RECORDINGS

Rip It Up, Issue 212, 1 April 1995, Page 7

RECORDINGS

Black Grape, We’re Great When We’re Straight — Shaun (Happy Mondays) Ryder’s new band (BMG). Scott Walker, Tilt. Traci Lords, 1000 Fires (Radioactive/BMG) Amphex Twins, I Care Because You Do. Laurie Anderson, The Ugly One With the Jewels and Other Stories (Warners) — accompanied readings from her book Stories From the Nerve Bible. King Crimson, Thrak (Virgin). Juliana Hatfield, Only Everything (Mammoth). Terence Trent D’Arby, TTD's Vibrator (Sony) Wilco, A.M. — former Uncle Tupelo co-leader Jeff Tweedy’s new band (Warners). Butthole Surfers, Hole Truth & Nothing Butt (Flying In) Pavement, Wowee Zowee (Flying In) Guided By Voices, Alien Lanes (Flying In) Guided By Voices, Box (Flying In) Scanner, Spore (Flying In) Roky Erickson, All That May Do May Rhyme (Flying In) The Human League, Octopus (Warners). 800 Radleys, Wake Up. Fail, Cerebral Caustic. Marianne Faithfull, A Secret Life. Pop Will Eat Itself, Two Angers My Friends. FUNKY Michael Jackson, History Book 1 (Epic) — two disc pack, 5 new songs including duet ‘Scream’ with Janet Jackson). Dana Dane, Rollin’ Wit Dana Dane (Maverick) Ini Kamoze, Lyrical Gangsta. Prince Far I & the Arabs, Dub to Africa (Flying In). Isaac Hayes, Branded (Pointblank/Virgin) — Chuck D raps on remake of ‘Hyperbolicsyllabicesquedalymistic’ from Hot Buttered Soul. Hayes covers Sting’s ‘Fragile’ and Lovin Spoonful’s ‘Summer in the City’. Isaac Hayes, Raw & Defined (Pointblank/Virgin). Lenny White, Present Tense. Cypress Hill, Temple of Boom. Naughty By Nature, Poverty’s Paradise. NPG (New Power Generation), Exodus (Liberation) — 21 songs. Herbie Hancock, Dis Is A Drum. 2PAC, Me Against the World (Interscope/Atlantic) Pieces of a Dream, Goodbye Manhattan (Blue Note). Narada Michael Walden, Sending Love to Everyone. AOTEAROA Shihad, Killjoy (Wildside). Nixons, Special Downtime (Pagan) Banshee Reel, An Orchestrated Litany of Lies. Magick Heads, Before We Go Under (Flying Nun). King Loser, Sonic Super Free Hi-Fi (Flying Nun). Warners, Bogans’ Heroes (Wilside). The Dead C, The White House (Siltbreeze). HEAVY Tad, Infrared Riding Hood. Clawhammer, Thank The Holder Uppers (Interscope/Warners) — fave band of Epitaph label owner Brett Gurewitz. Shaw & Blades, Hallucination — Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades formerly of Damn Yankees & Styx. Def Leppard, Slang. The Mother Hips, Back to the Grotto (American) Skid Row, Subhuman Race (Atlantic). Collective Soul, Collective Soul (Atlantic) ROOTS Steve Earle, Train A Cornin’ (Winter Harvest) — includes ‘Rivers of Babylon’, Town Van Zandt’s ‘Tecumseh Valley’ and Beatles’ ‘l'm Looking Through You’. John Prine, Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings (Oh Boy). Nick Lowe, The Impossible Bird (Upstart). Cariene Carter, Little Acts of Treason (Giant). Tony Joe White, Lake Placid Blues. Frances Black, Talk to Me (Celtic Heartbeat). Bodeans, Lowdown (Slash). Clannad, Clannad Themes (Celtic Heartbeat) — recordings for film and TV since 1982. Guy Clark, Dublin Blues. The Rembrandts, LP. Linda Ronstadt, Feels Like Home (Elektra) — covers Petty’s ‘The Waiting’ and Young’s ‘After the Goldrush’. David Sanborn, Pearls (Elektra). Steve Forbert, Mission of the Crossroad Palms (Giant). Kronos Quartet, Performs Philip Glass (Nonesuch/Elektra) REISSUES Enya, The Celts (Reprise) — reissue of 1986 debut. Miles Davis, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 (Columbia) — eight CD boxed set with 30 minutes of previously unheard material. Jimmy Reed, Classic Recordings (Tomato/Rhino) Chuck Jackson, Best Of (Tomato/Rhino) Beach Boys, Smile Era (Capitol) —3-CD set. Eric Burden & War, Best Of (Avenue/Rhino). David Johansen, From Pumps to Pompadours (Rhino). The Complete Stax / Volt Soul Singles 1972-1975 V 01.3 (Stax/Fantasy) — 215 more tracks from the Memphis soul label. Meters, Funkify Your Life: Anthology (Rhino) —2-CD set. Robyn Hitchcock, Invisible Hitchcock, Eye, You & Oblivion (Rhino). MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS Tank Girl (Elektra) — Devo revive their ‘Girl U Want’ while Joan Jett and Paul Westerburg duet on a Cole Porter song. Cortney Love is credited as executive music co-ordinator and Scott Weiland is vocalist for the soundtrack’s Magnificent Bastards. Streetfighter (Priority/Virgin) Friday (Priority/ Virgin) New Jersey Drive (Tommy Boy/Festiva!) TRIBUTE ALBUMS Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin Atlantic — artists are Blind Melon Out on the Tiles, Sheryl Crow D’yer Maker, Stone Temple Pilots Dancing Days, Rollins Band Four Sticks, Helmet with David Yow of Jesus Lizard Custard Pie, Duran Duran Thank You, 4 Non Blondes Misty Mountain Hop, Plant & Tori Amos Down by the Seaside, etc.

