Another reason why I don’t believe in music pre-order

I have mentioned a few times before on my blog that I am a non-believer in pre-ordering music CDs before they come out. While it fully makes sense to pre-order something like a DVD of a movie you’ve seen and enjoyed, or to pre-order the sequel of a book series that you are following, music can take a variety of directions, even coming from an artist that you have enjoyed for a long time.

A recent example of this for me is when one of my favorite electronica music groups, The Crystal Method, released their latest album entitled Divided by Night a few weeks ago. I have completely loved their first three albums, but was completely disappointed by their most recent effort. The tone of their music was way too much pop-ish, with guest vocalists ruining a lot of the tracks that are typically more instrumental in nature with the band. The rythms wre also way too light compared to their usual gritty sound. I had been tempted to pre-order a few weeks ago when I saw that you could get one or two extra tracks by doing so but resisted when I listened to the excerpt of the first single and was taken abak by the pop-feel of the track. My suspicions were confirmed when I listened to the full album on the AOL Listening Party Web Site.

The moral of the story is that I will stick to ordering CDs after they get released and I can at least get 30-second sound clips on all tracks, if not get the chance to listen to the full CD before I decide if I’m going to buy it. I did pre-order the new Dave Matthews Band CD that is coming out in two weeks but those guys have never disappointed me in about 10 CDs (studio and live) so I think that’s a pretty safe bet. Everything else will wait to get a good feel before I buy.

A great pre-order incentive

I am usually not a fan of pre-ordering music CDs. While I am usually a fairly faithful listener and CD buyer when I like a band, I still don’t like the idea of blindly buying an album when I have no clue if it’s going to be good or bad. For example, there is a new Crystal Method CD coming out in 3 weeks and while the pre-order deal on iTunes gives you access to an extra track, the only track that you can currently listen to is not as good as I would expect from that band.

That being said, I just put in a pre-order for the new Dave Matthews Band CD, to be released on June 2nd. After downloading the first single from their new CD for free last week and hearing another song excerpt on their web site, they put up a pre-order offer that could just not be refused: Pre-Order the new CD and get a 3-disc live show for free! Not only that, but the offer is even valid for the digital version of the CD, which makes it a lot easier for international customers as myself to pick up this deal. I am really looking forward to this new music

UPDATE: The free live show offer is no longer available for digital purchase of the new CD. It is only valid on purchase of the physical media.

Get the first single off the upcoming DMB CD for free

After there years of waiting, and after the tragic events of last summer which led to the demise of saxophonist LeRoi Moore, the Dave Matthews Band is going to be releasing a new CD in June. For one week only, you get request a free download for the new single from the album, “Funny the Way it is”.

Kutiman remixes Youtube

I am not a big fan of YouTube since a lot of the videos that it contains seem pointless to me. However, once in a while, I hear about something great, go see it, and am just amazed at the creativity, time and effort that is put into the videos that are put on there. A recent example of this is the Ep album Thru You, made by Israeli mix artist Kutiman.

What he did is quite a feat. He searched through YouTube to find videos of various people playing musical instruments or singing. He then stitched all of these excerpt together to compose 7 different songs.

Here is my favorite of the pack. If you like it, check out the rest on the link above:

Free Live Barenaked Ladies Concert

There’s been a roster change in the Canadian Pop Band Barenaked Ladies’ ranks a few weeks ago when co-lead singer Steven Page left the band to pursue other projects. To follow on this sad news, the four remaining members of the band have decided to make the recording of their first show as a four-piece band available as a free download for a limited time on their web site.

I have always been a big fan of their music and look forward to listening to these tracks, although it will definitely be strange to have Ed Robertson sing tracks that were previously done by Steven.

Good luck to both M. Page in his new projects and to the rest of the guys on continuing to rock.

Preview entire CDs, including Jack Johnson’s latest, on AOL Music

As I was browsing the web yesterday looking for some free live concert recordings, I stumbled upon AOL’s CD Listening Party Page. This is a site that gives you a chance to listen to entire recordings that are coming out. They change the selections on a weekly basis so that they don’t stay up too long, but otherwise, you are really listening to the whole thing.

