Both the CD and 2xLP versions feature book-deep liner notes interviewing Wendy Rene by Memphian Andria Lisle (who also penned notes for our Jim Sullivan, Lou Bond, and Charles ‘Packy’ Axton releases), with many rare photos provided by Wendy Rene, unseen shots of original tape boxes, and original 45 labels. And what else? 2xLP housed in an extra thick Stoughton “Tip-On” gatefold jacket with a gloss so shiny you’ll need shades to keep from going blind. And for all you heads out there, we couldn’t resist cribbing the Volt logo for the CD/LP labels…smooth!

For the full visual/audio scoop, check out the “What’s Inside?” videos below and hop on over here to pick up your copy today!

All right kids. It’s Friday and it’s time to get free. This week we’re doing a special giveaway for one of our newest imprints, Modern Classics Recordings. We’re gettin’ all 90s on your ass today…so this is your chance to get your hands on our deluxe LP reissues of Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs (MCR 900) and Morphine’s Cure For Pain (MCR 901). So you know the drill, leave a comment below with your favorite Modern Classic or a memory about these albums and we’ll announce the winner next Friday. Boss!

Includes 11 singles, 9 rarities and 2 previuosly unreleased songs from the Stax/Volt archives! CD and double LP available for pre-order now (out 2/7/12)!

Born Mary Frierson in Memphis, Tennessee, home of Stax Records, Wendy Rene was christened by Otis Redding on signing to Stax as a teenager in 1963. Back then, she and brother Johnny Frierson, both singers at the Church of God In Christ, were determined to make it in music. Forming singing quartet The Drapels with two friends, they took the bus to 926 E. McLemore Avenue, auditioned for Stax co-founder Jim Stewart, and won a deal on the spot.

“As soon as we finished with the Drapels’ songs and [the rest of the band] were going to the bus stop, I showed Mr. Stewart my songs,” recalls Rene. The result? Stewart found two acts in one, and Mary had two contracts with Stax.

Both Drapels and Wendy began recording with the greats – that’s The MGs on the group’s “Young Man”, Booker T. Jones playing organ on “After Laughter” and Steve Cropper playing guitar on the dance craze-inspired “Bar-B-Q”, the success of which caused Wendy – then a teen bride – to leave school.

Young Wendy Rene

The Drapels dissolved almost as quickly as Wendy’s first marriage, partly due to the attention lavished on youngest member Wendy’s solo career. But a real hit eluded the singer, and in 1967, with a growing family with second husband and Stax employee James Cross, Wendy decided to retire from the business. “I wanted a baby to hold and coochie-coo to, and I didn’t want to miss any more time away from my kids,” she says.

Wendy was due to perform one last show with Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays, but changed her mind at the last minute. It was an auspicious decision – that weekend, Redding and four Bar-Kays died when their plane crashed in Lake Monona.

Wendy mourned her friends but not her music career. She taught harmony to her children and she sang in church, not in the studio. Then, in 1993, something strange happened – a friend of her son heard Wu Tang Clan’s “Tearz” on the radio. As new generations of artists have rediscovered Wendy Rene’s work, they have touched her life in various ways: Alicia Keys’s remake of “After Laughter…”, “Where Do We Go From Here”, for example, helped pay for her current home. Keys tried to meet up with Rene when she played in Memphis. “I wasn’t able to do it,” says Wendy, revealing little.

In September 2010, Wendy Rene returned to live performance, albeit very briefly, playing a set at Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans. It was to be a bittersweet occasion – Wendy’s beloved brother Johnny had died suddenly in June 2010 and performing brought back a flood of memories. “I was so choked up I wasn’t able to perform like I wanted,” she admits. Available on CD with a 40 page booklet and a as a double LP housed in a deluxe “Tip-On” gatefold jacket, both sporting liner notes by Memphian Andria Lisle (liner notes writer for our Lou Bond, Charles ‘Packy’ Axton, and Jim Sullivan releases) and original 45 labels and unseen photos courtesy of Wendy Rene.

Listen, delve and enjoy. Pre-order your copy of After Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965 (LITA 080 | CD | 2xLP | Digital)

Soundcheck at ASCAP Artist Cafe

It’s already packed inside with a long line outside. Anticipation builds. It’s great to see all the familiar faces, including Andy from Vetiver, Eric from the Fruit Bats, Tiffany Anders of the Don’t Knock The Rock Film Festival, and Light In The Attic illustrator Drew Christie who’s in town screening his new short Song of the Spindle at Sundance. By the time Rodriguez walks on stage, you can feel the anticipation in the room. The vibe couldn’t be better. He plays “Sugar Man,” “I Think Of You,” and a couple covers, while sharing some wisdom along the way…

The wait for Rodriguez at ASCAP Artist Cafe

Rodriguez at ASCAP Artist Cafe

Do you know the secret to life?
All you gotta do is keep breathing in and out.

