Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticEarlier this year, Elvis Costello released an album titled “The Boy Named If.” Now, as a follow-up, he’s putting out an EP of songs that really were conceived or covered when he was a boy.His first band, in 1972, was called Rusty, and now he and another principal from that group, Allan Mayes, have joined forces to record and release the very first Rusty EP — or, as Costello says of it, “the record we would have cut when we were 18, if anyone had let us.”The six-song release, “The Resurrection of Rust,” is already being released, exclusively for now, at Costello’s tour stops in the U.K.; it showed up at his merch table Sunday night in Leeds, much to the puzzlement of fans who wondered what a “Rust” was.

It comes out for everyone else on June 10, digitally and on CD in territories except the U.S.; July 1, on CD in the U.S.; and on vinyl worldwide later in the summer.

Aside from Mayes, much of the lineup on the new recording is familiar: Costello’s current band the Imposters provides the instrumental support, his current producer Sebastian Krys fulfills that duty on this throwback record as well, and the label is Capitol/EMI.

But the track list is strictly 1972-vintage.The selections, drawn from Rust’s 1972 set lists, include two Nick Lowe/Brinsley Schwarz tunes of the era (“Surrender to the Rhythm” and “Don’t Lose Your Grip on Love”); a medley of two Neil Young songs (“Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” and “Dance, Dance, Dance”); a tune from Kentucky songwriter Jim Ford (““I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind”), one 1971 original written solely by Costello (“Warm House,” penned when he was still D.P.

Elvis Costello Reforms His First Band, From 1972, for New Record

Related News