Frank Black’s 'Teenager Of The Year' to get a 30th Anniversary Edition in January

The 30th Anniversary Edition of Frank Black’s solo album, Teenager Of The Year will see a one-time vinyl pressing on Jan. 17 via 4AD Records accompanied by a tour of North America plus Paris and London, where Frank Black and the original band will be performing the album in its entirety.

This special vinyl tour edition of Teenager Of The Year, has been remastered for the first time from its original analogue studio tapes, cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and pressed on double gold vinyl. The album also comes in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes by both Frank Black and producer Eric Drew Feldman. A 24-bit digital version is being released on the same day.

"Sometime in the early 80s, I'd have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the 'Teenager of the Year' award; my brother received the same award the following year," says Black Francis.

"Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a 'Teenager of the Year' medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts. My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as 'Teenager of the Year,' I felt the glory had not been amplified enough.

"In 1993, I was doing “solo recording” sessions with Eric Drew Feldman in Los Angeles. We had settled on a core band with Nick Vincent and Lyle Workman, occasionally augmented by Joey Santiago and Moris Tepper. Though we had to change studios numerous times for actual forest fires and earthquakes, the whole process was such an addictive musical buffet that Eric and I couldn't stop. We did some vocals at a studio rumored to be owned by Sergio Mendes; in the control room was a wall of television screens broadcasting the brush fire which crept toward us. We eventually evacuated to someplace else. We never met Sergio but we saw him perform a few weeks later when we vacated to Las Vegas after the Northridge earthquake, which had trapped the 'Teenager of the Year' tapes in a studio vault for some time. Our zeal plus empathy from our financiers, they safely observing our travails from London, was enough to keep the money flowing until Eric and I relented and declared 'Consummatum est'.

Adds Eric Drew Feldman, “Initially it was a 14-song album. It was mixed. Eric Idle was staying nearby. He kept telling me to change the songs around. Al (Clay) had to run off and go to his next project. We weren’t completely happy with what we had. The solution: record more songs. Eight more were born. Whole shebang was remixed by David Bianco. The day before we were to start the remix, the 1994 Northridge earthquake occurred. Charles (Black Francis/Frank Black), Jean (Charles’ first wife) and I escaped to Las Vegas, ate many shrimp cocktails, and we saw Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’99 perform. Sergio was especially good. After about five days we returned to the mixing studio and the deed was done.”

To pre-order the limited Teenager Of The Year 30th Anniversary Tour Edition go to: https://frankblack.ffm.to/teenageroftheyear30

December Acoustic Solo Shows:
3rd - Brattleboro, VT - The Stone Church
5th - Portsmouth, NH - 3S Artspace
7th - Newport, RI - Jane Pickens Theater

Tickets On Sale November 1st 12pm ET

Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates:

January

15th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
16th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
18th - LA, CA - The Orpheum
19th - El Cajon, CA - The Magnolia
22nd - Denver, CO - The Paramount
24th - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
25th - Chicago, IL - The Metro
26th - Chicago, IL - The Metro
28th - Detroit, MI - St Andrews Hall
29th - Toronto, ON - History
31st - Boston, MA - House Of Blues

February

1st - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Street
4th - Paris, France - Le Trianon
6th - London, UK - The Palladium

Track listing:

Whatever Happened to Pong?

Thalassocracy
(I Want to Live on An) Abstract Plain
Calistan
The Vanishing Spies
Speedy Marie
Headache
Sir Rockaby
Freedom Rock
Two Reelers
Fiddle Riddle
Olé Mulholland
Fazer Eyes
I Could Stay Here Forever
The Hostess With the Mostest
Superabound
Big Red
Space Is Gonna Do Me Good
White Noise Maker
Pure Denizen of the Citizens Band
Bad, Wicked World
Pie in the Sky

Out now: Michael Des Barres' cover album 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll'

Los Angeles-based singer/performer/actor/radio show host Michael Des Barres recently dropped a new album, It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll via Rock Ridge Music. The covers collection includes a dozen songs originally released between 1971 and 1975 (with the exception of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for My Man”).

Musicians on the album are guitarist Eric Schermerhorn (Iggy Pop, David Bowie, The The), bassist Paul Ill and drummer David Goodstein. “We cut it in 10 days, largely live in one room,” says Des Barres, who co-produced alongside engineer Chris Wonzer.

