THE ALBUM IS DEAD WHEN PINK FLOYD SAYS IT IS

ITEM: Pink Floyd scores a win over EMI in a court case under which the Floyd insisted that EMI can’t sell their music online as individual tracks.

It’s an interesting argument, actually – the Floyd have specified in their contract with EMI that their music can only be sold as albums, because a lot of their albums (and certainly the two most successful ones, Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall) are conceived and created as seamless interlinked songs comprising a whole.

EMI’s argument was that their contract didn’t include digital downloads, since it was written in 1999, back when digital music was basically illegal as far as the music labels were concerned.

The judge ruled that there’s no reason to assume the contract doesn’t include online music.

That doesn’t mean Pink Floyd won the whole case – that was just one aspect of it, apparently, so it's still ongoing. But for old codgers like me, it’s nice to see someone stand up for the album as a concept, especially in the name of artistic control. I like single tracks too, but some tracks aren’t meant to be played out of context. As an example, I have Dark Side of the Moon on the iPod, but it does not really work in shuffle mode.

On the other hand, actual singles like "Arnold Layne" work just fine.

"Cheap Trick - Stop This Game 1981" (Watch on YouTube)

So there you go.

Which one's Pink,

This is dF

TONIGHT ON VH1 CLASSICS: THE STUPID BUT DANGEROUS SESSIONS

The guitarist of my old band Violent Marshmellows (sic) found (and posted) some old pictures of us during the time we wrote and recorded the band’s second album (and my first with the VM), Stupid But Dangerous.



{A few tracks from which, incidentally, you can listen to in all their lo-fi badly-mixed glory on MySpace. If yr wondering, it sounds that way because back in the 1980s, children, computers were giant steam-powered boxes that ran on punch cards and a kilobyte of RAM, so we recorded it on cassette tape via a cheap boom box with a mixing mic jack. Ask yr parents or teachers what a mixing mic is.)

Anyway, what this means is that you can now see a photo of me strangling a bass guitar circa 1989.



Hooray for the Internets.

That’s our saxophonist/co-vocalist Jason in the back. He always knew to take cover behind the Casio when I started swinging that plank around like a goddamn rock’n’roll Claymore.

Yes.

Anyway, the full set is here if you want to see a piece of best-forgotten rock'n'roll history.

FACT: Clarksville, TN became known as Clarksvegas by the time we were finished with it.

PRODUCTION NOTE: Contrary to media reports, that is NOT a mullet on my head. I only cut my hair on one side in those days. From the opposite angle I just look like a long-haired chubby dude. So if you want to be technical, it was more like a half-twist quarter-mullet: “Business on the left, party everywhere else.” That was my deal in 1989.

I'll prove it.



See? Definitely not a mullet.

Rock’n’roll animal,

This is dF