Merge Recs Mounts 5-Day Festival

By Blurt Staff

Merge Records has announced more in 2009's 20th Anniversary festivities:  XX MERGE, five days of live music from Merge artists past and present taking place in the label's native North Carolina July 22-26. Lineup and ticket information will be announced shortly.

XX Merge will be commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Merge label, which began in 1989 in Chapel Hill NC, with a handful of 4-track recordings, a couple of cassette tapes, and some hand-stuffed 7" vinyl. Literally hundreds of singles, albums, and late nights later, Merge will be celebrating its past, present and future throughout 2009. XX Merge will be the label's party to mark this anniversary.

In other Merge 20th news, The Shins are the latest contributors to hand in their track for the Merge covers album featured in the SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years subscription-only box set, joining a line-up featuring Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab For Cutie, The National, the New Pornographers and many others. SCORE! subscribers will receive the covers collection a month ahead of its April retail release.

It was also announced this morning that the subscription deadline for SCORE! has been extended to January 11. SCORE! is a year's worth of music and exclusive artwork and bonus material available exclusively via subscription at the following link: http://www.mergerecords.com/score

Subscribers will receive 14 Merge compilations curated by the likes of Peter Buck, Amy Poehler, David Byrne, Miranda July and Jonathan Lethem, the SCORE! Covers album of non-Merge artists playing their favorite tracks from the Merge catalogue, a remix collection featuring reinterpretations of Merge classics, the MRG discography cover art book, and bonuses including a full-length Scharpling & Wurster CD, Superchunk's digital-only live bootleg The Clambakes Vol 4.: Sur La Bouche--Live in Montreal 1993, and many more.

All proceeds from SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years project will benefit specific charitable causes handpicked by the curators.