Foo Fighters have always enjoyed putting out limited and rare b-sides for their hard core fans, but finding them all can be a big frickin’ problem. To solve this minor dilemma, they compiled the whole lot of cover songs as an album for Record Store Day 2011 and dubbed it Medium Rare. The vinyl included thirteen songs from various EP’s, singles and soundtracks. The CD version, which was released as a companion to Q Magazine subscriptions, was missing the Prince cover of “Darling Nikki.”
As cover albums go, the songs are over the spectrum including numbers from Prince, Joe Walsh, Husker Du, Paul McCartney & Wings, Cream, Gerry Rafferty and few others. The whole album sounds great and gets held together by the Foo Fighters enthusiasm for the material. Taylor Hawkins vocals sound stellar on “Life Of Illusion” and the guitar solo on “Baker Street” is a genuinely glorious bit of ragged string bending.
Thing is, trying to get a copy.
Record stores sold out of this a very long time ago and I’ve only seen one copy in the used bin of my favourite record store (or any other for that matter) once in the last four years. Discogs seem to have the most reasonable prices in the resale market with asking prices in the $100.00 range for either of the CD or vinyl.
On the other hand, e-bay resellers have sealed copies with asking prices that balloon to nearly $250.00 for a CD copy and over $500.00 for the vinyl. However, those high prices are by no means an average, and if you have your eyes open you should be able to snag a copy for under $100.00.
I think the best bet might be to hope for a limited re-issue at some point. The market is certainly there for it, let’s hope Grohl and co. decide it is worth doing.
Brandon Flowers best asset has always been his ability to convey emotion with even the most basic of lyrical content. Look at the Killers “Andy, You’re A Star” which soars like an epic even if the words are no more than jocular reminiscence. So now you have Flowers second solo outing which he has referred to as “what the Killers second record should have sounded like” and expectations begin to run high. BUT – that has always been what Flowers does, he shoots from the hip and sometimes he hits the mark and sometimes… well, not so much.
The Desired Effect comes off as being influenced by the biggest stadium rockers of the 80’s. “Dreams Come True” points towards Born In The USA Springsteen and it is followed by “Can’t Deny My Love” which is reminiscent of Security era Peter Gabriel. However both are bogged down with lyrical metaphors that drip of modern country music formula.
Things pick up by “I Can Change” which runs off a sample of Bronski Beat’s “Small Town Boy”, but I’m unsure if the rise in my attention was really due to Flowers song or his chosen sample. There are moments of playfulness (“Still Want You”), tenderness (“Between Me and You”) and renewed love (“Untangled Love”) but again the images seem to conjure little more than a closing sequence of Friday Night Lights mixed with a soundtrack of “the best songs you didn’t hear in the 80’s.”
The Desired Effect has the unfortunate problem of being bogged down in the sounds of a time long past without a twist of something new. It’s a perfectly pleasant listen but it also comes with a quick expiration date.
Commercial success and critical acclaim together or apart are not really the true measure of an artist’s work. History and public acceptance can ‘transform’ the perspective and create a re-evaluation, or revisionist history towards how the art is viewed. No other work quite typifies this more than Lou Reed and his second solo effort Transformer.
With the Velvet Underground, Reed became a beacon to the outsider experience and while album sales were low, critics and musicians had found a kind of anti-hero on whom to heap praise. Once the Velvets broke up, Reed continued his stories and of counter-culture misfits but to a more commercialized effect on Transformer. Produced by David Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson, Transformer would be heavily influenced by Bowie’s ‘glam’ movement and blur the same androgynous lines. However, Reed would use his own brand of wry observation and deadpan delivery to create characters that lived with and amongst his crowd as opposed to embodying the characters space as Bowie did with Ziggy and Aladdin.
Oddly, it was “Walk On The Wild Side” a song that spoke of transsexuality, oral sex and drug use that propelled the album to heights neither seen by the Velvet Underground or Reed himself in previous efforts. It wouldn’t be until the 1990’s that “Perfect Day” would become an underground hit.
On its release in 1972, Transformer was given mixed reviews by critics who claimed it was overly “art-y” and overly sexual. History of course has shed new light and Transformer has made just about every magazines ‘Best All-Time’ list.
Despite, or maybe due to its recognition, finding vinyl editions of Transformer is pretty easy, but figuring out what works best for you might get a little more difficult. You can find used copies pretty much anywhere. I’m sure a lot of people bought Transformer to get similar material to “Walk On The Wild Side” only to find that it wasn’t like that. As for new, eight official vinyl editions have come out since 2004 with four in just the last three years. On RSD 2012 a straight re-issue was put out in record stores, and is still the most common new copy you will find. In 2013 – 2014 unofficial green and blue versions were released in the UK. Finally, a few weeks ago Newbury Comics put out a Limited Edition half black and half gold version. There were 1200 copies printed and each was gold stamp numbered.
