Gaslight Anthem Box Up Early Singles on Vinyl

New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem are commemorating some of their early indie works by releasing a deluxe vinyl singles box set this summer.

Anchored by singer/songwriter Brian Fallon, the band has deftly mixed a number of rock subgenres into one of the most-talked about acts on the rock scene today, from Clash and Replacements-esque punk to Pearl Jam’s post-grunge output. But, whether by virtue of their New Brunswick, New Jersey roots or something else entirely, one name continues to be bought up in comparison to The Gaslight Anthem: Bruce Springsteen. And their heart-on-sleeve delivery and colorful storytelling has earned them more than comparisons to The Boss – they’ve earned his respect. Sales of the band’s sophomore album, The ’59 Sound, skyrocketed in 2009 after Springsteen joined the band onstage at England’s Glastonbury Festival. And their latest LP, 2012’s Handwritten (their first for Mercury Records), was produced by none other than Brendan O’Brien, who won a Grammy helming Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising (for the sake of hero comparison, he’s also worked with Pearl Jam as a producer or mixer on nearly every album of theirs since 1993’s Vs.)

Singles Collection 2008-2011 compiles nine 7″ discs from their time on SideOneDummy Records, who released their breakthrough discs The ’59 Sound (2008) and American Slang (2010). In addition to signature tunes like “The ’59 Sound,” “Boxer” and “The Diamond Street Church Choir,” each disc also features an original B-side, mostly live and acoustic versions as well as covers of everyone from late ’90s/early ’00s soul band Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise (“Once Upon a Time”) to The Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice.”

Packed in a wooden box with a bonus 45 adapter featuring the band’s “Queen of Chelsea” artwork, this set is available to order from SideOneDummy on either plain black or blood red vinyl. It’s available June 18, and can be checked out further after the jump.

Classic Campbell: BGO Brings Three Vintage Glen Campbell Albums to CD

The BGO label has continued its ongoing Glen Campbell reissue series by bringing three long-out-of-print albums to CD in one package.  Following the late 2012 release of Try a Little Kindness/The Glen Campbell Goodtime Album/The Last Time I Saw Her, BGO has just brought together a trio of LPs originally released in 1972 and 1973: Glen Travis Campbell, I Knew Jesus (Before He Was a Star) and I Remember Hank Williams.

Following the release of Campbell’s New Jersey-recorded Live album from 1969, BGO has taken a more-or-less chronological approach to the singer-guitarist’s Capitol catalogue, overlooking duets albums (such as Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell and Anne Murray/Glen Campbell, both recently brought to CD by the Morello label), seasonal and gospel sets (That Christmas Feeling, Oh Happy Day) and soundtracks (True Grit, Norwood).  Glen Travis Campbell/I Knew Jesus (Before He Was a Star)/I Remember Hank Williams is BGO’s sixth set for the artist.

Campbell closed out 1972 with the release of Glen Travis Campbell, the first of the three LPs in BGO’s package.  With no new songs from Jimmy Webb and a new producer (Jimmy Bowen, replacing Al De Lory), Campbell was in somewhat uncharted territory.  Bowen assembled an eclectic set of material from Leon Russell (“My Cricket”), Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen (“All My Tomorrows”), Roy Orbison (“Running Scared”) and Tom Paxton (“The Last Thing on My Mind”).  Glen Travis Campbell yielded a couple of minor singles in Ronnie Gaylord’s “I Will Never Pass This Way Again” and “One Last Time” from the pen of The Addrisi Brothers of “Never My Love” fame.  (The Addrisis also recorded “One Last Time” on their own 1972 Columbia long-player.)  The album squeaked into the Top 150, which was a better showing than that of 1973’s I Knew Jesus (Before He Was a Star).

The title track of I Knew Jesus, co-written by Neal Hefti, earned Campbell a Top 50 placement on both the pop and country charts, but the album floundered commercially.  With production again by Bowen and a musical team including Wrecking Crew members Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye and James Burton, I Knew Jesus didn’t limit itself to any one musical style.  Glen tackled songs by Bob Dylan (“If Not for You”), Kinky Friedman (“Sold American”), Kenny O’Dell (“Take It On Home”) and Lefty Frizzell (“I Want to Be with You Always”).  The final album on BGO’s collection saw Campbell and Bowen try a different approach.  For his very next and 25th album, the singer and producer turned to a true country giant.  I Remember Hank Williams eschewed most of the Wrecking Crew personnel (save pianist Larry Knechtel) and took a rootsier country approach to Williams’ catalogue as a songwriter and artist.  Campbell surveyed such familiar songs as “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Cold, Cold Heart,” as well as Fred Rose and Hy Heath’s “Take These Chains From My Heart,” a posthumous hit for Williams in 1953.  Despite a down-to-earth approach to some of the greatest C&W songs ever written, I Remember Hank Williams didn’t make much of an impression to record buyers, missing the U.S. pop album chart entirely.

After the jump: more details including complete track listings with discography, and order link!

‘Trane’s “Sun Ship” Sails Anew

On the heels of yesterday’s Sarah Vaughan set from Verve Select, we’ve got another upcoming title from the label for your enjoyment, too: an expansive edition of John Coltrane’s Sun Ship LP.

Recorded in 1965 but not released until 1971, years after Coltrane’s death, Sun Ship was notable for several reasons: it was one of the only sessions for ‘Trane’s quartet (bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner) recorded without engineer Rudy Van Gelder, and it was one of the last true “quartet” albums he cut, too. (First Meditations, recorded a week later but released in 1977, was the last.) Afterward, ‘Trane would experiment with larger ensembles, and within six months of Sun Ship‘s recording, Tyner and Jones had left. What remains, though, is one of several albums that shows the saxophonist starting to experiment with more elements of free jazz – slow burning, but intense, with much more focus on tones over tunes.

For the first time anywhere, Sun Ship: The Complete Session features the entire recording cut on August 26, 1965 with producer Bob Thiele, from start to finish. The two-disc set boasts over an hour of unheard music – all remastered in high-resolution audio – with plenty of alternate takes and even conversations between the band members. New liner notes by David Wild and rare photos by Chuck Jackson, who shot the image that appears on the LP sleeve, round out the package.

Available on April 16, you can order Sun Ship: The Complete Session below.

Sun Ship: The Complete Session (originally released as Impulse! AS-9211, 1971 – reissued Verve Select B0018075-02, 2013)

Disc 1

1. Dearly Beloved (Takes 1 & 2 – False Start and Alternate Version)
2. Dearly Beloved (Take 3 – Breakdown)
3. Dearly Beloved (Take 4) *
4. Attaining (Take 1 – Alternate)
5. Attaining (Take 2 – Breakdown)
6. Attaining (Take 3) *
7. Attaining (Take 4 – Insert) *
8. Sun Ship (Take 1 – Breakdown)
9. Sun Ship (Take 2 – Alternate)
10. Sun Ship (Take 3 – Insert)
11. Sun Ship (Take 4) *

Disc 2

1. Ascent (Take 1) *
2. Ascent (Take 2 – Incomplete Version)
3. Ascent (Take 3 – Incomplete Version)
4. Ascent (Take 3 (again) – Incomplete Version)
5. Ascent (Takes 4-6 – Inserts/False Starts)
6. Ascent (Take 7 – Complete Insert 4)
7. Ascent (Take 8 – Complete Insert 5)
8. Amen (Take 1 – Alternate)
9. Amen (Take 2) *

* denotes takes utilized for final album