The questions I usually ask myself, as many other consumers may have asked when purchasing “Super Deluxe” editions of “New/Unreleased” material by any artist, not just Kurt Cobain/Nirvana, are the following 2 questions:

“Do I really need another version of XX number of this song?” “ Is this song really “unreleased”?” (in the sense of a completely unreleased, never before heard recording, that only the label knows about or has heard).


While most songs on Brett Morgen’s compilation album of Kurt Cobain home recordings are just that - unreleased, intimate songs/spoken word pieces that no-one has heard before, the product comes up less than short of empty handed.



But, Brett was quoted in a tweet as saying: “The Deluxe Version of Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings will feature 31 tracks and run 73 minutes. None of the Material has been released” ( , Sept. 28th 2015 (2:51 PM)


This evidently was not the case for some songs on the album - notably “Sappy” and “The Happy Guitar”. Sappy was first released over 20 years ago, in 1994, shortly after Cobain’s suicide, on the then-popular bootleg series, produced by label Blue Moon Records called Outcesticide. (Outcesticide: In Memory Of Kurt Cobain (1994 Blue Moon Records) (http://www.livenirvana.com/bootography/re…).


“The Happy Guitar” was also, first released in 1996,under the title of “Black & White Blues” * again for the Outcesticide bootleg series on Blue Moon Records,this time as the 4th entry in the series.(Outcesticide IV: Rape Of The Vaults).

(* while this is a common bootleg title for this instrumental track, it is what most Nirvana fans know the song as, unless somewhere clearly documented on the cassettes that Morgen was looking/digitizing at the time.)


A quick check regarding if “Sappy” had been released before, without making a comment as to “all tracks” were unreleased (guessing he meant in the consumer standpoint of things) would have been to check the Bootography at www.livenirvana.com/bootography/

As well as mis-interpreting “unreleased” in the sense, contradictions made by Morgen himself, when he spoke about the actual release of the companion album; It was intended to be released “Digital only, as “no one buys CD’s anymore” (http://livenirvana.com/forum/showpost…)


According to Gillian Gaar, whom interviewed him and posted regarding her chat with him over on LiveNirvana.com:“I talked with Brett today. He said there would be some kind of audio release; I’d said: ”a CD?” and he laughed and had said: ”Who buys CDs?”.

He said it wouldn’t be a “soundtrack,” but longer stuff. I suggested they put out a deluxe version, in a box, w/a book w/more of Kurt’s art. He also hoped to have lots of extras on the DVD, presumably the US one as he said it was coming out in the fall.” - Gillian Gaar (4/23/2015) (http://livenirvana.com/forum/showpost…)


This is another contradiction, as after he had said this, the upcoming album is now going to be released on all formats (CD, Cassette, 2xLP, digitally). This isn’t Morgen’s doing, he only organized what he’d like to see on it - it is mostly the Label’s management of the whole product/cost that had to remove certain things (like Opinion, etc) , and it now has really placed myself on the fence in regard to ordering the Super Deluxe, when i could just get the Deluxe version from I-tunes for an extremely lower cost.


via (http://www.universalmusic.ca/press-releases…)

The Super Deluxe Version includes the following:

Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings (on Cassette)



Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings (on CD) (found here: http://www.amazon.ca/Montage-Heck-H…


*Although, can be bought on iTunes for $10.00 (Standard Edition), and $13.00 (Deluxe Edition).*

A Puzzle of the “Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings” album artwork (I personally don’t see the need for this.)

A DVD copy of Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck (Found here and probably can be found for much cheaper: http://www.amazon.ca/Cobain-Montage…

A Blu-Ray Copy of Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck (found here, but can be found for cheaper: http://www.amazon.ca/Cobain-Montage…

A collectible Storage Container



A movie poster,



A 160-Page Hardbound Book (which, is the already-released U.S Version found here for cheaper than $33.24 CAD) (so the price should be dropping as it was on the market for a while.) ( http://www.amazon.ca/Kurt-Cobain-Mo…



U.S Version found here for cheaper than $33.24 CAD) (so the price should be dropping as it was on the market for a while.) ( Postcards and bookmark - I don’t see any valid reason for these two things being included, other than exploitation of said film/branding of Kurt Cobain and his image within the film.


