Zappa.com

I saw earlier today a copy of Big Leg Emma with a Ltd edn number. Not sure what this is about but has there been an announcement about it prior to me handling the item today? There is a pic cover with the 1966 session by Alice Ochs (for which there was no credit) I seem to recall that this was originally done for a Swedish release at the time. I saw the dealer price which I thought was ridiculous for a '45.



http://www.recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/5773

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A Blanket in my Muesli. A Blanket in my what??

He's a CEO for Chrissakes!

Today, I went to the nearest record store which was participating to the black friday operation according to this website list.
There I was told that the store has received none of the records they ordered, and they were expecting these on monday evening at best.
Then I saw this weird record which I bought instead, although I recognize this is not really helping the record industry - the purpose of the Record Store Day operation, isn't it? - nor the Zappa family:


So Deepinder, how much is this 45 RPM single?

Well, I paid £12 for it based on a dealer price of £7.99. later on I discovered that I should have paid £14.99. I understand that a US customer paid just $9.99. So it looks like this is an 'import' price which I paid. It is clearly a US pressing with BP purple label.

I don't like these record store days as they are being sold with their limitation hype as instant collectors items. I think there is something deeply unhealthy about the last throes of the music industry.

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A Blanket in my Muesli. A Blanket in my what??

He's a CEO for Chrissakes!

Record Store Day is a crock of shit. Mostly overpriced bullshit, and now it's two days out of the year. I saw that the Big Leg Emma/Why Dontcha Do Me Right? single, and a few Beefheart "Safe As Milk" era singles were being released this week, along w/ the new Tomahawk single and a two song live Primus 10". All look interesting, but priced too high.
I did get the Tomahawk vinyl box set, and the Mike Watt/Chuck Dukowski split 7" this past spring at decent prices though.

Dale Crover of the Melvins sums it up well, from the Melvins 51 Shows in 51 days tour diary:

"....If you just want the music, you can find it for free on the internet. Sadly, that's the way things are now. Vinyl, full-length records, record labels and even record stores are breathing their last breath. There's a thing called Record Store Day that's held every April. Bands will make 7" records that are only available at stores on that day. We found out that some stores themselves were pulling the best stuff, and guess what? Flipping them on eBay! Gee, thanks a lot, jerks!"

I don't agree with Mr Grover about the format vs Downloads as it is the way how the object is being served to the music fan by the industry. He makes all the regular valid points. I love vinyl because it is a remarkable technology which developed continuously till about 1980. Its a mechanical thing, a crystal wiggling inside a cut groove.

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A Blanket in my Muesli. A Blanket in my what??

He's a CEO for Chrissakes!

It's like groovin,on a Sunday afternoon,
We couldn't get away too soon.
Ya we be groovin' on a Sunday afternoon.
We can't get away too soon.

We run and and find a place to hide away,
Throwing all our cares away,
You and me and we be, groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,(and depending if you're getting it on) (the long version) groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov,groov.....gztklstzzzzz,Amp.hummmmmmmm."Crap!Hold that position and thought babe" BRB!

(sound of needle on record,with amp hummming),Needle takes and...,

Snap,crackle,pop........on a sunday afternoon,
We couldn't get away to soon. (hiss pop scatch skip and a girl named named named named Mary)

Oh the mammeries this brings back.Thank dog when the crystals hit the petrolium based by-products.
Like,say records.

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I'm getting larger as I walk away.

Mr Crover's opinion may be true for the mainstream music which core target market is 12-y-o girls who do not care about sound quality.
I suspect that when the music industry discovered they could not stop the digital music era, they intentionnally decreased the quality by sustaining the loudness war on CDs and by allowing music stores as long as they were selling lossy formats.
Doing this also allows the vinyl records to become a niche market for audiophiles who will always believe that analog sound is superior while this is nowadays mainly due to the use of better masters.
Today's Internet is fast and memory is cheap, there is no reason why lossless music without dynamic range compression is not widely available on music stores.
Dynamic range compression can be added afterwards by a signal processor in the decoding device, it does not have to be so heavy in the record/file.

And vinyl is physical, big and ... beautiful: