The Jesus & Mary Chain

In addition to being one of the U.K.'s most influential alternative rock bands, The Jesus And Mary Chain were also among the most prolific. Along with their five landmark Blanco y Negro albums (all recently remastered and reissued by Rhino), the band produced a steady stream of inspired non-LP material, now compiled in one sonically walloping 4-CD boxed set, Rhino/Warner's THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING: B-SIDES & RARITIES. Presenting 80 chronologically ordered tracks, the box writes a parallel history of The Jesus And Mary Chain, covering every phase of the group's history from their 1984 debut single for Creation Records ("Upside Down" b/w "Vegetable Man") to their final Sub Pop releases in 1998.

The project was produced in cooperation with JAMC founders Jim and William Reid. Packaged in a 63 x 103 gatefold shell, the new four-disc set includes fresh interviews with the Reid brothers, rare photos and an 183 x 243 double-sided poster featuring a hand-drawn "family tree" tracing JAMC's evolving lineups on one side and artwork from many of the band's singles on the other.

B-SIDES & RARITIES builds on the 1988 compilation Barbed Wire Kisses, which was comprised of 20 obscure tracks; all but one of those recordings is included on the new box, which also features hard-to-find cuts from their post 1988 output and eight never-before-heard sides. This massive noise-pop bounty blends non-album tracks revealing some of the band's most fascinating work, including demo and acoustic versions of well-known favorites, oddball covers, revelatory Reid originals and more.

The box opens with the discovery "Up Too High," a Darklands-esque song Jim and William committed to cassette in 1983. Other previously unreleased recordings include an alternate version of "Never Understand," demos of "My Little Underground" and "The Living End" and the unheard song "Walk And Crawl" (all circa Psychocandy), as well as a trio of Stoned And Dethroned-era recordings: an alternate take of "Coast To Coast," a demo of "Dirty Water" and the lost song "Till I Found You."

The Jesus And Mary Chain remain one of the most important U.K. bands of the last quarter century. Formed in East Kilbride, Scotland in 1983, the group created a new intersection of noise and pop, draping curtains of guitar feedback over melodies worthy of The Ronettes or The Beach Boys. In listing JAMC's 1985 debut Psychocandy among its "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time," Rolling Stone called the work, "a decadent alt-rock masterpiece of bubblegum pop...drowned in feedback." With brothers Jim and William Reid as its, JAMC went on to influence countless alt-rockers to come. After disbanding in 1998, JAMC re-emerged at 2007's Coachella Music & Arts Festival. They subsequently embarked on a world tour, and a new album is in the works.