The mystery of life?
You never know when it’s going to end.

And love?
Don’t be a silent partner.

I grab drinks with Sugar and Malik, and then stop by Rodriguez’s with Regan and Pete for more celebratory moments.

Rodriguez, Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen Sugar Segerman, Sandra Kennedy, Matt Sullivan, Amanda Kennedy

The night ends with throwing ice balls at a 2-story window in hopes that my roommates open the door before hypothermia sets in. Bless their souls, as they hear my desperation 10 minutes later. That would’ve been a bad ending.

The next morning it’s day six and my last few hours in Park City. I have coffee with Jay Zynczak, the son of Sandra Dedrick from The Free Design. Since reissuing The Free Design’s catalog in 2003, Jay and I have been in touch for years but never met in person. It’s great to finally put a face to the voice. Afterwards, I visit Rodriguez, his family, Sugar, and Malik, saying goodbye and wishing them luck at the rest of the festival. I find it strange parting ways after the momentum and amazing vibes of the past few days. The clock is ticking though. I quickly pack and jump on the shuttle to Salt Lake. At the airport bar/restaurant, I randomly run into Wymond Miles and his wife. Wymond is the guitarist from San Francisco band The Fresh & Onlys who were Rodriguez’s brilliant back-up band during his last U.S. West Coast tour. This seemed too strange stumbling into each other. Don’t underestimate the power of Sixto though. He has a tendency to bring people together. The only other guy who should be here is South African Brian Currin. Brian, we’ll have to meet up one of these days! Anyways, I hadn’t seen Wymond in a couple years. Over beers, we exchange Rodriguez memories. This spring, Wymond’s solo debut comes out on the label Sacred Bones. I’m very much looking forward to that record. On the plane I listen to Cold Fact and am having a difficult time comprehending the events of the last few days. Did that just happen?

I later learn that the film goes on to win two Sundance awards, an Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize. 2012 is looking to be the year of Rodriguez.

Malik Bendjelloul, Rodriguez, and Edward James Olmos, Sundance Awards - Photo Kim Raff _The Salt Lake Tribune

This week, in celebration of Michael Chapman’s 71st birthday on Tuesday and the our new reissue of his debut album, Rainmaker (out now!), we’re giving away not one but two LPs! Yup, enter for your chance to win a deluxe 180-gram copy of Chapman’s aforementioned debut, Rainmaker (LITA 079) and last year’s reissue of his follow-up, Fully Qualified Survivor (LITA 060), both originally released on Harvest Records in 1969 and 1970, respectively. With these two puppies in your collection, you’ll be smiling for miles.

So, leave us a comment below for your chance to win. Don’t forget to put in your email address (kept private) so we can contact you if you’re the winner. To keep things fair, please don’t enter if you’ve won a giveaway of ours in the last two months. We do these every Friday, every week, so plenty of chances to pick up some goodies. The winner for this giveaway will be announced next Friday at 12pm PST. See you then!

Founded in Rome in 1964, ‘Il Gruppo D’Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza’ was a collective of noted and noteworthy composers who challenged the very structure and performance of music itself. Today the most renowned of its members would be film-scoring genius Ennio Morricone (“Il Gruppo…” performed on many celebrated Morricone scores of the 1960s and 1970s) but each contributor has an intriguing history in Italian music.

For reasons unknown “Niente” was never originally issued but one listen will convince that not only is it the sequel to one of the most sought after LPs of all time, but it is also by far its superior. Brain melting jams collide with unhinged intensity in a hothouse of Italian avant-improv. You have been warned. You can pick it up here.

Egisto Macchi (1928-1992) has long existed in the shadow of his friend and famous collaborator Ennio Morricone. As Morricone melded pop idioms and western scores, Macchi too melded classicism, the avant garde and early electronic music. Aside from his frequent collaborations with Morricone. Macchi was a busy film (LSD Inferno, Bandidos, The Assassination Of Trotsky) and TV (E.S.P, many commercials with Mario Bava) composer in late 1960s and 1970s Italy and France. Macchi also cut a number of highly desirable library LPs for the Gemelli, Sermi and other Italian labels in the 1970s.

‘I Futuribili’ is one of the greatest and most sought after of those LPs, a stunning and powerful hybrid of haunting orchestral arrangements, jarring avant tones and dense electronic atmospheres. Pick up the LP here.

