Millican 20th Anniversary "Tape Baking" Bundle

Millican 20th Anniversary "Tape Baking" Bundle

Original Anniversary was in 2017 but to celebrate the return of our vinyl stock we're bringing back the bundle!  

Includes:

• Millican 20th Anniversary Limited Edition - Remastered for Double Vinyl LP with 2 unreleased bonus tracks
  
• Millican CD (1997)
• Millican Anniversary T-Shirt Black Heather / Mustard Print (front & back design)
• Millican Koozie

Limited Edition - Only 1,000 Copies Pressed!

 SIDE A

• Back Around
•  Walton Love
• It's All Over
• I Still Do

 SIDE B

• Black and White
• Waitin' On The Blues
• Hatax
• Hey Say May

 SIDE C

• Drink Your Whiskey Down
• Baby's Gone Blues
• Time Bomb

 SIDE D

• Wild Western Windblown Band
• Millican

TX-based Reckless Kelly have announced that they will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album Millican with a limited edition vinyl release on October 20 via their own label No Big Deal Records. The double LP vinyl pressing of Millican includes two never before released songs, "Wild Western Windblown Band" and "Millican.

The two unreleased songs were remixed at Arlyn Studios in Austin, TX, where Reckless Kelly recorded the album more than 20 years ago, and the entire double LP set was re-mastered by Gavin Lurssen in Burbank, CA.

Listen to "Wild Western Windblown Band" via Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/MillicanWWWB

Twenty years flew by like it was nothin', and then all of a sudden, there we were, back at Arlyn Studios listening to the masters on two inch tape. When we made "Millican" we never thought to release it on vinyl. Cassettes were still being phased out, CDs were the new big deal, and we'd just heard about this thing called "the internet." Now that ironically, vinyl is the new big deal, we've decided that Millican deserves a place in the record collection. It was, after all, recorded to tape, (something that only the cool cats were doing at the time) so it seems fitting to have an all analogue version available for the die hards. 

We made this record when we were just kids. I had probably only written about 20 or 30 songs at that point, a handful of which were good enough to record. Shifty had a couple good ones too so we decided we were ready to make our first record. We were too broke to take time off so we recorded it between gigs, sometimes coming in to Arlyn at 2:30 am. Worn out and half drunk with ragged voices and tired fingers, we were chomping at the bit and ready to lay it down. We still play almost every one of these songs live but there were also a few that didn't make the cut. We've played "Wild Western Windblown Band" several thousand times and recorded it on two different live albums since then; however,  at that time we didn't feel like it was a good enough take or maybe wasn't rockin' enough to land a spot on Millican. Twenty years later it fits right in and we can't figure out why we didn't put it on there in the first place. The title track also got left on the cutting room floor. I didn't feel like it was a strong enough song back then, but ya know what they say, "there's no such thing as a bad twenty year old photo," and now it feels like a snapshot from our past. It captured the band fresh to Austin with more energy than I remember having. The vocal is a scratch track with no overdubs and it was a one take deal. Most likely it was performed and recorded well after midnight, so what ya hear is what ya get. I was still learning how to sing rock n roll music and the band was still figuring out how to play together, but there was a vibe that could never be recreated so we wanted to share it with you, our fans... a little thank you note for sticking with us for all these years. We've also taken the liberty of re-sequencing the album as we originally intended, with "Back Around" being the first track. 

Twenty years flew by like we were standing still, but after all this time, this album remains the cornerstone of that signature RK sound. We never wanted to label it, and we never really knew what to call it so if anyone asks, just tell em' we sound like Millican. 

-Willy Braun July, 2017

We have been performing the  song Wild Western Wind Blown Band almost every night for 21 years. This Bruce Houser song was a hit in the honky tonks of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana in the mid 70’s and was covered and recorded by many of the bands I grew up listening to and learned from as a kid. It has always been one of my favorite songs and I still love singing it every night. It reminds me of the great bands, musicians and songwriters that were playing/ inventing Americana music long before it was a genre and always makes me think of home. It is fun to hear this version recorded during the Millican sessions in 97. We are still “Livin The Dream” !!

-Cody Braun Oct, 2017

I love a good challenge, and this was definitely challenging," explains David Abeyta "The tapes were 20 + years old, and had been moved around our hot and humid town of Austin, Texas, from place to place over the years. The first playback of the multitrack reels showed that the tapes would need to be restored before we could go any further and mix the two previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'Wild Western Windblown Band' and 'Millican.' In the end we felt good about using the most time tested method: baking the tapes in a convection oven, to get the backing to re-adhere to the tape, and restore playability."

-David Abeyta Sept, 2017