La-La Land: A Visual Guide

La-La Land Records’ Facebook page put up a fun little graphic, as seen above, of all their soundtrack reissues and releases from this year. Note there are still four titles to go (set to be announced on Black Friday, November 26). Any that you’ve gotten? Any guesses for the last four? Sound off below.

Reissue Theory: NOW That’s What I Call Missing

Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. With another entry in the NOW That’s What I Call Music series out in the U.S. today, we reflect on the series’ original entries across the pond…and the titles in the series that have yet to appear on CD.

Today in the States, a new entry in the NOW That’s What I Call Music series was released (the 36th in the main series, not counting specialty compilations or holiday sets). Of course, pop geeks and international fans would know that’s but a drop in the bucket compared to the original, U.K.-based line of NOW sets; that series is reaching its 77th volume at the end of the month.

The NOW sets have succeeded in the U.K. for a number of simple reasons: they’re thoroughly presented slices of what the British mainstream pop charts look like, and they pack a lot of music on each title (each of which are two-disc sets for about the price of one). Frankly, it’s amazing the trend didn’t catch on in America sooner. But the NOW series, deep though it may be, has a few bits lost in the cracks that would be prime picks for reissue – and as such, the focus of this week’s Reissue Theory.

Head inside to see what we’re talking about.

New Live Doors Release Forthcoming

Fans of The Doors have two things to be happy about. First, outgoing Florida governor Charlie Crist is considering pardoning late frontman Jim Morrison for that little indecent exposure kerfluffle back in 1969. Second, Rhino’s releasing an archival set by The Doors in two weeks.

Live in Vancouver 1970 is a two-disc set capturing the band’s show at the Pacific National Coliseum on June 6, 1970. The set features one very special guest: blues legend Albert King, who opened for the set and sits in for much of the middle of the set.

Pre-order the set from Amazon and check out the track list after the jump. Live in Vancouver 1970 is released November 22.

Review: The Monkees, “Head: Deluxe Edition”

Once upon a time, the undisputed king of the box set was Rhino Records. The label gave us a brain in a box, an old phonograph to house the masterworks of Ray Charles, a crate of eight tracks to take us back to a more soulful time, and a hatbox filled with the most effervescent girl group sounds possible, just to name a few. (Shag carpets, coffee beans and a carrying case for 45s figured prominently in a few other such packages.) Of late, these lavish sets haven’t appeared with great frequency; I feared 2009 was the last hurrah, when the Warner Music Group-owned company delivered exquisite collections from Big Star, Frank Sinatra and Rod Stewart, and exciting multi-artist sets devoted to Woodstock and the Los Angeles music scene of yesteryear. But leave it to Andrew Sandoval and the Monkees to keep the good times coming.

Producer Sandoval had already expanded the Monkees catalogue in the 1990s with Rhino reissues of each of the band’s titles containing bonus tracks and new liner notes. Around this time, I began referring to the Monkees as “the Beatles of Rhino,” as the band was clearly the label’s crown jewel. And I found myself wondering why the Fab Four weren’t accorded the same kind of quality treatment over at EMI/Apple. Sandoval and the Rhino team finished the core catalogue, but in 2006, a series of 2-CD mono/stereo expansions began. (A deluxe box set dedicated to the group’s acclaimed Headquarters LP had also arrived from the Rhino Handmade imprint.) This series, however, ended in 2007 with the release of the band’s fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd. So it was to much surprise in early 2010 that Rhino Handmade released the Monkees’ fifth album, The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees in a beautiful three-disc box set that doubled as an art object, with a 3-D lenticular cover. Some months later, the label and producer Sandoval have unveiled a similar set for the trippiest Monkees album of all, the soundtrack to Head (Rhino Handmade RHM2 525670). (The film itself will be released later this year on DVD and in its Blu-Ray debut.)

This is a box set fully in the grand tradition of Rhino’s history, and most definitely for the hardcore collector. It’s the kind of box I cherish most, a set that’s not designed for casual listening but rather for full immersion in the music, with copious liner notes as your guide. Speaking of those liner notes (by Sandoval and Rachel Lichtman), the Beatles comparisons don’t escape them, either. But I can’t help find it ironic that as of this writing in late 2010, the Beatles still have not released a box set or deluxe edition comparable to the one currently in my hands. Hit the jump to feed your Head with more details!

Release Round-Up: Week of November 9

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes: Deluxe Edition (Geffen/UMe)

With a bonus disc of B-sides and unreleased outtakes and an optional Blu-Ray audio version, audiophiles hopefully won’t have a reason to say “don’t do me like that” with this set. (Official site)

Bon Jovi, Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (Island)

If 1994’s Cross Road isn’t enough of a Bon Jovi comp for you, this career-spanning set (available in single and double-disc formats) combines all the usual hits with two new tracks (or four, depending on what set you buy). (Official site)

Elvis Presley, Viva ELVIS: The Album (RCA/Legacy)

The King gets his own equivalent to The Beatles’ Love, complete with a soundtrack of remixed, re-imagined classics. (More material you’re not going to find on the box set.) (Official site)

The Rolling Stones, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (Box Set) (Eagle)

The Stones’ classic Exile-era concert film (just recently released on DVD) is paired with this year’s The Stones in Exile and a bunch of bonus material in a limited, numbered box. (Amazon)

Bing Crosby, The Crosby Christmas Sessions (Collector’s Choice) / The Television Specials Volume 2: The Christmas Specials (Infinity)

Hooray for Christmas catalogue titles! Collector’s Choice honors Bing’s holiday spirit with a trove of mostly-unreleased Yuletide tracks, while Infinity Entertainment gets his holiday television specials on DVD. (Official site)

Intrada Readies “Patton,” “Gator” for Battle

Two fan favorite titles were announced by Intrada last night: a newly-expanded soundtrack for the classic film Patton (1970) and a reissue of the score to the cult classic Gator (1976).

Film fans remember Patton for George C. Scott’s famed portrayal of the controversial American general during World War II. (Scott won an Oscar for the role – and became the first person to refuse an Oscar.) Score fans remember it as yet another triumph for Jerry Goldsmith, who provided an innovative score bolstered by a rousing militaristic march theme and liberal use of the Echoplex tape delay machine. The classic original score, as heard in the film, has been released on CD twice: once by Varese Sarabande in 1997 (who paired it with tracks from Goldsmith’s score to Tora! Tora! Tora! from the same year) and once by Film Score Monthly just two years later (on a double bill with another Fox score from the ’60s, The Flight of the Phoenix).

This release is special for a few reasons. For the first time, this set includes not only the original score (with a bonus track of sessions from the Echoplex recordings), but the CD debut of the original soundtrack album, a re-recorded session under Goldsmith’s baton featuring special arrangements of various themes and cues. This disc also features a bonus track, the soundtrack version of the end title sequence without Scott’s rousing speech as heard on the original LP. If all of this didn’t sound enticing enough, the set is part of Intrada’s MAF line of unlimited titles, and will be priced at the rate of a single disc ($19.99).

The label will also release an expanded version of the original soundtrack to Gator, an action-packed flick starring Burt Reynolds in his second turn as freewheelin’ moonshiner Gator McClusky. Charles Bernstein, a composer perhaps best known for the score to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), contributed a Southern-fried score to this film (as well as its predecesor, White Lightning (1973), which had a sold-out release earlier this year). Portions of both scores have taken a new lease with listeners, being featured in the recent works of director Quentin Tarantino. This set adds six bonus tracks to the original album and is limited to 1,200 copies.

Order Patton here and Gator here and check the specs after the jump.