The Trend

When The Second Disc’s Exile on Main St. poll was posted, I mentioned that I had noticed a rather unusual trend in the purchase of the various deluxe sets that were available.

As a member of the electronics/entertainment staff at a Target store, I was able to track a few of the big sets, some of which were only available through our retailers. Target was the only place to get the bonus disc of the deluxe edition (that is, the Rarities Edition), as well as the fan pack which bundled a t-shirt and guitar pick with the Rarities Edition disc.

From my perspective, we seemed to have the Rarities Edition in the greatest quantity, followed by the regular single-disc remaster, the Deluxe Edition and that fan pack. Such “fan packs” are nothing new to mainstream retailers; recall the crates and shirts that came with The Beatles remasters at Best Buy or the similarly-designed shirt that came with the mostly-Target exclusive Pearl Jam LP Backspacer. But let’s face it: most hardcore music fans and collectors (including, I’d wager, a good chunk of The Second Disc’s readership) see such baubles as exactly that, and only secondary to the promise of new music or vault cuts.

But then I noticed an unusual trend. The fan pack had sold out the quickest – and on top of that, customers were calling and coming in looking for the set. Fellow co-workers in the department noted similar scenarios. Was this how things were going down elsewhere in the country? I thought. Granted, the Target I work at is a fair-sized store housed in a commercial area between several upper-middle-class suburbs in New Jersey. It’s not a major hot spot for music, especially catalogue music (the Garden State has quite a few nice indie retailers for those needs).

And yet, here were average Americans reacting to a catalogue title in a way that they wanted to wear a t-shirt with the record sleeve emblazoned on the front. That’s where the poll came from, and that got me the answer to that burning question: Was this how things were going down elsewhere in the country?

Weekend Release Round-Up: SRV, Jayhawks, Sum 41 and More

This was a busy week for catalogue fans, what with the Elvis revelation from the other day and reactions to the new Exile on Main St. sets. Here, to close out the week, are a few announcements that fell through the cracks.

• The long-planned Legacy Edition of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s 1985 sophomore LP Couldn’t Stand the Weather now has a release date: July 27. The set will feature bonus tracks from the original recording sessions and a previously-unreleased live show on Disc 2. (No word on the tracks themselves, or if there are any repeats from the 1999 remaster. Also, Amazon’s got a June 22 listing for a deluxe reissue of the SRV/Albert King live collaboration In Session, originally released on the Stax label. Looks like it comes with a DVD of the performance.)
• Legacy’s also announced some reissues for alt-country band The Jayhawks, hot off last year’s hits-and-rarities compilation Music from the North Country. Hollywood Town Hall, their 1992 LP (and first on Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label), will see a reissue expanded by five tracks, while 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass, one of their most successful records, will be expanded in a Legacy Edition that includes 24 bonus cuts, largely comprised of the fabled “Mystery Demos” the band recorded at the time. Both titles are due August 24.
• Punk-pop band Sum 41 will see their debut LP, All Killer No Filler, get a 10th anniversary reissue from Island Records and UMe on August 3. Amazon has a pre-order link, but that’s the extent of it for now.
• Finally, Hip-o Select has announced a limited reissue of two Verve LPs from soul organist Jimmy Smith. Respect (1967) and Livin’ It Up (1968) are getting their premiere release on CD with a bonus track, non-LP single “Mickey Mouse.” That track list can be found after the jump.