Fleetwood Mac debuted their new revamped lineup by performing “The Chain” and “Gypsy” on Wednesday’s edition of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The televised appearance marked the longtime band’s first time playing live alongside guitarists Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Crowded House’s Neil Finn, both of whom stepped in after FleetwoodMac fired Lindsey Buckingham last April.
Both guitarists featured prominently in the performances, flanking to the left and right of Stevie Nicks; on both “The Chain” and “Gypsy,” Finn handled the vocal parts previously sung by Buckingham, particularly on “The Chain,” where Finn and Nicks showcased their budding vocal chemistry.
They played two classic songs, “The Chain” and “Gypsy,” which you can watch below.
Host Ellen DeGeneres introduced the group by saying that it’s sold more than 100 million albums and calling Fleetwood Mac “one of the most iconic bands in music.” Finn quickly answered fans’ questions about how his voice would fit in place of the departed Lindsey Buckingham by taking the lead on “The Chain.”
Campbell then switched guitars in order to play the song’s outro solo. For “Gypsy,” Campbell pulled double-duty, playing guitar as well as the song’s keyboard hook.
After “The Chain,” DeGeneres hugged Stevie Nicks and briefly spoke with the singer. The host acknowledged that it was a thrill to have them on her show because Fleetwood Mac usually don’t perform on TV.
Nicks introduced Finn and Campbell and promoted the band’s upcoming tour. DeGeneres added that her show is giving away a pair of tickets to every date. You fans can enter the contest at her website.
“There are 10 hits we have to do,” Nicks has previously said of the tour. “That leaves another 13 songs if you want to do a three-hour show. Then you crochet them all together and you make a great sequence and you have something that nobody has seen before except all the things they want to see are there. At rehearsal, we’re going to put up a board of 60 songs. Then we start with number one and we go through and we play everything. Slowly you start taking songs off and you start to see your set come together.”
Fleetwood Mac’s tour begins on October. 3rd in Tulsa, Oklahoma., with the first leg wrapping up with two nights at the Forum in Los Angeles on December. 11th and 13th.
A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One: 1967–1974 by Mick Fleetwood
“I have dreamt of one day working to present a documentation of the early story of Fleetwood Mac. This moment has arrived! And I’m thrilled to be in the safe hands of Genesis Publications.” – Mick Fleetwood In 1967 Fleetwood Mac debuted at the Windsor Blues and Jazz Festival. 50 years later one of its founding members Mick Fleetwood documents the rocky beginnings of a band that emerged from what is now referred to as the British Blues Boom.
“The Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival was Fleetwood Mac’s first official gig. It was such a significant musical gathering, like Paris was for artists in the 1920s.” – Mick Fleetwood
Mick Fleetwood is a self-taught drummer and a founding member of one of the most successful bands of the last 50 years, Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1968, their first album Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac came in at no.4 in the UK charts and brought the band overnight success. They went on to release the no.1 hit ‘Albatross’ and a series of critically acclaimed albums, with further hit singles including ‘Black Magic Woman’ and ‘Need Your Love So Bad’.
A constant in Fleetwood Mac’s frequently changing line-up, Mick Fleetwood took over management of the band two years before they released Rumours which – having sold over 40 million copies worldwide – remains one of the best-selling albums of all time.
“Fleetwood Mac got famous so quickly; we were still playing small clubs even as we were becoming pop stars.” – Mick Fleetwood
This official limited edition chronicle, “LOVE THAT BURNS”, contains over 400 rare images and an original manuscript of over 20,000 words with exclusive contributions from early Fleetwood Mac band members including John and Christine McVie, Jeremy Spencer and the legendary Peter Green.
“The line ‘Please don’t leave me with a love that burns’ applies to a lot in the Fleetwood Mac journey. When Peter Green left the band, that’s how I felt – that the love would be irreplaceable, and in many ways it was.” – Mick Fleetwood
Love That Burns contains original manuscript from Mick Fleetwood recounting his childhood, early bands, Fleetwood Mac’s debut performance, first international tours, live gig antics, playing with blues legends at Chess Studios, the genius of Peter Green and the many talented members that formed Fleetwood Mac in the years before 1975.
Love That Burns features text commentaries by Peter Green, Christine McVie, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer, John Mayall, Mike Vernon, Sandra (Vigon) Elsdon and Jenny Boyd and is narrated with more than 20,000 words.
“Every page turned in this precious book reflects the efforts and life force of each band member that was part of this early journey that Fleetwood Mac took.” – Mick Fleetwood
Love That Burns features images from the Mick Fleetwood archives and various contributions from friends of the band including rare unpublished images, unseen archival material, and original illustrations by Jeremy Spencer.
Top photographers include Clive Arrowsmith, Henry Diltz, Bruno Ducourant, Bob Gruen, Jeff Lowenthal, Barry Plummer, Michael Putland, Dominique Tarle, Amalie Rothschild and Daniel Sullivan.
I have dreamt of one day working with Genesis to present a documentation of the early story of Fleetwood Mac – This moment has arrived! And I’m thrilled to be in the safe hands of Genesis Publications.” – Mick Fleetwood
Love That Burns is published in a numbered, limited edition of only 2,000 copies worldwide. Every hand bound book is individually signed by the author, Mick Fleetwood. Handcrafted in Milan, Italy, the limited edition is quarter bound in leather with foil blocking, yellow sprayed page edging and a padded cover featuring the Fleetwood Mac artwork of Sixties graphic artist, Günther Kieser.
