With the news that Eminem will be selling bricks from his childhood home to fans for US$350 to celebrate the anniversary of his Marshall Mathers LP, we decided to take a look back at some of the most memorably weird pieces of merchandise various artists have tried to sell to their fans.
Over the years, plenty of artists have gotten creative with their merch. Lady Gaga has sold parts of her wigs and even prayer candles. Bon Jovi sells the opportunity for fans to take a photo with Jon Bon Jovi’s microphone stand.
For the more affluent fan, you can even get your hands on a Daft Punk branded “artisan skateboard deck”! Last year Demi Lovato bounced back from her awkward “favourite dish” conversation by selling album bundles with… her favourite dish! That’s right, you could own your very own Demi Lovato branded mug. The perfect dish for anything hot or cold, not too big, and not too small.
It seems like every week artists from all genres and levels of fame are coming up with new and more ridiculous ways to take money from their fans. Inspired by Eminem’s plan to sell his childhood home – one glass encased $350 brick at a time – here are eight more incredibly ridiculous pieces of merch that artist’s have been trying to flog off in recent years.
Patrick Campbell is a freelance writer and full time joke. You can follow him on Twitter @tildaswagton.
8 Most Ridic Band Merch All Time
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Bat For Lashes - Air Freshener
As part of a limited edition boxset for her upcoming album, Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan is selling “Air freshener from The Bride’s car”… It will set you back $150 but you also get the album on vinyl and some “photo booth style” pictures of Natasha Khan so really it’s worth it! -
Flaming Lips - Fetus Ornament
In 2009, The Flaming Lips released an incredible, and tasteful Christmas decoration; a silver trembling fetus. Not only was it a beautiful addition to anyone’s Christmas collection, they also believed it had the ability to make you smarter when it trembled… So there’s that. -
La Roux - Matchbox
As part of a box set for her recent album Trouble In Paradise, the artist said that she would include nine boxes of matches from her travels with each set – one for every track. However before the release of the album it was announced that international shipping guidelines wouldn’t allow these so they had to change the contents of the box set, and the matches never happened. -
Kiss - Caskets
World renowned face painters and Pinball machine designers Kiss hit the nail on the coffin with this great idea of milking your fans until their last breath. The ultimate burial look for any hardcore Kiss fan, you can get your hands on one of these for around $5000, and they release new designs every few years. -
Rolling Stones - Skis
As part of their 50 year anniversary, the Rolling Stones released a new compilation album, toured the world and put out a whole bunch of new merch. Naturally, they decided that the best way to promote “50 years of fun!” was to release limited edition skis. The perfect product for their target audience of middle aged and up! -
Nick Cave - Sickbag
There are only 220 limited edition copies of Nick Cave’s book “The Sick Bag Song” which chronicles his 2014 US tour with The Bad Seeds. Each of these editions comes with a personalised and “fully functional” sick bag. For $750US these are a bargain and come stamped and signed by the legend himself. -
U2 - Condom
Well known for their sexy jams (Elevate anyone?), classic Irish rock group U2 capitalised on this branding by selling condoms branded with their album name at concerts in the 90s. If you’re lucky you might still be able to nab one off Ebay! -
Run The Jewels - Fuckboy Pack
Ahead of the release of their sophomore collaborative album which spawned a remix album comprised entirely of cat sounds, Killer Mike and El-P designed a bunch of very specific reward packages for their fans who preordered the album. For $100,000US you could receive the ‘fuckboy revenge package” which included 4LPs, a signed poster, and “1 clump of your enemies hair” among other things.
