Even in 1970, Paranoid was a monster of a record. Released worldwide in every format of the time (yes that does mean 8 track), Black Sabbath put out what remains their quintessential album. The original vinyl can be found just about anywhere at decent prices by crate hoppers… with one HUGE exception. For whatever reason, Paranoid did not carry the same cover or even title in several countries including Israel. Instead it was called Attention with a ridiculous black and white cover of the band members faces.
The only thing that remained of the art work was the swirl design on the record itself. While finding copies of Attention is not too difficult, your wallet will feel the punch if looking for the 1970 Israeli edition. Discogs has it priced over $300 CAD, and while ebay has inexpensive listings for copies from Yugoslavia and Germany there are none currently for that rare Israel disc. Of course, if you want a genuine first pressing from the US, that could also set you back several hundred as ebay will quickly direct you to one for over $400.
So, lets look at new editions that will not break the bank… yet.
In the last few years, Paranoid has had multiple vinyl releases in a bunch of colours that seem to match a small box of crayons. In 2010 NEMS gave us several different versions on 180 gram vinyl including a clear wax edition. The following year they added a red translucent vinyl edition to the collection and a picture disc.
Jump ahead to 2015 and more colour fills the sky. Warner Brothers put out two editions for the general public. The first was a blue marble 180 gram disc with the other being a two disc black vinyl edition in a gatefold cover.
At the same time, a limited 140 gram version of the record was being sold through Vinyl Me Please on a very cool purple vinyl disc that also included a poster and cocktail card.
Simultaneously, NEMS jumped back into the rainbow by releasing a grey marbled 180 gram disc in Europe while UK label Sanctuary adding a light blue heavy weight wax version.
Due to demand, 2016 saw more reprints from Warner of the Deluxe 2 disc set and blue vinyl. As far as I can tell from the music forums, people do not seem to like the NEMS sound quality. Per usual those same sources will tell you to search out the original pressings. However, I’m quite enjoying my Vinyl Me Please disc, and have gifted it as well. Anyway you decide to go…PLAY IT LOUD!!!
I can’t do a top ten of 2016 music list. Actually, there just isn’t a Top Ten of anything list in me that represents this year. I can pop out a Christmas list because most of the music isn’t new, and somehow there is this imaginary space between the year and the season… but honestly, a real countdown just gets me too fucking depressed. 2016 feels like a giant obituary. There is a tragic element of the macabre when you giving posthumous kudos to work that is so full of life… even as it talks about death. Both David Bowie and Leonard Cohen were staring the reaper down in their final works. Gord Downie and the Hip releasing new material and touring even as the singer goes toe to toe with a terminal diagnosis. Glen Frey, Prince, Gordie Howe, Muhammad Ali all fell before we had even saw the first half of the year finish.
Then add in the state of the world. Syria, Brexit, the American election, lone wolf terrorists, populist politicians stirring racist rhetoric, polarization of the ‘other’ on all sides of the political spectrum and, well, damn… the whole planet appeared to be giving into hate.
And…
the lights just kept dimming…
Gene Wilder, Alan Rickman, Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire), Keith Emerson, Garry Shandling, Florence Henderson, Alan Thicke, Edward Albee, Harper Lee, Doris Roberts, Sharon Jones and then, even as I had begun to write this George Michael and Princess Leia herself Carrie Fisher. In fact, there are (many) more names, (many) more news events. So many more reasons why 2016 is indeed the year that sucked.
Worse
2017 isn’t looking at all hopeful. Unless you are a gay bashing, woman hating, racist asshole who wants to run every (insert any group that isn’t white here) out of town, there isn’t much to hope for. You see, people often look to music, sports and movies as a method to feel good in a world that doesn’t make much sense. However, the very people we have looked to for smiles are dropping all around us. Yes, new artists, athletes and entertainers are making us laugh, cry and even scream, but… we’ve lost so much.
So, I can’t write about “The Best Of 2016” because the bad has outweighed the good by so much it is hard to see anything good about it. I’d like to thank Michael Kiwanuka, Dressy Bessy, PUP and TUNS for some great distractions. Again, there are other artists who deserve congrats, but I just haven’t got it in me. The good is intertwined with the bad so tightly in 2016 that it is hard to zero in on highlights.
