DANZIG: 'Lost Tracks' Double-CD Collection Due In May

The long-awaited "Lost Tracks of Danzig" collection, a two-CD set of previously unreleased DANZIG tracks spaning the band's entire career — from the 1988 self-titled debut to the present — will be released on May 29. It will be packaged in a book-like format and will include a 12-page booklet of photos and a short anecdote about each song as remembered by Glenn Danzig.

According to MTV.com, "Lost" collects a total of 26 tracks, including a number of covers — everything from DAVID BOWIE's "Cat People" to T. REX's "Buick MacKane" and THE GERMS' "Caught in My Eye". All of the original songs were written — and most recorded in bits and pieces — between 1988's "Danzig" and 2004's "Circle of Snakes". Danzig did have to do some additional work on the tracks to make them just right.

"A perfect example is 'Come to Silver' [from 1996's 'Blackacidevil'], a song I wrote for Johnny Cash that I never gave to him," Danzig told MTV.com. "I showed it to him but I never gave it to him because I left [Cash's label, American Recordings]. But this one's an acoustic version, and I recorded it a while ago. When we went back in to mix it, the vocals had been wiped by the old engineer. I don't know what the reasoning was, but he did. So I had to re-sing the whole song. It's kind of a shock when you're all ready to mix and you ask, 'Where are the vocals?' "

Of the other songs resurrected for the effort, Danzig prefers "Lady Lucifera", "Warlock" and the bluesy leadoff single, "Crawl Across Your Killing Floor". Danzig shot a black-and-white video for that track in August 2006, and describes it as "a takeoff" on the opening of 1966 spaghetti Western "Django".

"So I'm walking into town," he explained to MTV.com. "I have the long leather Western coat, with the shoulder things. I'm dragging this coffin behind me, and I open it up, and it's filled with all these old photos and I just start burning them — pictures of Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Sharon Tate, Charles Manson. I even burn a photo of Rick [producer Rick Rubin]. I put it in an urn ... and it just goes on from there."

In other news, Glenn Danzig and his former MISFITS bandmate Doyle Von Frankenstein have been in the studio tracking instruments on Doyle's first solo project since leaving the MISFITS, GORGEOUS FRANKENSTEIN. Danzig is producing the effort, which is expected later in the year.

Also on the Danzig-related front, Glenn's "Black Aria II" limited-edition vinyl and picture disc are being released shortly. The limited-edition foldout cover CD release of the original "Black Aria" is also coming back into press.