An exclusive 7″ vinyl picture disc includes ‘Love That Burns’ from the 1968 album Mr Wonderful, and a rare instrumental track recorded in June 1967, entitled ‘Fleetwood Mac’, from which the band took it’s name.
Florence and the Machine pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac, a crucial influence for her with a stripped-down cover of “Silver Springs” that was recorded during a special radio session for The Spectrum at the SiriusXM Studios.
Singer Florence Welch commands the track with her fluttering vibrato, occasionally adopting a light twang as she channels Stevie Nicks. The arrangement opens with subtle piano and acoustic guitar, building with layered backing vocals and a faint tambourine.
Welch spoke about Nicks as a creative inspiration “I’m pretty obsessed with Stevie Nicks, from her style to her voice,” she said. “I like watching her on YouTube and her old performances, the way she moves and everything.”
Florence Welch is in a totally new headspace for new album High as Hope, the follow up to Florence + The Machine‘s chart-topping How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
During the SiriusXM session, Florence and the Machine also performed three original tracks: 2009’s “CosmicLove” and recent singles “Hunger” and “Sky Full of Song,” both from the band’s fourth studio album, High as Hope.
Speaking to Jenny Eliscu ahead of her exclusive SiriusXM performance, Welch acknowledged that her life and the way she views the world has changed since her last record. This led to her single Hunger becoming a celebratory song about the human condition rather than something dark and dramatic. Along the way, she also learned that freedom can come from being disciplined and isn’t just a “let loose, smash everything to bits kind of thing.”
Florence + The Machine performs “Hunger” at SiriusXM Studios in New York City.
Elsewhere in the interview, she discussed the origins of the album title High as Hope, saying that it came out of a poem she wrote about New York, and she also clarified why her recent breakup wasn’t a focal point of the album.
“I didn’t feel like people needed to hear that any more, and I think, at that point, there were bigger heartbreaks going on than my own heartbreak,” she told Eliscu. “It somehow didn’t feel like that interesting to me. And maybe ‘How Big, How Blue’ had covered every nook and cranny of heartbreak that you possibly could. And also, I guess, in the journey that I had in the last couple of years, I understood that it wasn’t really about the other person, you know?”
Florence and the Machine, opened for the Rolling Stones in April,
Danny Kirwan, the former guitarist of Fleetwood Mac who was with the band for several albums in the late ’60s and early ’70s, has passed away at the age of 68. Danny Kirwan played on Christine Perfect’s eponymous solo album in 1970 after she left Chicken Shack, but before she joined Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac later in the year, and subsequently married John McVie. Kirwan would contribute one song on the album “When You Say,”
He was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1968-1972. Mick Fleetwood suggested Kirwan join the band in ’68 but there was some dissent among the other members (PeterGreen, Jeremy Spencer and McVie) but the 18-year old won the day. He worked wonderfully with Green lending rhythm guitar support to some of Green’s greatest compositions. Kirwan advanced quickly playing a major gig in Hyde Park in August with Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After and Fairport Convention, and then began a 50-date tour of the U.K. with the band. There was an ensuing New Year’s Eve show with the Who, Small Faces, Pink Floyd and the Troggs, and finally, in December 1968, he joined the band in New York for a 30-date U.S tour, including appearances at the Fillmore’s East and West. In 1969, he played at the Chess studios in Chicago with some legendary Blues artists including Buddy Guy and Otis Spann. The subsequent double album “Blues Jam at Chess,” (later retitled “Fleetwood Mac in Chicago,”), featured two of Kirwan’s songs.
He got his chance to contribute about half of the “Then Play On,” album (1970) splitting lead vocals with Green, while writing seven of the fourteen tracks. After Green departed the band in later that year, Kirwan and slide master Jeremy Spencer shared guitar and vocal duties on the “Kiln House,” (1970). Kirwan also played on “Future Games,” (1971), and “Bare Trees,” (1972), his final album with Fleetwood Mac. The pressures of travel and life on the road finally caught up with him, and he began drinking excessively and displaying open hostility toward the band. He was eventually sacked by Fleetwood who had seen enough. Kirwan recorded three solo albums later in the 1970s, but none was successful, and by the end of the ’70s he left the music industry altogether, another casualty who couldn’t control his demons. Yet he was a brilliant guitar player who will be remembered for his outstanding work with Fleetwood Mac.
When Mick Fleetwood heard the news he commented: “Today was greeted by the sad news of the passing of Danny Kirwan in London, England,” the note reads. “Danny was a huge force in our early years. His love for the Blues led him to being asked to join Fleetwood Mac in 1968, where he made his musical home for many years.”
Kirwan was still a teenager when he was asked to join Fleetwood Mac, and the guitarist stayed with the band until 1972. His work can be heard on the albums Then Play On, Blues Jam at Chess, Kiln House, Future Games and Bare Trees, along with a number of live an compilation releases. Kirwan was an influence on the group’s earlier blues days with co-founding guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer and contributed to their first UK #1 hit “Albatross.”
Danny was with the band from 1968 to 1972. Danny was still in the band for a while after Christine joined. He wasn’t an original member of the band; Jeremy Spencer was Peter Green’s original guitaring partner, and he remained for a while after Danny joined, but Danny very clearly helped take the band into new terrains. His work in tandem with Green was brilliant, and produced some of the early band’s finest moments. After Green left in 1970, Danny remained.
