That's a Whole Lotta Merge for $200....

While, yup, roughly $200 is a lotta dollars these days, it seems like you get quite a lot for it from these last 20 years of Merge Records, no?

The Merge Covers Album is nearing completion, with the following artists having contributed interpretations of their favorites from the Merge catalogue (and a few more expected):

Ryan Adams
Apples In Stereo
Bright Eyes
Bill Callahan
Laura Cantrell
Death Cab for Cutie
Dirty Projectors
Calvin Johnson
Ted Leo
Les Savy Fav
Barbara Manning
Mountain Goats
The National
New Pornographers
Okkervil River
Quasi
Times New Viking
Tracey Thorn & Jens Lekman

The Merge Remix Album is nearly finished as well, with mixes having been submitted thus far by:

Battles
Caribou
Jason Forrest
Hands Off Cuba
Kieran Hebden (Four Tet)
Junior Boys
John McEntire
Barbara Morgenstern
Mark Robinson
Trey Told ‘Em (Gregg Gillis & Frank Musarra)

As previously announced, the full list of curators for the next 12 volumes has been confirmed and is as follows: Amy Poehler, David Byrne, Miranda July, Jonathan Lethem, artist Marcel Dzama, Momofuku chef David Chang, Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, Zach Galifianakis, New Yorker critic/The Rest Is Noise author Alex Ross, Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi, and artists Andrea Zittel and Kara Walker.

The entire SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years project will benefit specific charitable causes handpicked by these curators.

Subscribers will receive the sixteen CDs, MRG, and other exclusive content in the mail throughout 2009, Merge’s 20th Anniversary year, as well as a special box to put them all in.

Quantities will be limited to the number of subscribers who enroll prior to the January 2009 delivery of the first two volumes (curated respectively by Peter Buck of R.E.M. and director Phil Morrison).

Those ordering before November 8 will receive the entire collection for $179. After that date, the price will be $199 until pre-orders close in January (exact date TBD).

To subscribe to SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years: http://tinyurl.com/46ha7d

(Thanks Gregor for the info)