// Category Archive for: Reissues

Best Of 2015: Ronnie Barnett, The Muffs

Reissues of the Year:

1. Various Artists, Ork Records: New York, New York (Numero Group): The complete output of the amazing 1970s label finally compiled with perhaps the most lavish and beautiful packaging of any reissue, ever. Essential.

2. Bad Company, Bad Company/Straight Shooter (Swan Song/Rhino): A fucking revelation! These two disc sets offer remastered versions of both albums alongside a multitude of (gasp) previously unheard alternate takes & unreleased songs. Oh my…

3. Suburban Lawns, Suburban Lawns (Futurismo): At last this classic finally gets reissued for the first time. Hopefully this will renew interest and inspire a disc of demos and unreleased tracks. I can dream, can’t I??

4. Continental Drifters, Drifted: In The Beginning & Beyond (Omnivore): Perhaps the greatest widely unheard supergroup of all time. The talent and songwriting in this band will be a revelation to the uninitiated. Better than the Band… they’re that good.

5. Really Red, The Complete Collection: 1979-1985 (Alternative Tentacles): This Houston group were very special. Their music is far beyond “punk” and has not aged a day. My childhood heroes!

6. Velvet Underground, The Complete Matrix Tapes (Universal): Soundboard tapes from 1969 spread over four discs, enough said. The inside word is that it’s already out of print and Universal is not doing another pressing. Grab it if you still can.

7. Game Theory, Real Nighttime (Omnivore): The reissue of the catalog of my favorite band continues. So much more than merely a power pop band. The campaign continues next year, get ’em all!

8. Dictators, Go Girl Crazy! 40th Anniversary Remastered & Expanded Edition (Epic/Real Gone Music): The title says it all. Long overdue overhaul of one the most classic and influential albums of all time. I am right!!

10. Bruce Springsteen, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Columbia): No explanation necessary.

11. The Professionals, The Complete Professionals (Virgin UK): The collected works of the highly underrated band Steve Jones and Paul Cook formed after the breakup of the Sex Pistols. You might not have heard them; now is the time.

12. Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows From Seventy-Two (Atlantic/Rhino): Some might find a 14-disc box set of seven shows with identical set lists recorded in the same week to be a bit excessive… not me.

Runners Up:

Saved By The Bell: The Complete Works Of Robin Gibb 1968-1970 (Warner Brothers)

The Sound, Jeopardy/From The Lion’s Mouth/All Fall Down… Plus (Edsel UK)

The Sound, Shock Of Daylight/Heads And Hearts/In The Hothouse/Thunder Up/Propaganda (Edsel UK)

Faces, 1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything… (Warner Brothers)

The Jam, Fire And Skill (Polydor/Universal UK)

The Muffs’ self-titled debut was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in June with oodles of extra tracks.

Music Review: Nat King Cole, The Christmas Song

By Melissa Bratcher

Nat King Cole’s album The Christmas Song is a masterpiece. Year after year, Cole’s dulcet tones fill the airwaves, kindling warm feelings of nostalgia through his tracks. The songs on The Christmas Songs are (save one, the little-heard “A Cradle In Bethlehem”) classics, and Cole’s performances are easy, understated treasures.

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Music Review: David Essex, Rock On; David Essex; All The Fun Of The Fair (Reissues)

By Hanna

With his own jukebox musical and sold-out comeback shows, David Essex has no need of a revival, though by now his career is so long that there are always parts of it that could use extra attention. A documentary from Alan G. Parker is slated for release soon, which is a good enough reason for Cherry Red to re-release Essex’s first three albums on CD: Rock On (1973), David Essex (1974), and All The Fun Of The Fair (1975). All three reissues are fairly straightforward, with the original album art, some informative liner notes by Phil Hendriks, and a couple of interesting bonus tracks.

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Music Review: Love, Reel to Real

By Melissa Bratcher

Love’s 1974 album Reel To Real doesn’t sound how you might expect Love to sound. It lacks the psychedelia and heavy rock of their best known work Forever Changes, and instead could be considered an Arthur Lee solo record. It’s funky. Super funky. And it’s fascinating.

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The Official Popshifter Podcast, Episode #04: Texas Gators

Welcome to Episode 4 of The Official Popshifter Podcast. This one is titled “Texas Gators, Violent Pornography, and Tales from the Pit.”

Already, you should be enticed. It’s another fascinating discussion of American pop culture with Less Lee and X! Please enjoy. Preferably with a nice glass of cold Bosco.

Reviews:

Blu-Ray Review: Eaten Alive

DVD Review: The Farmer’s Daughters

Blu-Ray Review: The Beast (from Dirge Magazine)

Music Review: Hulaland: The Golden Age of Hawaiian Music

Music Review: Fuzz, II

Concert Review: Fuzz at The Hoxton

Music Review: Lee Michaels, Heighty Hi

By Melissa Bratcher

Is there a more intriguing story than an enormously talented, rock and roll recluse? The kind of artist that is so gifted, with a vision and unique sound, and he (or she) just walks away? Don’t you want to know why? What did they do after they stopped being famous? Does it make that person more exciting?

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Music Review: Buck ‘Em! The Music Of Buck Owens, Volume Two (1967-1975)

By Melissa Bratcher

“Would we still be talking about Buck Owens if it weren’t for Hee Haw?” I was asked recently and have spent an inordinate amount of time mulling over the answer. The answer, of course, is maybe. Hee Haw was an amazing music delivery system, imbuing Buck’s image with a family-friendly, easily accessible shorthand: he’s that smiling guy on TV every week with his Buckaroos and the pretty girls and Grandpa Jones and Roy Clark, and he’s kind of funny with his dad jokes, and he makes some catchy tunes. You think (if you’ve spent time watching Hee Haw) about what Buck Owens looked like, which, in an pre-MTV/CMTV videos era, is pretty spectacular. You can conjure up what he looks like playing his American flag striped guitar, you know what the Buckaroos look like, you can see Don Rich smiling in your mind’s eye.

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Blu-Ray Review: Eaten Alive

By Less Lee Moore

Tobe Hooper’s legendary status as a director began with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974. This gritty, grisly chunk of cinema has influenced countless films and spawned numerous imitators, including the entire subgenre known as “backwoods horror.” Hooper followed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with 1976’s Eaten Alive; even those who worshipped at the previous film’s bloody, chicken-bone altar must have felt spiritually annihilated after enduring one of the most grueling film experiences in 1970s horror.

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DVD Review: The Farmer’s Daughters

By Jeffery X Martin

Roughie—A specific movie genre featuring explicit hardcore sex mixed with vicious violence. Mainly 1960s and 1970s. [Source: Urban Dictionary]

Hello, and welcome to my first professional review of a pornographic film. It’s my first amateur review of a porn, for that matter. I’m not even sure if there are any hard and fast rules for such an undertaking.

Heh. “Hard and fast.”

It’s impossible to avoid innuendo in an article like this.

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DVD/Blu-Ray Review: Demonoid

By Jeffery X Martin

We provide many public services here at Popshifter, and we do our level best to be fair, accurate, and rigorous when testing entertainment products. We also try to anticipate the needs of our readers. For example, one morning during a high-powered meeting at the round table in the glass corner office of Popshifter International Headquarters, the question was posited: “Which movie about a demon-possessed sentient severed hand should we recommend to our readers, whom we love and cherish?”

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