Vacant Horizon

cold roses. its like a sweater.

a very itchy sweater

I've heard most all of those, I just have not bought them. I gave up on being a completest a few years ago, but I will get those albums someday.

 

Before the Flood (re-master) (March 31st)

 

New Morning, and, The Basement Tapes also.

 

Various Dylan Blu-Spec cds to be released. (Amazon.com link).

 

I've never heard of this format.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

this is interesting. however, i think it will probably go the way of sacd, dts, and dvd-audio. not to mention that inability of blueray to catch on. how many times are the music industry folks gonna try to get people to re-buy albums?

didn't john mellencamp's last album come out in some new format too? whatever, if you love the song, you'll listen to any shit version.

as much as everyone seems to hate Under the red sky, it's one of favourites from him. a unique blues/rock sound with shitloads of guest artists on it

i actually like under the red sky. the production is bright and fun. of course i hated it when it came out. i was steeped in 70s production and couldn't believe the state of music production in 80s-90s. however, not that my pallet has 'matured' i actually like the album. my attempts with dylan are to focus on lyrics, then music, then voice, then production. in that order, every album can reveal itself to be quite good.

well, pat is not essential.

Me either. I've never really heard any of the band members solo work.

no way! no weir or garcia? you missing out dude.

The Zoey line is quite long.

oh zoey...mmmmmmmmmmmmmahhhhhhhhhh.

There's a blog post on washingtonpost.com today that raises an interesting issue: whether it is ethical to keep digital copies of CDs that you sell or give away.

 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterfor...l?hpid=sec-tech

 

My take is that it's generally okay to sell CDs after ripping the contents, but I can see the other side. In my view, there is an aftermarket for CDs that benefits artists, if not their record labels. I generally won't buy a new CD from someone I've never heard of (with some exceptions), but I'll pick up any old thing at a used CD shop if the price is right. For active bands who don't make tons of money on records (i.e. the vast majority of bands), having more copies of their stuff in circulation, however it gets to listeners, has to be a good thing. But I'd be interested in hearing other views on this.

well, i remember back in the early 90s the advent of selling used cds caused a big stir in music industry. i seem to remember garth brooks being pissed about it. anyway, that died down. of course the record companies lost money, but damn, the stuff people were selling back was complete crap. not to mention the fact that the advent of the cd and the constant reissues and remasters has resulted in continued gains for the business as people replaced albums multiple times. i think that is happening again with digital downloads. people, like me, remember an album they had in high school that maybe they sold. you want to hear it again, so you download it at itunes.

i used to rip cds then sell them. i felt bad about it and quit doing it.

It is a good five or six years old, but Harvard Business school (I think it was Harvard, I am positive it was an ivy league school) did a study on the music industry and their conclusion was that the pirating is eating into our profits was a bunch of bullsh*t (my word not theirs.). But in essence what the study found was that the decline in music sales was related to a number of factors. Chief among them were the rise in DVD and video game sales. Kids only have so much disposable income, and face it adults buy cd

Well that's just impressive and downright depressing to a hack guitarist like myself. "The McLovins"! Even the drummer has got mad skills for someone his age. I would just quit school and start touring if I was that good.

what's amazing about these dudes is that there are three of them in the same town who actually 'get' music at that age. it took me years to develop any real musical sense on guitar. they are great, and i love that they don't have a keyboard player. that would lead to cheese i'm sure.

http://www.glidemagazine.com/articles/5458...ic-artists.html

an article about CDbaby kicking ass! i really don't think cds will go away. there's still gonna be folks that want a hard copy that's not vinyl. i can't really think of an artist i'm desperate to have a hard copy of anymore...neil young archive 2 maybe.

one point i was thinking about is this notion that the artists and record companies are in trouble because of pirating. i really don't think this is true. folks who like a band will support that artist legitimately. this is obvious since the bands we like on this board aren't going down the tubes, and show no signs of slowing down (wilco, ryan adams, etc.) i really think there is only a small number of people that listen to only pirate stuff exclusively. my hunch is people use it more of a preview or 'extra' music feature. it's ultimately music that they wouldn't buy anyway, or, after preview, will not buy. the revenue decrease is the result of people not being forced to take a leap and buy an 18 dollar cd only to be totally disappointed. at the same time, this preview allows folks like us to jump on to new artists totally informed which leads to true fans who support artists in many ways.

just some thoughts.

craig

This track is hot. No lie.

i'm loving it too. i'm hoping this album really makes dylan click for me.

http://www.lasagnacat.com/

um, garfield, not funny.

okay, so my experience is usually that these sets are not worth it. the 'extras' just aren't that great and they just sit on a shelf. i might look at it once a year. case in point, the sojourner's magnolia electric co box set. of course, their best album, nashville moon was in there, but they should've just released that. here's an idea, how about a band focus on making a really good album rather than dressing it up with a bunch of extra crap. less is more when it comes to rock as far as i am concerned. interesting article though. trent reznor's got it right i think...

you could just as easily substitute ATHLETE or MOVIE/TV STAR...i doubt our values will change, since people still want to be entertained.

yep

your quote was taken a little of out context i thought (trying too hard to paint the owner as an arrogant asshole); the point i took away was that he played stuff he liked, and people would take note of it, and if they liked it, order it (see the comment about Chet Baker).

 

hell, if i owned a record store, i would play music i liked. wouldn't you?

