Gang Gang Dance and Ariel Pink Tour and Release DVDs

By Joseph Coscarelli on May 3 2007

Joining the likes of Diplo, Girl Talk, Go Home Productions, and Danger Mouse, your favorite musical cult has attempted the white-hot process of combining varying musical passages into a beefed-up amalgamation. Usually executed by an eclectic, open-minded third party looking to bend genres, The Spree decided to cut out the middle man entirely and watched the tactic's originality and creativity shrivel in the process.

In a misguided attempt to offset the leak of the album's advanced copy (speculation), the band broke new ground in promotional material... at least semantically. Instead of the traditional album 'sampler,' the band has combined sections of all 11 tracks on their new record, The Fragile Army, into an eight-minute epic and they called it a mashup! The single track is designed to give the fans "a taste." I can hardly contain my salivation.

When will the music industry learn that harebrained promotional experimentation won't save the CD medium? Only quality content will.

But we'll give them an "A" for effort. The mix showcases the band's jovial, symphonic rock with choral harmonies like an acid-induced gospel choir and ends with a kind word from your sponsor. "See ya later! Hope you enjoyed it! Be sure to look out for The Fragile Army, the new album from The Polyphonic Spree coming early Summer 2007. We'll see you at a town near you. So long!" exclaims lead Spree Tim DeLaughter in his creepiest pederast imitation.

Luckily, if you're into the whole Kool-Aid and Nikes scene, you can catch the group's 24 members sans robes and in their new military garb (get it? Army!) performing live throughout the month of May:

By C. Schell on May 2 2007

Of all the ultra-mega music superstores, Tower Records always appeared to be the best. While the prices were positively mall-tastic, its selection was often as good as many mom & pop stores. Tower also had a lot of zines and books that most record stores wouldn't bother to carry. So, if you didn't have an awesome indie record store in your town but had a Tower, then you didn't really have it that bad. And while record store aficionados may have been a little bummed about Tower's passing last year, they surely weren't as "bummed" as all the indie labels and distributors that had product returned to them after Tower shuttered for good.

But now it seems that a rebirth may be in the works. In an auction last March, Caiman, Inc acquired the Tower logo, Tower.com, and all of the company's intellectual property for $4.2 million. The London-based company currently employs about 200 people, has offices in Montreal and Sacramento, and a warehouse in Miami. In a Billboard article, Caiman CEO Didier Pilon said that the company plans to relaunch Tower.com, as well as open physical superstores in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco within nine months. Pilon won't be without knowledgeable help, as he has hired former Tower purchasing executive George Scarlet as director of entertainment purchasing, along with Kevin Hawkins, a former buyer for Tower, to work on the project.

Even though Caiman usually uses one-stops and some independent distributors to stock music on its own Caiman.com site, it hopes to change over to buying direct from indie and major distributors and, in certain instances, direct from indie labels themselves for this new venture. Pilon went on in the piece to say that Tower.com, which is still operational and gets 40,000 unique hits a day, will relaunch with new technology, offering 275,000 CD and DVD titles, over a million books, and vinyl. Pilon hopes that all this will help Tower.com not only stand out from the pack, but become "the entertainment destination." If this endeavor is a success, it could provide indie labels and distro with some of the revenue they lost after Tower's initial demise.