The Raconteurs are marking the 20th anniversary of their debut album with a new archival package, and it arrives as the 70th installment of Third Man Records’ Vault subscription series. Broken Boy Soldiers XX bundles 23 tracks across three 180-gram colored vinyl LPs, including nine demos and outtakes plus a recording of the band’s first-ever live performance.
Signups for Vault #70 are open through October 31st. The collection is a companion release to their 2006 debut, and it runs deep into the sessions that produced that record.
What’s On The Three LPs
The studio material comes from the sessions surrounding Broken Boy Soldiers, which the four-piece recorded at band member Brendan Benson’s Le Grand Studios in his Detroit home. Among the newly surfaced recordings is a demo of “Level,” a seven-minute take of “Blue Veins,” and the previously unheard “Mech Royal.”
Alternate versions round out the set, including “Yellow Sun,” “Store Bought Bones,” “Bedridden Blues,” and “Steady, As She Goes.” The live portion captures The Raconteurs’ debut concert at Liverpool’s Carling Academy on March 20th, 2006, a performance that took place about two months before the album was released.
That set runs 13 tracks and includes covers of Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel” and the Flamin’ Groovies’ “Headin’ for the Texas Border.” The full tracklist is available at consequence.net.
The Vinyl Colors And Bonus Items
Each of the three LPs comes in a different color: Metallic Copper, Grand Green, and Coke Bottle Clear. The bundle also includes one of four collectible cards from Third Man’s Tripppl imprint, along with a strip of 35mm film containing frames of each band member from Jim Jarmusch’s “Steady, As She Goes” music video.
The demos and outtakes section includes a version of “Steady, As She Goes” that was previously released as a studio demo, plus a partial studio fragment of “Hands.” The alternate takes for “Yellow Sun” and “Store Bought Bones” feature rough guide vocals and no vocals, respectively.
The Live Set From Liverpool
The live material is the centerpiece of the package. It documents the moment the Raconteurs stepped onto a stage for the first time, playing songs from their debut album alongside those two covers.
Broken Boy Soldiers earned the Raconteurs two Grammy nominations in 2007. The band have since released two more albums, Consolers of the Lonely in 2008 and Help Us Stranger in 2019.
Jack White has kept the Raconteurs’ material in rotation throughout his solo career. Last month, The Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi joined him in Los Angeles for a performance of “Broken Boy Soldier.”
A Rare Look At Early Sessions
This package is a genuine archive dive. The demos and outtakes offer a window into the songs before they were finished, while the live set shows the band in front of an audience before they had a proper album to play.
The vinyl colors are a nice touch, but the real value is in the content itself. Nine demos and outtakes from the sessions that produced Broken Boy Soldiers, plus a live set from a debut performance, is a lot of material for fans who have waited 20 years to hear it.
| Item | Format |
|---|---|
| Broken Boy Soldiers XX | 3x 180-gram colored vinyl LPs |
| Live in Liverpool — March 20th, 2006 | 13 tracks |
| Demos / Outtakes | 9 tracks |
| Third Man Tripppl card | 4 designs |
| 35mm film strip | 1 per bundle |
The package is a reminder of how far the Raconteurs have come since that first show in Liverpool. The debut album was a statement, and this anniversary release honors it by digging into the process behind it.
For fans, the 23 tracks represent a complete picture of where the band started. The demos show the raw ideas, the live set shows the band performing, and the alternate versions show the songs in different forms.
Broken Boy Soldiers XX is a worthy companion to the original record. It gives listeners a fuller sense of the project, from demo to stage, and it does so in a physical format that respects the material.
The package is available through the Vault subscription series. Those interested in signing up have until October 31st to secure their copy.
See the video the story is built around at Consequence.
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