Release Round-Up: Week of May 17

Queen, Queen / Queen II / Sheer Heart Attack / A Night at the Opera / A Day at the Races: Deluxe Editions (Hollywood)

No, you’re not seeing double. The first batch of 40th anniversary Queen expanded editions, available in the U.K. since March, make their stateside debuts. There’s an Amazon-exclusive box with all of them included, too. Dear readers: any big box retailers carrying these? The only one I imagine that is would be Best Buy. (Official site)

The Go-Go’s, Beauty and the Beat: 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Capitol/EMI)

The first time this seminal album has ever been reissued and remastered! One disc full of hits (“Our Lips Are Sealed,” “We Got the Beat”), another of a previously unreleased vintage live show in Boston. (Official site)

The Supremes, Let Yourself Go: The ’70s Albums, Vol. 2 1974-1977 – The Final Sessions (Hip-o Select/Motown)

The last three Diana Ross-less Supremes records, expanded with a heaping helping of rare and unreleased bonus content. (Hip-o Select)

Iggy Pop, Roadkill Rising: The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009 (Shout! Factory)

Four disc of rock’s most wiry frontman in concert from all across his solo career. (Shout! Factory)

Queens of the Stone Age, Queens of the Stone Age: Deluxe Edition (Rekords Rekords)

This one’s been moved around a lot on the release calendar, but it looks like its time has finally come. QotSA’s first album from 1998, newly expanded with several unreleased tracks. (Official site)

The Hollies, The Clarke, Hicks and Nash Years: The Complete Hollies April 1963-November 1968 (Capitol/EMI)

The earliest years of the Manchester band, including some rarities and unreleased stuff, as a budget-minded, imported box set. (Amazon)

The Waterboys, In a Special Place: Piano Demos for This is the Sea (Capitol/EMI)

The first big hit record by the Scottish folk/rock band, in demo form. Another import from across the pond. (Official site)

A Re-Release Date More Fit for Queens

Queens of the Stone Age had planned on reissuing their self-titled debut at the end of the month with three bonus tracks. For all those keeping score at home, that reissue has been pushed back to January 11.

The set, to be released through QotSA frontman Josh Homme’s Rekords Rekords imprint, will be released as a CD and 180-gram double-vinyl version. Reacquaint yourself with the track list after the jump.

News Round-Up: QotSA Reissue Track List, Dismemberment Plan and ZTT Compilation

• The previously-reported reissue of Queens of the Stone Age’s self-titled 1998 debut LP – the band’s second catalogue project after the 10th anniversary reissue of major-label breakthrough Rated R – has a full track list, featuring three tracks cut from the album and unreleased until now. Rekords Rekords, the label owned by QotSA leader Josh Homme, will release the on November 26 as a vinyl and CD set (followed by a CD-only release December 7).
• Indie-rock stalwarts The Dismemberment Plan are reuniting for a tour in 2011, which will be commemorated with a reissue of the band’s breakthrough LP, 1999’s Emergency & I on January 11. (How much of a breakthrough was it? The notoriously picky critics at Pitchfork gave it a 9.6 out of 10 and wrote a review that was 21 words long, saying little more than to get up and go buy the album.) The double-vinyl set will include four bonus tracks from other singles and EPs and liner notes written by Josh Modell of The Onion.
• ZTT is promising a new compilation of incredibly rare mixes and tracks on the horizon. The label compared the set to the classic compilations Sampled (1985) and Zance (1994), only “bigger than both combined.” The twelfth entry in ZTT’s ongoing Element Series of reissues has no release date or title yet, but we’ll of course let you know when it does.

Hit the jump to see the track lists for the Queens of the Stone Age and Dismemberment Plan reissues.

News Round-Up: Stripped Smokey, Another QotSA Reissue and An Unsurprising Delay

• If you were looking for a bit of a change, musically, today might be the day to check out yesterday’s digital release from Motown, Smokey Robinson’s The Stripped Mixes. Not unlike a Michael Jackson set that was rush-released after his death last summer, Stripped puts an emphasis on The King of Motown’s inimitable voice through ten acoustically-minded remixes. Call it a cash-in if you want, but the MJ set revealed some buried treasure in those new mixes. Plus, come on, it’s Smokey Robinson. He sounds like an angel.
• Queens of the Stone Age, having recently done a 10th anniversary reissue of major-label breakthrough Rated R, are going even further back this holiday season. QotSA frontman Josh Homme’s own label, Rekords Rekords, is going to reissue the band’s self-titled 1998 debut LP on November 26 as a vinyl and CD set (followed by a CD-only release December 7). This version features three tracks cut from the original version of the album.
• EMI has rescheduled the upcoming deluxe reissues of Duran Duran’s Notorious and Big Thing yet again to October 12. This is the third time these titles have changed release dates, which must mean they’re going as smoothly as the other sets.

