Vault Package #65 celebrates the 40th anniversary of the band’s Psychocandy
Third Man Records announces the 65th installment in their long-running quarterly vinyl subscription service, The Vault, with The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy 40th Anniversary Edition. Included in this set is a 2 LP version of Psychocandy cut at 45 RPM and a live 2 LP recording from St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit from 1987, with a bonus metallic gold 7-inch featuring “Jesus Fuck” backed with an early and previously unreleased demo of “Just Like Honey.” Fans have until July 31st at midnight CT to sign up.
As the last detached murmurs of post-punk slowly crest into the earliest whispers of shoegaze, standing there in a world all their own, cutting a profile unique and incomparable is The Jesus and Mary Chain. With equal influence gleaned from The Stooges and The Shangri-Las, The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys, the band releases the unassailable godhead album, Psychocandy.
Anchoring the set is a double LP version of Psychocandy cut at 45 RPM. The high-speed treatment affords the sonics an unseen clarity in the band’s utilization of controlled feedback. Distortion never sounded so clear with the LP cut by Warren Defever at Third Man Mastering using super high definition 192khz transfers of the original 1985 mix. It features the classic JAMC line-up of Jim Reid, William Reid, Douglas Hart, and Bobby Gillespie.
Unearthed for the anniversary is a crystalline live recording from St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit from 1987. Perfectly balanced with songs from Psychocandy and its equally as beautiful follow-up Darklands, two takes (“Taste of Cindy” and “April Skies”) appeared as non-album b-sides in 1988, the rest of the songs on this double LP are all previously unheard and were mixed back in the day by William Reid and Brian Young, from multitrack soundboard recordings.
The original album is packaged in a sumptuous two-pocket, gatefold jacket housed in a slipcase and pressed on 180-gram psychocandy colored vinyl with the live discs on darkest black 180-gram vinyl and living in a classic double-wide spine single-pocket jacket.
The set is rounded out by the savage improvisational fan favorite “Jesus Fuck” with the wildly early and previously unreleased demo of “Just Like Honey.” Pressed on metallic gold vinyl, this 7-inch quintessentially captures the contrasting beauty of what makes this band so groundbreaking.
Psychocandy:
A1. Just Like Honey
A2. The Living End
A3. Taste The Floor
B1. The Hardest Walk
B2. Cut Dead
B3. In A Hole
B4. Taste Of Cindy
C1. Never Understand
C2. Inside Me
C3. Sowing Seeds
C4. My Little Underground
D1. You Trip Me Up
D2. Something’s Wrong
D3. It’s So Hard
Live in Detroit November 20th, 1987:
A1. In A Hole [Previously Unreleased]
A2. Fall [Previously Unreleased]
A3. Happy When It Rains [Previously Unreleased]
A4. Cherry Came Too [Previously Unreleased]
B1. Just Like Honey [Previously Unreleased]
B2. The Hardest Walk [Previously Unreleased]
B3. April Skies
B4. The Living End [Previously Unreleased]
B5. Taste Of Cindy
C1. Nine Million Rainy Days [Previously Unreleased]
C2. Down On Me [Previously Unreleased]
C3. You Trip Me Up [Previously Unreleased]
D1. Kill Surf City [Previously Unreleased]
D2. Who Do You Love [Previously Unreleased]
