Rhino High Fidelity Series Announces First 2026 Audiophile Reissues

The Stooges' "Fun House" and Velvet Underground's "Loaded"

LOS ANGELES – Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi), the limited-edition audiophile vinyl reissue series, returns with two albums that helped reframe rock at the dawn of the 1970s: The Stooges’ Fun House and the Velvet Underground’s Loaded.

Each album was cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimalin Germany. Both releases feature glossy gatefold packaging with “tip-on” jackets and newly written liner notes. They are limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies and available today exclusively at Rhino.com and select Warner Music Group stores internationally.

Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Don Gallucci, Fun House arrived in 1970 as The Stooges—Iggy Pop, Ron Asheton, Dave Alexander, and Scott Asheton—doubled down on everything that made their debut a year earlier so confrontational. It was a deliberate escalation—testing how far the music could be pushed without coming apart.

In the new liners, Pop writes, “Something about this record that I like is the way it begins with a couple of very short, fully structured numbers, and then slips farther and farther out of control…yet it never loses a structure of its own.” He adds, “This is not a meat-and-potatoes record. It’s not ‘ten really good songs that the consumer can depend on.’”

The Velvet Underground shifted toward tighter song structures on 1970’s Loaded, the band’s first album for Atlantic Records and last with Lou Reed. The record introduced some of the group’s most enduring songs: “Rock & Roll,” “Sweet Jane,” and “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’.”

In new liner notes, David Fricke connects Loaded to the band’s earlier work: “Compared to the shoestring revolution of The Velvet Underground And Nico and the distortion-fueled White Light/White Heat, Loaded was Reed’s philosophy of song in focused arrangements and radiant vocal character.”

Rhino High Fidelity continues to tap into Warner Music’s vast catalog, introducing reissues of seminal albums across genres—from rock and pop to jazz, soul, and beyond. Each title pairs uncompromising audio with archival-grade packaging, honoring the album’s original intent in both sound and design.

Fun House (Rhino High Fidelity)

LP Track Listing

Side One

1. “Down On The Street”

2. “Loose”

3. “T.V. Eye”

4. “Dirt”

Side Two

1. “1970”

2. “Fun House”

3. “L.A. Blues”

Loaded (Rhino High Fidelity)