Category: Commentary

Record Labels, Please Change Your Archaic Release Date Practices

Because I could never go home empty handed, I ended up with this
Because I could never go home empty handed, I ended up with this

For most of my life as a music nerd, Tuesdays were always my favorite day of the week.  On Tuesdays, I’d stop at Strawberries Records in West Springfield, MA and shop the new release rack.  I wouldn’t let myself leave without buying at least one thing.  This is how I ended up with The Bends, as I had liked “Creep” but not Pablo Honey, but there really wasn’t anything else interesting out that week.  As time has passed, Tuesdays have become less and less important, because now the release date for an album is somewhat random:  when it shows up online, it’s released.  Yet for some reason, the record labels are clinging to these release dates.  And in many cases, they still release albums on different dates in different countries.  This, for obvious file-sharing reasons, is beyond lunacy.  This post is a plea for record labels to end the archaic practice of release dates.  Not to help me–I’m well served by the Internet–but to help themselves.

The company I work for in my everyday life has a saying:  “We make it easy for our Customers to buy from us.”  When will the record labels adopt this attitude?

Continue reading “Record Labels, Please Change Your Archaic Release Date Practices”

Spinning Platters Picks Six: Bands That Seem Likely To Headline Outside Lands

6 likely candidates to cover for the Beasties at Outside Lands
6 likely candidates to cover for the Beasties at Outside Lands

(Update: Another Planet announced today that Tenacious D are going to be replacing The Beastie Boys… Odd choice, and one that I never would have expected…)

So, it seems that the good people at Another Planet are taking their time with revealing who will take over the headlining slot for the Beastie Boys.  I’d like to take the time tell you which six acts are likely to take it over.  This isn’t a wish list, this is a well researched list of acts that are popular enough to headline a large outdoor festival, that are currently active, are available August 30th, and do not have any other shows in the Bay Area within 3 months before and after the show. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Bands That Seem Likely To Headline Outside Lands”

Spinning Platters Weekly Tip Sheet: 6/30-7/6

Playing Thursday at Bottom of The Hill
Playing Thursday at Bottom of The Hill

Sorry about last week… We at Spinningplatters.com hope you found something to do, and if not, hope that you aren’t blaming us for that. We know that you still need to write your aunt that thank you letter. You should do it now!

On with our Michael Jackson tribute! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Tip Sheet: 6/30-7/6”

Festival Preview: Wanderlust Festival in Squaw Valley, 7/24/09-7/26/09

Girl Talk should be featured in the Wanderlust marketing
Girl Talk should be featured in the Wanderlust marketing

This summer, a new festival comes to the Lake Tahoe area called the Wanderlust Festival. I’m extremely excited about this festival, and have already reserved a hotel room and picked up tickets. Now, I’m simply holding my breath and hoping they sell enough tickets for it to happen. Their marketing is poor. They’re selling the festival like this: Continue reading “Festival Preview: Wanderlust Festival in Squaw Valley, 7/24/09-7/26/09”

May 4th, 2009 (Sluttering Day)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District."]The guys on Mission Street.[/caption]There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.

It is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.

With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.

Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District
Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District

There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.

The agony is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.

With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.

Defined by the writer of the lyrics, Blake Schwarzenbach, the word itself means “pontification under duress and/or a kind of drunk muttering.”

And as the song’s chorus whipsaws in, Blake’s voice climbs meticulously across the syllables of what it sounds like to know that the person who was once with you is now with someone else:

slow dance alone with no one to the sound of four hands clapping / congratulations to you both I hope somewhere you’re happy / if there’s a moral to this story, then I wish you’d show me

Today is May 4. It is Sluttering Day. Listen to the song. And if you can help it, don’t break anyone’s heart.