With the wholesome, pseudo-nostalgic glow of Record Store Day '09 already days ago, it's time to remember the stark reality: the kids just don't buy records any more. In the spirit of trying-to-make-some-cash anyway, The Pixies are targeting the old-and-monied element of their fanbase, readying some Limited Edition and Deluxe Edition box-sets whose most telling element is their price-tag.
Entitled Minotaur and due to be 'released' to pre-buyers on June 15, the sets will bundle up all The Pixies' big works — 1987's EP Come on Pilgrim, 1988's Surfer Rosa, 1989's Doolittle, 1990's Bossanova, 1991's Trompe Le Monde— on 24k layered CD, with some sort of TBC bonus cuts in tow, but notably not in remastered form. There is, however, a live Blu-Ray DVD of the band in action at the Brixton Academy in 1991 thrown in.
Of course, this repackaging isn't really about the, um, music, but about the repackaging itself! 4AD house designer Vaughn Oliver, who single-handedly shaped the singular aesthetic of 4AD records through the '80s and '90s, is going to town on completely-new artwork for all albums, trussing the whole thing up in the sort of visual resplendence that shan't be buried behind a jewel-case. The bill for this Limited Edition? $175!
Of course, if you think the $175 option is an insult to your extreme Pixies fan-dom and you demand an obscene status symbol to flaunt in front of lesser beings, then, my friend, do we have a deal for you! The Deluxe Edition features all of the above, plus all five records on 180 gram vinyl, plus a hardcover 72-page art book, an art print, and a "clamshell" cover to house all of this filthy lucre.
For your devotion to graphic design and acquisition of slightly-rejigged versions of albums you already own, all it'll cost is a scant $450. And, in these troubled econonmic times, who doesn't have half-a-grand just laying around?
Photo © [Renaud Monfourny]
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