Morgen was also quoted as stating that: “[…] a companion soundtrack will include all the previously unreleased music featured in the film, plus a dozen additional tracks by the late Nirvana frontman when it’s released in conjunction with the home-video version of the film in early November.” (Frank DiGuacomo, August 5th, 2015, Kurt Cobain Demos & Comedy Skit to Be Included on ‘Montage of Heck’ Companion Album: Exclusive , ) and (August 12th 2015, Chris Payne www.billboard.com “Kurt Cobain’s Montage Of Heck Soundtrack Get’s a Release Date”)http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/…

Morgen also replied to a Twitter Question and Answer session, in which he said the soundtrack would include “The Opinion home demo (portions were featured in Montage Of Heck, and it wasn’t the KAOS 1990 Version as featured on With The Lights Out) was almost 11 minutes long. And that there were going to be two versions of “Sappy” on the ST... an instrumental & a slowed down take.” (http://livenirvana.com/forum/showpost… - Dan Kapchinsky (August 6th 2015)


Upon the reveal of the track listing for the album (both standard and Deluxe), a lot of what Brett had said, hadn’t come to fruition. i.e: “All songs from the film will be featured on the soundtrack. But where is the “Breed (Home Demo)” ?, the “Opinion (home Demo)”, the other version of “Sappy (instrumental Version) (not that we necessarily NEED another version, but he was quoted as saying as such).

Morgen was quoted in another interview with Pigeons And Planes about the upcoming album, stating it would be: “85 minutes of amazing music.” (www.pigeonsandplanes.com , “An Interview with The Man Who Reintroduced Kurt Cobain to the World” , April 29th 2015.) link:http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2015/04/brett-…


These would both be justified if this “Deluxe” release had of been more than just a 1-CD version of the standard edition (also 1 CD) with a couple spoken word pieces tossed in to expand the running time. I’m grateful we are getting “new” Cobain material, even if it is over 20 years old. My main gripes are with UMG whom are milking the cash cow of this young man whom has passed on for the last twenty years; releasing things most Nirvana fans [both new and old] (almost everyone has access to a Computer and youtube.com/music these days) have had in their collection for around the same amount of time.

Instead of releasing a Super Deluxe Edition with a cassette version of Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings (which seems very superfluous for the consumer, since said person will already have the CD Version) along with extras like a puzzle, a bookmark, and the book (which had already been on sale months ago, as stated above) - all for $150 I might add, Universal could’ve assembled another disc’s worth of Material with the left-off tracks from the film (Breed, Opinion, etc.) … It feels like a sincere cash-grab to all Nirvana fans, both young and old, as well as an exploitation of the film and the Kurt Cobain name/ brand that most people take him for today anyway.


The release isn’t justifiable for $150.Possibly for $60. Not even for the Super Nirvana fan. If it was possibly 3-4 discs of material (like Nevermind 20th, that had more discs than this), then it would be justifiable to both the consumer AND the Label.

Down the road I’ll buy it. Don’t Milk a horse that’s already been milked to death...


My Verdict: Save yourself the money, and buy each item (Book, LP or Cassette or CD, DVD/ Blu-Ray) separately, when the price goes down. It’s nice to get new “upgraded” material, but at the rate of pay, not so much… Cash grab by the label itself. While Morgen ultimately cannot tell give the album that he fully envisioned (with all the trimmings (extra songs), because of his role as a film-maker, not an album producer, it would’ve been nice to see Universal Music fulfil both wishes of Morgen as well as the fans wishes, for all the songs within the film. Kurt Cobain would be rolling around in his grave, or maybe he would be laughing at all the hype this “album” is getting.Who knows…



…But in the words of the man himself: “All the kids will eat it up

If it’s packaged properly”

(“Aerozeppelin” - Kurt Cobain (UMG - BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC)

Those lyric still rings true today, it seems….

- Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings will be released November 13th, 2015.

- 7-Inch Single featuring“And I Love Her” AND “Sappy (Early Demo)“

Available Nov. 20th, 2015.