Thursday, November 3, 2011

Vinyl Record News & Music Notes

Beatles Top The List Of World's Most Valuable Record Sleeves

Record Collector Magazine's Top Ten Listed

A Beatles sleeve featuring the faces of music executives in place of the Fab Four has been declared the world's most valuable record cover. An LP sleeve, a variation on The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover, has been valued at over $100,000 by Record Collector Magazine.

The heftily-priced limited edition Sgt Pepper sleeve was created for Christmas 1967 to celebrate the success of the album. Sir Peter Blake's original collage image was revamped to insert the faces of US label bosses from Capitol Records, replacing the band and many of the other notable figures who had originally featured, although Bob Dylan and Sonny Liston were among those who were retained. Only around 100 are thought to have been made, with just three known copies in the hands of collectors. The list of the most valuable record sleeves also includes the famous banned "butcher" sleeve which was briefly issued in the US, and some of the numbered copies of their 1968 self-titled release, often known as the 'White Album.'

Ian Shirley, editor of the Rare Record Price Guide 2012, who compiled the list, said: "While pristine records and inserts are vital to securing a top price, the numbered sleeve is the main attraction. The hunger to collect low numbers remains undiminished amongst Beatles fans."

Record Collector editor Ian McCann said: “Every so often I get asked why vinyl persists as a music medium despite it being archaic and inconvenient compared to MP3.

“One of the answers is the artwork: people like to hold a vinyl record, look at the sleeve, take in the information and the photo on the cover. That is something that an MP3 will never be able to compete with.”

Record Collector’s Top 10 list of most valuable album sleeves:

1. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [limited edition Capitol version] (1967)

2. The Beatles - The Beatles (1968). Numbers 1-10

3. Madrigals - Magic Key To Spanish Volumes 1 and 2 (1953) £3,500; The Nation's Nightmare (1951)

4. The Beatles - Introducing The Beatles (1964)

5. The Beatles/Frank Ifield - England's Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage (1964)

6. Tinkerbell's Fairydust - Tinkerbell's Fairydust (1969)

7. AC/DC - 12 Of The Best (1978)

8. The Beatles - Yesterday And Today (1966)

9. Dark - Dark Round The Edges (1972)

10. Hank Mobley - Hank Mobley (1957)

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SHATTER® SOUNDTRACK GETS LIMITED EDITION VINYL RELEASE

Pre-orders now available for acclaimed soundtrack on vinyl

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – November 3, 2011 – Console developer Sidhe announced today the highly acclaimed soundtrack from their award winning game, Shatter, will be available on vinyl as an exclusive limited edition release. Musician extraordinaire, Jeramiah “Module” Ross, has edited and remastered his original soundtrack for vinyl to ensure the highest quality reproduction and a superior listening experience.

“It is really great to hear the quality that this format gives you straight off the bat,” said Ross, who continues to work with Sidhe on other projects “I have edited the core Shatter music tracks and re-mastered them via Abbey Road Studios at the highest possible audio settings for you all to enjoy. Big thanks for all the support, awards and many fans from the last two years”.

Featuring 10 remastered tracks, a 300gsm 12” matte laminate stock sleeve with spot UV gloss overprint, and distinctive translucent blue 12” vinyl, this individually numbered and signed limited edition album is a must have for any game collector, music enthusiast or vinyl addict. Purchasers of the vinyl album will also receive an immediate download of original 13-track album, and a Steam download code for Shatter on PC delivered separately. The album can be ordered from sidhe.bandcamp.com

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here is the latest news from dangerbirdrecords.com

Silversun Pickups Seasick 10" Vinyl Release Coming November 25th

Silversun Pickups and Dangerbird Records will celebrate Record Store Day’s upcoming “Back to Black Friday” festivities on November 25th with a brand new 10” vinyl release entitled Seasick.

The Seasick 10” vinyl features three previously unreleased songs from the Swoon recording sessions – “Seasick,” “Broken Bottles,” and “Ribbons & Detours.”

The vinyl will be available at independent music shops on November 25th, and the digital version will be on iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rdio, Spotify and all digital service providers on December 13th.



The Fling

What I've Seen

Digital/Vinyl Exclusive

The Fling are set to release their seven song EP What I’ve Seen on Dangerbird Records on November 1st – their second release for the label following their LP When The Madhouses Appear. The EP highlights the band’s lush guitar sound-scapes and ethereal harmonies on songs written by brothers Graham and Dustin Lovelis as well as newest addition, Joel Bond.

