unrest! and bonus tracks (ug).

i was watching t.v. when i spontaneously remembered how much i loved imperial f.f.r.r. by unrest back in the day. this being the future i was able to get it into my ears in a matter of minutes (i have no idea what happened to my original cd but i do remember that i had exchanged the stock black jewel case tray with a snazzy blue one that went awesomely with the art work... i am a dork). anyway, its as great as i remembered it to be and its always fun applying new perspective to old favorites, but the current available version of this beloved classic has been re-"pressed" with some extra baggage. that's right, bonus tracks. i have to say it... i hate bonus tracks. i know that's dumb, i know that's like saying "i hate free stuff and please don't give me any", and being a true american i was of course raised to believe that bonus anything is generally a pretty good deal, but none-the-less i hate bonus tracks. they don't belong there. you don't sell a picasso with a couple of his sketches and a lesser known piece or two stapled to the bottom and a good album is no less a work of art and should be treated with as much respect. i know, i can hear you, " why don't you just stop the record before the bonus tracks start?" well, just knowing they're there and i have to be responsible for stopping the record, or creating a custom playlist or whatever... that's just not what its all about for me. that's not to say that there aren't good songs available as bonus tracks, of course there are, but there's no need to tack them on to an existing work like so many after-thoughts. let them have their own record i say, though typically bonus tracks are demos or b-sides or low quality live versions or covers that wouldn't carry a release of their own and get over glamorized in an effort to move back catalog or boost interest in an artist, and if you're a big fan and you want the bonus tracks you have to re-buy an album you already own, like remember the lemon heads' its a shame about ray? if you liked the lemon heads enough to buy it when it first came out you were rewarded by having to buy it again if you liked their cover of mrs. robinson which was not included on the original pressing. AND THAT WAS RELEASED AS A SINGLE! YOU EVIL BASTARDS! and what about "special" releases like the re-issues of past classics? what if you have slanted and enchanted by pavement but being a true fan you want all the "special" treats that come with the "special" re-issue so you have to buy it too, but you can't throw away your original pressing, dude, that's how i know you're truly into pavement and not some johnny-come-lately, you have one of the old school pressings. you got it right when it came out. you're awesome. so, what, now you gotta have two copies of slanted and enchanted sitting next to each other in your collection? which one do you listen to? let's see, this is the way the artist originally released it and this one has been remastered, ie. changed, and burdened with amendments. let me think about it.not to say that re-mastering is always a bad idea, but if a record sold enough to warrent a re-mastered re-release, it probably sounded pretty good. or at least good enough. i still really like my new old unrest album, and of course i listened to the bonus tracks and enjoyed many of those as well (many of which were actually from another record i also used to own), but we all know they shouldn't be there. it just isn't right.