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This week in music – January 4th – 11th 2011

I had an interesting week in music this last week.

I started the week taking advantage of Amazon’s $5.00 MP3 albums and picked up two celebrated releases from Minneapolis bands:

  • Gayngs – Relayted: This new Minneapolis 23 member  supergroup, featuring members of Bon Iver, Solid Gold and rapper P.O.S, creates a unique sound that is guaranteed to mellow you out.  Perfect msuic to play in the background while cooking or reading, Gayngs will relax and soothe you.
  • Trampled by Turtles – Palomino: I’ve said it a few times before, but especially after Mumford and Sons exploded on the scene, is that indie rock needs more banjos and fiddles.  Trampled by Turtles (along with Carolina Chocolate Drop) definitely filled that quota in 2010.  Filled with catchy alt-country hooks, Palomino will get your foot tapping and, with songs averaging right around 3 minutes, you’ll be pressing play to listen to it again before you know it.

I hit up Discland on Saturday.  It’s been close to 6 months since I’ve been there and their used vinyl selection keeps on growing.  My main goal was to pick up some used Van Halen (which is a story for another time) and the trip was successful.

I was able to pick up Van Halen II, Women and Children First and Diver Down, completing my collection of David Lee Roth era Van Halen.  They also had a surprising amount of pop – usually all I find is 70s and 80s rock when visiting used record stores and, while I’m not a huge Madonna fan, I found myself buying Madonna’s True Blue and Like a Prayer albums.  Both albums take me back to my childhood and I gave them a spin on Sunday and they’re both great pop albums.  Lastly, I went back to my hair band roots, and picked up White Lion’s Pride as the last used album.  Discland also had a rare copy of Alejandro Escovedo’s 2001 re-issue, A Man Under the Influence.  One of 1000 vinyl copies pressed, I snatched that up.  His 2008 album, Real Animals, was one of my favorite albums of the year, and 2010’s Street Songs of Love was a solid release, though it didn’t crack my top 10.

  • Polyvinyl emailed me that my Deerhoof vs. Evil pre-order shipped on Friday and the MP3s were available for download.  I’ve given that a couple listens and I’ll put a review up once the vinyl comes.
  • Social Distortion’s Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes comes out next Tuesday, January 18th, and I pre-ordered one of 1000 yellow vinyl copies.  They have yellow or red available.  I would have preferred the red, but yellow was limited to 1000 and red was limited to 2500.  I’m a sucker for “rare” and limited editions.  The long time punk rockers are also running a contest on their website – the more people who stream their new album, the lower the price will be in the Amazon MP3 store.  I’ll definitely be giving that a listen tomorrow.  I also plan to review the album once it arrives.

I closed out the week today with another Minneapolis band, Tapes ‘N Tapes, new release, Outside.  My friend and former co-worker Steve reviews the album here, and I would agree with him.  It’s a solid B.  Outside is available for only $3.99 at Amazon for a few more hours.

2010 Music Sales

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Photo licensed under a CC BY-SA-2.0 license by freeloosedirt via Flickr. Picture taken outside Buffalo Records in Ventura.

Get ready to listen to the same annual cry from the music industry – “The sky is falling!” NPR’s music blog, The Record, has the details.

For the first time, all music sales, when adding CD, LP, cassette and digital – declined as a total. Digital tracks grew 1%. One thing the article and Soundscan’s numbers don’t cover is how digital sales break down. I would have to guess that the trend of individual track sales is still growing – which continues to impact albums sold via digital. Total albums sales fell to 326 million, the lowest since 1993, a drop of 13%, which was the same decline as 2009 for total album sales.

NPR’s article goes on to say that the “”return of vinyl” has hit the brakes.” Contrast that with a Rolling Stone article, also released yesterday, whose headline says “Vinyl Sales Increase Despite Industry Slump”. So whose spin are you going to believe? After reading the NPR article, which points out how terrible the music industry is doing, I’ll take the Rolling Stone’s more positive headline. I would think the music industry and their PR flacks would want to jump on any positive news, and the fact that vinyl sales grew 14% year over year, especially when compared to the other declining numbers, is definitely a positive.

Total vinyl sales were the highest they’ve been since 1991, and for a format most people would consider dead, this growth should be good news to the industry, especially when you consider the average selling price for a vinyl album is significantly higher than a digital album or CD.

Best selling new vinyl albums, in order, for 2010 were:

  • Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
  • The Black Keys – Brothers
  • Vampire Weekend – Contra
  • The National – High Violet

The best selling overall vinyl album was The Beatles’ Abbey Road.

I believe in quality over quantity and if the record industry would focus on longevity and the quality of the artists rather than hit machines, it would be a different story.  But that’s an article for another time.

Here’s to another year of growth for vinyl in 2011!