Of the EP, Graham says, “What I’ve Seen is a collection of songs that were written and recorded very quickly. That process helped capture the band’s unfiltered sound. Some of the songs came into the studio as adults and knew exactly what they wanted while others were in the awkward, pre-teen stages and needed some navigation. We purposefully went into the studio with unrehearsed songs to liven the sessions. The chaos that comes with letting a young song run rampant is one of the most stimulating experiences that artists can have. It’s very engaging for everyone in the room. The kids get vicious, talk back and you have to discipline them. They become our messed up little family that we have to tame. We’re very pleased with the end result and how varied, yet cohesive it came out. It has a mood disorder.  It goes back and forth from sunny and upbeat to dark and heavy with no warning and that is how we like it. That’s how life is.”



Sea Wolf to Release Limited Edition 7" Vinyl on November 25th

For Record Store Day’s “Back to Black Friday” event on November 25th, Dangerbird Records will be issuing a limited edition 7” vinyl piece from Sea Wolf featuring two rare & unreleased songs, “Song of the Magpie,” and “Where The Wind Blows.”

“Song of the Magpie” was written for the 2008 audio version of Augusten Burroughs book, A Wolf at the Table. “Where The Wind Blows” was also written in 2008 and recorded during the White Water, White Bloom sessions.

The vinyl will be available at independent music shops on November 25th, and the digital version will be on iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rdio, Spotify and all digital service providers on December 13th.

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into my email box recently:

MEN AT ADVENTURE

Chop Thru It b/w The Ballad

7” vinyl | Digital Download

RELEASE: NOVEMBER 8TH, 2011

This is the music of the champion, jammin' 7er. This is the most exciting moment in music right here, gorilla. Ladies and gentlemen this is the main event, from East Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at a combined age of one hundred and forty three, Men At Adventure! The 7 inches of debut will be available November 8th, 2011 in select stores and online.

The A-side features instant classic "Chop Thru It", a Stooges-esque mid-tempo creeper with a grunge-y Mudhoney glaze. "Looks like some sick little kid's gone and thrown up in here!" howls singer/guitarist Dave Paterson. Proto-punk meets post-punk? “Far fuckin' out, man” replies bassist Jake Goodman.

I wouldn't kick the B-side out of bed for eating crackers either. "The Ballad", a murder ballad to be exact, is a neo-stoner take on 90s San Diego post-hardcore. Like a showdown between Drive Like Jehu and their DC rivals, it's a full-on shoot-out with Cory Gagnes’ snare providing the gunshots, and there's only one way to find out who's the last man standing...

This is what we've all been waiting for the mega powers will explode! Includes free download with added bonus tracks!! A Storyboard Label Singles Collection release, this thing is rarer than French hamburger meat. Limited to 333 copies on semen-colored vinyl, with hand-screened jackets featuring artwork by guitarist Jeffry Lee, good luck getting your collector-nerd hands on one of these puppies!

The Storyboard Label (SBL) is an enthusiastically independent arts initiative facilitating the production, promotion, and dissemination of emerging talents in Art, Music, and Publishing. SBL is based in Vancouver, Canada. storyboardlabel.com 

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fanatstic write up about one of the best songwriters we have, read on:

Refusing to settle, Paul Simon brings new music to KC

His recent CD, ‘Beautiful,’ reflects his desire to ‘keep changing all the time.’

By TIMOTHY FINN The Kansas City Star

On his latest album, “So Beautiful or So What,” Paul Simon takes his listeners into heaven, which his song says isn’t the place everyone thinks it is.

Rather, it’s a lot like many Earthly bureaucracies.

To a shuffly and funky beat with a Zydeco flavor, he sings: “I thought it was odd there was no sign of God / Just to usher me in / Then a voice from above sugarcoated with love / Said, ‘Let us begin / You got to fill out a form first / And then you wait in the line.”

Lyrically and musically, Simon has been taking listeners to places worldly and otherwise for more than 45 years, since his earliest days with Simon & Garfunkel.

Read more at kansascity.com

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yes, this guy is still alive :O)

Willie Nelson Covers Country Classics on New Album

Willie Nelson will release a new album of country covers, Remember Me, Vol. 1, on Nov. 21 on R&J Records. A second volume is expected next year. Nelson teamed with producer James Stroud for the project. The track list stretches from the mid-1940s, including Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys' "Roly Poly" and Tex Williams' "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette"), to 1989, with Vern Gosdin's "That Just About Does It." However, most of the material originates from the 1950s, including classics from Tennessee Ernie Ford, George Jones, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb and Porter Wagoner, along with Rosemary Clooney's 1954 pop hit, "This Old House." Nelson also covers Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down" (1970) and Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again" (1970) and Ramblin' Fever" (1977).


