Are Two Discs Better Than One for Pearl Jam Live Show?

The reissue conundrum of the week was figuring out how many discs of bonus material were going to figure into Pearl Jam’s upcoming reissues of Vs. and Vitalogy. The deluxe edition combines both albums with a much-requested live set at Boston’s Orpheum Theater in 1994; that set is also featured on CD and vinyl in the inevitable super-deluxe box.

But the deluxe edition listed three CDs worth of additional material, while the super-deluxe box listed four. And the deluxe CD, when pre-ordered on the band’s official Web site, promises a further six digital bonus tracks from the live show. What’s going on here? We inquired with Legacy Recordings and got this response:

Three discs is correct. Initially it was thought that the Orpheum concert would be on two discs, but it ended up fitting on one.

So it looks like every version will have three compact discs. It remains to be see if the concert will be cut down, and by how much; Pearl Jam’s emphasis on preservation will certainly make or break fans’ expectations, as the full set list is preserved on their official Web site. Hopefully those bonus tracks will feature elsewhere than just pre-orders for the deluxe set – particularly for the sake of anyone who’s going to buy the box.

The Softer Side of Soundtracks Explored by FSM

Film Score Monthly’s newest release is ladylike – at least, the scores presented therein are from films that appeal to the ladies.

Appearing for the first time anywhere are a pair of scores: Georges Delerue’s score to Rich and Famous, a 1981 film featuring Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset as writers and lifelong friends and Michel Legrand’s music to One is a Lonely Number (1972), which chronicled the plight of a recently-divorced woman (Trish Van Devere, who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance – ironically, the same year Van Devere began a long marriage with George C. Scott that lasted through his passing in 1999). Both scores are lushly orchestrated and feature a variety of styles and textures, making this an early surprise for soundtrack collectors in 2011. Both have been sourced from the original three-track stereo masters.

The set is limited to 2,000 copies. Order it here and check the track list after the jump!

Getting Closer to the Next Batch of Howard Jones Reissues

Mark your calendars, fans: the next set of Howard Jones reissues are almost ready to pre-order.

As previously reported, the next batch of HoJo discs – after last year’s remasters of Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action – will be the EPs The 12″ Album and Action Replay, which collated dance mixes, B-sides and – perhaps most notably – the hit single version of “No One is to Blame” produced by Phil Collins. As with the last batch, there will also be a limited edition box set that combines both discs with an additional bonus CD, this one focusing on additional remixes from various singles. The Human’s Lib/Dream Into Action box with bonus disc was a limited affair; it is not yet known if this one will be, too.

But the set will be available to pre-order on February 21, so be prepared for more information as it comes!

UPDATE 2/5: Track listing for the bonus disc now available courtesy of our friend Matt from Addicted to Vinyl! Unreleased tracks will be included! Hit the jump and see!

Capitol to Make Beach Boys Fans “SMiLE” This Summer?

When it comes to The Beach Boys, I’ve learned to take any news with a decidedly big grain of salt. But some “news” is just too good not to pass on. In an interview with Jeremy Roberts of Examiner.com, Al Jardine revealed that “Capitol Records plans to issue a Beach Boys version of ‘Smile‘ [sic] sometime this summer to begin the celebration of The Beach Boys’ [50th] anniversary.” Could a release of the original “most famous unheard album in pop history” actually happen? When it comes to The Beach Boys, anything is possible, and there are further clues that a thaw could finally be coming in the long-frozen relationships between band members. In 2006, The Beach Boys reunited atop the Capitol Tower for a photo opportunity, and later that year, Jardine played a number of dates with Brian Wilson. This weekend, Jardine will join Mike Love and Bruce Johnston (who have carried the Beach Boys’ touring torch) at A Concert for America: A Tribute to Ronald Reagan at the Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Wilson reportedly declined an invitation to participate at the concert, but Jardine has acknowledged that talks are ongoing and “encouraging” as to his participation in future anniversary activities.

I was in the audience on February 20, 2004 when Brian Wilson and his band premiered his completed (and now officially titled with eccentric spelling based on the original LP logo) version of SMiLE at London’s Royal Festival Hall. I doubt that I will ever again experience a more memorably emotional evening of music than I did that night. The audience was spellbound watching this famously-troubled artist finally find closure to one of the most difficult periods of his life, reclaiming and giving new life to the legendary music he and The Beach Boys created nearly forty years earlier. One word comes to mind when I think back to that night: love. It overwhelmingly filled Royal Festival Hall. Only the most churlish individual would downplay the significance of that soul-enriching evening. Some pundits felt, though, that just one thing was missing, with all due respect to Wilson’s remarkable ensemble: the combined voices of Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson, with whom Brian and lyricist Van Dyke Parks had first collaborated on the music played to perfection that night. There’s not nearly enough room to go into the myriad problems that plagued SMiLE; documentaries have been filmed and entire books have been published about that period.

In short, SMiLE was intended as the follow-up to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Producer/arranger/composer Brian Wilson enlisted Van Dyke Parks to supply lyrics for the album, scheduled for a January 1967 release. One song destined for SMiLE was released and became a million-selling single for the band, the “pocket symphony” known as “Good Vibrations.” No less a luminary than Leonard Bernstein praised the music intended for SMiLE when Brian Wilson performed a stark, chilling rendition of “Surf’s Up” on Bernstein’s Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution television special. More than 400,000 album jackets were printed with Frank Holmes’ now-iconic cover art, but SMiLE didn’t arrive in January 1967 as promised, despite over 85 recording sessions having taken place (including more than two dozen alone for the endlessly inventive “Heroes and Villains,” which was released as a single).

What happened next? What does a release of the original Capitol tapes to SMiLE mean for Beach Boys fans? And will this be a bright spot in a rocky 2011 for EMI/Capitol? Hit the jump for some guesses.