Incredible new Japanese boxset from Mr. Big - "The Vault" (wow!!)

Holy beautiful boxset batman!!!!!



OK, let me back up.

The band Mr. Big is HUGE in Japan and they have released some really cool stuff over there in the past, but this latest ginormous boxset takes the cake. I pre-ordered this last year from CDJapan (it is limited and soldout via preorders for months now), and just got my copy in via Fedex from Japan today (took only 1 shipping day to get here after being released yesterday but something like 5 months to finally come out after numerous delays kept pushing back the release date).

The original details as to what is included actually turned out to be wrong (it is BETTER than what the original descriptions & press blurbs said), my God this thing is amazing. Kind of a work of art. Even if you don't like the band, or know nothing about their music, you gotta appreciate the design of this thing. Man those Japanese know how to make some nice stuff

While giving the CDs a first spin thought I'd share my amazement with other fans (or those curious to see what's what with various Japanese boxsets) through some photos and comments.

First the box itself, which is 3 separate large book size pieces inside a outer slipcase - measures in at about a foot high by 10 inches wide and 2.5 inches thick. Stands on its own 2 feet nicely on a shelf if you know what I mean. Just looking at the outer box gives a "wow!" Reaction. Oh, btw, the company that made this is called "WOWOW" - maybe that is Japanese for WOW! squared or something apt like that.




Outer spine (sorry for the crappy photo):



Opposite side showing the 3 inner books (again sorry for the blurry shot):




Back exterior cover listing the musical contents (we'll get to the swag later, let's talk about the music first):



Originally this was announced as containing 18 CDs and 2 DVDs, and MelodicRock.com later divulged more details than CDJapan's website, saying (wrongly) that all the content was going to be material dating only from after their reformation in 2009 (the band broke up around 2001 but got back together about 8 years later). I ordered it anyway because I love the new reunion material (the last 2 albums are great IMO, and 2011's What If is actually my favorite Mr. Big album) so even if all the boxset was demo/outtakes/live stuff from only this period I was OK with that, although it seemed weird that something announced as being released to celebrate the band's 25 year anniversary only had stuff on it from the last 5-6 years.

Let's take a look at the content list above - 18 CDs as originally announced? Oh hell no, that is not enough, make it 20!!

Material only from 2009 onwards? No, let's include 6 CDs worth of demos/rehearsals of stuff for the bands' first 4 albums Mr. Big (1989), Lean into It (1991), Bump Ahead (1993) and Hey Man (1996). Add to that an acoustic live show on CD from '96. So that's at least 8 discs worth of music from the "Mark 1" period of the band - Mark 1 being the original lineup before Paul Gilbert left after Hey Man, to be replaced by another guitar god, Richie Kotzen for the Mark 2 period (which released 2 studio albums and a bunch of live stuff), then Mark 3 being the reformed band after the original lineup reunited around 2009.

Then there's 2 "Mystery" CDs in here - what are they from? I have no idea and they don't tell us either! They could be other old stuff - or not - I don't know yet. All they are described as are "Studio Toolbox (Mystery Disc: Studio)" and "Live Toolbox (Mystery Disc: Live)".

And finally CD-wise throw in, lesseee, 10 live CDs from 2009 to 2011!!

Then there's 2 DVDs of various stuff through the years, music vids, live stuff, curiosities, and as usual, luckily for me, despite the DVDs being described as region 2 only, that is NOT THE CASE - they work in my region restricted player just fine, like any other supposedly region 2 Japanese DVD I have ever bought. This topic just came up in another thread btw, not going into it too much now but have some theories about this I will get into later if anyone is interested (or has any input on this subject).

Recall I said above that it was announced at first as the entire set being only reunion material. But now that it is out we can see it has a ton of rare stuff from the Mark 1 period of that band. What it appears to NOT have though is anything from the Mark 2 lineup with Richie Kotzen. But I am OK with that. I am still blown away by this set, and expect that some day we'll see something from the archives from that lineup too (or not - whatever happens happens). It is going to take me 10 years to digest through all of this set as it is; maybe by that time they'll release some rare Richie stuff too. I guess the 2 Mystery discs could be Kotzen stuff but I expect not.

