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A look inside "Out of Nowhere" by Micky Dolenz & The American Metropole Orchestra on compact disc6/9/2018 Micky Dolenz & The Metropole Orchestra: Out of Nowhere is now available on both compact disc and as a limited edition 180 gram vinyl picture disc. On April 15, 2017, Micky performed with the American Metropole Orchestra at Rice Auditorium in Salem, Oregon, as part of the Smith Fine Arts Series. The orchestra was led by conductor Keller Coker, and he was assisted by Wayne Avers (Monkees/Dolenz musical director and guitarist). The show was recorded by 7a in order to preserve this unique performance and commemorate it with a special live album release. And now, thanks (as always) to Ben Belmares, you can take a look at the CD version of Out of Nowhere below, including 7a co-founder Iain Lee's liner notes. Thanks, Ben!               (Click to enlarge)   The influential trilogy of First National Band albums are now available on colored vinyl from Sundazed Music. As always, I'd like to say thank you to Ben Belmares for his fantastic scans that can't be beat. Great job, Ben! Magnetic South   (Click to enlarge)     Loose Salute   (Click to enlarge)     Nevada Fighter   (Click to enlarge)     Get ready to purchase some brand new Monkees memorabilia this June at stops on "The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show" concert tour. Below you will find the very first preview of items that will be for sale at the shows. Thank you very much to both John Hughes at Rhino Records and Andrew Sandoval for passing along these images to The Monkees Live Almanac. Happy shopping! Beach Towel ($40) Black T-shirt ($35) Button Set ($15) Coffee Mug ($20) Grey Hoodie ($60) Poster ($20) Red T-shirt ($35) Tour Program ($20) White T-shirt ($35) UPDATE 6/1/2018: Other merchandise for sale at the first show in Chandler, Arizona included the following items: "The Monkees - The Complete Series" on Blu-ray ($200)
Micky Dolenz Poncho ($75) Michael Nesmith Button Wool Hat ($30) "More of The Monkees" Super Deluxe Edition 3-CD Box Set ($60) Michael Nesmith's "Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff" in paperback Michael Nesmith "Infinite Tuesday: The Music" Vinyl LP First National Band 3-CD Collection  From Videoranch: Intact in its original picture sleeve, the Rio 45 (PAC45-104) is straight from 1979. Nez has signed the sleeve's cover in gold ink to match the gold Pacific Arts seal on the accompanying numbered certificate of authenticity. The first 10 orders will also receive a Rio sticker from 1979! Only 175 are available. Sorry, no personalizations. Orders will begin to ship in late May. Those who became fans during The Monkees' resurgence in 1986 (like myself) will no doubt have fond memories of the Arista Records compilation Then & Now...The Best of The Monkees. Released in June that year, the album contained the group's greatest hits, along with three new tracks recorded just in time for The Monkees' 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour: "That Was Then, This Is Now," "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere," and "Kicks." Then & Now peaked at #21 and became a million seller, aided by the "That Was Then, This Is Now" single, which peaked at #20 while its accompanying music video received heavy airplay on MTV. Arista, however, had originally planned to release a 2-LP set entitled The Best Of The Monkees to celebrate The Monkees' 20th Anniversary, but plans were changed when it was decided to record new tracks. With the double LP already pressed, it was instead made available via mail order and was distributed by Silver Eagle Records:  The Silver Eagle release featured 24 tracks but unlike the Then & Now issue, there was no gatefold cover and the liner notes were not included.  The Silver Eagle version of the album was also issued on cassette. A combination of both the Silver Eagle Best Of and Arista's Then & Now was released on compact disc in August 1986 and became the first Monkees CD to be made available in the United States. This commercial aired in 1986 and 1987 advertising the 2-LP Silver Eagle set: Here's a piece of memorabilia from the Netherlands featuring an image from the JCPenney photo shoot, and is courtesy of Iris' Little Monkees Corner. As everyone knows, a photo from this session eventually graced the cover of The Monkees' second album, More Of The Monkees.  Head was released on VHS, Beta, and Laserdisc on September 18, 1986 during The Monkees' 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour.  