CDs in your player now

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by Hogan11

I understand what you're saying and it makes sense and all....but it really doesn't work too well for us record/CD collecting completists.

Speaking of R.E.M., that band's tanking after Bill Berry left is nothing short of tragic....have you heard any of R.E.M. Live yet? It's pretty sad how far they've fallen...the concert video that comes with the CD is unwatchable in it's constant jumping around.

Well, you collect them - So you have a different POV.

I haven't bought an REM album since the one after 'monster' - i got some newer ones for christmas, etc - but IMO - I'd rather not. I like them earlier tunes.

Also hogan - I can find something i don't like about even my fav. bands. I like tool (for example) - but damn do i hate 4min song intros.

[BroncoInferno]

I tell you what annoys the hell out of me--"hidden tracks" where there are minutes of dead silence between to the last listed song the "hidden" track. For instance, Jarvis Cocker's new CD (which is excellent, by the way) has a hidden track with nearly 30 minutes of dead silence between the final listed track and the hidden track. 30 minutes! What is the point of that crap? It's particularly annoying when it's actually a good song.

[Hogan11]

Originally Posted by BroncoInferno

I tell you what annoys the hell out of me--"hidden tracks" where there are minutes of dead silence between to the last listed song the "hidden" track. For instance, Jarvis Cocker's new CD (which is excellent, by the way) has a hidden track with nearly 30 minutes of dead silence between the final listed track and the hidden track. 30 minutes! What is the point of that crap? It's particularly annoying when it's actually a good song.

That stuff is annoying but the most annoying thing I ever ran across are the cd's that are recorded as just one entire track. That Prince one (I forgot the title, never was a fan of his) started that short-lived trend. I remember getting The Rollins Band's Turned On as a promo and discovering it was done like that......which I really would've been pissed off about had it been a good show. As it was, he somehow chose an off night in front of a virtually dead crowd to record his first live album that way making it all the easier to shelve after a few listens (or ditch altogether at the used CD store). Rollins has since issued numerous live cd's making that document of annoying, snail-paced, single track sludge totally unnecessary and disposable.

[alkemical]

I know NiN had an album with hidden tracks, but you had to rewind the first track to the hidden ones.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by Hogan11

That stuff is annoying but the most annoying thing I ever ran across are the cd's that are recorded as just one entire track. That Prince one (I forgot the title, never was a fan of his) started that short-lived trend. I remember getting The Rollins Band's Turned On as a promo and discovering it was done like that......which I really would've been pissed off about had it been a good show. As it was, he somehow chose an off night in front of a virtually dead crowd to record his first live album that way making it all the easier to shelve after a few listens (or ditch altogether at the used CD store). Rollins has since issued numerous live cd's making that document of annoying, snail-paced, single track sludge totally unnecessary and disposable.

Rollins is basically unlistenable anyways...having to sift through tripe to get to slop just doesnt sound all that appealing.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by BroncoInferno

I tell you what annoys the hell out of me--"hidden tracks" where there are minutes of dead silence between to the last listed song the "hidden" track. For instance, Jarvis Cocker's new CD (which is excellent, by the way) has a hidden track with nearly 30 minutes of dead silence between the final listed track and the hidden track. 30 minutes! What is the point of that crap? It's particularly annoying when it's actually a good song.

I have always liked it because it makes for a moment when the listener is given the choice of either becoming interactive (albeit very little) and getting more music, or just skipping it.

I always choose the former rather than the latter.

[BMF Bronco]

So I know it's not a CD point but I am making it here regardless.

I got an iPod gift card for Christmas this year and decided last night to go make use of it. As I was looking I came across two of my favorite albums ever put out, Alice In Chains and Nirvanas gigs from MTV's Unplugged. Man, I went through and listened to them both again last night and damn that was some good ****! So I ended up getting both.

[Hogan11]

Originally Posted by angryllama

Rollins is basically unlistenable anyways...having to sift through tripe to get to slop just doesnt sound all that appealing.

Granted he's not for everyone....aren't you the one who had a problem with his show on IFC & his political views? No matter, I've always been a fan since the Black Flag days. He can be fearsome and menancing but he's always had a sense of humor that keeps it all from totally going over the edge.

Sounds like a good time to post a classic Rollins rant with William Shatner as illustrated by muppets, what the hell...

[alkemical]

I've been listening to some tiger army

[BroncoBuff]

I'm just wondering - does this mean we should change the thread title?

From Major to Minor

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.

In public, of course, music executives continued to talk a good game: recovery was just around the corner, they argued, and digital downloads would rescue the music business. But the results from 2007 confirm what EMI's focus group showed: that the record industry's main product, the CD, which in 2006 accounted for over 80% of total global sales, is rapidly fading away. In America, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the volume of physical albums sold dropped by 19% in 2007 from the year before—faster than anyone had expected. For the first half of 2007, sales of music on CD and other physical formats fell by 6% in Britain, by 9% in Japan, France and Spain, by 12% in Italy, 14% in Australia and 21% in Canada. (Sales were flat in Germany.) Paid digital downloads grew rapidly, but did not begin to make up for the loss of revenue from CDs. More worryingly for the industry, the growth of digital downloads appears to be slowing.

“In 2007 it became clear that the recorded-music industry is contracting and that it will be a very different beast from what it was in the 20th century,” says Mark Mulligan, an analyst at JupiterResearch. Last year several big-name artists bypassed the record labels altogether. Madonna left Warner Music to strike a deal with Live Nation, a concert promoter, and the Eagles distributed a bestselling album in America without any help from a record label. Radiohead, a British band, deserted EMI to release an album over the internet. These were isolated, unusual deals, by artists whose careers had already brought years of profits to the big music companies. But they made the labels look irrelevant and will no doubt prompt other artists to think about leaving them too.

