Back Tracks: INXS

As promised, today’s Back Tracks takes a look at the music and reissues of INXS in honor of its fallen frontman, Michael Hutchence, who died 13 years ago yesterday. Don’t change after the jump.

Early White Stripes LPs Coming Back to Vinyl

The White Stripes have announced the reissue of their first three LPs on 180-gram vinyl through founder Jack White’s Third Man Records label.

Formed in the late 1990s in Detroit, vocalist/guitarist Jack and drummer Meg White created a unique sound that was forged in the classic traditions of garage rock, punk and blues. Their lo-fi, powerful tunes earned massive critical acclaim in the early 2000s, even as fans and critics sought to find out the truth behind the duo’s unusual relationship. (They constantly claimed to be brother and sister, but were actually married from 1996 to 2000.)

The White Stripes’ first three albums, the self-titled debut in 1999, De Stijl (2000) and White Blood Cells (2001), each out of print for five years, have been remastered from the original analog tapes for these new vinyl editions, and the artwork has been restored from the original photographic prints. MP3 downloads will be included for free with purchase. “These are the versions The White Stripes want people to have for posterity,” the band’s official statement said.

All three versions will be available to purchase on November 30. Those with a collector’s eye might want to hike down to the Third Man Records store in Nashville, which will sell limited red and white-split vinyl editions of each album. (The White Stripes available on November 30, with each subsequent album available the following week. They will also be available in select additional locations to be named soon.)

Reacquaint yourself with the track lists after the jump.

Intrada Draws “First Blood”

Not to be outdone by Varese Sarabande’s batch of soundtracks from yesterday or La La Land’s forthcoming Black Friday announcement, Intrada has made two more catalogue soundtracks available for order.

While Intrada has become a power player in the catalogue soundtrack world in the past decade, the label has actually been around for 25 years. Their first significant release was the premiere CD edition of First Blood, the Jerry Goldsmith score to the iconic Sylvester Stallone film. (It was given a very small LP release in the U.S. in 1982 as Regency LP RY 9505; that pressing had one track less than the Intrada version.) While Varese Sarabande later released Intrada’s program on its own, both pressings were plagued by inferior sound (owing to noise reduction, to compensate for incorrect encoding of the master tapes).

Now, Intrada goes back to the start – using the original 1/2″, three-track session elements recorded by The National Philharmonic Orchestra in London – to create the definitive First Blood package, one that John Rambo himself couldn’t beat. The first disc holds the complete original score as heard in the film, including not only both familiar versions of the closing song “It’s a Long Road” (an orchestral version and the pop version sung by Dan Hill) but a newly-discovered “pop instrumental” also commissioned for the film but not used. The second disc features the original LP presentation, remastered and expanded with a demo of “It’s a Long Road,” the fanfare for the logo of the film’s distributor Carolco and an ultra-rare arrangement of the First Blood theme composed by Goldsmith for a special trailer released in 1984, in anticipation of Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).

The set is topped off with liner notes by Intrada head Douglass Fake on the making of both the score and the label that has a rich history with not only this music but all great film music. Best of all, it’s part of the label’s MAF series of unlimited editions, so there’ll be plenty to go around.

Also released today is the premiere issue of Terry Plumeri’s score to the 1997 film Black Sea Raid as an Intrada Signature Edition limited to 1,000 copies. This is the label’s third to last batch of soundtrack titles for 2010; five more sets will be made available on December 6 and 20 – and one of them is a two-disc set. Check the track lists for First Blood and Black Sea Raid after the jump!