Noise is being made over at http://www.decemberists.com ahead of the Oregon band's latest LP release, The King is Dead, on January 18.
The increasingly impressive caper of offering the album in an array of fashions (download, CD, vinyl) alongside merchandise (anything from an "exclusive" tee through to one-off polaroids of the band is the smart and growing answer to bit torrents etc al. Yes, I will pay for a well thought through package like this one:
DELUXE BOX EDITION $165
Limited edition of 2500 available exclusively on thedecemberists.com
A one-of-a-kind Polaroid photograph by Autumn de Wilde from the Impossible Project/Decemberists series
72 page hardcover book featuring over 250 unique Polaroid photographs by Autumn de Wilde and illustrations by Carson
Ellis
The King Is Dead CD
Pendarvia DVD – a 30 minute short film by Aaron Rose, documenting the making of the album
The King Is Dead on 180 gram white vinyl with special cover
Limited edition Giclée print illustrated by Carson Ellis
Digital album download code delivered on January 18
Instant download of live video of "Rise To Me" from Musicfest Northwest in Portland, Fall 2009
Instant download of "Down By The Water"
All presented in a linen wrapped, clamshell box with
foil-stamped cover
By any standard it's more than a decent deal and I'd pay $200. The Decemberists are brilliant, we all know that. They have the record that allows them to offer a package like this. The snippets of The King is Dead that have been finding their way online hint at something much mellower than the bombast of The Hazards of Love. National Public Radio in the US will be streaming the album (edit)
The King is Dead is available for those with the patience needed of a streaming listener. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/03/132436422/first-listen-the-decemberists-the-king-is-dead
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Map of Tasmania - Amanda Palmer
So the one-time Dresden Doll is set to tour Australia and New Zealand in March 2011 and is leading with her new single, Map of Tasmania. Available for download/stream over at http://music.amandapalmer.net/track/map-of-tasmania-feat-the-young-punx
For those beyond The Antipodes, the map of Tasmania is a reference to the vagina. Not only is it a lame lyrical turn of phrase but it's also one that, in 2011, is incredibly tired. It's not risque to talk about your cunt or even mildly amusing, it's just boring and does not mask poor song writing. Palmer sings, "they don't play the song on the radio, they don't show the tits on the radio". Correct. They probably won't play the song because Lady GaGa has this niche covered. They don't show anything on the radio so not showing Harper's tits on ABC Local Radio won't be anything to celebrate or complain about.
From a woman capable of much greater shows of genuine envelope pushing, this kind of crap is nothing but disappointing. I choose the word crap pointedly, not because I have no vocabulary. This is junk music of the kind that 30 years ago created a genuine pop star in Madonna. But now, it is a rag of a forgotten time. If Ms Palmer wants to shock and offend The West in 2011 she'd be better wearing a burqa while rapping of her self-confidence and telling us all she chose the clothing out of self respect.
For those beyond The Antipodes, the map of Tasmania is a reference to the vagina. Not only is it a lame lyrical turn of phrase but it's also one that, in 2011, is incredibly tired. It's not risque to talk about your cunt or even mildly amusing, it's just boring and does not mask poor song writing. Palmer sings, "they don't play the song on the radio, they don't show the tits on the radio". Correct. They probably won't play the song because Lady GaGa has this niche covered. They don't show anything on the radio so not showing Harper's tits on ABC Local Radio won't be anything to celebrate or complain about.
From a woman capable of much greater shows of genuine envelope pushing, this kind of crap is nothing but disappointing. I choose the word crap pointedly, not because I have no vocabulary. This is junk music of the kind that 30 years ago created a genuine pop star in Madonna. But now, it is a rag of a forgotten time. If Ms Palmer wants to shock and offend The West in 2011 she'd be better wearing a burqa while rapping of her self-confidence and telling us all she chose the clothing out of self respect.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Picture Window
Ben Folds and Nick Hornby have now written an album together.
It happens to contain one of the better sad songs of the past decade.
Picture Window's immediate and obvious reference point is Brick, a song that's now 13years old. Where once the talk was the tale of abortion, now the character has moved inside the hospital.
Hornby's lyrics are what they are: "they checked into the hospital New Year's Eve". Or are they Hornby's lyrics, there are suggestions doing the rounds that this might more accurately be described as an adeptation of a Hornby story.
Folds has been playing the song live for a year, Youtube atests to it.
It happens to contain one of the better sad songs of the past decade.
Picture Window's immediate and obvious reference point is Brick, a song that's now 13years old. Where once the talk was the tale of abortion, now the character has moved inside the hospital.
Hornby's lyrics are what they are: "they checked into the hospital New Year's Eve". Or are they Hornby's lyrics, there are suggestions doing the rounds that this might more accurately be described as an adeptation of a Hornby story.
Folds has been playing the song live for a year, Youtube atests to it.
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