Can't stop the Fopp!

Walking through Covent Garden today, I was over the moon when I discovered Fopp has reopened. Rumours of HMV having difficulty with landlords, etc. have proven to be unfounded and the best record shop in town is back in business.

Can't wait to devote a nice lunch time to perusing the DVDs, books and CDs and coming away with a few winners.

Radiohead's new pay what you want album

I know you need a fan base before you can go it alone, but I'm really enjoying Radiohead's new attitude, now they're free of the shackles of EMI (so would argue it was those shackles that allowed them to get the place they are today).

Their new album In Rainbows is getting set for release either on 2x12" vinyl/2xCD or download. The vinyl/CD box is quite pricey, but comes with LOADS of stuff. The intriguing option though is the download.

As the band are basically label free, they can do what they want and what they want is to offer the album for download on a pay what you want basis. Essentially, you can get the new album, DRM-free for free (if you want to be really mean).

Canadian musician Jane Sibbery did this a couple of years ago and found that given the option of setting your own price, people actually did.

I have to say that 99p/c/whatever a track is a bit steep, and I enjoy picking up the odd CD at Virgin or HMV for £4.99, and would be comfortable paying that. Why CDs were ever £15 is way beyond me.

I'm intruged enough by the new Radiohead proposition that come 10 October, I'll be over their site downloading it and giving them what I deem a proper amount of coin for an album.

Link: RadioheadLP7.com

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Flexible (Remixed Extended)
via FoxyTunes

Morosey

Sometimes when the demons aren't taking up all my thoughts, I wonder why we are here and what the point of it all is.

Bear with me.

Everyone know that global warming, climate change and an incredibly dumbfounded apathy on most people's behalf is going to turn this planet into Venus' SLIGHTLY cooler neighbour sooner than later. The fact is I feel my hands are tied and any changes I try to make are a drop in the bucket when colleagues leave PCs on for extended periods, the rubbish bins in parks are full or recyclables and supermarkets just over package like crazy. Still I plod on.

Also entering my consciousness is a worry that the economy is eating itself from the inside. In another generation or so, people will wonder why there was ever a high street or shopping precinct when everything is either downloadable or purchasable off the internet. This came roaring home during a rather limp walk around Virgin Megastore today. There's nothing inspiring there, no "wow! gotta have it". There's used to be. All the time. Now everything's moving to the internet and these shops on life support limp on, blissfully unaware that their time is almost up.

The thing that got in a funky mood today was an article in the The Ecologist magazine about soft drinks and bottled water. Basically, whatever goes in my mouth is going to kill me. From sweeteners like Aspartame (which breaks down into some amazingly carcinogenic ooze) and Sucralose (which is better, just) to the fact that reusing plastic water bottles (you know, recycling the home way) is liable to get you ingesting all sorts of evil chemicals that were present in the making of the plastic bottles.

Here I thought the do not reuse warning was a sly attempt at bottled water people to just get you to buy more bottles. I wonder, as I reuse the same bottle about 4 times a day at work, what the option is. I guess pint glasses.

Stopping to wonder why I get out of bed sometimes, I guess the only solace is that as much as I try to better myself, I am slowly killing myself.

Another Fopp Bites the Dust

It's with sadness and dismay that I read today that Fopp, the cool funky CD, DVD and book retailer has bitten the dust.

I was only shopping their earlier this week and actually have that CD in my CD player.

Having scoured the web for info about the chain's demise (supermarkets and the Internet, as every other CD retailer is claiming), I came across an article that brought a nostalgic tear to my eye.

Once upon a time there was a magical land called Berwick Street, Soho. It was here that a music nerd like myself could spend (waste) and entire day scouring racks of CDs, singles, promos, rarities, 12"ers, etc. in the hopes of finding that elusive release you were after, or better yet - something you didn't know existed.

As the road was a mecca for muso geek, it was lined, not with gold but with used record shops. From Mr CD to Reckless, Sister Ray to Selectadisc - these were names to be admired, names which drew Pavlovian responses from the people they wanted as customers.

Sadly, as with many other music retailers, the buyers have stopped coming, and more importantly, the interesting, the promo and the rare are all drying up as well. Why pay £40 for one exclusive remix or b-side that was only released on a green vinyl 7" in Latvia, when you can pay 79p for the track at iTunes?

The collectability and rarity was part and parcel of spending hours and hours in these treasure troves.

Not only have the physical stores closed, the quality staff, all knowledgeable, many tattooed and even more in need a decent meal or bath will all be gone as well. No longer can you shoot the breeze discussing an elusive 12" single you're after or the amazing gig at the Rainbow or Marquee club that was only available on CD in a limited number, and thus demands the £300 price tag.

There may not be a whole way of live that's become extinct, but it's close. The lifestyle and geeky nature captured so eloquently by Nick Hornby in High Fidelity is a pleasure the kids of today will never now.

It saddens me deeply.