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and in music history for the day:

In 1957, Sam Cooke appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to sing "You Send Me", but is cut off before he can finish the number when the show ran out of time. He is invited to come back next month.


CVR Blog 45rpmFacts

In 1957, "At the Hop" was released by Danny & the Juniors. The song sold 7,000 copies in and around Philadelphia when it was first issued on the small independent Singular label. This song stayed on the top of US charts for nearly 7 weeks and sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

The song was written by White, Medora and Singer in 1957, when Danny & the Juniors were still called The Juvenairs. Initially called "Do the Bop", the song was heard by Dick Clark, who suggested they change its name. After performing the song on Clark's show American Bandstand, it gained popularity and went to the top of the US charts.

Danny and the Juniors were the Philadelphia group of Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova. At the time, they were known as The Juvenairs. They were on a street corner singing when a someone who worked at a recording studio heard them and brought them in to sing. The "Bah"'s go in this order of singers:

Bah 1, Terranova (also does the Oh, Baby)
Bah 2, Rapp (Lead Singer and choreographer. He committed suicide in 1983 in a Holiday Inn in Arizona with a shotgun, he owned a black 1958 Impala Convertible with a continental kit)
Bah 3, Maffei (First Tenor)
Bah 4, White (Second Tenor)

The song describes the scene at a record hop, particularly the dances being performed and the interaction with the disc jockey host.

Sha-Na-Na played this at Woodstock in 1969. They were relatively unknown at the time and performed covers of '50s hits and Doo-Wop songs. Their Woodstock performance, which preceded Jimi Hendrix, helped launch their career, which led to their own TV show in 1977.



In 1962, a song called "He's A Rebel" topped the Billboard Hot 100, credited to The Crystals. In reality, the song was recorded by a trio known as the Blossoms, featuring lead singer Darlene Love. Phil Spector had hastily put the song together while The Crystals were out of town and put their name on the label because they had already had two top twenty hits with "There's No Other" and "Uptown".

In 1967, Pink Floyd make their US debut at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The tour will come to an early end when Syd Barrett displays increasingly strange behavior, refusing to lip sync to "Arnold Layne" on American Bandstand and refusing to answer questions on The Pat Boone Show.

In 1967, the Beatles completed filming of Magical Mystery Tour.

In 1976, country rock band Firefall was awarded a Gold record for their self-titled debut album, which includes the #9 US hit single, "You Are the Woman".

In 1979 British musician Robin Scott, using the pseudonym M, topped the US singles chart with a Techno-Pop, dance tune called "Pop Muzik". The record had reached number two in England the previous May.

The U2 concert movie "Rattle And Hum" opened in 1988.

In 1990, the Righteous Brothers' version of "Unchained Melody" rose to #1 on the UK singles chart 25 years after it had first been released. The track had recently been featured in the film Ghost.


Also in 1990, “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice became the first rap record to top the US singles chart. The track was initially released as the B-side to the rapper’s cover of “Play That Funky Music,” and became the A-side after US DJs started playing the track. music has never been the same since!

In 1991, a free concert in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was held to honor the memory of promoter Bill Graham, who was killed in a helicopter crash the week before. Journey, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Grateful Dead and Joan Baez were the featured acts.

Also in 1991, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Booker T. & The M.G.s, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, The Isley Brothers, Sam & Dave and The Yardbirds are elected to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

'Keep The Faith' by Bon Jovi was released in 1992. It was their first album in 5 years.

John Denver's last recording, "The Unplugged Collection," was released in the UK in 1997.

In 1998, in the US, Alanis Morissette's "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie," Beck's "Mutations," Celine Dion's "These Are Special Times," U2's "The Best of 1980-1990," and the John Lennon boxed set "Anthology" were all released.

In 2002, Santana topped the Billboard album chart with "Shaman", their fourth US #1 album. It would later be certified Double Platinum by the RIAA on the strength of the singles "The Game of Love" and "Why Don't You & I".

In 2002, the king of Skiffle, Lonnie Donegan, died at the age of 71, midway through a UK tour. One of the most successful recording artists of the pre-Beatles era, Donegan had three number one hits and numerous Top 10 entries on the UK chart. In the US he was best known for the Top Ten hits, "Rock Island Line" and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Over Night".

birthdays today (among others) include: Lulu (born Marie Lawrie) (63), Adam Ant (born Stuart Goddard) (57) and Mick Thomson (Slipknot) (38)