New podcast episode is alive!

Mmhmm. Just in time for Valentine's Day. Please enjoy "No biscuit for Pancho!" over at the Camel Ike a Rock E.T. podcast. More lovely tunes regurgitated in an easy to understand format.

Dark Side of the Sell-Out

The last time Roger Waters ever smiled.

I like when the kiddies boast about how their favorite bands have never "sold-out."  One such band in particular that often comes up with the brats that know it all is Pink Floyd.  But ha ha, charades you are!  Back in '73, Dole Bananas somehow got ye olde Pink Floyd to let 'em use "The Great Gig in the Sky" from The Dark Side of the Moon for the following TV ad. 

Hey man, "If you feel it...peel it."

Joni Mitchell is Nucking Futs

By the time she got to Woodstock, the brown acid had taken over.

Hey kids, do you remember Joni Mitchell? Well, if you don't, her big claim to fame with the younger generations is that she wrote "Big Yellow Taxi" way back when, a song that continues to be covered and re-covered by anyone who wants an instant, lazy hit. Everyone from Dylan to the Counting Crows have covered it. Of course, Joni doesn't think much of Bob these days, saying,

Bob is not authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I. (This is actually old news; check out the interview in which she says this.)

Anyway, to get to the point of this post, in recent years Joni has claimed that she is a victim of what is known as "Moregellons Syndrome," a so-called "disease" that supposedly causes those who have it to scratch areas of their skin uncontrollably to dig out microscopic fibers that may or may not be of some nano-technological origin.

Wacko, I know.

There's plenty of info online regarding said "disease," with most of it coming from conspiracy theorists and the like. Actual legitimate research has gone into this folly, with the expected results. Per the disease's Wikipedia entry, "Most doctors, including dermatologists and psychiatrists, regard Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions, including delusional parasitosis.

And before we start scuttling about the usual jokes about Wikipedia being "unreliable," let's just remember exactly what we're talking about here and the folks who claim that it is, in fact, "real."

My suggestion to cure this incurable is to not listen to any Joni Mitchell music. You probably don't want to handle any of her CDs, LPs, tapes, or what have you, either. Those damn fibers could be anywhere, be it in the sound waves of her music or planted on the CD booklets at the factories just waiting to strike upon unsuspecting fans in a true game of GOTCHA that can only end badly.

Joni Mitchell is nucking futs.

Bobby Conn

Bobby Conn is one of my fave "fringe" rock artists. Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Conn has been cranking out terrifically creative work since his self-titled debut in 1997. The dude actually rocks harder and, yes, better than 98% of your well-known dinosaurs. You always have to leave that two percent margin. I dunno why.

At any rate, here are two of my favorite Conn performances. The first is for "Never Get Ahead" on Chicago's kid-friendly dance show "Chic-A-Go-Go" (I believe this is the same show that once spun a Jandek tune for the kids to groove to), and the second is a live rockin' version of "You've Come a Long Way, Baby." Enjoy. And buy some Bobby Conn while you're at it.

I know, I know...where's the blogging?

Right, I get it.  I'm terrible at blogging.  I promise I'll get my shit together.  My excuses include that the ridiculous amount of snow and ice we've gotten where I live has driven me kooky and I've lost track of the things I enjoy.  Of course, that's not entirely true as my time on Call of Duty: Black Ops and Rock Band 3 has remained the same.  Besides, it's DOUBLE XP WEEKEND on BLOPS.  I know you don't care.  You don't need to.

At any rate, I have a new podcast going with the same title as this place.  Yep!  I used to run one not long ago called "Sniff the Tip."  After three years of grooving, I dismantled it.  Took about a year off, and once I got this thingy going, I thought it'd be good to being back the podcast as well.  Anyway, it's just a lovely bunch of tunes in each episode.  No talking or any of that nonsense to distract you.

So check out the podcast at Camel Ike a Rock E.T. Two episodes have gone up so far, with many more in the future. A show a week at least.

So enjoy, and we'll be getting back to our regularly scheduled shizz here as well. Danke

Hurry up and die already, CD!

It's only a matter of time.

With rare exception these days, I do not buy nor acquire music CDs anymore.  There's just no reason for me to do it, not when my beloved iPod took over the CD deck in my car long ago, as well as any shitty portable disc players I might have been carrying around.  I used to have a fabulous, huge collection of discs.  When I lived in Pittsburgh and had the house with the nice big basement in which they all fit, it was a cool site.  But when I moved out to Philly to an apartment and my bedroom closet was filled with nothing but boxes of those very CDs that were not doing anything but gathering dust, I decided to sell the whole lot to the Princeton Record Exchange.

