Posts tagged with "ume"

IMAGINE DRAGONS – NIGHT VISIONS

IMAGINE DRAGONS CELEBRATE 10^th ANNIVERSARY OF LANDMARK DEBUT ALBUM WITH NIGHT VISIONS (EXPANDED EDITION) ON SEPTEMBER 9

INCLUDES TWO NEVER-BEFORE-HEARD DEMOS – “LOVE OF MINE” & “BUBBLE”

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER IN PHYSICAL & SUPER DELUXE FORMATS

Commemorating a major milestone, GRAMMY®-winning, multi-Platinum band Imagine Dragons will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut LP with Night Visions (Expanded Edition) (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope/UMe) on September 9, 2022. It notably boasts nine additional studio tracks and two previously unreleased songs recorded contemporaneously entitled “Love of Mine” and “Bubble.” The Expanded Edition will be available at all DSPs and in physical formats— 2-LP (which boasts the original cover art plus a 10^th-anniversary cover art lithograph), 2-CD, or 2-Cassette. An exclusive limited-edition, canary-yellow 2-LP vinyl of the Expanded Edition will also be available.

The Super Deluxe Edition consists of 4 CDs + 1 DVD (Original Album, Bonus Tracks, Night Visions Live, Remixes, and The Making of Night Visions on DVD) and much more.

Pre-order the Expanded Edition—HERE. Pre-order the Super Deluxe Edition—HERE.

The seven-times platinum Night Visions first arrived on September 4, 2012, paving the way for a bold new future for rock music. It bowed at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and yielded some of the most impactful, inimitable, and inescapable anthems of the last decade. It has impressively eclipsed over 20 million in global consumption, while the diamond-certified Hot 100 Top 3 smash “Radioactive” (14x-platinum) garnered a GRAMMY® Award nod in the category of “Best Rock Performance” out of two nominations, including “Record of the Year.” The record also occupied a spot on the Billboard Top 200 for 408 weeks.

Certified platinum or multi-platinum in 15 countries, Night Visions comprises the aforementioned “Radioactive,” diamond-certified “Demons” (10x-platinum), “It’s Time” (6x-platinum), “On Top Of The World” (4x-platinum), “Bleeding Out” (platinum), “Amsterdam” (platinum), and “Hear Me” (gold).

Experience the ultimate configuration of Night Visions this fall.

Check out the full tracklisting for Night Visions (Expanded Edition) below.

CD1

Radioactive
Tiptoe
It’s Time
Demons
On Top Of The World
Amsterdam
Hear Me
Every Night
Bleeding Out
Underdog
Nothing Left To Say / Rocks

CD2

Cha-Ching (Till We Grow Older)
Working Man
My Fault
Round And Round
The River
America
Selene
Fallen
Cover Up
Love of Mine (Demo)
Bubble (Demo)

Imagine Dragons recently made history again. “Thunder” achieved a diamond certification, enshrining the quartet as “The First Band/Group in Music History to Achieve FOUR Diamond Singles.” Meanwhile, their new double-disc opus Mercury — Acts 1 & 2 (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope) bowed at #12 on the Billboard Top 200 and earned some of the best reviews of the band’s career to date. Rolling Stone attested, “Imagine Dragons still know how to efficiently stomp stadiums into rubble,” and American Songwriter hailed it as “a celebration of life.” Consequence of Sound applauded, “Act II is an even more intimate gesture that further explores themes of loss and recovery,” and The Associated Press summed it up best as “the sound of a band getting its arena groove back.”

The 32-track epic album debuted on Friday, July 1^st, and marks the boldest artistic statement of the band’s career thus far. Executive produced by Rick Rubin, the double album includes hit singles “Enemy,” “Bones,” and “Sharks” and expands on 2021’s Mercury — Act 1. While Act 1 explores themes such as love, faith, pain, passion, and loss, Act 2 focuses on sorting through personal loss and the biggest existential questions of their career.

Listen to Mercury — Acts 1 & 2 HERE. Target is also offering an exclusive CD featuring an alternative cover and extra track, available HERE.

To bring both halves of the record to life on stage, Imagine Dragons will take to the road and kick off a massive US stadium tour that will begin in August, making stops in Boston, Toronto, and their hometown of Las Vegas before wrapping up in Los Angeles, CA in September. The summer tour marks the band’s biggest North American shows of their career. Check out the full itinerary HERE.

