Category Archives: Shorties

Shorties

Michael Jackson once again excluded from Billboard 200

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Michael Jackson, looking awesomeTo nobody’s surprise, Michael Jackson has broken Billboard records in the week after his death. More than anything, this week’s sales data once again points out the anachronistic stupidity of the way Billboard separates “catalog” albums from “current” albums in its chart system. The Billboard 200 excludes anything that is more than two years old and that has fallen below position 100 on the Billboard 200. Why? Who knows?

Back in February of 2008, when the 25 anniversary reissue of Thriller would have placed at #2 had it been included in the Billboard 200, Billboard’s “Sr. Director of Charts” Geoff Mayfield told Undercover News that “Sony-BMG stated a strong case and we did consider it… I took to heart their comments and then I took it to retail. The response I got overwhelmingly is that it is a catalogue album and belongs on the catalogue chart.”

That doesn’t really clear it up. Labels want reissues included in the main chart, but retailers don’t? Why would retailers care? The whole thing seems stupid to me. Billboard has a Top Comprehensive Albums list, but nobody ever sees it. It’s not published in the magazine and can only be viewed online with a paid subscription.

It’s just stupid to exclude older titles to the “catalog” ghetto, especially in this era of the long tail. The #1 album this week (Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.”) only sold 88,000: that’s 13,000 less than the third-best selling Michael Jackson album this week. Insane.

See the top ten of the Billboard Catalog chart after the jump…

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Shorties

Stone Roses Singles Reissued This Summer

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In a run up to the August re-release of their debut album, the Stone Roses will release five singles once a week starting July 6 in Britain. According to the NME, the re-issues will kick off with “Elephant Stone” and be followed by “Made Of Stone” out on July 13, “She Bangs The Drums” (20), “Fools Gold” (27) and “One Love” (August 3).

Each release will come backed with untitled, previously-unreleased recordings by the Manchester legends.

That sounds to me like each will have the standard backwards track that was often included on Roses singles, but here’s hoping for a little more than that.

Two special editions of The Stone Roses’ 1989 debut album, a “collector’s” and “legacy” edition, are set for release on August 10.

stone roses: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki

Shorties

Video: Attack Attack! – "Stick Stickly"

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The lengths some bands will go to in order to stand out…ENTER: Attack Attack and their awfully hilarious video for “Stick Stickly.” This is apparently the band’s attempt to carve out a brand new sub-genre for themselves; a little something called “Crabcore.” And I have to give them (or their web savvy fans) props for getting a Wikipedia entry on the subject posted (which is more than our fair GLONO can say).

Video: Attack Attack! – “Stick Stickly”

Check out the Wikipedia entry after the jump, it’s hilarious…

Continue reading Video: Attack Attack! – "Stick Stickly" →

Shorties

Neil Young Album Tracks Not on the Archives

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Neil Young Archives Volume 1 (1963 - 1972)If you were to believe the press surrounding the release of Neil Young‘s epic Archives Vol. 1, you would understandably assume that the set is definitive. USA Today went as far as claiming that the box “compiles every song he wrote and recorded in that period, plus all significant performances.” Well, even a cursory glimpse at the track listings of Neil’s officially released albums would reveal the blatant fallacy of this statement. Clearly, the fact checkers have all been downsized.

Fortunately for the completists out there, on the same day that the Archives were released, Neil also quietly released remastered versions of his first four albums to iTunes and Amazon MP3. A spokesman has confirmed that physical releases will follow, eventually, on HDCD and vinyl. Below, we list the album tracks not included on the Archives.

Neil Young

• “The Emperor Of Wyoming” (not included on Archives)

• “If I Could Have Her Tonight” (not included on Archives)

• “String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill” (not included on Archives)

• “I’ve Been Waiting For You” (Archives contains previously unreleased mix)

• “Here We Are In The Years” (Archives contains second version)

• “What Did You Do To My Life” (Archives contains previously unreleased mix)

See what’s missing from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Goldrush, and Harvest after the jump…

Continue reading Neil Young Album Tracks Not on the Archives →

Links, Shorties

Big Star Bonanza: Box Set, Bonus Tracks, more

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Big Star - Keep An Eye On The Sky

For a band who only released two real albums that were both universally ignored at the time, Big Star certainly has a high profile these days. Why? Because they wrote really catchy songs that might not have been en vogue at the time, but have aged very, very well. It doesn’t hurt that everyone from R.E.M. to Okkervil River has covered their songs.

And now they’re getting the reissue treatment. And how. First off, the twofer of #1 Record (1972) and Radio City (1974) is getting remastered and reissued and re-released on June 16 with bonus tracks (single mix of “In the Street” and single edit of “O My Soul”). They’re also being released “on two separate vinyl LPs featuring faithfully reproduced artwork, including the original Ardent Records labels.” So that’s pretty cool.

For fans who don’t really care about remastered audio or alternate mixes, on September 15 Rhino is releasing a four-disc box set of rarities, including “pre-Big Star bands Rock City and Icewater, solo work from Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, and unreleased material from the #1 Record, Radio City and Third/Sister Lover sessions.” The fourth disc contains live material from January 1973 including some covers of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Kinks, and T.Rex. You can stream the unreleased “Lovely Day” at Rhino’s site.

As if that’s not enough Rhino Handmade is releasing a deluxe edition Chris Bell’s solo album I Am The Cosmos, too.

MP3: Chris Bell – “I Am the Cosmos”

Big Star: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki.

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Shorties

Cool Band: 1776

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1776 I must admit: I got very, very drunk Saturday night. I went to see a couple of local bands who are somehow associated with the Dandy Warhols and ended up mostly incoherent in the back of a cab stinking of gin and Voodoo Donuts. But just before everything went south (and maybe because of it) I saw my new favorite local band: 1776.

