Bohemian Like Them: Dandy Warhols Expand Third Album with Unreleased Bonus Disc

If you’ve yet to make your trip to the record store this week to pick up some new reissues, here’s another new re-release coming your way to think over: Portland, Oregon-based rockers The Dandy Warhols have expanded their third album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, for its 13th anniversary.

The band’s third album (and second for Capitol Records) was inarguably their commercial breakthrough. Thirteen Tales was buoyed by the success of the track “Bohemian Like You,” which was prominently featured in a British phone commercial. More importantly, though, it was one of the first great salvos in a burst of sonically pleasing, ambitious alternate rock albums released in the early 2000s. (Thirteen Tales arrived in stores a full year before The Strokes’ Is This It, largely and perhaps wrongly considered to be the first real example of this phenomenon. This A.V. Club essay does a great job of reflecting on this.)

This remastered two-disc set features an unreleased bonus disc of outtakes, demos and other archival goodness. It’s in stores today and can be ordered after the jump.

If Everybody Had An Ocean: The Beach Boys’ 6-CD Box Set “Made in California” Premieres 60 Previously Unreleased Tracks

On my way to sunny California, on my way to spend another sunny day…

The sounds of summer will be in perfect harmony on August 27 when Capitol Records releases the

Beach Boys’ long-awaited, retrospective box set Made in California.  Word first came last summer of the 50th anniversary box, as the reunited group of Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks were winding down a phenomenally successful world tour.  Since then, the Love/Johnston faction of the band has resumed touring, while Wilson, Jardine and Marks have announced a number of live dates to come this summer.  A 2-CD chronicle of the 2012 tour has just been released, and last week, Brian Wilson announced his return as a solo artist to Capitol Records for an as-yet-unscheduled album to feature Jardine, Marks, and guests including Jeff Beck.

Though a late 2012 arrival was originally planned, the band intends to prove that good things do come to those who wait with this latest celebratory project.  Made in California details the Hawthorne, California band’s history from 1961 to the present day over 6 CDs, with more than 7-1/2 hours of music and 60 previously unreleased tracks (17 of them live).  Designed in the style of a high school yearbook, Made in California tells the Beach Boys’ story through all of their hits plus never-before-released songs, alternate takes, demos, rare mixes, and live performances.

Take the plunge and hit the jump for all of the details including the complete track listing!  The water’s fine!

The Bright Side of Life: Harry Nilsson’s “Flash Harry” (Finally!) Comes To CD In Expanded Form

What should have been a new beginning became a rather inauspicious end to a remarkable career.  Harry Nilsson’s final studio album, 1980’s amusingly-titled Flash Harry, was his first on the Mercury label.  It followed a decade-plus stint at RCA and signaled a fresh start.  But despite its starry array of musicians, and typically solid songwriting, the album produced by Stax guitar legend Steve Cropper with engineer Bruce Robb was withheld from release in North America.  Flash Harry only was issued in Europe and Japan, and soon after,  it was gone without a trace.  Much to the chagrin of Nilsson fans, the album had never resurfaced in any format…until now.  We’re excited to report that Varese Vintage has just announced that Flash Harry will be making its North American premiere, on both CD and vinyl.  This long-awaited reissue is due on August 13.

Flash Harry will arrive in stores just a couple of weeks following RCA/Legacy’s The RCA Albums Collection, the mammoth 17-CD box set containing all of the singer-songwriter’s solo albums for the label plus over 50 unreleased tracks.  Yet that’s not all residing in the Nilsson House vaults!  Like that box, Varese’s Flash Harry will premiere some never-before-released Nilsson music via four bonus tracks.  And it deserves a place on your shelf next to that box set for the complete album experience…or The Full Harry, if you will.

In retrospect, the loose, spirited Flash Harry seems a fitting conclusion to Nilsson’s album career.  In addition to Cropper, guests and co-writers on the Los Angeles-recorded album include Van Dyke Parks, Lowell George, Eric Idle, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Keith Allison, Dr. John, Klaus Voormann, and two of the Beatles – Harry’s pals John Lennon and Ringo Starr.  Idle’s contributions bookend the album.  For the opening song “Harry,” he joins Charlie Dore in warbling a tongue-in-cheek theme for a “pretty nifty guy.”  (The track was a gift from the Monty Python man to his new friend Nilsson.)  And Harry returned the favor, ending the album with a rendition of the comedian/songwriter’s “(Always Look on) The Bright Side of Life.”  (This Monty Python’s Life of Brian tune would later become the centerpiece of Idle’s Broadway musical Spamalot.)

Van Dyke Parks’ influence is felt on his two tropical-flavored collaborations, “Cheek to Cheek” and “Best Move.”  Nilsson reteamed with arranger Perry Botkin, Jr. (Pandemonium Shadow Show, Sandman) for “I’ve Got It,” a tune written for their musical Zapata.  The show received its premiere production at Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House in late 1980, but didn’t enjoy a further life.  Harry and Paul Stallworth co-wrote the sleek soul of “It’s So Easy,” its arrangement recalling “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”  Nilsson even recalled past ballad triumphs like “Without You” with Rick Christian’s reflective “I Don’t Need You,” later a hit single for Kenny Rogers.  His only solo songwriting credit on Flash Harry, “Rain,” is another breezy pop confection.

What else will you find on Flash Harry?  We have more details, plus the scoop on bonus tracks and more!

Release Round-Up: Week of June 11

Paul McCartney and Wings, Rockshow (Eagle Rock)

Macca’s newly-restored live show may not be in the Wings Over America box, but that means you can buy it for that much less now. (DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.; BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

ZZ Top, The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990 (Warner Bros./Rhino)

So not only are you getting all of ZZ Top’s London/Warner-era albums in one convenient box, but you’re getting a fair amount of them in their original mixes for the first time ever on CD. Win? Win. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Various Artists, The Complete Motown Singles Volume 12A: 1972 (Hip-O Select/Motown)

It’s finally here! The penultimate volume of the long-running series features some of Motown’s most out-there stuff yet. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Richard Pryor, No Pryor Restraint: Life in Concert (Shout! Factory)

Nine discs (seven CDs, two DVDs) of side-splitting, wildly off-color humor from one of the greatest stand-up acts there ever was. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Burt Bacharach, Anyone Who Had a Heart: The Art of the Songwriter (U.K.-only box set) (UMe)

From the U.K. comes a new six-disc anthology of Bacharach’s best works as a writer or performer – easily more comprehensive than the double-disc set U.S. audiences got recently. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Icehouse, The 12 Inches Volume 1 (Repertoire)

Two discs of dance mixes from the Australian hitmakers. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)