About Imagine Dragons

With over 66 million album equivalents and 55 million digital songs sold, not to mention over 110 billion combined streams, Imagine Dragons are one of rock’s biggest bands of the past decade, and they’ve fully reinvented the genre in that time. In short, they own Billboard’s Top 3 rock songs of the 2010s — “Believer,” “Thunder,” and “Radioactive.” Formed in 2009, Imagine Dragons developed a grassroots following with a series of independent EPs before making their major-label debut on KIDinaKORNER/Interscope with 2012’s Continued Silence EP. That same year, their LP debut NIGHT VISIONS entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2, while lead track “Radioactive” topped Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs, won a GRAMMY® for Best Rock Performance, and achieved RIAA Diamond status. After achieving their first #1 at Alt Radio with “Radioactive,” the band immediately repeated this feat with “Demons,” marking the first back-to-back #1’s for the band, with both songs in the Top 5 simultaneously. NIGHT VISIONS is now 7x platinum in the US alone. 2015’s platinum-selling Smoke + Mirrors debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The 3x platinum-selling album EVOLVE followed in 2017, earning a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album and unleashing three No. 1 Alternative radio hits: “Believer,” GRAMMY®-nominated “Thunder,” and “Whatever It Takes.” All three songs were also top 5 hits at Alternative radio. “Believer” was the quickest song to reach #1 for Imagine Dragons, taking only 8 weeks to reach the top of the charts, with “Thunder” following closely in its rise to the #1 spot. With these singles, it marked the second time Imagine Dragons had back-to-back #1s, making Imagine Dragons one of only four bands to ever achieve simultaneous Top 5 singles and the only band to repeat this feat. The band’s fourth album and platinum-selling, ORIGINS, debuted atop Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, while its lead single “Natural” spent nine weeks at No. 1 at alternative radio.

For their fifth studio album—Imagine Dragons’ first new music since 2018—the band teamed up with esteemed producer Rick Rubin. 2021’s Mercury — Act 1 debuted in the Billboard 200 top 10 and at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. It also launched the singles “Wrecked,” “Cutthroat,” and “Follow You,” with the latter reaching No. 1 on both Mediabase’s Alternative Radio and Billboard’s Alternative Airplay charts. “Follow You” marked the band’s quickest ascent to the top of that Billboard chart, surpassing the respective seven- and eight-week climbs for “Natural” (2018) and “Believer” (2017). Then came “Enemy.” Originally released as the theme to Netflix’s Arcane, the hit racked up more than 4.6 billion combined global streams across two versions (including a collaboration with GRAMMY®-nominated, Atlanta-based rapper J.I.D), helping make Imagine Dragons the highest streaming American band in the US in 2021. In 2022, they expanded the world of Mercury with a double album, Mercury – Acts 1 & 2, including the single “Bones,” which has gathered over 380 million streams to date, and the accompanying music video has scored 38 million-plus YouTube views. Sorting through personal loss and the biggest existential questions of their career, singer/songwriter Dan Reynolds says the two-part release is about learning to “accept the unknown” and “let go,” healing feelings Imagine Dragons are hoping to share with fans as they embark on some of their biggest shows ever this summer.

LIMITED EDITION BEASTIE BOYS

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Beastie Boys’ multi-platinum album Check Your Head, on August 12, UMe will release a limited-edition reissue of the rare 4LP deluxe version of the album, originally released in 2009 as an artist store exclusive. The long out-of-print and much sought-after box set features a 2009 remaster of the original double album, plus two extra LPs of bonus content including remixes, live versions, and B-sides. All four LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a fabric-wrapped, stamped, hardcover case. The Check Your Head 4LP box set can be purchased at participating independent retail outlets and will also be available to pre-order exclusively through the Beastie Boys online store, HERE.

Originally released in April 1992, Check Your Head was a milestone for Beastie Boys on multiple levels: It was their first album to be produced, in its entirety, by Beastie Boys with Mario Caldato Jr. and to feature keyboard player Keyboard Money Mark, as well as the first to be recorded at the band’s own G-Son studios in Atwater Village, CA. Most significantly, however, Check Your Head marked the return of live instrumentation to the forefront and backbone of the Beastie Boys sound, with the bulk of the album featuring Mike D on drums, Adrock on guitar, and MCA on bass for the first time since the band’s early 1980s hardcore punk recordings.

