JEM RECORDS
Jem Records was a U.S. record label that existed from 1970 to 1988, at the time principally known as the parent company of Passport Records. The label was resurrected in 2013 as Jem Recordings. (More from Wikipedia)
Officially, the Kill City LP’s were released by Bomp! Records in 1977; but in order to actually get the albums produced, Bomp! had made a deal with a leading record importer called Jem Records, and they were the ones who pressed and sold the original LP’s on ugly green vinyl and also got the licensing rights. (I have Jem Records and names similar to that, like GEMA, on who knows how many of my albums, though “Jem Records” apparently does not appear anywhere on the Kill City-era records). There are also 8-track tapes of both Kill City and Metallic K.O. out there according to Discogs.
Besides the Kill City CD and a Kill City LP on hand-mixed colored vinyl in the stack of albums that I am currently playing my way through (this pressing presumably uses a 2010 remix of the album from the original multi-track tapes by James Williamson and engineer Ed Cherney), I have other copies of Kill City around here, including a copy on purple vinyl and even a 10” vinyl release of Kill City – that one has 8 cuts rather than 11 and omits the two “Night Theme” tracks at the end of Side 1 and the beginning of Side 2, with the only full song omitted being “Master Charge”. I thought that I had ordered many years ago a package that included a copy of the original 1977 album on green vinyl (that would be one of the LP’s pressed and sold by Jem Records) plus a later copy with a better sound mix, but I cannot seem to put my hands on the green album.
Besides Kill City, an EP called Jesus Loves the Stooges was released by Bomp! Records at the same time (1977), featuring a dead donkey on the cover (Greg Shaw blames Jem Records for the cover art). On Side 1 are two songs from Kill City, “Consolation Prizes” and “Johanna”; and Side 2 has a previously unreleased jam by Iggy and the Stooges called “Jesus Loves the Stooges” (and I have little doubt that He does!).
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Three other albums in The Iguana Chronicles rework previous releases by Bomp! Records. One of these is the Jesus Loves the Stooges 7” EP that came out at the same time as Kill City and was also actually put together by Jem Records.
(December 2017)
