The Record Show

For the first time in many years, I went to a record show. Every few months, these things pop up in a conference room of a local hotel and dealers from all over the tri-state area show up with their goods to trade. Record nerds come out of the woodwork in search of their own personal lost arcs to bring back to their own private museums. These are my people.

The nature of the Record Collectors' Convention has changed quite a bit from when I first started attending these things in the early nineties. Back then I was a teenager and part of a see of adolescents washing into an ocean of older career collectors. The halls that the shows were in were large and often spilled into other banquet halls. It would literally take hours to give the place a good once over. Trade tables would be completely covered with boxes of cds packed tight and on end. Giant bins of loose discs filled the space beneath the tables. Crates upon crates of records ate up as much space as the discs. Each table was managed by some sort of peddler that knew their product and loved working with it. Most of them were there more on quests of their own than to make a buck selling their own product. Then there was the random collectable shit: life size cut outs of Elvis, signed promo shots of everyone from Aerosmith to The Zombies, KISS lunchboxes, etc. I would have to wedge my way in between people to get a glimpse of what was there for the taking. And the people. There was a pretty even mix of young and old. Punks, Gen-Xers, Deadheads, Dads, Grandpas, and a whole lot of guys that were suspiciously similar to the comic book guy from the Simpsons. Proper hygene was not essential at these events. In fact, I came to accept it as a strategy. These weren't people that didn't care for themselves. These were people who understood the game. The confines are tight and it is every man for himself. A little BO or bad breathe may keep an adversary far enough at bay so that they do not claim what you have come in search of. The Sunday morning of a record show never started with a shower or toothbrushing.

Back then cds were still the hot new medium for music and most of the dealers were enthusiastic to embrace it. My quest was always for two things, the bootlegs and the promos. Most of my time and money went after Cure and Nine Inch Nails products. The bootlegs were the big draw. At the time there were a few European companies that would get their hands on recording of concerts and put together elaborate packaging to go along with them. The end product wound up being really expensive due to the fact that, since they were illegal, they had to not only be imported, but smuggled into the country. As for promos, it was a time when the record labels were cd crazy. Often times when an artist had an album coming out, the labels would print up all sorts of related promotional stuff that they gave away to stores, radio stations and djs. Most of these items had b-sides, remixes, and other unreleased tracks. If you caught them early on, dealers would practically give them away, and then as numbers dwindled the prices went up. It was also a good time to search for used cds. The format was still relatively new, so there hadn't been time for collections to build up large quantities of totally undesirable cds that never sold.

Fifteen years later, it is a different scene. I was surprised at how many of the faces behind the tables I recognized from years ago. I was, but then again I wasn't. I'm still here, so why shouldn't they be as well. The room that it was held in was much smaller, but just as packed. There was no longer an admission fee either. As I first took in the space to plot my path, a few other changes became very obvious to me. For one, most of the product is now very old vinyl. This is no longer the endless landscape of new or once used products. Most things here had been bought and sold and bought and sold many times before finding their way here. Given their age, I began to wonder how many of them had been loved by someone, but just outlived their owners. Had they then moved to a basement of a relative for years only to be dumped at a consignment shop and picked up by a knowledgable dealer? I then also realized that the number of record dealers hadn't outgrown the cd dealers. The cd dealers are simply fading away. The smaller room is due to the lack of cds. As I inspected the few cd tables that there were I confirmed a few things that I had suspected. One, the cd bootlegs are gone. This I actually knew. There was a pretty big crack down on the major distributers by the FBI in the late nineties. That was the first hit, the second was the internet. Live shows are free and plentiful in cyberspace and often times they are available within hours of the event. Two, promos? What promos? Record labels are getting stingy with the free stuff and are finding other ways to promote their products. Three, the used cds aren't even worth looking through anymore. Now that cds have been around for 20 years, there is a lot of crap that nobody bought that has been building up and filling more and more of the space in the used boxes. This is not to say that I didn't find anything interesting. There were plenty of things that I looked at in depth and thought about buying, but then decided I didn't want to spend the money on.

There was one thing that hadn't changed that deeply saddened me. Just like when I was a teenager discovering this whole subculture, I found that today I was still one of the youngest people there. The younger generations have gone digital and there is no real place for it in this forum. You can't sell downloads at a table. It's sad, because younger music enthusiasts won't get to take part in this sort of sonic swap meet. I guess convenience is a nice tradeoff. I certainly am enjoying the ability to track down almost any music I want from my living room. The interconnectedness of the internet is very disconnecting on a personal level though.

