SEMI-TWANG – Playlist for January 14-15, 2010

SEMI-TWANG – Playlist for January 14-15, 2010

Part two of a two part show based upon my favorite music of last year.

Artist – “Track” – RELEASE – Label – Year:

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Surrender – THE LIVE ANTHOLOGY (Reprise) – 1983/2009

Willie Nelson & Asleep At the Wheel – I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None o’ This Jelly Roll – WILLIE & THE WHEEL (Bismeaux) – 2009

The Belleville Outfit – Nothing’s Too Good for My Baby – TIME TO STAND (www.bellevilleoutfit.com) – 2009

Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts – Get Rhythm – GIRL OF THE CENTURY (Bloodshot) – 2009

Chuck Mead – She Got the Ring – JOURNEYMAN’S WAGER (Thirty Tigers) – 2009

Scott Miller & The Commonwealth – Cheap Ain’t Cheap (For Cring Out Loud) – 2009 – FOR CRYING OUT LOUD (F.A.Y.) – 2009

Justin Townes Earle – Mama’s Eyes – MIDNIGHT AT THE MOVIES (Bloodshot) – 2009

Steve Earle with Justin Townes Earle – Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold – TOWNES (New West) – 2009

Charlie Robison – Feelin’ Good – BEAUTIFUL DAY (Dualtone) – 2009

Guy Clark – The Guitar – SOMEDAYS THE SONG WRITES YOU (Dualtone) – 2009

Matt Harlan – Suitcase Blues – TIPS & COMPLIMENTS (Berkalin) – 2009

Red Stick Ramblers – Bloodshot Eyes – MY SUITCASE IS ALWAYS PACKED (Sugar Hill) – 2009

Yim Yames – All Things Must Pass – TRIBUTE TO (ATO) – 2009

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs – Back of a Car – UNDER THE COVERS Volume 2 (Shout) – 2009

The Jayhawks – Tailspin (early version) – MUSIC FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY (American/Legacy) – 2001/2009

Rosanne Cash – She’s Got You – THE LIST (Manhattan) – 2009

Fun – All the Pretty Girls – AIM AND IGNITE (Nettwerk) – 2009

7 Worlds Collide with K.T. Tunstall – Hazel Black – THE SUN CAME OUT (Sony) – 2009

Bob Mould – Life & Times – LIFE AND TIMES (Anti) – 2009

Pieta Brown – Over You – SHIMMER (Red House) – 2009

Melissa McClelland – Victoria Day (May Flowers) – 2009 – VICTORIA DAY (Six Shooter) – 2009

Sharon Shannon with Shane MacGowan – Rake at the Gates of Hell & The Scoundrel’s Halo – SAINTS AND SCOUNDRELS (Compass) – 2009

Bearfoot – DOORS AND WINDOWS (Compass) – 2009

Corb Lund – It’s Hard to Keep a White Shirt Clean – LOSIN’ LATELY GAMBLER (New West) – 2009

Monsters of Folk – The Sandman, The Brakeman & Me – MONSTERS OF FOLK (Shangri La) – 2009

Willie Nelson – Sunday Morning Coming Down – NAKED WILLIE (RCA Nashville/Legacy) – 1970/2009

Dave Rawlings Machine – Ruby – A FRIEND OF A FRIEND (Acony) – 2009

SEMI-TWANG – Playlist for January 7-8, 2010

SEMI-TWANG – Playlist for January 7-8, 2010

Part one of a two part show based upon my favorite music of last year.