Former NWA rapper Eazy E (Eric Wright) died of AIDS in Los Angeles on March 27. Wright denied using intravenous drugs or engaging in homosexual activity, but said he had led a life of “fancy cars, gorgeous women and good livin’’ ... REM drummer Bill Berry is still recovering in Switzerland after surgery for a cerebral haemorrhage. It is estimated he will need between three months and a year to make a full recovery ... Smashing Pumpkins are recording a new double album in Chicago for release later in the year ... UK music papers NME and Melody Maker both reviewed gigs during, Faith No More’s English dates but both failed to mention Shihad. However English metal mag Ker rang!, when reviewing the band’s second album Killjoy, said it was a ‘memorable headfuck from the kiwi krunchers’ ... it’s rumoured that Neil Young and Pearl Jam have recorded 10 songs together. Both artists have denied earlier speculation they will tour together ... Michael Jackson will release the double album HlStory-Bookl in May. Disc one will be a greatest hits package and disc two features brand new material. The album also features a duet with Janet Jackson ... Flying Nun will release Bailterspace’s fifth album Warn mo early May. A single, ‘Splat’, will be out next month ... Melvin Franklin (1942-1995), an original member of Motown vocal group the Temptations, died in LA on February 23 of heart failure, age 52. He was still a member of the vocal group but had not been well enough to perform since July 1994 ... Bob Stinson, former guitarist with the Replacements, was found dead on February 18 at his Minneapolis apartment. Whether his death was an accidental drug overdose or suicide is still unclear ... Jamaican singer Delroy Wilson (1948-1995) died on March 6 after a long fight with alcoholism ... the Clash have been offered a million pound fee to reform for this year’s Lollapalooza Festival Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee married Bay watch star Pamela Anderson in Mexico last month ... SML, the collaboration between members of

Wellington bands Shihad and Head Like A Hole, has spawned a single entitled ‘Mixdown’, due for release in June ... the Warners label,: who have lost several key execs lately, are expected to boost industry confidence by announcing their signing of Neil Young for five more albums ... Blur have recorded ‘To The End’, from Parklife, with French singer Francoise Hardy writing her own lyrics in French ... Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl is mixing the debut album by his new band Foo Fighters ... Bono and Edge join fellow Irishman Christy Moore on his single ‘North and South of the River’ ... hip-hop label Tommy Boy will market their own casual sporstwear ...

Juliana Hatfield suffered a breakdown during the recording of her new album Only Everything ... ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler will release two singles recorded with David Almont under the name Yes, on Virgin’s Hut label. We’re told it’s “veryTamla Motown”. Meanwhile, Suede are touring Japan and Thailand ... forhisnew album TTD’s Vibrator, Terence

Trent D’Arby has cut his hair short and bleached it blond ... Nina Simone, who has been vocal about her lack royalties from sales of her old recordings, has won ownership of 52 tracks in a San Francisco court. With increasing industry pressure in the USA for old unfair contracts to be overturned, Sony and Rhino have joined labels Atlantic, EMI and MCA, who have already given older artists a fairer deal ...

music writer David Ritz has co-written an autobiography with Etta James, Race to Survive (Random House, May), and Ritz is now writing an Aretha Franklin autobiography ... James Brown has had the domestic violence charge dropped at the request of his wife Adrienne. He filed for divorce soon after the incident ... former Shelter and Mango label founder Denny Cordell died on February 18 at the age of 51. Cordell produced albums for such bands as the Moody Blues, Move and Procul Harem, and as an A&R genius Cordell signed acts from T Rex and- Joe Cocker to Tom Petty, the Gap Band and, most recently, the Cranberries.