Rhino’s sonic overhaul of The Replacements’ catalog has wrapped up with all four of the band’s Sire albums Tim, Pleased to Meet Me, Don’t Tell a Soul and All Shook Down, including previously unreleased tracks.

Rhino launched its upgrade of The Replacements’ catalog to much acclaim in spring 2008, remastering the band’s legendary Twin/Tone canon and expanding it with rare and unreleased songs. Now the both rounds of deluxe edition remastered reissues, including bonus tracks, are available digitally.

Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars and brothers Tommy and Bob Stinson were heroes
of the budding alternative music scene thanks to a trio of riotous albums
they recorded in the early ’80s for their hometown indie Twin/Tone. The
Replacements signed with Sire in 1985, where the band recorded these four
powerful albums before playing its last show in Chicago on July 4, 1991.
Peter Jesperson, the band’s longtime manager, served as producer for the
deluxe editions. As with the Twin/Tone reissues, the band provided
invaluable assistance by selecting the bonus tracks for these reissues —
many of which have never been heard, even by hardcore fans.

Expectations were high for Tim (1985), The Replacements’ major label debut
and follow-up to its most acclaimed album, Let It Be. The band did not
disappoint, returning with another batch of classics like “Kiss Me On The
Bus,” “Left Of The Dial” and the anthemic “Bastards Of Young.”

Recorded in Minneapolis, the album’s 11 songs were produced by the Ramones’ founding drummer and producer, Tommy “Ramone” Erdelyi. Westerberg says: “I can go back and listen and know that those are good songs. Yeah, the [recordings] are a little quirky and a little off…but, you know, a lot of the stuff
that I’ve loved throughout my life didn’t sound perfect. And I kinda like
that about Tim.“ 

Of the six bonus songs on the deluxe version of Tim, half are outtakes from a brief session with Alex Chilton of Big Star, a band that had a huge influence on The Replacements. Featured here from that session for the first time ever on CD are “Nowhere Is My Home” and electric and acoustic versions of “Can’t Hardly Wait.”

TRACK LISTINGS: TIM
1. “Hold My Life”
2. “I’ll Buy”
3. “Kiss Me On The Bus”
4. “Dose Of Thunder”
5. “Waitress In The Sky”
6. “Swingin Party”
7. “Bastards Of Young”
8. “Lay It Down Clown”
9. “Left Of The Dial”
10. “Little Mascara”
11. “Here Comes A Regular”
Bonus Material
12. “Can’t Hardly Wait” (Acoustic – Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) *
13. “Nowhere Is My Home” (Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake)
14. “Can’t Hardly Wait” (Electric – Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) *
15. “Kiss Me On The Bus” (Tom Erdelyi Demo) *
16. “Waitress In The Sky” (Outtake – Alternate Version) *
17. “Here Comes A Regular” (Outtake – Alternate Version) *

* previously unissued recording

Pleased to Meet Me (1987) was The Replacements’ first album without
founding guitarist Bob Stinson, who exited the band after the final tour
dates in support of Tim. The band, now a trio, went into a Memphis studio
with producer Jim Dickinson, a veteran session player and producer who
helmed Big Star’s dark masterpiece (and ‘Mats’ fave), Third. The album won
rave reviews for memorable songs like “Alex Chilton,” “Skyway” and “Can’t
Hardly Wait,” which surprised some with Dickinson’s propulsive horn and
string arrangement, a truly bold musical move at the time.

Among the 11 bonus tracks on Pleased to Meet Me are unreleased demos
(“Birthday Gal,” “Valentine,” “Bundle Up”) and alternate versions of album
tracks (“Can’t Hardly Wait,” “Alex Chilton”). A mix of covers (“Route 66,”
“Tossin’ ‘N’ Turnin’”) and rarities (“Election Day”) rounds out the
collection.

TRACK LISTINGS: PLEASED TO MEET ME
1. “I.O.U.”
2. “Alex Chilton”
3. “I Don’t Know”
4. “Nightclub Jitters”
5. “The Ledge”
6. “Never Mind”
7. “Valentine”
8. “Shooting Dirty Pool”
9. “Red Red Wine”
10. “Skyway”
11. “Can’t Hardly Wait”
Bonus Material
12. “Birthday Gal” (Demo)*
13. “Valentine” (Demo) *
14. “Bundle Up” (Demo) *
15. “Photo” (Demo)*
16. “Election Day”
17. “Alex Chilton” (Alternate Version) *
18. “Kick It In” (Demo) *
19. “Route 66″
20. “Tossin’ ‘N’ Turnin’”
21. “Can’t Hardly Wait” (Alternate Version) *
22. “Cool Water”

* previously unissued recording

Guitarist Slim Dunlap, who toured with The Replacements for Pleased To Meet
Me, joined the band in the studio for the first time to record Don’t Tell a Soul (1989). Produced by Matt Wallace and the band, the original album featured 11 tracks, including “I’ll Be You,” the band’s highest charting single; and the country-rocker “Achin’ To Be,” a song some critics have credited as one of the founding/defining moments of the Americana roots music movement.

