March 31, 2005

Out of print since 1997, Gang Of Four’s seminal 1979 debut album “Entertainment!” will be reissued on May 17 via Rhino. The original 12-song track list has been bolstered with the four-track “Yellow” EP and four additional previously unreleased recordings. “Entertainment!” has also been re-pressed on 180 gram vinyl for a May 10 release.

Among the new additions, perhaps of most interest are alternate versions of album tracks “Contract” and “Guns Before Butter” and live versions of the unrecorded “Blood Free” and a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.”

Originally released in 1980, the “Yellow” EP is highlighted by the angry, brittle “Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time” and “He’d Send in the Army.” The release also features the songs “It’s Her Factory” and “Armalite Rifle.”

Although never a commercial success, “Entertainment!” has influenced scores of bands in the past 25 years, particularly the current crop of up-and-coming British rock acts like Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads.

Since 1995, the album has sold 12,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, but since 2000, an import edition has shifted an additional 14,000 units.

As previously reported, Gang Of Four’s original lineup reunited earlier this year for the first time in more than 20 years. The group will begin a three-week North American tour May 1 at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.

Guitarist Andy Gill recently told the BBC that Gang Of Four was working on an album featuring a disc with new recordings of old songs plus a collection of remixes, but a spokesperson could not confirm details of the project at deadline.

Source billboard.com.

Former Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan will release his debut solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, on June 21st.
“It’s guitar-driven and loud, but not aggressive,” Corgan tells Rolling Stone. “The videos, music and tour will be really new and different. No one will accuse me of sitting on my past.”

Recorded in Chicago, Future was co-produced by Corgan and features eleven new songs, including the first single, “Walking Shade,” as well as an unlikely cover of the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” with the Cure’s Robert Smith on backing vocals.

“The Cure is one of my favorite bands of all time,” Corgan says. “Robert is a good friend of mine, so it’s a dream come true. That song’s sort of a gem that not everyone will know.”

As for Corgan’s aforementioned past, more than 200 Pumpkins’ songs will be made available digitally through online music stores on April 5th, including their six studio albums and dozens of B-sides. “The band was really aggressive about recording B-sides,” Corgan says. “There’s a song called ‘Set the Ray to Jerry’ that Flood, our producer, didn’t think much of, but many Pumpkins fans think it’s one of the best things we ever did.”

Corgan just finished shooting the video for “Walking Shade” in Los Angeles and he plans to launch a world tour in July.

Source rollingstone.com.