The highpoint of a career that boasts the legendary Space Patrol (Raumpatrouille) and Chariots Of The Gods soundtracks, Peter Thomas’ Orion 2000 is a phenomenal session that was only ever pressed in limited quantities as a German library LP (in 1975) and has never been available commercially ever before.

Drums pound, guitars buzz, horns flail and star-maidens wail…berserk electronic and musique-concrete effects collide with manic energy in a cornucopia of astro big-band delirium. There is nothing of this world (or any other) that sounds like the Orchestra Peter Thomas.

Remastered from the original master tapes and presented with exclusive liner notes, the original artwork, and rare photos. Pick up this interplanetary freak Kraut-Funk here.

After years of global adulation, tours behind the iron curtain and then a number of personal crises, Yma was ready to return to the spotlight in 1972. Flanked by her original collaborator, the King of Exotica, Les Baxter, this was to be no tired rerun of former glories but instead a blistering psyche-rock-exploitation opus! Yma growls and swoops her way over solid grooves, swirling keys and fuzz guitars.

Withdrawn immediately after release in a blizzard of litigation and acrimony, this rare and lysergic masterpiece is now fully restored and remastered from the original master tapes for its first ever official reissue. Presented with two fantastic (and previously unheard) extra tracks.

LP available here.

From deep within the Australian Outback comes Yaraandoo, the 40,000 year-old sound of antediluvian Aboriginal folklore channeled through Mellotron, hypnotic washes of Moog oscillations, Bamboo flutes and tape delay. Welcome to the unearthed, unheard of and indefinable genre of Australian Dreamtime Psych…. Re-presented for the first time, this much-anticipated reissue of this mythical Australian Lo-fi concept recording composed by Jazz guitarist Rob Thomsett is ripe for the picking. Working in a similar impressionistic mode as other Australian originals Sven Libaek and John Sangster, Thomsett sets to music the Aboriginal Dreamtime myth of Yaraandoo, The legend of the dawn of creation.

Self recorded on a two track in 1974 then privately pressed and distributed amongst friends, Yaraandoo is without a doubt the most desired and speculated Australian progressive recording in existence. With only 100 handmade LP copies originally pressed, copies of this phenomenal LP rarely surface. Yaraandoo is a true lost timepiece from the Australian underground. Hop on over here to pick it up.

Our delicious Chubasco's meal (and salsa extravaganza)

No screening today so I sleep in, a little at least until we have to pack up and switch condos. I stop by the grocery store to stock up on some smoked salmon (from Federal Way, WA!) and catch up on work – the big thing being a conference call about a box set release for fall 2012. I wish I could spill the beans, but can’t just yet. It’s a beauty. The snow’s starting to fall as I trudge through the white powder with Mel Eslyn and Nate Miller of Your Sister’s Sister, a Lynn Shelton directed film playing at the festival. We hit a late lunch at a tasty Mexican restaurant called Chubasco’s. The 15-deep salsa bar blows minds.  I think Mel may have been in heaven with the mango salsa.

I grab some beer at the 7-Eleven on Park Ave. and quickly discover that this little convention store sells more PBR than any other convenience store in the country. It can’t hurt that they’re legally able to sell beer 24/7. In further weirdness, Utah has their own ‘special’ form of PBR (along with many other commercial beers), a watered down version that’s reduced to 3.2% alcohol. Weird.

The proud home of 24/7 PBR heaven

Sugar and I meet at Rodriguez’s. A couple hours later, we hear a knock on the door and meet Rob Holibaugh, the Sundance projectionist from Thursday’s premiere at the Library Center Theatre in Park City. Coincidentally, he’s staying in the apartment above and comes down to say hello. Great guy. He’s based in West Virginia but every January for the past 10 years he flies into Park City to be a projectionist, seeing over 40 films in a 10 day period. Rob tells us how Searching For Sugar Man brought him to tears on Thursday evening.

Rodriguez trips out at the idea of sharing a bill with Paul McCartney’s son James on Monday at the ASCAP Cafe. Rodriguez’s son-in-law Pete (aka the greatest driver in Utah) pulls up a couple YouTube clips and we hear some James McCartney. The pressure of being a son of a Beatle has got to be tough. That’s a documentary in itself.

The first major snow storm of the season hits that night and Pete kindly gives me a ride home. I say goodbye to both Chris and Megan, two good friends of Rodriguez’s daughter. They made the trip from Detroit for the big premiere but head out tomorrow. More great people.

Time to crash.