Doing a bit of research, the quality of the selections really varies from one week to another. However, I lucked out this week falling on Jack Johnson’s latest, Sleep through the Static. If you read my blog regularly, you might remember that I said that I did not really like this new album after listening to the 30-second sound clips on iTunes. However, I must say that my opinion has changed after listening to all of the tracks in their entirety. While my opinion that a lot of the tracks are a bit more gloomy, the album still has a very nice ring to it and flows very smoothly from one track to the next. I have not gotten myself a copy of this CD yet, but it is a definite possibility now.

I am guessing that the selection of music on the AOL site will probably change on Tuesday, so head on over if you feel like listening to it. Enjoy!

Putting too much trust in pre-ordering music?

I’ve been using the iTunes Music Store for a couple of years, ever since I got my first iPod. While I love the concepts of being able to buy music singles or entire albums at my leisure and getting easy previews of the songs, I’ve been appalled recently by the number of album pre-orders that are showing up on iTMS. For example, the new Jack Johnson CD (Sleep through the static) has been on there since Christmas).

Pre-ordering a DVD of a movie you have seen or that you saw a good preview for is one thing, but my main problem with the concept of pre-ordering music is that you have no clue whether or not an artist’s next CD will be good or not. All you get is a single song preview which is typically one of the best tracks of the album, or which is just the first single released.

Again, going back to Jack Johnson, I was tempted to make a pre-order for his new CD since I absolutely loved his last one, “In Between Dreams”. It was kind of tempting since they even offered an extra track that you would not get when the CD actually comes out. In the end, I decided not to pre-order and was actually glad about it when I logged onto iTunes today and saw that there are not really any tracks that catch my ear on his latest effort. Perhaps 30 seconds song clips are too short to form an opinion, but the opinion of many others on the site seemed to indicate similar feelings towards the new album. So, in short, I wonder how music pre-orders have become so popular.

Great little boombox from Sony

While a surround sound system is useful for a home theatre system, you often need to have other radios around the house, especially the kitchen, to listen to music while performing your chores.

The old Sanyo Boombox that I had since my college days was starting to behave very strangely, not always responding to button presses or doing the wrong thing on a button press, so I decided that it was time to retire it.

Using my AirMiles points (yes, these do come in handy sometimes), I ordered myself the Sony ZSSAT1 boombox. It comes with AM/FM radio with digital tuning (no more static!), a CD player that recognizes MP3s, a stereo line in jack to plug in my iPod as well as the ability to plug in an external antenna to get satellite radio programming.

While I will probably never use the satellite functionality, this is a very nice little radio with a full sound and all of the options needed to listen to my music any way I like. If you’re looking for a nice little radio, I would definitely recommend this one.

Daniel Bélanger, as good as ever on stage

My wife Andrée and I had the pleasure of seeing Daniel Bélanger on stage at a local college’s theatre this Thursday. After last seeing him on stage about 5 years ago, Bélanger is back on the road to support the release of a new album, L’échec du matériel.

With his laid back appearance (long beard, untamed hair, jeans and a sweater), his presence on stage was very strong and gave us an insight on his personality. The stage itself was also very interesting, with antennas and chimneys to make it look as if the band was playing on the rooftops.

More than half the set list was made up from songs from his latest album, but he still gave some room to his classics with some new musical arrangements. He also did about five songs where he was playing the guitar alone on stage to accompany his lyrics.

All in all, it was a very good show. It was also the first time that we were leaving Gabrielle was babysat at home. At least we felt that they were in good care since it was my sister taking care of them. The only other time when she had not been with us was for two nights at her grand-mother’s in December.

New Project for Barenaked Ladies lead singer

I was a bit surprised today to learn that Steven Page, lead singer of Barenaked Ladies, one of my all-time favorite bands, has released a solo project in June of this year. Entitled The Vanity Project, this new CD contains a series of songs that Page co-wrote with long-time collaborator Stephen Duffy. I’ve only listened to the excepts available on the web site so far. Some songs sound quite interesting while other are a bit too much of a departure from the BNL sound for me. I’ll have to try to listen to the entire CD in the near future to form a better opinion.