{"id":1357,"date":"2008-04-10T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2008-04-10T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-24T17:38:57","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T17:38:57","slug":"the-cut-out-shelf-on-itunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/the-cut-out-shelf-on-itunes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cut-out Shelf on iTunes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UF9NJVMmJTw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nLet me see if I can summarize a recent experience and then open the Halls for some thoughtful discussion on that great lost avenue to record buyers on a budget: <strong>cut-out bins<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe band I&#8217;m in, which includes a few other Townspeople, was recently contacted by a local booking agent &#8211; a <strong>good egg<\/strong>, I will stress &#8211; about our availability to open a show for some guy who used to front a third-rate SoCal skate-punk band in the &#8217;90s. It would be a Friday night show, and we&#8217;d be on first, which at our age has great benefits. When we were young and more or less happening enough to have an <strong>ego<\/strong>, we would have tried to talk our way into the second slot, if not chafe at the fact that we had to open for any artist we didn&#8217;t like and respect. However, at our age, this slot was seen merely for its ability to increase the likelihood that our <strong>highly selective<\/strong>, middle-aged audience would be able to get babysitters and come out. We told the booking guy that we were free.<\/p>\n<p>Long story short, the booking agent said, &#8220;Cool,&#8221; then explained that the headliner&#8217;s management would have to approve us from a &#8220;short list&#8221; of local bands. Sounded good, although this scenario increased the likelihood that our friends and some of the bandmembers would not have to hire babysitters that night. We&#8217;re realistic, and that&#8217;s all cool.<\/p>\n<p>The next day the booking agent, who was a gent throughout the process, broke the bad news in a probably unintentionally hilarious start to his message*:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><big>&#8220;<del>HEADLINER<\/del> isn&#8217;t interested in you.&#8221;<\/big><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Brilliant! Truth be told, we weren&#8217;t interested in <del>HEADLINER<\/del>, and we took delight in the <strong>Spinal Tap<\/strong>-worthy message that was passed along from his management. A flurry of intra-band e-mails flew about, and we had a good laugh over it while recording, just last night. <\/p>\n<p>Our most placid, happy-go-lucky band member (by far!) was especially annoyed and inspired toward humorous rants. He sent us a long e-mail detailing this guy&#8217;s forgettable career, characterizing his old band as a third-rate <strong>Social Distortion<\/strong> and describing his solo material as follows:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;He skillfully skimmed all of the dross from the &#8217;90s SoCal skate-punk movement and created a record for which the label &#8216;derivative&#8217; would actually be a complement. It is bound for immediate prominence on the cut-out shelf on <strong>iTunes<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It was that last part that really struck me and that inspired me to bring this experience to the Halls of Rock: <strong><em>the cut-out shelf on iTunes<\/em><\/strong>&#8230; Does iTunes have a cut-out section? My friend and I discussed this a bit more. He explained,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It struck me when I thought of it that I bought 90% of my music from the cut-out shelf when I was a teen and I wondered where kids go for low-cost forays into new musical territory these days? I miss the cut-out shelf!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So do I! An integral chunk of my record collection and, more importantly, aesthetic vision, was developed through purchases in the cut-out bin at <strong>Temple University&#8217;s bookstore<\/strong> alone: all of the great <strong>Kinks<\/strong> albums (and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=gummers_reinvigorating_the_no_dud_post&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=gummers_reinvigorating_the_no_dud_post&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\">even the very good ones<\/a>), <strong>Eno<\/strong>&#8216;s ambient albums and collaborations like the <strong>Fripp<\/strong>-Eno albums and the two he did with <strong>Jon Hassell<\/strong>&#8230; (For some reason, Temple&#8217;s bookstore circa early-80s had a line on Spanish versions of Kinks albums and releases by EG Records; <strong>General Slocum<\/strong>, who combed the racks with me, can attest!) For $1.99-$2.99 I could take a chance on something I may never have the balls (or money) to buy at what was then full price. Today, I occasionally see CDs listed at $9.99, like I&#8217;m supposed to take a plunge. Would I have ever spent the equivalent of $9.99 in 1983 dollars on an <strong>Anthony Braxton<\/strong> album when I was in college? <em>No way<\/em> &#8211; unless I&#8217;m more clueless about inflation than I think and $9.99 in 1983 dollars equates to $2.99. Nevertheless, some albums should be priced about a third of a brand new album, the way cut-out albums used to be, so that The Kids can take a chance on something he or she has never heard before. Who knows, the kid might be <em>interested<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><small><em>*NOTE: The booking agent was interested in finding another date for us, so like I say, this guy is all right in our humble book.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me see if I can summarize a recent experience and then open the Halls for some thoughtful discussion on that great lost avenue to record buyers on a budget: cut-out bins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[56,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}