Posts Tagged ‘Real Gone Music’

STEVE WYNN – ” Decade “

Posted: August 27, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Steve Wynn Decade (11-CD Box Set)

Steve Wynn first gained fame as lead singer and songwriter for the legendary Paisley Underground outfit The Dream Syndicate. But his post-Dream Syndicate solo career is the equal of any indie-rock singer-songwriter you’d care to name. Now, Real Gone Music and Steve Wynn have joined forces to release “Decade” (yup, the Neil Young reference is deliberate), an 11-CD set that chronicles, with lavish deluxe editions, the guitar-driven albums Wynn recorded between 1995 and 2005, most of which have been long out-of-print.

The statistics on this box set are mind-blowing: 166 tracks, 57 of them totally unreleased, plus 31 other rarities! That’s right’over half of this 11-CD set consists of either hitherto unknown recordings or tracks that have been almost impossible to find! As for the other tracks, they hail from the following albums: the American releases Melting In The Dark, Sweetness and Light, My Midnight, Here Come The Miracles, Static Transmission, and ‘Tick’Tick’Tick, and the German-only compilation entitled The Emusic Singles Collection (rare tracks from another European-only release, a collection of rarities entitled Pick of the Litter, appear here as well).

So where do all the unreleased tracks come from? Well, during this 10-year period, Steve Wynn recorded dozens of songs ‘ sometimes at home and occasionally in a proper studio. Many of those songs got re-recorded and revamped and became key memorable parts of his catalogue. Other songs got tossed away and forgotten. For Decade, long-time Steve Wynn (and Dream Syndicate) archivist Pat Thomas in cooperation with Steve Wynn listened to about a hundred hours of unreleased tapes and compiled this amazing box set that not only includes remastered (by Mike Milchner of SonicVision) versions of some of Steve Wynn’s best albums but also the first American release of the two rare European only titles. And ‘ it bears saying again ‘ 57 previously unreleased recordings that not even hardcore tape traders have heard!

Several of these albums were recorded with Steve Wynn’s core band of Linda Pitmon on drums, Dream Syndicate guitarist Jason Victor, and long-time Miracle 3 bass player Dave DeCastro. Along the way, there are appearances from Green On Red keyboardist Chris Cacavas, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, indie chanteuse Barbara Manning, Chris Brokaw & Thalia Zedek of Come, Tony Maimone of Pere Ubu, John Convertino of Calexico, Rich Gilbert and many others. With so much material, you need a program’and so Steve Wynn himself has penned very detailed notes that tell the stories behind the origins of all 57 previously unreleased songs! Plus essays from box set producer Pat Thomas and several of Wynn’s long time bandmates. And a pile of previously unseen photos…all inside a mammoth, full-colour 48-page book!.

GRATEFUL DEAD – ” Dick’s Picks 26 ” (4-LP Set)

Posted: July 27, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Grateful Dead Dick's Picks 26 (4-LP Set)

Real Gone Music has announced another “vinyl adventure” for Grateful Dead fans, this one a reissue of Dick’s Picks 26: 4/26/69 Electric Theater, Chicago, IL / 4/27/69 Labor Temple Minneapolis, MN.

Described by the label as “a worthy counterpoint to what is one of the greatest ‘official’ live albums in rock ‘n’ roll history,” Live Dead, this hand-numbered, limited-edition 4-LP box set is available to purchase now.  You’ll hear tracks from the then-soon-to-be-released “Aoxomoxoa”  plus a thrilling “Dark Star” medley, a rendition of Jimmy Reed’s “I Know It’s a Sin,” and much more.

Having surveyed the ‘Seventies with our first two vinyl ventures (Dick’s Picks Vols. 24 & 34) into the Grateful Dead catalogue, we really wanted to travel back to the band’s ‘Sixties beginnings for our next multi-LP magnum opus’and boy, did we ‘pick’ the right shows! Recorded but a few months after the shows that formed Live Dead, and featuring a spellbinding version of the ‘Dark Star’/’St. Stephen’/’The Eleven’ medley that was that album’s centerpiece,

Dick’s Picks Vol. 26 stands as a worthy counterpoint to what is one of the greatest ‘official’ live albums in rock ‘n’ roll history. Add in the fact it also captures the band working on material for the forthcoming album Aoxomoxoa‘ including an incredible version of ‘Mountains of the Moon” and serves up a real live Dead rarity with a rendition of Jimmy Reed’s ‘I Know It’s a Sin,’ and this is a Pick that’s clearly worthy, one, of coming out on vinyl, and, two, of some special treatment when it does! Which is a challenge we at Real Gone Music relished; so, in addition to re-printing Bear’s notes from the original CD release on the LP insert, we enlisted Bear’s son Starfinder Stanley to provide some added context on behalf of the Owsley Stanley Foundation, from whence the tapes for these shows come. And speaking of those tapes, this 4-LP set is mastered for vinyl by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering, with lacquers cut by Jeff Powell, who got his start at Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios and has worked with everybody from Bob Dylan to Gregg Allman to Irma Thomas. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Furnace Record Pressing, the whisper-quiet test pressings were approved by engineer Jeffrey Norman, Dead archivist David Lemieux, and Real Gone’s own Gordon Anderson, so the audio experience that awaits is truly a cut above. As for the packaging, each of the four LPs is housed inside a polyvinyl sleeve carefully nestled (with extra padding!) inside a two-piece hardshell box with insert. We are only pressing 1500 hand-numbered copies of Dick’s Picks Vol. 26; if prior experience is any guide, they will not last long!