I made a couple grand off the deal, which was fine.  And it was freeing, too.  For it had been a long time at that point where I had sat down and listened to CDs in their own format.  Basically, I would buy one or get one for review, automatically rip it to my external hard drive, and then shelve the damn thing.  So the space the discs were using was was ridiculous after a while.  I came to the conclusion that, for me at least, the digital format was certainly it and I no longer needed the hard copy.  I didn't need the plastic cases, or the little booklets.  I loved the music, not the packaging.

Bow down before the one you serve.

Now, I know a lot of folks who were of the vinyl generation (I was at the tail end of its popularity, growing up with it and then seeing it get killed off, along with the cassette shortly thereafter) really bemoan the loss of that format, for both the sound of the LP and the packaging.  I have to admit that LPs often packed a lot of cool shit in the way of extras like posters, gatefold sleeves and the like.  But my ears have never begged to go back to my own days of listening to ye olde turntable, and god knows I had enough of a vinyl collection as well, so it was no small happening in my life.

I like how the musical format has progressed.  It's just turned into thin air.  And because of this, I keep wondering when CDs as a musical format commodity will cease to exist.  Shouldn't they have died at least three years ago?  I suppose it's sort of like when broadband Internet service was first introduced and there were still tons of people using dialup connections.  It just took some time.  Now I'm curious to know what percentage of the population doesn't have some form of mp3 player, because I could probably tell you of one lonely soul that I personally know who still uses dialup to get online.

As I said at the beginning, there are rare exceptions for me regarding the purchase of CD.  The last exception was when The Beatles' catalog was finally reissued and remastered.  I wanted hard copies of those albums, along with all the packaging.  The next exception will certainly be for the Billy Joel remasters.  But the point is if CDs went away tomorrow, I wouldn't be saddened that I couldn't have those on a physical format, because the music would still be there.

Not completely gone.

Progress is a funny thing.  I remember in my teen years getting absolutely excited to find a new or funky record store that had all sorts of things available to buy that my usual haunts did not.  The Internet and online shopping has basically done away with that experience as well.  Do I miss that feeling?  At my age, not really.  I still get excited and have a sense of wonderment whenever I find a CD that's been out of print that's finally going to be reissued again, or an album I loved that is going to be issued for the first time in digital format.  That the entire world has become one giant record store is nothing to complain about, I don't think.

The last CD I personally recorded and handed out was made back in 2004.  Even then I decided that when and if I ever recorded again I would strictly go digital files with the distribution.  I still feel that way.  CDs are going the way of the music video.  Yeah, they still make 'em, but for whom?

And I still have a shitload of old tapes sitting around in the basement at mom and dad's.  Yeesh.

Billy Joel Again

Anyone who knows me knows my real love of music started back when I was five years old.  My older brother brought home Billy Joel's The Stranger LP in '77 and that was that.  I dunno.  The first time I heard "Movin' Out" I was struck by a feeling of the this is it variety.  And so every music fan has a true beginning somewhere, and for me that was it.

Back in 1998, Billy Joel's entire catalog was remastered and reissued.  Each disc had lyric sheets, some rare photos where applicable, and videos for the songs that had clips made for 'em.  They sounded great and I was happier with them than the original CBS/Sony discs that were originally issued.

Not too long ago, The Stranger was reissued in an anniversary package.  I was lucky enough to get the boxed set version for nada to review over at Bullz-Eye.com.  I was also sent the two-disc "Legacy Edition" as well.  I thought that remaster sounded even better than the '98 disc, although some audiophiles disagreed.  I recall in my review saying it would be nice if Billy's stuff could be remastered again.

Well, lo and behold here in 2011 that is what's going to happen.  Discs, DVDs, a box set, you name it, it's coming out.  No word on whether or not the fan fave Live from Long Island video will be reissued, but one can only hope.  There's also a "Legacy Edition" of Piano Man slated for release, which I find a little odd considering it's not one of Billy's most solid releases, but god knows I'll be buying all this stuff again regardless.  Hey, when you have musical tastes such as mine, or are around the same age bracket, these things are exciting.  It's getting harder and harder to find musical artists worth a damn anymore, so if I have to dole out for The Nylon Curtain, et al another time, I'm there.  I mean, I already gave Billy some more of my money the other week when his pack o' tunes came out on Rock Band.

Good shit, indeed.