Pitchfork

Back in 1985, three members of the acerbic British power-pop institution XTC (and one other dude, guitarist David Gregory's brother Ian) took a little time off to record 25 O'Clock, a vinyl-only EP of retro psychedelic pop, under the name Dukes of Stratosphear. As side projects go, this one was pretty elaborate: XTC themselves claimed in interviews that they had nothing to do with the project, and all the band's members adapted goofy-ass stage-names. Frontman Andy Partridge, for instance, was Sir John Johns. And in 1987, the band followed up that EP with Psonic Psunspot, an actual full-length album, on a major label and everything. And then XTC got back to their regular lives.

Well, nothing stays buried for long. Not long after Psonic Psunspot's release, Virgin actually reissued both the album and the EP together as Chips From the Chocolate Fireball. And later on this year, Partridge will re-reissue both of them again, seperately this time, with unreleased material. There's no release date yet (UPDATE: They'll be out April 7), but both reissues are due late in spring from Partridge's own Ape House Records. Partridge has remastered both records from their original tapes, and he'll add on demos and videos.

Meanwhile, expect Green Day to give those Foxboro Hot Tubs and Network albums deluxe reissues about 20 years from now.