And here's the really jaw dropping thing - the inner book with the 20 CDs - JayZus Christ! Look at this thing!!! Have you ever seen anything like this before? I haven't.

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Ah but wait a minute - here are the 3 inner books taken out first, before I show you the layout of the amazing CD set. The one containing the CDs is in the middle, with the cool musical note on it:



The one on the top left is the huge photo book (also has the DVDs inside and things like posters and pullout liner note books). The one on the top right is a Memorabilia box that opens up with swag in it (tour passes, band tourbooks, landyard, etc) - again we'll get to that that later, first be prepared to drool when you see this CD layout inside the book:



Wait a minute - so what's the big deal? I've seen disc trays like that in a book format before, like the Jethro Tull books, nothing new here, but - this is supposed to be 20 CDs right? But that's only 8. Where are the rest??? Wait again. Why do those CD trays stick up so much?? Could there be something underneath? Huh??? Wtf? Those look like hinges? WHAT? The disc holders FOLD OUT/UP to reveal more!



The ones on the left have a companion disc underneath on their own tray. The ones on the right have not one but TWO discs underneath - one on the underside of the folding piece and another in its own tray attached to the book. I have never seen anything like this before in a box set. It is really amazing (I amaze easily I guess). No cheap sleeve things with discs crammed inside to get scratched up all jammed into a box (I hate that), no this is like having 20 CD jewelcases somehow cobbled together in something like a laptop case, that fold up/out really easily yet snap securely in place too. Has anyone ever seen a design like this???





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That set looks pretty epic. I am a big fan of Paul's playing.

 

Gotta say I am not a buyer of Mr. Big music. Yes those Japanese sure know how to create oustanding_ releases and Creative and interesting packages! I would be careful flipping through those CD trays longterm, in cases a hinge cracks in the future.

I enjoyed reading the Thread OP, and again those Japanese truly know how to put a package of music releases together!

 

Interesting post. Thanks.

 

Before I talk a little about the musical content (and I've only just started to dive into this tonight as I write this, and like I said above it might take me 10 years to fully digest all this) here's more of the other books you get with this.

This is the book that contains, well...it mostly contains a book! Plus the DVDs, posters, pullout info pamphlets....



In the inside left of the book are the 2 DVDs in protective sleeves tucked into pockets. The right side of the book (it is a hardback cover) has a large paperback photo book - tons and tons of band photos from over the years, including some from Paul Gilbert's private collection. Don't know how many pages it is but could be like 200 or more (?).

This book is the same design as the excellent Raw Like Sushi 100 boxset from about 2-3 years ago. I thought that was a thing of beauty itself just looking through it (a hardback book in a slipcase, with 4 discs in pockets of the hardback). But that set didn't have the discs in protective sleeves and my discs were scratched (I hate that) so I added some sleeves to keep them in, but the damage was done. Whoever designed this new set didn't make that same mistake, and just a little thing like putting the DVDs in protective sleeves before shoving them into the pockets shows some nice attention to detail.

And then there's the memoribilia book/box. That opens up to reveal the fan swag stuff.



On top you can see a Mr. Big tour lanyard with a bunch of tour passes, some are stickers, most are the kind that fit on lanyards.

Beneath that is something I've never seen before. 2 booklet things that obviously are given to band/tour members that have pages with tons of info about the tour they are on, all kinds of mysteries revealed inside, itineraries, hotel accommodations, venue maps etc. I assume these are shrunken down replicas? Or maybe these are "actual size" (heh - some of you will get that, some won't).