For instance, today I got to meet a guy that had a thing for concert t-shirts. He was buying ten or so from a dealer as he was telling me stories of his shirt collection and his ability to go months without wearing the same one twice. One of the shirts that he was purchasing today completed his collection of shirts that were available from the Rush 19whatever tour. T-shirts and Rush aren't my thing, but his passion I understood. And his breath kept me at an arms length distance so I couldn't dig through the same pile of shirts until he was done. At least not without holding my breath. Yet another thing that hasn't changed.

Everyone here has their own thing that they are after, but they all share the same passion. That connects us and adds to the coolness of the experience. At these shows, there is no judgement. The leather clad punk with the foot high mohawk, the Jerry Garcia looking deadhead, and I are all connected and interact freely and openly in this environment. You can't really get that from a computer or in another setting.

In the end, I walked out with a four dollar CBGB's T-shirt. I've always wanted one, and now that they are out of business, it was a good find. It certainly wasn't what I went there looking for, but it is the kind of random find that will keep me and all the other music nuts coming back.

More Mixes

I have two new mixes up on the nin remix site. Drop by and give it a listen. The Veless mix is a throw away, but the Capitol G (Night of 1000 Trents) mix is a good time. The End of the Beginning is a good listen too.

http://remix.nin.com/member/carbar

Or try the following:

1. click the remix.nin link in my links column
2. click on the “listen” link towards the top left
3. a blue box will appear on the bottom left. Above it there will be a “search” link to click.
4. in the search box type “carbar”
5. after you hit search, my mixes should appear in the blue box. You can listen to them by clicking the triangle button next to each song.

Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Get your MOJO running

I was introduced to this MOJO software by a friend of mine. It seems pretty cool. I'm looking to learn more about it. Anyone know anything?

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31798

http://www.deusty.com/software/

Jot me a thought.

Stranger's Almanac

Ah yes, the deluxe cd reissue. Whiskeytown has joined in on the efforts to get people to buy an album twice. Actually, Gefffen records played more of a part in this happening. Either way, I'm willing to buy and happy to listen.

Stranger's Almanac holds a deep rooted place in my heart for many reasons. Most importantly, is the music. The album wears many of its influences quite blatantly, but the synthesis of those influences and the earnest and open delivery of each track make it a masterpiece. Sure they borrowed from the Replacements, Alejandro Escovado, REM, and even Uncle Tupelo. The result is quaint and most importantly, sincere. The deluxe version has some great extra goodies that I addressed in my Deluxe Redux post.

This was my first exposure to Ryan Adams. In a lot of ways this album captured his greatest strengths and weaknesses. Here is guy that is a little over a year older than me and at 22 he was writing songs that so convincingly portray the confessions of an weathered soul and delivering each lyric so authentically that my heart breaks with his every time I listen. On the other hand, his lyrics, often seem underdeveloped and simple. This is a trait that would stick with him and occasionally work against him in his solo career. But on this piece, it adds to the realness of it. People aren't perfect, and the words they form to accompany their emotions are not always what they mean. His vocals sell more of the story to each song then his words do. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. Every time I listen, I emerge from the experience in love with every bit of it.

I picked up Stranger's Almanac around this time of year in 1999. It was just before spring break of my final year of grad school. College was coming to an end, the soul crushing experience of interviewing for teaching positions was just beginning, and I was at the apex of the most destructive relationship I had ever been in. It was a relationship where I wound up being the other guy and it was the point of realization that this was the case and it wasn't going to change. Yet, I was madly in love and that makes you stupid and idealistic so you fight against inevitability. Anyway, it set the perfect stage to discover this wonderful sonic companion for heartbreak. That week of vacation was spent working at The Disc on an abandoned UConn campus while that love interest was off on vacation with man number one. Again, love can make you stupid. So, while not working in a record shop I filled my time by perusing other record shops. In my browsing I came across Stranger's Almanac. I had never heard Whiskeytown before and knew nothing of what to expect. What I did know is that I had seen it in the collection of a friend months before. They approved and I trusted their taste. I connected to the cover art and really connected to the truck drifting down the endless stretch of highway on the back cover. So I bought it. For that week, Whiskeytown became my best friend as NIN did in high school. Everything I was feeling was right there and I didn't have to experience it alone now. As I said before, the charm lies more in the delivery than in the total of the lyrics. Singing, "Excuse me while I break my own heart tonight/ after all it's mine," was quite empowering in a self-destructive way. I was totally living the frustration in Ryan Adam's voice as he sneered, "Don't you ask me how I'm doin', when everything I do says I miss you." I played it nonstop over that week. It went to the Disc with me. It kept me company back in the apartment at night. It stayed close by me through the inevitable collapse of that relation and the long and weathering job hunt process.
I've connected to other music during tough times and wound up leaving it behind with that era. Stranger's Almanac was the soundtrack to my misery for a good chunk of time. I didn't leave it behind though. It wasn't just a mirror that reflected what I was dealing with. In a way, it as a friend that supported me. The songs stayed with me beyond the reflection of that period instead of bringing me back.

