MP3 Comps

Remember mixed tapes? We here at www.egulphy.com sure do!

Since we've never had a CD player in the www.egulphy.com mobile, mixed tapes are a staple of traveling, in order to avoid the barrage of radio-friendly gruel that EVERY SINGLE radio station in North America feeds the populace. Over the years, I've made thousands of mixed tapes (including many from the 80's that I don't wish to talk about!), and it's always a treat to happen upon them and pop them in the deck for a listen...with one small exception. Many of them sound like complete and utter shite, due to the magnetic particles of the tape NOT aging gracefully.

Enter the CD-R. Around 12 years ago when I first started buying CD's, I lamented the fact that the format was non-recordable, but enjoyed the superior quality over cassettes, which I hated for the most part (except for mixed tapes), primarily because their pseudo-protective plastic shell gave me some sort of license to be a slob and litter tapes all over the top of my stereo equipment (something I would never do with CD's or vinyl). Many moons later, I was doing virtual backflips when I finally was able to purchase a CD-R deck for my computer, to record things on these marvelous plastic discs.

As soon as I picked up a CD-R drive, I was back into "kid making mixed tapes" mode and it was like it was 1980 all over again. Add the Internet and MP3's to the equation, and kids growing up at this time are extremely lucky! They have access to an endless array of "mixed tapes" from all corners of the world, and don't have to sit by the radio for their new favourite song to come on, as I can recall doing many moons ago, with my finger hovering over the "pause" button on my tape deck.

"But what about the poor music industry?" cry people like record company weasels, Metallica, and Dr. Dre. "Kid Rock starved to death because of MP3 piracy," claimed a satirical article in www.theonion.com. Bands are being deprived of royalties because of the newfound accessibility to "pirated" music.

Bullshit. A downloaded copy of an MP3 is no substitute for the real thing if you actually want to purchase an album, support the artist, and have a copy of the lyric sheet. The kind of access we have to digital music today is not a threat to the music industry, but an incredible promotional tool. Bands like SOUL COUGHING, BEASTIE BOYS, PUBLIC ENEMY, LIMP BIZKIT, and even CHEAP TRICK have embraced this technology and accepted it for what it is - an overglorified radio station that plays songs for the kids whenever they want to hear them!

Still, other artists feel threatened by the technology, thinking it will cut into their profits. The most disappointing statements I've heard about MP3's happen to come from a band that I have been a huge fan of for over 18 years, that band being METALLICA. Over the years, I have probably spent upwards of $5000 on Metallica-related items. Concert tickets, T-shirts, albums, videos, CD's, wall-sized flags, and who knows what else with the Metallica name on it was always a source of THEIR INCOME. When I first started listening to this band, they were a bunch of greasy metal kids on an indie label. Many years later, I can't help but to admire the tremendous inroads into pop culture that they have made. People who asked me "why do you listen to this shit?" were suddenly buying copies of "the black album", and Metallica became a household word. The band made the top 10 list of America's largest-grossing bands. Not bad for a bunch of pimply kids who moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco in the early 1980's so they could find a forum for their "speed metal".

You always hear famous and rich people talk about "staying grounded" and not losing touch with the real world. Some actors have even been known to go on hiatus and work with simple commoners like us to maintain such credibility, or "cred", as they like to refer to it as. Why on earth, then, would Metallica care about the MP3 scene? After all, they may have changed, but they still ARE the same band who released the "Cliff 'Em All" home video, filled with bootleg footage of Metallica concerts featuring the late Cliff Burton (as the band was quite camera-shy in the early days and even refused to make music videos until the release of "And Justice For All").

Bootlegs = street cred...in the early 1990's, anyway.

MP3's = cutting into Metallica's profits, in the year 2000.

I'm looking forward to seeing the lawsuits on Court TV. In all probability, it will go something like this: Metallica and "their people" flex their legal muscle against some 15-year old from a broken home with an alcoholic mother on welfare, who downloads the latest Metallica album from the Internet because his mother can't afford to buy it AND pay for his kidney transplant that his family's HMO refuses to pay for.

Congratulations, Metallica. You've come a long way, and you worked hard to get there. It's just a bloody shame that you're so far up the totem pole that you can't see the real world anymore. Enjoy your "lifestyle" - you have disillusioned me forever.

Wow! I promised myself I'd save the ranting for the column...anyway, here are some links to the compilation CD's I have made.

No, they aren't for sale, but I WILL track down download sites for the tunes and enable you to enjoy the music...just remember that Lars Ulrich could be found dead of starvation if you do the wrong thing with this music.

Click on an album cover to go to the compilation's own page.

EGULPHY 001 - 17 Ripe Radishes