Live Albums — Dead or Alive?

I was tagging songs on my Last.fm account the other day (I like to listen to an eclectic mix of music while I work) when I noticed the sheer number of live albums which were being scrobbled from my music library. In no particular order or ranking (they are all equally excellent listening):

Perhaps it was the advent of the music video, MTV, the videotape recorder/player and the eventual evolution of the DVD player along with the rest of the technological wonders of the last twenty years or so that led to the gradual demise of the great live albums. Has any recent band and/or musician released a live album that measures up to the great live albums like those listed above? Where is the impetus for bands/musicians today to record great live albums if a video or a DVD will suffice? I don’t know. There’s something about a really well recorded live album that sticks with you long after you have heard it. It’s like an artifact of an other time. As much as a video or a DVD may attempt to (and in certain ways it may surpass a live recording) it doesn’t capture this aspect of the live album experience. Perhaps this is why field recordings are still so popular.

Let me ask, if and when a Zappa “Roxy DVD” is released, will it take away any of the mystique from the original vinyl recording?

To Protect And Serve

With Zappanale #19 right around the corner this August, I figured people will need some appropriate apparel.

Say for instance, a long sleeve T-shirt (click image for details):

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… or how about a nice trucker hat (click image for details):

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Now, we have no idea who this Gail person is, but it just sort of sounded right in a mysterious way — and the “to protect and serve” only makes it more intriguing…

Hungry for more? Check out the store!

Culture Jamming 101: ShopDropping

Shopdropping is a tactic used by artists and activists to clandestinely place altered or recreated objects into retail stores. Handmade labels were printed out for students to color, cut, and paste. The project featured real people who make the products, their name, and sometimes even a story. The intent is to reconnect the labor with the product.

Though their aim seems noble, I can’t help but think these people could be doing something somewhat more constructive towards actually changing the corporate environment for the better.

You be the judge.

Could You Speak Up A Little?

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This remarkable device was invented by Frenchman Jean Auscher as an acoustic navigation device in case of radar failure on small vessels. Shown at the 1960 Brussels Inventor’s Fair, and, one suspects, nowhere else ever again.

Want one! More fun at the Amplifier Institute’s page of failed projects.

Up From The Deep

For as long as I can remember I have always been a proponent of the D.I.Y philosophy, never more so than when I founded my own micro-press in the mid 80s. At that time, in Canada at least, publishing was largely controlled by two groups: large corporate publishing houses, and government funded, University based presses. They did not welcome my small, independent publications then, and still do not welcome them now. This, of course, has never stopped me from publishing. As I have witnessed media being concentrated in the hands of the corporate few (and manipulated by their agendas), never has the need for an independent, vibrant media been more important than it is right now.

Perhaps this is what attracted me to Kill Ugly Radio in the first place. While so much media was taking a hard turn to the right, KUR drove straight through all perceived hypocrisy with irreverence and humor.

As my chosen links attest, it’s my aim to bring a new and vibrant view of counter culture to the new KUR — not only through music but zines and micro-press publications in all their myriad manifestations (even a particular favorite composer will make appearances where relevant).

Of course, I’m open to any and all suggestions. KUR is a community best served when it drops the KUR Crew a comment about what it likes and dislikes.

This is going to be fun.