What’s (Re)New?: Favorite Reissues of 2024
Record Room: Thursday, 12/26…
To whom it may interest,
I’ll admit the nostalgia bug took a chunk out of me this year. A few of the reissues that surfaced this year somehow connected with me and evoked some vivid and likely romanticized points in my life, either as old discoveries and introductions or the bridge to an experience or memory. Remarkable how the resonance of a snare hit or slight fracture of a vocal melody can send you mentally adrift, either struggling to recall the circumstances of an early interaction with what you’re hearing or easily associating those sounds with something you did when you were communing with your generation.
All but one of these albums (and I mean to add it to my collection soon) were added to my library this year:
5.
Xmal
Deutschland
Early Singles (1981-1982)
Sacred Bones Records
Compilation issued: 3/28/24
Sacred Bones Records put out a singles compilation by the dark-wave German five-piece known as Xmal Deutshland titled Early Singles (1981-1982). Partially culled from early singles that were originally issued by the Hamburg label, ZickZack, a label noted for its roster of seminal proto-industrial acts that includes the Geniale Dilletanten-era racket-auteurs Einstürzende Neubauten, Xmal Deutschland carried an air of confrontation awash in steady propulsion and an abrasive winter of chugging riffs. They sound formidable: tracks like “Schwarze Welt” and “Incubus Succubus” are laced with unease, perhaps dread. Even at their loosest, the Casio-relative beat powering “Die Wolken” and muted clap of “Kälbermarsch”, they committed to the bit.
Fans of Bush Tetras will dig this.
Early Singles (1981-1982) features tracks from the band’s Schwarze Welt 7” and Incubus Succubus 12”. “Kälbermarsch” was pulled from the Lieber Zuviel Als Zuwenig (ZickZack Sommerhits 81) compilation, which I own. “Allein” is a live track that was originally released on the Nosferatu Festival compilation.
4.
The Red Scare
Smoky Mountain High
Solid Brass Records
Compilation issued: 6/14/24
As discussed in a July 7th entry, The Red Scare’s Smoky Mountain High compilation remains one of my favorite collections of reissued material that I listened to this year, the unmistakable sonics of the late 90s / early 00s combined with the band’s sincere and serrated brand of post-hardcore. Admittedly, I’ve yet to acquire a physical copy of Smoky Mountain High, but I’ve enjoyed the tunes nonetheless. It’s on my list.
Links:
The Red Scare — Bandcamp
Solid Brass Records — Official / Bandcamp
3.
Helmet
Betty
Interscope
Reissued: 11/29/24
(RSD: Black Friday)
Helmet’s third LP, Betty, turned 30 this year.
As I disclosed in my RSD Black Friday roundup last month, I participated in the event hoping (but failing) to acquire a copy of the 30th anniversary edition of the LP, which was newly reissued as a Record Store Day exclusive. Thankfully, a friend was able to procure a copy for me and delivered it soon after.
It was June of ‘94 when this album released and I, a fully indoctrinated Alterna-youth by that point in time, was already enamored by the band’s rhythmic, full-bodied, and flexuous arrangements and the weighty kick drum that either piled onto every downstroke or chopped up any sustained melody thanks to the band’s 1992 LP, Meantime. ‘94 was the year I got to see Helmet kick it live and Betty was the album they were touring for at that time. Of those performances I wrote the following on an Instagram post:
I saw Helmet perform twice the year this album came out, both mesmerized and elated by the off-rhythmic sonic colossus they brought to life and how violently intoxicated the audiences would act. No floorspace was available for retreat, so you rode the current and tried to stay on your feet. I remain so grateful to have seen the material on this album played live.
For this reissue, Betty was released as a “Baby Blue” colored variant double-LP with an etched D-side. The full album is featured along with five bonus tracks, two of which are remixes of the song “Biscuits For Smut”.
The three additional tracks—“Flushings”, “Thick”, and “Pariah”—had been released prior as either CD B-sides or as extras in later digital-only iterations of the album. Any of them, or all three, would’ve fit well enough into the Betty’s original track-list, though I’ll admit that they sound jagged and harsh enough to harken back to the Strap It On era. These songs had somehow eluded me, so side C has been on repeat since the album’s arrival.
2.
Talking Heads
Stop Making Sense
A24
Reissued: 3/8/24
Stop Making Sense, a cinematic landmark of a concert film with music performed by Talking Heads and directed by Jonathan Demme, turned 40 in 2024, making it commemoration-ready. In 2023, the film was given the 4K treatment and shown in theaters which led to the obvious need to make this restored film available on HD formats in an array of editions from Rhino Records and A24. And, then, of course, there’s the accompanying soundtrack: a live reinterpretation of Talking Heads’ best-known work performed with a built-out band composed of additional players that somehow (almost impossibly) improved upon the source material. Stop Making Sense, as a live album, is a testament to the genius of Talking Heads and how essential they remain as a part of American pop music’s continuing storyline.
And since I’m not the only person who feels this way, pre-orders for the Rhino deluxe edition of the soundtrack rolled in and the initial run of reissues sold out. (Other editions have since been made available). Thinking I’d dropped the ball, I was thankfully told about the A24 edition of the soundtrack, which, from what I could tell, didn’t carry any distinct differences from Rhino’s edition other than the package design and fascinating artwork, created by the Deadly Prey Gallery.
I saw Stop Making Sense on VHS when I was a child and the soundtrack had followed me from its days of being spun from my Dad’s turntable to when I bought my own copy on CD many years later. I remember Stop Making Sense being the road trip goto, at some point transferred to cassette and offering so many singalong opportunities with “Psycho Killer”, “Burning Down The House”, and “Life During Wartime”. It’s one of those albums that seemed to be on all the time while I was growing up and it had somehow never grown tiresome or dull.
The reissue sounds great. Once the needle had touched its surface and the welcoming acoustic strum and recorded percussion from the beatbox next to David Byrne’s feet slowly introduced “Psycho Killer”, (a rendition superior to the studio version in my opinion), I was glad to have acquired it.
1.
Bad Brains
I Against I
(PUNK NOTE Edition)
Bad Brains Records /
ORG Music
Reissued: 2024
The “Punk Note” reissue of I Against I by Bad Brains was discussed in an entry posted on 9/7/24:
I Against I was my intro to Bad Brains. I acquired the CD, along with some other items I’d circled in a folded-up paper catalog from SST Records, in the early 90s as a punk rock primer meant to help me gain insight into this then-unknown world of music that I would soon become addicted to. I Against I challenged my expectations, the obviousness of fast-&-loud (“I Against I,” “House Of Suffering”) strangely juxtaposed by funk rock (“Re-Ignition”), 80s-era soul (“Secret 77”), and songs not too dissimilar from the pop metal I’d grown up with via Headbanger’s Ball in the late 80s (“Return To Heaven”).
Following:
6. No Means No — Wrong (Alternative Tentacles, 2024)
7. Cocteau Twins — Milk & Kisses (4AD, 1/12/24)
8. Butthole Surfers — Psychic … Powerless … Another Man’s Sac (Matador, 3/22/24)
9. Morphine — B-Sides And Otherwise (Rhino/Rhykodisc, 11/29/24)
10. Engine Kid — Steve Albini Sessions ’93 (Southern Lord, 11/29/24)
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