The eight bonus tracks on Don’t Tell a Soul open with “Portland” and “Wake Up” — both recorded in 1988 but not released until 1997 on the compilation All For Nothing/Nothing For All. Also included is the track “Date To Church,” which features Tom Waits and was originally released as the b-side to “I’ll Be You.” Half of the bonus tracks on this deluxe edition are previously unreleased, including a cover of Slade’s “Gudbuy T’ Jane.”

TRACK LISTING: DON’T TELL A SOUL
1. “Talent Show”
2. “Back To Back”
3. “We’ll Inherit The Earth”
4. “Achin’ To Be”
5. “They’re Blind”
6. “Anywhere’s Better Than Here”
7. “Asking Me Lies”
8. “I’ll Be You”
9. “I Won’t”
10. “Rock ‘N’ Roll Ghost”
11. “Darlin’ One”
Bonus Material
12. “Portland”
13. “Wake Up”
14. “Cruella DeVille”
15. “Talent Show” (Demo) *
16. “We’ll Inherit The Earth” (Mix 1) *
17. “Date To Church”
18. “We Know The Night” (Outtake) *
19. “Gudbuy T’ Jane” (Outtake) *

* previously unissued recording

The following year, The Replacements released their final album, All Shook Down (1990). The most consistently strong collection of songs in the band’s
entire career, the album stands as one of the most poetic and enduring
epilogues in rock history.

Produced by Scott Litt and the band, the original album features 13 tracks, including “Someone Take the Wheel,” the eerie title track and “Sadly Beautiful,” a ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull that became revered in The Replacements’ canon. Of the 11 bonus tracks on All Shook Down, eight are unreleased demos for album tracks (“Sadly Beautiful,” “Nobody,” “Attitude”) and the non-album track “Tiny Paper Plane.” The remaining three tracks were previously issued in 1991 on the promotional EP Don’t Sell Or Buy, It’s Crap.

TRACK LISTING: ALL SHOOK DOWN
1. “Merry Go Round”
2. “One Wink At A Time”
3. “Nobody”
4. “Bent Out Of Shape”
5. “Sadly Beautiful”
6. “Someone Take The Wheel”
7. “When It Began”
8. “All Shook Down”
9. “Attitude”
10. “Happy Town”
11. “Torture”
12. “My Little Problem”
13. “The Last”
Bonus Material
14. “When It Began” (Demo) *
15. “Nobody” (Demo) *
16. “One Wink At A Time” (Demo) *
17. “Torture” (Demo) *
18. “Attitude” (Demo) *
19. “Happy Town” (Demo) *
20. “Tiny Paper Plane” (Demo) *
21. “Sadly Beautiful” (Demo) *
22. “Kissin’ In Action”
23. “Ought To Get Love”
24. “Satellite”

* previously unissued recording

Click here to check out the latest price guides from Goldmine

Progressive-music fans must have treasured the recent holiday season, considering the slew of impressive box sets, reissues and compelling one-off projects that appeared at the end of 2008 and early in the new year…

A major ongoing reissue campaign involves The Alan Parsons Project and six more titles from Legacy.

Overseen by production whiz Alan Parsons and his former musical collaborator, Eric Woolfson, the expanded editions of Pyramid (1978), Eve (1979), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987) arrived in January and feature 40 previously unreleased bonus tracks. These versions have been available as imports for almost two years. (Curiously absent from the U.S. reissues is 1985’s Vulture Culture.)

Legacy reissued I Robot and Eye in the Sky in the U.S. in 2007, reintroducing listeners to the studio entity’s sophisticated, breezy and keyboard-driven orchestral music, which can be considered a precursor to such modern-day collaborative projects as Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Ayreon.

“We thought a lot of people were going to make records like this, where you’re not dealing with one lead singer or a bunch of artistic egos. That is when the production values of the record are going to be the focus,” says Woolfson, the project’s chief songwriter. “It seemed to us that a lot of people would go down that road, but they didn’t. Records aren’t made like that anymore, unfortunately, because the budgets just aren’t there to go into the studio for unlimited amounts of time or to use large orchestras and so on. These records are timeless because of the quality that went into them.”

That quality has not been sacrificed during Parsons’ painstaking remastering process. Warm and vibrant, the audio on these reissues strikingly resembles that of the original vinyl.

“Very often, remasters are done by people who weren’t connected to the original recordings, and they just add volume that doesn’t necessarily make it sound better,” Woolfson says. “With the improvements in remastering, you actually hear on these CDs what we heard in the studio. That doesn’t work with all remastered records, but it certainly does with the Alan Parsons Project. It was a real thrill to relive that sonic experience. It revived for me something I thought was lost forever.”

