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Two by four
Label comps, deluxe reissues, DVDs, and box sets
BY MATT ASHARE

With the holiday season upon us, record labels are doing their best to accommodate our need to spend, spend, spend. And when they dig as deep into their vaults as we do into our pockets, well, it’s not such a bad thing, right? So with that holiday spirit in mind, we offer a sampling of some of the more interesting sonic and visual treats that are hitting the racks this year . . .

Label compilations

Matador at Fifteen (Matador)

Old Enough To Know Better: 15 Years of Merge Records (Merge)

Neither of these indie labels should feel shy about giving itself a pat on the back on the occasion of its 15th anniversary. The NYC-based Matador brought us Pavement, Guided by Voices, Helium, Liz Phair, and at least half a dozen other relevant artists who played a major role in defining the sound of the underground throughout the ’90s. And the Chapel Hill–grown Merge, a label that began as a way for Superchunk singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance to put out music by their band and other artists they’d become friendly with, introduced the world to songwriter Stephin Merritt through his Magnetic Fields, put out a great Verbena EP before anyone had heard of them, and have continued to keep Calvin Johnson’s idea of an International Pop Underground alive by taking on bands as diverse as England’s reunited Buzzcocks, New Zealand’s the Clean, and the late, great American band Neutral Milk Hotel. Of course, Merge has also put out a number of excellent Superchunk albums, as well as the band’s first DVD, which came out earlier this year.

But there have always been differences between the two labels. Matador is the more commercial of the two, having made distribution deals with both Atlantic and Capitol in the ’90s. And the three-disc Matador at Fifteen, which features two CDs and one DVD, is less a history of high points than a sampler culled from the label’s latest releases, with the first CD offering "Greatest Hits 1999–2004" from neo-new-wave Joy Division fetishists Interpol, the reunited Mission of Burma, the critically adored New Pornographers, and old Matador stand-bys like Scotland’s Belle & Sebastian, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Guided by Voices, Cat Power, and Stephen Malkmus both with and without Pavement. The second CD offers previously unreleased tracks and rarities by mostly the same bands, and the DVD gives you music videos by a dozen artists pulled from that lot.

The three-disc Merge compilation is less strictly organized: it tosses together tracks by defunct outfits like Neutral Milk Hotel, bands who did one-off deals or just singles with the label (the Buzzcocks and Seaweed), newcomers like singer-songwriter Richard Buckner, and artists who have had long-term relationships with Merge like David Kilgour and East River Pipe. Over the course of 61 selections, you get a diverse indication not only of what indie rock has been but of where it might be headed.

Box sets

Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection (Epic)

The Cure, Join the Dots: B-sides & Rarities, 1978–2001 (Fiction/Elektra/Rhino)

Michael Jackson has gone so far in terms of alienating anything one might consider a mainstream audience that I wonder how easy it now is for people to separate his music from his behavior. It’ll be interesting to see how many people pick up this five-disc box that includes all — and I mean all — of his hits (both solo and with the Jackson 5) along with a few interesting odds and sods, like the original demo for "We Are the World" and an "early version" of "Dangerous," on four CDs, along with the requisite DVD — a previously unreleased 16-song performance in Bucharest during the "Dangerous" tour. The set does consolidate Quincy Jones’s legacy as a trailblazing producer. Beyond that, it’s a reminder that once upon a time, Jackson was a genuine musical talent.

Robert Smith is a bit of oddball himself. But the fact that he’s continued to record under the Cure umbrella for almost 30 years when he could easily have embarked upon a solo career a couple of decades ago says something about his commitment to putting his music ahead of his persona. It’s a testament to the time, energy, and talent he’s put into the Cure that even without any of the hits or the familiar album tracks, he’s assembled a riveting four-disc retrospective using only B-sides and rarities. Okay, so three mixes of the Cure’s cover of the Doors tune "Hello, I Love You" is a bit much. But the rest of this collection is a treasure trove of — in some cases — legendarily difficult-to-find tunes like the B-side to the original "Boys Don’t Cry" single ("Pillbox Tales") and "Sugar Girl," a track that was an "extra B-side" for the "Just like Heaven" single. Other revelations include a spot-on cover of Bowie’s "Young Americans" that I never even knew the Cure had recorded (it’s way better than their better-known cover of Hendrix’s "Purple Haze") and an acoustic version of the rarity "Signal to Noise." No, this isn’t your basic introduction to the Cure: this is a four-CD collection for those of you who already have the albums and want something more.

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Issue Date: December 10 - 16, 2004
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