Guadalcanal Diary’s live 1998 reunion set ‘At Your Birthday Party’ to be reissued

The live album that ’80s college-rock faves Guadalcanal Diary self-released following a series of live reunion shows in the late 1990s will receive a new reissue this summer via Omnivore Recordings with new artwork and liner notes by frontman Murray Attaway.

The band from suburban Atlanta — also featuring Jeff Walls, Rhett Crowe and John Poe — released four studio albums on Elektra Records in the mid-to-late ’80s, scoring college radio hits with “Litany (Life Goes On)” and “Always Saturday.” Guadalcanal Diary reconvened in the late ’90s for reunion shows, and taped a two-night stand at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta in January 1998. The next year, the band self-released the live album At Your Birthday Party.

Omnivore will reissue the 16-track live set on July 18.

In the new liner notes, Attaway says:

“After doing one solo album in L.A., I wanted to go back to the South and record with musicians who were pals and who had the same record collection that I had… A lot of tracks that I love came from those sessions, but others seemed like Guadalcanal songs. Guadal needed to do them. So Rhett Crowe, John Poe, and Jeff Walls all agreed to play on the tracks. That record remains unreleased, unfortunately. But during the sessions, the four of us had big fun and we decided to do some live shows. Again, a good time was had by all. Then we got anxious to do a live album, as we never quite got our sound on record accurately, because you never do. So we did that. ” 

Check out the full tracklist below.

Tracklist: Guadalcanal Diary, At Your Birthday Party

1. “Gilbert Takes the Wheel”
2. “Trail of Tears”
3. “Country Club Gun”
4. “Pretty is as Pretty Does”
5. “The Likes of You”
6. “Lips of Steel”
7. “Newborn”
8. “Say Please”
9. “I See Moe”
10. “Whiskey Talk”
11. “Vista”
12. “Litany (Life Goes On)”
13. “Dead Eyes”
14. “Cattle Prod”
15. “Pau Pau”
16. “Watusi Rodeo”