Girder Records has inked a deal to re-release Altar Boys – Gut Level Music. The re-release will contain re-mastered music, modified artwork as well as a new unreleased song, “I Just Can’t Let Go” as advertised in the original ads many years ago. Altar Boys Gut Level Music will be released in early Spring 2015, with pre-orders starting just before Christmas 2014.
Mike Stand says about new unreleased song, “According to my lyric book, I wrote I Just Can’t Let Go sometime in the summer of 1984. The song is sandwiched between early sketches of Final Hour and a finished version ofCalling to You – both of these songs wound up on GLM… The odd thing about I Just Can’t let Go is that I don’t believe we had ever played the song live. Whatever the case is for not finishing the song, had it not been for a cassette tape that contained all the basic tracks from GLM, this song would have been virtually forgotten.”
Gut Level Music landed at No. 5 in HM Magazine’s “The Top 100 Christian Rock Albums of All Time.” by HM’s Doug Van Pelt and was described by John J Thompson (Capitol Music Group) in the book Raised by Wolves, “Arguably the band’s high point”. Steve Rowe of Mortification says, “GLM is timeless rock classic, outdoing not just all Christian rock releases, but equal to or better than their secular counterparts The Clash.”
For fans of The Ramones, The Clash, the Replacements, both the music and the message of the Altar Boys album GLM is a force to be reckoned with. GLM did not reinvent the “rock ‘n roll wheel”, however, by its own merit it did set a standard from which many artists would glean. Like the Gospel itself, GLM is simple, stands on its own, and wants to let you know that in the end: “Life does begin at the Cross”
TRACKS: You Are Loved, G.L.M. (Gut Level Music), I’m Not Talking About Religion, I Question It, You Found Me, Unconditional Love, There is a Love, Calling To You, I Just Can’t Let Go, Final Hour, Life Begins At the Cross