In other words, the best thing about 2016 is that it will end. And if 2017 is worse, we will still look at 2016 as the year the ‘shit-storm’ began. John Oliver said it best when he blew up the whole thing as a giant FU to the year. Best exclamation mark ever… and that was the only good thing I got to say about the year.
The fine line between sentimentality and musical masturbation is always balanced on the thinnest of margins during the holiday season. What’s emotional to one person can come across as crass and boorish to another. That said, some lines are quite clearly crossed as we pick the Top 10 Worst Christmas songs ever recorded by so-called artists.
10. Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmastime (All The Best!)
Sitting at number ten, only because I feel “Wonderful Christmastime” could go down in the history books as the worst song ever. Not only does it lack sentiment or emotion, it honestly sounds like McCartney phoned it in… literally PHONED IT IN! The keyboard melody comes off like the cheap Casio that my children play with at their grandmothers’ house. You know the one, cheap drum machine and a bunch of sounds that try to imitate other instruments but more or less emit speaker vibrations that might resemble the varying sounds of a cat being tortured. Listening to this too many times over the holidays could turn even the kindest of us into homicidal maniacs.
9. John Goodman – Let There Be Snow
Every year, as TV stations try to fill their airtime with Christmas classics, a few stinkers make it back as well. The worst of these is Frosty Returns, which tries desperately to strike a chord between the holidays and environmentalism. It fails spectacularly at both. Despite the great cast of Jonathon Winters, Andrea Martin and John Goodman, it quickly falls apart leaving nothing but tired clichés and horrendous original songs to sit through as your kids wonder what the hell it is they’re watching.
“When does it get good daddy?”
The worst is the song “Let There Be Snow.” Gone is any of the pure enthusiasm that got Goodman through the Blues Brothers 2000, and left is something that is bland and… well, tone deaf. The only good thing I can say is that the song mercifully never received the soundtrack treatment, and hence you’ll never have to endure it mixed with your holiday favourites.
8. New Kids On The Block – Funky Funky Christmas
Whomever thought that this was a good idea should be shot. Having four guys jump around a stage with the only understood lyrics being funky and Christmas is as about as entertaining as banging your head repeatedly against a wall. I’m quite sure this is meant to be fun, but instead it is excruciating. Half dressed boy band dancing doesn’t say anything Christmas except… GIVE US YOUR MONEY! Thankfully Donnie Walberg is a decent actor and this disaster only gets pulled out for lists like this.
7. Destiny’s Child – 8 Days of Christmas
Nothing says holiday cheer like a bunch of materialistic characters listing off all the expensive sh%t they want for the holidays. At least Irving Berlin was trying to create a universal feeling of joy with “White Christmas.” “8 Days of Christmas” is a bunch of early twenty somethings trying to get you on the dance floor to hear about their boyfriends and bling. It leaves me with the empty feeling Charlie Brown must’ve had after he saw his own dog had given into commercialism. Except in this case, there is no happy ending, just an over-produced, unlistenable mess.
6. Bon Jovi – Back Door Santa
Originally done as a tongue in cheek ode to infidelity with holiday merriment, Bon Jovi take the opportunity to play it live as a hair throwing rocker. On paper that might sound pretty cool, but in practise the song becomes bereft of even libido, leaving nothing but guitar solos, synthesizers and fist pumping. Considering the audience was made up of 80% white dudes who thought Poison was high art… it is actually really depressing. I mean Tim Curry crossing wits with Kevin McAllister… laughably depressing.
5. Chris Young – Baby, Please Come Home
The original “Baby Please Come Home” is one of the greatest songs ever in terms of pure pop perfection. You take Phil Spector’s production and mix it with the all-out power of Darlene Love to put despair, longing, and yes even joy, into a single syllable and it becomes my all-time favourite holiday classic. Now, it’s 2016, and country music is mining R&B/pop to entertain their banal masses. Chris Young, who is the flavour of the moment, sounds like the last flavour… vanilla, in case you are wondering, and brings nothing to it but a country pose. This isn’t the Johnny Cash Christmas cool that country is capable of, it is a manufactured spectacle lacking soul.
4. Wham! – Last Christmas
Everything that was awful about the 1980’s contained in a single Christmas song. A horrible synthesized riff, hiding behind an over-indulgent vocal with background singing that just doesn’t equal the intensity of the lead, it can only equal Wham!. If the holidays were about white teeth and hair gel this would be an eternal classic, but there is no sentiment in either of those things. This version of “Last Christmas” is little more than the roadside slush left days after the white Christmas.
