Douglas decided to pick the best performances of new material from the week and assemble a two-disc set, one disc for material he wrote before the recording of last year's Meaning and Mystery, the other disc material written after that (and two bonus tracks.) It also comes with the requisite beautiful artwork and insightful liner notes, where Douglas ruminates on the state of music today and his impetus to go all-mp3 with the concert set. You can only buy it from Douglas' site right now, so click on over and order it! The $16.98 price gets you not only the discs but also very quick shipping - I ordered mine and had it in my hands five days later. (Note: they seem to be linking to the wrong page right now, but clicking the price in the links below the text will add it to your cart.)
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers: Deja vu, right? Yeah, I already talked about this a couple months back ... when there was no hope in site of this coming out in the US. And, of course, as luck would have it, here it is, coming out in the US.
Dramatic and a bit vicious, this is the Manics the way fans have wanted to hear them - vital and raw, unlike the all-too-lush sound that has overtaken them over the past few albums. It's hard rock for grown ups who want intelligent hard rock. It's also one of the better albums of the year, and one of the Manics better albums.
Slayer - Christ Illusion Deluxe Edition: Man, even Slayer is getting in on this "deluxe edition" crap? This might be the most annoying trend in album releases since the invention of that stupid adhesive "theft prevention" strip that goes on the top of CD cases (which never come off in one piece and always leave residue behind. Seriously, what is the deal with that? Could they not come up with an adhesive that doesn't detach itself from its original surface? I spend a good amount of time on each new CD pulling that crap off with the parts of the strip that still have adhesive on it. I have a theory that people download music not to steal but to avoid dealing with the hassle of these damned stickers. But I digress.)
Article comments
1 - Pico
The Anastasio and Douglas are on my list. Thanks for the heads up.
2 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
I can agree 100% with ya Tom about the Slayer re-release.(As you can read at Mr. Beaumont's review)
Though, I kinda wonder, with alot of cool releases from some real good metal bands why anyone with half a brain would bother with a "Deluxe" version of any release? Most of the time they don't include anything worth having.
My reccomendations:
Municipal Waste - "The Art of Partying"
Illogicist - "The Insight Eye"
The Shattering - "The Shattering Begins"
(from 2005 but it's new to me & it kicks major ass1)
Tomahawk - "Anonymous"
3 - Mark Saleski
the file format has not translated well to jazz listeners who are often much more demanding of the quality of their recordings and mp3 just does not pass muster, not to mention the lack of the much-beloved liner notes and artwork.
exactly!!!!
4 - El Bicho
good luck with the new venture or same venture or--you know what I mean