If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Street Date - 11/11/08

Can you see me? I'm the one holding the new Taylor Swift CD.

I was all prepared to break the news that this was another light week for worthwhile new releases. Instead, I was going to share a video of Fred Travalena singing "Here's To The Winners," from 1989's Chabad Telethon. But lucky for you, I got the date wrong. Next week is the light week. So let's get to it.





TRACY CHAPMAN- OUR BRIGHT FUTURE
It's been three years since her critically acclaimed 2005 release "Where You Live," and 20 years since I listened to a note of her music. That doesn't mean anything really, she just wasn't my cup of tea.





CHEAP TRICK BUDOKAN (30TH ANNIVERSARY) One of my favorite bands of all time, yet their biggest seller is my least favorite. Plus, this is now the third, possibly fourth version of this live album. This time it's a big box that includes three CDs and one DVD. Two of those CDs are given over to a reissue of 98's The Complete Concert, while the third is devoted to the second show the band gave two nights later at the same venue -- and the DVD captures that same show in a concert originally broadcast on Japanese TV and available commercially here for the first time. Got that? Buy "Next Position Please" instead.



FLAMIN' GROOVIES- THIS IS RED HOT (1969-1979)

First multi-label anthology from this legendary and highly influential Bay Area rock and roll band. Here's a track list for ya:

Love Have Mercy
The First One's Free
Apart From That
Comin' After Me
Second Cousin
Childhood's End
Headin' For The Texas Border
Teenage Head
High Flyin' Baby
32-20
Have You Seen My Baby?
Doctor Boogie
Yesterday's Numbers
Slow Death
Married Woman
Get A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues
Shake Some Action
You Tore Me Down
Yes It's True
I Saw Her
Good Laugh Mun
Yes I Am
First Plane Home
Jumpin' In The Night


HARD SELL PICK OF THE WEEK

GENESIS 1970-1975

It's pretentious and expensive. It's altogether ooky. And it's one of the most anticipated reissues of the year...for me, at least.

Genesis was three bands, not two, as most people like to believe. There was the MTV, Steve Hackett-less, hitmaking machine of the eighties, the underrated "what do we now that Peter is gone" band of the late seventies, and the band that is represented in this monster set. Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Steve Hackett created some of the most memorable and treasured albums of the seventies, and this set presents them all in superior sound. Each of the LPs gets remastered for CD and a surround sound 5.1 mix for DVD-A. Each LP now features a wealth of bonus tracks--b sides, live versions and unreleased gems, as well, PLUS, video content that includes rare concert footage and TV appearances. You get, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and the unjustly tossed aside, pre-Phil Collins, official, full length Genesis debut Trespass. If you call in the next 5 minutes, you will receive this fine potato slicer, absolutely free. (as I said, it's a hard sell)



NEW ORDER REISSUES

Brotherhood, Low Life, Technique, Movement, and Power, Corruption, and Lies all get the deluxe treatment with new remastering and a bonus disc of unreleased tracks and rare remixes. (They're no Genesis, but some of this stuff is great. Some of it.)



THE NITECAPS- GO TO THE LINE

This lost gem of the 80s was on deck for my next "Where Are They Now" post, but those whippersnappers over at Wounded Bird got to it first. I found this about that:

Top-notch production from Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Dexy's Midnight Runners, Madness) and the full-time assistance of the Uptown Horns, The Nitecaps had some small claim to fame when they entered the studio; guitarist/vocalist Jahn Xavier had played in The Voidoids, bassist Peter Jordan had been subbing in The New York Dolls. Go To The Line went in a different direction: horn-flavored new wave/pop similar to English Beat and Haircut One Hundred.

I saw these guys at the Peppermint Lounge in 1981 and I was hooked. Nice to see this finally available.



SEAL- SOUL

A covers record that features takes on "A Change Is Gonna Come," "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "If You Don't Know Me By Now," and "Stand By Me." Here is my question- do any singers have a decent record collection, or just the shitty cover records by other singers? Why is it always the same damn songs?



WARREN ZEVON- COLLECTORS' EDITION

Zevon's brilliant debut gets the royal treatment with improved sound and a bonus CD of alternate takes and demos. This is the record with the pre- LInda Ronstadt versions of 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and "Carmelita," as well as the absolutely riveting "Desperados Under The Eaves." BUY THIS ONE NOW!!



TAYLOR SWIFT- FEARLESS

This kid's all over the place. Thought I should mentioned it.


And now, without further ado, Mr. Fred Travalena.