The ONLY complaint I have about this set is with the inner plastic sleeve that contains these booklet things - the bag has really heavy glue on it and I could not open it without ripping it up. OK that's it - I'm sending this back. NOT!!!!!! I'll "get over it" ("Hey man", another thing Mr. Big fans might get..OK I'll stop with the album title references already).

Tonight I've only listened to 4 discs so far. I started out with the What If disc since I love that album so much. All of those tracks are "demos". Sounded pretty good to me - but actually at this point, now 3 discs later I don't remember exactly what the quality was like on that disc which I listened to like 5 hours ago, other than that I dug the music. This type of thing is not for everybody but I LOVE hearing different versions of songs, whether they simply are remixes, or totally different recordings like early demos, outtakes, or even years later when bands re-record songs from their back catalog (Mr. Big has a whole disc of the latter included with the Deluxe Japanese version of the last album btw that is really cool).

Listening to the earlier stuff though quality is rougher but doesn't bother me - I am used to listening to "bootlegs" for years and my ears adjust down to whatever I am listening to. It is just a treasure to hear early working versions of songs, jamming, etc, regardless of the quality to me. Some of the older stuff may have been recorded on a home cassette studio like a 4 track Tascam 424, or 8 track, heck maybe even a walkman sitting in the corner, who knows, I don't care, I love hearing this stuff.

3 versions of Addicted to that Rush (2 of them instrumental) - cool! Multiple working versions of many of the songs? This is manna from heaven (for me) or manna from boredom, depending on what yer into. I'm not into reggae but hearing a sped up reggae version of To Be With You is kind of cool.

Oh, as far as the tracklists for what is what, that is all in one of the pullout booklets above, showing 'xactly what is on what disc - except for those two crazy "Mystery" CDs which only have a few Japanese scribbles of info (I wonder if those reveal more of what they are).

Alright to wrap this up for tonight - will say again that this is a limited edition thing that has been sold out already for months, but can still be bought from independent resellers (who have jacked up the price a bit of course - I got my set for about $285 including the shipping but see it tonight on ebay for anywhere from that same price (heck one seller has it as a "best offer" so if you're looking to pick this up you might want to try taking a chance on that, maybe you can get a bargain) all the way up to over $400. Note that I missed out on the Raw Like Sushi 100 Deluxe box when it came out but ended up buying it for about the original price from a reseller on Amazon (where others on Amazon were asking for twice that much).

Oh, and also, just tonight I saw that CDJapan has yet ANOTHER Mr. Big new release coming out next month, tentatively entitled Raw Like Sushi 114+112, available in 3 different versions, haven't figured out exactly what is included on the most expensive version yet but I will getting one of of those. Sigh. I need to scrape up some coin for that one too.


Hope anyone enjoyed reading this, and if you also bought this set you chime in with some observations of your own, especially relating to anything super rare you are discovering on this set (I swear I heard what sounded like some unknown songs as I've been writing this, in addition to the jams, but I wasn't really following along with the tracklists to see what was what).

 

Epic is a good description!

 

wow that looks amazing. sure it was a hefty price tag

 

This is definitely the most I've ever paid for a musical set but I know there's been other things released that cost more (that I've passed on). For 22 total discs, not even counting all the other stuff, the price wasn't bad though, about $13 a disc.

I originally bought this for myself as a xmas/hannakuh/kwanza present (it was supposed to come out by xmas last year) using $ I got from working some overtime - not knowing that my heat pump was on the fritz and going to end up costing me about $2700 over the next 3 months in elevated electric bills plus repair costs (sigh)....

Oh well, you only live once. I almost died last year so I felt I deserved a splurge

 

that seems to happen to me a lot. get the bills paid off. get some extra cash and get something for myself. something breaks out of nowhere

 

Yeah, and not to derail my own thread with repair talk (LOL - no CRY OUT LOUD), but no sooner did I get the original bill for my heatpump of $1200 - after suffering through 3 months of electric bills 2-3 times higher than normal plus many winter days with lows in the single digits that didn't help - then my dryer broke! To be followed by another $600 needed for additional work on the damn heatpump. The joys of home ownership. And car ownership. And medical bills....I'll stop there...it's more fun to spend $ on music that is for sure.

