Run Out Groove Vinyl has announced its newest limited-edition offering.  The label and Rhino affiliate will follow up the MC5's Motor City Five collection as well as Echo and the Bunnymen, Secret Machines, and The Dream Syndicate with a vinyl premiere from the powerful proto-punk rockers The Stooges.  The 2-LP set Highlights from the Fun House Sessions is currently available for pre-order now exclusively at Run Out Groove, with a release date set for September 15.  Pre-orders will close on July 1, at which time the title will become available to general retail.

Highlights from the Fun House Sessions brings together fourteen choice alternate takes from the seven-CD Rhino Handmade 1970: Complete Fun House Sessions box set released in 1999.  Recorded with producer Don Gallucci at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles in May 1970 as The Stooges' sophomore effort, Fun House was commercially unsuccessful upon its initial release.  But its influence as a key building block in the punk revolution can't go unnoticed, as it quickly developed a cult following among both critics and fans.  Blending fast and furious hard rock with improvisation and even a jazz element thanks to Steve Mackay's saxophone and the loose feel, Fun House showed Iggy Pop, Dave Alexander, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Mackay at their most primal yet still pushing the musical envelope forward.

The Complete Fun House Sessions box was assembled from the original multi-track tapes used by The Stooges and producer Gallucci to assemble the final album, released in July 1970 on Elektra.  This new Highlights set, sequenced for more casual listening than the in-depth box, includes in-studio dialogue as well as alternate takes of the album's "Down on the Street," "Loose," "Dirt," "Funhouse," "1970," and more, culled from session reels 1, 4,6, 7, 9 and 11, and originally recorded on May 11, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 25, 1970.  "T.V. Eye" is heard in two versions, one under the title of "See That Cat."  The fourth side of the new set has the 17-minute jam version of "L.A. Blues" under its embryonic title of "Freak."

This limited, individually numbered release will be pressed at Record Industry on two 180-gram multi-colored swirl vinyl LPs, with new artwork, liner notes, and a Stoughton-printed tip-on gatefold jacket.  Highlights from the Complete Fun House Sessions is due on September 15 from Run Out Groove, and can be pre-ordered at the link below until July 1 of this year!  In the meantime, don't forget to visit ROG to vote here on what the label's next title should be!

The Stooges, Highlights from the Complete Fun House Sessions (Run Out Groove Vinyl A/ROGV1-001, 2017)

Side A

1. Studio Dialogue # 23 (Reel 6) - May 18, 1970
2. Down on the Street - Take 6 (Reel 6) - May 18, 1970
3. Loose - Take 16 (Reel 4) - May 15, 1970
4. T.V. Eye - Take 5 (Reel 7) - May 18, 1970
5. Dirt - Take 5 (Reel 11) - May 25, 1970

Side B

1. Studio Dialogue # 3 (Reel 1) - May 11, 1970
2. 1970 - Take 3 (Reel 1) - May 11, 1970
3. Funhouse - Take 3 (Reel 9) - May 21, 1970

Side C

1. Studio Dialogue # 7 (Reel 2) - May 12, 1970
2. See That Cat (T.V. Eye) (Reel 2) - May 12, 1970
3. 1970 - Take 2 (Reel 1) - May 11, 1970
4. Lost in the Future - Take 3 (Reel 3) - May 15, 1970
5. Slide (Slidin' the Blues) (Reel 4) - May 15, 1970

Side D

1. Freak (L.A. Blues) Take 1 (Reel 12) - May 25, 1970