Funky Town Grooves Stirs Up Chocolate Milk Reissues

The rich New Orleans soul of Chocolate Milk will be revisited by Funkytowngrooves in the fall.

First gaining prominence as a backing band for Allen Toussaint in the 1970s, Chocolate Milk would release eight albums for RCA in the ’70s (all of which were produced or co-produced by Toussaint) and ’80s. They’re now perhaps best known for the title cut to debut LP Action Speaks Louder Than Words (1975), which featured a breakbeat popular in hip-hop, namely Eric B. & Rakim’s “Move the Crowd” in 1988.

FTG will reissue the band’s self-titled album and Comin’, both released in 1976, as well as 1981’s Blue Jeans. All feature single edits and/or extended mixes, although Chocolate Milk may be the most confusing, including three single edits for songs that have nothing to do with the album in question. (The albums those songs do come from, We’re All in This Together (1977) and Milky Way (1979), were released as a two-fer – notably, with no bonus tracks – by the label in 2010 and repressed last month.) Blue Jeans features seven bonus tracks, three of which date ahead to the band’s final album, Friction (1982).

These three albums are due November 15; as such, no Amazon links are live, but they can be pre-ordered from the label. And, as always, full track lists are after the jump.