New from the DFA...

still waiting for the follow-up to "casual friday"

Yeah they have gone kind of release crazy this fall, huh? I haven't gotten around to any of the DFAbroad stuff and most of these new 12"s are on kind of a "which should I try to digest first" level so I'm just ignoring it all at the moment.

xpost.

they are pretty much all good. dive in, dudes!

apparently the casual friday follow up is never coming.

RIP formal saturday

xpost

WORST POSSIBLE NEWS

I like "Hold On" very much.

I grabbed "Hold On" (excellent!) from Fluxblog, then later that day read an interview with Galkin where he talks about how much their single sales have nosedived since the advent of MP3 blogs (he says early 12"s sold 15,000-20,000 copies, and now they generally do about 2,000-3,000 of each one, which he blames on blogs). Intersting...

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/11/louis_pattison_thurs_am_pic.html

that DFA article re blogs

I think Galkin is being slightly disingenuous if he thinks mp3 blogs are why say, the Shocking Pinks, are selling less than HoJL (which I'll bet sold a LOT more than 20,000 12"s anyway, if you count the Output UK version and so on).

It would be more interesting to see what Pixeltan or whatever sold.

also: not everyone buys vinyl, also their 12"s are fucking expensive

(which is why i haven't bought any of them, nothing to do with mp3 blogs)

umm. could it not just be a simple case of Shocking Pinks/Prinzhorn aint exactly crowd pleasers.

that DFA article re blogs

I actually read a different version in Plan B, but he's basically saying the same thing.

w/o the input of mp3 blogs how many people are realistically going to have heard these bands?

I'm never able to find these 12"s in shops around here, and with very shoddy mail delivery (missing pacakges, packages beat to shit) I don't feel very good about getting vinyl shipped to me. I bought the recent Shit Robot 12" on iTunes since they had it DRM free, I wish more of their stuff was that way.

also their 12"s are fucking expensive

I still buy the 12s. they're actually cheap in the States compared to a lot of the Euro shit I like. I don't feel like I have to get every single one like I used to though.

there's probably some truth to the blog criticism but I wonder if there's a corresponding rise in legit digital sales. some of their core audience (DJs) seem less interested in vinyl in general (see "do DJs still collect vinyl" thread) and probably feel like if they wait for something to come out in stores they missed the boat.

w/o the input of mp3 blogs how many people are realistically going to have heard these bands?

that don't make it ok to give it away.

"RIP formal saturday"

and repentance sunday as well

well, maybe there will be a follow-up to "relevee"? or maybe the dfa can remix all of the days of mars like they did with "rise".

"still going theme" reminds me of big country.

that don't make it ok to give it away.

maybe not but exposure's surely a good thing, and it's hardly gonna sell loads without it

I think there were ways to get exposure and sell music before music blogs. I obviously don't know what those methods were, but it worked for some people. The bloggers do have other choices. They can ask the label if they can share the song. They can provide a link to the streaming version the label has offered. They can post a lower bit-rate or edited selection. But they almost never do any of these things.

they can ask the label if they can share the song.

some of us nearly always do (for the new stuff as opposed to old OOP stuff), well maybe not the label, but the artist involved.

I heard "Hold On" on a Tim Sweeney mix like in January and I couldn't find any information on it... great song, glad it's finally been released.

some of us think you should ask permission to post OOP stuff too, but that's a discussion I'm sure we've had on other threads! Generally I find posting OOP stuff a bit more understandable. What's really brutal is the posting of complete brand new CDs.

What's tough for labels releasing singles is they don't benefit the same way from blog promotion. When I've released CDs, we've posted a few tracks, sent them to blogs, even on occasion offered unreleased exclusive material, because in the end you hope people will like the song well enough to buy the whole CD. But when you post 1 or both sides of a 12" single...that's it, you're giving it all away.

I really wish the DFA (well all labels which derive a significant portion of their income from singles, but due to selfish interest I especially mean the DFA) would release compilations a lot more frequently - that way MP3 blogs have a complete package to hype instead of just giving the whole game away out of laziness or lack of promotiona acumen (which I freely admit I've done in the past and will most assuredly do in the future).

not to mention Compilation #2 is straight-up one of my very favorite releases of this decade and I would sell limbs for a similarly-minded sequel. Lord knows their releases over the last few months certainly haven't done much to extinguish that fire.

But when you post 1 or both sides of a 12" single...that's it, you're giving it all away.

yeah hearing that take on things from labels I think are great (mainly Environ and DFA) caused me to stop posting new stuff except in mixes.
older stuff I think is more of a grey area.

