Well i’d like to say I miserably failed to stir anyone’s interest with my previous blog about album’s lenghth… clearly, no one gives a monkey.
So I guess this week I am going to keep it rather minimal and simply keep you informed of the various rock n’ roll memorabilia you could purchase online and expect your hard earned cash head straight to Haiti via Oxfam :
Some of the items to be sold in the auction include:
- A recording of a bespoke piece of music written by Damon Albarn.
- The Fender Stratocaster played by Alex Turner in the Arctic Monkeys’ ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ video.
- Chris Martin’s ‘Viva La Vida’ tour jacket, signed by all four members of Coldplay.
- A rare Roland drum machine donated by the Chemical Brothers.
- The Magic Numbers will come and play an acoustic set in the house/garden of the highest bidder, including never before heard songs from their new album
- VIP tickets to Glastonbury, giving the winners access to the backstage areas and watching a band from the side of the Pyramid stage.
- A linocut of ‘Fleet Street Apocalypse’ by Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood.
- An exclusive playback of the brand new Gang of Four album for four people over a bottle or two of wine with Andy Gill in their studio in London, before anyone else hears it.
- Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Yes’ bespoke boxed vinyl set. Only 300 were made by the Vinyl Factory. Designed with Farrow in close collaboration with the pop art duo. Voted No.1 21st Century Collectible Product in Record Collector Annual Roundup.
- Framed, hand written lyrics for ‘Magick’ by Klaxons on the original board that was used to produce the single’s artwork.
- An acoustic guitar signed by all four original members of The Kooks.
- A guitar from Oxford art-rock outfit Foals.
- One of Annie Lennox’s favourite paintings, an original canvas from South Africa.
- A Technics SL-1200 Mk. 2 turntable donated by DJ Shadow.
- Signed Mika artwork (framed).
- Signed Pearl Jam single artwork.
- Two complete signed vinyl album collections from Basement Jaxx.
- A luxurious hot shower at the Eavis’ farmhouse during the Glastonbury weekend, for one festival-goer to wash away the festival excesses in style.
Personally, call me macabre but I’d like to see Thomk Yorke’s glass eye or Phil Spector’s handgun in there…. or one of Devendra Benhart’s goats…
Anyway… any of you has the cash?
If not, then you might be better off taking a trip to the shop this week end as we are litterally putting out hundreds of records of all styles and ages priced between £2 and £5.00.
Virtually every genre is represented and there are some real gems in there to be found-but I can guarantee you ther won’t be much left of it by Monday…
We won’t be doing this very often, so this is now or never my pretties.
All the best.
Philippe. Rat Records.
Salut mes amis!
Well it’s good to be back and I have plenty to entertain you about this evening but very little of the precious time it takes to write it down, thanks to the thankless task of cleaning 200 records in two days with our legendary Lauricraft audio cleaning machine…
So instead, I am going to simply imagine we’re all here around the counter, bla bla ting nonsense about the merits of Big Black’s “sound of impact” as a milestone in the musical landscape of today, when Ron Fleming makes an entrance, and asks this solemn question to all of us as if his own life depends on it : WHAT IS THE IDEAL NUMBER OF TRACKS AND IDEAL LENGTH OF AN ALBUM ?
Then we would have to ask ourselves : “an album…what is it exactly?”
It was named an album, because in the time of 78rpm records, they were keeping them into books similar to photo albums of today, in the right order necessary so that they would be able to reconstitute, one tune after the other, a full symphony or opera. They were then replaced by the 33rpm Long Play 30cm we still know today, that could contain up to 40 minutes of decently sounding music, and then by the CD, who can be filled by up to 80 mins….
It all started with Elvis apparently, and 12 songs was the number for his first long play, so was it of Beach Boy’s “Surfin Safari” or “Rolling stones”.
Then in the 70’s, projects became more ambitious and the amount of songs diminished as the pompous guitar solos and endless intros had to be fitted. Sometimes it even had to be sold as double lp… then things settled into 10 tracks, a firm and constant of the 80’s, before the CD made it’s entrance and the hardest working musicians out there, or those with no manager to help them with the quality control, saw it as the opportunity to let absolutely every fart recorded in the studio out on the record, sometimes as a special hidden track that would only start 20mins after the end of the last track, so that if you fell asleep, you wake up swearing and throw the damn shiny cylinder by the window in rage.
Overall, the average length of a CD in the 90’s was over 50mins, and we were victimised by some seriously over ambitious efforts such as Guns and Roses “use your illusions I and II” (comments please : who liked the yellow or the blue best ?)
Nowadays, apart from the Hip Hop and R&B artists who always work harder and so make sure they fill the records up to the last second, most albums are back to an average 40mins, or even less.
Do you feel ripped off when your CD is only half full, or do you feel grateful to have been mercifully spared the endless fillers, boring studio jams or outtakes?
Personally, I have the attention span of a goldfish, and I can’t take much more than 10 songs before I need to move on, unless it appears to be Nick Drake or CW Stoneking that is…
Anyway, the debate is on… please post your comments on the shop’s wall, not sent directly to me, as no one can follow : http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=113028440116&ref=ts
Apart from this, we have plenty of top classics for sale this Saturday : Pixies (15 tracks) , Nirvana (11 tracks), Lemonheads (11 tracks), Hendrix (9 tracks), Kool Keith, Velvet Underground (11tracks), Jimmy Cliff (12 tracks), Kool and the gang (8tracks), Fatback band (8tracks), Isaac Hayes(8tracks), Cream(10 tracks) and so much more I really have to go now…
All the bestest to you all.
Philippe at rat records.