R. Kelly gets raw on ‘TP.3 Reloaded’

Grateful Dead, “Dick’s Picks 35”
Just when it seems that every minute of the Grateful Dead’s career has been released or accounted for in the band’s famed vault, here comes “Dick’s Picks 35.”

Dubbed “The Houseboat Tapes,” the four-disc release has a story that’s so unbelievable, so serendipitous, it could only happen to band as legendary as the Grateful Dead.

The release captures the complete Aug. 7, 1971, San Diego show, most of the Aug. 24, 1971, Chicago concert and more than an hour of the Aug. 6, 1971, Hollywood performance.

Tapes from the shows were assumed to have been long lost. No soundboard recordings existed, either in the band’s vault or among fans. Then family members of the former Dead keyboard player Keith Godchaux were cleaning out the family’s old houseboat and found a box of tapes. Inside were original soundboard recordings given to Godchaux by Jerry Garcia as a way for the new band member to learn the music.

Thankfully for Dead fans, the tapes were turned over to the band’s archivist, who picked some of the choicest, and most well-preserved, bits for release.

So, how’s the music?

Not bad, but certainly not the best of the Dead’s long and varied career. The summer of 1971 was the one of the last tours with original keyboard player Pig Pen and just before the period that many consider the golden era of the Dead.

There is some great playing, some lousy, and a little bit that’s not quite on the mark. But listening to the shows, warts and all, sure beats having them bob along unnoticed on a California houseboat that apparently gets cleaned only once every 30 years.    —Scott Bauer

Twisted Sister “Live At Wacken: The Reunion”
From their first radio broadcast as an unsigned Long Island bar band in 1980 to a 2003 concert before 40,000 screaming fans in Germany, Twisted Sister made some of the best heavy rock ’n’ roll in the world. It’s well-represented on this dual-disc offering that includes 75 minutes of CD audio on one side and 105 minutes of live DVD concert footage and interviews on the other.

Reuniting in 2003, the band wanted to put an exclamation point on a career that seemed to end not with a bang but a whimper in 1987, as an album and tour fizzled. That long-sought bang can be heard throughout “Live At Wacken,” from the early anthems “Bad Boys Of Rock ’N’ Roll” and “I’ll Never Grow Up, Now” (which had fans singing along years before “We’re Not Gonna Take It”) to a molten version of the concert opener “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You).”

Twisted Sister has always been underrated musically because of their glam costumes and makeup, but bassist Mark “The Animal” Mendoza’s frantic riffs are amazing on this disc, particularly on the jam-fest “You Know I Cry” and the 1983 battle cry “You Can’t Stop Rock ’N’ Roll.”    —Wayne Parry

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