After being fired from Fleetwood Mac for alcoholism in 1972, Kirwan released a number of unsuccessful solo albums, but sadly by the end of the decade his mental health was deteriorating. He endured long periods of homelessness in the 80s and 90s. Mick Fleetwood asked Missing Persons to find him in 1993.
“Danny was a huge force in our early years,” Fleetwood has said on Facebook. “Danny’s true legacy, in my mind, will forever live on in the music he wrote and played so beautifully as a part of the foundation of Fleetwood Mac, that has now endured for over 50 years. Thank you Danny Kirwan. You shall forever be missed.”
Fleetwood Mac’s , Danny Kirwan, who was once the perfect foil for the band’s founding guitarist Peter Green, has sadly passed away at the age of 68.
Solo albums
Second Chapter (DJM 1975)
Midnight in San Juan (DJM 1976)
Danny Kirwan (DJM 1977 – US release of Midnight in San Juan)
Hello There Big Boy! (DJM 1979)
Ram Jam City (Mooncrest 2000 – recorded in the mid-1970s as demo tracks for the Second Chapter album)
In December 2012, three members of Fleetwood Mac cried together, in public, at the memory of something that had happened all of 25 years previously. Singer Stevie Nicks, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and drummer Mick Fleetwood were doing a round of media interviews to announce the band’s 2013 tour when they were asked about the events of 1987, when Buckingham quit the band following the release of the album “Tango In The Night.”
Tango In The Night was released on April 13th, 1987. The first single from the album, “Big Love“, was already a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic, It was their fourteenth studio album,
Buckingham did not respond directly to the interviewer. Instead he turned to Nicks and Fleetwood and reiterated his reasons for leaving the group at a critical stage of their career: foremost among them, his sense that Nicks and Fleetwood had lost their minds and souls to drugs.
“What Lindsey said in that interview was very moving,” Fleetwood says. “He told us: ‘I just couldn’t stand to see you doing what you were doing to yourselves. You were so out of control that it made me incredibly sad, and I couldn’t take it any more.’ It was really powerful stuff. This was someone saying: ‘I love you.’ It hit Stevie and me like a ton of bricks. And we all cried, right there in the interview.”
It was a moment that Mick Fleetwood still describes as “profound”. But even after all these years, his memories of that time in 1987 are still raw. For when Lindsey Buckingham walked out on Fleetwood Mac, he did not go quietly. When Buckingham told the band he was leaving, it led to a blazing argument that rapidly escalated into a physical altercation between him and former lover Nicks, in which she claimed she feared for her life.
“It is,” Fleetwood says, “a pretty wild story. It was a dangerous period, and not a happy time.” And yet, for all the drama that came with it, “Tango In The Night” was a hugely important album for Fleetwood Mac. It became the second biggest-selling album of their career, after 1977’s 45-million-selling “Rumours“.
In 1985, Lindsey Buckingham was writing and recording songs for what was planned as his third solo album. Fleetwood Mac had been on indefinite hiatus since 1982, following a world tour in support of their album “Mirage“. In that time there had been solo albums from all three singers: Nicks’ The Wild Heart sold a million copies; Christine McVie’s eponymous album yielded a US Top 10 hit with Got A Hold On Me; but, to Buckingham’s chagrin, his album Go Insane had not made the Top 40.
There had also been problems for them over these years. Nicks had been treated for drug addiction. More surprisingly, Mick Fleetwood had been declared bankrupt following a string of disastrous property investments. “At that time,” Buckingham later admitted, “the group had become a bit fragmented.”
By the end of ’85, Buckingham – working alone at his home studio in Los Angeles – had three songs finished: Big Love, Family Man and Caroline. But while he was busy making music, Mick Fleetwood was busy making plans to get the band back on track.
The wheels had been set in motion when Christine McVie recorded a version of the Elvis Presley hit Can’t Help Falling In Love for the filmA Fine Mess – backed by Mick Fleetwood and the band’s other remaining founding member, her ex-husband John McVie. She invited Buckingham to produce, alongside engineer Richard Dashut.
“It was the first time for nearly five years that we’d all been in a working environment together,” Christine said. “We had such a good time in the studio and realised that we still had something to give each other in musical terms after all.” Mick Fleetwood was more forthright. “The reality,” he says, “is that Fleetwood Mac were intending to make an album. And Lindsey was in many ways pressured into it. ‘Hey, we’re making an album – let’s go!’”
Buckingham relented, partly out of a sense of duty. “I had a choice,” he said, “of either continuing on to make the solo record, or to sort of surrender to the situation and try and make it more of a family thing. I chose the latter.” What Fleetwood didn’t know is that Buckingham’s agreement was conditional. “I had the idea,” Buckingham said, “that that was going to be the last work with the group.”
The biggest problem for Lindsey Buckingham was, of course, Stevie Nicks. “I’ve known Stevie since I was 16 years old,” he said. “I was completely devastated when she took off. And yet I had to make hits for her, So on one level I was a complete professional in rising above that, but there was a lot of pent-up frustration and anger towards Stevie in me for many years.”
“He got very angry with me,” Nicks has said. “He tossed a Les Paul across the stage at me once and I ducked and it missed me. A lot of things happened because he was so angry at me.” Buckingham’s frame of mind was not helped by the not inconsiderable success that Nicks enjoyed in her solo career. In 1981, her solo debut, “Bella Donna“, went to No.1 in US. Other hit albums and singles followed. Buckingham’s solo records sold next to nothing.