(not to open this whole can of worms again.)

anyway, Holy Ghost! think I might grab that one next. put me down as one of the people that doesn't really "get" the Still Going Theme. it kind of brings that fabric mix to a halt imo. maybe would work better in another context? i dunno.

I'll have to give the new shit robot another listen, I checked it in the record store and definitely wasn't going holy fucking fuck

What's really brutal is the posting of complete brand new CDs.

absolutely dan. couldn't agree more.

Just to let folks know, you can get both songs from the new Hercules and Love Affair from Amazon's MP3 store (DRM free, 256 VBR) for only $1.42 here . Trust me, it's definitely worth it. You can also get the new LCD "Bunch of Stuff" EP with the Carl Craig remix for only $3.68 for six tracks (four of which are $1.94 on their own) here . With prices like that you should buy them even if you did download them for free, just to support the label.

Their Bleep store has a bunch of their more recent stuff available in DRM-free MP3 too.

Yup. And to add to matt2's post above, everything DFA on iTunes (at least the US store) is free, since they're distributed by Astralwerks, which is EMI, which was the first major to adopt DRM-free sales on iTunes across the board.

you mean copy-protection free, I assume!

Acute Records is distributed by Carpark via Caroline via EMI as well. Even some tiny hipster indies with that hierarchy have been able to benefit from iTunes+.

Telephone thing, that definitely does not seem to be the case, unless I'm missing something when I search the store. Only a couple of them are noted as being iTunes Plus (the DRM-free version). For example, the new Shit Robot is DRM-free, but Holy Ghost is not.

i had to burn 'still going theme' onto a cd and then reload onto my computer to use it in traktor 3. I think I'll have to do the same with the Holy Ghost I bought off iTunes last night. Is there anyway to tell if a single is DRM-free before buying it?

As far as I know, the only way to tell is if it says "iTunes Plus" in the description of the album/single.

nice. spendin' time

i take that back. "CURRENTLY NOT LICENSED FOR SALE IN AUSTRALIA"? fuck you bleep

uh, how come my bleep has suddenly gone in US$ and telling me things aren't availabe in australia?!

I really wish the DFA (well all labels which derive a significant portion of their income from singles, but due to selfish interest I especially mean the DFA) would release compilations a lot more frequently - that way MP3 blogs have a complete package to hype instead of just giving the whole game away out of laziness or lack of promotiona acumen (which I freely admit I've done in the past and will most assuredly do in the future).

not to mention Compilation #2 is straight-up one of my very favorite releases of this decade and I would sell limbs for a similarly-minded sequel. Lord knows their releases over the last few months certainly haven't done much to extinguish that fire.

^^^This. I would totally dig a new DFA comp.

CURRENTLY NOT LICENSED FOR SALE IN UNITED KINGDOM

lol so i have to pay £7.49 for the 12"? no ta.

ok the hercules and love affair 12" is greaaaatttttt

it is. apparently ther's an album for early next year too!

from here:

The really big release for me has really been the LP by DFA's Hercules & Love Affair, due out early next year. I’ve only heard the six-track sampler but believe me when I say that 'Classique No. 1’ will not remotely prepare you for the depth and reach of its charms. Antony (as in the Johnsons) features heavily on the vocals – but even if you, like me, were always slightly put-off by his stark, withering and (joylessly) camp solo material, you’ll be forced to reappraise when that androgynous wail his re-cast in Andrew Butler and Tim Goldsworthy's unbelievable production – all strings, horns, killer acid lines, heavy Chi-town beats and a huge dose of NY disco sass. This is one of the most exciting, revelatory and downright GOOD releases I’ve had the pleasure of beholding in a long, long time; respect to Antony as much anyone else for pulling this one off.

woah! that's great news!

awesome

antony as disco / house vocalist makes total sense, this describes me to a T ---> even if you, like me, were always slightly put-off by his stark, withering and (joylessly) camp solo material, you’ll be forced to reappraise when that androgynous wail his re-cast in Andrew Butler and Tim Goldsworthy's unbelievable production

I actually really like 'The dull flame of desire' that he did with Bjork,

Looking forward to hearing this.

Yeah, I'm super-duper excited for this. The 12" just gets better and better. Not sure how I didn't notice before that Antony actually does vocals on Roar.

That Holy Ghost song was the free iTunes store download last week.

And got plenty of one-star reviews like "WAHT ARE THIS TENCHO SHIT??1"

GIEV US SOMETHIN GUD ITUENS (THAT IS NOT R&B OR TEHCNO)