The Rave Ups to reissue first full-length album

The Rave Ups hold a special place for me, as their 1987 album was among the first albums I ever reviewed as music editor for my college newspaper. Good to hear the predecessor will get reissued soon. This info arrived in my inbox yesterday...

While the members of the Rave-Ups held day jobs in the mailroom at A&M Records, they were able to use the label’s studios at night and during lunch breaks to record what would become a genre-defining release.

Enlisting the help of producer Stephen Barncard (Grateful Dead’s American Beauty) as well as the legendary pedal-steel player Sneaky Pete Kleinow, the band released Town + Country in 1985.
 
The album gained enough attention to get the band featured in John Hughes’ classic 1986 film Pretty in Pink. Sadly, their “Positively Lost Me” didn’t make the soundtrack, and the Fun Stuff Records-issued Town + Country fell out of print.

Fans of the band (and the film) have been searching for it ever since. Three decades later, it’s finally available again via Omnivore Recordings on July 8.

This reissue of Town + Country features the original 10 songs, plus a whopping 11 previously unissued bonus tracks — including live radio performances recorded for Dierdre O’Donoghue’s influential Snap program on Los Angeles’ legendary KCRW-FM, as well as 1986 material produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and Mark Linett.

A detailed historical essay from the band’s Jimmer Podrasky, complemented by numerous unseen photos from the sessions/era, make this not only a document of time + place, but one that helps document a moment in musical history. 

Mastering and restoration was overseen by Grammy winner Gavin Lurssen. 

According to Podrasky from the liners: “Music has the uncanny ability to thwart time and space. It informs a moment. It indexes lives. It creates strange bedfellows. It outlasts people — even the people who helped make the music. Music resonates more than any other art form — that is its unique power. It remains with us long after the last note has faded. Town + Country was the beginning of a lifelong journey for me — the start of a trip that still hasn’t ended. I’m proud and honored to have been a part of something that has withstood the test of time.”
 
Track listing:
 
1. Positively Lost Me
2. Remember (Newman’s Lovesong)
3. Better World
4. Class Tramp
5. In My Gremlin
6. Radio
7. By The Way
8. Not Where You’re At (But Where You Will Be)
9. You Ain’t Goin Nowhere
10. Rave-Up/Shut-Up
 
Previously unissued bonus tracks:
 
11. If I Had A Hammer (The Hammer Song) (Fun Stuff demo)
12. Nine Pound Hammer (Live on Snap)
13. Positively Lost Me (Live on Snap)
14. Square Hole
15. Train To Nowhere (Early Version)
16. The Rumor
17. Please Take Her (She’s Mine) (Early Version)
18. Mickey Of Alphabet City (Early Version)
19. No No No
20. See You
21. Blue Carrot (Early Version)