Kritzerland’s Holiday Bonanza Includes Hepburn and Wayne Classics, Herrmann’s “Christmas Carol”

Kritzerland has just jumped headfirst into the holiday season with three exciting releases on the soundtrack front.  Continuing the label’s commitment to the Golden Age of Hollywood and beyond, the label has just made these three titles available for pre-order:

• John Wayne at Fox: The Westerns – Two CDs and three scores for the price of one CD!  This double-disc anthology brings together three classic scores from films featuring The Duke: Elmer Bernstein’s The Comancheros (1961), Lionel Newman’s North to Alaska (1960) and Hugo Montenegro’s The Undefeated (1969)!   Though all three titles have been previously released, they have been fully remastered for Kritzerland’s release.  North to Alaska features vocal performances from Johnny Horton and Fabian.   A 1,000-unit limited edition, John Wayne at Fox is available for $19.98 from Kritzerland.

• Sabrina / We’re No Angels – Following Intrada’s recent release of Henry Mancini’s original soundtrack to Blake Edwards’ Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Kritzerland premieres another memorable score from an Audrey Hepburn film from an iconic director.  This time, the film is 1954’s Sabrina and the director is Billy Wilder.  Frederick (The Blue Angel) Hollander’s score to Sabrina is paired with another Hollander treat: his score to the 1956 Humphrey Bogart Christmas comedy We’re No Angels!  As a special bonus, the disc is rounded out with vintage Hollander cues from a number of his other films.  This 1,000-unit limited edition is available from Kritzerland at $19.98.

• Finally, Kritzerland re-presses its sold-out release of Bernard (Psycho, Taxi Driver) Herrmann’s scores to two vintage television specials: a 1954 adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Fredric March and Basil Rathbone; and the next year’s A Child is Born starring Nadine Conner and Theodor Uppman of the Metropolitan Opera.  These two scores show another side of the renowned suspense composer’s immense talent.  This 1,000-unit limited edition is available at the low holiday price of $14.98 from the label.

Kritzerland indicates that “our hope is that CDs will ship by the last week of December or hopefully even sooner, but this is the busiest time of year for pressing plants, so there is the off chance that it could be early January.  But the hope is to have them out the door before Christmas.”  In addition, the label’s annual Christmas sale is on!  You can sample the many bargains right here!

After the jump, we have the full contents of Kritzerland’s press release, plus track listings and pre-order links!

Our Beloved Revolutionary Band Returns: Omnivore Expands Two By Camper Van Beethoven

Among the leading lights of what would eventually become known as “alternative rock,” few groups made as great a mark as Camper Van Beethoven.  The California band, which had its beginnings in 1983 and coalesced in 1985, incorporated elements of rock, punk, folk, ska and world music into its own style of “surrealist absurdist folk.”  Three indie albums arrived before Camper signed with Virgin Records for its major-label debut, 1988’s Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart.  On February 4, Omnivore Recordings will revisit that alt-rock landmark as well as its follow-up, 1989’s Key Lime Pie, in deluxe expanded editions available on CD and produced in cooperation with the band members.  The same date, the original LPs will also be reissued on 180-gram vinyl in lavish Omnivore fashion.

Dennis Herring, who would go on to produce albums by Elvis Costello, Ben Folds and Counting Crows, helmed Camper’s two Virgin albums.  Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart assuaged the usual fears that a brave and adventurous indie band had “sold out” in signing to a mainstream label; as Omnivore’s press release puts it, “As it turned out, the first three tracks on Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart were a pop song, an instrumental and an adaptation of a dirge about death. Heck, the release even had a love song for Patty Hearst. No, Camper Van Beethoven hadn’t sold out. They just had better distribution now!”  Though Sweetheart was an accessible record which earned the band an even greater fan base, it didn’t whitewash the band’s more outré sensibilities or simplify the wide-ranging, varied instrumentation.  The album’s line-up included David Lowery on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Jonathan Segel on violin, mandolin, keyboards, guitar and backing vocals, Victor Krummenacher on bass and backing vocals, Greg Lisher on lead guitar, and Chris Pedersen on drums. (Sweetheart was the first Camper Van Beethoven album not to feature founding guitarist/drummer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Molla.)  Omnivore’s CD reissue adds a whopping 10 bonus tracks to the album’s original 14 songs, including live tracks, non-LP songs and the edit of “Eye of Fatima Pts. 1 & 2.”

Camper returned in 1989 with Key Lime Pie, its final album before (temporarily) breaking up in 1990.  The band’s line-up was somewhat altered here, with the departure of Jonathan Segel before the album’s recording commenced.  Hence, the album was crafted by Lowery, Krummenacher, Lisher and Pedersen, with the violin parts played by Don Lax and Morgan Fichter.  Somewhat darker and more Americana-oriented than its predecessor, Key Lime Pie featured a noteworthy cover of Status Quo’s psychedelic “Pictures of Matchstick Men”  and a track about another notorious American figure, “Jack Ruby.”  Nine bonus tracks add up to the tastiest Key Lime Pie yet, including live tracks, rare edits and demos.

After the jump: more on both albums, including full track listings and pre-order links!