Welcome to the TVD Record Store Club for the week ending 11/6/15.
The TVD Record Store Club is another free feature we’ve added to The TVD Record Store Locator App that relaunched refreshed and rebranded just last week. The Club points to a record store agenda that we’re assembling for your weekend now that new release vinyl lands in stores on Fridays—AND for the early part of the week coming when those mom and pops could use the foot traffic.
Every Thursday we’ll be tipping you off right here at TVD—and within the app at the Club tab—to releases of merit newly on store shelves, along with in-store ticket giveaways you can win by simply waving the app, pricing incentives, contests, cool partner initiatives, and a host of surprises we’re looking forward to putting in your pocket on the regular.
This week we’re pleased to dial you into new releases from Steve Forbert, Natalie Merchant, and Seal, along with reappearances from 2 little combos with bright futures ahead of them indeed—Rush and Led Zeppelin.
Steve Forbert, Compromised | The songwriter’s songwriter is one who adheres to an unwavering standard of excellence. His work is honed, sculpted, shaped, and then reshaped until it feels right to share with the world. These are just a few of the guiding principles Steve Forbert followed while composing the 11 original songs on his new album, Compromised. (Stripped-down Americana versions of three of its songs appear as bonus tracks, and there’s also a gravelly, folkified cover of “Send in the Clowns”).
It’s not a “modern” record—it has an aggressive, roots rock and folk rock styling that’s not a lot different from [1991’s] The American in Me in its instrumentation.” Recorded in various locales including Woodstock and Cape Cod over a period of eight months and produced by Forbert along with John Simon (who helmed Forbert’s breakthrough sophomore album, 1979’s Jackrabbit Slim), Steve Greenwell, Jon Evans, Anthony Crawford, and Marc Muller,
Compromised is anything but what its title suggests. From the rambling piano and horn-driven swing of “Big Comeuppance” to the seductive twang of “Devil (Here She Comes Now)” to the Altamont romanticizing of “Welcome the Rolling Stones,” Forbert has followed his muse to the hilt. Many Compromised songs share a common thread of resigned acceptance, born from Forbert’s keen observations on the nuances associated with the actual art of the compromise.
Compromised collaborators include longtime Forbert associates bassist Joey Spampinato (NRBQ), drummer Lou Cataldo (The Freeze), and keyboardist Robbie Kondor, the latter of whom played on Forbert’s kinetic 1978 debut, Alive on Arrival. In today’s overload-of-information age, Forbert recognizes the value of having a “calling card” song in his arsenal—“Romeo’s Tune,” his indelible pop hit that reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980. “That turned out ok—that song has good serendipity,” he says. “Did I become somewhat of a household word, with household recognition? No. But you write the songs, and the songs have to be recorded. And there aren’t really any hit songs until you make the right recording of them. As long as you have the inspiration, you keep doing it.”
And you keep doing so—without compromise.
Natalie Merchant, Paradise is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings | Nonesuch Records releases Natalie Merchant’s Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings on November 6, 2015. This collection of all-new recordings revisits Merchant’s multi-platinum solo debut,Tigerlily, originally released in 1995 following her departure from 10,000 Maniacs. The new release is accompanied by a documentary DVD. The memoir-style film contains live performances, archival footage, and interviews with musicians, friends, and fans about the influence the songs of Tigerlily have had over the past 20 years.
Tigerlily was described by the New York Times in 1995 as “an anomaly in a music scene in which reckless female performers reign supreme.” The album sold more than five million copies worldwide and featured the popular hit singles “Carnival,” “Wonder,” and “Jealousy.” Paradise Is There presents the songs as they have evolved over the past two decades of live performance. Joining Merchant on the album, which she produced herself, are her long-time band members Gabriel Gordon (guitar), Jesse Murphy (bass), Uri Sharlin (piano and accordion), and Allison Miller (drums), as well as a string quartet—Scot Moore (violin), Shawn Moore (violin), Marandi Hostetter (viola), and Stanley Moore (cello)—plus Sharel Cassity (saxophone) and guest vocals by Simi Stone, Gail Ann Dorsey, and Elizabeth Mitchell.
