Score! Merge to Release Subscription-Only Box Set
By Mango Starr on 08-26-2008
One score and minus one year ago, Merge Records formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance. A lot has changed since then. The label has since relocated to Durham, North Carolina, actually charts on Billboard now, has a new beautiful logo (pictured), and word has it that the label was really founded by Win's butler and retailer Montgomery Ward.
Despite the fuzzy history, Merge is in the celebrating mood, and starting September 8, you can pre-order a special subscription-only box set, titled SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years. How many the label makes depends on how many pre-orders are made from then until January 2009 (which will also mark when the first volumes get shipped out), and that will of course depend on how much money you have left from your stimulus checks, where you're at on your home foreclosure, the price of gas at the pump, and how much the cost of rice will be at the time.
But if you're privileged like me, just pre-order, sit back, and wait for exclusive goodies to plop down on your four-season porch throughout 2009. This includes 14 custom-curated Merge compilations with original artwork, as well as "additional exclusive content." Curators for the first several volumes include Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Phil Morrison (dir. Junebug), and The Upright Citizens Brigade. And according to Merge, "Curators for future volumes will include Amy Poehler, David Byrne, author Jonathan Lethem, artist Marcel Dzama, Momofuku chef David Chang and many more to be announced."
The cool part? The whole shebang will benefit charities picked by the curators. Wonder what Amy Poehler will pick!
The Mountain Goats Adopts Pay-What-You-Want Model for New EP, Ignores Fans Who Don’t Own a Computer or Vinyl Doohickey, Might Be a KKK Member for All We Know
By Mango Starr on 08-25-2008
According to an announcement on the official Mountain Goats website, Mr. John Darnielle is borrowing Radiohead's pay-what-you-want model for an upcoming 4-track EP of new songs. Recorded in Scott Solter's studio in North Carolina, the EP will be available in various formats (MP3, AAC, possibly AIFF -- hopefully cassette-ripped Real Audio files) roughly a month from now. Quoth Darnielle:
The downloads will be open to everybody, with no hoops to jump through, though there will also be several options available for those who want to pay me for my work, since part of the point of the exercise is to see whether that's a viable route for smaller-potatoes-than-Radiohead dudes like me.
The EP will also be available physically as a double-7-inch limited to 666 lucky fans who catch him on tour. Yes, that's right: Darnielle is selling his double-7-incher on his upcoming tour. I'm really interested in seeing fans try to down that bad boy at the following dates:
# Kaki King
[Art: The Friz]
Rant, Rave, and Run Into the Ground – Shout Factory Releases Five-Disc Collection of Unearthed Hunter S. Thompson Recordings
By Mike McHugh on 08-25-2008
During his lifetime, Hunter S. Thompson had a whole lotta things to say and a whole lotta drugs to take. He bequeathed to the world a solid stack of vital life lessons, such as how to binge like a pro, on the best manner in which to get one’s ass kicked by bikers, and on the importance of hiring top-notch legal representation that can outdo you (most) every step of the way. His 2005 suicide was nothing short of tragic, but the man’s absurd, well-documented life and published work speaks well enough on its own, far better than any deifying Rolling Stone obituary or John Cusack gushfest could ever hope to. Hunter Thompson has had his say and said it well, and now it is time to lay him to rest.
But what the fuck do I know! This is America! We just don’t let shit die around here, commie! Nope, we package and then repackage the motherfuck out of it until what was once a fond memory becomes a pestilence, a butterfly metamorphosed into a mutant bayou ’skeeter. The latest culprit in this HST shit-cyclone is Shout! Factory’s The Gonzo Tapes, a 5CD collection of Thompson’s personal recordings made between 1965 and 1975. Set for release October 28, the previously unreleased tapes include Thompson’s observations and recollections from his most famous work, such as his tenure with the Hell’s Angels and his fateful trips to Vegas and Saigon.
Observations and recollections, you say? Wow, I’ve never heard those before. Well, except for the times I read his fucking books, watched his fucking documentary, or just opened a goddamn Rolling Stone in the last 35 years. Nope, apparently I ain’t heard nothing yet until I listen to over five hours of a stoned Hunter Thompson laying out half-baked ideas that would eventually germinate into something artistically viable that I already know and enjoy. But whatever, this thing will certainly earn some green. I know exactly the type of journalism school gonzo-wannabes that’ll stash this on their iPod and queue it up every time they write a first-person account of one crackerjack city council meeting.
Kill your idols. Peace.
Shrinking Salaries for Major Label Execs; Another Win for the Internet
By J.E. Williams on 08-25-2008
A report in The New York Post (via The Daily Swarm) claims that the salaries of major record label executives are quickly diminishing. Chief Executive of EMI Music Elio Leoni-Sceti is reportedly paid less than $1 million a year for his work (aw, c'mon!), while Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. has a base pay of $1 million, with the opportunity to make up to $6 million (should be way more!).
"Record companies can't keep their top people anymore," a source told The New York Post.
The article goes on to juxtapose the salaries of major music executives to that of CEOs and executives in other media industries, and the results are... anecdotal. Disney CEO Robert Iger pulled in $20.71 million in 2007, and Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts earned $38.9 million the same year. Suddenly, $1 million doesn’t seem like a whole lot, does it? Apparently being a millionaire is no longer enough. Meanwhile...