Woolfson is enjoying a career resurgence of sorts with the reissues, success in musical theater and a new project featuring previously unfinished material called — wait for it — the Alan Parsons Project That Never Was. It will “give people a taste of what might have been” had the duo not parted ways after Gaudi, Woolfson says.

Parsons, meanwhile, dropped the “Project” moniker from his work years ago and continues to produce and release adventurous music under his own name.

Perhaps no reissue package was more eagerly anticipated by the faithful than 1970-1975, the final piece of Rhino’s trilogy of Genesis CD/DVD box sets. They’re loaded with rich features — including a 5.1 Surround-Sound option, elusive bonus tracks, vintage concert footage and lengthy present-day interviews with nearly all past and current band members.

These handsome and expensive boxes (the 13-disc 1970-1975 was the priciest at $139.98) make a persuasive case for the continuing existence of the CD format and have earned their place among the finest box sets in any genre. Sure, some snarky audiophiles dismissed the remastered sound as too compressed, but they missed the bigger picture: This is an (almost) complete chronicle of one of rock’s most creative and oft-criticized bands, from its beginnings as pastoral folkies and its conversion to wacky and borderline-creepy proggers to its reign as masters of the pop universe.

Now comes word of a vinyl version of 1970-1975, hitting stores in April with a whopping retail price of $149.98. The 180-gram vinyl LPs will contain new stereo mixes of the Gabriel-era albums and will be presented in heavyweight gatefold sleeves that feature the original covers. Like the CD boxes, all of the albums will be housed in a protective slipcase.

OK, very impressive. But how about one more box? Call it Live 1973-1993, and include expanded editions of Live, Seconds Out, Three Sides Live and even both volumes of The Way We Walk, with more interviews and any remaining video footage. That would be a fitting coda to this monumental reissue project.

Robert Fripp has spent a lot of time toiling in the vaults lately, releasing live King Crimson recordings, as well as his studio collaborations with Brian Eno via his own DGM label.

Fripp & Eno’s No Pussyfooting (1973) and Evening Star (1975) — both recorded as the two eclectic musicians were breaking away from their respective bands, King Crimson and Roxy Music — are among Fripp’s latest offerings.

No Pussyfooting is widely considered one of the most influential electronic music albums ever recorded, and this expanded edition boasts a bonus disc featuring an eerie half-speed version of “The Heavenly Music Corporation” (the first piece Fripp & Eno ever wrote together), plus a compelling re-creation of “Swastika Girls” in reverse to commemorate the way the BBC inadvertently aired it in December 1973. Evening Star is a straight reissue that reflects a warmer and more song-oriented approach. The main exception is “An Index of Metal,” 29 minutes of atmospheric unease.

Both reissues lack significant liner notes and will do little to sway new listeners. Those who already understand, though, will likely embrace these revered recordings.

Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s ambitious Ayreon project is symphonic rock bordering on metal that spans 13 years and seven sci-fi and fantasy concept albums, with a rotation of musicians and vocalists that has included Bruce Dickinson, Fish, James LaBrie, Neal Morse, Derek Sherinian, Clive Nolan and Ken Hensley.
The saga of the so-called “Ayreon Universe” began with 1995’s The Final Experiment and was completed with last year’s 01011001. All albums are lyrically and musically linked, but they also stand on their own, containing some of modern prog’s most accessible and ambitious arrangements. How do you compress all that into one box set?

Well, for the three-CD/one-DVD Timeline, Lucassen chose 32 remastered tracks (nearly four hours of music) that he says best represent his catalog.

Never one to shy away from making grand musical statements, Lucassen uncharacteristically concludes Timeline with the previously unreleased “Epilogue: The Memory Remains” — notable for its orchestral subtlety and echoes of mellow Pink Floyd. This is the perfect primer for newcomers and will help longtime fans hear Ayreon’s music with fresh ears.

Is singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Nick D’Virgilio a modern-day Phil Collins? Much like Collins in Genesis, D’Virgilio was the drummer in Spock’s Beard until founding frontman Neal Morse went solo in 2002.

Stepping into the lead vocalist’s spot for Spock’s has boosted D’Virgilio’s vocal confidence tremendously. In fact, he assumed the role of Peter Gabriel when he and renowned Nashville producer Mark Hornsby recently reworked The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, arguably the apex of Gabriel-era Genesis — a rambling, nonsensical concept album about the experiences of a Puerto Rican hustler named Rael in New York City.

The duo gathered Music City musicians (some who weren’t even familiar with the work) and recorded Rewiring Genesis: A Tribute to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. D’Virgilio is unafraid to veer from Gabriel’s delivery style, and Hornsby adds Chicago-style horns, Kansas-like violins and even an Allman Brothers swagger to key songs — ensuring that some listeners will like this better than the original.