The originals came out around the same time that Des Barres was forming Silverhead in London before leaving for Los Angeles and his soon-to-be-wife, Miss Pamela of GTO’s and “I’m with the Band” renown, to form Detective. 

“These 12 songs represent chapters in my life,” he explains. “It is a look back from someone who was not only there but was the most stoned person in the room. I still remember these songs. If it was Christmas, they’d be my carols. What they all had in common was melodies, a big chorus, and plenty of eyeliner, with all that sensuality. That was what that era was all about. It was an epic time in my life that I wanted to pay homage to.”

Des Barres is planning a live multimedia presentation, featuring the songs and images of the album narrated by someone who experienced it all first-hand. “The ’70s were primary for me; between the sex, drugs, and music, it really changed things for a lot of people, especially me,” he says. “I want to turn on as many as I can to that era to show how memorable it was. I hope that it appeals to all generations. These are the songs that defined my life and musical career. This was a real labor of love.”

In the mid-1980s, Des Barres got his then-widest career exposure as the touring member for The Power Station, who also appeared at the global telecast of Live Aid.

These days, he’s known to listeners weekly on his show for Little Steven Van Zandt’s Underground Garage on SiriusXM. The 2021 documentary of his life, “Who Do You Want Me to Be?,” turned into a surprise hit when it came out on streaming services at the start of the pandemic.

Track Listing:

1. Dyna-Mite [original artist – Mud]

2. Love is the Drug [original artist – Roxy Music]
3. Moonage Daydream [original artist – David Bowie]
4. 20th Century Boy [original artist – T. Rex]
5. Search and Destroy [original artist – Iggy and the Stooges]
6. I’m Waiting for the Man [original artist – Velvet Underground]
7. Fox on the Run [original artist – Sweet]
8. All the Young Dudes [original artist – Mott the Hoople]
9. Cum on Feel the Noize [original artist – Slade]
10. Stay with Me [original artist – Faces]
11. I’m Eighteen [original artist – Alice Cooper]
12. It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (But I Like It) [original artist – The Rolling Stones]

https://michaeldesbarres.com/

Photo: Piper Ferguson

Bill Nelson's hit UK 1981 album 'Quit Dreaming & Get On the Beam' expanded for box set reissue in December

“Quit Dreaming & Get On the Beam,” a 3CD/1Blu-ray deluxe box set by Bill Nelson, the architect behind the 1970s English art rock act Be-Bop Deluxe, is scheduled for December 6. 

The album was originally recorded in 1979 with sessions taking place for an intended follow up album by Bill’s recently formed group Red Noise. But EMI Records, Bill’s then-record label, declined to release the recordings and the material remained unreleased.

Four recordings appeared as the ‘Do You Dream in Colour’ EP on his Cocteau label in 1980. The following year Bill licensed the original stereo mixes of the album to Mercury Records who issued the album in the Spring of 1981.“Quit Dreaming & Get On the Beam” reached #7 on the UK charts and is Bill’s most commercially successful album.

This limited and expanded edition boxed set features a newly remastered version of the original album mix, but also features an additional 53 tracks drawn from new stereo & 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Stephen W. Tayler of all the surviving recording sessions from 1979, along with a previously unreleased radio session from March 1981, a BBC JOHN PEEL session from June 1981 and a collection of rare single tracks from the era. Also included is the rare promotional film of ‘Do You Dream in Colour?’

The box set has an illustrated 68-page book and an essay and also includes postcards and a poster. 

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE

QUIT DREAMING & GET ON THE BEAM THE ORIGINAL STEREO MIX

1 Banal

2 Living in My Limousine
3 Vertical Games
4 Disposable
5 False Alarms
6 Decline and Fall
7 White Sound
8 Life Runs Out Like Sand
9 A Kind of Loving
10 Do You Dream in Colour
11 U.H.F.
12 Youth of Nation on Fire
13 Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam DISC TWO

