Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs.
ARTIST : The Cure
RELEASE: Bestival Live 2011
BACKSTORY: Robert Smith and Co. this week release a 2CD live recording of their full, 32-song set at the U.K.’s Bestival this past September, marking the first official live album from the band since 1993′s Show and Paris releases — and the first time the Cure ever has released a complete concert on disc (see full tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)
ARTIST : Elvis Costello and The Imposters
RELEASE: The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!!
BACKSTORY: Universal Music Enterprises this week releases the box set that Elvis Costello doesn’t want fans to buy (“The price appears to be either a misprint or a satire.”) The set commemorates this year’s revival of the “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” and is culled from May 11 and 12, 2011, concerts in Los Angeles (see tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (Box set
ARTIST : The Cramps
RELEASE: File Under Sacred Music: Early Singles 1978-1981
BACKSTORY: Munster Records this week releases a compilation — both in the form of a single 22-track CD and a limited-edition box set with 10 7-inch singles — of the psychobilly act’s early singles plus some tracks from the same period, 1978-1981, that were never issued in that format. The vinyl set contains six replica sleeves and four new sleeves.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, 7-inch box set)
ARTIST : Peter Murphy
RELEASE: The Secret Bees of Ninth
BACKSTORY: The former Bauhaus leader this week releases a CD version of the six-track EP he released digitally in October; it features previously unreleased songs (“Rose Hunter,” “Good Works,” “Secret”) in addition to “Seesaw Sway,” off his new album Ninth, and the “full version” of Ninth track “Secret Silk Society” (see full tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD)
ARTIST : Gary Numan
RELEASE: Dead Son Rising
BACKSTORY: The synth pioneer this week releases in the U.S. his new CD featuring “a mixture of new songs, instrumental tracks and specially commissioned remixes” that he started selling exclusively through his website in October. The album features tracks such as “The Fall” and “Not the Love We Dream Of” (see tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD)
ARTIST : The Dead Milkmen
RELEASE: The King in Yellow
BACKSTORY: The Philly jokesters this week release a CD edition of their first new album in 15 years, which they self-released as a download back in March. The album features original members Joe Jack Talcum, Dean Clean and Rodney Anonymous, plus bassist Dan Stevens, who replaces the late Dave Blood (see tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD)
ARTIST : Meat Puppets
RELEASE: Out My Way, Mirage, Monsters
BACKSTORY: MVD Entertainment Group this week reissues two more albums and an EP from the psychedelic desert-rockers, all originally released between 1986 and 1989, as part of its ongoing series of re-releases. Each of the discs is supplemented with a number of bonus tracks, including demos and previously unreleased material.
BUY: Amazon.com (Out My Way, Mirage, Monsters)
Just as an FYI, Ive had the Dead Milkmen cd for over a month already. Including it on this list of new releases isnt exactly correct.
It’s new to the rest of us, just saying.
I agree with Elvis on this one. A fantastic tour, which I was lucky enough to have caught in May in Boston, but incredibly overpriced. I also like how the post on his official site suggests a Louie Armstrong boxset instead.
Show from The Cure is still the best live album they ever had. As long as you don’t have Boris and Porl in the band, The Cure would never sound great as they were during their heyday.