Oct 252013
Oct 222013
We’ve discussed the importance of a band’s LOOK. There are the Winners. And there are the Losers:
Granted, we can’t all be fetching, but we can choose our art director carefully. Let those photos serve as cautionary images for The Bearded Set, The Wee Precious Ones, Those With Suspenders, or Anyone Playing a Mandolin.
While it’s easy to scoff at many of these photos (and laugh at the captions), is it easier to determine what makes a GOOD band photo?
Oct 222013
Patty Griffin’s 2000 album Silver Bell finally got a proper release this year — many of the songs had been kicking around on other albums and covered by other artists — most notably the Dixie Chicks. Natalie Maines put the title track on her solo album this year. I’ve kind of been wearing it out the last couple of weeks. I don’t why A&M finally put it out now…evidently it had reached “lost” album status in Americana circles. Being Robert Plant’s girlfriend can’t hurt either.
“Silver Bell” and the fact that I finally finished Pete Townshend’s autobiography, where he spends a lot of time writing about the Lifehouse sessions, got me thinking about “lost” albums. As a kid, and Who obsessive for a while, I was happy to find remnants on Who Came First in the cutouts. I always really liked “Pure and Easy” and “(Nothing is Everything) Let’s See Action.” I had not listened to “Pure and Easy” for 20 years — to my ears, it’s pretty good and far superior to the Who version on “Odds & Sods.” I think it would be cool if Pete could stitch together a Lifehouse release like Brian Wilson did for Smile.
What “lost albums” are worth the time to dig up in your book?
Oct 222013
The All-Star Jam is the place to do your thing. Turn up the Sam Ash Sound and let it rip! Check out this gem passed along by ladymisskirroyale: a blog detailing ridiculous indie rock band photos. I’m uncomfortable with the amount of crap indie rock kids take these days, they’re like this era’s jazz fusion cats, but this is funny. Return the jam in favor.
Oct 212013
An artist’s comprehensive box set: the national flag jabbed into the icy mountaintop of faithful record collecting, the go-to gift from a very special and understanding family member or friend in honor of very special milestone. You own all the albums. You’ve bought the single CD releases and reissues, but you want that comprehensive box set, that one that lovingly repackages every album the artist ever released as well as bonus outtakes, videos, and in-depth liner notes and previously unseen photos! It’s all there in one giant box that shows the world just how deep your love for said artist is, albeit in packaging that usually takes up way more space than a coffee-table book.
As you sit among your treasure trove of materials, you suddenly realize that a particular album is missing from the box set. Your comprehensive box set is not so comprehensive after all. Usually the album expunged from the artist’s comprehensive box set has been expunged for perfectly good reason, but sometimes you wish it had been included after all. The only positive you may take from this omission is the extra rock nerd points you can cash in for owning the original, out-of-print slab of vinyl that was not included for half-baked archivists and Johnny-Come-Latelys to acquire in one fell swoop.
For this week’s Last Man Standing, let us note albums expunged from artists’ comprehensive box sets. Please note and tally a point for every expunged original album that you own. The winner will earn bragging rights for 2 solid weeks!
Oct 192013
Sounds of the hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
It’s around the 21-mile mark when your mind starts playing tricks. “Only 5 miles left” you tell yourself. You’ve run 5 miles plenty of times during your marathon training. No problem. It’s then your body reminds you that those training runs of 5 miles were not preceded by 3 hours of running.
I’m wondering if this is how a band feels with 2 weeks left of a 6-month tour.
[Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]
RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 117: Get In Shape by Mr Moderator on Mixcloud
Playlist (after the jump):
Oct 182013
[The following piece is copied from Financial Times, where “High quality global journalism requires investment,” and where our encouragement to “share this article with others using the link below” only leads to a page requiring readers to subscribe, that is, invest in FT. At the risk of bringing their legal team down on little old us, here’s what Links Linkerson wanted to share with us. – Mr Moderator.]
UK vinyl sales at highest level in a decade
By Robert Cookson, Digital Media Correspondent
UK vinyl sales have doubled this year to hit their highest level in a decade, thanks to surging demand from music lovers for LPs by artists such as Daft Punk and the Arctic Monkeys.
Some 550,000 LPs have already been sold this year – more than in each full year since 2003 – according to data published by the BPI, which represents British recorded music businesses.