3. Dr. Demento – Jingle Bells
The Chipmunks are what happens when you shoot for a novelty Christmas hit. Love them or hate them – “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” is the result. However, comedy and novelty went way past the line of sanity when Dr. Demento made this their gift for the holidays. As much as I love pets… there was no effin’ reason Rover should be doing Christmas songs. Funny the first time, revolting the second and absolutely suicidal on the third listen, … why the eff does this exist. If aliens descended on our planet in a post-apocalyptic age and found only this, their report would read – No intelligent signs of life found!
2. NewSong – Christmas Shoes
Everything I hate about modern country music shoved into the heaping pile of manure that is this song. Kid spends money to buy new shoes for his dying mother at Christmas. The sentimental clichés of bad Holiday specials mixed with the Terms Of Endearment storyline is meant to make you feel the joy of life. Instead you get the feeling that you’ve been taken on the worst kind of ride where everything is predictable and “Christmas Shoes” is nothing but bad ideas taken from a dozen sources and tossed in a ‘Disney-fied’ blender that assumes its audience has an IQ equal to their shoe size. There is no lesson here other than that some songwriters will create desperate sh%t to get an emotional response from their audience. RUN AWAY!!!
1. Engelbert Humperdinck – White Christmas
The most popular Christmas song of all time, the Irving Belin penned “White Christmas” has been done hundreds (perhaps thousands) of times in every conceivable style imaginable. To have created the worst version is a feat of apocalyptic proportions. What Humperdinck manages to create is a mass of commercialism so crass that it becomes ‘epic’ in its destruction of sentimentalism. Musical masturbation was Engelbert’s hallmark, and his voice soars to heights not required. The background singers hit notes so high that the angels might be chipmunks that have their nuts twisted. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, Humperdinck goes for the creepy factor and whispers the final line. He might want the audience to feel his longing, but completely contradicts the effect, giving us his equivalent of the scary clown. It’s horrifying and still played in those satellite radio holiday mixes.
Let’s face it, most Christmas music is really the same 30 songs repeated by various artists over the years for a little variation. Few artists can claim to have recorded the ‘quintessential’ version of any one tune. However, Nat King Cole is one of those few to have done so with “The Christmas Song” (quite a feat when you consider that there are literally hundreds of covers, ranging from Frank Sinatra to Christina Aguilera and even Twisted Sister.) His take on the Mel Torme penned “The Christmas Song” is the one that everyone hears in their head and over the air when the holiday season rolls around. Also included are great renditions of “Deck The Halls”, “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing”, and other classics. You can find the standard black vinyl version in all of the usual record stores or, if you are looking to put that special something under the tree, a red and white split coloured wax version is available from Newbury Comics.
Christmas with the Chipmunks
Ok – sure, the lifespan of these particular rodents has far exceeded their “best before” date. However, there is no denying the syrupy pleasure derived from the high pitched glory of “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”. As much as one can try to hide their embarrassment, these annoyingly cute over-sized rodents put a smile on the faces of those of us who like a bit of laughter included with holiday cheer. Throw this onto Red/Green split coloured vinyl (also at Newbury Comics) and you have a legitimate present to place under the tree.
The Beach Boys – Christmas Album
Funny how changing a few words on a hit song can turn it into an even bigger holiday classic. “Little Deuce Coupe” made it to #4 on the Billboard Charts while the re-written “Little Saint Nick” actually made it to #3 six months later. Side one of the record carries original material that actually stretched the Beach Boys (and more importantly, Brian Wilson) beyond the safety of their surf, cars and girls motif and into some interesting territory. Their harmonies on “Blue Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” are stellar. A limited run of 1000 copies on green translucent vinyl have been printed for this holiday season.
Bob & Doug McKenzie – Twelve Days Of Christmas
Rereleased only a few days ago as part of Black Friday/Record Store Day, the classic hoser Christmas tune can be found at your local record stores on a red 7” vinyl 45. Interjected into a holiday mix, it never fails to crack a wry smile on the faces of your festive guests. My kids (8 & 12) thought this was the greatest Christmas song ever as they experienced it for the first time the other day.
