Cheeseburger In Paradise

David Browne for this week’s Rolling Stone (RS 1054) writes about the return of vinyl as a desirable (and, increasingly, profitable) medium for listening to music both old and new.  According to the article ‘Vinyl Returns in the Age of MP3‘, the groovy format has jumped 15 per cent in sales from 2006 to 2007, and could double in sales to 1.6 million pressings retailed by the end of 2008.  Recently spurred by creative marketing strategies (Radiohead’s release of In Rainbows in special discbox pushed 13,000 copies, Elvis Costello’s April release of Momofuku was available only on LP for the first few weeks), people realizing how shitty MP3s actually sound, and a good bit of nostalgia, vinyl is staging a definitive comeback.

I can certainly agree.  This past year I purchased at least ten copies of both favorite albums and new releases on vinyl.  The sound is irreplaceable, even compared to ripping CDs with Apple Lossless or AIFF.  Plus, I really enjoy listening to entire albums; I love the ritual associated with appreciating album art, taking the time to set the needle and turn the disc, as well as appreciating the warmth vinyl innately brings to the house.  That, and I can empathize with Browne’s state of mind:

There’s also something less technical lurking behind vinyl’s mini-renaissance.  Whether it’s inspecting a needle for dust or flipping the record over at the end of a side, LPs demand attention.  And for a small but growing group, those demands aren’t a nuisance.  “There’s nothing like putting the needle into the groove of a record,” says country singer Shelby Lynne.  “it’s about as real as you can get.  You got your vinyl, your weed, your friends, and while you’re rollin’ they’re pickin’ out another record.  We’re all taking music for granted because it’s so easy to push a button.  I mean, come on, music should be fun.”

Rag & Bone

I happened to be shuffling through some backfiles of news articles on hip-hip and rap this morning trying to make sense of the fear I have over what Madonna’s new LP means for that genre and the industry. (There’s a whole post in the works about this topic for later, but here’s an example from fan forums: “Woop! Tres excitement! Though I’m also apprehensive about her going all supposedly ‘hip hop’ & using the ubiquitous Timbaland as producer (seriously can Timbaland just go on holiday for a year or 2?! …every song nowadays is done by him or has him in the background or something)…Still, any Madonna album is a good thing to look forward to!” That flavor of statement reminds me (not just of Kanye West–also a whole separate post…) of the timbre of argument that’s usually a harbinger of assimilation; a form of assimilation distinct from synthesis (sonic, in this case) because someone like Madonna forecloses musical dialog by subsuming/co-opting/reclaiming a history and allowing it to be heard only through the filter of her music. This is not the first time Madonna’s done this; in fact, there’s plenty of literature indicating this trend is formulaic in her music).

Sheesh. Regardless, ISO50 made me laugh, since he posted these cool faux-7″ sleeve mashes (check out other artwork by Nikolay Saveliev) to make them look like the covers of academic articles:

I killed some time at my office scrolling through Scott’s ISO50 blog and also found this cool vintage Playboy shot, which reminded me of the razzy Barkley video earlier.

Moonage Daydream