in double time over steady R&B. “Cascades of synths that belong on a My Bloody Valentine record and electronic flurries that sound like a flock of robins chirping incessantly on a spring morning.” – Pitchfork. Did they really write that, fer chrissakes?!!?

Iggy & The Stooges – More Power
Digitally remastered collection of rare studio recordings from the Raw Power era.

Jethro Tull – Living in the Past CD w/DVD
Recorded primarily at Hammersmith Apollo in Nov. 2001, 21 songs total.

Joe - Signature

Ricki Lee Jones – Pirates (Mofi issue)
New numbered, limited edition mini-LP-style packaging! Mobile Fidelity used the Original 1/4″ Analog Tapes to master this classic 1981 Album “Rickie Lee Jones’ Pirates arrives like a cloudburst in the desert of Eighties formula pop music and recycled heavy-metal rock.” So wrote Stephen Holden in Rolling Stone in his five-star review of the eclectic artist’s sophomore record — a 1981 set that continues to defy eras and styles. Accompanied by an all-star lineup that includes trumpeter Randy Brecker, Steely Dan icon Donald Fagen, session pro Victor Feldman, and legendary jazz arranger Ralph Burns, the singer-songwriter achieves a musical nirvana that encompasses post-bop, coffeehouse folk, bohemian pop, romantic soul, beat poetry, and Broadway showtunes. Albums with this kind of stylistic magnitude, close-up intimacy, and emotional intensity come around only once or so every decade. “Rickie Lee Jones is a real punk. She don’t need no haircut.” –Record store employee (co-worker), circa 1982

Judas Priest – Judas Priest: A Touch Of Evil Live
Features renditions of such Priest gems as “Riding On The Wind,” “Beyond The Realms Of Death,” “Dissident Aggressor,” “A Touch Of Evil,” “Eat Me Alive,” and the set-closing “Painkiller.” Also of note are the first live album appearances of standouts from Priest’s critically acclaimed 2008 concept double disc, “Nostradamus (Death And Prophecy)”.

Rolling Stones – Bridges To Babylon
Rolling Stones – Steel Wheels
Rolling Stones – Voodoo Lounge
Latest batch of Rolling Stones remasters.

Twista – Category F
New release features guest appearances from Kanye West, R. Kelly, Busta Rhymes, Lil Boosie, and others. Featured producers on the album include Kanye.

The Wood Brothers – Up Above My Head
Independently released CD of classic cover songs. On “Up Above My Head,” the Woods give reverence to a wide range of genres as filtered through their gentle, slightly lazy, but clearly appreciative groove. From folk songs like “Little Liza Jane” to a unique, old-timey take on the Beatles’ “Fixin’ a Hole,” Oliver and Chris make each track sound like good Wood.

Young MC – Stone Cold Rhymin’
20th Anniversary edition comes with six additional tracks not on the original LP.

Neil Young – After The Gold Rush
Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young – Harvest
Neil Young – Neil Young
Remastered reissues.

DVDs:

Cheap Trick – Every Trick In The Book
The video contains 17 tracks from 1977s “I Want You To Want Me” to two songs from the LP “Busted”.

Michael Jackson – Live in Japan

Rolling Stones – Biggest Bang 4xDVD
The last original studio album that the Stones released was A Bigger Bang back in 2005. Two years later, the band put out a four-disc concert DVD collection which was, essentially, a documentary of several shows from their 2005-2006 A Bigger Bang Tour.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into Friday’s concert at Mahaffey Theater featuring an un-costumed, un-amplified-to-11 Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. Maybe I was thinking too hard about it? After all, when you go see a band, they play their songs.  When you go see a comedian, he does his material. With Guest, McKean, and Shearer, reality lay in between — a hilarious, two-hour multimedia jaunt down memory lane complete with stories, clips, and songs predominantly from two classic film satires about seemingly disparate genres of music.

The evening followed a VH1 Storytellers format — song, story, song, rinse, repeat. “Hell Hole” from This is Spinal Tap opened the show, followed by a quick anecdote relative to the second song, The Folksmen’s “Wanderin’.”  The trio made latecomers with seats up front feel awkward: “You just missed the first two songs! We’ll play them again for you after the show is over,” McKean re-assured.

I began to realize that a trio of skilled improvisational comedians could bring a new twist to the concert cliche of audience members shouting out random things. Snappy comebacks were the order of the evening – especially during the mid-set Q&A. (When asked what his next film project was, Guest said he wanted to see the Wolverine movie). Even so, I don’t think anyone appreciated the obnoxious, hammered woman in the Muppets’ Statler & Waldorf balcony to the left of the stage.

