Addicted To Vinyl Musical thoughts from the open road, with headphones on

New Releases This Week: Nirvana, Slayer, REO Speedwagon

The holidays are approaching, which means that it's time to start planning your holiday gift giving....or perhaps you're just an obsessed music fan like me looking for your next musical fix?  Read on....

Without question, Nirvana's Live at Reading is at the top of the must-have list from this week's new releases.  Available on both CD,  DVD and vinyl,  it's hard to believe that it took this long for a properly electric live document of Nirvana to be released.  From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah felt like a throwaway release - sourced from cassette, a point that stung those of us that knew that there were plenty of other better sources in the vaults.

The wait for one of those sources ends with this week's release of Live at Reading, and I'd suggest that you'll probably want to get both the CD and DVD of this release.  The DVD is mixed in 5.1 surround sound for your listening pleasure, and both versions of this release sound and look great!  Our colleague Ken Shane has a review of the DVD at Popdose via this link.

For those of you that missed it, last week also marked the release of the 20th anniversary edition reissue of Nirvana's Bleach, a reissue that features a bonus second disc with a live show from the period.

A random blog entry from my pal Judd led me to Cameron Crowe's website, where I discovered that there is a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of Say Anything... hitting the stores today on DVD and Blu-ray.  While you're aware that there are a lot of deluxe editions and reissues that are crap - this one is anything but that!

Among the MANY extras - a commentary track with Crowe, John Cusack, and Ione Skye, and tons of deleted scenes!  I'm all about this one!

This week also marks the release of World Painted Blood, the 11th studio album from SLAYER.  Dude, it is a ripper.

Other notable releases that are in stores this week:

Aqua - Greatest Hits - Featuring new music....who the hell authorized this?
The Bee Gees - The Ultimate Bee Gees
Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas - No Mom, we really don't want a copy of this.  But we'll buy one for you.
Julian Casablancas (of the Strokes) - Phrazes For The Young
Creedence Clearwater Revival - The Singles Collection
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men?  A: We are Devo! (Also available on yellow vinyl) and Freedom of Choice (available on red vinyl!)
Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits - First ever retrospective from Dave Grohl and crew, featuring two new songs.  The deluxe edition adds a DVD, and there also is a vinyl edition of this release!
Genitorturers - Blackheart Revolution - No actual Blackhearts were harmed during the making of this release.
Kathy Griffin - Suckin' It For The Holidays - Kathy Griffin continues to prove that women comedians are occasionally funny.
Guided By Voices - Suitcase III:  Up We Go Now (box set)
Halford III - Winter Songs - With the release of Winter Songs, Halford proves that if you thought that he was void of holiday spirit, you've got another thing coming...
Jonny Lang - Live at the Ryman
Sean Lennon - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead
Alison Moyet - Best Of:  25 Years Revisited

REO Speedwagon - Not So Silent Night - Bring me the head of Kevin Cronin, immediately!  We've heard that this release goes great with the 38 Special holiday album from a few years back.  And by "great", we mean that it works really nicely to clear the room of those pesky holiday guests that you are hoping to get rid of early.
Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Ya's Out:  The Rolling Stones in Concert (40th anniversary deluxe box set)
Say Anything - Say Anything - This new album from Say Anything contains absolutely no John Cusack guest appearances, but it might perhaps contain the occasional sly nod to Lane Meyer.  Okay, that's not true either - but it is available on vinyl!
Michael Schenker Group - Live & Loud - Step 1: Buy yourself a copy of Live & Loud.  Step 2:  The next time that MSG announces a show in your hometown, prepare for the show to be cancelled and listen to this instead.  You'll save money and heartache.
Shwayze - Let It Beat - The Shwayze logo on the album cover kind of reminds us of Quarterflash. That's all we've got on this one.
Carrie Underwood - Play On - Why has Carrie Underwood stopped returning our phone calls?  We were kidding.
Various Artists - Glee:  The Music - Season One