The holidays are typically filled to the brim with gifts and gadgets, but the first month of the year has long been what Rhino deems “a barren wasteland” for record labels. Enter the company’s brand new campaign to beat the January blues and “Start Your Ear Off Right” by offering fans fresh music releases from classic rock acts like Bad Company, The Monkees, The Cars, The Grateful Dead and more, out January 19th.
Among the 17 titles to be released are remastered live albums, collections of singles, limited vinyl runs, hefty box sets and more. Just in time for the band’s 50th anniversary, fans can get their hands on a prime pair of Monkees reissues, including Cereal Box Singles, a bundle of four vinyl seven-inch singles that mirrors the original 1960s cereal box giveaways, and a 10-CD box set of all of the band’s studio albums.
A blue vinyl edition of The Cars’ eponymous 1978 debut, featuring hit singles “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Good Times Roll,” will be limited to 5,000 copies. Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy: The Very Best of Bad Company serves up many of the band’s best loved tunes from the ’70s and ’80s like “Can’t Get Enough” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” as well as alternate takes of “Easy On My Soul” and “See the Sunlight,” on 180-gram vinyl.
Meanwhile, Deadheads won’t want to miss the first breakout show from The Grateful Dead’s sold-out 30 Trips Around the Sun box set – a three-LP, 180-gram vinyl set, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA 11/10/67 limited to 6,700 copies. The Velvet Underground’s Live at Max’s Kansas City, originally released in 1972, is now available in newly remastered compact disc and double-LP formats, while the long out-of-print box set The Complete Stax/Volt Singles (1959-1968) will be out in the form of a 9-CD re-release.
Titles will be available at participating brick and mortar retailers, and for a limited time, anyone who purchases one of the “Start Your Ear Off Right” releases will receive a free copy of the Rhino wall calendar, long reserved exclusively for record label employees. A full list of offerings, including titles from Devo and the Replacements, is available here.
