Send "Tom Petty " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Latimesblogs |
 It's invigorating to see musical veterans make the most of new opportunities. Earlier this year Neil Young issued the "Archives, Vol. I," a massive box set that utilized Blu-ray technology to give fans comprehensive access to 10 discs' worth of Young's early material.Tom Petty, another classic rocker, has assembled an impressive collection of his live work with his band the Heartbreakers that's similar in spirit to Young's remarkable anthology if not quite as expansive. At its simplest, "The Live Anthology" is a four-CD set featuring 48 live tracks that span the Florida rocker's career from 1978 through 2007. That version is a bargain, listing for $24.98 and available for less than $20 at Amazon.com and elsewhere. Where things get fun, though, is in the expanded versions that tap into the heightened aural quality of the Blu-ray disc format and the possibilities of the Web. A box set being offered as a retail exclusive at Best Buy and on Petty’s official fan club site -- listing for $149.98 but discounted to just under $100 -- fleshes out the basic box with a 14-track fifth CD and one audio-only Blu-ray disc. The Blu-ray disc is said to be the first of its kind using only the audio capability of the high-end audio-visual system and includes all 62 tracks in high-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound....full text |
| Avclub |
| As a touring act, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers isn’t often mentioned in the same breath as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, but judging by the new box set The Live Anthology, perhaps it should be. Collecting performances from shows as early as 1978 and as late as 2007, The Live Anthology highlights The Heartbreakers as interpreters of Petty’s songs, as well as of whatever covers the bandleader throws at them. The Anthology doesn’t move in chronological order—either by performance or by the date any given song was recorded—so more than anything, the set reveals how consistent the band has remained over the years. The Heartbreakers were smoking in the heart of the new-wave era, and they’re just as fiery in old age. The Live Anthology is available in two versions: a budget-priced four-disc set and a deluxe version that costs about five times more, available exclusively at Best Buy. As painful as it is to recommend an overpriced monument to corporate synergy, the deluxe set really is a treat for hardcore Petty-heads. The fifth disc of music doesn’t sport too many can’t-miss tracks (though the cover of The Byrds’ “Ballad Of Easy Rider” is on-point, and it’s always nice to hear the You’re Gonna Get It! chestnut “No Second Thoughts”), but the rest of the deluxe Anthology packs in plenty of goodies, including a four-song vinyl LP from a stellar 1976 show, a DVD containing an impressionistic hourlong documentary about making and promoting the 1994 album Wildflowers, a second DVD containing a 1978 New Year’s Eve concert taped in a smallish Santa Monica auditorium, and a Blu-ray disc holding a reference-quality copy of every song in the set. The real prize among the extras is the DVD of the 1978 show, which provides a visual context for the rest of The Live Anthology, documenting how physical The Heartbreakers can be. (Or at the least what a cool cat Mike Campbell is as he tears off some of the most nimble guitar solos in rock.)...full text |
| Ew |
| The performances on this career-spanning four-disc compilation define the term ''ageless'': Listening to these concert recordings, which date from four decades, you may have trouble figuring out which are old and which are new without consulting the liner notes. That's how tight Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' onstage rapport has remained over the years (despite several lineup shuffles). With all the hits plus an enjoyable assortment of rarities and covers, The Live Anthology is a comprehensive portrait of a perpetually professional live act. A-...full text |
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