Quote
tomcatmurr

Quote
Netzhaut
BTW I'm not trying to John about these things or something.

Dude, you should always try to John. About everything.

Thank God/Satan/John/Alpha for editing functions... ;-)

Quote
Netzhaut

(long post)

But with the democratization of media production/distribution that is supposed to come with easily accessible means of production (ie. computers) and widely available means of distribution (ie. the internet) there is little point in willingly and artificially limiting your audience to a handful of "hardcore fans".

(more long post)

That's all fine, Netzhaut. But not everything is meant or calculated to be expanding the core audience in a demographic sense. Maybe dude just wanted to make a record with his friends about shit going down on the moon, eh? And if he decides to share it with a few people along the way, I look at smaller things like this more like gift-giving than "what is the release plan for the subsequent Mountain Goats product."

---

We are the ones who don't slow down at all...

This is partially the ex-retail employee in me speaking, but the sense of consumer entitlement some people have really bugs me, especially in the context of art. The nature of supporting an artist, in this case tMG/JV, involves giving them a wide berth of artistic freedom to release things the way they want them released. In this situation, the songs are just a part of a lovely artistic package, and I get the impression John just wants people to enjoy the whole experience of the record - owning a record of something is a different experience than having some MP3s on a hard drive, and that's the experience tMG/JV want people to have with this record. I don't think John's trying to restrict these songs to the l33test of fans, he's just trying to create something special and meaningful and share it with people who care about it. There are literally hundreds of easily accessible tMG songs, and tMG songs have a history of being released in more accessible formats in the eventual future, so I don't feel as if anyone is entitled to these new songs immediately. If the general/most visible reaction to this new piece is "I'm mad that I can't get these songs immediately in a manner that is convenient for me" rather than "Wow, this looks really lovely" I can understand why John's reaction is "maybe I won't release some songs this way in the near future" rather than "I will immediately put theses songs up on itunes".

I mean, I probably won't get MCB, at least not in the near future, because it wasn't ready yet at the show I went to and I can't afford the shipping costs right now. It's a bummer, but I can live without it without significant angst.

Yeah. People seem to talk as though John is owing us something by making and releasing the records. "It has been released, therefore I should be able to get it". But this is only how music has turned out nowadays. A person's art shouldn't just be a product that is mass produced and distributed. Not real art. It's the same with paintings. The shitty stuff is replicated over and over and over, tens of times daily for whoever wants one by the guy on the side of the road. Nothing in it, it's just a job. Everyone could have it if they wanted. But in the case of a real artist, a painter or whatever, if you had a collection of everything they've done, nobody else would have any. Why should music be any different, just because it most often is? Why should we have any right to anything John records, really? You can argue that it's a musician's responsibility to the fans, but that's selfish and bullshit. The musician doesn't owe the fans anything. We buy the music we can, it makes special things happen inside of us. That's the unwritten contract, and as far as I'm concerned, it's being fulfilled.

-After posting, saw that asphaltsprouts had already covered most of that, but I'll leave it in because it wasn't there when I started.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2009 12:02PM by iatethelotus.

Quote
iatethelotus
We buy the music we can, it makes special things happen inside of us. That's the unwritten contract, and as far as I'm concerned, it's being fulfilled.

QFT

Quote
iatethelotus
We buy the music we can, it makes special things happen inside of us.

I think that is called food poisoning.

3 Beads of Sweat copies have all been sold -- I will have to send out a few refunds tonight for those that did not make the cutoff, but I need to sort it out, as some people placed duplicate orders and I'm not exactly sure how many legitimate orders I have received.

Thanks everybody.

Thanks tim. We'll miss 3bos.

Thanks very much for the chance, Tim. And thanks for keeping us updated, it's much appreciated.

-Brad

3bos will be revered.

all else will be compared to it.

nothing can replace it.

---

~ i ' m g o n n a s p o o n a l l t h e j u d g e s ~

Quote
SaveMeASeat

Quote
Netzhaut

(long post)

But with the democratization of media production/distribution that is supposed to come with easily accessible means of production (ie. computers) and widely available means of distribution (ie. the internet) there is little point in willingly and artificially limiting your audience to a handful of "hardcore fans".

(more long post)

That's all fine, Netzhaut. But not everything is meant or calculated to be expanding the core audience in a demographic sense. Maybe dude just wanted to make a record with his friends about shit going down on the moon, eh? And if he decides to share it with a few people along the way, I look at smaller things like this more like gift-giving than "what is the release plan for the subsequent Mountain Goats product."

