Artist: re-issue

Death writes about life, but not as we know it. They profile the dregs of society: the malformed, the defective, the insane. Spiritual Healing opens with “Living Monstrosity”, a song about a baby “born without eyes, hands, and a half a brain” — the product of a coke-addled pregnancy. The band follows with the aptly-named abortion-themed “Altering the Future”. Frontman and chief songwriter Chuck Schuldiner debates both sides of the argument (“Creating a life only to destroy” v. “Abortion when it is needed”) before concluding pro-choice (“The one who is with child, it’s their choice to make”). [...]

Beatle clone songs are a dime a dozen, but few and far between come as close to sounding like the real thing as “Lies” by the Knickerbockers. A full-throttle rocker, fashioned in the mode of “I Saw Her Standing There” and “A Hard Day’s Night,” the disc reached No. 20 on the national charts at the tail end of 1965 [...]

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers axeman John Frusciante has some good, expensive news for his fans. On December 11th, he'll reissue eight of his solo efforts on 180 gram limited edition vinyl via Record Collection. Considering the depth of his discography, the albums in question include 20042s The Will To Death , 20042s Inside of Emptiness , 20042s A Sphere in the Heart of Silence , 20042s DC EP, 20052s Curtains , 20092s The Empyrean , and his work with Ataxia, 20042s  Automatic Writing and 20072s AW II. [...]

You got to take the opportunities when they are available, otherwise, you'll regret it. It's a simple concept I sometimes forget. Couple of years ago I decided to purchase all of Bert Jansch's records on vinyls. I managed to get my hands ... Continue reading �

• Bert Jansch - Heartbreak Hotel
• Bert Jansch - Is It Real?

Before he became a botoxed spewer of conspiracy theories and Rick Santorum endorsements , Dave Mustaine was the archetypal underdog — the former Metallica guitarist who was exiled, disenfranchised, and cast out to fend for himself. He reacted by forging his own metal enterprise, Megadeth . Although never as relevant as Metallica, Megadeth achieved chart success and mainstream prominence with the release of 1992’s Countdown to Extinction , which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and getting the obligatory reissue treatment. It’s the album that got the band on the radio. Recorded in L.A. amid [...]

David Cassidy returns with a mid-80s sound After shucking off his teen-idol career, Cassidy recorded a trio of albums for RCA that garnered little stateside success. When his third RCA album, Gettin’ it in the Street , was shelved, Cassidy retreated from the recording world for nearly a decade, and concentrated on his stage acting career and headlining inLas Vegas. He reengaged his music career with this 1985 album for Arista, spinning off hits in Europe (most notably “The Last Kiss,” featuring Wham’s George Michael on answer vocals), but [...]

David Cassidy’s third and final post-teen idol album for RCA In the two years after David Cassidy walked away from Bell Records and his career as a teen idol, he recorded three albums for RCA. The first, The Higher They Climb , found success in Europe and spun out a pre-Barry Manilow hit recording of Bruce Johnston’s “I Write the Songs.” Cassidy’s second album for RCA, Home is Where the Heart Is failed to chart, as did the pre-release singles from this third [...]

A multitalented teen-idol tears it up live in 1974 In 1974, David Cassidy was on top of the world commercially, but near the end of his run of mainstream fame. He was a talented musician trapped in the body – and career – of a teen idol. His aspirations were starting to exceed what his fans and critics would freely allow him to grasp, and unlike the Beatles, who successfully retreated from the stage to studio, Cassidy’s attempts to grow beyond the confines of his Partridge Family-launched solo career led to artistic accomplishment, but [...]

I first encountered Melbourne, Austrlia's Sugargliders sometime in the 19902s on a Sarah Records compilation called Engine Common that I bought from Go! records in Arlington, Virgina. It wasn't love at first listen though. I remember thinking Fruitloopin' was just a little too twee for me but interesting and catchy. Letter from a Lifeboat was also on that compilatin and had this weird lo-fi sampled beat and mildly funky guitar that I kinda liked. Those two songs stood out on that compilation and I made a mental note to look out for this mysterious [...]

• The Sugargliders - A Nest With A View 1990

2012 remaster of a Christmas classic with two Thanksgiving bonuses Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas did as much to define the Peanuts gang as it did to capture what Charles Schulz wrote in his strip. In the same way that the television special literally animated the characters, Guaraldi’s music provided an emotional soundtrack to which they moved and danced, fleshing out a whole new dimension of the characters’ personalities. Every song on the soundtrack, even the traditional tunes adapted by Guaraldi, quickly become sense memories [...]

