Music Merch Has Gotten So Weird

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Musicians are so cool.

[00:00:01]They can play songs for you, clothe you, furnish your home.

[00:00:05]They can even help shepherd you from this life into the next.

[00:00:09]But I'm getting ahead of myself.

[00:00:10]Let's start small.

[00:00:11]This is my most prized possession.

[00:00:15]One night a few years ago, I was out seeing Spoon, the best living rock band.

[00:00:21]I was basking in all of the benefits of being a Spoon fan, like clear skin and guaranteed entry to heaven.

[00:00:28]I went over to the merch booth and among the usual clothing and records, I saw it.

[00:00:33]The Spoon Comb.

[00:00:36]It's a plastic comb in a spoon sleeve.

[00:00:40]This will is looking real nice.

[00:00:42]It got me wondering about the other kinds of weird, wacky, and wild music merch out there.

[00:00:48]We all know the usual merch suspects, vinyl, stickers, shirts, hoodies.

[00:00:53]But what happens when an artist tries to break the product mold?

[00:00:58]Let's stay on this oddball side of cosmetic products.

[00:01:01]For all you Alice Cooper fans out there, did you know he once offered his own mascara?

[00:01:06]Liberate your eyes.

[00:01:07]If you say so.

[00:01:08]This seems to be as simple as it looks, unisex mascara.

[00:01:12]Which, hey, that's a pretty seamless product integration right there.

[00:01:15]It's like if the Rolling Stones sold a big tongue or if the Who sold amnesia.

[00:01:20]There's the Lady Gaga jockstrap.

[00:01:23]It's a pink jockstrap branded a la Chromatica.

[00:01:26]Lady Gaga's favorite era.

[00:01:34]So this is one of my-- There's also the Caroline Polachek thong, available in both Welcome to My Island and Bunny is a Rider.

[00:01:42]And how could we forget the man formerly known as Kanye West?

[00:01:46]His history when it comes to fashion and clothes could fill an entire library.

[00:01:51]But I wanna zoom in on his Yeezus era.

[00:01:54]There were so many possibilities for merch.

[00:01:57]Sweet and sour sauce, a slightly smashed Corolla, some damn croissants.

[00:02:02]But instead, Kanye gave us shirts like this with Confederate flags waving in the background.

[00:02:08]A lot of his apparel around this time was made to shock folks.

[00:02:12]Kanye called it reappropriation.

[00:02:14]Some called it what?

[00:02:16]Either way, it's a lot to take in.

[00:02:18]It's a good thing Kanye never associated himself with harmful ideologies ever again.

[00:02:29]Hey, check out this left shark onesie.

[00:02:31]It's modeled after the famous left shark from Katy Perry's Super Bowl halftime show.

[00:02:36]It was $130.

[00:02:38]It came out a month after the big game.

[00:02:41]Beautiful.

[00:02:41]Also, why did they put Katy Perry's name on the back of it as if someone wouldn't know what artist was associated with left shark?

[00:02:48]Oh yeah, left shark.

[00:02:49]That was totally Kendrick Lamar.

[00:02:51]It's a good thing left shark never associated themselves with harmful ideologies.

[00:02:58]What about headphones?

[00:02:59]Not only are they wearable fashion, but they also let you listen to music if you've ever heard of that before.

[00:03:05]Luckily, deadmau5 teamed up with Soul Republic to create his own set of headphones.

[00:03:11]For cats. The world's first ever cat headphones.

[00:03:15]Everyone's been too scared to say it, but here I go, how does that even work?

[00:03:19]Like, do they only play frequencies that a cat can hear?

[00:03:23]And how in God's name would you manage to get them on a cat's head and keep them on?

[00:03:28]Look at this promotional shot.

[00:03:30]His ass is not listening to music.

[00:03:32]At least the thousand dollars you would pay for these headphones would go to charity.

[00:03:37]So even if the idea is silly, I can't say it was all around terrible.

[00:03:41]So now you're decked out in your left shark onesie, your deadmau5 cat headphones, and your Caroline Polachek thong.

[00:03:47]But so far, we've only covered things you can wear.

[00:03:51]What about things for your overall lifestyle?

[00:03:54]Picture this, you've taken a trip out to a remote lake cabin with your special someone.

[00:03:59]Clock strikes 12, midnight arrives, and you need to get some wood for the fireplace.

[00:04:04]Do you just go to the store?

