It appears 20th anniversary music reissues come in threes. Yesterday had words on Nirvana's Nevermind and U2's Achtung Baby; now, there's word from Legacy Recordings that August will see an expanded edition of...Spin Doctors' Pocket Full of Kryptonite.
Sure, giggle all you want, but it's hard to deny that Spin Doctors had quite a moment in the sun in the early 1990s. Formed in New York City in the late '80s, Spin Doctors were initially known more for their jam-friendly live shows (often performing alongside Blues Traveler, whose frontman John Popper was originally a member of the band and a friend of Spin Doctors frontman Chris Barron) than their studio work. But after increasing their fan base through the first-ever installment of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival, and heightened attention from MTV thanks to the videos for singles "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong," Pocket Full of Kryptonite skyrocketed, ultimately sending two singles into the U.S. Top 20 and going triple platinum.
And hardcore fans of the band are going to have plenty to enjoy on this new reissue. The album is augmented with 17 bonus tracks, including a non-LP B-side version of closing track "Hard to Exist" and a sampling of tunes from the band's first demo tapes, Can't Say No (1989) and Piece of Glass (1990). The disc features several tracks from Kryptonite (including demo versions of "Two Princes" and opening track "Jimmy Olsen's Blues"), a few tracks that ended up on future Spin Doctors LPs and some outright unreleased material. The bonus disc closes with two live tracks from the band's lengthy tour in support of the record.
Not everyone's cup of tea, to be sure, but if you want to find out more, read the press release here and find the track list after the jump. Just go ahead now!
Spin Doctors, Pocket Full of Kryptonite: 20th Anniversary Edition (Epic/Legacy 88697 90644-2, 2011)
Disc 1: Original remastered LP plus bonus track
- Jimmy Olsen's Blues
- What Time is It?
- Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
- Forty or Fifty
- Refrigerator Car
- More Than She Knows
- Two Princes
- Off My Line
- How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)
- Shinbone Alley/Hard to Exist
- Hard to Exist (B-Side Version)
Disc 1, Tracks 1-10 from Epic CD ZK 47461, 1991
Disc 1, Track 11 was a B-side to the 7" single "How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)" (Epic 35-74910, 1991)
Disc 2: Bonus material
- Jimmy Olsen's Blues
- Can't Say No
- Hard to Exist
- At This Hour
- 40 or 50
- Big Fat Funky Booty
- What Time is It?
- How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)
- Hungry Hamed's
- House
- Two Princes
- Refrigerator Car
- Rosetta Stone
- Freeway of the Plains
- Turn It Upside Down (Live @ Kingswood Music Theater, Toronto - 7/19/1993)
- Little Miss Can't Be Wrong (Live @ Continental Divide, New York City - 9/25/1990)
Disc 2, Tracks 1-6 from Can't Say No (independent demo cassette, 1989)
Disc 2, Tracks 7-14 from Piece of Glass (self-produced demo, 1990)
Disc 2, Tracks 15-16 previously unreleased
This album came out when I was in college, and I remember kind of liking "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" because they were sort of light-hearted, poppy anitidotes to all the Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails I was listening to at the time. But now, whenever I hear either of those songs, I want to run screaming over a cliff.
I will still take this album over Nirvana, any day of the week.