by: Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Here at Post-Trash, we appreciate a good reissue. Sure, the argument can often be made that it's a cash grab and well... sometimes it is. On the other hand however, a reissue offers a chance to re-celebrate beloved records, the rare opportunity for a community to once again share praise for the records that helped shape their music tastes. Well, that and a chance for everyone to get an old favorite on vinyl without paying some jerk on eBay $400 or settling for the "European" aka bootleg pressing on Discogs.
We've had a good run in the past few years with the Unwound archival series via Numero Group, Glacial Pace offering the early and essential Modest Mouse, the start of an all too needed Melvins discography reissue, the return of CAN's undeniable classics, and Dischord repressing Jawbox and Bikini Kill, and the fun doesn't stop there. It's nearly the "holiday season," a time to spend with loved ones, and a time of the year that reissues tend to "mysteriously" multiply and why not... I'd love a Craw boxset for Hannukah (or my Birthday that happens to fall right around Christmas... hint, hint). Lucky for those of us who love vinyl and those who might have missed it the first time around... this fall/winter is ripe with reissued chestnuts to be excited about. Here's some of our most anticipated...
Up Records (via Sub Pop) will reissue Built To Spill’s much loved classic There’s Nothing Wrong with Love, the second full-length album released by the legendary indie rock band. It was originally released September 13, 1994 on the Up Records label with the stellar line-up of Doug Martsch, bassist Brett Nelson, and drummer Andy Capps, with Phil Ek producing. The album features enduring singles “In the Morning,” “Car,” and “Distopian Dream Girl.”
There’s Nothing Wrong With Love will be available October 30th from Up Records - distributed through Sub Pop - and is now available for preorder from Sub Pop Mega Mart.
On a related note, the There’s Nothing Wrong With Love playlist is also available for your audio visual consumption, featuring official videos for “In The Morning,” “Car,” “Fling,” and “Big Dipper” via Up Records YouTube channel.
There’s Nothing Wrong with Love was exceptionally well received by critics upon its release. It went on to earn “Best Albums of 90’s” notices from the likes of Pitchfork, PASTE, SPIN, and has sold nearly 140k copies to date. This new, vinyl edition is the first time the album has been available on vinyl since its original run. Let the rejoicing commence!
Universal Music will celebrate the unique musical talent and compelling worldview of Mark Oliver Everett, the genius behind EELS, with the October 30th release of 'EELS: The Complete DreamWorks Albums', a beautiful 8 disc vinyl box set, which includes the band's first five studio albums – Beautiful Freak ('96), Electro-Shock Blues ('98), Daisies Of The Galaxy (2000), Souljacker ('01) and Shootenanny! ('03) - plus the Electro-Shock Blues Show double live album (available here exclusively for the first time on vinyl). As part of Universal's Back To Black series 'EELS: The Complete DreamWorks Albums' will be available in deluxe 180 gram vinyl with an MP3 download code. The individual albums (apart from Electro-Shock Blues Show) will also be made available simultaneously.
EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing project of principal singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, EELS have released ten studio albums since their 1996 debut, 'Beautiful Freak'. Mojo magazine calls Everett "a member of rock's very own League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," while legendary troubadour Tom Waits says he "eagerly awaits each new release."
Universal's 'EELS: The Complete DreamWorks Albums' box set reissues the critically acclaimed and highly collectable first 5 EELS vinyl albums, including double 12 inch editions of 'Electro-Shock Blues', heralded as one of the best albums of the 1990s, and 'Electro-Shock Blues Show', arguably the greatest of several live EELS albums, recorded during a tour with Britpop royalty Pulp in 1998 shortly after the release of the classic studio album, on vinyl for the first time, for a total of 8 box set discs. 'EELS: The Complete DreamWorks Albums' is out October 30th.
Northern Spy reissues the first three records by Cleveland, Ohio, post-hardcore band Craw in a limited-edition vinyl box set, 1993–1997. All out of print for two decades or more, these full-lengths — 1993’s self-titled debut, 1994’s Lost Nation Road and 1997’s Map, Monitor, Surge — complete a story that concluded on Bodies for Strontium 90, released in 2002 by Hydra Head Records. The new box set lovingly reintroduces these records in a deluxe package including three remastered double LPs and an exhaustive 200-page page book. The book, designed by the team behind one-of-a-kind visually driven label Aqualamb — who have also overseen visuals for the entire release — includes a wealth of unpublished photos and ephemera, an exhaustive oral history of Craw drawn from newly conducted interviews, and a detailed timeline of band activities, shows and releases, stretching from Craw’s 1988 formation to their 2002 break-up.