Featuring the now-classic tracks “So What’cha Want,” “Pass The Mic,” “Gratitude” and “Jimmy James,” Check Your Head stormed the U.S. Top 10, ultimately returning Beastie Boys to hard-touring, platinum-selling status, and setting the band up for the pop cultural dominance it would achieve in the decade to come.

UMG ACQUIRES FRANK ZAPPA’S ESTATE

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, announced an agreement between Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Zappa (the Zappa Trust) to acquire Frank Zappa’s estate on June 30, 2022, including his expansive recordings, publishing catalog of iconic songs, film archive, and the complete contents of The Vault, the near mythic storage facility that houses the late Zappa’s life’s work. The content spans the prolific four-decade career of the legendary, boundary-pushing musician, acclaimed composer, virtuoso guitarist, and prominent activist.

With the acquisition, which additionally includes Frank Zappa’s name and likeness, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), UMG’s global catalog company, and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), the company’s leading music publisher, will build on the company’s already successful track record of working with the Zappa Trust to amplify Frank Zappa’s career as a trailblazer, iconoclast, brilliant musician and fearless artist who challenged music and culture with his unconventional and uncompromising vision and advocacy.

Under the new agreement, UMPG acquires Zappa’s complete publishing catalog including “Watermelon In Easter Hay,” “Cosmik Debris,” “Peaches En Regalia,” “Uncle Remus,” “Joe’s Garage” and hundreds more. Described by American Songwriter as a “compositional genius,” Zappa is known for writing songs offering sage advice (“Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow”) to astute cultural critiques (“Valley Girl” and “Trouble Every Day”), disco satire (“Dancin’ Fool”) to serious orchestral compositions (“The Perfect Stranger” and “Strictly Genteel”).

The Zappa Trust said, “Ten years ago, Gail Zappa partnered with UMe to bring Frank Zappa’s music into the digital era and help expand the Frank Zappa business around the world, setting in motion a fruitful partnership that has resulted in exponential growth. Together over the last decade we made Frank’s vast catalog of music available for streaming and download, reissued many of his pivotal albums on vinyl, created a slew of exciting archival releases and expansive box sets, including a series celebrating FZ’s legendary Halloween concerts, and were nominated for a Grammy for the 200 Motels (The Suites) orchestral album. UMG have more than proven their passion for Frank’s art and so the entire Zappa family – Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva – is thrilled to pass the baton to the new forever stewards for all things Frank Zappa. Old and new fans will get more of what they want – more Frank Zappa music for years to come. Frank released his first album with Verve Records in 1966 with The Mothers Of Invention’s debut album, Freak Out!, so this is a very full circle moment more than five decades later and we know that his music and legacy will be in the best possible hands for generations to come.”

UMe President & CEO Bruce Resnikoff said, “It has been a privilege to work with the Zappa family to release Frank Zappa’s music around the world, grow his audience, and protect his legacy for the past decade. Zappa was a pioneering, visionary artist who created an incredible body of work and we are incredibly proud that Gail, and now his children, have entrusted us with his important legacy. We will continue to develop innovative ways to celebrate his vast and influential catalog for both longtime fans and those just discovering his genius. As a prolific artist well ahead of his time, Frank Zappa was constantly creating and recording and he left behind a treasure trove of extraordinary still-unreleased music and video in his Vault that will help us usher in the next era of Frank Zappa fans.”

Marc Cimino, Chief Operating Officer of Universal Music Publishing Group, said, “A powerful voice in music and culture, Frank Zappa was one of the most brilliant artists of his time. We are honored to welcome Zappa’s influential song catalog and that his estate has chosen UMG to uphold his artistry and to grow his immense legacy throughout the world.”

Over the last decade working closely together, the Zappa Trust and UMe have revitalized Frank Zappa’s catalog through a steady stream of thrilling archival releases, vinyl reissues of his classic albums, streaming initiatives, and by making his music more widely available around the globe than ever before. UMG has grown streams of Zappa’s music by double-digit percentages each year and recently much of Zappa’s catalog was made available in Hi-Res Audio for download and streaming for the first time. On the heels of UMe and the Zappa Trust’s multipronged efforts, and Alex Winter’s acclaimed 2020 feature documentary “Zappa,” of which UMe provided the soundtrack, Zappa and his music have experienced a newfound popularity that only continues to grow nearly two decades after his death.

