RSTB’s Favorite Reissues of 2024

This year was admittedly packed for albums, as evidenced by the 100 title list of favorites this year (and I could barely whittle it down to that)! This year also brought in some excellent reissue and archival releases, always a highlight of my year, especially when it uncovers, not just perennial favorites, but new discoveries from the past. Once you’ve waded through the main list, dig into these lovingly restored and compiled works.

Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert

Starting off the archival releases is the first issue of Alice Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. A long sought after release, this 1971 recording was commissioned by Impulse but never released. Seems criminal to wait until now, but it’s great to have this document of Alice at her peak, alongside an amazing assemblage of players, including Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, Jimmy Garrison, Cecil McBee, and Ed Blackwell. On a beautiful double gatefold, this one should augment any great collation of Coltrane’s works.

(buy)

Banned 37 – Banned 37

Local bands come and go, but rarely do the ones that burn out so quickly also burn this bright. The studio tracks here shine. They capture a welcome cross-section of ‘80s jangle and dB’s power pop, but also a bit of Southern charms that fold a slight flash of country into the mix. The band is at times as tumultuous as the Dü and as riddled with pop potency as Rain Parade or Permanent Green Light. There was certainly something supernatural in that well that fed the Athens faucets, and the band captures the same melting pot magic that found contemporaries turning disparate influences into something lasting.

Billy Nicholls – Love Songs

Nicholls’ second, and in my opinion, superior album is reissued on LP at long last. The album is packed with cut after cut of songs that slip between heavy ‘70s rock, blue-collar folk, and the edge of glam. Nicholls’ proximity to The Faces certainly makes an impact on the record and it’s lodged right between Ooh La La and Tommy-era Who in many places. Hearing the album for the first time is an exercise in feeling like someone, somewhere dropped the ball on this album, and hard. The record features contributions from a litany of names in UK rock at the time — Caleb Quaye, Ronnie Lane, Ron Wood, Ian McLagan and Pete Townshend, among them and should be on any shelf full of ’70s rock classics.

(buy)

Birdie – Some Dusty

I’ve spent quite a bit of time dedicating a corner of this site to hidden gems, the kind of records that got away. The debut from Birdie is certainly a contender for the term. Tucked away on a small subsidiary of Polydor and shifted under Universal at the last minute, the label’s only other notable releases come from Marianne Faithfull, an odd pairing for the collaborative output of members of East Village and Dolly Mixture. As might be expected, from Wykes and Kelly’s resumes, the band excels at crafting indie pop odes with an ear towards ‘60s harmonies and sunshine strums. The record is immaculately crafted, setting Wykes’ wistful vocals in meticulous dioramas of guitars, organs, and detailed embolishments that would skew tellingly twee in lesser hands, but wind up timeless instead.

Broadcast – Spell Blanket (Collected Demos 2006-2009)

The sprawling, crackling collection retains the dreamlike linger of Broadcast’s songs, albeit dusted with a bit more murk, looser lines around the edges. Naturally, its an unfinished album — bones, dust, and shadows that have been shaped by James in the wake of his bandmate’s passing. It gives an idea of what was to come, though. It provides one more glimpse into the music box wonderland that Broadcast inhabited, one last ride through the strange ether that Trish could conjure. Yet, even as you listen there’s a feeling of a photograph blowing out of reach, of a last piece of film catching fire on the projector, accompanied by the anxious need to catch it before it crumbles.

East Village – Drop Out

Heavenly reissued the essential jangle-pop gem Drop Out from East Village for its 30th anniversary at the beginning of the year and it hardly seems that enough dust was kicked up over its release. The reissue follows an excellent comp on Slumberland from 2020. The band’s masterpiece ties together the C86 strums with the more produced Brit Pop to come, feeling like a kindred spirit to Primal Scream, The Las, and Happy Mondays. The expanded issue puts this necessity back on the shelves where it belongs.