The next day I’m up early. I haven’t caught much sleep, primarily due to being so damn high on the magical happenings of the past 48 hours. I head out around 7 AM to total silence with mountains of fresh snow on the ground. It’s a beautiful sight. The big event for the day is a 6:30 PM screening of Searching For Sugar Man in Ogden, Utah. The festival is not only in Park City but has screenings in Ogden and Salt Lake as well. Ogden is a 75 minute drive northwest of Park City. I head out with Regan and Pete. We pull into Ogden, a town of around 80,000 residents and it’s quiet. Very quiet. Sunday nights in Utah are not your typical all night ragers. A few blocks from the theater I spot Heebeegeebeez, a comic book/games store with a small vinyl section. I drool as we drive by.

Heebeegeebeez

My addiction kicks in so I drop off Pete and Regan at a nearby restaurant and race back but don’t find much. They do have a decent selection of original post-punk LPs like Gang Of Four’s Entertainment and enough Barbra Streisand to make even Bob Husack proud. It was cool to see some Jimmy Reed and Lightnin’ Hopkins wax, along with Arthur Lee’s Vindicator. I ask about other stores but the one spot down the street is closed. The bummer of Sundays in Ogden.

After wolfing down too many taquitos at a local restaurant, the three of us walk on over to the theater, Peery’s Egyptian Theater, a breath-taking old movie house built in the 1920s. We walk in and immediately hear the sounds of a live organ player doing his thing at the front of the stage. It’s one of the more impressive movie theaters I’ve ever seen. The room holds 800 and there’s got to be well over 600 by the time the doc starts. Not bad for a Sunday night in Ogden.

The gorgeous inside of Peery's Egyptian Theater

Once again the response goes through the roof with multiple standing ovations, first for director Malik, and then Rodriguez. Both take part in the Q&A, along with Rodriguez’s daughters Sandra and Regan, and Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman, the man who started all this madness over 15 years ago. It’s amazing to see the response and realize that 99% of the crowd has never heard Rodriguez’s music prior to the evening. A girl in her early 20s passionately asks Rodriguez about his influences when writing Cold Fact and Coming From Reality. In typical Rodriguez fashion, he can’t quite answer it. Not that he doesn’t want to but he’s shy, just about the most humble man on the planet, so he moves around the question, talking about how Malik is the hero here, making such a brilliant film. Rodriguez performs a song in the Q&A which goes down in fantastic fashion.

Rodriguez serenades us

Afterwards, we’re greeted by a sea of the kindest people you’ve ever met. Rodriguez signs autographs and takes photos with some newfound fans. I remember meeting a Dallas couple who drove out from Park City for the screening, even changing their flight home to catch the film. And they missed the Mavericks game!

It’s beginning to seem a bit crazy how the audience response gets better each night. But it does.

Ogden rules.

In two cars, we drive back to Park City, hang out for a bit, and then call it a night.

Check out the “What’s Inside?” videos below for the visual scoop on the CD and LP versions, listed below:

• Gorgeously remastered from the original master tapes
• CD contains 3 previously unreleased tracks PLUS 3 rarities
• LP remains a faithful reproduction of the original album tracks
• 180-gram wax housed in a deluxe Stoughton gatefold “tip-on” jacket
• Both CD and LP feature new liner notes by Byron Coley and unseen rare archive photos, gig flyers and more

For more info, audio samples and to order Michael Chapman Rainmaker (LITA 079 | CD | 180-gram LP) click here!

PS – Live in Los Angeles? Next Tuesday, 1/31 from 8pm-9pm Origami Vinyl in Echo Park will be hosting a listening party for Rainmaker. We’ll be there and so should you! The beer is free and flowing, so float on over to the Facebook invite and chime in!

Soon after, the press release lands that Sony Pictures Classics has purchased the film for North America, making this the first purchase of the entire 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Minds are further blown.

In the car, heading to Salt Lake City

A few hours later, we head out to Salt Lake City for screening #3, happening at a gorgeous downtown city library. Craig drives his rental with the rest of us grateful for the lift: Sugar, the film’s Director of Photography Camilla Skagerstrom, and Craig’s wife Philippa Berrington, who a decade prior sung vocals on a cover of Rodriguez’s “I Wonder” with a group called Generation EXT and rapper Tazz. I dug up the tune here.

The Salt Lake screening is another packed house and another standing ovation. Considering the audiences for the screenings in Park City were primarily film industry folks, it was refreshing to see a response from the locals. They absolutely loved the film and we met some incredibly kind Salt Lake City residents.

Rodriguez playing a song after the morning's screening

The cast, crew, and family headed to Rodriguez’s condo for a post-celebration party. Champagne, pizza, and other delights ensued. Rodriguez played a few songs. A couple hours later, it was sad saying goodbye to Camilla, Craig, and Philippa who all had to fly out the next morning. I felt lucky to have met them. Such great people. Camilla’s an absolute sweetheart and her work on the film can’t be understated.