In 2012, Zappa Records and the Zappa Trust – headed by his widow, Gail Zappa – made Zappa’s entire recorded catalog available digitally for the first time through a partnership with UMe, with half of the albums remastered from the original analog sources and the remaining albums retransferred and prepared from the original digital tapes for CD and streaming and download. Many albums were also remastered for reissue on vinyl. Shortly after, the Zappa Trust entered into an agreement with UMe for a global license and distribution deal that saw the release of 60 of Zappa’s recordings. In 2015, they partnered on a long-term, global licensing agreement for Zappa’s entire recorded catalog, as well as rights management participation across the rest of the cultural icon’s creative canon. The partnership grew into an expansive license with Resnikoff and UMe that also includes new product releases, trademark licensing, film, and theatrical production.

To date, there have been 122 official Zappa releases, however, that only scratches the surface of what the future holds as it represents a small fraction of the recordings in Zappa’s expansive and exhaustive Vault that have been made publicly available. An obsessive documenter, Zappa recorded nearly every session, rehearsal, live performance, and even casual jam in a variety of audio and video formats across nearly his entire life. UMG plans to dive into The Vault for new archival projects for decades to come. Additionally, with Zappa’s name and likeness, UMG will engage existing fans and new audiences around the world with merchandise, feature films, interactive experiences, as well as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other next-generation Web3 projects.

From his early psychedelic rock beginnings to his avant-garde experimentation, jazz-rock explorations, symphonic suites and satirical sendups to his conceptual, compositional and technological innovations, Zappa, who was named Czechoslovakia’s “Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism” in 1990 by Vaclav Havel, shattered the norms every step of the way and his influence and ethos continues to reverberate as strongly today as ever.

In his unprecedented and incredibly prolific career, Zappa released more than 60 groundbreaking albums during his lifetime, as a solo artist and with his bands, The Mothers of Invention and The Mothers. From the early primal psychedelic rock of The Mothers Of Invention’s 1966 debut album, Freak Out!, one of the earliest double albums in rock, to the jazz-rock fusion of 1969’s’s Hot Rats, to the experimental, envelope pushing of 1969’s Uncle Meat and 1971’s surrealistic film and soundtrack, 200 Motels, to the orchestral compositions of his later years, Zappa’s unrelentless artistic drive, pushed him into a dizzying array of musical worlds, never content to stay in one lane for very long.

In addition to those albums, some of the many highlights of his voluminous discography of studio and live albums include We’re Only in it for the Money (1968), Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970), Chunga’s Revenge (1970), Apostrophe(‘) (1974), Zoot Allures (1976), Zappa In New York (1978), Joe’s Garage (1979), Sheik Yerbouti (1979), Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch (1982), Jazz From Hell (1986) and the final album to be released in his lifetime, The Yellow Shark (1993).

Following Zappa’s passing in 1993, there have been more than 60 posthumous releases, beginning with 1994’s Cilvization Phaze III and spanning from Zappa’s last album completed before his death, Dance Me This, released in 2015 as his 100^th album, to elaborate and expanded multi-disc box sets for such albums as 200 Motels, Hot Rats, Orchestral Favorites, Zappa In New York, as well as super deluxe editions of his legendary Halloween concerts, complete with costumes, and other live favorites like The Roxy Performances. Recent releases include Zappa ’88: The Last U.S. Show, a box set titled The Mothers 1971, which celebrates Zappa’s 1971 lineups, and Zappa/Erie, a six-disc collection that brings together an exciting trio of previously unreleased concerts that the Maestro performed in Erie, Pa. and the surrounding area between 1974-76.

Zappa, who died of prostate cancer when he was 52, was a composer, virtuoso guitarist, songwriter, artist’s rights champion, provocateur, anti-censorship advocate, a musical pioneer, and one-time cultural ambassador to Czechoslovakia. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and awarded the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1997.

NELLY – NELLYVILLE

Two decades ago today, Nelly unveiled his legendary second full-length offering, Nellyville, on June 25, 2002. Twenty years later, the St. Louis-raised GRAMMY® Award-winning hip-hop icon, actor, producer, and philanthropist presents the album on vinyl for the very first time July 29, 2022. The special 2LP release is available for pre-order in multiple configurations through UMe/Republic now.

Pre-order—HERE.