Comprised of four young dudes with tasty vintage gear and excellent hair, 1776 enthusiastically pulls from their influences the best kind of psychedelic rock that is as much MC5 as the Buffalo Springfield. Guitarist and vocalist Nigel Legerwood bangs away on a Danelectro 12-string while bassist Zach Whitton keeps the entire troupe anchored with Rick Danko-inspired bass lines and (again) a fantastic mop of hair.

Portland is home to many-a-psyche rock wannabe band who have probably spent too much time watching Dig! And not enough time listening to The Notorious Bird Brothers (I’m talking to you, The Upsidedown), but 1776 has clearly dug deeper and I’m excited to see how they freak out over time.

MP3: 1776 – “Too Much” (via The Portland Mercury)

1776: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki, MySpace

Shorties

Are the Major Labels starting to…get it?

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A Vision from a Particular PositionA couple of recent articles have made me wonder if the major labels are finally starting to retract their heads from their asses when it comes to dealing with the internet. Last week, the New York Times reported that music labels are now striking more favorable terms with Web companies, and now we learn that Sony will sell songs that are more than two years old on eMusic. That’s a big deal.

Of course, we’ve seen deals like this before, and what can happen with them. And this statement shouldn’t sit well with potential eMusic customers: “As part of the deal, eMusic says it will slightly raise prices and reduce the number of downloads for some of its monthly plans.” I just logged into my account where I had been getting 40 songs per month for $11.99 (which was a non-standard plan, grandfathered in when they raised the prices on their basic plan from $9.99 to $11.99). Now I see a message saying, “Effective Jul 30, 2009, your plan will change to the new eMusic Basic plan which gives you 30 downloads for $11.99 every 30 days.”

Looks like brand new customers will only get 24 songs/month for $11.99. Which kinda sucks, actually. You can buy used CDs for that. We’ll see how it goes. Still cheaper than iTunes though.

Image by Warren Chappell for the Rockford Papers.

Shorties

Most Popular GLONO Items: May 2009

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Glorious Noise: a nicer place to be.Once a month we look back on the stuff we wrote that got the most attention. We don’t do any special weighting for items that appeared later in the month, or anything fancy like that. These are simply the things that received the most views last month, according to our stats. If an item carries over from last month’s chart, its prior rank appears in parentheses.

Current Chart

1. 21 Reasons Why Jay Bennett Should Be Back In Wilco (February)

2. Ex-Wilco Jay Bennett Dead at 45 (May)

3. Unreleased Wilco – I Wish I Were Ian Dury (May)

4. Kara DioGuardi writes worst song EVER (May)

5. Wilco (the leak) leads to Wilco (the stream) (May)

6. Photos: Jay Bennett In-Store, May 2002 (May)

7. Elliott Smith’s Archives: The GLONO Interview with Larry Crane (March)

8. Remembering Jay Bennett (May)

9. Fun with Forkcast, Round 14 (May)

10. John Lennon: New York exhibit shows bag of bloody clothes (May)

See the Catalog Chart after the jump…

Continue reading Most Popular GLONO Items: May 2009 →

Shorties

Cool Band: Michael Dean Damron

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Michael Dean Damron I briefly met Michael Dean Damron when he opened for Two Car Garage at Dante’s in downtown Portland. He’s a great hairy beast of a man who leans into the mic as he belts out dusty ballads and scornful tales. He rides close to his heroes, including Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, Townes Van Zant and Waylon Jennings. His voice is of the same timbre and abrasion as Two Cow’s Micah Schnabel’s, but Damron has clearly put more miles on.

His one sheet say Damron, “spent the first half of this decade cutting his teeth on the finer points of delivering sermon-like epithets and exposing his own personal demons that has resulted not only in an impressive body of work but the art of truth telling, for better or worse.” That truth certainly rings through on crushers like “Angels Fly Up.”

Michael Dean Damron served as the former frontman for I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House through four albums and several tours. While he may no longer carry that moniker, I don’t doubt he could still hold his own against most any SOB.

MP3:

Michael Dean Damron – Angels Fly Up

VIDEO:

Michael Dean Damron “By The Time I Get To Heaven”

Michael Dean Damron: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki

Shorties

Message from Undertow Records Re: Jay Walter Bennett

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Undertow just sent this email to fans:

Our good friend Jay Walter Bennett left us this weekend. As news hits the wires so instantaneously these days, we thought it was important to share some thoughts about our friend and brother before any rumors got out of hand.

First, let it be known that Jay was in a really good place these past few years. He had returned to the area he loved–the “Twin Cities,” Champaign-Urbana–and resurrected his studio, Pieholden Suite Sound, with the assistance of many dear friends and allies. Jay had been busy making music. He recently had released an intimate record entitled “Whatever Happened I Apologize,” and he was looking forward to wrapping up his new work, “Kicking at the Perfumed Air.” Proud of finishing a trilogy of records, including “Bigger Than Blue,” “The Beloved Enemy,” and “The Magnificent Defeat,” Jay loved the balanced yet ironic album titles. He was also looking forward to engineering and releasing Titanic Love Affair’s previously unreleased record, as well as starting work on “The Palace at 4 a.m. Part II,” the follow-up to his post-Wilco debut with Edward Burch. “Jay the Academic” had also reemerged, pursuing his umpteenth degree at the University of Illinois, and he was thrilled to be taking graduate classes again.

Read the full email after the jump…

We’ve been checking the various Wilco/Jay Bennett/Alt.country/Whatever bulletin boards and have been fascinated by how quickly and dramatically stories regarding Jay Bennett have developed and changed in the days since his death. It’s interesting to see how those who knew him are addressing it all.

Continue reading Message from Undertow Records Re: Jay Walter Bennett →