Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Power Of The Riff Compels You!

I don’t know about anyone else, but I totally have a boner for the new Mastodon album Crack The Skye. I’ve already pre-ordered it-no, it wasn’t the deluxe limited edition version. I figured that the album was enough (along with the making-of DVD that came with it) and it saved me enough dough that I could get a few more cd’s-making this first cd purchase of 2009.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but cd sales are low, so I think that I’m not alone in my cd buying habits. You want to know something? While browsing around, I noticed that there are bunches of albums that have found their way into “bargain price” categories. For example, you can pretty much get the entire early Ramones catalog for under nine bucks per disc. So guess what else I bought in addition to the new Mastodon album? Why labels don’t figure this out is beyond me. There was a time when it was not uncommon for me to drop close to a $100 every other month for cds. Now, that figure is closer to a couple times a year, mainly on titles that I know I’ll like thanks to downloading them for free first. Most of those titles, by the way, are ones that I just need to fill out my collection; very few new discs make the cut.
The Ramones disc was a no brainer. I would probably pay the same price for an album download, so why not get the real thing along with the artwork and better sound quality? I did put back a bunch of titles, simply because I couldn’t justify the price. Seriously, why are labels so insistent on leaving prices at $15? I don’t care about the bonus material! I don’t care about the packaging! And, newsflash, nobody else does either! I would love for some of these bands to see that I didn’t buy their shit because I didn’t perceive it to be a very good value. But $6.99 for Road To Ruin? Please. I noticed a Peter Tosh album that I’ve wanted for quite some time had also been reduced. Guess what? Picked that one up too.
It’s true, the Mastodon title is new and I’ve only heard one song off it. That song is found on the video below, a video so awesome that I’m confident that the rest of the album-even if it’s only half as good as this song-is worth the purchase price. The purchase price, by the way, contains that aforementioned DVD.
Value!
However, seriously, whenever the video features killer hooks, a homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing, and the fucking abominable Snowman, you know it’s good.

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