Category: Music
-
Not just a bunch of boring production deadlines
So, another year, another 52 CDs. After this ‘experiment’ in 2012, I didn’t think I’d repeat it again in 2013, but then there were so many great releases this year that I had to put some kind of a limit on myself again. And again, although I planned on balancing new purchases against back-catalog stuff on my ‘whenever’ list, there’s been so much good new stuff that I’ve barely picked up any old stuff. Out of the 52 albums, 31 of them were released in 2013, and a further 11 are from 2012 (mainly bought during the beginning of 2013… Read more
-
Buying music not the medium
For several years now, I’ve been complaining about the need to pay twice for music if you want it in multiple formats. For example, I’ve got a reasonable selection of vinyl, but when CDs came out, they told us that we needed to upgrade to CDs for ‘superior quality’. (And now, ironically, they are marketing vinyl as the ‘purists’ medium!). I didn’t go out and replace all of my vinyl immediately, because I recognized it for the scam it was. The record companies and the artists have already had my money once for the purchase of the album – why… Read more
-
It’s a weekness
This last year (2012), as part of my household’s austerity measures, I determined to limit myself to purchasing only one CD a week. I had a nasty habit of buying CDs in spurts, by the dozen, so this seemed like a reasonable way of both limiting my purchases and spreading said purchases over time. Although I did succeed in doing both of these things, it didn’t work out quite the way I had planned. I’d reasoned that there were only so many new releases I tended to buy, so I could use the ‘dry’ weeks to bolster my back-catalog collection.… Read more
-
Old Age Is Just Around The Bend
Since my divorce, my social life has opened up again (they don’t call them a ball-and-chain for nothing…). Actually, it has really ‘had the ability’ to open up, because I haven’t actually done anything. The point is that I could have. If I’d wanted to. This week I finally decided that it was time to integrate myself back into indie society by getting out to a gig (and not before time – this blog tells me that my last gig was back in March – of last year!). It took me a while to find something that I wanted to… Read more
-
The End of Something
I’m depressed. Not for all of the obvious reasons, but because one of my favorite bands, Austin, TX based Voxtrot, have split. Actually, they split early last year, but this current bout of depression isn’t a delayed reaction, just a reaction to something I read about Voxtrot during a recent webstalk. The official Voxtrot website contains a letter from Voxtrot main man Ramesh Srivastava (a.k.a. The Voxtrot Kid) commenting on their decision to split, and stating that he was now – in addition to other things – waiting tables for a living. And it’s this last statement that depresses me… Read more