Upon arrival, Nellyville bowed at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and eventually earned a 7x-platinum certification from the RIAA buoyed by smashes such as the inescapable double-platinum “Hot In Herre,” “Dilemma” [feat. Kelly Rowland], “#1,” “Pimp Juice,” “Work It” [feat. Justin Timberlake], and more. Both “Hot In Herre” and “Dilemma” captured #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also took home a GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Male Rap Solo Performance” for “Hot In Herre” out of three nominations, including “Album of the Year” and “Best Rap Album.” Speaking to its influence, Nellyville stands out as one of the “Top 15 Best-selling Rap Albums of All-Time.” It even lent its title to his hit reality show of the same name!

Additionally, Urban Legends will unleash a special Deluxe Edition of Nellyville with four bonus tracks. These include “Not In My House” and “Kings Highway” as well as the Copenhaniancs Remix of “Work It” and Corporate Mix of “Hot In Herre.” Check out the full tracklisting of the Standard Vinyl and Deluxe Editions below.

To celebrate the news, Nelly just uncovered the MTV non-movie version of the “#1” music video, which original graced the Soundtrack to the Academy Award-winning classic, Training Day, as well as videos for “Work It,” “N Dey Say,” and “Wadsyaname,” for the first time ever on the YouTube platform. Watch the videos HERE.

Regarding the record, Nelly commented, “Nellyville was the real moment when we realized our impact. The city, the whole Midwest, it was just Nellyville. Everybody that helped bring this project to life made it monumental and that’s why it still rings out like we just dropped it twenty years later.”

Allow Nelly to welcome you back to Nellyville now!

A1. Nellyville

A2. Gettin’ It Started

A3. Hot In Herre

A4. Dem Boyz

A5. Oh Nelly

A6. Pimp Juice

B1. Air Force Ones

B2. In The Store

B3. On The Grind

B4. Dilemma

C1. Splurge

C2. Work It

C3. Roc The Mic (Remix)

C4. The Gank

D1. 5000

D2. #1

D3. CG2

D4. Say Now

D5. F*** It Then

MEGADETH – WE’LL BE BACK

MEGADETH announced their highly anticipated new studio album, The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! unleashed the album’s first track, “We’ll Be Back.” Within the first hour of release, MEGADETH‘s overwhelming fan reaction resulted in the band trending on Twitter.

In addition to fans, the track has been hailed by critics such as Rolling Stone, Consequence, and Guitar World.

The new ferocious and quintessentially MEGADETH track “We’ll Be Back” is from their highly anticipated 16thstudio album, The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, which is being released via UMe on September 2. The world premiere of We accompanies the new song We’ll Be Back: Chapter I, an epic, action-packed short film chronicling the origins of MEGADETH’s mascot, Vic Rattlehead. Created by Dave Mustaine, produced by Rafael Pensado, and directed by Leo Liberti, We’ll Be Back: Chapter I is a soldier’s tale of bravery, personal sacrifice, and the will to survive. It is the first installment of a trilogy of videos to be released in conjunction with the release of the new album The Sick, The Dying… and The Dead!.

The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! features twelve new tracks and will be released on CD, vinyl, and cassette, as well as digitally through all online partners and can be pre-ordered/pre-saved HERE. There will also be a limited deluxe edition 2LP, 12-track album pressed on 180g black vinyl housed in a numbered gatefold jacket with a 12×24 lyrics/credits insert, a lenticular vinyl lithograph, and a bonus 7-inch featuring “We’ll Be Back” and the unreleased b-side “The Conjuring (Live).” The limited deluxe edition can only be purchased via MEGADETH’s official online store, through Sound of Vinyl, and uDiscover, and can be pre-ordered HERE.

The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! melds the ultra-frenetic riffing, fiercely intricate solos, and adventurous spirit the quartet is known for, all laced with signature virtuosity and precision and Mustaine’s singular sardonic snarl. This album combines all the crushing musical motifs that have made MEGADETH both repeat metal disruptors and revered genre flagbearers.

Exodus: Deluxe Edition

The Marley Family, Island Records, and UMe mark the 45th anniversary of Exodus – named the “Best Album of the 20th Century” by Time magazine in 1999 – with the digital premiere of three of the four nights from Bob Marley & the Wailers’ historic run at London’s Rainbow Theatre and a consolidated, revised digital Exodus: Deluxe Edition.