The lift-off lid box features the original sleeve notes by Bear, a.k.a. Owsley Stanley, and new insights by his son Starfinder Stanley of the Owsley Stanley Foundation.  The music has been mastered for vinyl by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering, with lacquers cut by Jeff Powell.  It’s been pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Furnace and approved by engineer Jeffrey Norman, Dead archivist David Lemieux, and Real Gone’s Gordon Anderson.

The box set is limited to only 1,500 hand-numbered copies.

The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 26 –4/26/69 Electric Theater, Chicago, IL 4/27/69 Labor Temple Minneapolis, MN[4-LP] (originally Grateful Dead / Rhino CD GDCD 4046, 2002 – reissued Real Gone Music, 2020)

BADFINGER – ” So Fine The Warner Bros Rarities ” Record Store Day 2019

Posted: March 10, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Screen shot 2019 02 25 at 12.46.46

Real Gone Music has announced its offerings for the 2019 Record Store Day celebration, taking place at your local brick-and-mortar shop Saturday, April 13th, and they include a pair of rarities releases from two beloved bands,

Badfinger, So Fine–The Warner Bros. Rarities(2-LP Red Vinyl Edition) (2,000 copies)

Most folks point to Badfinger as the greatest power pop band of all time. But, with four accomplished songwriters in Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins, Pete Ham, and Joey Molland, and the creative assistance and imprimatur of The Beatles, Badfinger should have been bigger stars than they were. Their four albums for The Beatles’ Apple label get most of the attention, and understandably so, with hits like “Come and Get It,” “No Matter What,” “Day by Day,” and “Baby Blue.” But their subsequent two albums for Warner Bros. represent their true creative peak, reached even as the band–and the lives of the members of the band–fell apart.

In late 2018, Real Gone Music, together with Badfinger biographer Dan Matovina, took a fresh look at Badfinger’s brilliant but ill-fated Warner Bros. albums, Badfinger and Wish You Were Here. Not only did the two CD releases offer the first new remastering of the original albums since their maiden release on CD, but they also each boasted an extra album’s worth of unreleased bonus material featuring alternate mixes and newly-discovered songs. The releases caused a flurry of fresh interest in the band, and a furor among Badfinger fans, who to this day rank as some of the most passionate in all of rock and roll.

Now, exclusively for Record Store Day, Real Gone Music is bringing the previously unreleased material that premiered on its Badfinger CD releases to vinyl for the first time. Each disc on the 2-LP set, So Fine–The Warner Bros. Rarities, presents the alternate versions of the songs on each album in the order they originally appeared, followed by one previously unreleased song (in the case of Badfinger, “Love My Lady”; in the case of Wish You Were Here, “Queen of Darkness”). Along with piquant quotes from producer Chris Thomas, Matovina’s liner notes include for the first time track-by-track breakdowns of the differences between the alternate and original mixes.  John Golden has cut the lacquers for these releases at Golden Mastering.

GUN – ” Gun ” Reissue

Posted: March 9, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This is the first, of two albums by late-60s hard rock trio, Gun. This group consisted of two brothers, Adrian (Guitar) and Paul Gurvitz (Bass/Lead Vocals), and Louie Farrell (Drums). They formed as a band, recorded and released this album all in 1968. They released another album in 1969, and broke up. Nothing else ever came from this band,

This 1968 release wasn’t just the debut album for the British band Gun; it also marked the debut of a number of other notable artists and their creations. First of all, this was the first album recorded by the Gurvitz brothers, bassist/vocalist Paul and guitarist/vocalist Adrian; they went on to form Three Man Army (with Buddy Miles among other drummers) and then The Baker Gurvitz with Ginger Baker of Cream among many other projects.

Gun also introduced the song “Race with the Devil,” which scored the band its only hit and was covered by everybody from Judas Priest to Girlschool to Black Oak Arkansas. And, finally, take a gander at that incredible front cover artwork…yes, that is the maiden album illustration of one Roger Dean, whose otherworldly creations graced the covers of many a Yes album cover (Yes vocalist Jon Anderson was for a short time a Gun member, in fact). Armed with such a collection of talent, and a dazzling stylistic breadth that ranged from psychedelic to hard rock to mod to Procol Harum-esque prog, it’s little wonder that Gun has seen multiple reissues, but it’s been about 30 years since it’s been available on vinyl. Real Gone Music’s limited edition (of 1,000) “red devil” vinyl pressing presents the original artwork intact.

A classic of ‘60s British rock!