Early Green Day discs getting major-label reissue
Green Day’s first two albums will be reissued for the first time by the punk trio’s Reprise Records label on December 19.
“1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” (1991) and “Kerplunk!” (1992) were originally released on Lookout! Records. The Berkeley, Calif., indie label reissued them in 2004.
“Kerplunk!” does not include any bonus features, but “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” replicates the extra content found on the reissue. The extras include 20 minutes of live performances from 1990-91, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s handwritten lyrics, show flyers and a 1991 radio interview.
The two albums set the stage for Green Day’s 1994 mainstream, major-label breakthrough, “Dookie,” which has sold 7.8 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. To date, “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” has shifted 585,000 units, while “Kerplunk!” has sold 699,000.
Green Day is at work on the follow-up to its Grammy-winning 2004 smash “American Idiot.” The group’s collaboration with U2, “The Saints Are Coming,” is currently No. 27 on Billboard’s airplay-based Modern Rock chart.
Reuters/Billboard
