Front page page photo by Renaud Monfourny. Above: the Limited Edition Minotaur box set
Holy cow, are we in a boom time for mouth-watering box sets right now or what? (See: the news story directly below this one.)
Pixies superfans are in for a real treat with Minotaur, the previously reported gargantuan box set that rounds up the band's studio recordings and videos with a live DVD, new artwork, and a book. Now, we've got the rundown of Minotaur's contents, as well as a glimpse inside the set, which is available for presale starting today at the Artist in Residence website. It will ship to buyers between late September and mid-October.
Minotaur will be available as a $175 Deluxe Edition and a $495 Limited Edition (not $450, as previously reported). The Limited Edition is pictured at the top of this story. Here's what the Deluxe Edition looks like:
For the details of what's inside the box set, plus video of what it looks like, click below.
In a Minotaur press release, Pixies drummer David Lovering says, "It's beyond my expectations. I thought it was going to be your typical box set, but it's monstrous, I've never seen anything like it." And indeed, this thing is pretty astounding. Packaged by designer Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier (the team behind all of the Pixies' original artwork), with brand new artwork for everything, it looks like something that belongs in a museum, rather than a record shop. The Limited Edition weighs 25 pounds and stands two feet tall. 25 pounds and two feet tall! Be careful that it doesn't fall on any small children or pets!
Here's what's in the Deluxe Edition, all stuffed inside a "custom dual-chambered slipcase":
- Come on Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde (1991) on 24k gold-plated CDs~~, mastered for 5.1 surround sound~~
- Come on Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde (1991) on DVD/Blu-Ray discs, mastered for 5.1 surround sound
- DVD/Blu-Ray of a previously unreleased 1991 performance at Brixton Academy in London
- DVD/Blu-Ray of every Pixies video
- 54-page art book
Seems like a hell of a lot, right? Well, the Limited Edition includes everything that's in the Deluxe Edition PLUS:
- Come on Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde (1991) on 180-gram virgin 12" vinyl, cut from the original analog tapes
- Faux fur hardcover 96-page art book
- Two 48" X 36", double-sided, fold-out, four-color wall posters
- A 22" X 14" GiclĂŠe print of brand new Larbalestier photo
Whew! Only 3000 copies of the Limited Edition will be made, but all of them will be signed by all four Pixies and Oliver. Oh, and the whole shebang comes housed in a "custom clamshell container that resembles the Monolith from the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey," according to a press release. Good god.
Here's a video with more eye-popping images of Minotaur:
And here's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the box set:
