Just days after David Roback's death comes news that two reissues from Opal are about to be released.
In their tribute, Variety revealed news that Roback, who was a former member of Rain Parade before founding Opal and Mazzy Star, had been working on Opal reissues prior to his death. From the article:
"At the time of his passing, Roback was working with Kendra Smith on finalizing the re-release of their two albums together, Happy Nightmare Baby and a compilation of their first EPs titled Early Recordings (first released in 1989). Both albums have been unavailable for decades and are not currently available on streaming services, but are due for imminent release digitally and physically via Ingrooves Music Group."
According to Variety, the reissue for 1987's Happy Nightmare Baby will not contain any bonus material however the 1989 EP Early Recordings has been expanded and will include five extra songs.
No other information on the release date is available other than Variety describing it as an "imminent" digital and physical release.
As an aside, fans of Rain Parade might also be interested in this nugget from the Variety article. Rain Parade guitarist Will Glenn explained how the band got its name:
"I had this weird experience with a really nice prostitute — not in a professional capacity, but she came over to my apartment with a friend of mine and was affecting to be Lena Horne’s daughter. She used that expression — she said Lena was raining on her parade like it was really urbane or something. I was talking about it with David and he thought it would be a good name, as we were called the Sidewalks at that point."
Read the article in full here.