Best of Bootie 2010

Thanks to Glee, mainstream America was introduced to the term mashup in 2010.  But to some of us, we’ve been listening to mashups for years.  Bootie, started in 2003 by DJs Adrian and Mysterious D, hosts monthly dance parties featuring mashups.  Starting in 2005, they started publishing the year’s best mashups on their website.  I’m not into pop music and Bootie is what introduces me to what’s been popular in the past year.

The 2010 Best of Bootie was just released, and you can download the MP3s, which play as one continuous mix, or, for the first time, the unmixed files, allowing you to mix and match songs without having the beginnings and ends cut off.   (If you you choose the MP3s and do want to burn it, remember to choose gapless burn in your software!)

And now, not so much a mini review of the Best of Bootie 2010, but some observations and thoughts:

  • Track 2 – The Face Melters – Ice Ice Tik Tok (Ke$ha vs. Vanilla Ice) – Who knew Vanilla Ice would still be relevant 20 years later?  Great mix to kick it off with a bang.
  • Track 3 – DJ Tripp – Dynamite Pressure (Taio Cruz  vs. Queen & David Bowie) – Always good to hear Queen, a popular band for mashups. I like how Vanilla Ice’s hook for Under Pressure transitions from the previous track into this song. (The Kleptone’s A Night at the Hip-Hopera was one of the first mashup albums I ever got into. Still one of my favorites, featuring all Queen songs overlaid by other’s vocals)
  • Track 5 – DJ Lobsterdust – Knock Out Eileen (LL Cool J vs. Dexy’s Midnight Runners) – When I first saw this track title, I thought no way could that work. It’s a knockout (pun intended).
  • Track 6 – Rad Bad – Moving Da Royalty (Will Smith vs. Daft Punk) – Same as 5. Can’t think of the last time I heard Will Smith rapping about Bel Air – it’s been years!. Great mashup with the bass line from Daft Punk.
  • Track 7 – Mashup-Germany vs. Faroff – Everybody & Ray Speaks No Americano (Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP vs. Backstreet Boys vs. Ray Charles vs. Benny Benassi) – Amusing. Wins longest title of the year. They should have given a credit to C&C Music Factory too.
  • Track 11 -DJs From Mars – Enter Telephone (Lady Gaga vs. Metallica) – As the song opens, you get a combination of the famous guitar lick form Enter Sandman with Lady Gaga’s unique vocals. As the song progresses, the Metallica is not overwhelming, but when you overlay the keyboards it’s really well done, especially the chorus, at the guitar from Enter Sandman ratchets up.
  • Track 12 – DJs From Mars – Teenage Gay (Katy Perry vs. O.M.D.) – To an uneducated ear, you would think this is just a Katy Perry remix. Hearing the Enola Gay synth from OMD is a treat. It’s obvious at the start of the song, but much more subtle as the song progresses.
  • Track 14 – DJs From Mars – California Jump (Katy Perry vs. Van Halen) – Katy Perry’s vocals overlaid with the keyboard parts from Van Halen’s Jump. The first of 3(!) songs featuring Van Halen’s Jump in this years Best of Bootie.
  • Track 15 – The Kleptones – Jump You Fucker (Cee Lo Green vs. Van Halen) – Cee Lo’s smash hit Fuck You with Van Halen’s Jump. I’m surprised more Cee-Lo mashups didn’t make Best of Bootie this year – but it’s clear why this one did.
  • Track 16 – DJ Le Clown vs. Ludachrist – Pon De Billie Foley (Major Lazer vs. Michael Jackson vs. Harold Faltermeyer) – Axel Foley approves.
  • Track 19 – DJ Topcat – Folsom Prison Gangstaz (Eazy-E vs. Johnny Cash) – Easy-E and Johnny Cash. What else do they have in common besides this great mashup? They usually wore black. Another mashup on paper that you wouldn’t think goes together, but works really well. Speaking of Easy-E, takes me back to the first time I heard the Best of Bootie 2005 with Smells Like Compton – N.W.A vs Nirvana. Who thought that would work and it was one of the best mashups of 2005, if not all time.
  • Track 22 – LeeDM101 – (Find Myself) A Heap Of Love (Florence & the Machine vs. Depeche Mode vs. Imogen Heap) – Slowing it down as the album starts to come to a close, Florence + the Machine was one of my favorite albums this year. Add some Depeche Mode some Imogen Heap, mix well, and kick back in listen.
  • Track 23 – Mighty Mike – Imagine A Jump (Van Halen vs. John Lennon) – The album winds down with John Lennon’s Imagine mixed with Van Halen’s Jump. David Lee Roth’s vocals actually work pretty well.

Thanks again Bootie! (Follow them on Twitter too!)

