Neil Young set to rock the free world with Archives anthology
Canadian rock icon Neil Young will release his highly anticipated Archives collection on June 2, according to Young's manager Elliot Roberts.
Roberts made the announcement Saturday during the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Tex.
Roberts was taking part in a panel discussion along with Larry Johnson, head of Young's production company, Shakey Films.
They played samples from the coming anthology, which has often been delayed.
Young has 60 albums under his belt, with hit singles including Old Man, Heart of Gold and Rockin' in the Free World.
The set will be available in a 10-DVD box for $199 US and a CD version for $99 US. There is also a 10-disc Blu-Ray edition, which will cost $299 US.
The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972 will include 128 audio tracks — 43 unreleased and 13 never-before-heard songs — as well as thousands of images, including photos, lyrics, letters and memorabilia, and hours of new, previously released or rare videos.
That same day, director Jonathan Demme unspooled his second Young concert film, Neil Young's Trunk Show, which he described as "a home movie, in a way." It was shot during two performances at Philadelphia's Tower Theater in December 2007.
The film featured onstage and backstage footage, including performances of Harvest Moon, Cinammon Girl, Southern Man and Like a Hurricane.
The 63-year-old singer-songwriter is still rocking hard — touring and appearing in festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Spain and England.
PUMPING UP THE JAM
Nineteen years ago, Eddie Vedder unleashed an emotional tirade on a harmless cassette tape, singing over instrumental tracks and melodic samples played by Seattle musicians he didn't even know. A short time later, that piece of plastic evolved into a landmark album, Pearl Jam's debut "Ten," which is being celebrated with a three-disc reissue on Tuesday.
In 1990, the musicians who would form Pearl Jam were in disarray. Guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament had seen their previous band, Mother Love Bone, flame out after lead singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose. Guitarist Mike McCready's previous band, Shadow, had just broken up. And down in San Diego, Vedder was pumping gas, surfing and playing in a going-nowhere band called Bad Radio.
In search of a singer and percussionist, the Seattle trio gave a copy of their rough demo tape to ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, who passed it on to his basketball buddy Vedder. Once they heard Vedder's snarl over their arrangements, they quickly flew him to Washington, where they proceeded to hit the studio seconds after the plane touched down.
"It was special right away," recalls Ament of the sessions. "We knew [Eddie] was the missing piece."
The songs that began forming contained dark meanings that were mostly hidden behind driving guitars and thunderous drums. "Even Flow" unveiled the morbid life of a homeless man. "Jeremy" was real-life tale of a schoolboy blowing his head off in front of his classmates. And "Alive" included lyrics focused on incest, betrayal and a broken-home life.
Amazingly, "Ten" which went on to sell more than 12 million copies never boasted a No.1 hit. But along with Nirvana's "Nevermind," it became one of modern rock's most influential albums and a touchstone of what would become known as alternative rock.
Despite its revered status, Pearl Jam asked producer Brendan O'Brien to tinker with their first creation. His remix and six related tracks from the "Ten" sessions are part of the reissue package.
"The band loved the original mix of 'Ten' but were also interested in what it would sound like if I were to deconstruct and remix it," says O'Brien, who produced the follow-up albums "Vs.," "Vitalogy," "No Code" and "Yield."
"The original 'Ten' sound is what millions of people bought, dug and loved, so I was initially hesitant to mess around with that," O'Brien adds. "I was able to wrap my head around the idea of offering it as a companion piece to the original giving a fresh take on it, a more direct sound."
Several package options, ranging from $15.99 to $140, are available. Depending on which "goodie bag" is chosen, fans can finally possess Pearl Jam's wild and unreleased 1992 performance on "MTV Unplugged," an LP of the band's 1992 "Drop in the Park" concert in Seattle, a replica of Pearl Jam's three-song demo cassette with Vedder's original vocal dubs or a recreation of the frontman's composition notebook with abstract photos.
"['Ten'] has definitely withstood the test of time," says current drummer Matt Cameron, who contributed to the original demo tape while still a member of Soundgarden. "I couldn't have predicted what the album would become."
Nirvana catalogue to be released on vinyl
The full music catalogue of Seattle grunge band Nirvana, headed by the late Kurt Cobain, will be released on vinyl this year for the first time.
The band — whose hits include Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are and All Apologies — released only four CD albums before Cobain killed himself in 1994. Band members included Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl.
Their first album was 1989's Bleach and it is being re-produced for vinyl release by the band's first label, Seattle-based independent label Sub Pop.
Nirvana's second effort, Nevermind (1991), which contained the breakthrough hit Smells Like Teen Spirit, and their last album, In Utero (1993), as well as Unplugged in New York, will be released by another company — Original Recordings Group, which produces and sells vinyl records for a niche audience of record turntable users.
Unplugged was recorded live for an MTV show.
"To our knowledge this is the first time Unplugged has ever come out on vinyl," Monti Olson, founder of ORG, told Billboard magazine. "They might have done a limited promotional thing, but I doubt it."
In 1992, Nirvana did release Incesticide — a collection of unreleased early recordings, some previously-released singles and material from the band's sessions for the BBC. These will not be part of the vinyl re-release.
More vinyl plans
Olson also indicated several other iconic rock albums will be getting the same remastered vinyl treatment.
"We're going to be releasing a lot of classic alternative music from the '80s and '90s on 180-gram vinyl. Stuff that's more obscure and more popular. We're in negotiation with quite a few of those artists," he said.
Nirvana is widely regarded as the band that made the early '90s Seattle grunge scene a mainstream commodity.
In their wake, other Seattle acts, including Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, also gained fame and fans.
Nirvana remains popular to this day and has sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
Grohl formed his own band, the Foo Fighters, in 1994 and has participated in other acts, including Queens of the Stone Age.
Novoselic has played with other bands, most recently Flipper, and has been writing a regular music and politics online column for Seattle Weekly.
Sci-fi thriller "Knowing" tops weekend box office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The science-fiction adventure "Knowing," starring Nicolas Cage, grossed an estimated $24.8 million in its first three days in theaters to top the North American box office this weekend, according to studio figures on Sunday.
"Knowing," which features Cage as an astrophysicist racing to save the world from impending doom, easily beat out two other movies opening in wide release -- the male-bonding comedy "I Love You, Man" and the spy thriller "Duplicity," co-starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
"I Love You, Man," featuring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, opened at No. 2 with just over $18 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales estimated for Friday through Sunday.
"Duplicity" was No. 3 with $14.4 million in receipts, according to numbers compiled by box office tracking service Media By Numbers.
Last weekend's top movie, "Race to Witch Mountain," fell to fourth place with receipts of $13 million, while the superhero film "Watchmen" rounded out the top five at $6.7 million.