Ahh, 1975. The pet rocks. The mood rings. The hair. The mechanical shark that frightened viewers away from oceans, lakes, even a swimming pool or two. Starsky and Hutch . It was the year that Electric Light Orchestra released Face the Music , their first Platinum LP and home of "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic," still two of their finest tracks. Time has passed: some better albums, some lesser ones, a greatest hits album, disbanding, something called "ELO II," scores of licenses, side projects. Bills? Probably. Electric bills, to boot.  There's not [...]

Peter Gabriel's exhaustive new So: 25th Anniversary Immersion Box includes an engaging disc called "SO DNA," which follows the songs' creative process from initial demo versions through to final takes. Listen in as he develops "In Your Eyes." The track begins with a ebullient bounce, almost like a reggae number. That island vibe fits more snugly with Youssou N'Dour's chirping [...]

• Peter Gabriel - So DNA (In Your Eyes)

Jawbreaker are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album Bivouac and Chesterfield King EP with remastered reissues of both released. The digital and CD versions of Bivouac will contain the tracks from Chesterfield King , along with two bonus tracks. They will also both be released on vinyl. Both are set for a December 11, 2012 release. Pre-orders are available here .

Thirty-five years of exquisitely crafted pop For those who lucked into following Shoes from their earliest self-produced living room recordings though their major label stint on Elektra and back to self-production (including this year’s superb hiatus-breaking Ignition ), this collection provides a pleasant, albeit non-chronological, whirlwind through numerous catalog highlights. For those who latched onto Shoes during their major label days, the band’s DIY origin will remain murky, as the set includes only one track from the seminal Black Vinyl Shoes , neither side [...]

Sample of Brubeck’s pre-Columbia work on Fantasy When fans think of Dave Brubeck’s golden era, they usually focus on the quartet of Brubeck, Desmond, Morello and Wright that solidified in 1958 and began a string of memorable albums with 1959’s Time Out on Columbia. Brubeck’s earlier work on Fantasy had set the table with a trio that included Cal Tjader (heard here on drums and bongos, but not vibes), and later with a quartet that introduced Paul Desmond on alto sax. The pre-Desmond pieces are pleasant, though mostly [...]

Much more than just “Linus & Lucy” San Francisco jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi would have been remembered in the popular music conscience for his 1962 hit “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” had he not redefined his legacy three years later with the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas . The animated special’s annual broadcast turned Guaraldi’s score, particularly the instrumental “Linus and Lucy,” into an indelible musical signature. The two bouts of popular acclaim obscured the rest of Guaraldi’s career, which began in the 1950s backing Cal Tjader, [...]

Smoking Popes are reissuing the legendary “Born To Quit”, from 1994, October 23. The reissue comes via Side One Dummy Records. Here we are now, singing along to the whole first half of the record we know by heart. “Need You Around”, “Rubella”, “Gotta Know Right Now”, et al.

Dion’s teen-idol and comeback solo sides for Laurie Dion DiMucci is one of the few first-generation rock ‘n’ rollers to fruitfully navigate the cultural twists and turns of succeeding decades. He had doo-wop hits fronting the Belmonts in the late ‘50s, teen idol solo hits in the early ‘60s, a resurgence in the ‘70s, and a string of albums running through 2008’s Giants of Early Guitar Rock and this year’s Tank Full of Blues that still find him making vital [...]

The Smashing Pumpkins have announced plans for a massive reissue of the band’s classic 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness . Originally packaged as a double album, the reissue will be packaged as a 4xLP, 2xCD, and a digital version. However, there will also be a bigger 5xCD and DVD version available, which includes over 100 tracks. The deluxe reissue includes 64 demos, live tracks, and alternative song takes. But perhaps the most alluring piece in the package is a Decoupage Kit, which you can use to create scenes from [...]

The Very Beast of Dio Vol. 2 picks up where the first volume left off in Dio’s solo career and features tracks from 1996 onward. It’s an interesting period for me in that it features both what I consider Dio’s weakest work, 1996’s Angry Machines, and the record I consider an underrated masterpiece, 2000’s Magica. Also from the time period [...]