Starting out just before the new year, and days after his 70th birthday, Lemmy left us without Motorhead, and set the pace for 2016, the year that will be remembered as the year that turned Emerson, Lake, & Palmer into just Palmer, Bowie, Alan Zavod (Frank Zappa), Leonard Cohen, Leon Russel, Jerry Corbetta (Sugarloaf), NIN keyboardist James Woolley, Micky Fitz (The Business), David Enthoven (manager of T-Rex), Alan Vega (Suicide), Sandy Pearlman (B.O.C.), Bernie Worrell (Parliment - Funkadelic), Bill Ham (manager of ZZ Top), Dave Swarbrick (Fairport Convention), Nick Menza (Megedeth), Richard Lyons (Negativeland), all followed, and the list goes on...
But hey, you don't need me to pick the scabs of this years wounds.
Apart from all the bullshit, there was another extensive list to follow this year. The list of all the bad-assed re-issues that we've seen hit the shelves. Far too long to list here, (well, not really, just very taxing to the wrists after the dead list) some of them I featured here in the blog, others will make an appearance shortly.
Rather than give you a "Top Whatever" list of my fave, or what I consider among the best of them, I'm just gonna go ahead and call it a tie for #1.
Okay, without further ado:
Wicked Lady Box Set
Spanning their entire career, Guerssen records presents their complete recordings from 1969-1972 on
two double L.P.'s housed in a deluxe leatherette box, in a limited press of 500 never to be pressed
again. Includes "The Axeman Cometh" 2XLP and "Psychotic Overkill" 2XLP in two gatefold covers
with printed lyrics and special designs for this release, plus an eight page LP size booklet with liner
notes by Martin Weaver and photos, a Wicked Lady tote bag, Wicked Lady badge, Wicked Lady patch, and a Martin Weaver postcard number stamped.
It's a spendy little package but do not frett, if you can't swing the dough for the collectors version, both albums are slated for re-issue separately after these are all gone.
Soggy
From Dangerous Minds: "This may be the coolest thing to come out of France since Francoise Hardy. Fuck Daft Punk and M83... and Plastic Bertrand. Soggy were a French hard rock band from the early 1980's who managed to channel the spirit of the MC5 and Stooges in ways that few bands have managed to as convincingly as these dudes."
The band was founded in 1978 on the ashes of obscure bands from Reims (Woman Bleed, Antechrist, and Hardfuckers. All of which I will be investigating immediately!) The bands professionalism along with their live energy got them noticed pretty quickly, and they set out on the road, booking their own tours regionally. Spending time in the studio, they tracked a lot of material, but up until recently, only two songs had been released, as a single in 1980 "Waiting for the War" b/w "47 Chromosomes." The band remained unsigned for their refusal to sing in French, After playing more than a hundred concerts, they split, leaving behind a support slot for Judas Priest in 1982.
