Kramer restarted his iconic NYC indie label Shimmy-Disc last year via Joyful Noise, and as part of it, he’s finally giving a belated US release to his 2017 album with frequent collaborator and Half Japanese founder Jad Fair, A History of Crying, a record that also features the guitar stylings of Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary. It was Kramer and Jad’s third album together. For this US release, Kramer has remixed the album, retitling it slightly as A History of Crying, Revisited, and it sounds pretty great.

“When I asked Jad Fair if he thought it was finally time to finalize our 35 year trilogy of LP’s, he said he was so busy that there was no way he could even think about writing new lyrics for at least another year,” Kramer says of the album’s origins. “So i said, ‘Well, would it help if I sent you some song titles?’ I already had the LP title in mind for years – The History of Crying – and it just seemed like the right thing to do, at the time.”

Kramer goes on to talk a little more about the album and the opening song, “Red Red Sun,” which features a warm, wonderful vocal from Fair. “So I closed my eyes and imagined that I was crying about everything, all at once. I mean crying about all the things I’d ever experienced that made me cry, but all at the same time. like the world’s tallest waterfall of tears. And then I just let my mind dive over it, into it, and under it. And when I opened my eyes, the very first thing I saw was two Red Red Suns staring down at me. One was laughing, and one was crying, but they both trying to burn my tears away. And that became the first song on the LP, and the imaginary storyboard for the short film that accompanies the song.”

We’ve got the premiere of this video for the remixed version of “Red Red Sun,” which Kramer directed as well. “As a director, this was the first time i was able to hire a professional DP for a shoot, so this little movie holds a very special place in my red red heart. I hope you eat it up.” Watch below.

A History of Crying, Revisited will be out June 18 via Shimmy-Disc. You can pre-order it here.

The History of Crying, Revisited tracklist:
1 Red Red Sun
2 I Wanna Make a Movie
3 The History of Crying
4 I Won’t Eat ‘Til You Come Back To Me
5 I’ll Give You The Moon
6 Pickpockets Of Love
7 Show Me The Way To Nowhere
8 Do You Really Need a Map To My Heart?
9 All I Need Is a Kiss
10 I Miss My Analog Warmth
11 You Cripple Me
12 Tearjerker