Heard it on the Radio

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Hall & Oates play a sold out show tonight in Minneapolis at the State Theater.   I fondly remember growing up listening to my father’s lite rock station as their hits were played.  With six #1 songs, it’s good to see Hall & Oates music celebrated for the pop genius that it is.  No one is going to pretend that their songs will change the world, but they are catchy and stay with you long after you hear them – which is exactly what a good pop song should do.  Hall & Oates have never pretended to be anything other than what they are.

One of my favorite album’s this year was The Bird and the Bee’s Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates.  Covering 9 of their hits and clocking in at over just 30 minutes, they do a note for note rendition of Hall and Oates’ greatest hits. Inara George’s ethereal voice does a wonderful job adding nuance and depth to these timeless pop hits.

I originally bought the album earlier this year on a whim when it was featured for less than $5 as an Amazon deal of the day.  I own The Bird and the Bee’s earlier albums and you may know their hit Diamond Dave about David Lee Roth, which has received airplay on The Current and other indie rock stations.  For $5 and a return to my youth, I couldn’t go wrong.  It quickly became one of my favorite albums of the year – when I need something poppy or to get me going it made great background music.

Two weeks ago on Black Friday and Record Store Day, I came across a vinyl copy (pictured above) on sale at the Exclusive Company.  For $12, how could I say no?  And now I’ve bought two copies of a cover album and continue to enjoy it.

With the show tonight, Hall and Oates are receiving some good press in the Twin Cities.  The Star Tribune’s entertainment section, Vita.MN, takes a look at what continues to make Hall and Oates relevant.  The City Pages looks at eight awesome moments we have Hall and Oates to thank for.

  • in Digital
  • 2 min read

Superchunk

Superchunk @ South Street Seaport

(Photo by Barry Yanowitz under a CC-NC-BY 2.0 license)

Somehow I went through the 90s oblivious to Superchunk.  I’m sure they were played on Rev105 back in the day, but for some reason I just don’t remember them.  I’m now making up for lost time.

Amazon MP3 has had a number of specials on Superchunk since their September release of their latest album, Majesty Strategy, their first release in 9 years.  This month you can get the remastered version of On the Mouth for only $5.

It’s been well documented that one of the major reasons for the delay between releases is that two of the founders of Superchunk, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, are the founders of the record label, Merge, which they still run.  You may not have heard of Merge, but I can guarantee you’ve heard of two little bands on the label, Arcade Fire and Spoon.  As you can imagine, that keeps them busy.

Superchunk is playing at First Avenue tonight and the Twin Cities is all a-buzz with their return.  The Star Tribune currently features tonight’s Superchunk show on their front page and the City Pages has great coverage.  They published an interview today and later in the day published the complete transcript including quotes that didn’t make the print edition.

They talk about Superchunk’s songs, running Merge and some of the great shows they’ve had playing at 7th Street Entry and First Avenue.  What I wouldn’t give to have seen Superchunk with Rilo Kiley at the Entry…

And if you see their guitar on an American flight, let them know.

Update December 2nd:  A cover of Velvet Underground’s John Cale’s Child’s Christmas was released today.  Read more about it and stream it at Cover Me. (Via Largeheartedboy)

  • in Digital
  • 1 min read

How much should an album cost?

Fast Company has coverage of The City music conference, where Rob Dickens, the former head of Warner Music in the UK argues that the success of the MP3 single necessitates radically slashing album prices.

Dickens’ theory is albums should cost about $1.50 to increase impulse purchases and combat piracy.  Interestingly, he predicts that major albums could go on to sell 200 million albums – or double what Michael Jackson’s Thriller sold.

Read the story and look at the graph between album sales and individual track sales.    You can pretty much see the rise of iTunes.

As someone who is an unabashed fan of albums, I love the idea.  I don’t buy music singles and I don’t even really make playlists – I buy and listen to an artist’s whole album at the time.  And I also agree with the price – the bulk of my impulse music purchases are Amazon deals – either daily deals for $3 – $4 or one of the hundred $5 albums they rotate monthly.

Vinyl (R)Evolution Music of the Week: June 29th

It’s hard to top the purchases I made last week, which included a used copy of Prince’s Purple Rain and the new albums by The Black Keys and Broken Bells, but this week saw a couple of good albums released.

I received of Montreal’s 12″ single The Past is a Grotesque Animal, which may be the most beautiful album I’ve ever purchased. (More on it here). This was the only vinyl purchase of the week and I bought two digital albums.