[00:04:06]Hell no, you go out into the wilderness and chop down a tree with your Justin Timberlake axe.

[00:04:12]This is an axe that Timberlake put out during his Man of the Woods era.

[00:04:16]You know what, putting aside the $300 price tag, at least it made sense.

[00:04:21]Apparently the axe was inspired specifically by the song "Living Off the Land."

[00:04:26]Which is funny because the whole album is about rustic life, so really any of these songs could have inspired an axe.

[00:04:33]They must have been like, "Oh, if we were inspired by the song Man of the Woods, we would have made some decorative hand soap."

[00:04:39]But once you've returned from chopping wood, how about something to take the edge off?

[00:04:43]Here's another example of stellar product market fit.

[00:04:45]This is the band Wavves.

[00:04:47]Here's the music they make.

[00:04:54]It would probably not surprise you that they made their own weed grinder.

[00:04:58]It's apparently still available to purchase too, even if it's gonna be the last run of them.

[00:05:03]So get them while they're blazing hot.

[00:05:05]All right, things are chill now in your cabin.

[00:05:07]Why don't you and your loved one play a board game?

[00:05:10]Monopoly maybe, and not just any monopoly, Queen Monopoly.

[00:05:14]And Brian May is here to explain it in this 18 minute video.

[00:05:18]Queen Monopoly, what's that?

[00:05:21]Bro, that is what I clicked on the video to know.

[00:05:23]How do you not know?

[00:05:25]This is something which we regarded as a Queen project.

[00:05:29]You know, it's like making an album.

[00:05:30]Oh shoot, I gotta update my Deep Discog Dive on Queen.

[00:05:32]If you're curious, this is pretty much Monopoly with various Queen references and paraphernalia.

[00:05:38]Sadly, you can't play as the bandmates, but you can play as such iconic characters as the News Of The World robot and a woman from the Bicycle Race video.

[00:05:46]This would be a fun time with fellow fans if you have a Queen type event around the corner.

[00:05:51]You know what else is just around the corner?

[00:05:54]Christmas! In this hypothetical scenario.

[00:05:57]Remember, you're still in a cabin.

[00:05:58]In this cabin is a tree, decked out with all sorts of ornaments, including the classic silver trembling fetus ornament from the Flaming Lips.

[00:06:07]I'm here to announce the arrival of our newest Flaming Lips object.

[00:06:11]It's... Hey Wayne, can you keep that baby away from me?

[00:06:17]Please, it's, no dude, for real, it's really freaking me out.

[00:06:20]Dude, can you stop?

[00:06:22]Can you stop showing me?

[00:06:24]Get, get away from me!

[00:06:27]Seeing that tiny silver baby really wore me out.

[00:06:31]Feels like someone just threw a brick at my head.

[00:06:36]And speaking of bricks.

[00:06:37]No joke, this is real.

[00:06:39]Eminem once sold bricks from the Marshall Mathers house from the Marshall Mathers LPs.

[00:06:45]Only 700 of them were authenticated too.

[00:06:47]I mean, it makes a perverse kind of sense.

[00:06:50]The Marshall Mathers house is one of the more famous houses in music.

[00:06:53]It's up there with the American Football house or the Physical Graffiti house or the Tones and I house.

[00:07:00]Like deadmau5's cat headphones, proceeds from these bricks went to Eminem's charity that focuses on supporting Detroit.

[00:07:06]So I can't mock it too much.

[00:07:08]It makes for a nice centerpiece above your cabin's fireplace.

[00:07:11]And once you've settled in for the night, why not get extra cozy with your Weezer Snuggie.

[00:07:17]The Wuggie, my friends.

[00:07:19]The Wuggie.

[00:07:20]It's a Snuggie with Weezer's name on it.

[00:07:23]I suppose if you like Snuggies already or want to pretend you're Rivers Cuomo, this could be a good investment.

[00:07:30]However, it does not come with a built-in speaker that plays the Buddy Holly riff at random intervals.

[00:07:38]Because that would be highly disruptive.

[00:07:41]This really is a perfect evening.

[00:07:43]The fire is warm, Queen Monopoly was a lot of fun, and now you're all cozy in your Wuggie with your loved one.

[00:07:50]And this is the best part.

[00:07:52]I didn't even say who your loved one is.

[00:07:55]It's none other than the Travis Scott McDonald's Chicken McNugget Body Pillow.

[00:08:01]I'm sorry, do you want me to say more about this?

[00:08:04]I just laid out everything I could.