This advertisement appeared in the 1997 UK tour program:  The year 2001 saw Micky, Davy, and Peter back on the concert stage for the first time since 1997. The tour certainly had its ups and downs, and by the end of that summer, Peter had returned to Shoe Suede Blues while Micky and Davy continued working together as a duo. The Monkees' last performance as a trio on the 2001 tour was on August 31 at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim, California. The Anaheim concert just happened to be recorded and filmed. The subsequent release, Live Summer Tour, was made available on DVD and compact disc in stores and online. The CD, released on the King Biscuit label and still available today on Amazon, appears below:   (Above and below: CD liner notes - click to enlarge)   (Above and below: inside the CD booklet)   In the fall of 1969, The Monkees television series premiered in syndication on CBS. Post Foods quickly conducted a cross-promotional exercise through their various cereal products like Alpha-Bits, Honeycomb, and Frosted Rice Krinkles by releasing Monkees cardboard singles that were printed onto the outside of the cereals' boxes. Sometime in 1970, Post began a special offer for The Monkees Golden Hits, which collected all of the cereal box singles onto one exclusive vinyl LP that was unavailable in record stores. A coupon inside their cereal boxes advertised the album, which could be purchased for $1.50 and 2 box tops from any of the Post cereals. Thanks a lot to Monkees collector Ed Reilly for sharing scans of the coupon found inside an Alpha-Bits box below:   Issued by The Monkees' label Colgems Records, The Monkees Golden Hits is hard to find nowadays in mint condition and is a sought-after collectible:  (The Monkees Golden Hits images courtesy of Monkee45s.net)  Michael Nesmith & The First National Band: "Nevada Fighter"/"Tantamount To Treason" compact disc3/23/2018 In 2000, after issuing Michael Nesmith & The First National Band's first two RCA albums on compact disc, BMG/Camden continued to highlight Michael's solo career when they released both Nevada Fighter and Tantamount To Treason as a two-in-one CD package:  (Front cover of booklet)  Liner notes (Click each image to enlarge)    (Back cover of the CD booklet)  (Back of the compact disc) The BMG/Camden reissues of Michael's RCA albums are readily available on Amazon:
Magnetic South / Loose Salute Nevada Fighter / Tantamount to Treason And the Hits Just Keep on Comin' / Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash  In 1994, Beachwood Recordings released Peter Tork's first ever solo album, Stranger Things Have Happened, featuring several notable guest musicians and friends including Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, James Lee Stanley, Laurence Juber (Paul McCartney & Wings), Mackenzie Phillips, and Timothy B. Schmit (The Eagles). Michael and Micky provided backing vocals on "Milkshake," and Nez can also be heard on "MGB-GT," which was initially performed by Micky, Peter, and Davy Jones during The Monkees' 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour. Apparently Davy was present at the recording session for "Milkshake" with his fellow Monkees, but never got around to putting his vocal on tape. Laurence Juber, who was a part of the final incarnation of Wings, provided the guitar solo on "Milkshake." His guitar work can also be heard on "That Was Then, This Is Now," a Top 20 hit for The Monkees in 1986. Peter contributed six originals to the set ("Get What You Pay For," "Sea Change," "MGB-GT," "Miracle," "Gettin' In" and "Tender Is"), and was also assisted by guest writers, including his brother Nick ("Pirates") and Martin Briley ("Milkshake"). Covers included Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Take a Giant Step," originally recorded by The Monkees in 1966, and "Higher and Higher," a song made famous by Jackie Wilson in 1967 that Peter reimagined as a banjo-driven piece. The title track was co-written by Michael Levine, who also contributed "Since You Went Away" to The Monkees' 1987 album, Pool It!, which also featured "Gettin' In" in its original incarnation, while "Sea Change" had been performed during The Monkees' 1989 North American/Japanese tour. Peter talked about each song in the liner notes:  (Liner notes - click to enlarge) Peter's post-Monkees recordings were scarce until Stranger Things Have Happened. After leaving The Monkees in late 1968, Peter formed a new group, Release, but nothing was ever formally recorded. After laying low throughout most of the 1970s, Peter reemerged in late 1980 with The New Monks, and on February 13, 1981 they recorded a single, "Steppin' Stone"/"Higher and Higher." The 45 was eventually issued on the Claude's Music Works label, named after Peter's then-manager Claude Hayn. In 1982, Peter contributed "I Truly Understand" to the long-running CooP series.  (Back cover of "Stranger Things Have Happened" CD booklet) Stranger Things Have Happened was produced by Peter and James Lee Stanley, who collaborated with Peter in the 1990s and 2000s on albums like Two Man Band and Once Again. Peter made multiple television and personal appearances to support its release.  