Nine months later I found myself in a red Ford Explorer, heading into the northwest corner of New York state with a beautiful young woman I barely knew. A six hour ride to the middle of nowhere to ring in the change of the millennium with some dear friends of ours. Stranger's Almanac was a given for the ride. It was the ideal soundtrack to a long stretch of road through sparse and rural areas punctuated by factory towns. At the time I didn't realize that it was also the soundtrack to the start of the courting process of the the love of my life. Carley fell in love with the album as quickly as I had, it would take her some time to feel the same way about me, however. Our trip to Rossi, NY was perfect and the album that fit so well into the times when I was low, fit even better into the time when everything was right.

Free Stuff

Car and i have a little overstock in our collection. For one, there are the overlapping albums that each of had as we came into our marriage. There are also the old versions of the albums that I have replaced with deluxe versions. Some of them have already moved on, but some are still hanging around. Thus, we have some music that I would love to send out into the world to places where it will be listened to. If you are seriously interested in any of these items, just let me know and I'll pass them on.

Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac. This is one of my all time favorite albums. It documents the early stages of Ryan Adams' carrier. In short, it is a great alt. country album.

The Cure - The Head On The Door. The Cure circa 1985. It includes Inbetween Days, A Night Like This, and Close To Me. It's a good mix of their pop and dark capabilities.

The Glove - Blue Sunshine. A side project of Robert Smith and Steve Severin. If you like early Siouxsie stuff, this is not too far off. The woman that they enlisted to sing sounds a lot like she wants to be Siouxsie.

Portishead - Portishead. Trip hop masters!!! Chill, cool, and sexy.

Moby - Play. Whether you think you know Moby or not, unless you have lived under a rock, you are familiar with at least holf of the tunes on this album. It is his best post-rave effort.

Lords of Acid - Voodoo You. Hard rockin' techno with x-rated lyrics. Loud and silly, but not for the faint of heart.

There are some other cds that we are done with. I'll post them later.

Keep listening.

American (Idle?)

So I happened to catch an episode of American Idol a few weeks back while visiting my mom. Apparently Randy Jackson has made an album and he debuted the video for his song with co-Idol host Paula Abdul on American Idol. They prefaced the clip with all sorts of Randy Jackson hype. “This track is hot, dog,” and other accolades like that expressed in the same manner. The stage was set to knock the socks off of America.

Now, before I continue about the clip, there are a few things that need to be said. The three judges of this show are supposed to represent the higher music industry standard in which the contestants are aiming to achieve. Week after week they provide feedback to aspiring stars in regards to what it takes to meet this high standard held by the industry they represent. Having Randy Jackson put together an album and video that is being promoted through the show should imply that THIS IS the gold standard that we are holding you to, THIS IS what you should be aiming to achieve. And then they showed the video.

The best word that I could come up with for it was sad. It was sad, not because of it’s lyrical content or tone. Not because it was so incredibly bad or off the mark. It was sad, because it was none of these things. It wasn’t great, nor was it terrible. However, it wasn’t even just good or bad. It was there. Lifeless, lack luster, and generic. Had this been a contestant’s video, it would have been fine. You could watch and listen and think things like, “Well, they are developing. There is some potential if they work at it.” But it wasn’t a new artist who is finding his/her way. It is two music veterans that should be so much more. Randy Jackson is known for his studio magic. Paula Abdul is known for her dancing and voice. Putting these two together should have used those strengths, but didn’t. Instead they created a song that is pleasant, yet forgettable. The tune, the vocals, and the lyrics had no resonance. Then there was the video. Paula, known for her dancing, put on a performance that matched the energy of Brittany Spears’ Music Awards performance, lethargic at best. I could have danced just as well. On top of it was Randy with his bass, just rocking out to what appeared to be another song. What he was doing on the bass certainly did not match what was going on in the song. The whole thing looked like they took two people that know nothing about music and had Glamour Shots make a video. THIS IS the gold standard? It’s no wonder that the industry is tanking.

