Well. Last night I finally received what I have been anxiously awaiting for over 2 weeks – “Downside Up”, the Siouxsie and the Banshees B-sides box set collection. It has yet to be released in the US, so I ordered it from amazon.com/uk rather than pay import prices through amazon.com. (Ordering imports through amazon.com/uk is always preferable because they ship internationally, so you only pay regular UK prices and not inflated import prices).

It’s 3 full discs of b-sides going back their entire career, and a 4th disc that contains “The Thorn” EP, issued on CD for the first time. Many of the b-sides, especially from the earlier days, had never before been issued on CD.

There is also a very nice book with all the lyrics, plus comments from Siouxsie, Steve Severin and Budgie on every single track. The artwork and design are gorgeous, and the sound is fantastic – they really did a top notch job with the re-mastering.

The material, as b-sides tends to do, ranges from the hideously awful to brilliant, and everything in between ----- 55 tracks!!!! The Banshees are an amazing band, and have always been known as one of the ultimate “b-sides” bands. Most of these singles were only released in the UK, so many of them have never been officially released in America. Collecting them all on vinyl (and CD single for the more recent ones) would have been extremely difficult and time consuming and expensive…. Not to mention, they would be on vinyl. So, knowing this, I have never taken the step to try and get all the b-sides, as it would just be too vast an undertaking. I have always loved The Banshees, and I tend to be a completist when it comes to my favorite bands, so the absence of their b-sides in my collection definitely made me feel like I was missing out. I am missing out no more, hehe!!!! Most of the tracks I was unfamiliar with – I did have a couple of the Peepshow and Superstition era singles, so I had on vinyl tracks like “False Face”, “Catwalk”, “Are You Still Dying, Darling?”, “Staring Back”, and “Return”. But most of these songs are new to me, and I’m really digging it!! Listening to these old Banshees’ tracks really takes me back.

So yeah, I needed a break from my obsessive repetition of Tori’s “The Beekeeper”, so the timing of getting “Downside Up” in the mail couldn’t be more perfect.

YAY for The Banshees!!!!!
[Edited 1/19/05 8:44am]

Anyone in the U.S. who wants this boxset, I would recommend buying it from www.cdwow.com. Their price is £18.00 or roughly $35--and free shipping to the U.S.! This is from where I got my copy last year and it usually only takes a week to arrive.

I too loved the box set. I had already tracked down all of their b-sides over the years, so I wasn't hearing anything new, but the remastering is great and the liner notes for each song are very interesting.