New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Omnivore Recordings is preparing four vinyl-only titles for this fall's Record Store Day/Black Friday, to be celebrated at physical music retailers on
Black Friday, November 23, 2018. This year, vinyl lovers can look forward to the following LPs: Soul Asylum's The Twin/Tone Years; Arlo Guthrie's Alice - Before Time Began; Lone Justice's The Western Tapes, 1983; and America's Highlights From Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973.
Arlo Guthrie: Alice - Before Time Began
In celebration of both Thanksgiving and Record Store Day/Black Friday, a version of the classic
Arlo Guthrie story-song "Alice's Restaurant" is making its vinyl debut. This late '60s live version, known as "Alice - Before Time Began," was first issued on The Tales of '69, a2009 CD, and now appears during this festive season as a limited edition, rainbow-roach-colored splatter vinyl LP. Clocking in at more than 30 minutes, the tale has been segmented into two parts, allowing the listener a chance to digest side one before flipping the disc over to find out how the story ends. This special pressing is offered in advance of the forthcoming Alice's Restaurant: Original Motion Picture Score (50th Anniversary Edition) expanded CD and double vinyl release. Details and track listing to be announced shortly.
Starting in October, the Alice's Restaurant Back by Popular Demand Tour launches in New Jersey and promises to keep Guthrie on the road celebrating the 50th anniversary of the landmark film throughout 2019.
Soul Asylum: The Twin/Tone Years
Soul Asylum first hit the Minneapolis music scene in early 1981. Core members Dave Pirner, Dan Murphy, and Karl Mueller met at local punk rock shows. They were all big fans of formidable bands like Hüsker Dü and the Replacements, so coming up in the shadow of those groups was daunting but inspired the four to make a name for themselves.
Soul Asylum stood out immediately because of their work ethic and smart, punky hard-rock sound. They made four records for hometown label Twin/Tone Records before moving on to the majors: first A&M, then Columbia, where they scored two platinum albums and won a Best Rock Song Grammy® for "Runaway Train."
Omnivore's special five-LP box set brings together Soul Asylum's earliest albums, Say What You
Will . . . Anything Can Happen, Made To Be Broken, and While You Were Out; their classic EP Clam Dip & Other Delights(tracks from both the U.S. and U.K. versions); and the special new album Twin/Tone Extras, a compilation of bonus tracks featured on the CD reissues of the band's Twin/Tone releases. The set is co-produced by Twin/Tone Records co-founder and Replacements manager
Peter Jesperson and Grammy®-winner and Omnivore Recordings co-founder Cheryl Pawelski. The Twin/Tone Years reaches back for some of the earliest
Soul Asylum recordings, such as in their earlier incarnation of Loud Fast Rules, and traces the history of the band through its indie, pre-major label years. The box includes a 20-page book of liner notes and previously unseen photos and memorabilia. The albums are being reissued on vinyl for the first time since their original releases, and have been restored and mastered by Grammy®-award winning engineer Michael Graves at Osiris Studio and cut by Chris Muth at Taloowa.
A full track listing appears here: www.omnivorerecordings.com/shop/twintone-years
Lone Justice: The Western Tapes, 1983
Musician and producer Marvin Etzioni first saw
Maria McKee and Ryan Hedgecock in a club in 1982, playing
George Jones and Hank Williams covers. He convinced them they needed original material. The band added Dave Harrington (bass) and Don Willens (drums), worked up material with Etzioni and cut five of this release's six tracks at the famed Record Plant. An earlier session provides the sixth track.
The Western Tapes: 1983 exhibits the genesis of this highly influential band. While the original demo version of "Drugstore Cowboy" has appeared on various compilations, the rest of the tracks from the sessions have remained in the can. Two of them, which wound up landing on band's eponymous debut, appear here in their earliest demo form: "Working Late" and "Don't Toss Us Away" (written by Maria's half-brother Bryan MacLean, of the classic band Love). The latter song eventually became a Top 5 smash for country superstar Patty Loveless.
Released with approval from the band, the 12" and CD EP were mastered by Bernie Grundman (who also cut the 45 rpm lacquers). The set is a look into how Lone
Justice started and foretells where they would go. As Etzioni (who would later join the band) says in his liner notes: "With countless hours together, it was a fun and innocent time. I believed we were creating a 21st century country band."
America: Highlights From Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973
In 1967, Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek met in high school. Sons of U.S. servicemen stationed in England, the three teenagers ultimately formed a band that was inspired by the British Invasion. Soon they began writing their own style that would soon achieve popularity worldwide. The group signed to Warner Bros. Records London in 1971 and needed a name . . . they chose America.
Omnivore, in association with the group's living founding members Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, is proud to announce the release of Highlights From Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973, the LP version of last year's highly acclaimed release on CD. This is the first vinyl release of some of the group's most beloved songs in their most embryonic and intimate form. You will hear America's earliest efforts, recorded before the band's multi-platinum eponymously-titled debut album from Chalk Hill Farm Studios (outside of London), as well as previously unissued songs from Gerry Beckley's Buzz Studios (his home in West Hollywood during the early '70s). The set features demos of previously unissued songs ("Sea of Destiny," "Man of Pride") and early versions of deep cuts ("
Riverside" and "Here").
Highlights From Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973offers an up-close and personal portrait of a band primed for stardom, creating classic songs that would still resonate almost 50 years later —on vinyl —as nature intended!
Track Listings:
Arlo Guthrie: Alice—Before Time Began
Side One
Alice—Before Time Began (Part One)
Side Two
Alice—Before Time Began (Part Two)
Soul Asylum:The Twin/Tone Years
www.omnivorerecordings.com/shop/twintone-years
America: Highlights From Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973
Side One
1. Riverside (Demo - Chalk Farm Studios, 1970
2. Here (Demo - Chalk Farm Studios, 1970)
3.
James Holladay (Demo - Chalk Farm Studios, 1970)
4. How Long (Demo - Chalk Farm Studios, 1970)
5. Sea Of Destiny (Demo - Chalk Farm Studios, 1970)
Side Two
1. Mitchum Junction (Demo - Buzz Studios, 1972) 2. Goodbye (Demo - Buzz Studios, 1972)
3. Wind Wave (Demo - Buzz Studios, 1972)
4. Man Of Pride (Demo - Buzz Studios, 1973)
5.
Rainbow Song (Demo - Buzz Studios, 1973
6. Monster (Demo - Buzz Studios, 1973)
Lone Justice: The Western Tapes, 1983
1. Working Late
2. Don't Toss Us Away
3. I See It
4. The Train
5. Drugstore Cowboy
6. How Lonesome Life Has Been
