Aural Fixations

RODDY HART
Home Tapes
(Odd Art/Adorno)
One of the things I love the best about this whole rock critic gig is that it allows me to hear artists I would probably never have come in contact with otherwise. Case in point: Roddy Hart. (more)

THE INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE BAND
Safe at Home
(Sundazed)
As a Gram Parsons fan, I've been derelict in my duty the past several years in that I've never sought out a copy of the country rock pioneer's first professional recording. Though originally released in 1965 on Lee Hazlewood's now-obscure LHI label, the International Submarine Band's Safe at Home has rarely been out of print since then, even if it's been kept alive mainly by small labels. Now reissue titan Sundazed gives Safe at Home the full treatment, remastering the record from the original tapes. (more)

JOHN LENNON
Rock'N'Roll
Acoustic
(Apple/Capitol)
With John Lennon almost 25 years in the grave, the task of Keeper of the John Lennon Legacy falls to his widow, Yoko Ono. Ms. Ono has been ruthlessly excoriated over the years as the woman who broke up the Beatles, a no-talent hack disguised as an avant-garde artiste and the One Who Sold Out John Lennon by licensing his songs for commercial use. (more)

UNION CARBIDE PRODUCTIONS
Remastered to Be Recycled
(MNW)
Regular readers of High Bias are well aware of my love for Sweden's great rock & roll anthemizers The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Thanks to Parasol Records publicist Michael Roux's insistence that they were the best band in the world, I fell in love with TSOOL immediately, though without being aware of the band's previous incarnation, Union Carbide Productions. (more)