Fave Re-Issues of 2007

Does it count as a re-issue if the artist releases his last record on vinyl when a label had previously released it only on CD? Who cares?



2007 brought forth the VINYL of Jack Oblivian's Flipside Kid, a collection of songs that never made it on to other records, all recorded at home with a variety of guest players ranging from his trusty Tennessee Tearjerkers to visiting musician friends like King Louie and Mark Sultan, or locals like Greg Roberson. This was one of the best records of 2006 and its in a holding pattern of "best of" status again in 2007!

Jack proved to be my Hero this year... he not only inspired and inadvertently masterminded my Memphis photo exhibit at Goner Records on November 1 - Punk Rock Day of the Dead, but he assembled an ad-hoc punk rock mariachi band to serenade the crowd! Not to mention, he totally helped me set the whole thing up. Jack Yarber: YOU RULE! Like I said somewhere else.... Spin should have had YOU on the cover of the issue with the story about Memphis music...



A bonafide re-issue that is probably the best box set in recent years is the one Yep Roc has released called I Wanna Go Backwards, a collection of Robyn Hitchcock's three most noted albums in expanded versions, Black Snake Diamond Role, I Often Dream of Trains and Eye, together with a newly compiled 2-disk set of demos, outtakes, b-sides and unreleased tracks called While Thatcher Mauled Britain Part 1 & 2.

So there you have it, stretched out over 4 posts -- my bakers dozen of Fave Records of 2007... half of them punk rock, and the rest of them, my guilty pleasure: folk. I am happy to say that with this guilty pleasure comes the recordings by artists with definitive punk rock pedigrees...so - it all comes full circle.