Pop & Rock News

Lee Hazlewood was a late bloomer. Following a meandering career as a disc jockey, producer, songwriter, label executive and solo artist, Hazlewood hit the jackpot at the ripe age of 37 with 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin',' the song Nancy Sinatra took to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Its success convinced MGM Records that Hazlewood was a bankable star, and they signed him as an artist in his own right the same year. But as a self-described "non-singer" whose cult 1963 debut, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town, was little more than a happy accident, they'd perhaps gotten the wrong end of the stick where Lee was concerned.

In three years on the label, Hazlewood delivered three albums and sundry odds and ends, beginning with 1966 album The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood. The LP found Hazlewood gunning-in as much as he ever did-for commercial success, blending country, pop, novelty, mariachi, and lounge music into something unusually of-the-moment.

Lushly orchestrated and-like the album that preceded it-half-sung, half-spoken in a way that Hazlewood made all his own, the album collected solo versions of songs made famous by Sinatra and others ('Sand,' 'Boots,' 'So Long Babe,' 'Summer Wine'-included as a bonus duet with Suzi Jane Hokom) alongside some of his career-best solo compositions, among them the Morricone-like opener, 'For One Moment.' It's a record of extremes: 'When A Fool Loves A Fool' is as light and throwaway as anything he ever laid down, while the wistful 'My Autumn's Done Come' (sample lyric: "Let those I-don't-care days come in, I'm tired of holding my stomach in") is as raw and honest.

Despite MGM's best efforts, Hazlewood proved difficult to market without a Sinatra to temper his baritone drawl, and you'd suspect Hazlewood wasn't taking it quite as seriously as they might have hoped anyway. By 1967, Hazlewood had founded the LHI imprint and was busy building his own empire-one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, plus follow-ups Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause and Cure (1967) and Something Special (1968). Welcome, then, to Hazlewood's magnificent MGM years.

*8LP + 4CD + DVD + BOOK*

*RELEASED ON BLACK FRIDAY/RSD NOVEMBER 28TH. LIMITED AMOUNTS AVAILABLE.

*Seven years in the making, There's A Dream I've Been Saving is the ultimate artifact for Lee Hazlewood heads new and old. Now, for the first time, you can enjoy the entire experience on vinyl. This landmark box set contains an expansive LP-sized hard cover book detailing the label history of Lee Hazlewood Industries, accompanied by 8 LPs + 4-CDs and the never-before-released film Cowboy in Sweden.

*5/5 FULL PAGE LEAD REVIEW IN MOJO!

*5/5 FULL PAGE REVIEW IN RECORD COLLECTOR!

*9/10 IN CLASH:'A REMARAKBLE FEAST FOR HAZLEWOOD AFICIONADOS AND OPEN-MINDED MUSIC LOVERS ALIKE'

*9/10 THELINEOFBESTFIT: 'As an introduction to both Lee and his legacy, you would be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive and better presented package.'

*4/5 LEAD REVIEW IN Q : 'What a fascinating bastard, and what a wild trip'

+ 172 Page Hard Cover Book

* LP-sized cloth bound book with gold foil stamp

+ Over 150 Rare & Unseen Photos

* In depth liner notes documenting the label's history, album-by-album breakdown, 27 artist profiles, LHI timeline, and interviews with Lee, along with dozens of LHI artists and key players.

+ Cowboy in Sweden the Film on DVD (1970, 60 mins)

* First time available

* New digital transfer from the original 16mm master negative at the Swedish Broadcasting Co.

* Fully restored in HD with re-mastered sound

* Region Free

8 LPs + 4 CDs (107 tracks in each format)

* Everything Lee recorded for LHI, including every 45 single and album (Cowboy in Sweden, Forty, The Cowboy & The Lady, and Requiem For an Almost Lady), plus a handful of unreleased tracks.

* Key tracks from the LHI stable of artists, including Suzi Jane Hokom, The Kitchen Cinq, Ann-Margret, The International Submarine Band, Honey Ltd., Arthur, The Aggregation, Sanford Clark, Lynn Castle, The Surprise Package, Virgil Warner, and Hamilton Streetcar, amongst many others.

* 14 unreleased tracks

* LPs housed in gatefold "tip-on' jackets

* All LPs on colored wax (4 variations)

* Foil stamp numbered 'tip-on' slipcase

* Lacquers cut by John Golden Mastering

+ Meticulously Re-Mastered

* Analog transfers captured at 24-bit/96-kHz. 95% of transfers from original analog master tapes (remainder transferred from mint vinyl).

