Faith No More have confirmed what we suspected and mentioned here in Comments, that the new The Real Thing and Angel Dust re-releases are not done on the band’s initiative.
A Facebook update from the band stated:
“Most of you have probably heard news about upcoming Angel Dust and Real Thing reissues, and the latest statements seem imply that these are band sponsored releases. In fact, they are Warners/Rhino re-issues (who still own the license to them). This is not to say that they are not worth getting…it’s just that they are not coming from us. Hope that makes sense. Thanks.”
The statement pretty much explains why we are not getting any bonus material that has not previously been released.
… And then there’s The Cowboy Song, Sweet Emotion, I Won’t Forget You, The World Is Yours. That makes ten tracks total, enough for a rarities album. Gah, I just can’t let this go… screw record companies.
What a stupid reissue. What I would rather have is the original import versions reissued so I can get the essential Absolute Zero, As The Worm Turns (Patton version), The Big Kahuna and Light Up and Let Go. The only live stuff I want on an album is I Started a Joke and Chinese Arithmetic, as we do not have studio cuts available for the Patton versions. But with these unauthorized reissues, we are missing half of the aforementioned tracks. Most of the bonus material are live tracks of songs we have studio cuts of, or remixes – music we have already heard. A worth while purchase for some fans, but hardly essential for most others. So what is the point of these reissues? Live material is everywhere on youtube, and if I’m going to listen to live stuff I would rather see the video footage to go with it, with the exception of I Started A Joke and Chinese Arithmetic for reasons already mentioned.
At this point in time, if fans want all of these tracks, they will have to download them, despite the fact that many would be willing to buy imports, if they were made available again. I should point out that I realize Chinese Arithmetic is not on any original import, but all the other important b-sides are. That said, owning the original imports and missing Chinese Arithmetic is still a better situation than the one we are in now. Why do record companies not realize they are shooting themselves in the foot? That is my vent of the day.