Writing about London Calling got me thinking about the joy of the vinyl long player again, that and the visual of Nessing on his bike with the bag on his handlebars.
See its an interesting thing now. In our gimme now society could we actually wait long enough to go get the album? Do you remember listening intently to the radio for your song to come on? I absolutely do and the teasers from the dj saying ‘Da Do Ron Ron, by Shaun Cassidy, coming up soon on W-bla bla bla’…. And you would sit and you would wait through every add and every lame ass song until it came on and when it did you would sit hushed (or sing along or hit the record button on your external microphone cassette player) There was the thril lof the wait. The longing the ‘hope they play’, the ‘I cant wait for it to come out’
Now?
Four Year Strong at their Worcester show came right out and said it. ‘Were playing this live for the first time anywhere so youre gonna hear it even before it leaks on the internet!”..crowd roars.
Bootleggers in the crowd? Not sure anymore is it even worth it? Theres a whole other topic. Boot leg recordings of shows but anyway…
I am technology challenged. Up until last week I didn’t even know you could hear a whole song on the internet without it being on youtube. Im a busy girl I don’t have time to go searching resources, yet I stumbled on a site (lala.com) where you can do just that. Here a song anytime you want! Nifty. So again in our NOW NOW NOW world, well now you can have it…. Now.
Like a kid in a candy store I like the abilitty to buy a song. But I wrestle with what Im missing.
I like the convenience of staying on my ass and filling my music library when the snow is blowin, but I miss the liner notes “Id like to thank God, my therapist, my neighbor with the amp…’
And how about the lyrics? Hell ya cant sing along if you don’t know the words! (well I could but that, again, is another story)
There are so many benefits to physical recordings and cyber ones. In the case of Weezers ‘Ratitude’ I purchased both.
I do worry about the economics of it. Are these bands getting the same cut? I don’t care about Kanye and Mariah but I do really care about Shinobi and Love Via. I want them to make money so that they can make more music. Unfamilar with the business side of the business I can only hope so.
I worry too about the at home music producers we have all become. The Playlist, we feature it here but when was the last time you listened to an entire album/cd whatever from start to finish? What are we misssing when we splice and dice and create our own?
I am currently Decemberists obsessed. “The Cranes Wife” is in my cd player. Note CD PLAYER, not iTouch. Im learning from them that sometime you have to ride the entire thing. Ill be writing more about this in the near future but it’s a great example of what youre supposed to be hearing. Yes releases have filler but so what? Some of the fillers have ended up the best on the disc.
I guess in this case I can swing either way. I may buy a song or two from an unknown to test drive them, but I think when all is said and done- I want it all.