Nirvana Catalog To Be Re-Released On Vinyl

The bulk of Nirvana's catalog is set for a high-fidelity do-over this year as the Original Recordings Group (ORG) prepares to release "Nevermind," "In Utero," and "MTV Unplugged" on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl for the first time ever. All three records will be released in 2009, with "Nevermind" coming first, says Monti Olson, a senior VP of Universal Music Publishing Group/Interscope Records and founder of ORG, who will announce the deal at South By Southwest tomorrow (March 21).

"Bernie Grubman remastered the recordings specifically for us," Olson said. "To our knowledge this is the first time "Unplugged" has ever come out on vinyl. They might have done a limited promotional thing but I doubt it."

Olson, who started ORG in 2006 with his own money as a "groovy little vinyl imprint," had to pitch Universal to give him the rights to the storied Nirvana catalog. "We spoke to Mike Davis at UME who we do a lot of business with and he thought it was a great idea," he said. "Ultimately [Nirvana's management] Michael Meisel and John Silva approved it. We had worked with them on Beck's "Odelay Deluxe" project and they thought we were the right company to do something this special."

"Bleach," Nirvana's first album, is currently being manufactured for vinyl release by Sub Pop.

ORG has the North American rights to the vinyl releases, and sell them through a variety of one-stops and online retailers. The vinyl business, according to Olson, is growing. "We have some new accounts that are experimenting with vinyl, like Best Buy. I don't know how strong their initiative is, but they've alotted a little bit of floor space for vinyl.

"But the bulk of the vinyl in the retail space goes through independent stores - the Amoebas and the Waterloos of the world that have always been in the vinyl business. But what's happening is more and more people are coming in with a curiosity about buying record albums."

ORG originally began with old jazz and classical reissues, but last year launched a "Classic Alternative" division with the Beck and a TV on the Radio release. "We're going to be releasing a lot of classic alternative music from the 80s and 90s on 180 gram vinyl. Stuff that's more obscure and more popular. We're in negotiation with quite a few of those artists," he said.

"They're the best sounding records on the market," Olson says with the excitement of a true plastic fanatic. "We spend $15 per LP on manufacturing. That's an enormous expense, but it shows in the final product, it shows by our sales, it shows by our growing customer base."


BILLBOARD.com

I want remastered CD's!

Why? The original CDs sound fine. If they "remastered" them today, they'd probably just crank up the volume until it clipped.

(Granted, I'd like to see a re-release of In Utero with Steve Albini's mix alongside the original one, à la the Ten re-release. But it's not like the album desperately needs a new mix -- I'm just curious to hear Albini's version.)

Nevermind and In Utero are both available remastered from Mobile Fidelity.

I want a Rock Band catalog release of all their albums.

This is cool and any support for Vinyl I think is neat. Plus I love the Unplugged album one of the few eps that I saw the first time it aired and when the Meat Puppets came out that was pretty cool

actually I'm glad about this. I know vinyl is passe, etc... whatever.

But still.... most 90's vinyl is very hard to find, and if so, fetches high prices on Ebay as the demand is larger than the supply. I would definately be up for Nevermind and In Utero on wax and not having to spend $100's for it.

they're also rereleasing the whole Green Day catalog on vinyl as well. However, to not put too much supply out there, they're releasing one title a month, which I think is more reasonable instead of putting them all out there on once.

No, they should be remastered. The original CDs don't sound fine. You compare Smells Like Teen Spirit from Nevermind to the same song from Greatest Hits, and I pick the song from "Hits."

like they already did here:

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sTBoMlsw-0I&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sTBoMlsw-0I&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

I'll take remastered cd's anytime, don't give a fuck bout sound wave charts or loud wars talk. [STATCAT I hope that u don't take this as a direct attack towards u.]

Yeah, I used to be of same mind.

Unfortunately, if you listen to your poorly "remastered" releases on any higher end setup, the clippping and distortion really becomes obnoxious.

The louder you want to turn it up, the worse it sounds. When it comes down to it, if it was a good mastering but a quiet mix, I'll just up the volume more.

I think all of Nirvana's catalogue is fine. The albums were released at the peak of CD, IMO.

oh, thanks for the info.

Original Recordings Group will reissue Incesticide by Nirvana, joining previous ORG Nirvana remastered LP reissues, in a 180g LP set, remastered from original tapes. It’s scheduled for February 1.

MUSICTAP.net