Due to the sheer amount of what is available, you can get most copies of Transformer for less than $30.00 (including the unofficial UK copies). Only the Newbury edition is commanding high prices on the resale market, and that’s pretty damn silly, because you can still get a copy from Newbury for less than $30.00. The split colour looks awesome and indeed sounds great.
You can get it here. Anyway, with his recent induction into the “Rock Hall” you can expect some renewed interest and copies of Transformer may begin to disappear. You might want to give that some thought if you’ve been sitting on the fence.
So much more than just another ‘alt-rock’ or ‘metal’ band Faith No More could pack influences into music so tightly I would have no other choice but to call it ‘genre skipping.’ Crazy as that sounds they do it in individual songs. Funk, hip hop, metal, and even easy listening soft rock balladry naturally bounce around so well you’ld think they were a basketball.
Add that to the fact that Mike Patton is the best living rock vocalist on the planet (seriously, he has a vocal range that stretches six octaves) and you have a powerful explanation as to why music fans are salivating at the mere thought of a new Faith No More record.
Eighteen years between records and Faith No More not only picks up from where they left off, but do it as if both a love letter to fans and kiss off to anyone else. In fact, the feel of Sol Invictus is far more reminiscent of Angel Dust than the commercially lauded The Real Thing. The result is an album that just seems to go in whatever direction the wind is blowing at any given moment. Which isn’t to say that Faith No More lets anything get away from them, but rather that the transitions seem natural.
The title track opens with a bit of a circus atmosphere before breaking off into atmospheric melody. “Superhero” takes medal riffs and builds them towards a climatic cliff that is followed by the sinister “Sunny Side Up” which comes off as the proclamations of a narcissist. Characters are littered throughout Sol Invictus creating a type of epic short story one might imagine as the work of Flannery O’Connor or Richard Bachman. Listening to “Black Friday” as it describes living in the “age of the mercenary” comes with the realization that hope is a matter of perspective. Faith No More may not have created a pop masterpiece, but they have made a record that tells dark stories of broken people in vivid sonic colours. Sol Invictus is an album that stays with you long after the needle has lifted, and compelling enough to keep you up long after your head hits the pillow.
For you fans of vinyl, Faith No More have given you a couple options. Sol Invictus can be ordered in clear (limited edition) or black 140 gram vinyl and of course their web store also has a variety of bundles to make a true music geek happy.
To say that …Like Clockwork was a loved record would be an understatement, it was pretty much universally praised as a great record. In hindsight Josh Homme was screaming to the world that Queens Of The Stone Age were now the greatest hard rock band since “fill in your own blank.” Almost two years since its release and “I Sat By The Ocean” can be heard almost daily on the radio. Josh Homme must have had an inkling it was great before it was even released because he handed fans an abundance of options to not only purchase it in multi formats, but four different vinyl versions as well. Three of those wax options were on the very day of release.
1) 2x vinyl 12” that plays at 45rpm with a red cover
2) 2x vinyl 12” limited edition (10000 copies) 150 gram vinyl plays at 45 rpm with a blue album cover
3) 2x vinyl 12” limited edition 180 gram vinyl plays at 45rpm with an oversized gatefold cover containing a 20 page book
Then, with the album already selling very well came Record Store Day/Black Friday and the band put out option #4; the so called Black On Black Friday Edition. Limited to 2400 copies the cover art was in black and inside was a 180 gram vinyl record.
Now the funny thing about these options, are the crazy prices that vinyl resellers are asking for them. In some cases, sealed copies of the black cover and the blue cover editions have asking prices of over a $100.00 but used copies can be found for under $35.00. Funnier still were that I found people asking $35.00 for a new copy of the standard red cover edition and the deluxe book set for another $100.00. The reason I find this funny is that the bands own website still has these for sale for less money. WAY LESS! The standard vinyl is $19.99 and the deluxe is $44.99 American.
Honestly, if you’re looking at purchasing …Like Clockwork on vinyl, go to your local record store before you start thinking about the online re-sellers. Great sounding new records are still available. I’ve even seen a couple of the blue covers kickin’ around at regular prices.
The problem I always run into when dealing with classic albums and their vinyl re-issues is the sheer amount of arguing that goes on between audiophiles on which version is definitive and blah blah blah. I mean honestly, there were twenty-nine different vinyl versions of Combat Rock covering (almost) every continent on the planet during its initial release. I don’t have the time or inclination to read a music-geek argument about the South Korean release being superior to the Brazilian edition which may or may not have better quality vinyl than the Yugoslavian wax. I find myself yelling at the poor monitor “I just want to know if the re-master sounds good.”
So here is what I found out…
Throughout 2012 Mick Jones was working on re-mastering the entire Clash catalogue for a 2013 release. Three editions of Combat Rock hit the streets along with other vinyl re-masters covering the entire Clash catalogue.
