This Is Just Disheartening, or The Joys of Record Store Day

Just when I thought things were going to start getting better in the music industry, this happens.

Mercury, a music label in the UK, is stopping the physical release of vinyl singles in the coming months (real meaning: anything that hasn't already been made/planned won't be released as a vinyl single). Apparently, physical singles count for less than 1% of all single sales weekly, with digital sales being the obvious main source of all of those millions of sales. Unfortunately for music fans in the UK, this means that artists like Arcade Fire, The Killers, and U2 will no longer be able to release vinyl singles, save for "rare occasions." Which sucks, because that pretty much means no more cool b-sides.

I'm assuming that those "rare occasions" will probably be the most wonderful day of the year. No, I'm not talking about Friday or Christmas (please watch the video that's linked, it's honestly one of the best mashups I've ever heard). I'm talking about Record Store Day (which might as well be christmas for a music geek like myself), and it's coming up on April 16th.

Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 and is quickly becoming a really big deal in the industry. Tons of artists release limited edition 7", 10", and 12" inch vinyl that is exclusively sold at independent music stores. This years releases range from a new single by The Flaming Lips to a re-release of Nirvana's "Hormoaning" EP. (You can see the full list of releases here.) Most independent music stores have huge events planned for the day, often involving live music and DJ sets, giveaways, etc. Last year, my brother and I got tons of cool stuff- a Them Crooked Vultures 10" picture disc, a pink Phoenix single, the Dessert Sessions on Vinyl, a Black Keys 12" single, a Queens of the Stone Age EP 10" picture disc, and more.

Record Store Day is what the industry needs, but every single day instead of the second Saturday in April. And not only because vinyl just sounds so much better, but because it's tangible. It proves you bought something, that you supported an artist, that you love what you've just spend a decent money on (because believe me, it's an addiction...our total last year ended up coming out to just short of $100 bucks). Plus, everything's special. Most of the releases are extremely limited- often only having a total release of 1000 copies (some are less limited with 5000 or 10,000 copies).

So, even though the bastards at Mercury aren't going to put out physical singles anymore, supporting record stores has actually never been easier. So go out on April 16th! I promise you'll come away with something incredible.

Oh, Cultural Double Standards.

I found this on reddit.com today. Granted, there's one fallacy in there- Rebecca Black didn't write the lyrics to "Friday"- it's a pretty interesting comparison.

The idea of Wayne's type of rap has never appealed to me, even though I'm technically in that demographic that music like his is produced for (white suburban teenage males)[side note- while I technically lived outside of the city of St. Louis, I spent most of my time in the city. So that's kind of misleading, but whatever). Wayne has been critically lauded, winning, among countless other awards, 4 Grammys. He won his first Grammy for the song "Lollipop," a song about receiving oral sex and comparing it to candy.

A Grammy. For a song about a blow job.

While Rebecca Black didn't write actually write the lyrics for "Friday" (you can credit this guy, Patrice Wilson, with that), she associated herself with the music and now will go down in infamy for this song. Although the song is pretty pointless- telling us the days of the week, repeating the word "fun" something along the lines of 15 times, etc- we all know it, it's been around for quite some time at this point. The poor girl is getting a lot of slack for it, too. People have commented on her video and told her to cut herself and die and that she should hate herself. Seriously? She's 13. She did this for fun. Those are her actual friends in that video (which prompts one question- why are 13 year olds driving?). Let the girl be a kid, that's really what everybody needs at that age. Not relentless mockery for singing a song for fun.

But is it really all that different from Lil Wayne's trashy "swag rap"? Not really. The point is really the same- to make meaningless songs that in the end just make all of us look bad.

Glee and the Entitled Bastards Behind It.

I know I just posted about Dave Grohl recently, but this needs to be talked about.

So to be honest, I was a pretty big fan of Glee the first season. Though it was a kind of clichéd story, it had its moments and could be pretty funny while still pulling at your heartstrings. The songs that the writers picked fit quite well into the story, and the songs they sang were either classic or well known by almost everyone. The creators were ecstatic, as they had a huge hit- I personally know way too many people that watch that show religiously.

But this season has been rather different. I watched the first few episodes of the season, and it honestly just...well, it sucked. The episodes are written around what major artists' music the creators can get their hands on instead of putting songs in that are relevant to the story line- so there's not much of a story going on this semester other than the "Let's get to nationals!" thing from last season.