(buy)

The Fluid – Glue EP

Another one that didn’t kick up quite enough noise. I suppose it was the late year release, but Sub Pop has, notably, reissued the entirety of The Fluid’s catalog and given them a remaster. The band wasn’t always the marquee act for the label, but was most marked as being the first non-Northwest band on the roster. I’d recommend sifting through the catalog, but pulled out this EP in particular. Many folks might be familiar with Candy, which turned up in a live version on a split with Nirvana. The band’s power pop, grunge-crunch is hard to beat and this Butch Vig-produced EP is a short, but fun ride. I’m always a sucker for a good EP.

(buy)

Galaxie 500 – Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90

What’s not to love about a huge, double-disc-spanning collection from Galaxie 500. The band’s first issue of new archival material in three decades finds the trio digging into some great unreleased and rare works. All the works on the disc were from sessions with longtime producer Kramer at New York Noise, recorded between 1988 and 1990. The set unearths eight new, unreleased tracks. For fans of Galaxie 500, who’ve long known that the band isn’t going to reform like so many others from the era, this is a treasure, and probably the best chance at capturing the original magic of the band. Lovingly packaged by Silver Current, this one’s a dream issue for 2024.

Gastr del Sol – We Have Dozens of Titles

It appears to be a good year for bands unpacking the studio tapes and sifting through long lost recordings. Alongside that Galaxie 500 issue, this exploration of unreleased works by Chicago legends Gastr del Sol is another double-disc treasure. The collection culls from their five-year run with studio outtakes, and live recordings that shine a light on the band’s unique and foundational style. Grubbs and O’Rourke continue to be pillars of the experimental landscape but We Have Dozens of Titles expands on that reputation.

Ghost – Ghost

In the early ‘90s (between ’90 and ’94) the first two albums from Ghost were issued by beloved Japanese label PSF, along with a live album that served to give more context to the band’s psychedelic sway. Those albums were then reissued by Drag city in 1997, giving US access to the band’s eponymous debut, Second Time Around, and Temple Stone. Those three albums have now entered hallowed ground, and have been pretty hard to track down on LP for years now. One of the originators of the new wave of psych-folk, the band’s catalog remains a pristine vault of lyrseric gems. Of the three landmark albums, the eponymous outing has always been a favorite – a fogged collection of psychedelic gems that cast a long shadow on the decades to follow. It’s great to see it back on the shelves this year and a total essential.

(buy)

Howlin Rain – Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes and Other Tales From the Deep

As I said, damn good year for bands to be combing through tapes and Silver Current shows up with their second stunner of the year, this time from flagship band Howlin Rain. Originally released (briefly) as a Bandcamp-only digital collection during the early pandemic, this has become a full archival dig. Now worked into its final form, remastered and fleshed out with more tracks, the band has rounded up a 3xLP version of Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes and Other Tales From the Deep. The album culls never before heard songs from The Russian Wilds, The Dharma Wheel, The Alligator Bride, Mansion Songs, Live Rain and the lost Ethan Miller Band sessions. While its parts are sourced from disparate sessions, the record is put together like a studio album and retains the highs of many of the aforementioned full lengths.

The Ladybug Transistor – The Albermarle Sound (25th Anniversary Edition)

Alongside the (relatively) higher profile releases like Dusk At Cubist Castle and Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Ladybug Transistor released their own stained glass masterpiece in 1999, The Albermarle Sound. Recorded over a year in a a Victorian house in Flatbush that the band dubbed Marlborough Farms, the record was built like their brethren in the E6 — a carefully constructed diorama of sounds that found friends coming together like family, bringing instruments and perspectives to flesh out the album’s richly threaded tapestry.

Lee Underwood – California Sigh

Drag City offered up a wealth of reissues this year, and its hard to pick among them for the best. With issues from Anthony Moore (of Slapp Happy), Dorothy Carter, Jim Rafferty, and that already mentioned Gastr del Sol, its a puzzle where to start. This collection of solo guitar works from Lee Underwood certainly makes the cut. The guitarist was a collaborator of Tim Buckley, helping to shape his classic run from ’66 – ’70. Here he lets the strings work their magic solo, wrapping the listener in visions of West Coast sun.