Following an assassination attempt in Kingston, Jamaica, in December 1976, Bob Marley and his band moved to London – in “exodus” from their home country – and recorded tracks for what became both the Exodus and Kaya albums. Marley’s Exodus, featuring the timeless tracks “Jamming,” “Three Little Birds,” “One Love/People Get Ready,” and the epic title song, came first, which led to early positive reviews, ten early dates around Western Europe and shows at the Rainbow Theatre in London’s Finsbury Park during release week. But an injury to Bob led to the abrupt cancellation of the rest of the Exodus tour, including expected U.S. breakthrough shows scheduled for late summer, leaving June 1-2-3-4 the final performances by the Wailers that year.

“London was one of Daddy’s favorite places to be; it’s the city where his songwriting and creativity thrived. The Exodus album and his shows at The Rainbow are incredible examples of that. I’m so excited that his fans will finally be able to hear all four shows, in their entirety, the way they were meant to be heard, for generations to come.” – Cedella Marley

A select number of tracks from each of the four nights of the Live at the Rainbow recordings have been included on previously released Deluxe Editions of Exodus, and audio and video of the full concert on June 4 was released during the year-long 75th Birthday Celebration, #Marley75, in 2020. Most of the legendary performances from the previous three nights, however, feature slightly different setlists – as well as alternate arrangements – that have never been heard until now. Bob Marley & The Wailers Live at the Rainbow: 1st June 1977 debuted June 3, the exact 45th anniversary of the original album’s release; Live at the Rainbow: 2nd June 1977 followed on June 10; and Live at the Rainbow: 3rd June 1977 concluded the series on June 17. Across the three dates are 29 previously unreleased performances combined – that’s more than ¾ of the shows.

Listen to Bob Marley & The Wailers Live at the Rainbow: 1st June 1977 now HERE.
Listen to Bob Marley & The Wailers Live at the Rainbow: 2nd June 1977 now HERE.
Listen to Bob Marley & The Wailers Live at the Rainbow: 3rd June 1977 now HERE.

To round out the 45th Anniversary celebration, a revised and newly remastered Exodus: Deluxe Edition was released on June 24. The Deluxe Edition features the ten original tracks from the album, plus 18 Singles & Sessions tracks; 13 of them are culled from two previous Deluxe Editions and adds previously unreleased tracks “Natural Mystic (Alternate Version),” and “The Heathen (Alternate Version),” and the rare 7-inch versions of “Exodus,” “Jamming” and “Punky Reggae Party,’ the original B-side to “Jamming.” In addition to the unreleased tracks, the last two cuts were previously unavailable at all streaming services. Closing the deluxe are two additional bonus tracks: the edited live versions of “So Much Things To Say” from the June 1st show, previously released on the Deluxe Edition of Exodus 40 – The Movement Continues in 2017, and “Exodus,” the finale from the Rainbow’s June 2nd set, previously featured on the album’s 2001 Deluxe Edition. Each performance is otherwise presented unedited within their respective live set. To listen to Bob Marley & the Wailers’ Exodus: Deluxe Edition, click HERE.

In other news, Bob Marley: Legacy Episode Eight – “Rebel Music” recently received the Webby Award for the outstanding Video in Music category. The Webby Awards recognize the year’s best of the internet, featuring websites, podcasts, apps, and other internet services, and the 26th Annual Webby Awards was the biggest in history, with more than 14,000 entries from over 70 countries and nearly 2 million votes cast by nearly 500,000 users. Bob Marley: Legacy, an ongoing mini-documentary series, features a collection of intimate conversations and interviews with his family, friends, and fans, woven together with his original music, remixes, and covers. Episode Eight – “Rebel Music” presents a global conversation about the importance of Bob Marley’s work as a political and social activist and explores what Bob Marley fought for, who he influenced and why. This unique YouTube series provides fans a refreshing and cinematic journey through the life, legacy, and relevance Bob Marley still holds in this present day. Bob Marley: Legacy Episodes 1-9 are available on Bob Marley’s official YouTube page. Watch Bob Marley: Legacy HERE

BLONDIE

In what has become another major year for Blondie, the New York legends mark a career milestone with the release of the first-ever authorized and in-depth archive in their history, a rarity for a band almost 50 years into their career with 40 million records sold. Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 will be released on August 26th via UMe and The Numero Group and is available to pre-order now.

See the unboxing of the Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition HERE, and listen to Blondie’s previously unreleased recording of Moonlight Drive, out today.