James Lee Stanley and Peter at Tower Records in Costa Mesa, California promoting "Stranger Things Have Happened" on December 2, 1995 (Photos by Pat Smith)  (The compact disc)  (Back cover of compact disc) AllMusic delivered praise for Stranger Things Have Happened in its review of the album: "Tork reveals himself as a solid rocker, starting from a folk idiom but working with lots of wattage on the instruments and no trace of wimpy singer/songwriter affectation in the playing. A few notable friends are aboard in addition to his direct collaborator and co-producer, James Lee Stanley - Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Mackenzie Phillips, and Timothy B. Schmit among them. There are songs drawn from across the spectrum of Tork's career, including a gorgeous, folk-style cover of 'Take a Giant Step' that made this reviewer smile so emphatically it was mixed with tears of joy; the exquisitely funny 'Milkshake,' a delightfully wry account of life on the road that includes Nesmith and Dolenz and some of the most charmingly silly choruses ever heard in a legitimate rock song; 'MGB-GT,' a very personal car song that may be particularly potent to middle-aged survivors of the 1960s; and 'Higher and Higher,' a folk/gospel song on which Tork mostly plays acoustic banjo, and which is so beguiling that one wishes he'd do an entire album in that idiom, style, and sound." In September 2017, 7a Records released Michael Nesmith at the BBC Paris Theatre on compact disc and as a limited edition picture disc LP. And now, the album is available on orange vinyl in limited quantities. A big thanks to Ben Belmares for sharing his scans of the orange vinyl issue with the Live Almanac!   (Click image above to enlarge)      (Image courtesy of We Are Cult) Andrew Hickey's Monkee Music, which examines The Monkees' catalog song by song, was originally published in 2011. A second edition of the book is now available. Andrew talked about the updated version and its new contents today on his blog: My latest book is out — the revised and expanded second edition of Monkee Music. This is about twice as long as the original version and contains full essays on: David Jones (1965 album) All Mike and Micky’s pre-Monkees singles The extra material on the deluxe and super deluxe editions of The Monkees, More of the Monkees, Instant Replay and the Monkees Present The Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, and Hart album The cast album to The Point!, starring Davy and Micky and Good Times! It also has shorter essays on the live albums or DVDs Summer 1967, Live Summer Tour, Concert in Japan, and Twentieth Anniversary Tour, as well as a round-up chapter looking at “Milkshake” (from Peter’s Stranger Things Have Happened album, featuring Mike and Micky) and the 1976 Christmas single. On top of that, every essay that was already in there has been revised and updated, correcting things ranging from my understanding of why Pool It! ended up as it did to my persistent misspelling of Cynthia Weil’s surname, and expanding on what I’d said. If you follow this books2read link you’ll be able to find it at your favourite digital store — and if you follow the Amazon link in that link you’ll find the paperback available there from tomorrow, too. Those of you who prefer hardbacks, there’s a hardback available at Lulu.com. Ever since Michael Nesmith reconstituted the First National Band for a series of exclusive concerts last month, I have received many inquiries asking where to find the music of the First National Band, and in particular, which releases were best to seek out. For my money, the late 1990s/early 2000s compact discs by BMG/Camden are the superior representations of Michael's RCA work. The label released the albums as two-in-one reissues. Below are scans of the Magnetic South/Loose Salute CD from 1999.  (Front cover of booklet)   Liner notes (Click each image to enlarge)     (Back cover of the CD booklet)  (Back of the compact disc) The BMG/Camden reissues of Michael's RCA albums are readily available on Amazon:
In an email to subscribers, Videoranch provided an early glimpse and chance to order their latest piece of merchandise highlighting last month's revival of the First National Band on the concert stage. Prints can be ordered signed or unsigned, and Videoranch provided this description for the item:  "The official 8x10 First National Band Redux Tour poster features Nez in his Nudie suit looking up at the First National Band logo. His Nudie suit was the mascot for the January tour. Nez explained that the suit represented much of what he wanted to achieve through the art of First National Band. Nudie celebrates the high art element of Americana culture that Nez also finds in bluegrass and country music. The American flag theme is an effort to reclaim patriotism from conservative reaction. Similarly, Nez hoped to reclaim country and bluegrass styles by combining them with psychedelia -- pulling them further into that high space. " |
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