VIA PRESS RELEASE | A crown jewel in last year’s Record Store Day roster, An American Music Story: The Complete Studio Recordings 1979–1985, was a comprehensive 5-LP overview from Los Angeles roots-rock legends The Blasters.
This deluxe box set was an immediate sellout, and over the past six months Liberation Hall has kept busy reissuing the five titles as standalone releases. The final entry from that box set, Rare Blasts: Studio Outtakes and Movie Music 1979–1985, arrives on April 18. It will be available on translucent cobalt blue vinyl with an inner sleeve showcasing rare photos, memorabilia, and liner notes essay by co-producer Chris Morris. Digital single “Can’t Stop Time” is available now.
Formed in Downey, California, The Blasters were one of the bedrock groups in the Americana music movement. The band’s lineup throughout their 1980s heyday comprised vocalist Phil Alvin, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and lead guitarist Dave Alvin, drummer Bill Bateman, bassist John Bazz, keyboardist Gene Taylor, and saxophonists Lee Allen and Steve Berlin. To mark the occasion of last year’s box set release, Uncut magazine published a 5-star review and devoted four pages to The Blasters.
In the accompanying article, veteran UK journalist Allan Jones wrote, “The Blasters were part of a cabal of LA bands that included X, Los Lobos, The Gun Club, and Black Flag who did as much as R.E.M. or anyone else to reclaim ‘80s American rock from big-haired hard rock and metal bands, that spandex pantomime… These are the albums that saw The Blasters marching into legend, glorious celebrations of the torrential continuities of American music in all its vast diversity, wild-eyed and unforgettable.”