“Rated R” for “Really, This is the Last Time We’ll Post Any Info on It”

After what feels like ages, new cover art and a final track list has been revealed for the 10th anniversary deluxe edition of Queens of The Stone Age’s Rated R. The remastered original LP – the band’s first on Interscope Records – will be pressed alongside a disc of B-sides and nine tracks recorded live at the Reading Music Festival on August 28, 2000. It’ll be in stores August 3.

Pre-order it at Amazon and hit the jump to see the track list.

News Round-Up: Prince Possibilites, Soundtrack Bits, Plus Bon Jovi Reaction

• Here’s something that’ll get tongues wagging: gossip blogger Dr. Funkenberry, known for his commentary and scoops around the Prince camp, reported that The Artist partook in a meeting at the headquarters of former label, Warner Bros. The idea is that his upcoming album, 20Ten, will get a release with several European publications (similar to the release of 2007’s Planet Earth), but will be released through WB in the U.S. PLEASE let this mean that reissues are in the cards somewhere.
• Pitchfork provides some more details on the upcoming reissue of Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R, now scheduled for August 2. The two-disc set will feature all the B-sides previously speculated here (plus another, a live version of “Monsters in the Parasol”). They will fill the second disc of the set, alongside the band’s 2000 set at The Reading Festival. (What, is Pitch
• We’ve been saying that Alex North’s music to the film Spartacus will get the deluxe treatment this year, and it looks like it’ll be announced next week. Varese Sarabande has set June 28 as the day to announce producer Robert Townson’s 1,000th set with the label. “Never has there been as elaborate a production of a single film score in all of film music history,” the brief goes on to say. (Rumors abound that the set will include a thorough presentation of the original score plus a set of tribute cues conducted by other luminous film composers.)
• The La-La Land score label has also clarified its release dates for the remainder of 2010. On July 15, the label (which will have some both space at this summer’s San Diego Comic-Con) will reveal two new limited edition titles (one set at 3,000 units, another at 5,000). Another set of limited sets will follow on August 10 and titles will be announced every two weeks afterward through November 26, which will see three major titles announced. Guesses as to what the sets may be are more than welcome (one massive rumor for Comic-Con is a reissue of Danny Elfman’s iconic score to Batman).
• Feeling like the Bon Jovi reissues were mostly ignored by critics? The die-hard Bon Jovi fans at Metal Asylum (good friends of The Second Disc) have turned in a thoughtful review of the first four LPs in the series.

News Round-Up: “Rated R” Release Date, Ozzy Reissues and Rare Cure

• The aforementioned reissue of Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R (2000) has a release date set. Look for it July 20. (Thanks to MusicTAP for the tip)
• Rolling Stone reports in their new issue that Ozzy Osbourne is planning deluxe reissues of Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981). While no bonus content has been confirmed, fans will rejoice that these reissues will be using the original LP mixes (in 2002, both albums were controversially reissued with uncredited drum and bass overdubs, replacing Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake’s original tracks with new ones from Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, both having been members of Ozzy’s touring band).
• As if it wasn’t good enough being a fan of The Cure right now, it gets even better. A Web site devoted to the band’s upcoming deluxe edition of Disintegration has been opened up, with a treasure trove of streamable goodies, including – wait for it – another disc’s worth of rarities that won’t be in the deluxe set. (If you’re handy with audio, you could conceivably make yourself a four-disc version of the new reissue – or a five-disc, when another Disintegration live set starts streaming next week.) Get a hold of it here. (You can also check out a bunch of rare/unreleased tracks Robert Smith posted at the time of the release of The Cure’s Greatest Hits disc from 2001; they’ve been archived at excellent Cure fan blog Chain of Flowers. All the love in the world to Slicing Up Eyeballs for the revelations.)

“Rated R” for Reissue

Here’s a brief tidbit about a forthcoming rock title due for a reissue. NME reports that Queens of the Stone Age are readying a 10th anniversary re-release of their first major-label LP, Rated R, for a July release.

QotSA frontman Josh Homme – also a key member of in-demand supergroup Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones – confirmed that the set would likely feature extra material such as non-LP tracks and unreleased live recordings, possibly from the group’s first visit to the famed Reading Festival in the U.K. from a decade before.

In the meantime, hit the jump to reacquaint yourself with the album, and a few possible bonus cuts to boot.