I actually felt uncomfortable watching the video, because I found myself feeling embarrassed for the two of them. The point that really made me feel that what I was watching was sad, was when my mom made the comment of, “there he is,” when Randy appeared in the video. The words are words that are used when your neighbor’s kid walks on stage in a high school play, not when your watching, “a hot new video.”

Don’t get me wrong. I think that Randy, Paula, and Simon are fantastic TV personalities. They have used their chemistry to create a TV show that truly rises above all of its reality TV peers. However, watching them try to do what they judge made it painfully obvious that their place in time for making music best be left in the past.

More Cowbell

You can never have too much cowbell.

Ghosts I-IV

It was quite a to do getting my download of NIN - Ghosts I-IV. Purchasing the CD came with a one time download of the album for while you wait for the actual thing to arrive. The link came to my email that Sunday and I followed it right away. I chose my format and clicked download and then… it didn’t work. I tried again. Nothing. And again. Finally, it started to download at a snail’s pace and it failed three minutes in. According to the NIN site, my link had connected and my one download had been used. Now my link was a dead end. Many emails were sent over the next two days. Finally, a post came up on the NIN homepage apologizing to those who had a hard time downloading. Apparently, there was more internet traffic than they were prepared to deal with. It claimed that they unlocked our one time download links so that we can follow it again.
So I tried again. I opened the email, follow the link to the download link and click it. Now, instead of downloading the album I get a message asking me to follow the original link from my email. Well, that is what got me here.
Again, with the emails of complaints to the NIN site. On Thursday I received a reply from them that linked me to a complaint account that had my complaint nicely posted. There was neat little area for their response to my complaint, empty of course. Now I had a place to go to see that no progress was being made.
Finally, a new link came on Saturday. I have to admit, it was worth the wait. The music files were lossless and thus huge. It also came with an elaborate pdf of an extensive 41 page booklet. The album is quite experimental. Each song is instrumental and composed as a soundtrack to different photographs. Very cool.

Acquiring the music was a pain, but it made for kind of a fun ongoing saga for the week.
Furthermore, Trent is continuing to push the limits of convention. He has launched a video contest for fans to create visuals to accompany the music that was originally composed to accompany visuals. It is a pretty cool move to further connect artist and fan. Especially, when it is considered that he hosts a fan remix site and freely makes available multi-track files of his recent music.

Deluxe Redux

I’m on the heals of purchasing my Whiskeytown - Stranger’s Almanac Deluxe edition. I’ve picked up quite a few of these recently and it got me thinking about the whole notion of the deluxe package re-releases. The industry standard seems to be taking a single disc album and remastering it, then packaging it with a bonus disc of related goodies and extensive liner notes. The two disc packs tend to cost what you’d expect for a double cd.

On top of my Whiskeytown deluxe edition, I’ve been replacing my Cure collection with the deluxe versions and my feeling have been mixed.

The benefits are clear.
1. More is more. With a collection like mine, I am clearly a fan of more.
2. In most cases, the bonus material can help connect the dots. Skeletal versions of songs can build an appreciation for the song writing process or even draw your attention to parts of a song that you never noticed. They can also reveal some of the connections to the previous work.
3. In best case scenarios, there are a bunch of songs that just hadn’t seen the light of day since they didn’t fit into the direction of the album. Stranger’s Almanac fit this case. Whiskeytown actually had a whole album worth of demoed songs that they brought to the study and decided not to use. Awe yeah, a whole extra album with the album.
4. If you wait long enough, you can pick them up used for a reasonable price. Most of the Cure packs I picked up for ten to twelve bucks.

There are drawbacks.
1. In some cases the bonus material that has been scrounged from the cutting room floor might have been left there for a reason. Some of the bonus material on the early Cure album bonus disc is just hard to listen to.
2. Other times, most of the bonus material is stuff that is already accessible. Nine Inch Nails made a deluxe version of The Downward Spiral and the bonus disc was almost entirely made up of b-sides and songs from soundtracks. Most nin fans that would buy a deluxe package would have had these things, so it seemed pretty pointless. I passed on it.
3. In the worst case scenario, the bonus disc is just the album again, but mixed in 5.1 surround sound. I don’t know a single person with a player that would separate the channels properly in order to enjoy this bonus.

Overall, I’m for the format. Like I said, more is more.

Something Odd?!?