Not to gang up on Netzhaut, because I kinda hear what he's saying as well, but I really liked how you put that, and feel the same way.

Thanks Tim!

You did a lot of good for music lovers.

Quote
sara!

Quote
iatethelotus
We buy the music we can, it makes special things happen inside of us.

I think that is called food poisoning.

No no no, my dear, food poisoning occurs with food! And bad food at that.

I, hilariously, even after reading the instructions, hadn't realised that I'd added an internationally shipped and a US shipped vinyl to my order. What a sausage. Not reading the rules was one thing. Laughing at the $90 I spent was a completly stupider kettle of fish.

Quote
John
nb being me it'll be about a year before I forget how not-worth-it it ends up seeming when you put out a cool limited release, so there's really probably nothing to worry about

you know that when women give birth, they actually incur brain damage that erases the memory of the physical pain and emphasizes the memories of positive emotions?

It'll be kinda like that.

repress...repress...repress the memory and re-press the album. Remember how beautiful it was when you first saw it? The color of the vinyl, the beauty of the album cover, the smell of the cardboard, your pride, your happiness, your joy. It's a beautiful thing, this making music. This releasing of albums. You love it.

---

~o-o~

Quote
specspecs
repress...repress...repress the memory and re-press the album. Remember how beautiful it was when you first saw it? The color of the vinyl, the beauty of the album cover, the smell of the cardboard, your pride, your happiness, your joy. It's a beautiful thing, this making music. This releasing of albums. You love it.

Omg you just made me want to release a vinyl. You should send that to every artist in existence. Only good things can come from JT or Madonna releasing sexy limited edition vinyls.

Thank you Tim, may 3bos be remembered.

Quote
iatethelotus

Quote
specspecs
repress...repress...repress the memory and re-press the album. Remember how beautiful it was when you first saw it? The color of the vinyl, the beauty of the album cover, the smell of the cardboard, your pride, your happiness, your joy. It's a beautiful thing, this making music. This releasing of albums. You love it.

Omg you just made me want to release a vinyl.

Spex you just made me want to birth children

---

If you're wondering who to blame - I want to praise his name with songs and feasting.

Quote
specspecs
you know that when women give birth, they actually incur brain damage that erases the memory of the physical pain and emphasizes the memories of positive emotions?

I understand what your trying to do here but i just want to say....

that whole thing about forgetting how bad it sux to birth a kid is a lie.

---

A fly can't bird but a bird can fly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2009 05:21PM by Mtn. Girl.

Mtn. Girl

why work against me if you understand what I'm trying to do?

---

~o-o~

Twas simple clarification. Im sure John gets the point regardless of my comment.

---

A fly can't bird but a bird can fly.

Quote
iatethelotus

Quote
sara!

Quote
iatethelotus
We buy the music we can, it makes special things happen inside of us.

I think that is called food poisoning.

No no no, my dear, food poisoning occurs with food! And bad food at that.

Uh...yes I know.

From now on, should I put all my jokes in italics?

No.

EDIT: Yes?

EDIT II: Time for bed. Clearly.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2009 08:37PM by tomcatmurr.

it seems to me that what netzhaut is talking about is exactly what happened with sm i.e. a physical copy for people who care about having something to touch and look at and a download for people who just want the music. that's one beautiful package by the way.

anyway think of it this way. we have albums released on a major label. at least here in britin I can go into pretty much any generic high street record store and pick up the 4ad albums. all the other cd albus are easy to find too. there are huge sections of the back catalogue available for legal download that benefits the band financialy. every now and then we get some mp3s thrown our way for free by John too. then there are a fair few releases that need to be hunted for. even those have shrunk considerably since protein source and the rest came out. i wonder what percentage of the released song catalogue is only available in hard to find form. I'm talking about things like jam eater blues, hound chronicles stuff and now mcb etc. it must be less than 10% right? you can get almost all the music for no effort if you want but there's some work for those who want it in tracking down the last few percent.

as far as i'm concerned the effort john and eveyone else puts into writing, recording and pressing these records far outweighs that that we put in in finding even the hardest to get discs. who said it was supposed to be easy anyway?

btw i heard a band on the radio earlier who only pressed 10 copies of an album they just released. in that context we have it made! i can't remeber what their name was exactly but it's ------ dagger where the ----- is the name of an english town once known for making ropes for ships and also hangman's rope. i wish i could remember what town it is. a cursory internet search didn't help.

Ordered my copy around 8:15 est this morning. Am I in the clear?

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2010 05:06AM by blackliner.