Patti Smith And My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields To Release Live Album

Patti Smith and My Bloody Valentine guitarist/singer Kevin Shields will release The Coral Sea, a live recording of Smith's 1996 prose poetry book of the same name, through their new PASK imprint on July 11.

The double album documents two performances on June 22, 2005 and Sept. 12, 2006 at London, England's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Smith read spoken-word prose from the book while Shields layered his guitar-work and effects over top. Both the volume of poetry and live recording pay tribute to Smith's friend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who took the cover shot for Smith's 1975 Horses album. Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in 1989 and The Coral Sea's poetry chronicles his illness and death. It's not known whether Smith and Shields are planning any future performances of The Coral Sea.

There's still no word on a new My Bloody Valentine album, but Wired magazine recently reported the reunited band might re-release three different versions of both 1988's Isn't Anything and 1991's Loveless. Wired cited a source who said Sony BMG may reissue each album in advance of My Bloody Valentine's upcoming tour, which includes a spot as the headliners and curators of New York's All Tomorrow's Parties. Shields is apparently pushing the company to reissue each album in three different formats: an original mix, a Shields mix and a Sony mix.

While no official announcement has been made about these rumoured reissues, Japanese fans can look for a My Bloody Valentine boxed set on June 25. The five-disc package includes full versions of Isn't Anything and Loveless, a disc containing all of My Bloody Valentine's EPs, another disc of unreleased songs and a DVD with 20 minutes of music videos.