It “would be stupid” to re-create The Lamb…, D’Virgilio writes in the album’s liner notes. “We are … just trying to give it some new life. The songs and the writing are so good that it just lends itself to a different interpretation.”

Jem Godfrey, perhaps best known for producing the popular British girl group Atomic
Kitten, turned prog with 2006’s Milliontown — a love-it-or-hate-it album recorded with members of IQ, Arena and It Bites under the name Frost* (asterisk included).

By trying to accomplish too much musically, it left some listeners feeling cold. Godfrey recently told Goldmine that he thought it “might be a laugh” to make a progressive-rock record as an “antidote” to all of his pop projects. “It wasn’t going to be anything other than a bit of a private hobby project,” he admits.

But now comes Experiments in Mass Appeal, a powerfully moody and riveting album that blurs the lines between symphonic prog, hard rock, progressive metal and indie pop, with soaring vocals from new singer Declan Burke (on loan from British progressive rockers Darwin’s Radio). The release took the prog community by surprise, considering that after Milliontown, Godfrey declared he was putting Frost* on ice.

That was the wrong thing to say, explains the 37-year-old father of three children under the age of 4.

“I completely adore being in the studio, making albums and being a part of the whole brilliant magic that goes into the writing and recording process,” he says. “What I dislike quite strongly is gigging. We did a show [recently], and I had to leave at 7 a.m. on Saturday, drive five hours to the gig, do the gig and then come home the next day. The journey home took seven hours because there was a big accident on the motorway. It totally wiped my weekend out, took me away from my family for two days, and all for 90 minutes’ worth of average work. I played terribly.”

Here’s hoping Frost*’s U.S. debut at May’s Rites of Spring Festival in Glenside, Pa., goes better for Godfrey and his band, which also includes bassist John Jowitt and guitarist John Mitchell. (Nick D’Virgilio of Spock’s Beard will fill in on drums and be a “Frostie” for the day.)

“Prog fans are among the nicest, most generous and good-natured people I’ve ever come into contact with,” says Godfrey, who primarily plays keyboards in Frost*. “They also approach Frost* with an open mind. It can be a bit of a rollercoaster ride, musically, and they’re very good at holding onto their hats and not vomiting onto their ice creams. God love ’em.”

Vocalist Lance King’s two-album stint in the multinational progressive-metal band Balance of Power in the late ’90s may have cemented his reputation as one of America’s finest singers, deserving comparisons to James LaBrie and Geoff Tate.

But he’s done even more to advance the genre with his Minneapolis-based label, Nightmare Records (www.nightmare-records.com). Operating with the tagline “Metal in Progression,” King takes his prog-metal ultra-seriously, a fact reflected in Nightmare’s roster, which now includes veteran Swedish headbangers Andromeda — whose new CD, The Immunity Zone, should appeal to fans of Dream Theater, Symphony X and Saga.

“I started Nightmare as a vehicle to release my own musical material in 1990,” says King, adding that he looks for stronger vocals and even stronger hooks in the bands he signs. “Quickly, it grew into a full-blown international effort. I had no idea it would surpass my goals as a part-time thing.”

King’s involvement in some of Nightmare’s bands still goes beyond business. He sings and plays keys in Avian, a Minneapolis-based quartet that incorporates melodic power metal, aggressive progressive metal and old-school European metal. The band’s second album, Ashes and Madness, contains some of King’s most impressive vocals since Balance of Power.

He’s also listed as executive producer of the new self-titled debut from Memoira, a razor-riffed, female-fronted Finnish band in the vein of Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil. “The difference [between fronting a band and fronting a label] mainly is being in front of a computer screen instead of a mic,” he says.

Here are three other recent notable Nightmare releases:
 
• Shadow of Doubt, the third CD from the Ohio trio Perspective X IV, which collectively plays almost 20 instruments and sounds like windswept Kansas (complete with Christian subtext) injected with healthy doses of Fates Warning and Rush.

• Global Drama, on which Cloudscape takes cues from fellow Swedes Evergrey to create an atmospheric and diverse album laden with dark undercurrents and Middle Eastern, Celtic and classical flourishes. The band strikes a delicate balance between heaviness and tenderness.

• A Manifesto for Domination, which lives up to its ambitious title by proclaiming Atlanta’s Halcyon Way a major force in American progressive metal — combining the melodic elements of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche’s heavier side and Metallica’s progressive tendencies with violent imagery and memorable choruses.  

Click here to check out the latest price guides from Goldmine

The record presses have been busy in 2009, due in no small part to the folks at Rhino Records who keep the 180-gram vinyl reissues coming. Month after month, the label delivers classic reissues of classic albums from classic bands and artists. Here’s a look at the latest Rhino LP reissues:

Click here to check out the latest price guides from Goldmine

Wasted on the Way