SINGLES & RADIO SESSIONS 1980 – 1981

1 Ideal Homes (original single mix)
2 Instantly Yours (original single mix)
3 Atom Man Loves Radium Girl
4 Dada Guitare
5 Banal (extended mix)
6 Turn to Fiction
7 Hers is a Lush Situation
8 Mr. Magnetism Himself
9 Youth of Nation on Fire (extended mix)
10 Be My Dynamo
11 Rooms With Brittle Views
12 All My Wives Were Iron
13 Living in My Limousine (remix)
14 Birds of Tin
15 Love in the Abstract
16 Konny Buys a Kodak (radio session 1981)
17 After Life (radio session 1981)
18 Boom Year Ahead (radio session 1981)
19 Art of Vision (radio session 1981)
20 Rooms With Brittle Views (radio session 1981)
21 Stay Young (radio session 1981)
22 Sleep Cycle (radio session 1981)
Jazz (radio session 1981

DISC THREE

QUIT DREAMING & GET ON THE BEAM SESSIONS – NEW STEREO MIXES BY STEPHEN W. TAYLER

1 Banal
2 Living in My Limousine
3 Vertical Games
4 Disposable
5 False Alarms
6 Decline and Fall
7 White Sound
8 Life Runs Out Like Sand
9 A Kind of Loving
10 Do You Dream in Colour
11 U.H.F.
12 Youth of Nation on Fire
13 Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam

Bonus tracks

14 The World and His Wife
15 Dancing Music

DISC FOUR

QUIT DREAMING & GET ON THE BEAM SESSIONS – HIGH RESOLUTION 5.1 SURROUND SOUND & NEW STEREO MIXES BY STEPHEN W TAYLER – BLU-RAY

1 Banal
2 Living in My Limousine
3 Vertical Games
4 Disposable
5 False Alarms
6 Decline and Fall
7 White Sound
8 Life Runs Out Like Sand
9 A Kind of Loving Do You Dream in Colour
10 U.H.F.
11 Youth of Nation on Fire
12 Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam

Bonus tracks

13 The World and His Wife
14 Dancing Music
15 Do You Dream in Colour video

For more information: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/bill-nelson-quit-dreaming-get-on-the-beam-3cd-1blu-ray-deluxe-box-set

Rick Springfield unveils new single in advance of '25 compilation

Rick Springfield has released the new single Lose Myself, part of Big Hits: Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2, due out in early 2025. Says Springfield about the song, “’Lose Myself’ is about the one you are willing to throw away every good thing in your life for.”

Lose Myself is available on all streaming services.

The compilation is slated for the first quarter of 2025 via SING (distributed by Symphonic/AMPED Distribution). It is the latest career-spanning retrospective chronicling his recording output from 1999’s “Karma” through his most recent new album 2023’s “Automatic.” It will include the just announced brand new single, which is only available on this compilation. Springfield remarks on the package, “the GH 2 is more a fan favorite songs album. The albums I have made in the past 20 years I think are the best work I've done musically.”

The deluxe version of the package, available on TalkShopLive, will feature a single CD, double LP, a turntable mat, and includes a hardbound coffee table book, hand signed by Rick Springfield, with hundreds of photos taken of Rick by photographer Jay Gilbert over the past 20 years. Entitled, Burning Film: Rick Springfield Through the Lens, the book presents a comprehensive photographic documentation of Rick Springfield from 2005 to 2025, showcasing his stage performances and studio work through the camera lens.

Says Springfield about the book, “the coffee table book is a first for me. I don't know why it's on the coffee table. I actually don’t even have a coffee table. It sounds like it's going to get cup marks and spills all over the pages. Let’s just leave coffee out of the equation. You're welcome.”

Springfield will make an appearance on TalkShopLive on November 20 at 8pm Eastern Time/5pm Pacific Time. In addition to the deluxe package, TalkShopLive will also feature limited quantities of the album as a signed CD and signed double LP. Pre-order and tune-in here: https://talkshop.live/watch/QDraG5CC69Pl

Album reviews: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Alison Moyet

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition
(Geffen/UMe)