McKean, center stage, seemed to be the star of the show. He’d recall stories relating to either of the fake groups while Shearer made witty interjections and created a near-vaudevillian stage presence. McKean reminisced about the theatrical success of This Is Spinal Tap. “Those were the days,” Shearer remarked on the film’s flop-upon-release.

And the stories were interesting! Apparently, MTV censors refused the ”Bitch School” video from their 1992 album Break Like the Wind for its overt sexism. My favorite recollection was a dramatic reading of NBC Standards & Practices chief Bill Clotworthy’s notes about unacceptible material that needed to be edited prior to the film airing one late Saturday night in 1984. Censorship even dogged the band in 2009 as both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” refused to allow a performance of “Sex Farm” on the air!

When Shearer became chief storyteller, the conversation assumed a more historical stance — much like when his Folksmen character stalls for time in A Mighty Wind. He discussed reading about Elvis Presley’s death in a New York Times article “while straining at stool” the morning before the trio performed Shearer’s own Grammy-nominated parody, “All Backed Up.” The only other song not from a film and the sole cover of the evening was a bluegrass rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” which elicited awkward laughter with a seemingly endless repetition of its final line, “you make a dead man cum.”

As for musicianship, it’s clear the Berklee College of Music didn’t give Christopher Guest an honorary doctorate for shits and giggles. The Grammy-winning composer switched from guitar to mandolin to didgeridoo throughout the evening. McKean stuck mostly to guitar with occasional piano, and Shearer switched between electric and stand-up bass.

The bulk of the set was made up of music from This is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind (The Folksmen pictured right), and I felt the trio more than adequately covered songs from both. I couldn’t think of a single song from either film that wasn’t either played live, or projected with visuals onto the screen behind the band, like a fan-made Lego video for “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” (see below).

The trio also performed non-Folksmen tunes from A Mighty Wind, bringing out McKean’s wife Annette O’Toole for The New Main Street Singers‘ “The Good Book” and Mitch & Mickey’s “A Kiss At The End of a Rainbow.” Sadly, both McKean and O’Toole’s vocals — considerably stronger than Eugene Levy’s and Catherine O’Hara’s characters’ in the film — sucked the gentleness out of the song.

Guest assumed Nigel Tufnel’s accent for “Stonehenge,” and the screen displayed, to loud applause, troll dolls dancing around a miniature monument lowered by string. Shearer and McKean struggled with those high harmonies, but the video accompaniment was too awesome to be affected by their minor shortcoming.

After the ‘army of bassists’ approach to “Big Bottom” at Live Earth in 2007 (see below), the trio reduced the Spinal Tap classic to minimalist jazz — Shearer on stand-up bass, McKean and Guest on vocals and finger-snaps. The interpretive dancer was a nice touch, but I think the ode to chubby-chasing required a larger lady.

Seeing this music performed by these comedians in person served as a reminder of how brilliant they are — to be able to write songs in various styles that stand completely on their own in terms of quality and improvise entire films in character around the music takes true talent. As the band plugged in via distortion pedals for “Heavy Duty” during the final encore, the awesome level certainly hit 11.

“Big Bottom” from Live Earth, Wembley Stadium, 2007

via videosift.com

“Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight,” Lego video

NEW RELEASES in VINYL:
Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
Their musical vocabulary runs deep – it’s not just Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, and The Grateful Dead that inform this record; the band feels at home and self-assured. With limited outside assistance, the trio has made a focused, powerful and unified work. This is the new psychedelic rock.

Beastie Boys – Check Your Head 4LP BOX
An ultra-deluxe 4 LP 180HQ vinyl version packaged in a fabric-wrapped hardcover coffee table book case and limited to 2000 copies.

Chimaira – The Infection Picture Disc

Elvis Costello – Complicated Shadows b/w Dirty Rotten Shame 7″
Looks really cool and retro. “Complicated Shadows” is on the album but the flip side, “Dirty Rotten Shame” is an exclusive song for this piece.  This was supposed to be out for Record Store Day, but production was delayed.

Fleet Foxes 7” – Mykonos b/w False Knight On the Road
“Mykonos” is the centerpiece of the Sun Giant EP released last spring and included with the popular vinyl version of the band’s debut, Fleet Foxes.  Beautifully packaged in a gatefold sleeve, the single is backed with a previously unreleased cover of the traditional folk ballad “False Knight On The Road,” made popular by Steeleye Span and Richard Thompson.

The Horrors – Primary Colours
Their debut, Strange House, was as controversial as it was celebrated, landing them on the cover of NME in their native England. Produced by Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and noted video director Chris Cunningham (Aphex Twin, Bjork). ‘‘Genuinely, gloriously deranged.” –The Onion

Killing Joke:
• Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
• Fire Dances
• Killing Joke
• Night Time
• Outside The Gate
• Revelations
• What’s This For?
Limited edition 2-LP sets.

