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Warner Archives is planning on issuing the first three Everything But The Girl releases in the U.S. Released overseas in 1984, 1985 and 1986, their eponymous debut, Love Not Money and The Stars Shine Bright will now be available as domestic CD titles.
In other news from Warner Brothers, Reprise Records has recently signed a band via the Internet. The band LOVEINREVERSE was signed by Reprise president Howie Klein after hearing the band online. "In fact," says Klein, "the whole signing process took place online - even the contract negotiations." LOVEINREVERSE are currently recording with producer Russ Titelman. While use of the Internet has helped out many, many bands over the past several years, this is the first instance Network Audio Bits is aware of where the Internet played a major role in the signing of a band to a major label.
The Web-zine Addicted To Noise reports on a couple of interesting items. One is that the Plimsouls are recording something for Epitaph Records head Brett Guerwitz. Here's hoping that Guerwitz likes what he hears and actually turns this into an album project.
ATN also reports on John Wesley Harding's prophetic song When The Beatles Hit America. While they mention that Harding is considering including the song on an album due in early 1996, they fail to mention that the song has already appeared on CD - on the Just Say Da sampler Warner Brothers issued in 1990.
If you're planning on picking up the latest John Hiatt CD, Walk On, you may want to wait until the calendar passes into 1996. Capitol Records is planning to promote Hiatt's album in January 1996 with a buy-one-get-the-second-for-a-dollar deal that will allow buyers to purchase two copies and hopefully turn some new folks on to Hiatt's music. Shrewd fans can team up and get the disc at nearly half price.
For Squirrels have a new bassist. Andy Lord has joined the band to replace Bill White, who died in a van accident on the way home from their September CMJ showcase. Also killed in the accident were singer Jack Vigliatura and manager Timothy Bender. Medical bills for the band are still outstanding. To help raise funds a silent auction will be held with bidding to take place via the Internet. Items have been donated by Pearl Jam, Metallica, Aerosmith, R.E.M. and others.
Elliott Sharp will have another blues album out in 1996. The album will be released on Homestead Records. It will feature an acoustic country/gospel style, which will be a switch from his electric blues band Terraplane and significantly different from his more avant garde projects, which have included Carbon, Bootstrappers and other solo material. The album also features a female vocalist. When I have her name, I will update this entry.
Justice Records has a Willie Nelson Tribute album on the way. Twisted Willie will feature a few unlikely collaborations (namely some 90s alternative stars meeting with Waylon, Johnny and Kris {that's Jennings, Cash and Kristofferson}) and tracks by Reverend Horton Heat, X, Supersuckers, Steel Pole Bathtub and others.
Capitol plans to release a Richard Thompson double album in early 1996 titled you? me? us? . Also on the Capitol release list for early 1996 are releases by the Cocteau Twins, Triple Fast Action, My Head, an all-instrumental Beastie Boys album, a second Dead Presidents soundtrack and Anthology 2 from the Beatles.
Also look for an album in March on Capitol's Metro Blue label from Nil Lara, a bi-lingual vocalist and multi-instrumentalist based in Miami. Lara's versatility and variety of styles will make him hard to market. His music touches on reggae, world-beat, folk and a little bit of loud rock. His show in Portland, Maine on October 18th, 1995 was very good, though a little hard to follow as no one there had ever heard him before. He opened that night for the ever-amazing Pere Ubu.
Boston's Dirt Merchants will have their Zero Hour release Scarified reissued by Epic on January 23rd, 1996. Their move to a major label should definitely raise their profile. In addition it should also raise the profile of Zero Hour, whose roster contains several other artists/groups that deserve wider attention (namely Grover, 22 Brides, Shallow and Stephanie Sayers ).
In other indie/underground-goes-major news, Penelope Houston will release an album, Cut You, in February for a major label, which comes as a definite surprise to Network Audio Bits. The album will feature several new tracks along with re-recorded tracks that span Houston's independent post-Avengers career. One of the re-recorded tracks is "Glad I'm a Girl" which is one of the best and catchiest tracks from her 1993 Heyday CD The Whole World . The brief write-up in Addicted To Noise does not contain the information on which label is releasing this album, either.