Thanks to the passion of writer and musician Hank Shteamer, who served as project organizer for the set and funded it through Kickstarter, Craw’s music finally receives the reissue it deserves. We hope that 1993–1997 will spur a reexamination of the band’s place in the lineage of aggressive, challenging, radically unorthodox underground rock and metal.
To celebrate the release of this epic set, Craw are reuniting for two special shows, taking place Friday, December 18, at the Grog Shop in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and Saturday, December 19, at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn, New York. All band members that played on the albums included in 1993–1997 will be on hand at each show, participating in career-spanning performances drawn from these releases as well as Bodies for Strontium 90.
The One Way Street box set compiles the first five solo albums recorded by Mark Lanegan, the Pacific Northwest icon who is also known for his work with Screaming Trees, Gutter Twins, Mad Season, Queens of the Stone Age, Isobel Campbell, and more.
As a solo artist, Lanegan built a devoted following, slowly releasing records that highlighted his love for singer/songwriters, and American folk and blues. His love for the rich history of American contemporary music was showcased throughout these five remarkable efforts: The Winding Sheet (1990), Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1994), Scraps at Midnight (1998), I’ll Take Care of You (1999) and Field Songs (2001). And let’s not forget that voice! Trying to describe the power of Mark’s voice is not an easy task, but to paraphrase Fred Neil, he sure can sing the shit out of a song.
Lanegan also collaborated regularly with Mike Johnson (Dinosaur Jr.), a multi-instrumentalist known for his understated, incredible guitar work, who co-wrote, arranged and co-produced some of the early records and various songs from the discography.
One Way Street will feature all five albums released on Sub Pop Records, housed in a faux-leather box set. And all five titles have been long out-of-print or have never been released on vinyl: The Winding Sheet, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, and Scraps at Midnight have been out of print on vinyl for many years; I’ll Take Care of You was only released on vinyl in Europe, and Field Songs was only issued on CD. Each album in the One Way Street box set were cut from new lacquers and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and is housed in a sleeve reproducing the art for its original release.
"Ss Records is very proud to announce the vinyl reissue of two classic albums from our early catalog: A FRAMES s/t LP and A FRAMES 2 LP.
Ss Records was created with the A Frames in mind. Back in 2000, the A Frames came to town to record with my friend and neighbor Chris Woodhouse. At the time, Woodhouse was Sacramento's "will record for pizza" producer, recording mainly raw punk bands and his own creations (nowadays he's the man behind many Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Intelligence, etc. recordings). Most of the recordings on my 90s local label, Moo-La-La were Woodhouse's. The A Frames were fans of the label and of Woodhouse's and asked if he would record them. Those recordings became the A Frames and Ss Records first single, SS001.
Six months later, Woodhouse and I packed two suitcases full of recording equipment (one containing an 8-track reel-to-reel recorder, the other a mixer, mics, etc.) into a rental car and did a 12 hour one-shot hell ride to Seattle in order to record the A Frames first album. Over a weekend, we had the record in the can and were zooming back to Sacramento.
While A FRAMES is now thought of as a classic (of the era or all time, depending on who you talk to), its release went little noticed. Byron Coley & Thurston Moore raved about it (“one of the few great new American rock records”). The defunct website Blank Generation loved it. And our friends at Heckler skate mag gave it some run, but the public was slow to pick up on it. The A Frames debut album was not your normal by-numbers punk rock album. It was unorthodox, there were weird angles, noise intruded where it "shouldn't" have. Yet, as more people heard it, more became fans. Still, it took a year to sell out the one pressing of 500.
A FRAMES 2 was recorded less than a year later. It was the same MO: Two suitcases, a rental car, broken speeding laws, and a weekend of recording. This time the results were better than before. Taking a clue from their heroes Wire, A Frames used their second album to explore sounds hinted at on their first, creating something new and exciting while still sounding like the same band. A FRAMES 2 was greeted with immediate praise, hit lots of Best Of... lists, and quickly sold out of its one pressing.
After the A Frames records sold out, the band and the label decided that it was best to find new bands, obscure music and commit it to vinyl rather than repressing the same records over and over. Thus, Ss Records has kept the vinyl out of print for over a decade (a small French pressing was done quite a while ago. It came and went quickly).