Mastodon – Crack The Skye
Finally on vinyl! Regular and limited, double 45-RPM deluxe edition.

Bob Mould – Life and Times

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
While touring in support of last year’s debut, Conor Oberst, Conor and the Mystic Valley Band began writing new songs. The result is the first album credited to this group. Oberst’s songwriting and delivery remain an engaging presence, but the addition of songs by Taylor Hollingsworth, Nik Freitas, and Jason Boesel make for a multi-textured and colorful collaboration. The Mystic Valley Band also includes Macey Taylor and Nathaniel Walcott.

Peaches – I Feel Cream
With her pioneering electro-punk sound that has taken hold amongst a new breed of female stars, Peaches now seems as relevant to the musical landscape as ever before. On I Feel Cream, she does it again, this time producing, along with the likes of Simian Mobile Disco, Soulwax, Digitalism, and Drums Of Death, her most pop-sounding album to date.

Riverboat Gamblers – Underneath The Owl

Rick Ross – Deeper Than Rap

Vaselines – Enter The Vaselines
The Vaselines have long been celebrated by musicians and indie rock enthusiasts across the globe, including superfan Kurt Cobain, while remaining underappreciated by the mainstream. Enter The Vaselines includes new mixes and remastered versions of material previously available on The Way Of The Vaselines, plus never-before-heard demos, and live recordings from 1986 in Bristol and 1988 in London. Triple LP or double CD.

NEW RELEASE CDs:

Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Arctic Monkeys – At The Apollo

Candlemass – Death Magic Doom
Brand new studio album from the kings of epic doom metal. Includes bonus track.

Paul Carrack – I Know That Name

Ciara – Fantasy Ride

Combichrist – Heat EP: All Pain Is Beat
Featuries remixes by the likes of VNV Nation and Assemblage 23. The CD contains six tracks and two bonus videos.

Company Flow – Funcrusher Plus: 12 Year Ann

Cracker – Sunrise In The Land Of Milk and Honey
David Lowery, from Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, is back with guests Adam Duritz, John Doe, and Patterson Hood. (An aside: Camper Van B crashed at my place in Tallahassee after playing a gig to 50 people in 1985. We listened to George Jones records and read Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor comic books. They unconsciously returned the karma by playing an in-store at Vinyl Fever Tampa 20 years later.)

Rivers Cuomo – Live At Fingerprints
From a post on his website, Rivers invited super fans from across the country to dress sharp and join him in a makeshift band where they would get to pick the set list. That set list ended up being a mix of Weezer classics as well as obscure fan favorites. The 150 lucky “friends” had never met or practiced together, but without fear came to rock out their favorite songs with their favorite guy.

DJ Shadow – Diminishing Returns
Official djshadow.com last chance limited-edition re-release.  The groundbreaking mix in its entirety — includes bonus track “War Is Hell” by DJ Shadow.

Fischerspooner – Entertainment

Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 – White Lies For Dark Times (regular and deluxe editions)
Ben has a new band with him this time around. The deluxe edition includes a DVD featuring a video for the song ”Shimmer and Shine,” exclusive footage, band photos and more.

Hatebreed – For The Lions (covers album)

Isis – Wavering Radiant

King Crimson – Collectable, Vol.4
Live In Warsaw 2000 showcases the four piece line up of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn and includes an encore rendition of David Bowie’s `Heroes’, the original of which Robert’s distinctive guitar playing helped make famous.

Madina Lake – Attics To Eden

Ziggy Marley – Family Time

Chrisette Michelle – Epiphany (regular and deluxe editions)

David *Fathead* Newman – Blessing

New York Dolls – ‘Cause I Sez So
Produced by Todd Rundgren.”It was amazing working with Todd again, and I think we were able to evoke the special sound of our first album and drag it by the hair in the the present.” –David Johansen. Get ready for their upcoming Tampa show!

Conor Oberst and the Mystic V – Outer South

Peaches – I Feel Cream

Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love

Rapper Big Pooh (Little Brother) – Delightful Bars: North America

Rodriguez – Coming From Reality (1971)
First official re-release of the follow up to Cold Fact - the 2008 reissue of the year. Recorded in 1970 with legendary producer Steve Rowland (Pretty Things, The Cure). Not as psych as Cold Fact, but some think more cohesive.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – Cryptomnesia
El Groupo Nuevo De Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is differentiated from the guitarist’s other namesake projects by his selection of players, specifically Zach Hill (Hella) on drums, Jonathan Hischke (Hella) on synth bass, and Juan Alderete de la Peña (The Mars Volta) on bass guitar. Additionally, Cryptomnesia features the vocals of guest frontman Cedric Bixler Zavala (The Mars Volta).

