One is Not the Loneliest Number

Exactly one year ago today, The Second Disc uploaded its first post, an assessment of the best reissues of the prior year. It was taken from my personal Facebook page, which I’d been posting thoughts on music and pop culture here and there for some time. I was a college graduate working in a part-time job I was not particularly fond of, in dire need of something to fill time. After some deliberating over what a blog about reissues and box sets – my favorite kind of music – should be called (rejected titles included “Catalogic” and “Reissue Theory”), The Second Disc was born. After a few confident e-mails to some friends who wrote, the site started growing. And growing. And growing.

One year later, some stuff has changed. The Second Disc still looks kind of plain (workin’ on it) and it’s still full of (I hope) great news and features on catalogue titles. Labels have noticed from time to time, and we’ve gotten to talk to some great people in the industry we try to diligently cover. We’ve added a great, dedicated writer in Joe Marchese, and we’ve gotten hits from all across the globe. Nearly 300,000 people have laid eyes on some part of The Second Disc in a year. If you told me that would happen a year ago, I probably would have cried from happiness. If you’re reading this now, I want you to know how happy that makes me. Ideally, some day you’ll be playing reissues or box sets that we’ve actually worked on – wouldn’t that be something? – but right now I’m just glad for everyone reading.

After the jump, Joe and I deliver some personal thanks to some friends of The Second Disc.

Getz Set for New Box from Hip-o Select

Hip-o Select kicks off 2011 with a new set of early works by Stan Getz.

Quintets: The Clef & Norgran Albums is three discs of Getz in his first recordings for Verve founder Norman Granz’s earliest labels. Five 10″ LPs are represented here, alongside some single and EP tracks and three previously unreleased alternate takes. If you can believe it, the set marks the CD debut of much of this material as well.

Order the set from the label now and have a look at the track lists after the jump.

The Dead Go to Meadowlands in New “Road Trips” Set

The first entry in The Grateful Dead’s Road Trips series for the new year has been announced.

Road Trips Vol. 4, No. 2: April Fools ’88 is only the second Dead show ever released from that year, a year which was preceded by highlights on either side of the calendar. (The previous year saw the release of the band’s Top 10 hit “Touch of Grey” and a tour with Bob Dylan; the next year saw a flurry of officially released live material.) This set captures, over three discs, the band’s April 1, 1988 set at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, NJ (since renamed the Continental Airlines Arena and currently the IZOD Center), as well as highlights from the prior night’s show at the same venue.

You can order the set here and read the track list after the jump.

Release Round-Up: Week of January 11

Queen, Greatest Hits / Greatest Hits II (Island/UMe)

Queen’s 40th anniversary celebration kicks in the U.K. off with a new remaster of the band’s first two greatest hits compilations on the band’s new label in England, Island Records. (The music of Queen is still licensed by Disney’s Hollywood Records in the U.S.) Remastered and expanded studio albums will follow later in the year, which American fans will also have to import. (Official site)

Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley: Deluxe Edition (Elektra/Rhino Handmade)

This classic, folky debut is presented in an expanded set that features the album in mono and stereo and a bonus disc of unreleased demos. (Rhino Handmade)

N.E.R.D, The Best of N.E.R.D (Virgin/EMI)

The pop/rap producers of The Neptunes had some minor commercial success as their own group, whose early material is being compiled for the first time. (Official site)

Stevie Wonder, Fulfillingness’ First Finale (Audio Fidelity)

A 24K gold CD edition of Wonder’s 1974 album, a No. 1 hit and one of the artist’s defining Motown classics. (Audio Fidelity)

Also out this week on vinyl: reissues of ZZ Top’s Rio Grande Mud (1972) and Deguello (1979) on Rhino, and from Friday Music, new pressings of Poison’s Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986), Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever (1977) and Deep Purple’s Burn (1974).

Smokey Robinson, Live from Cracker Barrel

Great music often turns up in the darnedest places.

In addition to eating a hearty meal and browsing a selection of rustic tchotchkes at your local Cracker Barrel, you now can pick up a new CD by none other than Motown legend and the man Bob Dylan once called “America’s greatest living poet,” Smokey Robinson. Cracker Barrel has long carried a selection of exclusive music; new CDs have been offered from artists like Dolly Parton (who provided Cracker Barrel with an expanded edition of her 2008 Backwoods Barbie album) while the catalogues of George Jones and Kenny Rogers have also been mined for new compilations. Cracker Barrel has diversified its selection beyond just the country genre, and the Robinson told Spinner.com that it was a “milestone” to be the first African-American artist to release a new disc via the Southern-style eating institution and “old country store.”

Now and Then (Cracker Barrel/Saguaro Road/Robso CD 26057-D) is a twelve-track compilation released in late 2010 on Robinson’s own label. It includes six tracks from the artist’s 2009 album Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, and six previously unreleased, recently-recorded live cuts of prime Motown material. The Time Flies portion of the album includes a cover of the Jesse Harris-penned “Don’t Know Why” (popularized by Norah Jones) and five Robinson originals. These tracks marked a largely successful return to the artist to the romantic “quiet storm” sound he pioneered in the 1970s.

Is the disc worth picking up? For the casual fans being targeted, it’s a fine sampler. Chances are a dedicated Robinson fan might already own Time Flies; and in any event, the album is strong enough to warrant a purchase in full. But if the six live songs aren’t particularly adventurous choices (“Going to a Go-Go,” “I Second That Emotion,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “The Tears of a Clown,” “Being with You” and “The Tracks of My Tears”), they represent how Robinson currently performs them in concert, and make a nice souvenir of his current live program. While full credits are included for the live tracks, there’s no indication of the specific recording dates or venues. (All live selections were recorded in 2010.) A brief note from Robinson is included in the digipak.

Smokey Robinson’s Now and Then can be ordered for $11.99 from Cracker Barrel here.

Smokey Robinson, Now and Then (Cracker Barrel/Saguaro Road/Robso CD 20657-D)

1. Time Flies
2. Don’t Know Why
3. Girlfriend
4. One Time
5. That Place
6. Love Bath
7. Going to a Go-Go (Live)
8. I Second That Emotion (Live)
9. Ooo Baby Baby (Live)
10. The Tears of a Clown (Live)
11. Being with You (Live)
12. The Tracks of My Tears (Live)

Tracks 1-6 from Time Flies When You’re Having Fun (Robso CD 40020, 2009)
Tracks 7-12 previously unreleased