Early Green Day albums being reissued

Green Day's early independent albums are being re-released by the band's current label, Reprise Records, according to Billboard.com. 1991's 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the band's first full-length album and two EPs, plus its second full-length disc, 1992's Kerplunk!, will be reissued on December 19th. Both sets were originally released by Lookout! Records and re-issued in deluxe editions by that label in 2004. The new version of 1,039/Smoothed Out will contain bonus material found on the 2004 edition, including 20 minutes of live material, handwritten lyrics, early show flyers and a 1991 radio interview.

Both albums have previously sold around 600,000 copies apiece. They preceded the band's first Reprise effort, 1994's Dookie, which became the trio's commercial breakthrough and sold nearly eight million copies.

Green Day removed its early records from the Lookout! catalog last year after the San Francisco indie failed to pay royalties. The move essentially crippled Lookout!, which relied on sales of the Green Day catalog for most of its financial support.

GreenDay is currently at work on the follow-up to 2004's American Idiot.

The band's collaboration with U2 on a cover of the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming" will appear on U2's hits collection, U218 Singles, due out November 21st.
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