The Future of Physical-Music Retailing?
YepRoc just sent me a notice about Gang Of Four's new album CONTENT, which (in addition to the usual CD package) will be released in a Deluxe Box Set - apparently a rectangular metal "can" that will contain "vials of the band members' blood."
Presumably this is an ironic commentary on the state of physical music retailing in the digital age, considering who it's coming from. Nevertheless, I predict other bands will follow suit, and that eventually those of us who still purchase physical CD's will be getting many, many samples of blood, sweat, hair, toenail-clippings, bits of skin, belly-lint, boogers, spooge, and various forms of excreta from our favorite recording artists with each new release.
I'm already making space in my medicine cabinet! (Though I might store the spooge in the freezer, just in case.)
Presumably this is an ironic commentary on the state of physical music retailing in the digital age, considering who it's coming from. Nevertheless, I predict other bands will follow suit, and that eventually those of us who still purchase physical CD's will be getting many, many samples of blood, sweat, hair, toenail-clippings, bits of skin, belly-lint, boogers, spooge, and various forms of excreta from our favorite recording artists with each new release.
I'm already making space in my medicine cabinet! (Though I might store the spooge in the freezer, just in case.)
Comments
Isn't learning wonderful?
You can't make this stuff up/! Yes, I once owned a copy.
They already released one "new" record - actually re-recordings of stuff from the first three albums, called Return the Gift. Not sure why they did that - must've been skint, I guess - but CONTENT will be the first genuinely new album of new material from Go4 (or what they're calling Go4) since 1991, I believe. Almost 20 years! They were probably just waiting for that whole "silly CD craze" to die down before they got back into the game, so to speak.
They didn't see a dime off those songs the first time 'round, and still don't get any royalties from the original releases. If you care ANYTHING about Go4, and have any affection at all for those first few records, this is your chance to actually PAY THE BAND.
I bought these a couple of times each on vinyl, and again on CD, but I was thrilled to be able to contribute a few dollars that, for the very first time, went into the right pockets.
Karma notwithstanding, it's a nice little collection that sounds really really good.
It's $49.99. Is it weird that I almost want it? It's weird, isn't it.
Craig
edit: Board did not like the original url on that link! Or could it be that Wikipedia redirects...?
I guess this is similar to what XTC started to do about 10 years ago - once they got out of their Virgin contract they started releasing demos, box sets of various descriptions, all sorts of things. The latest thing Andy Partridge has released is (was?) a limited-edition CD called "Powers," inspired by the covers of old sci-fi paperbacks:
Next up is supposed to be another b-sides collection called "Bric-a-Brac Breakfast," which I guess is for b-sides released after "Rag & Bone Buffet," except that there weren't all that many - once they got into the 90's they started releasing demos as b-sides, and those have all been released as part of the 8-CD "Fuzzy Warbles" collection. They also recently released a "proper" vinyl reissue of "Skylarking," as the Virgin and Geffen vinyl releases came out in the late 80's when nobody cared about vinyl anymore, so apparently they were substandard in some way. The big draw there, though, is that the cover has the original not-quite-pornographic artwork, not the "censored" version that the labels insisted on.
People like me keep buying all this stuff, and you have to feel bad that they didn't get paid for their major-label releases... but at some point you just have to say "enough is enough." If there's a reason to buy C O N T E N T, it's because it's new material music-wise, not because you get blood and odorama along with it. Besides, those metal cans are too big to be filed with your other CD's - I have that same problem with the "Repo Man" special-edition DVD. Where do you put something like that? If you put it on top of your bookcase, the cat will just knock it over.
@Doofy, I also owned the KISS comic book back in the day. I have no recollection of tossing it, and I'm somewhat of a pack rat when it comes to stuff like that, but I lost track of my copy years ago. Still have some KISS Army stickers though.