05.20.2006

A debate is going on right now about how art is becoming more and more a commodity, especially a digital one that can only be enjoyed with the use of a computer or some sort of electronic equipment. Japan recently amended a law making it illegal to sell or purchase older electronic devices. They call it the "Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law". Many see this as a conspiracy to force people into buying new equipment they do not need.

On my favorite record label's message board I recently posted a message about how the digital world is awesome, but we should not turn our back on the old way of doing things just for the sake of convenience or to have the latest new bells and whistles. Here is what I posted:

ANALOG DOES NOT EQUAL DIGITAL

I was not trying to imply that I am a huge fan of vinyl, because that is far from the truth. Record players have no doubt made vast improvements since I grew up with a huge console monster in the living room that made all sorts of pops and hiss during playback, but the size and fragile state of the format makes it very cumbersome and impractical.

I am a fan of music first, then bands, then albums, then songs. It just seems that an entire generation may not be appreciating the theme or mood created by the album format that most of us have grown to love. A big part of me regrets buying the first Led Zeppelin boxed set, which was essentially a "mix tape" made by Jimmy Page. At the time there was no mention of releasing a boxed set of each complete album with the original track listing like the one available today.

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of digital music...but I never want to see a day where there are no more "records" with beautiful artwork, that can be admired in your own hands and not just on a screen of some kind.

That brings me to the latest rumor I heard about our greedy pals at the major record labels. Supposedly, they want to start only selling records on some sort of tiny SD card that you cannot copy. So much for liner notes, unless you want to read a screen of some sort.

I do not mean to start an entire new debate about how not all art needs to be digital, but let's just hope that museums, galleries, concert spaces, and libraries do not go the way of the dinosaurs.

04.30.2006

I am finally getting around to making some updates around here. The video page was just updated with links to some examples of my videography work. Hopefully I can upload a bunch more shows I have filmed to my YouTube site in the near future. The next band I plan to film is Talkdemonic who is just amazing!

09.29.04

Some of you might be familiar with a band called Tarentel. I am proud to announce a new site that was created with Danny Grody for his side project called The Drift. They are an amazing instrumental band from San Francisco with a heavy jazz influence. Fans of Do Make Say Think and Tortoise should not hesitate to check them out!