If you’re a classic-era post-punk band and you somehow managed to survive into the new millennium, you reissue your old albums. It’s just what you do. You may not always be sure why, and sometimes it may even seem like they just spontaneously reissue themselves out of thin air, but it needs to get done one way or another. Hell, if you do it right, it may take you so long to get through the first round of reissues that you can just start over from the beginning again. Like Sisyphus. Eat, sleep, reissue, repeat.
Chronic reissuers Pere Ubu have announced standalone vinyl releases of three of their classic albums, New Picnic Time, The Art of Walking, and Song of the Bailing Man, due December 9 on Fire Records. The albums were already reissued earlier this year along with an LP of rarities as part of the band’s Architecture of Language 1979-1982 box set, itself a follow-up to the limited-edition Elitism for the People 1975-1978 box set from last year, but now you can grab them individually. Reissue culture never stops.
If listening to old records on anachronistic formats isn’t your bag, you’ll be happy to know that you can go see Pere Ubu in person, now, in 2016, on their newly announced West Coast tour. They’ll of course be playing songs from both Architecture of Language and Elitism for the People, because there’s more than one way to reissue your old tunes.
Tour dates:
12.02.16 - Vancouver, BC - Cobalt
12.03.16 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
12.04.16 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
12.06.16 - San Francisco, CA - Slims
12.07.16 - Sacramento, CA - Harlows
12.09.16 - Los Angeles, CA - Echo
12.10.16 - San Diego, CA - Casbah