For all that, Buckingham threw himself into the album. He either wrote or co-wrote seven of the 12 tracks that made the finished album. He also acted as co-producer with Richard Dashut. And it was at his home studio that most of the recording was done.
What was unusual about the recording of Tango In The Night was the absence of Stevie Nicks for much of the process. Nicks actually contributed three songs to the album, but was in the studio for only two to three weeks.
One trick of Buckingham’s, in Big Love, was especially brilliant. For the song’s climax, he used variable speed oscillators on his voice to create the effect of a male and female in a state of sexual excitement – the “love grunts”, as he called them.
“It was odd that so many people wondered if it was Stevie on there with me,” he said, a little disingenuously. Although there were other great songs on the album – slick pop rock tunes in the classic Fleetwood Mac style, such as Christine’s “Little Lies” and “Everywhere”, and Stevie’s “Seven Wonders” Fleetwood calls Tango In The Night “Lindsey’s album”. But for Buckingham himself, there was a sense that in the transition from solo album to band album, something had been lost. A perfectionist, intensely analytical, he felt that Tango In The Night was too predictable, too safe.
“She was not hugely present,” Fleetwood says. “I don’t remember why. And I don’t think we would remember. Fleetwood says that he and Nicks were doing more cocaine during the making of “Tango” than when they were recording “Rumours” an album on which they seriously considered thanking their drug dealer in the credits.
“Certainly, I smoked a lot of pot. But I was never a big user of coke,” Buckingham adds.
“Actually,” he admits, “it was way worse on “Tango In The Night.” For sure.”
While Tango was being recorded at his home, he found a way of keeping the two cokeheads – plus assorted hangers-on – at a safe distance.
“Lindsey had a Winnebago put in his driveway,” Fleetwood says. “And that’s where Stevie and I would go with our wrecking crew. With me, the party never stopped. It wasn’t until years later that I asked him: ‘What was all that about?’ And he said: ‘I couldn’t stand having you punks in the house. You’d turn up at the studio with people that you’d met from the night before, and you’d start gooning around. You were too fucking crazy.’ Lindsey was never a drama queen, enjoying the 80s drug culture like Stevie and me. It wasn’t his scene.
The drug taking was only one part of the problem. There were other things eating away at Buckingham.
Just as Rumours had done in the 70s, so Tango In The Night defined the soft rock era of the 80s. Perhaps most significant of all, it marked the third coming of the Mac, following the successes of the Peter Green-led blues rock Mac of the late 60s and the Buckingham/Nicks-fronted AOR The the Mac of the 70s. And for Mick Fleetwood, it represented a personal triumph. Mick Fleetwood is not sure it is simple coincidence that Fleetwood’s two biggest-selling albums, “Rumours” and “Tango In The Night”, were made when the band was at its most dysfunctional. “Also,” he says, “I’m not sure I should be so proud of it.”
While he freely admits that his own drug-fuelled insanity was instrumental in Lindsey Buckingham’s exit, it was Fleetwood who kept the band together once Buckingham had gone. And this was key to the success of “Tango In The Night“. In the 90s, Buckingham re-joined Fleetwood Mac, and, more importantly, made his peace with Stevie Nicks. They have both come a long way since that dark day in 1987: Buckingham now married and a father of three, Nicks happily drug-free. All that remains between them is what Mick Fleetwood calls “the good stuff”.
“My motto” Fleetwood says, “was ‘the show must go on’. It was almost an obsessive-compulsive desire to not give up. And it worked.”
Rhino isn’t holding back this Record Store Day, planning more than 30 special vinyl releases for Saturday, April 21st, to be sold at all participating retailers. Interestingly, several releases are companion pieces to recent general reissues, offering bonus content from different re-releases and box sets as standalone vinyl. Several singles and oddities are in the mix, from a 12″ of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy,” to a rare “short version” of Prince’s 1999, featuring only seven tracks from the album on one LP. Picture discs from Yes, Whitesnake, and Cheech & Chong are part of the line-up, and outtakes will be used to create alternate versions of Van Morrison’s Moondance and Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In The Night.
Most interesting for collectors are not one but two reproductions of rare Madonna vinyl releases outside the U.S., the vinyl debut of a promo collection by British hip-hop artist The Streets, unreleased mid-’80s masters from Miles Davis and a pair of vinyl sets covering new and old remixes by The Cure.
Among these titles, announced on Tuesday, now stand alongside previously announced RSD exclusives for Led Zeppelin (their first) and David Bowie. More RSD info is at the organization’s official site, while breakdowns of all Rhino’s new titles are below.
Air,Sexy Boy (12″ Picture Disc)(Parlophone)
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the French synth duo’s debut, Moon Safari, with this shaped picture disc of the band’s first single. It features art from the original 12″ sleeve. (6000 copies)
Cheech & Chong, Up In Smoke (40th Anniversary Picture Disc) (Rhino)
This marijuana leaf-shaped disc features the title track to the comedy duo’s first film (the soundtrack of which is being reissued by Rhino the same week) plus an unreleased version with an extra Spanish verse from Cheech Marin as well as a scratch ‘n’ sniff sticker! (4500 copies)
John Coltrane, My Favorite Things, Part I & II (Atlantic)
This U.S.-only single reissue was first included in a Coltrane mono box set. (1000 copies)
The Cure, Mixed Up and Torn Down: Mixed Up Extras 2018(Elektra)
Long desired by fans of The Cure, the group’s 1990 remix album will be released as a 2LP picture disc set alongside another double picture disc featuring 16 new remixes of Cure tracks by frontman Robert Smith. The band is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, so hopefully this is the first in a wave of commemorative titles! (7750 copies each)
Miles Davis, Rubberband EP(Warner Bros.)
