the Nirvana Box

http://thestranger.com/2004-11-18/music4.html

Like the Beatles, Nirvana has been so thoroughly bootlegged that I'm not really sure what is useful about this release other than the DVD. I mean, how many hard core fans haven't bothered to pick up the bootlegs via trading circles or Bit Torrent over the past three years. The extra three years it took to deliver this set probably cost 100,000 in sales--at least that many people, probably more, got all these tracks in comparable quality for free. Wake up, record labels.

Advantageously for me, perhaps, while I consider myself something of a fan I never shelled out for the bootlegs (file searching, that I could have done, but I was downloading other things). So in respects, this set sounds perfect for the likes of me!

I don't think you can really blame Nirvana for releasing these tracks. "You can't sell that music, we already bought a shoddier version off those guys who bootlegged you". That doesn't make sense. I love bootlegs but come on, these guys aren't exactly Robin Hood, y'know?

(e.g. Beatles Anthology)

And the Sex Pistols where the tracks had actually been released on 'semi-legal' albums...

Still, record companies and artists should hold an advantage--while the recordings may have leaked over the years, we're still at a point where a beautiful booklet/liners can make a difference to a buyer. Personal photos and effects create value that give the labels a competitive advantage over the bootleggers; again, I don't see this as a lasting advantage, but it's current enough that it should be properly leveraged.

Yeah, I was about to say -- Kiss the Stone isn't around any more, are they?

i know it's out there

Around the third or fourth time the set was being announced as delayed, around summer 2002, was when I decided to make my own boxed set by downloading as much of the Outcesticide tracks, Peel Sessions, Rio Sessions, etc, as I could find and putting them onto 3 CD's. I find it downright lame that Krist Novoselic claimed he had access to such fantastic music when it was all just the same stuff the fans have heard already. So come November 23rd, I'll be spending my money on the 8 songs I've never heard, at least 4 of which I'm sure sound are in shit quality, and the DVD.

For fuck's sake!

Actually, what pisses ME off is that this thing apparently doesn't include the finished version of "You Know You're Right" (instead, just a demo). I mean, how fucking annoying is THAT? I still refuse to buy that stupid greatest hits cd.

I own one of course.

Incidentally, has anyone else noticed bootlegs are all color copies or epson print-outs these days? I miss the glorious days of high quality $20 bootlegs just before Napster came out.

I might buy that Greatest Hits thing instead.

got the box for Xmas.

so so good.

Kurt was amazing. He really was. What a fun guy. I just love the Bleach-era stuff -- he had such great control over his voice.

Best white-boy screamer since Lennon. I suppose i should append that statement with a "...maaaaaan". But whatever. It's so fuckin' true.

I love that first disc on the box. 'White lace & strange', 'anerexorcist', etc. ... that IS the Nirvana I fell in love with.

that's the Nirvana that ruled my world when I saw them in 1990 with Tad at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor.

Heavy fuckin' metal.

god bless kurt. rock and roll

I didn't realize that Anthony Kiedis and Andy Kaufman were the other two guys in Nirvana.

I only wish that that was really Tom Waits.

"You called me a vagina? How dare you!"

Working through it..

Played about a third of the DVD yesterday.

does any other of do re mi even exist?

I'm only aware of the bedroom demo. It was probably written too soon before their feb 94 shows for any other demos let alone a full band version.

I'd quite like a disc of songs not on any of the four studio albums, not particularly interested in alternate takes or demos or what have you. Does such a thing exist?

Not really, all of the b-side and non-album tracks are piled in with the alternate takes and demos on the With the Lights Out box, they've never really had a single disc non-album comp. Some of the Outcesticide bootlegs might get you closer, but a lot of those are live tracks, not necessarily b-side stuff.

BEANS BEANS BEANS, JACKIE ATE SOME BEANS

NAKED NAKED NAKED, HE WAS SITTING CROSS-LEGGED

I'd quite like a disc of songs not on any of the four studio albums, not particularly interested in alternate takes or demos or what have you. Does such a thing exist?

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Thursday, September 12, 2013 8:59 AM (54 minutes ago)

Haha, I think you've answered your own question here! Incesticide is precisely what you're referring to and is not a studio album.

Yeah I knew that, kind of wishing for Incesticide II really! There seems to be enough material knocking around.

Oh sorry, I thought you didn't know that because you said four studio albums (they only had three: Bleach / Nevermind / In Utero).

is there actually much material left that isn't on those four albums?

Blandest is pretty great. Why wasn't that on Incesticide?

it also has maybe the single best Nirvana lyric (and it's the chorus!): "I need you around to remind me what not to become"

Oh sorry, I thought you didn't know that because you said four studio albums (they only had three: Bleach / Nevermind / In Utero).

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli)

My fault for not having having stringent definitions; in my head Incesticide is a studio album because it's a collection of songs that were recorded in a studio.

is there actually much material left that isn't on those four albums?

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.),

Glancing through the tracklist of the box I can see a decent album's worth of extra studio recordings (not necessarily Cobain compositions, mind).

Corpse Cobain more profitable than ever.

What, are there new unreleased recordings or something?