Milk it for all it’s worth

Reissues drive me insane a lot of the time. I’ve written about Elvis Costello‘s thrice-reissued My Aim Is True, but that album’s a classic, and gets a bit of a slide. I’m fine with classic albums getting the reissue treatment, with bonus discs of demos and live shit. It’s a way to bilk the consumer and get them to shell out money for a record they already own, to be certain. However, considering albums like the Clash‘s London Calling or Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde got pretty basic treatments when they first hit compact disc, it’s nice to see them remastered with some value-added content.

Really, an album should be out for a while before it gets the reissue treatment. There’s been a glut of albums in the past few years getting reissued a year – if not several months – after they first hit store shelves. I understand the thought behind this in some cases. The KillersHot Fuss saw a reissue with bonus tracks a while after it first hit, because the record blew up something fierce. It was competitively priced, and actually replaced the original pressing.

Victory Records has capitalized on the trend of its artists blowing up by reissuing Hawthorne HeightsThe Silence In Black and White, Atreyu‘s The Curse, Between the Buried and Me‘s The Silent Circus, along with other albums by groups like Silverstein and Darkest Hour less than a year after their initial issue. It’s fairly ridiculous for any fan of the label to purchase any of their new releases, as it’s pretty much guaranteed at this point that any album that does well will come out within the year redux with a DVD and bonus tracks.

Now Epitaph is getting into the swing of things. Bad Religion‘s last album, New Maps of Hell, which came out last year, will see a reissue on July 8, nearly a year to the day after it first hit stores. That’s fucking insane. Yeah, it was a good album, but by no means is it deserving of reissue treatment. Why does this album get a DVD and bonus tracks, whereas the back catalog that hit the streets a couple years back only got remastered? The same thing is happening with Offspring‘s two Epitaph releases, Ignition and Smash – remastered and new packaging, but nothing past that.

I’m going to have to agree (and it pains me to say this) with the various online postings I’ve seen regarding these reissues. Most people seem to think this is a cash grab by labels who’ve not released anything of note in the past few years. Epitaph and Victory used to have this brand identity (OC punk and hardcore, respectively) that’s been diluted over the years as both labels attempt to grow with the trends. Surprisingly, Lookout artists into print once again. Even Mike Park’s not totally innocent, but at least the Goddammit reissue waited until it’d been ten years since Alkaline Trio released their first full-length.

Let’s hope that the fans stay away and refuse to buy albums a second or third or fourth time, and let the labels know that they’re dissatisfied with what’s being done. If the emphasis of these venerable labels would be on quality new shit, as opposed to milking the past for all it’s worth, then maybe people would pay for what’s coming out. Maybe if the labels would just tack on an extra buck at the start, and give the fans the extra stuff at the start, rather than getting them to drop money twice for the same album, I wouldn’t be bitching along with thousands of others. Perhaps then we’d buy records instead of getting them online for free.

Alkaline Trio – “Trouble Breathing” (from Goddammit)
the Offspring – “Come Out and Play” (from Smash)
Bad Religion – “Heroes and Martyrs” (from New Maps of Hell)
Atreyu – “Bleeding Mascara” (from The Curse)
Between the Buried and Me – “Mordecai” (from The Silent Circus)