The Living Rockumentary

Since I know there are some Kinks freaks out there, and since this is the time of season I always listen to "Village Green Preservation Society" at least twice to usher in summer properly, here's some news courtesy of Pitchfork: (ps--it seems, having seen the track listing, if you have Village Green,The Great Lost Kinks Album and Kinks Kronikles you have 95% of what's on here-unless alternate mixes mean a lot to you)

>>"Sanctuary Records has announced plans to re-release The Kinks' 1968 landmark LP, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, on June 28th, in an expanded edition. The record, most recently reissued by Castle in 1998, has now been digitally remastered and features so much bonus material it can only fit onto three CDs. Included in the bonus material are B-sides, mono and stereo mixes, BBC sessions, and tracks that were originally slated to appear on the original, but later axed. The songs that were cut have only appeared since on the long out-of-print 1973 collection, The Great Lost Kinks Album.

Though Sanctuary's plans for the reissue, at this point, only involve a UK release, U.S. fans may want to consider the hefty import price. Sanctuary's reissue will also include lengthy new liner notes composed by Andy Miller, who wrote the Continuum Series book about the album, which, according to Pitchfork's Chris Ott is, "fucking amazingly detailed." Included in Miller's notes are brand new interview quotes from Ray and Dave Davies.

Village Green is a concept album that waxes nostalgic about merry olde England. The songs present sketches of characters and scenarios that may or may not be realistic, but present a charming representation of English traditions. Written by frontman Ray Davies when he was but 24 years old, Village Green is often compared to such bastions of classics 60s psychedelia as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds, but only began to achieve its deserved level of critical acclaim years after its original release. Sanctuary is no doubt hoping to change that with this monolith of a reissue."