This four-track 12″ disc features the title song to an unreleased 1985 album, intended to be Miles’ first for Warner Bros. Records after a lengthy tenure on Columbia. It features a new remix featuring Ledisi, a completed version of the track finished by Randy Hall and Zane Giles, and cover art painted by Davis. (6000 copies)
The Doors, Live At The Matrix Part 2: Let’s Feed Ice Cream To The Rats, San Francisco, CA – March 7 & 10, 1967 (Elektra)
This 180-gram, individually numbered sequel to last year’s RSD release features a set from the band at San Francisco’s The Matrix, which was last heard on a 50th anniversary edition of The Doors’ self-titled debut. (13,000 copies)
Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Tango In The Night(Warner Bros.)
As is becoming tradition for Record Store Day, this album brings together demos and outtakes from last year’s box set version of Fleetwood Mac’s hit 1987 album. (8500 copies)
The Grateful Dead, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA 2/27/69 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)
A 4LP box set edition (with fourth side etching) of a beloved Dead show, which has been out of print since its release in The Complete Fillmore West 1969CD box set in 2005. (9000 copies)
Hawkwind, Dark Matter: The Alternative Liberty/U.A. Years 1970-1974 (Parlophone)
A 2LP collection in a gatefold jacket featuring rare tracks from the 2011 compilation Parallel Universe. (5000 copies)
Jethro Tull, Moths (Parlophone)
This six-track 10″ EP is tied to the 40th anniversary of Heavy Horses, recently reissued by Rhino. (6500 copies)
Madonna, The First Album and You Can Dance(Sire)
Two exciting Madonna titles are due for Record Store Day: first, a picture disc version of Madonna’s 1983 debut, reissued in 1985 after the success of Like a Virgin. This set replicates the original Japanese packaging, down to the sticker. Then there’s a red vinyl reissue of her 1987 remix album, featuring the poster and obi from the European vinyl release. (14,000 copies and 12,000 copies)
Van Morrison, The Alternative Moondance(Warner Bros.)
Constructed from alternates and outtakes from the deluxe edition of Van’s 1970 album, this LP features unreleased mixes of “And It Stoned Me” and “Crazy Love.” (10,000 copies)
The Notorious B.I.G., Juicy 12″(Bad Boy)
A clear/black marble swirl vinyl reissue of Biggie’s defining single. (9000 copies)
Prince, 1999(Warner Bros.)
A quirky reissue of an ex-U.S. single-LP, seven-track cutdown of Prince’s breakthrough 1982 double album, with a different cover, even. (13,000 copies)
Ramones, Sundragon Sessions(Sire)
These early mixes of tracks from Leave Home were first heard in the 40th anniversary box set of the album and appear on vinyl for the first time. (10,000 copies)
Lou Reed, Animal Serenade(Sire)
A 3LP edition of Lou’s 2003 live album, its first appearance on vinyl. (7500 copies)
The Stooges, The Stooges (Detroit Edition)(Elektra)
This 2LP set was first made available only at Third Man Record shops (it was compiled by the label’s own Ben Blackwell), but now this collection, featuring the band’s 1969 debut album and handpicked rarities from Rhino’s 2010 deluxe edition, is available at all indie stores. (8000 copies)
Various Artists, Twin Peaks: Music From The Limited Event Series and Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Soundtrack(Rhino)
These two picture discs feature soundtrack and score, respectively, from the acclaimed 2017 revival of David Lynch’s television series, including Roadhouse band performances and original compositions by Angelo Badadamenti. (11,000 copies and 10,000 copies)
Whitesnake, 1987 (30th Anniversary Edition)(Parlophone)
A picture disc version of the rock group’s recently reissued hit LP, featuring “Here I Go Again.” (6500 copies)
Wilco, Live At The Troubadour 11/12/96 (Reprise)
The premiere 2LP edition of a live set included in the deluxe edition of the alt-country act’s Being There, reissued last year. (8500 copies)
Yes(Atlantic)
The legendary prog-rock’s ninth album, released in 1978, gets a picture disc release. (5400 copies)
At their most guitar-centric Fleetwood Mac, featured not two but three players on the guitar. In 1969, the group hired 18-year-old Danny Kirwan to add a new hue to the palate created by the original line-up featuring guitarist Jeremy Spencer and star player Peter Green. To Spencer’s rockabilly flair and Green’s hard blues power, Kirwan brought more melodicism and nuance. Their three-way frisson came to fruition on the band’s third album, ‘Then Play On’, especially in songs like “Oh Well” which presented a blues riff so tight, Mac kept it in their set through multiple personal changes for decades to come. Another song from that album, “Searching for Madge,” let Green and Kirwan spar in a ten-minute free jam. A particularly hot version of another song from that era “Rattlesnake Shake” , appeared on the band’s “Live In Boston” the guitars slashed and burned with a violence the band rarely achieved in the studio. On the other end of the spectrum, Kirwan and Green made their instruments sweetly entwine in “Coming Your Way” , a song the former wrote which opens ‘Then Play On’.