Artist – “Track” – RELEASE – Label – Year:

Dave Rawlings Machine – How About You – A FRIEND OF A FRIEND (Acony) – 2009

Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle – Officer Down – LET’S JUST STAY HERE (Mint) – 2009

Wilco – You and I – WILCO (THE ALBUM (Nonesuch) – 2009

The Gourds – All the Way to Jericho – HAYMAKER! (Yep Roc) – 2009

The Avett Brothers – January Wedding – I AND LOVE AND YOU (Columbia) – 2009

Mark Olson & Gary Louris – The Rose Society – READY FOR THE FLOOD (New West) – 2009

Otis Gibbs – Caroline – GRANDPA WALKED A PICKETLINE (Wanamaker) – 2009

Slaid Cleaves – Hard to Believe – EVERYTHING YOU LOVE WILL BE TAKEN AWAY (Music Road) – 2009

Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women – Nina and Jimi – DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY WOMEN (Yep Roc) – 2009

John Paul Keith & the One Four Fives – Rock’n’Roll Will Break Your Heart – SPILLS & THRILLS (Fat Possum) – 2009

Wink Keziah – Lost Highway – HARD TIMES (Great South) – 2009

Robert Earl Keen – The Rose Hotel – THE ROSE HOTEL (Lost Highway) – 2009

Webb Wilder – Pretty Is As Pretty Does – MORE LIKE ME (Blind Pig) – 2009

Girls – Laura – ALBUM (True Panther Sounds) – 2009

Bob Schneider – 40 Dogs (Like Romeo & Juliet) – 2009 – LOVELY CREATURES (Kirtland) – 2009

Or, The Whale – Datura – OR, THE WHALE (Seany) – 2009

Daddy – I Went to Heaven in a Dream Last Night – FOR A SECOND TIME (Cedar Creek) – 2009

Sons of Bill – Charleston – ONE WAY TOWN (Gray Fox) – 2009

Elvis Costello – Complicated Shadows – SECRET, PROFANE & SUGARCANE (Hear) – 2009

Buddy & Julie Miller – One Part, Two Part – WRITTEN IN CHALK (New West) – 2009

The Abrams Brothers – Shelter from the Storm – BLUE ON BROWN (UFO) – 2009

Paul Burch – Little Bells – STILL YOUR MAN (Ramseur) – 2009

Joe Doe & The Sadies – The Cold Hard Facts of Life – COUNTRY CLUB (Yep Roc) – 2009

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey – Early in the Morning – HERE AND NOW (Bar None) – 2009

Work Progress Administration – Good as Ever – WPA (Red Distribution) – 2009

Matthew Grimm & The Red Smear – Hang Up and Drive – THE GHOST OF ROCK & ROCK (Mud Dauber) – 2009

Where or where are my used CDs?