Director Malik Bendjelloul toasts

I stopped by the film party for Your Sister’s Sister, directed by Seattle director Lynn Shelton and line produced by Jennifer Maas (Wheedle’s Groove). It was brilliant seeing Seattle friends and the almighty Ted Speaker who recorded a number of songs for the Wheedle’s Groove film doc years prior. Outside drunk girls walked in heels on slippery, black ice. It made me miss the sun and BBQ of South By Southwest in Austin.

Time to sleep.

Small talk ensues on the bus with about 10 of us packed in like sardines. I ask the guy sitting next to me what he’s here for. His name is Jim Brunzell and he’s scouting films for Sound Unseen, a film festival that he helps curate. Small world. Coincidentally, in 2010, the Wheedle’s Groove film documentary won the Jury Prize for Best Film at Sound Unseen. We both trip out. Our driver is Joel who sports a killer mustache.

I’m told that last year’s ‘stache was mightier.

Over the course of the next 10 days, the Rodriguez documentary Searching For Sugar Man will screen 6 times. I’m here till Tuesday so I’ll be checking out 4 of them, along with a surprise performance or two from the man.

Bus Driver Joel

On way to dinner, I meet two local brothers on the bus. Talk focusses on taking “a frozen” and life in Park City. It’s a pretty town of just 8,000 residents. One of the brothers works at local whiskery distillery High West. I hope to stop by before I fly out.

Dinner’s at a spot on Main Street called Café Terigo. I soon realize this is feeling more like a Rodriguez convention, gathering some familiar and unfamiliar faces from Rodriguez’s life and career. Seeing Rodriguez for the first time in over a year is an immediate high. He looks great in a black suit and scarf, calm and classy as always. You can see the smile on his face when we chat about the film and the people surrounding us. It felt a little too good to be true. I quickly meet my heroes, Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Craig Bartholomew, the two South Africans who started all this madness. In the mid-’90s through endless persistence and a milk carton featuring Rodriguez’s face, they located Rodriguez who Sugar, Craig, and all in S.A. thought was long dead. Along with Rodriguez, Sugar and Craig are the stars of the doc. Sugar’s flown in from South Africa, Craig from Baltimore where he now lives. Around 2005, I emailed Sugar via the website Sugarman.org, stating my hopes of meeting Rodriguez and re-releasing Cold Fact and Coming From Reality. Sugar immediately responded, kindly putting me in touch with Regan, Rodriguez’s daughter, and soon after we flew out to Detroit to meet the man. I’m endlessly grateful to Sugar for responding to that email. Prior to my email, he received many similar requests from other labels, but had faith in what we could do. After exchanging emails for years, it was wonderful to finally meet him in the flesh. The work of Sugar and Craig is such an inspiring story. I felt like asking for autographs. I held back.

Craig Bartholomew and Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman

I meet the film’s producer Simon Chinn. Another larger than life figure in the world of documenting long lost tales. Simon produced Project Nim and Man On Wire, one of the best docs of the past few decades . I meet another familiar face, Rodriguez’s middle daughter Sandra and her daughter Amanda. Great people. It was fantastic catching up with everyone. The excitement for this film from the 20 or so of us in this room was literally through the roof. We’d all seen rough cuts over the years but not the final document and never on the big screen.

Rodriguez with daughter Sandra Kennedy and director Malik Bendjelloul - Photo by artlobster

After dinner, we head to the Library Center Theatre for the premiere, which goes down well. Lots of tears and laughs flowing throughout the screening. During the Q&A they bring out Rodriguez and he receives a standing ovation. It was hard not getting choked up. I find myself with a massive perma-smile throughout both the screening and Q&A, even after seeing the doc so many times before. Lots of interesting questions unfold during the Q&A. Rodriguez is in fine style as always with his first line being “it’s a great day to be in Utah.” He humbly answers questions, but spends most of the time congratulating director Malik Bendjelloul for a much deserved fantastic job.

Afterwards, Sugar and I share some vodka and he gives me an LP that he’s brought from his record store Mabu Vinyl in Cape Town, South Africa, Rodriguez’s Best Of LP, originally released in S.A. in 1982. It’s incredibly rare and the LP that got Sugar deeply into Rodriguez’s music. I notice that track 1 is “Crucify Your Mind” so I can understand. A kind, kind gift.

I get back at 2 AM and finally fall asleep. Not an easy task after the heavy adrenaline rush of the past few hours. What a night. Many more screenings to come, including Friday’s at 9am sharp. Can’t wait.