Over the years, Ss has had repeated requests to put the record back into print. The records are hard to find and when they turn up they aren't cheap. Few people outside the US had a chance at the Ss pressing. After talking to the band, we figured, Hell, Let's do it! Mastered by John Golden, pressed by RTI, and in custom sleeves printed at Stumptown, A FRAMES and A FRAMES 2 will be available on vinyl October 23." - Scott Soriano, Ss Records
Attention, vinyl nerds! Sub Pop will reissue Sharpen Your Teeth, the underground classic and lone offering from Ugly Casanova, on 2xLP worldwide October 30th. The long, out-of-print vinyl edition will come with the original 13 track album and 4 bonus songs: “Babies Clean Conscience,” “Diggin Holes,” “Roads to Go to Roads to Go to…“ (which were available as limited edition singles around the album’s release); AND (because you also need this gem in yer life) the unreleased “They Devised A Plan to Fuck Forever,” recorded during the Sharpen Your Teeth sessions.
Sharpen Your Teeth is now available for preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart. The 2xLP will be available both on black and as a limited “Loser” edition yellow / white with yellow vinyl (while supplies last). In light of this, may we suggest preorder as the prudent path?
Ugly Casanova is Isaac Brock, of Modest Mouse. Or, possibly, it is a mysterious savant named Edgar Graham, who imposed himself on Modest Mouse at the Denver show of the band’s 1998 tour, introduced himself as Ugly Casanova, and, through a haze of unnerving instability, shared some rough songs with the band. His songs, though delivered hesitantly… shamefully, even… displayed unmistakable talent. By the end of Modest Mouse’s tour, Casanova, with much reluctance, was persuaded to record some of these songs and hand them over to record labels for issue as singles or parts of compilations. Predictably, immediately after he had done so, he disappeared.
Other than a sheaf of ramblings delivered to Modest Mouse’s singer Isaac Brock in the summer of 1999 that then inspired that band’s The Moon and Antarctica nothing had been heard from Casanova in years and those that still thought of him grew fewer. Then in November of 2001, a faded and water-damaged bundle was discovered among a stack of old packages during one of those general decontamination purges that so often follows a mail scare. Addressed simply to “Sub Pop, Seattle, WA,” there was little evidence of its origin. Inside, swathed in tape, Silly Putty and pelts of three identifiable rodents was a greeting from the long-lost Graham. Numerous tapes and a list of requests that alternated between raving demands for destruction of said tapes and meek pleas for recognition of their contents were extracted from the mess of the package. Fortunately Sub Pop recognized that the tapes held promise, and released them in 2002 as Sharpen Your Teeth.
Until such time as Graham/Casanova resurfaces to take credit for his work and add a bit more to whatever understanding of him still exists, Sharpen Your Teeth will have to suffice. Produced by Brian Deck and Isaac Brock at Glacial Pace Studios (Oregon), Ugly Casanova’s songs are here performed by Misters Brock and Deck, as well as John Orth (Holopaw), Tim Rutili (Califone, Red Red Meat), Pall Jenkins (The Black Heart Procession), and a handful of like-minded collaborators.
After taking Miley Cyrus to adventurous new places, the Flaming Lips will circle back on their history with a massive reissue of their 1995 LP Clouds Taste Metallic. Dubbed Heady Nuggs 20 Years After Clouds Taste Metallic 1994-1997, the 3-CD set features Wayne Coyne and company's original album along with B-sides, "oddities and rarities" and a 1996 Seattle concert. The set arrives November 27th.
The rarities portion of the reissue, titled The King Bug Laughs, will feature some tracks culled from compilations, John Peel sessions and tribute albums from the era, including the band's covers of John Lennon's "Nobody Told Me," David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" and T. Rex's "Ballrooms of Mars." Those tracks will be joined by 1994's Due To High Expectations The Flaming Lips Are Providing Needles For Your Balloons, a compilation of then-unreleased tracks released between 1993's Transmissions From the Satellite Heart and Clouds Taste Metallic.
Fans who pre-order now through the band's official store will receive an instant download of "Psychiatric Explorations Of The Fetus With Needles" from that Seattle show. On select dates leading up to the November 27th release, the Flaming Lips will drop other Heady Nuggs instant downloads.
The reissue will be released in a variety of different formats and bundles, with the biggest among them a mammoth autographed and numbered 5-LP colored vinyl box set autographed by Coyne accompanied by three replica posters and Flaming Lips T-shirts from that era. The Flaming Lips' store is also offering other bundle options as well as a build-your-own-Heady Nuggs bundle option.
A couple gems in Ty Segall's giant discography are his T. Rex cover records—the 2011 Ty-Rex 12" and the 2013 Ty-Rex II 7", which were previously released as Record Store Day exclusives. On November 27 (Black Friday), Goner is releasing an expanded Ty-Rex reissue featuring the songs of both records along with an unreleased cover of "20th Century Boy".