Can – Bring Me Coffee Or Tea


Can’s Tago Mago is being reissued by Mute and Spoon Records in a special 2xCD edition.

The edition marks the 40th anniversary of the album’s release, and is out November 14. Next year will see the release of a Tago Mago deluxe vinyl box set and an “unreleased lost tapes” box set. The 2011 Tago Mago set is packaged in the original artwork (i.e. not the better-known illustration you see a detail of above) for the first time since 1971, and the bonus disc features 50 minutes of remastered, previously unreleased live material from ’72.

Tago Mago was Can’s first album with Damo Suzuki on vocals, the Japanese dynamo joining Holger Czukay (bass), Michael Karoli (guitars), Jaki Liebezeit (drums) and Irmin Schmidt (keyboards). It was recorded at at Schloss Nörvenich in 1971. Probably the most widely acclaimed of all Can albums, its famous fans include Radiohead, John Lydon, Sonic Youth and The Fall. You can listen to one of its tracks, ‘Bring Me Coffee Or Tear’, via the Soundcloud player above.

In addition to the CD release, the Abtart gallery in Stuttgart (16 Sep – 5 Nov) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (24 Nov – 18 Dec) will host Halleluwah!, an exhibition in homage to Can, for which a number of artists – including Raster-Noton’s Carsten Nicolai – have been invited to create visual responses to the band’s work. Quoth the press release:

“Comprising painting, drawing, videos, objects, and sound pieces that relate to the broad spectrum of the band’s manifestations and to the facets of the collective, including critical considerations of its being turned into a myth, some works will respond to the covers of CAN albums, others will be investigations or continuations of sound into the present, while yet others will simply be hallucinatory bows before these great musicians.”

For further information, and a full list of confirmed artists, visit spoonrecords.com.

The vinyl deluxe box set, due in early 2012, will feature remastered editions of all 14 of Can’s studio albums on both vinyl and CD, as well an exclusive, previously unreleased live album (vinyl-only), a newly remastered Out Of Reach, extensive booklets and more. It will be available for pre-order next month (October 2011).

The Lost Tapes box set is scheduled for release in March 2012. Curated by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller, and edited and compiled by Jono Podmore, this will include unreleased studio, soundtrack and live material.

As if that wasn’t enough, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Michael Karoli’s death, Spoon Records will offer a mini Best Of Michael Karoli for free download on their site in November.

Tago Mago 40th Anniversary edition tracklist:
CD1
Paperhouse (07:29)
Mushroom (04:04)
Oh Yeah (07:23)
Halleluwah (18:33)
Aumgn (17:37)
Peking O (11:38)
Bring Me Coffee Or Tea (06:47)

CD2
Mushroom (Live 1972) (08:42)
Spoon (Live 1972) (29:55)
Halleluwah (Live 1972) (09:12)