Originally released in 1982 and produced by Jimmy Iovine, Long After Dark rocked a bit harder than its more successful predecessor Hard Promises. But heavy rotation for the spacey “You Got Lucky” video on a nascent MTV and the jangly “Change of Heart” still propelled both into the top 10 at AOR radio and resulted in a gold album certification. This was the first studio effort to feature Howie Epstein, and the bassist bolstered the harmony balance between Tom Petty and drummer Stan Lynch. The terrific sounding 3CD expanded edition (also available in other configurations) has been remastered. Besides the classic singles and “Straight Into Darkness,” highlights include the Stonesy “The Same Old You,” and Mike Campbell’s sharp guitar riff on “Deliver Me.” Among the 12 rediscovered tunes (7 previously unreleased) are five solid in-studio performances recorded for a French TV show. The Springsteen-esque “Never Be You” later became a country chart topper thanks to Rosanne Cash’s cover; Maria McKee also did a version on the “Streets of Fire” soundtrack. The latter singer made Petty’s “Ways to Be Wicked” – also included here - a signature song for Lone Justice. Other gems include the poppy “Don’t Make Me Walk the Line,” the whimsical and extended 1960s-influenced “Heartbreakers Beach Party” and a fun take on The Troggs’ “Wild Thing.” Audiophiles are sure to be thrilled by the Blu-Ray Audio disc containing the music in Dolby Atmos, TrueHD 5.1 and 24-bit PCM Stereo.

tompetty.com

Alison Moyet
Key
(Cooking Vinyl)

Hindsight is 20/20. There are often elements of an artist’s work that they wish could be changed. With that in mind, Alison Moyet – who came to prominence in Eighties synth-pop duo Yaz alongside Vince Clarke (hit dancefloor banger “Situation” has been in multiple TV commercials) – pored through her past solo albums to put a modern sheen on songs she felt were “never fully realized or have had their relevance to me altered by time.” What results is a regal and electronic-tinged 18-track collection heavy on deep cuts, plus stellar renditions of U.K. top 10 pop singles (“All Cried Out,” “Love Resurrection,” “Is This Love”) and prior collaborations with Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie (a buoyant “So Am I,” the positive ode “My Best Day”). Additionally, there are two new ones: a gorgeous “Such Small Ale,” co-written by Suede guitarist Richard Oakes, who also plays on a third of the album; and a mellifluent “The Impervious Me.”

alisonmoyetmusic.com

Ringo Starr returns to country music on next album

Ringo Starr will release a new album in the country genre on January 10 titled Look Up. The 11 original songs were recorded this year in Nashville and Los Angeles, produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett. 

PRE-ORDER LOOK UP | HERE

LISTEN TO “TIME ON MY HANDS” | HERE

Nine of the 11 songs on Look Up were written or co-written by Burnett, one by Billy Swan and the other co-written by Starr and Bruce Sugar. Starr sang and played drums on all the songs and co-wrote the album’s closer, “Thankful,” featuring Alison Krauss. 

Burnett enlisted Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius and Molly Tuttle to contribute. The album’s debut track, “Time On My Hands,” written by Paul Kennerly, Daniel Tashian (who is a co-producer on the album along with Sugar) and Burnett, is available now. 

Starr has performed and written other country or country-tinged songs throughout his years with The Beatles (“Act Naturally,” “What Goes On,” “Don’t Pass Me By”) as well as with his  earlier group Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. He recorded the country album, Beaucoups of Blues, in 1970. Starr's admiration of country and blues led him to try and emigrate from London to Texas while still a teen, after reading that Lightnin’ Hopkins lived in Houston.

The artist’s new album comes after a chance meeting with Burnett at an event in Los Angeles in 2022 (the two had first met in the 1970s), where Starr asked Burnett to write a song for an EP he was recording. Burnett returned with nine songs, all in a country vein, which put Starr on a path to record Look Up: his first country album in more than 50 years and his first full-length album since 2019.

“I’ve always loved country music. And when I asked T Bone to write me a song, I didn’t even think at the time that it would be a country song – but of course it was, and it was so beautiful.” Ringo says in a statement. “I had been making EPs at the time and so I thought we would do a country EP -but when he brought me nine songs, I knew we had to make an album. And I am so glad we did."

“I have loved Ringo Starr and his playing and his singing and his aesthetic for as long as I can (or care to) remember,” adds Burnett. “He changed the way every drummer after him played, with his inventive approach to the instrument. And, he has always sung killer rockabilly, as well as being a heartbreaking ballad singer. To get to make this music with him was something like the realization of a 60-year dream I’ve been living. None of the work that I have done through a long life in music would have happened if not for him and his band. Among other things, this album is a way I can say thank you for all he has given me and us.”

Starr will be bringing this new music to Nashville when he headlines the famed Ryman Auditorium on January 14 and 15, 2025. 