“Tigerlily is the most significant album I’ve made because it defined me as an independent songwriter after 12 years in 10,000 Maniacs,” Merchant explains, “It also created a bond between me and an audience that has supported and sustained me for 20 years. I decided to make the Paradise Is There album and film for them, to honor the journey that we, and these songs, have all taken. Songs have new life breathed into them every time they are sung. Time has changed them as much as it has changed me.” She continues, “I wanted to record these songs again because it seemed unfair to confine them to the way that they were performed in the studio in 1995. They are so versatile, whether I strip them bare or enhance them with strings, and they lend themselves so well to re-arrangement.
“There are several songs from Tigerlily—’Carnival,’ ‘Wonder,’ ‘Beloved Wife,’ ‘River,’ and ‘Cowboy Romance’—that remain at the core of my live shows. They still have relevance to me and, by the response they receive, I can tell that they still resonate with my audience,” Merchant says. “I’ve spent a full year preparing this album and film, and the process gave me a chance to take the measure of everything that’s happened because of Tigerlily. The distance this music traveled once it left my hands is humbling, and I am moved by how many lives it has touched along the way.”
Seal, 7 | On 7, Seal explores love and all of its implications, idiosyncrasies, and intricacies—subject matter he began to delicately approach as early as 2013, knowing exactly where he wanted to go.
“The album concerns the most sung about, most talked about, and most documented emotion—love,” Seal says.”I tried to capture all of the wonderfully different dynamics of love, whether it’s the anger, the acceptance, the bliss, the sadness, the elation, or the recklessness. It’s this emotion and the ways it makes us feel.
It’s about the extreme joy and the extreme regret as well as all of the crazy things love makes us do.”
Rush, Test for Echo | With more than 40 million records sold worldwide and countless sold-out tours, Rush—Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart—is not only one of the most inventive and compelling groups in rock history, but remains one of the most popular.
The RIAA has certified Rush for the third most consecutive gold/platinum studio albums by a rock band, topped only by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Rush’s vast catalog includes such classics as 1974’s self-titled debut, 1976’s 2112, 1981’s Moving Pictures, 1996’s Test for Echo, and 2002’s Vapor Trails.
Rush released their 20th studio album, Clockwork Angels in 2012 via Anthem/Roadrunner Records. The highly anticipated collection marks their first studio recording since 2007’s Snakes & Arrows and debuted at #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard 200, matching the highest chart debut of the band’s career.
In addition to their commercial success, Rush has also been recognized with a number of Juno Awards and multiple Grammy nominations, including one for 2010’s acclaimed documentary Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage. Enjoying a recent pop culture renaissance, Rush made a rare television appearance—their first in over 30 years—on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and a memorable cameo in the film I Love You, Man. Most recently, Rush has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This year, Canada’s national newspaper The Globe & Mail called Rush “one of the few bands anywhere that just keeps getting better.” A career-chronicling Rolling Stone feature summed up the renowned rock trio’s continuing artistic vitality by observing, “It’s true that Rush doesn’t mean today what it did in ’76 or even ’96. It may mean more.”
Led Zeppelin, Mothership | In 1968, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant formed Led Zeppelin, one of the most influential, innovative, and successful groups in modern music. The band has sold more than 300 million albums worldwide with a celebrated catalog including such landmark songs as “Whole Lotta Love,” “Kashmir,” “Rock And Roll,” “When The Levee Breaks” and “Stairway To Heaven.”
The band rose from the ashes of The Yardbirds, when Page brought in Plant, Bonham, and Jones to tour as The New Yardbirds. In 1969, Led Zeppelin released its self-titled debut. It marked the beginning of a 12-year reign, during which the group was widely considered to be the biggest rock band in the world.
Led Zeppelin continues to be honored for its pivotal role in music history. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, and a year later was awarded with the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm. Founding members Jones, Page, and Plant—along with Jason Bonham, the son of John Bonham—took the stage at London’s O2 Arena in 2007 to headline a tribute concert for Ahmet Ertegun, a dear friend and Atlantic Records’ founder.
The band was honored for its lifetime contribution to American culture at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012. In January of 2014, the band won their first ever Grammy award as Celebration Day, which captured their live performance at the Ertegun tribute concert, was named Best Rock Album.
The TVD review of Led Zeppelin’s Mothership is here.
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