Numero Unearths Early Hüsker Dü Cuts for Record Store Day

Are we talking about Record Store Day already? Even though it’s not happening until April 20, The Numero Group has announced plans to issue on vinyl some of the earliest recordings by seminal rockers Hüsker Dü.

While the world weeps for relations to improve between primary songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart (they won’t -Ed., likely sighing wistfully) – at least to the point where Hüsker Dü can get a catalogue upgrade with the quality of, say, the Sugar discography – Numero will press a double 7″ single recreating the band’s first ever single and including another two early recordings. “Statues,” backed with a live take of “Amusement,” was the band’s first-ever release in 1981 (as Reflex Records A). But it was initially intended to be a 10″ EP featuring two other early recordings, “Writer’s Cramp” and “Let’s Go Die”; the band couldn’t afford such a release, though.

The unedited “Statues” (lasting over eight minutes), “Amusement” and “Let’s Go Die” were all included as bonus tracks on Rhino’s 1993 expansion of the band’s first full-length LP for Reflex, Everything Falls Apart (and More). “Amusement” has been mastered from the original board recording at Duffy’s in Minneapolis, where the track was recorded; the other three studio tracks have been “remastered from a first generation sub-master,” with the original tapes long lost.

The double 7″ will be limited to 4,000 copies on Record Store Day; is now too early for fans to get in line?

There He Goes Again: Marshall Crenshaw Launches New EP Subscription Service

Marshall Crenshaw has marched to the beat of his own drum (metaphorically speaking!) since making a splash with his self-titled 1982 major label debut.  Though he hasn’t exactly been away, the power pop hero has returned this week with the official release of I Don’t See You Laughing Now, a new 3-track vinyl EP that also happens to mark Crenshaw’s launch of a new music subscription series.  With shifts in the music landscape occurring on what seems like a day-to-day basis, Crenshaw’s new model just might be worthy of your attention.

I Don’t See You Laughing Now is the first of six scheduled 10-inch 45 RPM vinyl EPs which Crenshaw plans to release over a two-year period.  Each EP contains one new composition, one cover version and one reinterpretation of a Crenshaw favorite.  As an added extra, a download card is also included with the purchase of each EP.  The EP series was originally developed by the artist through Kickstarter, and the first EP was previewed at Record Store Day’s Black Friday event. Fans pledged over $33,000.00 to the Kickstarter campaign, exceeding the artist’s original goal.  A subscription to the series is available now at Crenshaw’s website.  $26.00 nets the purchaser the first year’s worth of EPs (three in all), with the second scheduled for release in April and the third in summer or fall.

What will you find on the new EP?  Hit the jump for that, and more!

Phish Issue Vintage Live Show for Hurricane Sandy Relief

Perennial jam-band Phish may not be typical Second Disc fare, but a catalogue site run by two guys with close ties to New Jersey isn’t going to let this slip by: the band is releasing a vault show from nearly two decades ago, with proceeds going to The American Red Cross’ Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

Recorded in support of their third album, Rift, the show finds Trey Anastasio and company at New Brunswick’s State Theatre on May 9, 1993 playing tracks from that album (“Rift,” “Weight,” “It’s Ice”) and others in a lengthy two-set stand. (More notes from band archivist Kevin Shapiro are here.)

Available in MP3 for $9.99 and FLAC/ALAC for $12.99, you can buy the show here and use a little bit of music catalogue love to make a difference to a place in the country that needs some help. Hit the jump for the full set list. (Thanks to super-reader Tom for the tip!)

Intrada Premieres Scores to “Joe Kidd,” “Flight of the Intruder”

This week, Intrada’s shaking off the dust on some little-heard, unreleased scores by two big names in film composing.

We’ve heard and seen composer Basil Poledouris and director John Milius enjoy great success with their movie collaborations, namely Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn in the early ’80s. For this 1991 Vietnam War flick (a favorite topic of the outspoken Milius), Poledouris was again on hand to create a rousing, militaristic action score. Never before released on CD, this disc presents the complete score to another excellent film music collaboration between friends.

The label’s next title goes back almost 40 years to Joe Kidd, yet another example of the Western as starring Clint Eastwood. The legendary actor/director, helmed by John Sturges in this picture, plays – what else? – a mysterious, neutral bounty hunter hired to settle a land dispute in New Mexico, that ends up dispensing some justice along the way. Schifrin authorities peg the Joe Kidd score as one of his best and most interesting of the period, and this premiere CD release arguably highlights that fact better than the actual film (which truncates many of the cues heard in full here).

All titles are available to order now; hit the jump to find links to each and full track details.

Duke Ellington Is “In Grand Company” with Ella, Basie, Satchmo, Coltrane and More

The legendary composer-arranger-pianist-bandleader Duke Ellington is In Grand Company on a new collection of the same name from Starbucks Entertainment, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings.  Much has been written of Ellington’s fertile creative partnership with “Take the ‘A’ Train” composer Billy Strayhorn, and indeed, Strayhorn is represented on this disc.  But he’s just one of the many, varied artists represented on this collection’s fifteen tracks.  Spanning four decades of recording on many labels,  In Grand Company explores the Duke as collaborator, with luminaries from the worlds of jazz (John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald), big band (Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie), pop (Rosemary Clooney) and gospel (Mahalia Jackson).

The earliest track on In Grand Company dates all the way back to 1940, when Ellington teamed with bassist Jimmie Blanton for “Pitter Panther Patter” (heard here in Take 2).  The collection’s most recent performance, 1972’s “Do Nothin’ ‘Till You Hear from Me” was recorded by the then-73-year old Ellington and the much younger Ray Brown, 45.  Appropriately, it came from the album This One’s for Blanton, on which Ellington celebrated the life of his one-time bassist who died in 1942 at the age of 23.  In between, the compilation offers a selection of Ellington’s most definitive collaborative performances.  He proved himself sympathetic to vocalists when he teamed with Rosemary Clooney on the 1956 album Blue Rose, from which “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” is excerpted.  Ella Fitzgerald recorded an entire album of Duke’s standards in 1957 as part of her groundbreaking Songbook series; “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues” is the selection included here.  Mahalia Jackson is featured on a segment of Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige suite, written in 1943 and recorded, in revised form, in 1958.  (Too bad a song from Ellington’s pairing with his Reprise Records chief and labelmate, Frank Sinatra, couldn’t be included.)

There’s much more on Ellington after the jump, including the full track listing and order link!