[00:08:06]This is a large body pillow in the shape of a McNugget that was sold as part of Travis Scott's collab with McDonald's.

[00:08:14]I could rearrange those words into new sentences for the rest of time and still find no new meaning.

[00:08:19]Keep in mind, this body pillow has nothing on it to show that it's connected to Travis Scott.

[00:08:25]This could have been a part of Uncle Kracker's McDonald's collab and no one would have bat an eye.

[00:08:30]Why is this $750?

[00:08:32]As we're now moving into larger items, let's take a look at some musician furniture.

[00:08:38]Oh, we're halfway there Oh, the Bon Jovi chair I touched on this in a recent video, but back in 2010, Bon Jovi went on tour and offered a VIP package that included a next generation collectible chair.

[00:08:56]It's incredibly basic.

[00:08:58]The only original things on it are the Bon Jovi logo and an album cover printed on the back and seat respectively, but hey, maybe this is worthwhile if you ever wanted to sit on Bon Jovi.

[00:09:09]Don't think about that for too long.

[00:09:10]And maybe it would be nice to have so you can sit as you play some Metallica Pinball.

[00:09:15]The official Metallica Pinball machine, originally released in 2013 by Stern Pinball.

[00:09:22]This was part of Stern's line of pinball machines for artists like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, but the Metallica machine has become pretty revered in pinball circles, having been designed by the late pinball wizard, Lyman F. Sheats Jr.

[00:09:37]There are like strats for this machine you can find on YouTube.

[00:09:41]People are not messing around.

[00:09:43]And aside from the core game, the design of the machine is very inspired by Metallica and metal.

[00:09:48]The machine plays popular songs from the band, Master of Puppets, Enter Sandman, the snare from St. Anger played solo for five minutes straight.

[00:09:56]There's even a unique mascot on the board named Sparky.

[00:10:01]He's in an electric chair and is apparently based on Shawn Fanning, the founder of Napster.

[00:10:07]God damn it Lars, you sure know how to hold a grudge.

[00:10:09]This machine was so beloved that Stern remastered it recently and put out an updated version, one that you can buy for just shy of 10 grand.

[00:10:18]Enter my world of pinball wonder.

[00:10:21]Yes Lars. 10 grand.

[00:10:24]No Lars.

[00:10:25]I've saved the best for last.

[00:10:27]This is the wildest piece of music merch I've ever seen.

[00:10:33]And it would only make sense that it would come courtesy of this man.

[00:10:38]Kiss's merch could probably fill up a video on its own.

[00:10:42]It could also probably fill up this casket.

[00:10:45]Allow me to show you the Kiss Kasket.

[00:10:49]It's a casket adorned with the Kiss brand.

[00:10:53]Flames, their logo, and even photos of the bandmates.

[00:10:57]To quote Gene Simmons, "I love living, but this makes the alternative look pretty damn good."

[00:11:03]Originally released in 2001, it was marketed not just as a casket.

[00:11:07]You can enjoy it while you're alive.

[00:11:09]Sunday, you got the guys over, you're watching a ball game.

[00:11:12]Open up the coffin, grab a cool one because babe, it's a cooler.

[00:11:16]Let me understand something.

[00:11:17]First off, this is the greatest image of all time.

[00:11:20]Why did we ever need to invent AI photos when we already have Gene Simmons presiding over his Kiss Kasket Kooler?

[00:11:27]And second, how many people do you think bought this thing with the intent of using it as a cooler?

[00:11:33]Dude, have you gotten a drink yet?

[00:11:34]I've got a bunch in the cooler.

[00:11:37]Oh, you got one from the Kiss Kasket?

[00:11:44]Then where's Grandpa?

[00:11:45]You know what's even crazier?

[00:11:47]Real people have been buried in these.

[00:11:50]Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, both of the Abbott brothers from Pantera, are currently underground in Kiss Kaskets.

[00:11:58]While new Kaskets aren't made nowadays, you can order older models for yourself or a loved one.

[00:12:04]It's a thing you can still purchase.

[00:12:06]Kiss really have the market cornered when it comes to music merch that doubles as a way to bury dead life.

[00:12:12]Between this and the Kiss urn.

[00:12:15]This was just a selection of the wildest music merch out there.

[00:12:18]So if there's some piece of merch that you know about that I didn't mention, let me know in the comments.

[00:12:23]And if you enjoy dives into strange things with an artist's branding, check out this video next.