 

Incredible set....unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I have never been able to stomach Mr Big - a treasure trove for hard core fans though and a great price considering...

 

WOW!!!
What an incredible looking set.

 

Hey Jimmy, we have a lot of overlapping tastes so I'm surprised you don't like them (but I understand at the same time), have you ever heard the recent What If album? You might dig it.

Check out this song:

 

newest album is ...And The Stories We Could Tell. Another excellent album.

 

For me I think it's something about Eric Martin's voice that doesn't do it for me...one of those inexplicable cases where I should dig them but just don't for some reason....I did own the first 2 cds when they came out but sold them ages ago.

 

He's not exactly my favorite singer either. His voice doesn't bother me too much although I consider him the weak link in the band. Paul Gilbert doesn't have much of a singing range but I'd rather hear him sing than Eric Martin. And when Richie Kotzen was in the band, they could have gone out as a trio and been better IMO. I think Richie did do a lot of co- or backup singing with Mr. Big though. He has a great voice.

Eric Martin reminds me of Jeff Keith of Tesla. Similar kind of raspy voice. I like Tesla but can only take JK's singing in small doses. EM doesn't bother me to the same level.

 

You. Must. Buy. It.

 

Not a Mr. Big fan, but seeing this is pretty neat!

 

Something weird - CDJapan has a new version of this set for sale now (called a "web edition"), has a very strange description, check this out:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEODAI-8285

Mr. Big The Vault 25 Web Limited Edition
36000yen
(38880yen Tax incl. in Japan)
US$ 298.66
Release Date April 15, 2015
Availability Usually ships in 1-4 days after it is released
Product Details
Catalog No. NEODAI-8285
JAN/ISBN 2000000495729
Product Type CD
Number of Discs 1
Description
[Product Price 30000yen + Service Fee 6000yen = 36000yen ]Important Note: We received a special request from a customer through our Special Request Shopping Service to make this item available at CDJapan. This is not a regular product that we carry normally, and the price includes our fee to specially obtain it. However, we welcome orders from anyone interesting in purchasing it. EMS shipping charge is not including. Please note that cancellation and return won't be possible after you order this product.


What the heck does a "web edition" mean? Is it the whole thing but as downloads of some kind? And how is this only one "CD"? Maybe it is a blu-ray? I have no idea.....

 

Their popularity in Japan is incredible. I knew they were big there, but I didn't know how big, and I didn't know they have surging popularity there to this day. Really, who would've thought? Especially in America, where they're a talented band but never really made it and only sold on a hit ballad, really.

 

No slight on the band but in every second hand store in Japan there's heaps of Mr Big discs for cheap prices...if you're a fan and happen to take a trip there I reckon you could pick up all their cds for 1000Y or less if you look around.

 

i always liked eric's voice

 

Got mine on order!! Probably shouldn't have, but just couldn't resist.....

Philip

 

Man it is worth every penny and then some. I still haven't had time to get through it all. Would like to hear what you think of it once you get yours.

Been meaning to post the tracklisting if I can figure out how to scan it without marring the booklet (or maybe I'll just try taking some photos, rather than using my scanner).

The outtake/demo discs are fantastic. I really have gotten into the rarities disc for the Hey Man album the most, even though that album never had much of an impression on me (I appreciate it much more now). Some great songs on there I've never heard before (Friend of the Working Girl, A Little Mistake for instance).

Oh, I did listen to the "Tool Box Mystery Disc" that I mentioned earlier (they don't tel you what's on it!). If I recall correctly (it is hard to keep this all straight, kind of overwhelming there is so much content in this set) it was nothing exciting. A lot of goofing around/jamming in the studio on all kinds of songs including some covers, but most not complete songs (I need to listen to it again).