Fan's Warning May Have Saved '90s Punk Band's Biggest Album

The quick thinking of a fan is helping to bring a 1990s punk album back to life more than 30 years after its release.

How Rocket From the Crypt Found Their Lost Masters

John Reis of Drive Like Jehu started Rocket From the Crypt in the early '90s. The San Diego-based punk band gained momentum throughout the decade with stints on the Vans Warped Tour and an eventual record deal with Interscope.

Rocket From the Crypt also had some airplay on places like MTV's 120 Minutes with the single "On a Rope" from their fourth studio album Scream, Dracula, Scream!

Rocket From the Crypt, 'On a Rope'

Reis recently shared on social media that he was surprised to learn the masters from the 1995 album, along with a previously released EP, The State of Art is on Fire, had been discovered for sale by a fan on online marketplace Offer Up.

READ MORE: 20 Essential '90s Punk Albums You Need to Own on Vinyl

"After tracking down these tapes and purchasing them from various sellers who somehow acquired them legally through liquidation auctions, we now have the complete session masters from Saturation Studio that resulted in State of Art is on Fire as well as various singles and B-sides," Reis said. "What I didn't realize until now is that we had recorded almost the entire Scream, Dracula, Scream! record as well!"

Bringing 'Scream, Frankenstein, Scream!' to Life

Studio technicians spent the next several months trying to restore the masters to a point where they could be playable again.

In May, Reis shared that a reptile egg incubator was being used to "bake" the recording tapes to fight against "sticky shed syndrome," which slowly breaks down audio and video tapes over time.

A few days later, Reis finally got a chance to hear the masters for the first time in more than 30 years. That's when he discovered a more uptempo version of "Scream, Dracula Scream!"

"I was quite nervous of a very real possibility of uncovering nothing but banter and fart noises (or even worse, some other band's record). My happy face says it all.

Rocket From the Crypt plan to release the early version of one of their most celebrated albums under the title Scream, Frankenstein, Scream! 

But there's a catch if you want your own copy.

Rocket From the Crypt Turns Found Album Into Tour

Rocket From the Crypt have announced five shows in October and November. The shows will be the only opportunity, as of now, to get a copy of Scream, Frankenstein, Scream!

You can catch Rocket From the Crypt and get the album on vinyl at the following shows, where they also will perform Scream, Frankenstein, Scream! live:

Oct. 15 — New York, N.Y. @ Warsaw
Oct. 16 — New York, N.Y. @ Irving Plaza
Oct. 17 — Chicago, Ill. @ Metro
Oct. 24 — San Diego, Cal. @ House of Blues
Nov. 07 — London, U.K. @ Electric Ballroom

Venue-specific ticket presales started July 29. General ticket sales to the public begin July 30. Additional ticket information for each venue is available here.

Want to dive even deeper into '90s punk? Keep reading to see some of the best albums from each year of the decade.