+ From Lee's Personal 'Stache

* Flexi disc feat. 10 mins of unheard Lee 'studio chatter' ('Play it like a cowboy song')

* Reproduction of Lee's original embossed LHI business card
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* 18' x 24' full color poster

Rodriguez, the enigmatic subject of the 2012 Academy Award®-winning documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, released two albums with Sussex Records, 1970’s Cold Fact and 1971’s Coming from Reality. Out of print on vinyl for several years, both albums are newly remastered by Alex Abrash at AA Mastering set for release on August 30 release by Sussex/UMC on CD and 180-gram black vinyl. Cold Fact is the debut album from singer-songwriter Rodriguez. It was released in the United States on the Sussex label in March 1970. In 1971 the album was released in South Africa by A&M Records. In 1976, several thousand copies of Cold Fact were found in a New York warehouse and sold out in Australia in a few weeks. It went to No. 23 on the Australian album charts in 1978, staying on the charts for 55 weeks. Coming from Reality is the second and (to date) final studio album from singer and songwriter Rodriguez, originally released by Sussex Records in 1971.
The CD for Coming from Reality features three additional bonus tracks, originally recorded in 1972-’73 for a third album that was never completed. The tracks were co-produced by Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, who also co-produced Cold Fact. The tracks were first issued in 2009 on the Light in the Attic CD release, and they were also featured on the Searching for Sugar Man soundtrack.

Inuit artist Tanya Tagaq won the Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album in 2014, for Animism. Those who thought she had then made her definitive artistic statement are in for a surprise. Also in for a shock are those who thought international success, playing to major festivals and packed houses all over the world, would lead to a mellower sound, or a more laid back approach.
Tagaq follows up Animism with Retribution, an even more musically aggressive, more aggressively political, more challenging, more spine tingling, more powerful masterpiece. This album is a cohesive, whole statement. Why sugarcoat it This album is about rape. Rape of women, rape of the land, rape of children, despoiling of traditional lands without consent. Hence the chilling cover version of Nirvana's song "Rape Me."

Heavy Entertainment Show' is the 11th studio album from Robbie Williams, who has sold over 70 million albums in his solo career and won more BRIT Awards than any other artist in history. The album will be released on November 4th via Columbia Records/ Sony Music. Robbie has worked with long time song writing collaborator Guy Chambers on tracks for this album as well as Johnny McDaid, Brandon Flowers, Ed Sheeran and Stuart Price.

Mit Illuminate veröffentlichte Shawn Mendes sein mit Spannung erwartetes zweites Album, welches in Deutschland #2 der Albumcharts erreichte. Mit dabei ist die Hit-Single Treat You Better, mit der er es auf Platz #1 der deutschen Airplay Charts und in die Top 5 der deutschen Single Charts geschafft hat. Mendes ist nicht mehr zu stoppen; sein Konzert im New Yorker Madison Square Garden im September war in 48 Stunden ausverkauft! Das Konzert beim NDR2 Soundcheckfestival sogar in 45 Minuten.

* First ever LP reissue, first time on CD & Digital
* Produced by Lee Hazlewood
* Featuring three unreleased tracks
* In-depth liner notes by LHI Archive Series co-producer Hunter Lea with unseen archive photos
* All tracks newly remastered from the original tapes
* LP housed in deluxe Stoughton 'Tip-On' gatefold jacket

The pantheon of performers known by but one name is full of superstars. Arthur-the nom de plume of singer-songwriter Arthur Lee Harper-is not one of them, but this gentle singer-songwriter and his wan, string-drenched, loved-up, psych-folk was probably never likely to be suitable for mass consumption.

Released on Lee Hazlewood's LHI label, the haunted Dreams And Images is the first of two albums from the Melbourne, Florida-born singer-songwriter. LHI was a broad church, taking in everything from soul to country, and Arthur found a home, a producer, and a champion in Hazlewood, who described him as "A man who will someday be a child again... A reason to cry and be unafraid... A bird with eighth-notes for wings."

Though his lonely, intimate music, shy demeanor, and stutter might not have suggested a man of great ambition, Arthur moved to Hollywood chasing the music industry dream. He suffered hardships to do so, living hand-to-mouth in a YMCA hostel with two like-minded individuals: Mark Lindsey Buckingham and Stephen John Kalinich, whose A World Of Peace Must Come has been reissued by Light In The Attic. "Arthur was a peace person. He was all about peace, love, and harmony," remembers Kalinich in the brand new, extensive liner notes for Dreams And Images. "He was a person that believed you could change the world. We thought we would be some of the ones to usher in peace."

While Kalinich and Buckingham were signed by the Beach Boys' Brother Records, Arthur allied with Hazlewood, having knocked on the door of the label's Sunset Boulevard HQ and auditioned on the spot. Entering the studio with Hazlewood, Donnie Owens, Tom Thacker, and arranger Don Randi, who brought baroque pop grandeur to the songs, Arthur let his music do the talking. "He stuttered and had a hard time getting his ideas out, so he would sing me the parts he had in mind,' remembers Randi.

A mixture of things conspired to make sure few people heard Arthur, including a packed release schedule at LHI, followed by the withdrawal of their major label funding and a lack of foundation on which to market the album. After the 1970 follow-up album, Love Is The Revolution, Arthur bowed out of the business, immersing himself in Christianity, family, and a career working first as a rocket engineer and, latterly, a teacher. "I never stopped writing or recording," he later said. "I recorded in studios, friends' houses, and live. I just recorded music with my friends or by myself when I felt inspired. For me, singing and songwriting is like breathing; I just do it."

On January 10th, 2002, Arthur's wife Lora died in a car crash. He tragically passed away of a heart attack the same night. Now, with this reissue of his great, lost album, Arthur's fragile heart can finally be enjoyed by all.