On the local front, Cloud Cult released Light Chasers on their own Earthology Records and is their eighth studio album. From the email release:

…this latest full-length draws most of it’s inspiration from the joy (and worries) of rebirth – Craig (singer/songwriter) and Connie (live painter) welcomed a healthy baby boy into their lives this past fall – after a long grieving process of the loss of their first son Kaiden. Light Chasers is a concept album that interweaves stories focused on the exploration of the mysteries of the universe, life and death. It’s a 56 minute journey with no audio breaks that explores love and loss and searches for the light at the end of the tunnel. It also lends itself beautifully into Cloud Cult’s vision that albums should be seen as a whole versus the modern trend of focusing on singles.

I love the fact they focus on the whole album experience – and it shows on this album. It’s just as good as their prior two releases and is a bit more mellow. The songs seamlessly flow together (make sure you can play it back using gapless playback!) and the track titles are perfectly named. I’ll always remember Cloud Cult as it was the first MP3 album I ever bought using Amazon’s MP3 service when it first launched. If you get a chance to see them live, don’t miss it – they combine their music with a visual artist on stage and it’s a concert experience you’ve never seen before. The album is available everywhere September 14th or you can buy it digitally now directly from Cloud Cult here.

My favorite album I bought, though, is Alejandro Escovedo’s latest, Street Songs of Love. One genre of music you’ll never find me reviewing on this blog is country music – but I love what they call “alt-country” with artists such as Ryan Adams, The Jayhawks, Wilco, Drive By Truckers, and yes, Alejandro Escovedo.

You may know him better through his progeny – his son Pete plays with Carlos Santana and his daughter is Sheila E, but Alejandro Escovedo has had a long music career that started with punk rock and is still going strong.

It was his last album, 2008’s Real Animals, that introduced me to him, and if you like that album, you will love this album. Street Songs of Love is slightly more uptempo than Real Animals and starts with a bang with the first track, Anchor. Other songs of note are Down in the Bowery, with Hunter, the lead singer from Mott the Hoople; Fall Apart With You is a wonderful ballad that will stay with you for days; Bruce Springsteen guests on Faith; and the album ends with a perfect denouement, the instrumental Fort Worth Blue.

I was ecstatic when Amazon lowered the MP3 price from $10.49 to $7.99 on Wednesday and it’s been worth every penny. You can listen to the whole album as a stream on Spinner.

Vinyl (R)Evolution

Note: This is reposted from my main blog and seems fitting to kick off my Vinyl Music blog with.

When I was 17 or18 years old, I wanted to be a DJ with a friend of mine. I grabbed all of my parents vinyl records, trucked them over to my friend’s house and then… we didn’t do anything. He and I eventually had a falling out and a couple years later when I inquired about getting the records back, I was dismayed to learn that his basement had flooded and they were trashed.

I don’t think my father has forgiven me to this day.

I grew up heavily influenced by music, including my parents listening to their records and favorite artists such as ABBA, Billy Joel and Elton John. I remember periods of my life based on the music I was listening to at the time and if I hear a specific song it can take me back right to that moment.

I’ve been thinking about buying a turntable for the last few years and re-creating some of those memories. I participated in Record Store Day last year shopping at a local store and picking up a number of CDs and this year on Record Store Day I went out and this time picked up some used and new vinyl records and then bought a turntable off Craigslist. (An early 80s Pioneer direct-drive).

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I’m one of growing number of people getting back into vinyl – just visit The Future of Vinyl blog for non-stop media coverage of the growth of vinyl over the last couple years – it’s now the fastest growing segment of the (dying) music industry. Even large retailers like Best Buy are getting in on it. (Though I found their selection disappointing – very few new records, just 180g re-issues of older material, and for the same prices as the local stores, who I would rather support).

I own more CDs than I can count, and even if it’s in my head, I do think vinyl sounds better. There is something to be said for the crackle and hiss of a well worn and loved album playing on a stereo.

I don’t know what’s more fun – listening to the albums or shopping for them. I’ve already bought over 60 records in the last 6 weeks, the bulk of them at two events. The first was a private collector who put an ad in Craigslist and was selling over 5000 records with most of them going for 3 for a dollar. The second sale was today at the Minnesota Record Show which is held four times a year and features a number of dealers selling records for a few bucks each to rare albums worth hundreds of dollars. On average at an event like this or in the local record stores, used albums are about $3 each. I have bought a few re-issues on 180 gram vinyl of some of my favorite albums of all time, such as Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses. (Most albums are 120 grams – the thicker the album the higher the fidelity).

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But what impresses me the most is the resurgence in current artists releasing vinyl day and date with CD – and including MP3 or FLAC downloads for free when you purchase the vinyl record. I’ve picked up some great new albums, including the latest from The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers and Broken Bells.

My wife laughs at me every time I say “I’m going downstairs to listen to some records” but I’m enjoying the experience immensely. She also says I’m done collecting for a while, but don’t tell her, I have my eyes on some more new releases and I heard about another upcoming show…