The whole set is more like a seamless `suite` of songs, with two instrumentals dedicated to a devoted Mac fan named Madge punctuating them. I bought the original LP and played it a lot. It sounded unlike anything else at the time, and it still has a unique feel to it. What is such a relief is to find how wonderful it still sounds, after so long.
The interplay between Spencer and Kirwan came to the fore on the 1970 studio next release “Kiln House”, cut after Green left. One year later, Kirwan found a new sparring partner in the American-born Bob Welch.
This week releases include First Aid Kit’s newest outing, with swooning folky rock refrains, sliding guitars and beautiful two-part harmonies abound. Speaking of folky rocking guitars, yer’ man Ryan Adams has produced the debut outing from frankly terrifying youngsters, Starcrawler. they’re terrifically talented, and they trade in very concise and punky indie-rock territory. Great stuff. What else? Well, lots of stuff. the new Liminanas LP is out and again, superbly reminiscent of their earlier work whilst bringing things up to date. New (reversed) Shins, and reissues from The Residents,
The Limiñanas – Shadow People
French psych duo The Limiñanas have announced their new album ‘Shadow People’ which will be released on 19th January on Because Music. One of France’s most beloved treasures, The Limiñanas are Marie (drums/vocals) and Lionel (guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals). Hailing from Perpignan, the duo straddles the boundary between psych, shoegaze, and yé-yé. With hazy, reverb-laden hooks, combined at times with noisy distortion, and fronted by effortlessly cool vocals, reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, the band is at once timeless and quintessentially French.
The Shins – The Worms Heart
When James Mercer was recording his latest Shins LP Heart Worms as a creative exercise he decided to re-record the songs in the opposite way of the originals. Songs that were more rock and uptempo became more acoustic and slow, and songs that were acoustic and slow in tempo became more upbeat. They were flipped. The result of those sessions he calls, The Worms Heart. What began as an exercise in songwriting transformed into a commentary on what it means to be a songwriter. After writing the first track for Heartworms (released 10 March 2017), James Mercer decided to recreate each song from scratch. Driven by its malleability, its ability to be foundationally identical, yet aesthetically and sonically utterly new, Mercer continued experimenting until he had two complete albums: one original and one “flipped”. Mercer’s ability to create two totally divergent albums from the same underlying compositions not only highlights his immense capability as a songwriter, but also functions as a reminder of what it means to be an artist, how an artist acts as both the master and facilitator of his artistic product.
Shopping – The Official Body
Their first release since 2015’s Why Choose and their second album to be released on FatCat Records, Post-Punk trio Shopping return with an album that fans of their earlier records will undoubtedly find satisfying. Recorded over 10 days by Edwyn Collins, the latest album stays true to the minimal dance-punk ethos of Shopping’s previous efforts, but seeks to”amp up the party vibe”.
Coming off the back of an unrelenting cycle of touring, having made their way across the UK, Europe, and the US, the band found themselves without a natural home as the band’s London rehearsal and writing space closed down. Then their drummer, Andrew Milk, relocated to Glasgow, and the band could suddenly no longer spontaneously get together to practice or write. The distance added an element of pressure: “As a band that only ever writes collaboratively, it’s essential for us to actually be together in the room before any songs start to formulate. It can be a little daunting when we all turn up, and we only have an afternoon to pull a song out of thin air”. Add to that a sprinkling of Brexit, Trump, a principally imploding world, and you’ve got yourself The Official Body— Shopping’s second album to be released on FatCat Records.
First Aid Kit – Ruins
Swedish siblings Klara & Johanna Soderberg, release their eagerly anticipated new album “Ruins” via Columbia Records. This will be the girls’ 4th studio album & a follow up to the critically acclaimed breakthrough album “Stay Gold”, released in 2014. “Ruins” is a 10 song album, recorded in Portland, USA & produced by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, Laura Veirs). Collaborators include Peter Buck (REM), Glenn Kotche (Wilco) & McKenzie Smith (Midlake).
Starcrawler – Starcrawler
Starcrawler are a Los Angeles rock band who formed in 2015 when 18-year-old lead vocalist Arrow de Wilde first met guitarist Henri Cash at their Echo Park high school. Shortly thereafter they were joined by the rhythm section of Austin Smith (drums) and Tim Franco (bass). The foursome play with squalling riffs and thundering beats, and their incendiary live shows, fronted by de Wilde’s otherworldly magnetism, are truly captivating. Gigwise (UK) recently stated that “Starcrawler are simply the most exciting – and best – band Rough Trade have signed in years.”
Recorded by Ryan Adams on analog tape at his Pax-Am studio, the 10 songs on the album prove that yes, they ARE making rock and roll exciting again! Ryan has been tweeting up a storm about them saying things like “This starcrawler record is gonna peel the paint off your brain!” and “Starcrawler are so fucking insanely good. Soon they will rule this galaxy.”
The first single from the album is “I Love LA” and the video, directed by famed music photographer Autumn deWilde (AKA Arrow’s mum) is a fun and feisty homage to the city of dreamers
After signing to Rough Trade earlier this year, they quickly released their debut single “Ants”, which caught the ear of Elton John who played the track on his Beats 1 radio show. Soon after, they were on the cover of LA Weekly – their hometown paper. The headline was “With Fake Blood and Frenetic Songs, Starcrawler make rock feel dangerous again”. In the article, Arrow describes that “bands are boring nowadays” and that “there’s no mystery”. That helps explain a little bit of why their shows have become the stuff of legend. They also recently played LA’s CalJam Festival, which is curated by Dave Grohl (Starcrawler was the first band he reached out to, and he raved about them the next day on KROQ.) Gerard Way is also a fan, describing them as a “mix of 70’s theatricality and Stooges electricity.
Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac reissue their 1975 eponymous album. This album was the first of the most successful incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, where Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie to form the legendary band who continues to be highly successful to this day. The album introduced a smoother more radio-friendly sound and a new beginning and by 1977 the emotional monolith of Rumours would make them one of the biggest bands on the planet.
CD – Newly remastered version.
2CD – Expanded edition. The first CD features the original album with newly remastered audio, as well as single mixes of Over My Head, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me and Blue Letter. CD2 features an alternate version of the album comprised of unreleased outtakes for each track, as well as previously unreleased live versions from 1976.
5CD – Deluxe 3 CD / 1 DVD and 1 LP Set. Comes packaged in a 12×12 embossed sleeve with rare and unseen photos along with in-depth liner notes written by David Wild, as well as new interviews with all the band members. The deluxe editions features a newly remastered version of the original album along with single mixes for Over My Head, Rhiannon andSay You Love Me. Also included is a second disc with an alternate version of the complete album comprised of unreleased outtakes for each album track, plus several unreleased live performances from 1976. The third disc includes even more unreleased live recordings, including stellar performances of Landslide, Oh Well and World Turning. Also included in the deluxe edition set is the original album pressed on 180-gram vinyl, as well as a DVD featuring 5.1 Surround Sound and high-resolution 24/96 Stereo Audio mixes of the original album and four single mixes.
The XX – On Hold (Jamie XX Remix) / A Violent Noise (Four Tet Remix)
Limited 12″ featuring Jamie’s own Remix of On Hold. It’s comes across like Daft Punk dropping Homework on a Ibiza terrace. Four Tet is on the flip with a fresh re-rub of A Violent Noise. Mr Hebden takes the track to Berghain and drops it at 4am.
Moon Duo – Jukebox Babe / No Fun
Following the resounding success of their two-volume, Yin-and-Yang song cycle Occult Architecture, the Portland psych heroes in Moon Duo return with a limited edition 12″ paying tribute to two of their musical heroes — Iggy Pop and Alan Vega. Moon Duo’s versions of these classic songs push them into bold new sonic territory, and show that Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s expansive musical imaginations are still firing on all cylinders.“We started playing No Fun after BBC6 Radio asked us to record an Iggy song for his 70th birthday. We added it to our set to work it out for the session and kept playing it every night because everyone loves that song. We worked up a version of Jukebox Babe because our sound engineer Larry got it stuck in his head and was singing it all the time. We figured, we may as well play it if we’re going to hear it all the time. The Stooges and Iggy, and Suicide / Alan Vega / Martin Rev, are all huge influences on us. But we never want to do faithful covers of great songs, because what’s the point? So we tried to push both of the tracks in less obvious directions, incorporating other influences, like California psych and cosmic disco, giving them more of a summer vibe. We knew Sonic Boom was working outside of Lisbon, so we asked him to produce the tracks, recording them in August for maximal summer heat.”
Slothrust – Show Me How You Want It To Be EP
A collection of unexpected and inventive takes on classics by icons as diverse as Al Green and Britney Spears, MarcyPlayground and Louis Armstrong. Led by guitarist and vocalist Leah Wellbaum, with bassist Kyle Bann and drummer WiIl Gorin, Slothrust form one of the most exciting and agile trios in recent memory. The selections on Show Me How You Want It To Be showcase the diverse and discerning musicianship that has earned Slothrust an army of admirers that first began building with their song 7:30 AM, featured as the theme song for 4 seasons of the FX Network show You’re The Worst.
Belle and Sebastian – How To Solve Our Human Problems (Part 2)
Harkening back to their 1997 release of three consecutive EPs (Dog On Wheels, Lazy Line Painter Jane, and3.. 6.. 9 Seconds Of Light), Belle and Sebastian release three new EPs under the umbrella title How To Solve Our Human Problems. Just as those three early EPs are at the very heart of the Belle and Sebastian canon, so these three new releases deserve to be treated not as a stopgap, but as definitive releases in their own right. How To Solve Our Human Problems is both an era of its own, and part of a long, rich history. How To Solve Our Human Problems is, if you like, Belle and Sebastian Redux.
“Bare Trees” is the sixth studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in March 1972. This is their last album to feature guitarist Danny Kirwan, who was fired during the album’s supporting tour.
One of the most intriguing is: what if Danny Kirwan had stayed with them after the release of 1972’s “Bare Trees?” The group’s sixth album saw the guitarist – just 21 years old at the time of its release – cementing his position as the central creative force behind Fleetwood Mac, writing five of the album’s nine songs (not counting the final, spoken-word track) and putting his musical stamp on the rest of the group’s contributions.
And yet Kirwan was fired during the August 1972 US tour the group undertook to promote the record. His increasingly difficult behaviour had come to a head when an argument with fellow guitarist Bob Welch about tunings led to violence and a dressing-room demolition. Still, Bare Trees is an underappreciated gem in the early Fleetwood Mac catalogue, emphasising what a talent Kirwan was as well as giving listeners notice of the emerging songwriting prowess of Welch and Christine McVie.
