Ho Hey! Folk Upstarts The Lumineers to Expand and Reissue Debut LP

One of the most inescapable songs of last year was immediately identified by two words: “Ho Hey.” The best-selling single by Denver-based folk band The Lumineers gradually earned a steady stream of airplay after some choice ad placement and a performance on Saturday Night Live, ultimately sending the tune to No. 3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100. Next month, The Lumineers’ self-titled debut is being reissued and expanded as a CD/DVD set, with five extra tracks, music videos and featurettes from the band’s life on the road.

The genesis of The Lumineers came to life in the mid-’00s, when vocalist/guitarist Wesley Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites started collaborating. Moving from Ramsey, NJ, to Brooklyn to Denver, they’d meet cellist/vocalist Nelya Pekarek in 2010. (Pianist Stelth Ulvang and bassist Ben Wahamaki would join during the recording sessions for their first album.) Their simple, evocative tunes (“Ho Hey,” “Stubborn Love”) and a strong live presence helped keep their audiences after earning national exposure through TV ads. Ultimately, the group was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Americana Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.

Five new tracks are featured on the expanded version of The Lumineers, including a live rendition of album cut “Slow It Down” and a cover of the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” The DVD features videos of “Ho Hey” and “Stubborn Love” and a pair of mini-documentaries about life since the album’s release and on the road (a teaser of which is embedded above). It’s out August 20; pre-order your copy after the jump!

The Cult Support “Peace” with New Reissue of “Electric”

Here’s a recent treat for fans of British rockers The Cult: the band recently reissued their breakthrough album, 1987’s Electric, pairing it with a little-heard early version of the album.

The Cult burst onto the scene in England with debut LP Love and the Top 20 hit “She Sells Sanctuary” two years prior. When it came time for the follow-up, the band reconvened with Love producer Steve Brown at Oxfordshire’s Manor Studios for a new LP, Peace, in 1986. But the band was dissatisfied with what they’d recorded after two months, and decided to proceed with a markedly different producer: Rick Rubin, co-founder of rap label Def Jam and unabashed rock and metal fan (he’d joined Run-D.M.C. with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for a cover of “Walk This Way,” kickstarting/restarting their careers, and signed thrash metal legends Slayer to his label the year before with the iconic Reign in Blood).

Rubin re-recorded the Peace tracks with a much harder edge than even the post-rock production of Love would afford, but the results were well-received by fans old and new. Singles “Love Removal Machine” and “Lil’ Devil” were Top 20 U.K. hits, as well as the band’s first placement on a U.S. chart (Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart). But the band never really forgot about the Peace sessions, releasing some of the tracks as B-sides to singles from Electric and, in 2000, releasing the full album in its intended sequence in the long-deleted box set Rare Cult.

Now, Beggars Archive brings both records together for the first time in one set, on both CD and double-vinyl. Amazon indicates they’re available as of last Tuesday, July 16, though the band’s official site indicates a release date of July 29 and 30 on each side of the Atlantic. But they are indeed yours to order, as always after the jump with the full track breakdown!

Can’t Stop the Music: Hall and Oates’ “No Goodbyes” Arrives on CD

John Oates, the famously mustachioed half of the legendary blue-eyed soul duo Hall and Oates, once described their tenure at Atlantic Records as “three steps towards finding a sound. Whole Oats had a folksiness to it, Abandoned Luncheonette started combining acoustic folk with a little bit of funk, and War Babies was our more adventurous rock ‘n’ roll side.” He keenly observed of these early records with Daryl Hall that “the albums that followed drew on all of those elements.” So, when Hall and Oates began to score hits at RCA with 1976’s “Sara Smile,” Atlantic didn’t wish to be left out in the cold. In February 1977, the label issued No Goodbyes, a 10-track “best-of” drawing on all three Atlantic LPs and three previously unreleased recordings. No Goodbyes languished for years without a reissue. It was first superseded by Rhino’s 21-track The Atlantic Collection (1996) which contained all but one of its tracks (“Love You Like a Brother,” one of the three new songs). Then, “Love You” finally appeared on CD via Legacy’s indispensable 2009 box set Do What You Want, Be What You Are, and the entirety of the released Atlantic output was issued on Edsel’s 2011 The Atlantic Albums…Plus. But Wounded Bird Records is counting on some fans – and H&O completists – fondly remembering No Goodbyes. It’s bringing the original compilation to domestic CD for the first time on September 10.

In addition to its three unique tracks (“It’s Uncanny,” “Love You Like a Brother” and “I Want to Know You for a Long Time”), No Goodbyes reprises one track from the duo’s 1972 debut Whole Oats (“Lilly (Are You Happy)”), three from the 1973 classic Abandoned Luncheonette (“Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song),” “She’s Gone” and “When the Morning Comes”) and another three from the 1974 Todd Rundgren-helmed War Babies (“’70s Scenario,” “Beanie G and the Rose Tattoo” and “Can’t Stop the Music (He Played It Much Too Long)”).

We’ll take a closer look after the jump! Plus: the full track listing with discography, and a pre-order link!