Omnivore Recordings continues its Game Theory reissue campaign with the release in March of an expanded 30th anniversary edition of the Scott Miller-fronted college-rock favorites’ 1985 sophomore album Real Nighttime, supplementing the original record with 13 bonus tracks, 10 of which have never before been released.
The 25-track expanded edition of the Mitch Easter-produced album is out on CD and digitally on March 17; a vinyl reissue of the album will be pressed on translucent red vinyl and will include a download card for all of the bonus material. The first 300 orders for the LP at omnivorerecordings.com also will include an original copy of a never-issued “Dead Center” flexidisc from 1983.
The Real Nighttime reissue follows last September’s first release of the band’s debut Blaze of Glory in its original form since the album’s first issue in 1982, a reissue that added 15 bonus tracks to that album — including 11 previously unreleased recordings from the late Scott Miller’s personal archive.
Miller, who fronted Game Theory, known for a sound somewhere between power pop and jangle pop, and, later, through much of the ’90s, The Loud Family, died in April 2013. With Game Theory, Miller released a string of well-received — by critics and adoring fans, if not the wider public — throughout the ’80s, peaking with 1986 single “Erica’s Word” and Lolita Nation.
Check out the tracklist below, and a video trailer, for the Real Nighttime reissue.
Tracklist: Game Theory, Real Nighttime
Original album:
1. “Here Comes Everybody”
2. “24”
3. “Waltz the Halls Always”
4. “I Mean It This Time”
5. “Friend Of The Family”
6. “If And When It Falls Apart”
7. “Curse Of The Frontier Land”
8. “Rayon Drive”
9. “She’ll Be A Verb”
10. “Real Nighttime”
11. “You Can’t Have Me”
12. “I Turned Her Away”
Bonus tracks:
13. “Girl W/ A Guitar”
14. “Any Other Hand”
15. “Faithless”
16. “Baker Street” (Live)
17. “The Red Baron” (Live)
18. “If And When It Falls Apart” (Live)
19. “Beach State Rocking” (Live)
20. “She’ll Be A Verb” (Live)
21. “Curse Of The Frontier Land” (Live)
22. “Metal And Glass Exact” (Live)
23. “Girl W/ A Guitar” (Complete) (Live)
24. “I Turned Her Away” (Live)
25. “Lily Of The Valley”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Game Theory’s 1982 debut ‘Blaze of Glory’ to be reissued with 11 unreleased bonus tracks
- A.C. Newman, Ted Leo and more to perform at tribute to Game Theory’s Scott Miller
- Friends of Game Theory’s Scott Miller launch fund to support daughters’ education
- Scott Miller, of Game Theory, 1960-2013
Omnivore has done a fabulous job on the early entries in the GT catalog – this should be really good as it marks when the band really came into its own.
Technically this doesn’t “follow last September’s first release of the band’s debut Blaze of Glory”. The excellent “Dead Center” compilation was released in November.
With the Mary Chain ignoring Indy after that initial fluke where they played the Vogue, this acts as a nice salve.
I look forward to the generous liner notes that have come with Omnivore’s excellent reissues, and hopefully reading about the sessions that produced these timeless recordings. The Miller/Easter collaboration was just one of those things that was meant to be, as this record and the subsequent GT/Loud Family records demonstrate.
I note that for whatever reason, this reissue omits two bonus songs from the original CD issue, covers of the Beatles and Todd Rundgren. So if you’ve still got your old “Real Nighttime” CD around — hang onto it!