
This album totally rules. I like it so much better than "77".
Lately I've been bat-shit nuts obsessed with iTunes. Yes, iTunes, the same thing your Mom uses to download Josh Groban songs for her infrequent iPod jogs.
I use iTunes because, a) I have ethics, nay, I have scruples about downloading music, nay I actually, come to think of it, could care less about the moral consequences of downloading --- downloading music just takes a really long time. That or the album I want is not available. Seriously it took me three months to torrent "The Shit Hits the Fans" by The Replacements. What the hell?
I also use iTunes because b) it's a digital age. Yes I would love to buy all my albums on vinyl
but that just is not happening. The market for vinyl is so small unless you want to hop on GEMM (http://www.gemm.com/) and buy a Nick Cave record for 40 drachmas or something from some guy in Greece. But that's why I think makes vinyl records so special, and far be it from me to want to change that. So that's out. That leaves CDs. And what about CDs? Well comrade, I realized recently that
I hate CDs. Bear in mind, this is a new development in my life. In 2005 when a roommate of mine sold all his CDs to Waterloo ($500-600 worth) my jaw dropped. Up until last year, I had a CD or two a month habit at-least. I even had a clever scam going at Waterloo, where, using their liberal CD exchange policy I could milk two or three CDs out of one $9.99 purchase. Yeah, sometimes I would pay $11.99, but still, that's only $4 a CD! But it got cumbersome. No only did I feel like a prick burning my gas to scam some 28 year old with long hair, but the actually CDs became pointless. I can't play them in my car (my Jetta's CD player works 1/8th of the time; otherwise it just spits 'em out like bad chaw). I certainly am not going to come home from a hard day's work, brew some hibiscus black tea and curl up with a nice compact disc. What the hell is this, 1998? Where is my extr alarge orange soccer shirt? As far as I am concerned, the CD is dead. I found a 10 disc CD case the other day, in the bowels of my closet, yknow one for the car, hiding from a quick death, and right before I tossed it in the trash, I looked at it quizzically as if it were an ancient Mesopotamian contraceptive device or something. What is this, and what is it good for?
OK CDs aren't totally useless. I just bought Kinks Kronikles on CD because it wasn't on iTunes. 8 bucks. Plus, nothing's more fun than putting your boombox in the living room, spinning some ceedes (as I just now awkwardly started calling them colloquially to myself), and getting down. Oh and this way, no dude-bro can steal your iPod. Yes, he can steal your copy of "Kill Uncle" by Morrissey, but that's besides the point.
Last but not least, c) I think downloading sites that you pay monthly for are faggy. Yes I know, these programs are much cheaper than paying $9.99 for an album on iTunes (many are #10 a month with several albums coming with such a price), and because of this I am thinking subscribing to one more and more. But in addition to my American fear at adding yet another monthly bill to my bank account's arsenal, Tthese sites however having a pretty mediocere selection. Like one I used for a little while to scam a trial membership package out of them (I got Theoretical Record and a Sham 69 compilation for) eMusic,
they didn't even have "Never Mind the Bollocks." They didn't even have any MADONNA! My God. eMusic, get back to me when you have ANYTHING besides a deluge of shitty indie rock.
And that is the allure of iTunes to me. At a whim I can get nearly ANY record I want with the push of a button. And it's only $10. 10 bucks. Your average CD on Amazon will be more than that. Yeah you can get many for under 10, but 1/2 the time they smell or are scratched to hell. But then you still have to wait for it in the mail! What is this 1950s mail order? With iTunes you can,instantly get literally anything. In recent memory the only band I noticed them not having was Shellac. And that's really no surprise (you can't even buy their albums on the Touch N Go website in vinyl form). But iTunes large selection is the biggest reason why iTunes works for me so well: I am taking care of my list.
My list is a stupid paragraph on my computer in a word document that's on my desktop entitled "Import." "Import" is short for important, and it damn well is. There I put my tasks for the week, keep track of how much money my friends owe me, make lists of where I've eaten new for the year in addition new movies and books I've enjoyed. And as said above, it's where I put my list: my list of albums to "get into" as the nerdy as hell white guy phrase goes (does any one else use this phrase? Pleas don't tell me if you do not). It's my list of "music to get into."
Most of the stuff on the list I might never well get to in my lifetime as the list is so vast (seriously what the hell is "World of Pooh"?), but because of iTunes I have been chipping away mightily at it. And it works so well! Normally, when I want a CD, I will go to Waterloo. Waterloo never has anything I want. I can't tell you how many times I have gone there and not found any A Certain Ratio behind the "A Certain Ratio" card deal in the C section of the store. Why do they keep the card sitting there? And it infuriates me so! So much so, that I don't even want to ask the employees to order it. That and I am shy. And don't like talking to 29 year olds.
So buying it in Austin, TX is out of the question (oh and I don't shop anywhere besides Waterloo, sorry kids; and Trailerspace; it has great vinyl; seriously, no where else right now; I went to Sound on Sound last week and it just sucked). I will then ponder buying it on Amazon. Like usual they probably don't have it either. Add previously mentioned frustrations, and no Amazon. Then what happens is I forget about the album, and my list just keeps get bigger. And I get frustrated with my self.
But because of glorious Steve Jobs and his glorious iTunes I've ripped through my list with a vigorous fury. I've bought albums that have been on my list for years, such as (and I will put the album names just to be extra snooty) "Inflammable Material," "More Songs About Buildings and Food," "Grotesque (After the Gramme)," "The Modern Lovers," a lot of Stranglers, "Chairs Missing," "The Correct Use of Soap," "The Modern Lovers," a Poison Girls compilation, "Machine Gun Etiquitte," "More Dead Cops," "Dance with Me," a Robyn Hitchcock album that's ok, some shitty Cure albums (more on this later), and an Avengers compilation. Sure it's cost me like $200 bucks but at-least I got them, at-least I didn't have to deal with Fedex or UPS, and at-least I don't have even more square shaped pieces of plastic stacked in a shelf laying around collecting dust at my house.
In conclusion, yes, I am paying more than if I were using a monthly paid music site, and WAY more than if I was illegally downloading music, but at-least I am not spending as much money as I would if I bought everything on useless CDs. To own the amount of albums I do in 1986 would have been pretty pricey, even when you contextualize how much the dollar was worth back then what with inflation and all.
Man I need to call Apple and learn how to put my Mp3s on a CD. Fingers crossed. Anyone know?
In other news, I am 13 episodes away from being done with
The Sopranos. It's been a long summer.