The first version was put out by Columbia Records for the European market on 180 gram black vinyl. The second was released by Music On Vinyl in the Netherlands which also has a pretty big online and mail-order presence and the third was put out (on 180 gram vinyl again) by Sony (Epic) for North American distribution.
All 2013 vinyl was released using the newly re-mastered Mick Jones analog source tapes. Actually, there is a really good Rolling Stone interview that has Mick Jones describing the process. It’s pretty cool.
If you are looking to get a copy of any of The Clash records on vinyl, the 2013 versions are widely available through record retailers both locally and abroad. Oh yeah – the re-master sounds good… real good!
For some music artist’s success is the beginning of that quest for more success and growth is the drive towards a more popular sound. History has given us so many examples and it’s hard to even pick the most relevant story. The end result though is a popular record that you hear playing while a hygienist has weird metal instruments in your mouth at the dentist’s office.
Like Phil Collins era Genesis, or for a more modern example Coldplay, Mumford & Sons has become a band that plays it safe. They drive at the speed limit, obey all the road signs and are the perfect band to play when your mom is in the car with you.
Of course, that doesn’t make this a bad album, songs such as “Believe” and “Cold Arms” are reminiscent of Don Henley’s “The End Of The Innocence” and The Eagles “I Can’t Tell You Why,” while “The Wolf” and “Broad-Shouldered Beasts” lean towards Joshua Tree style U2. However such familiarity with something that is released today makes me wonder about artistry and originality. Wilder Mind is original in that it was created by a group of people writing songs that did not previously exist. From there they spent time in a studio putting together the best possible mix for the songs to take on a life of their own. These guys worked their tails off to put out music the masses would enjoy and for that I greatly admire their dedication towards the craft.
Wilder Mind could become a monster of an album. It has all the ingredients of a blockbuster record. However, like the Hollywood re-boot phenomenon of recent years, it seems like I’ve seen this all before, it’s just a different cast.
You can pick up Wilder Mind everywhere they sell music…
The thing about Hendrix is that new fans are born every day. When I was at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame a few years back the Hendrix display was frequented by people of all ages, but especially those of the teenage persuasion. Like the Beatles, the star over Hendrix never dims.
However, when it comes to buying vinyl for Hendrix the choices are both vast and rather confusing. Axis: Bold as Love is a great case in point. Since its original 1967 release in the UK, there have been no less than 137 versions put out across multiple formats. Even its original release had variations from country to country whether it was mono vs. stereo or the cover art itself.
For some reason the French releases put out by Barclay’s all did different cover art for the official Hendrix releases. The French cover art is outstanding, but does add to a bit of confusion when you’re trying to find a definitive version. You need to do a bit of research if you are considering jumping into used copies as there are so many. Also, there have been a few colour vinyl releases of the Barclay cover version recently kicking around that are both unofficial and of questionable quality.
As for the original cover, there have been a few recent options that would allow you to buy new quality vinyl. Sony had Axis: Bold as Love re-mastered in 2010 for re-release across multiple formats, and in 2013 they re-mastered the original mono version of the album. This 2013 release has been the basis for both 180 gram and 200 gram audiophile vinyl that is widely available now, with the original gatefold cover that opens up and unfolds as a big picture.
Even cooler, Newbury Comics has re-released the mono 200 gram vinyl edition in a limited (2500 foil numbered) translucent orange vinyl. It’s both great looking and great sounding.
If you are looking to buy some Hendrix on vinyl this is a great way to start. Hit your local record store for the black 200 gram vinyl, or you can click here for Newbury Comics.
I missed out on their advance release when I wasn’t paying attention. Still, a great record I’ll probably talk about soon. Maybe even in the next few hours. They just create such great imagery.
“Don’t Wanna Fight” – Alabama Shakes
Reviewed this on Tuesday and it’s just so damn hard to listen to anything else. It is such an awesome piece of work I’m going to need copies for all my relevant locations.
“Bobby Jean” – Bruce Springsteen
Looked back at this earlier in the week, than I got word that a childhood friend had died; suddenly this song started making me cry. Just the idea that we never really say goodbye before people leave us, and we never have a clue what they meant until that door is forever closed.
“Just Like Anyone” – Aimee Mann
Another song about loss, except this one… well it speaks for itself.
“Don’t Look Back In Anger” – Oasis
Not sure what it is about this song, how it works as both depressing and up lifting at the same time. It pulled me out of a darker mood.
“The Rescue Blues (Live)” – Ryan Adams
Officially the most freakin’ expensive vinyl I own after shipping and duty charges. I wish someone would tell me how much duty I’d have to pay before I finish my order, as good as this record is I had to pay an extra frickin’ charge when UPS showed up at my door!
