November 18 will see the release of Mark IV in our series of deluxe reissues of the original Pavement albums. Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. sports the amazing packaging and deep contents that you’ve seen in our previous three deluxe editions. Like the first three editions, released every 2 years since 2000, this package treats Pavement’s fourth album right, with two CDs containing the entire 1997 record, remastered from the original tapes, plus all the B-sides and compilation tracks from that period, and a plethora of unreleased live and studio tracks as enumerated below. The CDs come in an embossed slipcase with a 62-page perfect-bound book containing photos, ephemera, writings and more. (The record will be out on Domino in Europe and Matador everywhere else.)

Matador will be doing a Buy Early Get Now promotion for this record, and the extras will be very special indeed. We‘ll be announcing that shortly have announced that now , so keep your eyes on this space

DISC ONE

Now see the final, much changed track listing.

Original Album (Remastered) – Tracks 1-12

20. Beautiful as a Butterfly – UNRELEASED SONG – BTC SESSIONS OUTTAKE
21. Cataracts – UNRELEASED SONG – BTC SESSIONS OUTTAKE

The first MP3 will be available soon as part of our Fall Intended Play digital zipfile. Again, keep your eyes on this space.

A little more malevolent than my mental pic of the good doc, but still follows the script. I’d like to think he’d ride the deer to safety or something….

Missing man found dressed like doctor with dead deer in stolen ambulance

Holliman was admitted to a North Carolina hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Police said they would decide whether to charge Holliman after that evaluation is complete.

“Cold Son” (mp3) is the second track we’re previewing from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks’ upcoming ‘Real Emotional Trash’. While the album is hitting stores March 4, if you’re willing to brave the goody-windfall that is Buy Early Get Now #5, we’re confident you’ll be gratified (in a slightly delayed manner, however). Amongst the items on offer :

- an instant stream of the album (within 24 hours of signing up)
- the album’s first unreleased B-side (within 24 hours of purchase)
- a full live show recorded last December 21 at Portland’s Doug Fir (within 24 hours of purchase)
- in-studio, making-of-the-album video clips (launching tomorrow)
- a second unreleased B-side (Tuesday, February 26)
- the LP or CD, plus a free poster (in your hands on Tuesday, March 4)
- more stuff we’re cooking up. And you know how we love cooking.

(“Out Of Reaches”, from the forthcoming ‘Real Emotional Trash’ LP/CD, shot at soundcheck, Great American Music Hall, December 2007. Digital video by Katie Stanford)

Paying homage to Ronald Thomas Clonte, Matador Direct’s Dave Martin writes,

As you all know, we were rather ambitious with the New Pornographers’ Buy Early Get Now endeavor, but now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The first disc of b-sides etc. is complete and today the live disc “Live From the Future” is being posted on the BEGN site and folks are being notified about it.  That only leaves the last disc of photos and videos to be completed and we are anxiouslyi awaiting the final cut of the new “Myriad Harbour” video.  We expect to have that in house and ready to go out to everyone by the end of January.  As I said we realized that the scope of this thing was a bit too grand, however we were pretty confident that once it was all done we would have a really fantastic companion to the “Challengers” album.

Hey, take that LA Times.  Like Mark McGwire, we’re not here to talk about the past. Unless you wanna talk about the past year the band and various label persons slaved to assemble a fun, sprawling package that represents a fantastic deal.

Ahem.

Disc One: Challengers

Disc Two: B-Sides — COMPLETE (including the Holiday EP)

Disc Three: Live From The Future — Band is approving, will be done by the second week of January

Disc Four: Photos, Videos — The second video (“Myriad Harbour”) will be delivered right after the holiday, and we have all the other materials, so this will be done by the third week of January

So there you go. Though future editions of BEGN will undoubtedly be less ambitious, we’ll always have found memories of the version the LA Times hailed as “reasonably priced” and “delightful”.

No square inch of scenery left to chew, no square inch of Shatner’s ass to kiss, and no clips of the interview on YouTube yet, but one can enjoy Mike Patton exploring everything that happened in music between The Infectious Grooves and Linkin Park!

Q:  Why are the extra discs in my 'Challengers' Executive Edition box set blank?

A : Don't worry, they're not defective.  They're supposed to be blank. 

Here's how the Executive Edition works :  the box set you've bought is packaging for 3 screen printed CD-Rs.  The content for the box set will be made available to download a track at a time from www.buyearlygetnow.com.  When all the tracks and files have been made available, you can burn them to the appropriate CD-R.

Q: What file formats will this stuff be in?

A: Audio files will be provided as 256kbps MP3, as well as in FLAC format.  Most people are familiar with mp3s, they're the download format of choice and play in virtually any portable audio file device like the iPod.FLAC is a lossless, open source format that provides audio at the same quality as factory pressed CDs.  The file size is significantly larger than mp3, and the files don't play in iTunes.  For more info on FLAC, go to http://flac.sourceforge.net/.

Q: How will I know when to burn the CDs?

A: At www.buyearlygetnow.com there's a burn meter that shows you how much Executive material we've released, and how much more is left to go until you can burn each disc.  We've got material lined up for the next couple months, so expect not to burn the discs until then.

Q: I'd like to watch late night television tonight but haven't done so since Ted Koppel left "Nightline". Do you have any recommendations?

A: Absolutely.  The New Pornographers will be performing tonight on CBS's "The Late Show With David Letterman."  Dave's other guests will be Hayden Panettiere and Jeff Goldblum. Hopefully the latter will have some good stories to share from his days playing opposite Ben Vereen on "Tenspeed & Brown Shoe", though perhaps he's done something since, too.