Set for release on July 1st is Elvis Costello‘s reunion set with pre-fame bandmate, Allan Mayes, titled, The Resurrection Of Rust. Back in the early-’70s the pair was part of a fledgling pub rock ensemble named Rusty that split before ever earning the big bucks or heading into the studio. The two old friends have now teamed up to produce what Costello calls, “The record we would have cut when we were 18, if anyone had let us.”

Costello — who was still then known as D.P. MacManus — explained in the album’s announcement, “The EP contains new renditions of songs from our 1972 club repertoire; our duets on two Nick Lowe tunes from 1972; ‘Surrender To The Rhythm’ and ‘Don’t Lose Your Grip On Love’ — and closes with an arrangement incorporating Neil Young‘s ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ and ‘Dance, Dance, Dance,’ which marks my recording debut on the electric violin.”

Elvis Costello shed light on his decades as a hard working musician, songwriter, singer, and bandleader: “I don’t really have a choice, but I know people who really feel that way about music and don’t have the opportunities that I have. So, some of it is luck, some of it is what you’ve been given — and some of it just is work. That is the part of it that people miss that there is just a lot of work. The playing the show is joyfully or maniacally or whatever frame of mind you’re in. . . There’s a lot of miles and there’s a lot of thinking. I have to tell people, ‘When it looks like I’m just sitting still, I’m pondering sometimes. ‘Cause that’s what I do. I live on my wits.”