The smallest major labels, EMI and Warner Music, are struggling most visibly. Warner Music's share price has fallen to $4.75, 72% lower than its IPO price in 2005, and it is weighed down by debt. EMI's new private-equity owner, Terra Firma, paid a high price for the business in August 2007. Now, having got rid of most of EMI's senior managers and revealed embarrassing details of their spending habits (£200,000 a year went on sundries euphemistically referred to in the music business as “fruit and flowers”), Terra Firma is due to produce a new strategy later this month. But many observers reckon the private-equity men are out of their depth.

The two biggest majors—Universal, which is owned by Vivendi, a French conglomerate, and Sony BMG, a joint venture between Sony and Bertelsmann, a German media firm—derive some protection from their parent companies. Universal is the strongest and is gaining market share. But people speculate that Bertelsmann may want to sell out to Sony next year.

Three vicious circles have now set in for the recorded-music firms. First, because sales of CDs are tumbling, big retailers such as Wal-Mart are cutting the amount of shelf-space they give to music, which in turn accelerates the decline. Richard Greenfield of Pali Research, an independent research firm, reckons that retail floor-space devoted to CDs in America will be cut by 30% or more in 2008. The pattern is likely to repeat itself elsewhere as sales fall.

Circular arguments

Second, because the majors are cutting costs severely, particularly at EMI and Warner Music, artists are receiving far less marketing and promotional support than before, which could prompt them to seek alternatives. “They've cut out the guts of middle managers and there are fewer people on the ground to promote records,” says Peter Mensch, manager of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Shania Twain.

Third, record companies face such hostile conditions that their backers, whether private equity or corporations, are loth to spend the sums required to move into the bits of the music industry that are thriving, such as touring and merchandising. The majors are trying to strike “360-degree” deals with artists that grant them a share of these earnings. But even if artists agree to such deals, they will not hand over new rights unless they get better terms on recorded music, so the majors may not see much benefit overall. Tim Renner, a former boss of Universal Music in Germany, says the majors should have acted years ago. “Then they had the money and could have built the competence by buying concert agencies and merchandise companies,” he says. Now it may be too late.

By mid-2007, when the majors realised that digital downloads were not growing as quickly as they had hoped, they landed on a more adventurous digital strategy. They now want to move beyond Apple's iTunes and its paid-for downloads. The direction of most of their recent digital deals, such as with Imeem, a social network that offers advertising-supported streamed music, is to offer music free at the point of delivery to consumers. Perhaps the most important experiment of all is a deal Universal struck in December with Nokia, the biggest mobile-phone maker, to supply its music for new handsets that will go on sale later this year. These “Comes With Music” phones will allow customers to download all the music they want to their phones and PCs and keep it—even if they change handsets when their year's subscription ends. Instead of charging consumers directly, Universal will take a cut of the price of each phone. The other majors are expected to strike similar deals.

“‘Comes with Music' is a recognition that music has to be given away for free, or close to free, on the internet,” says Mr Mulligan. Paid-for download services will continue and ad-supported music will become more widespread, but subsidised services where people do not pay directly for music will become by far the most popular, he says. For the recorded-music industry this is a leap into the unknown. Universal and its fellow majors may never earn anything like as much from partnership with device-makers as they did from physical formats. Some among their number, indeed, may not survive.

http://www.economist.com/business/di...ry_id=10498664

That is one excellent magazine, by the way.

[Los Broncos]

Those Legendary Shack Shakers - COCKADOODLEDON'T album.

Awesome band, im a big fan of the lead guy, his harp' playing is something.

Reminds me of Slim Harpo, they are on tour and will be in LA this weekend, i may get out there.

[BroncoBuff]

The Butthole Surfers' "Golden Shower of Hits." Mt gf laughs every time.

[Hogan11]

Originally Posted by BroncoBuff

The Butthole Surfers' "Golden Shower of Hits." Mt gf laughs every time.

Buff, Golden Shower Of Hits is by The Circle Jerks, not the Butthole Surfers.
It's a decent album, but the Jerks Group Sex is the better album (their best actually), even when it's offered as a twofer along side the very disappointing Wild In The Streets.

Just keepin' ya posted

[Hogan11]

Originally Posted by Lynchmob72

Those Legendary Shack Shakers - COCKADOODLEDON'T album.

Awesome band, im a big fan of the lead guy, his harp' playing is something.

Reminds me of Slim Harpo, they are on tour and will be in LA this weekend, i may get out there.

I'm not really all that familiar with the Shakers but they were just in my area not too long ago and I've heard they were really good....I'll be sure to check them out next time around.

[Los Broncos]

Originally Posted by Hogan11

I'm not really all that familiar with the Shakers but they were just in my area not too long ago and I've heard they were really good....I'll be sure to check them out next time around.

Cockadoodledont is their best album in my opinion.

If you want, i can burn a copy and send it out to ya.

It'll save ya some money.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

[Hogan11]

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

PT!

[Hogan11]

The Gore Gore Girls kicking ass live

[BroncoInferno]

Funny we were talking about the Jesus and Mary Chain the other day, Hogan...the latest offering from Steven Merritt and co. follows closely to the Psychocandy formula. They don't get quite as loud as the Reid brothers, mind you, and they give the lyrics and melodies a more prominent showcase. But it definitely appears to be a nod of the cap of sorts. An excellent effort, and a welcome change of direction by Merritt. His work had gotten kind of stale since the classic 1999 release 69 Love Songs. Ever listened to these guys, Hogan? Here's a gorgeous little ditty from the aforementioned 69 Love Songs:

[Bronx33]

[Bronx33]

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Bronx33

Buddy Rich solo

Very nice!

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

His wanktastic cheese jazz is only outshined by his supremely groomed balding mullet.