“I Don’t Want Control Of You” – The New Mendicants
Joe Pernice and Norman Blake were playing in town yesterday, unfortunately I wasn’t able to go, so I drowned my sorrows in their music.
“It Don’t Come Easy” – Ringo Starr
Back in university a friend and I wrote a movie script that featured this song in a very prominent position. It would have been hilarious…
“I Don’t Mind” – Sebadoh
Sebadoh just announced a show and the release of a new single… a cover of a famous Canadian single just because they love us. You can order here.
“Real Wild Child” – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
The first song off her RSD 15 offering Flashback… which rocks in case you were wondering.
“The Witch” – The Sonics
I’ll cover this song and album soon, but wow, I wish I had known about them when I was a teen.
“Ong Ong” – Blur
Off the new Blur album, I’ll have a review for ya by Tuesday.
“Blue Orchid” – The White Stripes
Posted about this album… holy cash grab, and I’m not talking about the record company or artist. Just look for Get Behind Me Satan on e-bay and you’ll understand.
“Limelight” – Rush
The original song before the Sebadoh cover arrives in May.
“Gold” – John Stewart
Sad storytelling at its AM radio best! Took me a while to find as all I had remembered was a couple lines and that Stevie Nicks was doing background vocals.
“Raspberry Beret” – Hindu Love Gods
You’ll understand why they’re included when I put the Blur review out. Besides, it’s a great cover of a great song.
“Spectacular” – Graham Coxon
Graham Coxon takes a most rockin’ riff and turns it into a sing along anthem.
“Black Nite Crash” – Ride
Think I’ll write about this album next week, so it gave me an excuse to add this song.
“Sophisticated Gentleman” – Gabby Glaser
My son used to ‘rock out’ in the backseat as we drove around and this song was playing. I actually sent a quick message to her about it and she wrote back thanking me. Seems odd getting thanks from the person who provided my son and I with the soundtrack to happy memories! Oh yeah Luscious Jackson got back together and have a kids record out, you should check it out here.
“Happy Kid” – Nada Surf
Just a damn good song by a damn good band! After the past week I needed something that would make me smile?
I lived through it the first time, and it’s taken thirty years for it to stop being a bad soundtrack to everything 1984 and 1985. Maybe you had to be there, but Born In The USA was everywhere. Seven hit singles will do that. People who wouldn’t give Bruce the time of day were claiming to be his biggest fan and scrambling to buy tickets as he rolled into town in the summer of ’85. The local news networks went nuts when they thought it would rain on him… which you know it didn’t if you read my George Thorogood post from a couple days back.
In fact, this may have been the first honest to goodness ‘backlash’ record of my teens. An artist you really like puts out something so big, you get sick of it without ever having to buy the record. Sure there were other big records out in the 80’s, but I wasn’t into Michael Jackson or Lionel Richie or… well, a whole lot of the music that was everywhere on every station no matter where you listened.
So it is that thirty years later I’m listening to Born In The USA for the first time, on a turntable, with two speakers, and it sounds great. It sounds like I should have listened to it thirty years ago on a different turntable with a crappy set of speakers, or a cassette that would get worn down.
What strikes me as odd is that it was this big. That people missed the messages of broken dreams and desolation strewn throughout the record. That amongst the repeated chorus of so-called sing along tunes that seemed oh so patriotic were messages of just how screwed up everything was. I’m not sure how anyone could have missed it; all his previous works had these types of stories and people. Still, Born In The USA was for many people where Bruce (the Boss) Springsteen ended. I never stopped being a fan, but I didn’t follow him into those personal albums that followed. Stories of marriage and divorce didn’t really interest me in my early twenties, and the music reflected the change in direction with the E-Street Band no longer in the picture.
In fact by the 90’s, no one even talked about Bruce anymore. He won Grammy Awards, his music was featured in huge films, but amongst the music geeks of the world, Bruce was merely a shadow of the past or worse, a classic rock dinosaur; an artist relegated to being a nostalgia act.
This is where a bit of revisionist history sets in. When first, The Rising (2002) and later The Seeger Sessions (2006) came out, middle aged former hipsters started to take notice again. Springsteen began touring with the E-Street Band and now a few short years later those same people who had wrote Springsteen off were scrambling for tickets and posting pictures of themselves at concerts on Instagram.
It was all very curious to me as a music fan. As Bruce started to drift back towards political commentary through epic storytelling, fans came back – myself included. It’s just that I wasn’t sure how artist denial played in. Personally, I was never embarrassed to be a fan, but there was a time twenty years ago where many people thought it just wasn’t cool to admit it.
Anyway, Record Store Day young and old hipsters alike lined up and bought the early Springsteen records on vinyl, and I bought the one Springsteen record I had avoided since its release. The guy behind the counter, at least twenty years my junior said “you’re really gonna love this,” and as it turns out, I do.
barrettbites 