Warner Waxes Nostalgic for Record Store Day

Believe it or not, Record Store Day is almost upon us. (It’s April 21 – just over a month away!) We’ve been anxiously awaiting word from the labels on what’s coming out this year, and it looks like Warner Music Group is one of the first to the scene.

While there’s not much in the way of unreleased goodies on the catalogue side of things – there are certainly plenty new or unearthed songs from current acts, which you can read about here – there are a couple of vintage and contemporary classics bowing or reappearing on LP, and as catalogue enthusiasts it would be the right thing to pass the news along to you.

Interestingly, there seem to be a repeat in the mix: Eric Clapton’s Blues box set, which we covered last year, is down to under 1,000 copies, having sold at RSD’s Black Friday event in November.

But everything else old is looking pretty new otherwise. What will Warner offer?

• There’s going to be a neat 3 CD/1 DVD box set from Wilco and Billy Bragg commemorating the 1998 album Mermaid Avenue. The acclaimed disc featured new musical compositions from Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and British alt-rocker Bragg, featuring unpublished lyrics by folk legend Woody Guthrie. The box will feature a remaster of the original album, 2000’s Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, a previously-unreleased third disc of material and the 1999 documentary Man in the Sand, chronicling these sessions.
• Commemorating a decade of metal group Disturbed, Warner will release The Collection, a box set of all of their albums – The Sickness (2000) and the No. 1 albums Believe (2002), Ten Thousand Fists (2005), Indestructible (2008) and Asylum (2010) – on 140-gram vinyl with specially-designed artwork. This box is limited to 2,500 copies.
• Fleetwood Mac’s classic, self-titled 1975 album will be pressed as a special limited edition vinyl, following a similar reissue for Rumours last year. The album that introduced Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham to the group featured hits in “Rihannon,” “Say You Love Me” and more. The discs, cut at Bernie Grundman Mastering from the original analog tapes, will be mastered at 33 1/3 RPM and 45 RPM.
• Metallica’s Beyond Magnetic EP – consisting of four outtakes from 2008’s Death Magnetic – was released digitally last year and now gets its first release on silver vinyl.
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ hit Stadium Arcadium (2009) is being remastered for vinyl by Steve Hoffman, in honor of the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Finally, arguably the best gem of Warner’s “Side by Side” 7″ single series (pairing an original hit with a new or rare cover) would be a gold-colored 45 featuring, for the first time together, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin’s versions of “Respect.”

Again, keep it tuned in here as more RSD reports come in, and save your pennies, because April 21 is here before you know it!

Disturbed Round Up “Lost Children” for B-Sides Set

The rock world may be getting a bit quieter next year, with the planned hiatus of alt-metal group Disturbed. But for longtime fans and collectors, they’re at least going out with a bang, releasing a compilation of B-sides and unreleased material as a going-away present.

The Lost Children collates 16 tracks from the Chicago-based band, many of which have appeared on Japanese pressings, import CD singles, soundtracks or digital downloads, all in one place for the first time. The set spans the band’s entire chronology, from “God of the Mind” and “A Welcome Burden,” both of which appeared on last year’s 10th anniversary reissue of The Sickness, to a set of rare and unreleased tracks recorded during sessions for the band’s latest effort, Asylum (2010) – the fourth consecutive album out of the band’s five-album discography to debut at No. 1 in the United States. (One of the most intriguing is “3,” released as a digital download to raise money for the West Memphis Three last year, making its debut on physical media.)

The lead single, “Hell,” was released as an extra track on some international editions of 2005’s Ten Thousand Fists. The whole set comes out November 8, and the track list is yours to view after the jump.

Down with “The Sickness” Once Again

This news is about a month old, but I only just uncovered it recently: metal band Disturbed is reissuing their solid debut, The Sickness (2000), on March 23 for its 10th anniversary. Hard rock fans doubtlessly remember The Sickness for rock radio hits like “Stupify,” “Down with the Sickness” and “Voices” – and this new reissue, said to feature some bonus tracks from the vault as well as expanded artwork and a new remix and remastering, will be a cool stopgap for fans as the band finishes its fifth album, due in the summer.

Currently, it remains to be seen what the extra songs are going to be. (Import copies of the record featured an extra track, “God of the Mind,” as well as a few live cuts that would surface on CD singles at the time.) Once more info comes in it will of course go live right here.