Red Mosquito

http://soundgardenworld.com/superunknown20/

Superunknown20

This year, the band celebrates the 20th anniversary of this groundbreaking album with a special reissue in two deluxe versions outlined below and available on June 3, 2014 via A&M Records/UME. The Deluxe Edition is a 2-CD package featuring the remastered album along with disc two consisting of demos, rehearsals, B-sides and more. The Super Deluxe Edition is a 5-CD package featuring the remastered album, additional demos, rehearsals and B-sides and the fifth disc is the album mixed in Blu-ray ™ Audio 5.1 Surround Sound. The Super Deluxe Edition is incredibly packaged in a hardbound book with a lenticular cover, liner notes by David Fricke and newly reimagined album artwork designed by Josh Graham. It also features never before seen band photography by Kevin Westenberg. A 2-LP gatefold of the original 16 vinyl tracks remastered on 200-gram vinyl in a gatefold jacket will also be made available. In addition, the Superunknown singles and associated b-sides with newly interpreted artwork sleeves by Josh Graham will be reissued on Record Store Day, April 19th, as a set of five limited edition 10″ vinyl records.

Samples of songs from the Deluxe edition are apparently now up on iTunes.

How do you think the audio production will be? I thought the compilation album was shit, and the live album was fucking horrible - it sounded like a bunch of unmixed soundboard tapes with a jet engine overdubbed on top.

Telephantasm was shit??

Goddam i love SU.

Drooling!

Any word on a price yet?

I really don't like that art. They really need to get rid of the crappy art that started with Telephantasm.

Wendy Carlos's Twin wrote:How do you think the audio production will be? I thought the compilation album was shit, and the live album was fucking horrible - it sounded like a bunch of unmixed soundboard tapes with a jet engine overdubbed on top.

I'm hopeful for a good result but would not be shocked if it sounds suboptimal.

I actually love all soundgarden's art even when it get's a bit dumb/kitschy

Mojopin wrote:Any word on a price yet?

There is this.

Woof--the 2-LP version is listed at $54.99. Looks like I'll be saving up my credit card points for a few months...

Apparently you get a free, instant digital download of the remastered album once you pre-order. I won't be able to order till this evening. If anyone pre-orders today, let us know how the remaster sounds. I'm hoping they did a better job with it than Telephantasm, which sounded fucking terrible.

I think the lack of new songs and true outtakes from the Superunknown sessions is our strongest proof yet that the B-sides collection Kim has been promising for years will actually happen. Too bad it had to come at the expense of one of the things that would have made this an exceptional product.

matt reeder wrote:I think the lack of new songs and true outtakes from the Superunknown sessions is our strongest proof yet that the B-sides collection Kim has been promising for years will actually happen. Too bad it had to come at the expense of one of the things that would have made this an exceptional product.

Completely agree, although I hope we do see proper remasters of the rest of their catalog at some point even if those packages don't include all of the b-sides associated with that time frame in their career.

Ooo, shiny.

My favorite hat ever was the Soundgarden one I had when I was a freshman in college: it was the Superman logo but with a question mark. Wish I didn't lose it, stupid dorms.

matt reeder wrote:I think the lack of new songs and true outtakes from the Superunknown sessions is our strongest proof yet that the B-sides collection Kim has been promising for years will actually happen. Too bad it had to come at the expense of one of the things that would have made this an exceptional product.

this is what you want to be true, maybe there just isn't anything left to release.

why cold bitch isn't on the b-sides disk is dumb. what is black days 3?

Dev wrote:

matt reeder wrote:I think the lack of new songs and true outtakes from the Superunknown sessions is our strongest proof yet that the B-sides collection Kim has been promising for years will actually happen. Too bad it had to come at the expense of one of the things that would have made this an exceptional product.

this is what you want to be true, maybe there just isn't anything left to release.

They recorded 26 songs for Superunknown and only released 16. Most of the b-sides released at the time were either home demos or live tracks and the rest were recorded at a separate session intended for b-sides and soundtracks. Of particular note is that they chose not to include the versions of "No Attention" or "Tighter & Tighter" that were recorded during this time (are they being saved for the DOTU reissue?), and that "Night Surf" is missing - I was really hoping for that.

Dev wrote:why cold bitch isn't on the b-sides disk is dumb. what is black days 3?

It's a Badmotorfinger outtake. My guess is that we get a 25th anniversary of that album in 2 years. "Black Days 3" is the demo version of "Fell on Black Days", which is basically a different song. I don't know why they felt it necessary to change the name, but I guess they didn't want to confuse people who are not familiar with the depths of Soundgarden's outtakes and b-sides.

The most obvious thing missing is a DVD, but I know they hate video and I'll bet they either don't have much footage from this time period, or don't like what they have. It's a shame - the world needs a full professional video from the Superunknown tour.

matt reeder wrote:Too bad it had to come at the expense of one of the things that would have made this an exceptional product.

I get your point, but I disagree. I would much rather have all the really interesting stuff come out on a standalone release, rather than on an expensive commemorative reissue of an album I already own. Let 'em pile the reissues high with studio shrapnel and other junk--I think the one saving grace of this deluxe reissue movement of the past 10 years or so has been that I haven't been really tempted to buy any of them, and I'd just as soon do without the dilemma.