As part of book giant Borders’ slashing of its DVD and CD sections, the store here in Athens, Ga., is selling its CD and DVD inventory at 50% off. The standard pre-liquidation price for a CD? $18.99. So at 50% off, most of the remaining inventory was still as much as it would have been at Best Buy, Target, or Wal-Mart. In fact, in most cases the prices were exactly twice what they were at the Big Boxers, particularly in the DVD/Blu-Ray section. I decided to document the dregs of Borders’ music collection to see what people weren’t buying, much like I did last year during the Circuit City fire sale. All of the releases documented after the jump had at least four copies for sale.
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here’s “Corporate Rock Still Sells,” where Al “GovernmentNames” Shipley examines what’s good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he holds a few recent blog-rock darlings up to the harsh light of commercial rock radio, and judges their potential for success:
OK, not because of you, but because head Kid Reggie Youngblood didn’t realize how tiring it was to actually be in a band that was a major-label’s balance-sheet concern (16,000 SoundScans to date!) and perform and live up to unreasonable expectations all at once. More »
From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s entry is the much-blogged-about Florida band Black Kids’ Partie Traumatic, which hits stores tomorrow.
Partie Traumatic, the debut full-length from last October’s band-of-the-moment Black Kids, is now streaming on MySpace. More »
Partie Traumatic, the debut full-length from last October’s band-of-the-moment Black Kids, is now streaming on MySpace. More »
I wonder if there will ever come a time when hearing a song by Black Kids–like their new single, the plonky, not all that cohesive “Hurricane Jane,” which is in (cough) “finished” form above–doesn’t make me automatically think “man, I hated when Hot Hot Heat got crummy,” and then wonder wistfully if ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, who produced the overhyped Florida act’s major-label debut, is going to use some of the cash he’s raked in from shepherding Internet-buzzed acts to make more really excellent blue-eyed soul records.
Having half a catchy song and a stage show that brings to mind a sloppy Hot Hot Heat cover band hasn’t stopped residents of our major labels’ executive suites from thinking that the Jacksonville band Black Kids could maybe be huge. More »
Having half a catchy song and a stage show that brings to mind a sloppy Hot Hot Heat cover band hasn’t stopped residents of our major labels’ executive suites from thinking that the Jacksonville band Black Kids could maybe be huge. More »