Linda Smith – Nothing Else Matters

No collection of 2024 reissues would be complete with this pair from Linda Smith. Captured Tracks put Smith’s ’95 and ’96 homespun strummers back into the cultural pool this year. Smith also spent quite a bit of time touring, giving new generation of home recording enthusiasts a chance to see this pioneer out in the wild. Nothing Else Matters is a sweet, but never saccharine collection of jangled gems. Smith isn’t afraid to let things sour just slightly at the edges, making her a perfect precursor to some RSTB faves like The Smashing Times or Jeanines. Now’s a great time to re-examine her essential works.

Love Child – Never Meant To Be (1988-1993)

For the ‘90s scourers and Homestead Heads, the name Love Child should already be familiar, but to the average scanners of ‘90s dials, the band was woefully missing from the limelight that shone on their peers. The band formed a Vassar College, bringing together Will Baum, Rebecca Odes, and Alan Licht, birthing a sound that was informed by Modern Lovers, Richard Hell, The Embarrassment, and The Heartbreakers. Like many bands of the ‘90s, Love Child were sometimes bandied about as the next to break but sadly it was not to be. That makes this collection all the better. It’s the spotlight they’ve long deserved. This comp stands as an excellent document of the band’s tenure — a living being that was constantly in motion, evolving rapidly and extinguishing far too soon.

ににんがし [Niningashi] – Heavy Way

The record revels in American strains of country and folk, with a nice edge of fuzz creeping in on a few songs. Opener “Ameargari (After The Rain)” might feel a bit familiar to heads around these parts, serving as the title and flagship track for Torn & Frayed’s series of cassettes, After The Rain. The album balances bittersweet folk with slightly fried country as amiably as quite a few contemporaries, bringing to mind Dylan II, Makoto Kubota, or Yukimasa Takebe along with, of course, Happy End. Okubo would go on to more acclaim with later bands Neko and Kaze, but his early works with Ninigashi are contained on this sole album.

Sandy Bull – Still Valentine’s Day 1969

Recorded over two nights at The Matrix club in San Francisco, the songs here find Bull exploring a reverberating electric vision that exemplifies his earned legend. “No Deposit, No Return Blues” transforms from the original’s more tactile version into a heat-wave hallucination, a unique version that steps off from the recorded document to weave spectral air. “Electric Bend” is given a similar treatment, leaving the syncopated stringwork behind to singe the speakers with an echoed hypnosis. The record finds Bull experimenting with Oud, no surprise given its prominence in his work at the time, but it’s great to hear some works that are lest structured unfold here.

Souled American – Notes Campfire

The group’s run on Rough Trade holds a higher profile, slipping onto formative Alt-country lists, but their final two albums, originally for German label Moll Tonträger are the releases that pushed them into riveting and revelatory territory. These have long lingered out of print and are just now, finally, getting the due they deserve. The band was long known for a slower, slightly glowering take on country, but on Frozen and its follow-up Notes Campfire, the band would work themselves into a molasses-thick vision of the West that’s caught in an ouroboros of smoke and soot.

Tsunami – Loud Is As

An essential primer on one of D.C.’s best. The band’s first two albums found them rough-edged but still balancing pop with bite, garnering them reputations among the rapidly swelling D.C. scene. Their sometimes less regarded third LP gets it’s due here, shining as a more sterling pop display among the box set now that it’s free from the punk prejudices of the time. The band would find themselves sparring with higher profile names like Superchunk, Velocity Girl, and Rodan over the course of several singles, but until now the band hasn’t always found themselves discussed with enough reverence among the indie archivists. While I still find it odd to have Numero mining years that I can recall, the label’s digging in all the right places, and it’s great to have someone boxing these bands up for new audiences.

Various Artists – Cosmic American Music: Motel California

It’s always a tossup to see who’s going to issue the best collection of cutout country this year. Forager is always a contender, but Numero’s Wayfaring Strangers line wins out this year with an excellent roundup of private press gems. From country rock to blue collar belters, all saddle oiled to perfection. Numero rarely misses and this one’s too much in my wheelhouse not to nab a top spot this year.