Bitchin Bajas

although i guess merge is about the same price, too--but they ship for free and have the downloads

that makes sense technically i guess, but not practically. it cuts out the customers who plan on mostly listening to digital but will pay for vinyl to support the artist and get a nice object (because paying for digital or cd can seem unsatisfying or chump-ish to some people).

Drag City's no downloads thing is p idiotic but if they don't do CDs of their marginal stuff I assume it's the result of looking at sales figures and concluding it'll be throwing good money after bad
― for sale: Bebe's boots, never worn (DJ Mencap), Thursday, September 11, 2014 9:57 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think the "no CDs" policy is the band (bitchin bajas), not drag city -- since the label releases CDs of almost every other album.

i get kind of annoyed these days when i go to merch tables and they only have vinyl (and sometimes cassette) for sale. happens more and more often. i'm not anti-vinyl (I own 1,000 LPs or more), I'm just not a format fetishist, I think CDs are more convenient, and new vinyl is grotesquely expensive anyway.

this band seems to have an arty disregard for their audience, generally speaking, so i'm not surprised that physical releases are treated somewhat cavalierly
for example, there were ~25 ppl playing In C and none of them were introduced, no one said a word before or after the performance, and basically there were no words exchanged between bajas and audience aside from audience "woo!" at the end.

it's a choice, i guess? not the choice i would make but it's their choice.

i went to a record shop today.
bought 2 cds (rockers hi fi, and snakefarm) for pocket money.
behind the counter they had cassette editions of new releases eg skrillex.
the cassettes were £15 each !
15 quid !!
if i could sell the cassettes in my attic for that kinda price then i could retire.

that's the thing though, i don't think anyone cares about the tapes themselves, it's more like a limited edition souvenir for the digital music you want to support?

i guess the exception is super niche/underground tape labels that don't even do a digital release.

are records actually more expensive than they used to be (when adjusted for inflation?)
I remember reading that Tusk had a high list price of $16 in 1979 (which would be $55 in 2014). So what was normal then? $12 would be $41, $10 would be $34

that's the thing though, i don't think anyone cares about the tapes themselves, it's more like a limited edition souvenir for the digital music you want to support?

What does "cares about" mean here? Beyond having a souvenir of music you want to support?

like, i don't know anyone who's digging for old cassettes because they love the format. the main appeal is that it's a cheap way for current artists to make a physical, non-digital product.

are records actually more expensive than they used to be (when adjusted for inflation?)
whole reason i started buying new vinyl in the 90s was because I could get an album for $8-9 as opposed to $15 for the CD.

t'other way round now

and i love it.

oh i think there are def people who fetishize cassettes for more than just cool souvenirs

there are def lots of noise(y) bands that release stuff only on cassette and not, at least not initially, on digital... although everything makes its way to digital now anyhow, doesn't it?

some new vinyl isn't terribly expensive, but a lot of it is. major label stuff, esp. reissue vinyl, is esp. pricey. i don't bother.

was recently in a great vinyl-only place in tennessee. great guy runs it. i bought $200 worth of records, we talked for an hour, good times. i told him i still buy CDs and don't think the format is any worse than vinyl and he looked at me like i was talking about tuning in martians with my tin-foil hat. people have drunk the Kool Aid, just as people drunk another flavor of Kool Aid when they disposed of all their vinyl and started replacing them with poorly-mastered CDs in the 1980s.

the joke is on them (whoever "them" are), again.

i'm listening to bitchitronics right now. on MP3! it's good.

vinyl is better for selling. i bought a LP for $7 a few months ago, just sold it on eBay for $150. harder to do that with CDs. though not impossible. in that respect, vinyl wins.

funny conversation b/c i feel like this band would be up my alley except for the fact that they're on drag city and therefore aren't on spotify and therefore i have to make an EFFORT to listen to them. which i will! but then again, maybe i won't!

you can listen to some stuff here

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2014/09/10/bitchin-bajas-cave-release/

also their soundcloud

not too much effort!

good point, thanks!

hi!

hi!

Standing against the anti-artist digital advancements embodied by streaming services, the download code etc and managing to have a dialogue about it with dissenting consumers feels like an achievement.

Wait, where is this dialogue taking place? Because there's a pretty huge leap between Spotify and giving paying customers bang for their buck.

I wonder about some of the artists and whether they care either way - Ty Segall's put out records on a bunch of labels; I bought the vinyl for his In the Red and Castle Face LPs, but skipped the Drag City ones on wax. I listen to this shit on my way to and from work, you know?

I think the artists probably respect what Drag City wants to do but mostly aren't hard-liners (my guess only though). Ben Chasny's new label, Hermit Hut, provided a download code with the Tashi Dorji album, so he isn't riding the party line of his highest-profile label.

the whole download code w/ vinyl thing seems so silly to me since if you just bought the CD you could not only play it in your car but fairly easily rip it to MP3. but buying CDs seems anathema to a lot of folks now.

just download and burn, it's not a big deal

mail the band a check or something if you feel bad about it

I used to like spend time looking for downloads, but spotify has made me like soooooo lazy. Like if it's not on spotify, I feel like okay we'll there are like twelve dozen million other things I could be listening to instead. So like ok sorry your loss

i'm sure they'll get by

Hi

this record kicks ass. 'a rainbow in curved air' redux.

it's a grower

It is pretty fucking good.

Yup.

cd please

ok so i found a youtube from 2012

"bajas ragas." p. tasty.

haha i am getting dead can dance vibes. righteous.

also that one song on syro with the tribal drums lol

ok now a new one

they were so rad at Hypnotikon last night

s/t full-length is.....so good.

also, this soundcloud only live mix is pretty nice, too. fits perfectly on a 45-min tape if you're into that thing:
https://soundcloud.com/bitchin-bajas/live-fall-2014-side-a-chicago-cultural-center-gar-rotunda-inclusion-water-4-going-home
https://soundcloud.com/bitchin-bajas/live-fall-2014-side-b-evergreen-stairwell-bainbridge-island-washington-guimaraes-portugal

new 12" out in May...!

oh sweet, haven't heard those live things.
yeah, was just listening to the s/t album. amazing.
there's also this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTiC6ce5Dws

New EP in May, IIRC.

maybe they'll make everyone angry and release it only as a 3-inch CD single

I think it's on cassette! I received an email, it's a French release.

haha, are the bitchin bajas making kids cry on side B of this live thing or is it part of the composition? either way, pretty awesome.

New EP is limited cassette (100) and vinyl (600): http://handsinthedarkrecords.com/

Did anyone get a copy of that Live at the Hideout triple cassette? Been wanting to hear that but missed snagging one before they were gone...

And I wondered about the kids crying too -- it really sounds like it was someone inside the space, haha.

Here's a track from said new EP, just shared out:

https://soundcloud.com/hitd-3/bitchin-bajas-marimba

sounds great -- could be fooled into thinking it was a pre-Autobahn Kraftwerk track...

Geez they really can get away with anything!

new EP is great...more synth-driven/electronic/cold departure from the double LP last year.

they sounded pretty excellent on tour as well...really at the top of the game right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU3hInFCTfg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEHXrsISHx0

oh, and new collaborative full-length in august! sounds good: they were saying they tracked it live in the studio, so it should have a different flavor than the recent overdub-focused/tape loop sessions:
http://www.dragcity.com/products/automaginary