She & Him – Christmas Party
I’m guessing that the overwhelming success of 2011’s A Very She & Him Christmas has gotten Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward to reconvene for a second Christmas album entitled, Christmas Party. True to form, they playfully go through a diverse mix of holiday tunes as if they’re sitting in your own home to play them. Included are covers of Mariah Carey’s “All I want For Christmas Is You”, Vashti Bunyon’s “Coldest Night Of The Year” and Chuck Berry’s “Run Run Rudolph”. This new album can be found at record stores on red vinyl… complete with a Christmas card from the pair.
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – It’s A Holiday Soul Party
Due to extraordinary demand, Daptone Records has completed a new printing of 2015’s It’s A Holiday Soul Party. Last year’s original release was limited to 10 thousand copies on red translucent vinyl while this new one is on green translucent vinyl and limited to 5000 copies. The late-great Jones and her Dap-Kings cover a few of the standards and mix it up with some astonishing originals. Particularly poignant is “Ain’t No Chimneys In The Projects” which is rather reminiscent of some similar James Brown social commentary on the season.
Frank Sinatra – White Christmas / The Christmas Waltz 7”
This is the year Sinatra would have turned 100. As part of Capitol Records’ celebration, we get this 7” of “White Christmas” and “The Christmas Waltz.” While the Bing Crosby version is the highest selling single song of all time (estimated sales of 100 Million according to the Guinness Book of World Records), the Sinatra cover peeked at #3 on the Billboard charts in 1948. Sure, the Crosby version is better known, but Sinatra’s voice on the Irving Berlin classic soars into places no one else could go… after all, he’s the Chairman of the board. This year’s 45 is on white vinyl.
Run DMC – Christmas In Hollis
A tribute to their home in Queens, “Christmas In Hollis” was originally released in 1987 as part of the first A Very Special Christmas, with the proceeds going to Special Olympics. “Christmas In Hollis” is definitely one of the coolest damn holiday songs to come down the chimney. Sampling Clarence Carter’s outstanding “Back Door Santa”, Run DMC powers through a rap in the city adventure that is full of Mom, money, Santa and a single dog pulling the sled. Another Black Friday/ Record Store Day release, “Christmas in Hollis” is on a 12” picture disc and limited to 3000 copies.
David Bazan – Dark Sacred Nights
Formerly going by the moniker of Pedro The Lion, David Bazan has been releasing Christmas singles for a number of years now. Wrapped in a cloak of melancholia and simple arrangements, Bazan plays the kind of Christmas music the goes with quiet conversations and sharing a bottle of wine. However, if you want this, you had better act quickly. Only 2000 copies of this record were printed on blue vinyl (with white snowflakes). His own website is sold out. His record companies’ website is sold out. It seems like the last available copies are from various Amazon sites.
Elvis Presley – Elvis Christmas Album
Sure, Presley was known as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but his background growing up in the church made him especially well suited to put emotion into the holiday songbook. So much so, this particular Christmas record is the biggest selling holiday “album” of all time, with over 15 million being sold since its 1957 release. Rather than emphasizing the heavier aspects he was well known for, he stretches back to his gospel roots and makes a truly incredible record. You don’t need to be an Elvis fan to enjoy his renditions of “White Christmas”, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Blue Christmas.” Over the last few years this record has been reissued numerous times, with each new edition always selling quickly. The 2016 version is on 180-gram red transparent vinyl and would look great under the tree or spinning on the old turntable.
It’s been a crappy week in this ‘Year That Sucks.’ With darkened mood, I look to my turntable for a lifeline, something…anything to shine a bit of light into a world that no longer makes any sense. Nothing seems to work until a conversation I have with a friend leads me down a path to the record store.
You see, as per usual, I arrive late to the party. Somehow the floatation device I had been searching desperately for had been put on the shelves months ago and I failed to see it. In a black cover with a melting grey heart, I place my hopes on the vinyl circles within.
The needle strikes the groove and I’m gone. The O’Jays meet Pink Floyd in a drawn out sonic line in the sand. Slow and melodic “Cold Little Heart” creeps under the skin and my head sways to the rhythm. A lead guitar soars out over with the voice of angels in the background. It smacks me in the head as if I’m listening to Ennio Morricone in a Philadelphia setting. It’s new old soul. Visual images dance in front of my closed eyes. It’s neon shimmering lightly in the rain, sad and powerful simultaneously.
