Two very different turning points are getting the audiophile treatment. Rhino High Fidelity returns with limited-edition vinyl reissues of The J. Geils Band’s ‘”Live” Full House’ and Uncle Tupelo’s ‘Anodyne’, one capturing a band breaking through and the other a band about to break apart.
The craftsmanship matches across both. Each was cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimal in Germany, with glossy gatefold tip-on jackets and newly written liner notes. They’re limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies and available now exclusively at Rhino.com and select Warner Music Group stores internationally.
‘”Live” Full House’ catches The J. Geils Band at full tilt. Recorded over two nights in April 1972 at Detroit’s Cinderella Ballroom, the set ignites from the first note, the sextet ripping through the whiplash stops and starts of “Whammer Jammer,” “Pack Fair And Square,” and “Hard Drivin’ Man.” Released later that year, it became the band’s first Top 40 album. In new liner notes, singer Peter Wolf calls it one of his favorites, describing it as the true, raw, unfiltered sound of the band doing what they did every night.
‘Anodyne’ marks the end of an era. Released in October 1993, it was the fourth and final album by alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo, cut live in the studio in Austin, Texas. The record moves from the driving “Chickamauga” and “The Long Cut” into “Anodyne” and “Acuff-Rose,” where fiddle and pedal steel add a flash of Cosmic American color. It closed the band’s short but remarkable run, with the breakup soon giving rise to Wilco and Son Volt. Music journalist Mark Deming reflects in the new notes that over those two weeks in Austin, Uncle Tupelo created both a grand finale and a new beginning, with the music and emotion ringing just as clear more than three decades on.
“Live” Full House (Rhino High Fidelity) Tracklist:
Side One:
- “First I Look At The Purse”
- “Homework”
- “Pack Fair And Square”
- “Whammer Jammer”
- “Hard Drivin’ Man”
Side Two:
- “Serves You Right To Suffer”
- “Cruisin’ For A Love”
- “Looking For Love”
Anodyne (Rhino High Fidelity) Tracklist:
Side One:
- “Slate”
- “Acuff-Rose”
- “The Long Cut”
- “Give Back The Key To My Heart”
- “Chickamauga”
- “New Madrid”
Side Two:
- “Anodyne”
- “We’ve Been Had”
- “Fifteen Keys”
- “High Water”
- “No Sense In Lovin'”
- “Steal The Crumbs”