Yesterday I wandered through two of my favorite record stores in Berkeley, Amoeba and Rasputin. Why are they my favorites? Well, Amoeba has a spectacular array of back catalog and oddball genres. You can find almost anything.
Although I can say that I had my money ready to buy the CD by Relatively Clean Rivers and, to my great shock and disappointment, they didn’t have it stocked.
No big deal, right? I can just order it on Amazon. I mean, do you really expect a store to carry an obscure CD that was initially released forty years ago?
My answer to that is, I don’t know. My other reaction is “oh oh.”
The reason I really like both Amoeba and Rasputin is that they seem to know when enough is enough within the scope of their stock. Every used CD store in the world has a seemingly endless supply of CDs by Hootie & the Blowfish and Bush. There are some CDs that you see so often in used stores that you wonder what that says about the fickle buying public.
Why did these CDs get purchased in such huge quantity and what was the inertia for people to unload them? Everyone knows that, at this point, “Cracked Rear View” and “Razorblade Suitcase” is not on the used CD store’s “Want List.” In fact, I’m certain that by now people are just dumping those CDs on the unwilling stores. Some CDs no longer have the cache of currency. They are worthless.
So both of those CDs initially sold big quantities of CDs and, now, they are choking the used CD market. There are lots of other similar titles just like Bush and Hootie. These CDs really get in the way of a happy, positive browsing session of used discs. I’m sure that used CD stores hate these titles. As a browser, I do.
Both Amoeba and Rasputin have, in the past, learned to jettison all of that CD detritus by putting them in the “get them the hell out of here” bins. They happily throw lots of other stuff in there too: promos with warning stickers, record club versions of CDs, “original issue” releases now available in re-mastered forms with bonus tracks, and overflow used stuff.
Until recently, both stores had more than a few aisles devoted to these “last chance” CDs. My last two trips to these stores suggested a new trend. A shrinking supply of bargain bins. Is it the lack of the people buying CDs and recycling them, the reduction of promos copies, or the general disinterest in music that is now hitting these stores and my hallowed aisles of bargains?
I wandered around the store and noticed lots more vinyl than I saw in previous trips? I have dallied with the notion of getting back into vinyl. That lust however, seems to really be just a misplaced desire to spend time flipping through CDs.
I unloaded a literal ton of vinyl years ago. I missed it immediately yet didn’t look back.
Vinyl is just a last gasp before the final choking. It is a way of holding the music buying public mildly captivated for one last thing before it all just implodes upon itself.
My iPod project of digitizing my CD collection has made it useable and enjoyable in a way that LPs never were. I can make a playlist of classic R&B and soul from compilations, Stax, and Motown artists and hear songs that would never get played on any radio station, terrestrial or celestial.
I love making playlists. I love listening to those well-crafted themed playlists with artists that I have all but forgotten about because they are right there on my hard drive.
Now I can listen to Wreckless Eric on my iPod and my phone wherever and whenever. He is no longer relegated to the “gosh I love that song” pile of never being heard. Wreckless Eric can get out and mingle with Josie Cotton and King Crimson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
When things get boring, I make a playlist. Sometimes it is memory based, other times it is genre driven.
Over last many years, Amoeba’s loss has been my gain. They are happy to cast away a copy of Aerosmith’s “Rocks” for a couple of bucks. They can clear it out of the way so they can stock multiple copies of Vampire Weekend and Animal Collective. I am all for it. When “Last Child” comes up on my “Rockin’ Lincoln Jr. High” playlist, I’m all smiles. I’ll buy Vampire Weekend in those same bins when some UC-Berkeley student needs beer money. I have the patience of Job and the budget of the same college student.
I fear, however, that the used CD economy is, like so many other things in America, crumbling. It is certainly shrinking before the final crumble.
Kids weaned on iTunes and file-sharing are never going to have the same visceral experience with music that I had and still have today. They are not killing hour after hour flipping through album bins and bothering the record store clerk with inane questions about David Bowie, Genesis, and Trapeze. They are, almost certainly, not browsing the “Encyclopedia of Rock,” “Rolling Stone Guide to Records” or scrutinizing Pete Frames’ wonder family trees of music.
They are, maybe, reading blogs and Amazon CD reviews. Clearly the internet and digital delivery is sapping the lifeblood of records stores, music, movies, books, magazines, and newspapers. I am grappling with the change. But I’m not happy about it.
The brick and mortar stores in urban environments cannot pay their rent based upon the buying habits of a bargain driven forty year-old man with nearly 10,000 CDs. The niche audience is dwindling for reasons beyond my grasp. Is it undoubtedly because music is a free commodity or is it because music can be made by virtually anyone nowadays and most of it sounds like it.
I call this kind of music “butterfly flutterby” music. Try out an open mike and see what I mean. “Three chords and the truth” has been replaced by no music ability and iffy rhymes.
My theory ends like it always does.
The music world has no opportunity for the great artists to rise up, innovate, and prosper as it once did. Our culture no longer seemingly has the time and patience to support someone like Neil Young or Elvis Costello decade after decade. We hung on their twists and turns and are the better for it.
I think the future will have little opportunity to nurture a David Byrne or Brian Eno. No one will ever get the chance to hear the next Talking Heads and Eno will make a statement as a non-musician but never get a chance to produce U2.
These are either desperate times for art or the vanguard of reform and an opportunity for innovation. I just wanna buy cheap, used, interesting CDs.