you own me, there’s nothing you can do;
The above is The National performing new song “A Thousand Black Cities” live at the Vega in Copenhagen the other night. Good stuff. I haven’t grown tired of this band since the day I fell for them [via You Ain't No Picasso].
Bless you, internet. The music industry might think you are smothering it, but me? I love the fact that one of my favourite bands, despite being relatively unheard of in my country, can air a new song somewhere else entirely and I can stream it at my desk the next day. And I love that blogging gives me the ability to share these bits and pieces as well as keeping a record for myself – sorta like the boxes of magazine clippings I kept on top of my wardrobe as a kid only in interactive, multimedia format.
You did note the sarcasm when I joked about the internet smothering the music industry above, right? This has been a banner year for those bands and record labels who, rather than stick their heads in the sand and hope that the nasty downloaders will be scared off by threatening letters and botched prosecutions in the US, have recognised that the internet offers unprecedented opportunity for marketing directly to those hardcore faithful who’ll hang on a band’s every lyric. Radiohead got the ball rolling in the most high-profile way of course, but it was Paul Westerberg’s 49:00 project (since pulled, ironically for “copyright reasons“) that got me most excited.
Hell, it all gets me excited. It shouldn’t really, because so many of the people involved at least in the more “independent” side of the music industry are my age, and must be wise to the potential new forms of technology offers for the promotion of their product, but it does. The other day I got an email from Jagjaguar, letting me as somebody who had purchased Okkervil River material directly through them before that the new album is now available for preorder. That’s not the best bit though – preorder packages come with a poster set, and an electronic version of the album prior to release date.
Now, I can’t be a hypocrite here: the album leaked a while ago, and I’ve heard it. But far better to have an official, properly mastered electronic version, while waiting for the physical product that I still love above all else.
And Jagjaguar wouldn’t be this worthy of my praise without a web 2.0 friendly mp3 from the forthcoming album:
[MP3] Okkervil River – Lost Coastlines [courtesy of Secretly Canadian]
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one thing i love about the indie labels right now is that they offer goodies if you order through them (or, to put it in a stuffy, corporate manner, “show brand loyalty”). i purchased the bon iver album through jagjaguwar, and they sent me a poster, as well. also, if you order vinyl from sub pop, they’ll also send you a code to download the album on mp3. genius.
if i can steal a phrase from you: “O HAI, WEB SHERIFF! NICE HAIRCUT!”
The trouble with trying to finish a post in a hurry as I’m leaving work is that I always forget half of what I wanted to say! I think I’ve written about how great US indie labels are before, and while the exchange rate still makes it not prohibitive to do so I’m going to keep buying from them. I’ve had stickers, badges, posters, even free CD samplers with my Hallelujah The Hills and Jim Bryson albums!
I hope that more labels embrace the vinyl/mp3 route, I can’t afford to buy most albums on vinyl and CD (for importing to iTunes purposes), so tend to go for the latter as it means I have the physical product plus electronic capability. I’d imagine most folk are the same.
i love it when labels include CD samplers! when i used to order from insound, they always did the same, and had a lengthy booklet that was almost like a magazine. if i didn’t ALWAYS encounter a problem ordering from insound, i’d still order from them. but i love ordering directly from labels, because not only do they send them to you quick-fast, and you’re supporting the artist in a more direct manner, but they usually add goodies. i can’t begin to tell you how many dang sub pop bumper stickers i have.
yeah, i understand about format restrictions. you know, there are record players that will rip your vinyl to mp3. i generally like vinyl better, because i’m always at home, so i love throwing the record on and having to flip it over in 25 (or, in no age’s case, 15) minutes. i consider myself an abnormally dedicated music listener. to hell with convenience!
Lucero’s last album was available as a digital download to those who pre-ordered it, and it was a very early download aswell, ages before the album came out.
i don’t really have a preference between vinyl and cd, though the latter started the path of making people lazy and not listening to the whole album.
my only real preferences are to have either format over mp3/aac and to have speakers rather than earphones. I want my music to fill the room and surround me, not be a private joke between me and my ears.
I’m avoiding a comedy rant about cd’s and mp3′s have ruined the fun of making a mix tape
And somehow, wordpress decided that one comment would be mine, and the one i posted straight after would be anonymous….hmmmm. Still, it gets three comments out of me.
It makes me look popular, so I don’t care.
But it’s interesting that you refer to it as a “comedy” rant because in my experience those who whine about the death of the mixtape are almost without exception joyless bastards. But hey, we were already well into the era of the mix CD before I ever made one, so what do I know?
I share your sentiments exactly about how nice it is to live in the “internet generation” and be able to stream music / watch videos regardless of where you are in the world.
I was actually the person who recorded this National video in Copenhagen. I uploaded the video the night of the show and sent my favorite music blog (http://iguessimfloating.blogspot.com/) an e-mail saying that if they were interested here is the video. By the time I woke up the next morning, not only did they post it but I also had over 1500 google hits for “Thousand Black Cities.” Absolutely unbelievable! I swear that it would be an interesting thesis topic discussing the rate of diffusion of online content.
Anyways, I just clicked on a couple of random links that contained the video and your blog had one of the most thoughtful written up posts that I decided to comment.
Oh, and they did play “Lucky You” at the first concert in Copenhagen.
thanks for making the video! it really got a lot of people excited (obviously).
@Bryant: I’d LOVE to hear “Lucky You” live… it’s one of my all-time favourite songs.
Thank you so much for thinking to share your video with the wider, appreciative internet – and for stopping by my little corner of it.
K2 huh? Are you going to pimp the site?
Lyns and I saw DCFC last night. A great, great show! She will no doubt tell you all about it
@James: yep, I’m liking k2 so far! Pimping will come later, I hope – right now it’s just nice to be able to take care of the coding side of things (mostly) by myself.
Did you get any Death Cab photos? Apologies if they’re already up, I’m sure I’ll egt to them later as I go through my feeds if so!
I used to do a good line in ‘mix tapes are great’ rants, but I think that was a result of owning one of Sony’s shoddy mp3 players. Since I got my lovely wee ‘Zen Stone’, I can honestly say I couldn’t give a fondant fancy for sitting at a tape deck for hours, splicing together track listings that I’d grow bored of within a week.
Heh, yep, that’s pretty much my point. I don’t articulate very well when it’s me versus the Stringer though, if he doesn’t concede he doesn’t get his tea!
Unfortunately I wasn’t there to shoot the band
Besides, it was much cooler seeing Lyndsay bop around like a very happy camper to their music 
Shows are ultimately more fun when you don’t have to concentrate on all that sort of stuff!