I purchased The Soft Bulletin 5.1 by the Flaming Lips and noticed that the CD was the original 1999 release instead of the 2006 remaster. I was only aware of the difference when I put the CD into my computer to copy into iTunes, and noticed that the tracklisting didn’t match that on the packaging. I went online to see what was up and found this on Wikipedia’s The Soft Bulletin page:
Packaging error
The first pressings of The Soft Bulletin 5.1 were erroneously shipped with an original US CD instead of the new remastered CD with the revised track list. The band are offering to replace the incorrect CD with the new version for anyone who received the wrong CD in their package.[6] In addition, many people who have sent their incorrect CDs in for replacements have also received a hand-written letter of apology from the band’s bassist, Michael Ivins. Warner Bros. has since fixed this problem and is now shipping 5.1 packages to retailers with the correct CD included.
I e-mailed Rick Gershon at Warner Bros., since his name came up on Google when I was trying to find someone to contact at the label for a replacement. He put me in touch with Tom Osborn, who promptly sent me a new copy of the album with the 2006 remastered CD.
- The 247 lb. vegan [∞]
The protein-rich bounty of the football training table is supposed to grow the biggest and strongest athletes in professional sports. Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez was afraid it was going to kill him. “It’s the Catch-22,” says Mr. Gonzalez, 31. “Am I going to be unhealthy and play football? Or be healthy and get out of the league?”
- How to size text using ems [∞]
An interesting approach to content scaling that was recently used by Dan Cederholm for his SimpleBits redesign. I might try this approach with the next version of my site, but I’m not planning anything new until HTML 5 or XHTML 2 gets finalized.
- RIP UNKLE [∞]
Looks like War Stories was the last round for Lavelle and File: “After 10 years as musical collaborators in UNKLE, James Lavelle and Richard File are going their separate ways — a decision that is mutual and amicable.
This announcement struck me as odd since UNKLE just announced UK Tour information on their web site. Perhaps James Lavelle will relaunch UNKLE as a solo project, or with a new sidekick? This happened once before with DJ Shadow in the 90’s.
- Oscar rules snub this year’s best soundtracks [∞]
Jonny Greenwood’s critically acclaimed soundtrack for There Will be Blood was considered a no brainer for an Oscar nom, but the Academy has ruled it ineligible.
The disqualification has been attributed to a designation within Rule 16 of the Academy’s Special Rules for Music Awards (5d under “Eligibility”), which excludes “scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music.”
Greenwood’s score contains roughly 35 minutes of original recordings and roughly 46 minutes of pre-existing work (including selections from the works of Arvo Pärt, as well as pieces in the public domain, such as Johannes Brahms’ “Concerto in D Major”). Peripheral augmentation to the score included sporadic but minimal useage (15 minutes) of the artist’s 2006 composition “Popcorn Superhet Receiver.”
- All Points West Music and Arts Festival [∞]
Radiohead. Underworld. New York City. I want to go.
- Web movies show why DVDs sell [∞]
First, downloadable movies require high-speed Internet connections — and only about half of American households have them. That number won’t change much for years.
Agreed. Right now broadband connections are near the point where downloading a full quality rip of a DVD (8.5 GB) takes a few hours. I prefer that option instead of having to drive to the rental store. Uncompressed hi-def downloads (~50 GB) are a long way off due to lack of broadband. Comcast claims that DOCIS 3.0 will be ready soon, which may offer 50 Mbps connection speeds. Verizon’s FiOS also supports connections that fast.
Second, downloaded movies don’t include the director’s commentaries, deleted scenes, alternate endings, alternate language soundtracks or other DVD goodies. It’s just not as rich an experience.
Current downloads from iTunes don’t have these extras, but I think most consumers don’t really care. Early DVDs would load the movie right away when you popped in the disc in the player. Now, the discs are chock full of trailers for upcoming movies and other garbage that simply waste disc space. There’s nothing preventing iTunes from selling movies like a music album, with multiple files for the deleted scenes, alternate endings, etc. Digital distribution of movies may prove to be a richer experience because there isn’t a limit on how much space the release takes up.
Third, movie downloads don’t deliver the audio and video quality of DVD discs — even standard-def ones. Internet movies are compressed to download faster, which affects picture quality, and offer older, more compressed audio soundtracks than modern DVDs.
Again, this is simply due to slow broadband speeds. Another potential issue is that most consumers don’t have hundreds of gigs of free hard drive space, which would be required for storage of 1080p video.
- Next for Apple: Lossless iTunes Store [∞]
Lossless audio is the audiophile’s best friend, but the storage device’s worst enemy — it’s sonically identical to CD audio, but at the cost of massive file sizes. Until recently, lossless audio wasn’t an option for portable players. But now iPods come with up to 160GB of storage, lossless is a viable option for portable media, and pocketable audiophile earphones are within the reach of certain budgets (though of course iPods would surely be plugged into hi-fi equipment, too).
Most of his points are valid, but I still won’t buy an album unless it is available without DRM. I think another smart move for Apple would be to purchase Beatport, which has an extensive electronica catalog, and repackage the releases in Apple Lossless without Beatport’s $1 “WAV handling” fee. DJs would flock to iTunes if this ever happened. Another possibility is the introduction of advanced resolution recordings, such as 24-bit/96 kHz remasters. I have a few of these recordings on DVD-Audio, and there are others available on Super Audio CD (SACD). Both of these formats are dying due to lack of hardware support, and Apple could swoop in and steal part of the lucrative audiophile market.
- Robert Hood on minimal and Fabric 39 [∞]
I had developed this “grey area” sound – what I mean by that is that in Detroit, even when the sun is out, there’s something in the atmosphere.
The sky has a grey haze over it.
It’s got to be something from the industrial factories there.
I’d never really heard a sound like that before and it came from a Roland Juno – it was a chord sound that really went along with my depiction of what Detroit was at that time.
A lot of buildings were abandoned and there was a lot of lifelessness in the city, especially downtown.
The M-Plant, in minimalism, kind of reflected that.
I remember thinking of Detroit like a museum. You know, like a work of art standing still, suspended in time.
I can’t wait for this CD to arrive in my mailbox. FabricLive 38 by DJ Craze is also an excellent release.
- Trip starts with a heartbreaker [∞]
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Phil Jackson undertook his annual practice of giving a book to each player on a lengthy trip, handing them out on the Lakers’ plane ride to Detroit.
Along those lines, the plot of the actual game Thursday against the Pistons could be summarized by an abysmally slow start, a breath-stealing climax and a depressing ending for the Lakers.
A romance it wasn’t, at least not for the visitors, who fought back from a 17-point deficit only to lose, 90-89, after Tayshaun Prince made a three-pointer with 4.4 seconds left and Lamar Odom airballed a 19-footer on the final shot.
I was at the Palace for the game, which was one of the best I have attended.