 

 

btw, i was down in Atlanta for the Scion Rock Fest and caught the in-store performances the day before @ Criminal. i thought that was a hell of a record store...i didn't get to browse too much, but really liked what i saw, and the fact that they can hold in-store performances like that is totally great.

criminals okay for uber indie stuff. they're not going any where soon as they're in a prime location in little 5. i was referring to decatur CD and wuxtry. god if you don't go in to these places and feel like tool immediately. NOW, these are my experiences. i'm sure others are different and they just love these stores. to each his own.

just because you think that U2/Bruce/whoever is playing the enormo-dome has made enough money and shouldn't charge that much for a ticket, obviously others disagree w/ you, so your one man boycott isn't too effective, is it?

 

or do you think the gubbmint should put laws in place to throttle back their greed?

my point is that we live in a society that seems to value ROCK STARS more than stay at home moms and dad by virtue of how much money we are willing to spend on these folks. until our values change, then it'll stay the same. i have choice to pay for tix or not, thank goodness.

is it because he's from Son Volt?

i didn't like him when he was with son volt either.

I am particularly interested in what you mean by this. Do the clerks at your local indie record shop try and get you to buy what they think you should buy? If so they are making a big mistake I would think. Why would they do this? Don't they want you to buy what YOU want to buy and stock that?

 

LouieB

well, we have a few indie shops where i live. the one opened in 04. initially the guy was great. gave a good price on used cds, focused on what his customers wanted etc. after a while, he quit paying attention to anyone that wasn't a hipster. the place has become a bastion for pretention and the clerk is an utter asshole. that being said, the place is always packed on the weekends. so, good for him. now, this change occurred as digital music was becoming more and more available and i just decided to stop the hassle of going to the store and just get stuff online. there's another store which has a good used selection and vinyl. these dudes have made no bones about being assholes since their inception. incidently, the downfall of some indie stores, my local ones at least, have a lot to do with the whole record store pretention a la high fidelity. like it or not, the stores as well as the record companies are part of the middle men that are becoming more and more unnecessary as the business changes.

at least two band (Einsturzende Neubaten and Throwing Muses/50 Foot Wave/Kristin Hersh) already do this.

 

 

 

so who gets to decide how much money is enough? you? yes, you do. by not buying a ticket and going to the show. but that's the extent of yr influence. i don't think capitalism will shrivel up and die because of you.

that's my point exactly. also, i'm making no point about 'capitalism shriveling up because of me'. don't know where you got that.

Nice to hear the new DBT is going to be more rocking. Maybe hearing how good the new Isbell album is will challenge them a bit.

i find isbell to be completely uninspired and derivative. maybe i need to check it out again. his keyboard player bugs the hell out of me.

This article is not about the history of American popular music, it is just about John Mellencamp. If anything it is only about the last 20 years or so and that hardly represents the history of popular music which is now over 100 years old.

 

Actually you are correct. We should stop going to see music that costs more than $30 a show and we shouldn't buy CDs for more than $10 unless we really want to support the artist. Both are possible right now...right now. Just see local bands or ones that come to clubs that don't charge too much and don't buy albums new, buy them used, because there are plenty out there. Sure it is unpatriotic and all, but support your local musicians by buying tickets to their shows and their merch and let everyone else fend for themselves. There are plenty of musicians that deserve our support, they aren't named U2, Springsteen, or Neil Young (I love all those artists.....).

 

The music business has never been all that high minded, but right now it is downright ridiculous. John Cougar Mellencamp is plenty rich and makes tons of money on his airplay and selling his back catalogue when he can't get a contract with a big old car company. No tears for this guy, not even one. (Plus it is cheap to live in Indiana anyway, so suck it up John...)

 

LouieB

well, i could give a shit about john mellencamp. never liked him and never will. he does make TOO much money and it's hard for me to have sympathy for him or any other big artist. interestingly, as this is all going on in the market, i've basically changed my music habits back to the way i was in high school. for years i was buying too much music and seeing too much music that i had not much more than an ancillary interest in. now, i just can't keep up. so, i've basically settled on about 10 artists that i usually end up playing anyway. at the same time, GOOD new music just seems to come to me when i quit looking:)

as far as buying music, i just got sick of feeling beholden to the assholes at the local shop. i do want to help out the nice dude at the used place some times though. BUT, i'm basically going digital. it's just so easy to download an album and play it on my ipod. when an album is not available, i'll get it 'other ways'. these other ways would die out if music was cheaper though. 5 bucks max for albums on itunes or just buy directly from the artist's website.

well, DBT albums are too long and very difficult to get into for me. if one just loves patterson's songs then DBT are heaven. i'm still waiting for them to do a tight 10 song album that totally rocks. a masterpiece with 4 cooley songs, 4 patterson songs and 2 shonna songs. there's a point of diminished returns in song writing i think. you've gotta write a bunch of shit to get to the gems. for me, it's about every 3rd song. given that, patterson really needs to pick his best songs. i love that song righteous path from BTCD. he wrote that at the end of recording that album. it seems that his gems just pop up after he has been 'working' on writing other songs. i hope he can trust that and just take the gems for the new album. cooley doesn't write much, so any song from him is usually good.

i basically think we all need to quit going to concerts and buying cds until the prices come down. cds should be 10 bucks, album downloads 5 bucks and concert tickets should not be more than 30 bucks. also, i can see bands having some sort of subscriptions service where you pledge 10 bucks a month and get a bunch of shit. i would do that with wilco. AND, any bands that play small venues have to start shows earlier than midnight. i'm thinking 7pm. or do two shows. i would support and probably get into a lot more bands if it wasn't such a hassle to see them not to mention buy a cd from some

record store jerk.

also, big bands make to much money...U2, springsteen, neil young. all of them could tour and give away their music for free for the rest of their lives and would still die with millions in the bank while the rest of us drop almost $200 to see a show and the ridiculous hassle it is to see such a show.

I saw that the other day. Lefsetz posted a response:

 

Re-Mellencamp On The Music Business

thanks for posting this. i will read and comment later.