Rolling Stones
• Black & Blue
• Goats Head Soup
• It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll
• Sticky Fingers
The first of three batches of Stones re-mastered re-issues.

Sadat X – Brand New Bien

Smithereens – Tommy Film Album
The Smithereens unleash a new way ot hearing these beloved songs that isn’t the slavish imitation of a cover band.

Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years

Vaselines – Enter The Vaselines

Muddy Waters – Best Of The Johnny Winters Sessions ’76-‘81

Yusuf (Cat Stevens) – Roadsinger (To Warm You Through)
Includes guest Holly Williams (Hank Jr.’s daughter; Hank the FIRST’S granddaughter!)

Buckwheat Zydeco – Lay Your Burden Down
With special guests: JJ Grey, Warren Haynes, Sonny Landreth and Trombone Shorty.

NEW MUSIC DVDs:
Metal Retardation: Are You Metally Retarded?
Bill Zebub, horror and metal entrepreneur and indie filmmaker, interviews some of the biggest names in the metal scene and asks some of the funniest, most outrageous questions imaginable.

The Monks – Transatlantic Feedback documentary

Rivers Cuomo – Live At Fingerprints

BOOK
Ryan Adams - Infinity Blues
A lot of famous people seem to like this guy:
“Ryan Adams writes with equal parts precision and recklessness; the blood he draws from the text is easily as unnerving as its unapologetic tenderness. He is proof that poetry will find its writer.” — Mary-Louise Parker, actress.

“Infinity Blues is Ryan Adams at his personal, unforgettable best. Strong and beautiful and funny and pure. Like all his work, it’s soul poetry of the highest order.” — Cameron Crowe, filmmaker ]]> http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2009/05/05/new-vinyl-cd-dvd-releases/feed/ 0 http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2009/01/25/bands-named-after-other-bands-songs/ http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2009/01/25/bands-named-after-other-bands-songs/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:47:27 +0000 Joran http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/?p=4237
Don't steal your name from another artist's song unless you're a tribute act.]]>

In response to Leilani’s “Top 10 Stupid Band Names,” I’d like to point out that, yes, not only are some band names stupid, or bad - sometimes they’re downright stolen.

We’ve all sat around stoned, drunk (even sober) and thought up – or accidentally stumbled upon - the next greatest band name EVER. There’s got to be a list of those names somewhere, right? I seem to remember someone saying, “We’ve got to write that one down!” 

There are plenty of band names inspired by literate source material or that just make sense (Steely Dan, named after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch or The L.A. Guns and Hollywood Roses combining to form Guns and Roses). But to lift the name of your group straight out of another artist’s catalog instead of establishing a new identity for your sound, your band, your business? It’s like starting up a fast food chain and calling it “Big Mac’s.”

As my wife pointed out, the only time a tribute should be paid to a band’s song is when you’re actually paying tribute to that band – as is the case with “Paradise City: The Guns N Roses Tribute” or ”Strutter: The Ultimate Tribute to Kiss.”

Here’s my list of offenders (in order of offense taken):

1. Radiohead - (Radio Head, Talking Heads)

2. Uh Huh Her – (PJ Harvey, the name of an album – the title track was actually cut)

3. The Brief Candles – (The Zombies)

4. Boris – (Melvins)

5. Sisters of Mercy – (Leonard Cohen)

6. Rolling Stone(s) – (Muddy Waters)

7. Godsmack – (Alice in Chains)

8. Funeral for a Friend – (a multi-layered offense here - after Planes Mistaken for Stars’ song ”Funeral for a Friend” jacked from Elton John’s “Love Lies Bleeding/Funeral for a Friend.”)

9. Turns out I’m unwittingly guilty as well. My most recent group, Auditorium, could be accused of taking our name from the Guided by Voices song.

10. I want to hear from you – there have got to be more out there.

What will acoustic funk favorite Christie Lenee perform from '68?

WMNF’s Flee is straying from his typical tribute show tradition. Instead of having a diverse lineup of local acts honor a single artist he has asked all the bands listed below to cover a tune from 1968 for the community radio station’s upcoming New Year’s Eve bash.

Songs I would like to hear from that year? How about killer renditions of The Rolling Stones’ “Factory Girl,” The Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” and The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.” Seriously, that would be a rad setlist!

Rewind: The WMNF Tribute to the Music and Songs of 1968 w/ Boon/Christie Lenee (pictured)/Crabgrass Cowboys/Ted Lukas/Johnny Zoom/Lush Progress/Midnight Bowler’s League/Rancid Polecats/Roppongi’s Ace/Talk to Mark, Wed., Dec. 31, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa.