Box Sets We’d Love to See
by Adam Schragin
April 17, 2009 - 2:50pm

It looks as though the dee-lux days of big box sets and reissues are going to need a drastic makeover if record companies are going to convince fans to shell out the clams necessary for these cost-prohibitive retrospectives - many of which include music they probably already own. We’ve talked (and bitched) about box sets before, but now we’d like to imagine a few box sets that could further tap into this specialty market of gullible music lovers. The Misfits: Nothing But the Crap What: The Misfits have already seen a nice collection of their early albums come out in boxed form, but this package will be aimed at the next wave of Misfits fans who continue to support this band - despite the fact that they are now terrible - for reasons few of us will ever understand. This box will collect albums like American Psycho and their head scratching covers record Project 1950. It will include none of their early albums, as their original tunes and mangling of classics like “Monster Mash” will only sound worse by comparison. The Box: Obviously the packaging should say – “faux-scary, but nothing to get too worked up about.” Maybe last year’s Halloween masks stapled to the side of a trash bag. That should work. Bonuses: Included in this very special box set is an album of songs too terrible to even include on American Psycho, a special set of Misfits trading cards (collect all of the vocalists!), a copy of the legal documents detailing Glenn Danzig’s attempts to stop the new Misfits from forming, and a ten dollar gift certificate to Hot Topic. Bob Dylan: Gotta Serve Somebody What: Much has been made of Bob’s conversion to Christianity in the ‘70s and the series of terrible albums that followed, and this box set not only collects those early religious works, but also never before heard recordings Dylan made during brief stints as a Scientologist, Mormon and Moonie. Cuts include “The Thetan Blues,” “My Special Underwear,” and “Let’s (All) Get Married.” The Box: This will be your unadorned box with a multitude of slipcovers, each of which documents Dylan’s experiments with varying religions. Change them often! Bonuses: Includes photographs of Dylan at his bar mitzvah, baptism, and subsequent resurrection. Also, an original pressing of Self Portrait because they’ve been sitting there for years, and come on, we could really use the room for something else. Various Artists: I Bought That?? - A Bunch of ‘90s Records You Bought Once But Forgot About and Now Wish You Hadn’t Because It’s Embarrassing What: Remember all of those albums you were suckered into buying in the ‘90s because we all watched MTV, hadn’t really heard much indie rock, and were young and impressionable with allowance money? How else could you explain the purchase of all of those Presidents of the United States of America albums? Included in this very special box are purposely forgotten purchases including Short Bus by Filter, the Encomium tribute to Led Zeppelin, the Woodstock ’94 live album, that Frente! album, that Hum album, that Smashing Orange album, The Amps’ Pacer, Veruca Salt’s Eight Arms to Hold You, dig, and everything by Local H. The Box: Comes in a Foot Locker shoebox that also contains ink-stained copies of your high school poetry, and receipts that show put into startling perspective how much money you spent on records that lost their appeal shortly before 1999. Bonuses: This box set also comes with a selection of forgettable albums you considered buying in the ‘90s but didn’t - The Crow II Soundtrack, White Zombie and Nine Inch Nails remix records, and a sampling of rap-rock from Coal Chamber to early Papa Roach. Various Artists: The Best of Box Sets What: This collection of Box Sets puts your favorite, most ridiculous box sets together in one huge, unwieldy package. Includes the “limited edition” Box of Fire by Aerosmith, the cost-prohibitive Oh, By the Way Pink Floyd box set (sorry, A Momentary Lapse of Reason included), and, just because it’s fun, the Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally). The Box: A coffin. Bonuses: This is the box set to end all box sets. Never before have so many necessary and completely arbitrary tracks been forced to inhabit the same space. Actually, the amount of crap vs. great music in this set cancels itself out. After purchasing The Best of Box Sets, it implodes into nothingness. If that doesn't teach you a lesson, I don't know what will.