To showcase “Bare Trees”, Fleetwood Mac went on tour with Savoy Brown and Long John Baldry during the Spring and Summer of ’72. The tour, billed as “The British are Coming” turned out to be a traumatic affair. On the road, Kirwan “just got more and more intense,” Fleetwood said. “He wouldn’t talk to anyone. He was going inside himself which we put down to an emotional problem that we had no idea about. We thought he was just being awkward. I had no idea he was struggling to that level.”
At one pivotal gig, Kirwan and Welch fought over tuning, to the point where the troubled guitarist refused to go on-stage. “That’s the cardinal thing you just don’t do,” Fleetwood said. “In essence, he had a breakdown.” Kirwan smashed his guitar, then let the band struggle through their performance without him. Afterwards, he launched into a critique of their playing. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Fleetwood. “That particular pain and story needed to stop.” the guitarist’s volatile temperament meant that, despite their musical chemistry, he began to clash with Green, as he told Guitar magazine in 1997: “We just didn’t get on too well basically… We played some good stuff together, we played well together, but we didn’t get on.” Green left Fleetwood Mac in May 1970, leaving Kirwan and guitarist Jeremy Spencer stepping in to fill his formidable shoes on Kiln House. But they looked to be on the verge of collapse until keyboard player Christine McVie joined them on tour, providing the musical glue that would hold them together.
In the years before Fleetwood Mac became a household name, the British/American band spotlighted a succession of blues-inspired guitar aces, and on “Bare Trees”, that slot is held down by Danny Kirwan. “It’s a well-rounded album,” noted drummer Mick Fleetwood of the 1972 Reprise set. “Like Lindsey [Buckingham], Danny had the chops with layering techniques, and the ability to know what’s right and wrong in the studio.” Kirwan also penned half of the 10 songs here, including the terrific “Dust,” His “Sunny Side of Heaven” was an instrumental, which, at the time, was mixed in with some radio station sign-offs. “Danny’s Chant” features the use of wah-wah guitars, while the lyrics for Kirwan’s composition “Dust” were taken from a poem by Rupert Brooke.”Trinity”, another Kirwan song, was an outtake from the album that was subsequently released in 1992 on the 25 Years – The Chain box set.
It’s astonishing that Bare Trees – recorded in just a few days at De Lane Lea Studios in Soho, London, in March 1972 – not only holds up so well, but suggests an unrealised future in which Kirwan became Fleetwood Mac’s long-term leader. The cover art of spindly trees cloaked in fog might have prepared the listener for an austere, wintry listen, but any such ideas are quickly rebuked by the good-time boogie rock of the opener, Kirwan’s Child Of Mine, given extra heft by some winningly gritty guitar work.
The two Welch-penned songs, the slow-burning, jazzy groove of The Ghost and the schmaltz-heavy Sentimental Lady, suggest a leap forward in the guitarist’s songwriting prowess (though the latter comes on strong, it works well in the context of the album). Meanwhile, McVie’s two numbers, the road-weary blues-rocker Homeward Bound (“I want to sit at home in my rocking chair/I don’t want to travel the world”) and the soft-rock bliss of Spare Me A Little Of Your Love, give notice of the writer she’d become.
Bare Trees is the sound of a band coming together, growing in confidence and establishing an identity. It’s also worth celebrating on its own merits.
Christine McVie and fellow guitarist BobWelch also contribute winners in “Spare Me a Little of Your Love” and “Sentimental Lady,” respectively. If you have any interest in exploring the music of the Mac before the Buckingham-Nicks era, make Bare Trees your first stop.
The 1975 eponymous album by Fleetwood Mac (that features the current line-up) will be reissued as a five-disc super deluxe edition in January 2018. The original album is newly remastered and features on CD and vinyl LP in the box set. The CD also includes the original single mixes of Over My Head, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me and Blue Letter. Like the previous Fleetwood Mac sets there’s plenty of unreleased outtakes, the super deluxe features a completely alternate version of the album (none of it ever released before), along with a handful of live tracks and a couple of jam/instrumentals. Released in 1975, Fleetwood Macwill be given a special reissue treatment . The album — the first to feature the quintet Lindsey Buckingham,Mick Fleetwood,Christine McVie, John McVie, and Stevie Nicks— featured the hits and live staples “Landslide” (Nicks), “Rhiannon” (Nicks), “Monday Morning” (Buckingham), and “Over My Head” (Christine McVie).
The third CD features 14 live tracks (all previously unreleased) while disc four is a DVD which features a 5.1 surround sound mix of Fleetwood Mac, a hi-res stereo version of the album and those four single versions.
Completing the set is the LP version of the original album pressed on 180-gram vinyl. The packaging sounds consistent with what was issued for previous albums (Rumours, Tusk, Mirage and Tango In The Night) since this comes in a 12″ x 12″ embossed sleeve with in-depth sleeve notes and new interviews with all the band members.
This five-disc Fleetwood Mac box set will be released on 19th January from Warner Bros. Records. A two-CD expanded edition featuring the first two discs in the box will also be issued.
Cheech & Chong, Up In Smoke (40th Anniversary Picture Disc) (Rhino)
Miles Davis, Rubberband EP (Warner Bros.)
Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Tango In The Night (Warner Bros.)
Madonna, The First Album and You Can Dance (Sire)
Prince, 1999 (Warner Bros.)
The Fat Angel Sings 