Track List (writers):

Breathless (featuring Billy Strings) (T Bone Burnett)
Look Up (featuring Molly Tuttle) (Daniel Tashian, T Bone Burnett)
Time On My Hands (Paul Kennerly, Daniel Tashian, T Bone Burnett)
Never Let Me Go (featuring Billy Strings) (T Bone Burnett)
I Live For Your Love (featuring Molly Tuttle) (Billy Swan, T Bone Burnett)
Come Back (featuring Lucius) (T Bone Burnett)
Can You Hear Me Call (featuring Molly Tuttle) (T Bone Burnett)
Rosetta (featuring Billy Strings and Larkin Poe) (T Bone Burnett)
You Want Some (Billy Swan)
String Theory (featuring Molly Tuttle) (Daniel Tashian, T Bone Burnett)
Thankful (featuring Alison Krauss) (Richard Starkey, Bruce Sugar)*

'Return of Halloween Nuggets: Haunted Underground Classics' and 'Famous Monsters Speak' Are Perfect Additions to Halloween Celebrations

Two new spooky-themed music titles are out now via RockBeat Records/Liberation Hall. Return of Halloween Nuggets: Haunted Underground Classics is the third installment in the album series that began in 2022.

This compilation has more than a dozen 1950s and '60s instrumental, R&B, lounge, garage and rockabilly deep cuts and more.

Among the highlights: the girl group tune “Devil’s Gotten Into My Baby” by The Devotions, "The House on Haunted Hill" movie trailer (1959) by Vincent Price, a rollicking "Werewolf" by Carl Bonafede & Gem-Tones, the wild rocker "Scream" by Ralph Nielsen & The Chancellors (think: the Cramps), and the snazzy, rare "Witchcraft in the Air" (1962) by blues and R&B legend Bettye LaVette. 

The cover design comes courtesy of New York illustrator Cliff Mott. Return of Halloween Nuggets is available on CD, digital, and limited-edition orange & black splatter vinyl. The CD and digital configurations feature two classic monster movie trailers as bonus tracks.

In addition, Halloween music fans can experience Famous Monsters Speak. Originally released at the height of the “monster kid” boom in 1963, it predated Anne Rice’s concept for her blockbuster novel Interview with a Vampire by 13 years. 

Each side of the Famous Monsters Speak LP features an unnamed narrator prefacing the appearance of either Dracula or Frankenstein. Voice actor Gabriel Dell portrays each of the principal characters, with sound effects by Hal Johnson. Dell had a long Hollywood career that started in the 1930s when he made movies with the Dead End Kids, continuing into the ‘40s with the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys.

Famous Monsters Speak was brought to the world by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman, publisher and editor of the legendary Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, working in tandem with Dell, Johnson, and scriptwriter Cherney Berg.

RockBeat Records issued Famous Monsters Speak on CD for the first time in 2011. The last time it was reissued on vinyl was 1979. The title is available on limited edition red & black splatter vinyl.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Return of Halloween Nuggets

TRACKLIST: 

1. The Shandells, “Gorilla” | 2. Billy Duke & The Dukes, “Roland” | 3. The Circus, “Burn Witch Burn” | 4. Teddy Durant, “The Night Stalker” | 5. Cris Kevin, “Haunted House” | 6. The Devotions, “Devil’s Gotten Into My Baby” | 7. The Spellbinders, “Castin’ My Spell” | 8. Sonny Day & The Tony Ray Combo – “Creature from Outer Space” | 9. Vic Plati Quintet, “The Chiller” | 10. “The House on Haunted Hill” movie trailer * | 11. Carl Bonafede & The Gem-Tones, “Were Wolf” | 12. Ralph Nielsen & The Chancellors, “Scream” | 13. Frankie Stein & His Ghouls, “Knives and Lovers” | 14. Bettye LaVette, “Witchcraft in the Air” | 15. Glenda & Glen, “Voodoo Doll” | 16. The Upperclassmen, “Cha Cha with the Zombies” | 17. Terry Teen, “The Hearse” | 18. Boots Walker, “They’re Here” | 19. Dave Gardner, “Mad Witch” | 20. “Robot Monster” movie trailer *

* CD bonus track
Order at Amazon or Bandcamp

GABRIEL DELL - Famous Monsters Speak

TRACKLIST: 

1. “Frankenstein Speaks” (19:55) | 2. “Dracula Speaks” (21:12)

Order at Amazon or Bandcamp