What bothers me the most is the sense of entitlement the bastards behind the music have. Recently, Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee, wanted to use Guns 'N Roses in an episode. When Slash said no, Murphy ripped into Slash, calling him a "washed up old rockstar" (quite the opposite, in my opinion). Nearly the same thing happened with Kings of Leon (who I can't find myself getting into anymore), whom Murphy called "snot

ty little assholes" for not wanting their music on the show.

So when Murphy asked Dave Grohl if he could use the Foo Fighters song "Times Like These" on the show, Dave declined. Murphy was, according to Grohl, "offended that [Foo Fighters] weren't begging to be on his fucking show."

Dave's remark is the best thing I've heard in a while: "You shouldn't have do do fucking Glee. Fuck that guy for thinking everybody should want to do that show."

And to be completely honest, you shouldn't. It's complete bullshit that Murphy thinks every single artist should want to be on his show. Why is he so entitled? Is it because Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber wanted to be on the show? I mean, they're the biggest pop stars in the world! Every artist and band should aspire to be like them, right?

No. Artists should be able to do what they want with their music, especially if they don't want it to be on some shitty, clichéd musical TV show about high school.

Artists Who Hate Their Albums

Oh, the music industry.

Let's start with Lupe Fiasco, shall we?

I read this article last week after a close friend of mine was telling me how excited she was about Lupe's new album "L.A.S.E.R.S." In order for Atlantic records to release his record, he was "forced to create" songs that he didn't like- namely, the lead single "The Show Goes On."

“That was one of those records the record company gave me, [they even gave me] stuff they wanted me to rap about. … At that point, I was just drained. I was like, ‘Whatever. Another song, another day, another dollar.” said Fiasco. “I had to do ‘Show Goes On,’ that was like the big chip on the table. I had to do it and it had to be the first single if the record was going to come out.”

That's some of the biggest bullshit I've heard in a long time- from both ends of the argument, really. Record companies obviously don't care about the artist anymore if this is happening- they merely care about how much money they're going to make off of a particular record and artist. This is why we don't see any conscious hip-hop in the mainstream- because even though these huge labels have the power to promote records that bring out issues within society, the labels push the bullshit "gansta rap" that sells to suburban teenagers, with their black Escalades and their houses that all look the same.

And, on top of that, there's Nick Valensi's (he plays guitar) comments on how "awful" the making of the new Strokes album was, which is really unfortunate in my opinion. His issues really have more to do with how the album was actually made than how it sounds, but he did say that that he feels like they have a better album in them, and that he wants it to come out soon (which, again, would be rad. I do love The Strokes).

What's the point of releasing an album you don't completely love? As a musician, I know that I wouldn't release a record to the public unless I knew that I enjoyed every single song on the record. If you don't love it, that means you're not putting much effort into it, and that means it's not going to be your best work.

On a nicer, unrelated note: The Beach Boys are releasing "The Smile Sessions" sometime this year, a 44- year old unfinished album that was shelved. Should be pretty neat.

One last thing- a bit of shameless self-promotion. My band with my brother and Pat Testa, Cute Machines has a free show Tuesday night at Café Prytania for WestFest, which is a bunch of free shows for bands headed to SXSW. It's FREE and it's going to be totally rad, so you should show up. Doors are at 9, music starts at 10, and you'll be home by midnight so you can get some sleep before class on Wednesday morning.

Fuck the Police.

Fuck the police.

No, but seriously.

Today on the Peace Quad was the SGA Battle of the Bands. Thanks to some technical difficulties and some people being late, the whole event (which was supposed to be over by 2:00 pm because that's when classes start again) was running behind by about 30 minutes. So when Naughty Professor, the last band to perform, finally went on at about 1:57 this afternoon, they were already aware that they had to play quick due to classes and such. But at 2:00, some self-righteous cop shows up and threatens jail time to all of those involved if they didn't stop playing, walking up on stage right in the middle of Naughty Professor's first song.

Jail time. For playing music. In New Orleans, one of the most musical cities in the world.

I've never understood those "disturbing the peace" laws. Music doesn't "disturb the peace." Why do I need a "noise" permit? What if I'm not making "noise"? What if what I'm making is music, loud and raucous (as it should be). If anything, the cops that show up to tell me that I'm "disturbing the peace" are the ones who are actually at fault- they're the ones who are threatening us with jail time for being original, creative, and ourselves.

Why can you arrest me for being loud late at night?

To keep me quiet.

Because maybe it's not just a house party where we're all just chilling out and having a nice time listening to our friends play some music. Maybe I'm not just making music. Maybe I'm starting a revolution. Maybe I'm sticking it to the man. Maybe I'm pointing out the shit in society. Maybe I'm everything you're against. Maybe I'm not obedient.