This goes beyond the usual "deluxe edition." You get the Femme's 1983 debut LP ( Blister in the Sun; Kiss Off; Please Do Not Go; Add It Up , etc.) plus demos of all of the above and more. That's disc one; disc two has unissued live recordings of Gone Daddy Gone; Promise; Country Death Song; To the Kill; Never Tell , and more by Milwaukee's indie-rock heroes!
Emerging, literally, from the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they gained notoriety through busking, this strange trio led by guitarist-vocalist Gordon Gano became a cult favorite with their self-titled debut album in 1983. Influenced greatly by Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers, the Femmes' minimalist sound pitted Gano's low-volume electric guitar against Brian Ritchie's acoustic bass guitar and Victor De Lorenzo's ashcanlike homemade drum kit–all of which only served to make Gano's angst-ridden adolescent tirades more arresting. Highlights here are the rockabillyish "Gone Daddy Gone," the snotty "Kiss Off," and the emblematically nervous "Blister in the Sun." All in all, a fond reminder of the innocent days of alt-rock. Note: this deluxe, 20th anniversary version of the album includes an additional 26 demos and live tunes, 22 of them never before released.–Billy Altman

The band who unexpectedly turned old-fashioned rockabilly into a sensation during the height of synthesized new wave.
Sporting bodacious pompadours, tattoos, and leather jackets, the Stray Cats looked like a rockabilly band straight out of central casting. That was by the design of Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, and Slim Jam Phantom, a trio of Long Island renegades who were attempting to keep the fire of old-time rock & roll burning during the height of punk and new wave. It took some time - and a trip across the Atlantic - for them to succeed, but when they did, it was beyond all expectations…

Russell Taff (born November 11, 1953) is an American gospel singer and songwriter. He has sung a variety of musical styles throughout his career including: pop rock, traditional southern gospel, contemporary country music, and rhythm and blues. He first gained recognition as lead vocalist for the Imperials (1976-1981). One of his best-known performances is the song "Praise the Lord". He has also been a member of the Gaither Vocal Band, and occasionally tours with Bill Gaither in the Gaither Homecoming concerts. As a solo artist and songwriter, Taff is known for the 1980s anthem "We Will Stand".

BJH's early exploration of different sounds and styles was well behind them by 1983, and in its place came some pretty standard fare. The songs here are soft rock; Alan Parsons Project type compositions…

This new 4CD / 1DVD Super Deluxe Box Set version comprises a host of bonus material including; B-sides and extended mixes; BBC sessions; a previously unreleased Glasgow Barrowlands concert; promo videos; Top Of The Pops and Oxford Road Show footage; a booklet containing sleeve notes and interviews plus track by track annotation and a reproduction concert programme…

“I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid” was the debut single by comedian and singer Julie Brown. It was self-released by Brown in 1983 in 12-inch and 7-inch vinyl formats. The song is a 1980s-style pop song with comedic lyrics about the protagonist’s desire for a handsome, hunky muscle-stud who is not very bright (or as she sings, “Superman with a lobotomy”). The 12-inch version contained an extended dance mix and the B-side on all releases, “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun”, was played on The Dr. Demento Show, and received airplay on Top 40 and Modern Rock stations around the US in 1984. Both songs appeared that year on Brown’s next release, Goddess in Progress.

One of Italy's best-loved artists, Adriano Celentano has been equally successful in film and music. Whether singing Elvis Presley-inspired rock, as he did as a member of the Rock Boys in 1957, or romantic balladry, Celentano found a dedicated market for his music…

"Bossa Nova Hotel" is the debut album of rock singer/guitarist Michael Sembello. The album contained ten tracks including the smash hit "Maniac" from the motion picture Flashdance, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1983. The album itself peaked at #80 on the Billboard 200. "Automatic Man" and "Talk" were the other singles released from the album. "Automatic Man" had three other versions released on an LP and 45 single (which were the Extended mix, Instrumental mix and Single Version). The version of "Maniac" that appeared on the soundtrack to Flashdance is different from the one that appears on this album. "Maniac" also had remixed and instrumental versions of the song.

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is the 2nd studio album by British pop duo Eurythmics, released on 4 January 1983 by RCA Records. After a year and a half of initial commercial failure for Eurythmics, this album became a breakthrough for the duo on both sides of the Atlantic. The title track became particularly popular and remains one of Eurythmics' most recognisable songs. Its music video, popular on MTV in the United States, is memorable for Annie Lennox's gender-bending imagery. In the wake of this success, the single "Love Is a Stranger", previously a flop, was re-released and became a hit as well. It too was accompanied by a striking video that featured Lennox dressed both as a man and a woman.

This short but delectably sweet release is for most intents and purposes the soundtrack to the Frank Zappa concert film of the same name. Both were captured on location at New York City's Palladium (formerly the Academy of Music) in 1977, during the artist's brief yearly residency in the Big Apple in and around Halloween…

If there were ever any doubts as to Ralph Towner’s consummate abilities, though one would need to travel far to encounter them, they can only have been put to rest with the release of Blue Sun. A near highpoint in Towner’s extensive discography, it might have shared the summit of 1980’s Solo Concert were it not for a few frayed threads. Towner’s compositions are already so harmonically dense in their solo form that other instruments merely externalize what is already so internally apparent to them, so that the intimate pickings of “The Prince And The Sage,” “Mevlana Etude,” and “Wedding Of The Streams” hover most clearly before our ears. At the same time, there is something skeletal about his playing that cries for flesh. Not for want of completeness, nor out of lack, but rather through the his balance and inward posture, a flower-like duplicity that embraces both blooming and wilting in the same breath.

Cut live at the Reichstag in the German city, Berlin is very different from The Live Tapes, with a rather leaner, harder-rocking sound, and more of a dance-rock feel as well, and is also miked much closer for a more intimate sound…

After performing his second-to-last selection, "White Light/White Heat," a tune by Lou Reed, the songwriter who most influenced Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie's enduring and indelible persona, Bowie dropped this little nugget on his fans (and bandmates): "Not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do. Thank you." He then went into a magnificent version of "Rock & Roll Suicide," a song that gives a glimpse of where Bowie could have gone, not to suicide, but to the style of rock & roll that a long-term band can provide. Had Bowie kept the Spiders from Mars together, unique flashes like the version of "Let's Spend the Night Together" or the striking "All the Young Dudes would have continued, a tight little rock & roll band providing a balance that dissipated when the artist branched out on his own.

This album presents a mix of studio tracks and altered live recordings from Frank Zappa's hard rock period. The tone is definitely less rock-oriented than on Them or Us, only "Stick Together" and "Cocaine Decisions" qualifying as such…