Industrial legends Ministry have recorded a theme song for a hockey team. Al Jourgensen has long ties to the city of Chicago and has been a key player in their underground music scene. Thus I am not surprised that he is a Chicago Blackhawks fan. However, this song that he has recently released in honor of their new momentum is a little bewildering. Ministry have a history of creating music that is less than suitable for the general public and here they are writing a sports anthem.

Keys To The City is Al's ode to the Blackhawks. It sounds like Marilyn Manson trying to rewrite Rock and Roll pt. 2. If you are familiar with Ministry, upon first listen there is an instinct to look for the punch line. This can't be for real. Yet it is. For those of you not familiar with Ministry's body of work, the album titles should give you an idea of what they were about: The Land of Rape and Honey, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste, Psalm 69, The Dark Side of The Spoon, etc. Not really serious and not really family entertainment.

The oddest thing about the song is that it is the best thing that they have written since the early 90's. Check it out in the Keys To The City Link. Or just go see the Blackhawks.

As an old school Ministry fan, I'm a little ambivalent about this career move.

Ghosts I-IV

I have to hand it to Trent Reznor. He is keeping things interesting and asserting himself as a music pioneer. Nine Inch Nails' second coming is proving to be a very worth while venture. Nine Inch Nails made their mark in the early 90's and seemed to be living in TDS's shadow. Last year they reinvented themselves when they dropped a fantastic concept album that sonically was just as impressive as it's elaborate backdrop and cross-media presentation. Later in the year, Trent produced an album for Saul Williams and helped him to distribute his album much the same way that Radiohead first released their new record. Go to a site to download it and either pay for it or not. Bring the music directly to the people and let them decide the value. Saul didn't fair as well as Radiohead in this venture. Most of the downloads were done for free. I would be one of those people that downloaded it for free. However, I wouldn't have considered the Saul album if it weren't for free. Radiohead has a strong and dedicated fan base that pretty much knows that they will like the music, so it has an implied value from the get go. Saul Williams was a wildcard. I believe that the abundance of albums that were downloaded for free was a good trade off for exposure. In any case, it was an interesting experiment in music distribution. On top of all of that, he launched the remix.nin site where he invited fans to remix and share nin tunes for free.
Now Trent has taken what he has learned from this experience and joined further in the experiment. Ghosts I-IV is a new NIN record that is entirely instrumental. Something that Trent has talked about doing for years, but was never a good business move while on a major label. On his own, he can do what he wants. The album is available through nin.com in a number of formats. Trent has also paid close attention to who the music listening community is. There is the cheapy 5 dollar download version for those who don't care about the artwork and packaging. There is the double cd for those who still like to physically have something to show for their music purshases, and there are a few very elaborate and overpriced limited edition packages for the real collectors. The prices for the limited edition packages were obscene, so I had to pass on those. All of the packages come with the instant download version so you don't have to wait for the tunes (very cool). I look forward to reviewing it in the near future.

Hi-lo Rilo!

Rilo Kiley. The pet project of Jenny Lewis. Her voice is sweet. Her attitude is somewhat spunky and sexy. She is mighty cute. And as Carley informs me, she was one of the girl campers from the film Troop Beverly Hills. I give my wife mad props for pulling this morsel of useless knowledge out of her head. If recalling useless media crap were a game of poker, I would easily qualify for the finals in the World Series of Poker. However, when Car dropped that nugget about Troop Beverly Hills, it was like she trumped my three aces with a royal flush. She laid the smack down with that bit-o-knowledge. Then to punctuate her winning hand she broke into a verse of the camp theme song from the movie.


Under The Blacklight is an album that I am kicking myself that I waited to get. It came out mid-year 2007 and I held out for Christmas to get it (thanks Karen). This album marked the beginning of their major label career. Rilo Kiley has a strong following from their indie days and a move to a major label is always met with controversy. Critics loved the album. Fan reviews railed about it selling out. I myself, liked them as an indie band, but was never crazy about them. In contrast to their die-hard fans, I think that this album was a giant step forward. It has proven them as not just being another indie band reaching too far. In order to make the shift to a major label work, they had to step it up and develop their sound. Under The Blacklight drifts between sweet melodies, sexy come ons, and disenchanted lovers with great ease. Not everything that they try to pull off works, but most of it does. Hopefully, on the next album they will skip the dsico and latin stuff. This has been a great listen and some of the songs stick with me for days. Had I purchased this when it came out, it would have been in my best of 2007 list on rutneskiland.

listen to these: Silver Lining, Close Call, The Moneymaker, Dreamworld, 15
skip these: Breakin' Up, Dejalo