“Standing now Calling all the people here to see the show Calling for my demons now to let me go I need something, give me something wonderful”
Projecting. I’m projecting. Kiwanuka’s “Love & Hate” has said something that makes sense to me. Tears begin to flow. This art understands me… or do I it?
Fuck it!
Why overanalyze this?
I’m moved. I need this. It’s the soundtrack to this moment; music for broken people in broken times.
“One More Night” with its mix of horns and bass plays out with quiet desperation. Like a tired person who can’t stop walking. And, quite honestly, this is how the whole record is. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful.
Love & Hate isn’t your over-produced modern R&B. It’s organic, it rings with emotion, and it never feels like you are being sold some auto-tune cliché meant to promote sales over a genuine musical experience. It’s the one record this year that I am not only happy I purchased, but grateful to have found in the first place.
(Now if only I could get some tickets to his sold out show here in Toronto I might even crack a smile.)
A friend asked me “Why, of all the albums being released on Record Store Day 2016, are you waiting in line for a 90’s live album from a 70’s band?” The tone and nature of the question was meant to be mocking, as he loves to have lively music debates, particularly ones that push my buttons. However, instead of just reacting, I took a deep breath and thought about it. Then, just to be annoying I told him I would ‘write the answer.’ (hehehe…)
The reasons are three-fold.
Like many people, the album I first attach to a band tends to have the greatest impact. While I heard songs by Big Star from time to time, it wasn’t until the release of Columbia that I had a complete work in front of me which represented the band as a whole. A world opened up. Here was a collection of songs that didn’t need to be ‘epic’ stories of human struggle (ie. Bruce Springsteen) or carry images of Mordor (ie. Led Zeppelin) to have powerful depth. They also didn’t include anthem-like clichés to get people fist pumping in the air (pick your own example, as there are so many). “In The Street”, “Back Of A Car” and “September Gurls” leapt out of my speakers and made my own angst seem to matter. These songs were simple coming-of-age tales detailing everyday experiences without the ‘syrup’ provided by many of the ‘so-called’ classic rock bands of the day. Instead, Big Star gave us the kind of tunes that made you want to pick up a guitar and learn to play. Furthermore, you found yourself singing, not in some vain attempt to impress or attract anyone, but as an outlet to express yourself. Which is perhaps why I had been hearing covers of their songs by other artists as time went on; The Lemonheads, Matthew Sweet, The Bangles, The Posies, Teenage Fanclub and later Beck were all doing renditions of the songs of Alex Chilton or Chris Bell. The Replacements even wrote a song entitled “Alex Chilton”, dropping the line “never go far, without a little Big Star.” All of it was packed into this one album.
Next, this wasn’t an example of a band cashing in on fame. Big Star never had the kind of fame you could cash in on. Columbia was quite literally a concert put together by fans for fans and later released in a similar fashion. Two campus radio staffers at the University of Missouri quite literally asked Big Star alumni Jody Stephens if he would be willing to do a reunion show, and got a yes if Alex Chilton was up for it. Surprisingly, Chilton agreed and, with the addition of the Posies Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow to cover for Chris Bell (deceased) and Andy Hummel (left the music business), the band played an amazing set to (merely) an estimated 200 people. Yet even with a small venue, they managed to attract much of the music world. That show got glowing write-ups in all the major music magazines of the day. It was pretty unanimous amongst the press that those not lucky enough to be in attendance had missed something special. Fortunately, this record gives us a glimpse of a show that has attained somewhat legendary status.
Finally, Columbia solidifies my absolute belief that Big Star should be in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. All three of their initial studio releases (#1 Record, Radio City, Sister Lovers/Third) land consistently on various magazines’ Top Albums of all-time lists; all three are referenced by multiple generations of artists as being influential in their music; and all three are revered by fans lucky enough to have heard them as being close to their hearts. More importantly, their music has endured through the most insanely bad luck of any band in rock history. Their 1971 debut #1 Record was hailed as triumphant by music critics, but due to poor distribution and marketing by Stax, no one could find a copy to purchase, even when songs were played on the radio. Follow up RadioCity suffered a similar fate, with Columbia records refusing to distribute the record because of a disagreement with their newly acquired Stax label. By the time Big Star released the gorgeous yet challenging Sister Lovers/Third, the band had completely disintegrated with only Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens remaining. They went their separate ways and that should have ended the story… but it didn’t.