Remastered from the original analog tapes and cut at Abbey Road Studios, this expansive box set is available in four formats (Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition, Deluxe 4LP, Deluxe 8CD, and 3CD editions). Housed in a foil-wrapped carton, Against The Odds includes extensive liner notes by Erin Osmon, track by track commentary from Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Frank Infante, and Gary Valentine, essays by producers Mike Chapman, Richard Gottehrer, and Ken Shipley, a 120-page illustrated discography, and hundreds of period photographs.

Blondie has transcended the realms of mere bands, evolving out of pop and punk to become a vital strand of American music’s core DNA. What the seven members of Blondie, made up of iconic frontwoman/songwriter Debbie Harry, guitarist/conceptual mastermind Chris Stein, powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, keyboardist Jimmy Destri, bassist Gary Valentine, guitarist Frank Infante, and bassist Nigel Harrison, set to tape over those first eight years remains among the most timeless music of its era.

This archive box set—the first band-authorized collection in their 50-year history—is a collective moment to celebrate their legacy and be immersed into Blondie’s genre-bending sonic universe, including their first six studio albums recorded for Chrysalis; Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican, The Hunter, and in turn their catalogue of era-defining hits Heart Of Glass, Atomic, Tide Is High, Sunday Girl, Rapture, and Call Me. These six groundbreaking albums have been expanded to include over four dozen demos (including the group’s first-ever recording session), alternate versions, and studio outtakes, creating a near-complete document of Blondie’s studio sessions before their 1982 hiatus.

Debbie Harry said, “It really is a treat to see how far we have come when I listen to these early attempts to capture our ideas on relatively primitive equipment. Fortunately, the essence of being in a band in the early 70s held some of the anti-social, counter-culture energies of the groups that were the influencers of the 60s. I am excited about this special collection. When I listen to these old tracks, it puts me there like I am a time traveler. As bad as it was sometimes, it was also equally as good. No regrets. More music.”

“I am hopeful that this project will provide a glimpse into the ‘process’ and some of the journey that the songs took from idea to final form,” guitarist Chris Stein said. “Some of this stuff is like early sketches; the old tape machines are like primitive notebooks. The trickiest thing for me was always about getting the melodies out of my head into reality and the changes that would happen along the way.”

“It is amazing that after all this time, and against the odds, our Blondie archival box set will finally be released. It’s been a long time coming and we are all very happy and excited with the final results,” drummer Clem Burke added.

“From the moment I walked into Chris Stein’s barn and saw a wall of tapes I knew we were on the precipice of something extraordinary,” producer Ken Shipley said. “Against The Odds is a treasure chest disguised as a box set.”

”Blondie is a group of extraordinary artists,” producer Steve Rosenthal said. “Years of searching, months of mixing, mastering and restoration, days of decisions went into this box set to highlight the unique path they traveled —from CBGBs to MSG.”

Against The Odds has an unusual beginning; for nearly two decades, the bulk of Blondie’s audio and visual archive sat inside Chris Stein’s unassuming barn just outside Woodstock, New York. One hundred reel-to-reel tapes, half a dozen cassettes, a few storage tubs crammed with records, bits of promotional flotsam, flyers, a stray Warhol print, and mirrored dressing room signage from four sold-out January 1980 nights at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. All of it lay in wait through twenty humid summers and twenty frigid winters.

From this chaotic hoard of ephemera, the long-gestating Against The Odds project was born, serving now as a new map of musical history.

Undeniably one of the most trailblazing and influential bands of our time, Blondie is pioneering frontwoman/songwriter Debbie Harry, guitarist/conceptual mastermind Chris Stein and powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, along with now long-standing bandmates bassist Leigh Foxx, guitarist Tommy Kessler, and keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen.

Among their hits is the groundbreaking rock-disco hybrid Heart of Glass the equally influential hip-hop fantasia Rapture the stalker-love song One Way Or Another and the lilting calypso The tide Is High. It’s a thrilling journey back to when Blondie pushed punk onto the dance floor and introduced a wider audience to hip-hop sounds, all the while building a catalogue of enduring hits along the way.

For the last four decades, Blondie has become and still remains a true global icon; one whose influence both shaped and continues to inform the worlds of music, fashion, and art. From an irreverent Lower East Side punk outfit to bona fide international ambassadors of New York cool, Blondie will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us. Their chart-topping success, fearless spirit, and rare longevity led to an induction into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and more than 40 million albums sold worldwide to date. As we look back at the band’s storied career, it makes Blondie’s current vibrancy that much more stunning after 40 years of entertaining all of us.

Pre-Order Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 HERE.