Fans exchanged cassettes with Big Star tunes. Those in the know kept talking and searching until a market was created for re-releases. More than two decades removed from their first record and people were seeking them out based on little more than conversations and scratchy recordings emanating from a tape deck. By the early 90’s, Ryko had reissued Sister Lovers/Third and a put out a compilation of Chris Bell’s solo material, I Am The Cosmos. Then Columbia was released in 1993. A tribute album was recorded by a virtual who’s who of 90’s alt-rock artists (ironically, it also suffered from bad luck and wasn’t released until years afterward). When Columbia was released, it may still have been hard to find the first two Big Star records in stores, but here were the songs; live, rough and glorious in their presentations. All members were taking on vocal duties, with Jon Auer doing an incredible job on the solo Chris Bell single “I Am The Cosmos.” As the 90’s continued, That 70’s Show used “In The Street” as their theme song and a new generation started to discover the band. Finally, their albums could be found in record stores.
Somehow, without radio backing or touring, people were seeking out this music.
Which brings me to the Rock Hall…
If, as I believe, rock ‘n’ roll is about more than money or popularity, then Big Star should be inducted and Columbia is a perfect example of why. Here is a band whose art transcended obscurity by nothing more than word of mouth and shared recordings. Without the help of corporate money and radio exposure, their music found a way to not only be heard, but in fact influence generations of future musicians. Hell, the entire sub-genre of “power-pop” can’t even be considered without Big Star being mentioned as its greatest practitioners. It is hard to picture the sounds of the 90’s alternative music scene without the influence of songs that Alex Chilton and Chris Bell provided. Then, you add the Big Star reunion to the mix.
Complete Columbia: Live at the University of Missouri 4/25/93 exemplifies the very idea that great music will find fans and that record sales are not as important as the art itself. On-stage that day in ’93 were two musicians who had created some music playing with two other musicians that had been directly inspired by it. Twenty years separating their careers, yet you could hear just how much Big Star had meant to the future of rock music. They weren’t just another band that you hummed along to distractedly on a transistor radio; they were the band you sought out and told anyone and everyone willing to listen that Big Star were “FUCKING AWESOME!!!”
So my friend… you ask me why I’m arriving early on RSD 2016 to line up for a copy of Columbia… or even, why they should be in the Rock Hall… well, it’s because Big Star created music that really matters… what other reason is there?
Announced a few months ago, I had assumed early on that this “anniversary edition” of (the already classic) Illinois, would be like a few other artists – limited, advance order only and expensive. Music accolades aside, of which Illinois has received ‘many’, this is a first class vinyl reissue at a price that is downright inexpensive for what is included.
First, the cover features a new licensed picture of Marvel’s “Blue Marvel” replacing Superman on the original. While Superman is a household name, Blue Marvel is a relatively new comic hero that is just far ‘cooler’ than the DC man of steel. (Besides, licensing was an issue,)
Next you get a double two coloured 12” records in white and ‘Blue Marvel’ (blue with white splatter) and a star shaped red coloured vinyl single of “Chicago” in a tri-fold album sleeve.
Finally, it is all at a price under $25.00 Canadian, and can be purchased at your local retailer.
When was first announced I missed the boat and thought I was out of luck. However, this edition is actually limited to ‘ten thousand copies.’ That is a good thing folks! The original pressing with the ‘Superman cover’ was limited to 5000. Interestingly, the Superman image had to be covered up by balloons because of copyright issues. When you see it now, it is because people peeled off the stickers to get at the actual cover. The thing sells – used – for over $150 on the reseller market.
Back in 2013, Newbury Comics released a double vinyl set in red and green wax. On that edition, the balloons were a legitimate image on the cover with Superman removed. Limited to 1000 copies, this reissue of Illinois is selling for over $130 and sold out quickly; which leads me to why I am so very happy with Asthmatic Kitty for this release.
By printing 10000 copies, legitimate fans that missed out the first time can get an awesome package without breaking the bank. Call it a dream, but I wish more artists would go this route. Changing up the cover a bit and the colour of vinyl on the reissue, it gives old fans the collectability they desire and new fans a chance to get in and still have something unique. In a world where artists are losing money to streaming music, enticing consumers with an awesome tactile experience seems to be a great way to revive the physical market.
