Friday, March 2, 2012

From The Sound's Mouth

SHOCK OF DAYLIGHT is still OOP, but the two subsequent releases by little-known post-punk band THE SOUND (1979-1988) both were rereleased less than two months ago.  FROM THE LION'S MOUTH (1982) & JEOPARDY (1981).  The bad news is I can't afford 'em ):

Today is the day my MyPoints Barnes & Noble Gift Cards are/have been/will be - (??) - fulfilled.  Weather or not they actually get 'em out in the mail TO-DAY is quite possibly another story; we'll see...Based on past experiences w/ MyPoints, they won't TELL me they fulfilled the redemption until tomorrow...I don't know why they always wait a day from the time their website reflects this to the time they go out of their way to let me know...But anyway; fat chance they'll get here before my 20% off coupon @ BN expires, but I'll probably get another coupon toward the end of the month...I really have more interest in using it online than in stores though & the current coupon is only good in store.  Their in-store selection used to be top-notch.  You can't really blame them for degrading though.  A lot of definitive classics CDs have gone out of print, either to be replaced by bloated multi-disc sets.  Joy Division's CLOSER & just about every Genesis CD ever made, especially the first 5 CDs - not counting the 1969 collaboration with Jonathan King - as well as their live CDs, although all of their music is available in single disc formats in South America & other parts of the world.  What's even more nifty is you can get either the 2007 Nick Davis remixes in single disc format or you can get the original mixes in single disc editions OR you can get the 1CD/1DVD packages, which feature the Nick Davis remixes, in both stereo & 5.1 channels as well as music videos & concert footage etc.  The only downside is this does NOT apply to local brick & mortar stores - technically importing music from certain countries is illegal & I guess Amazon gets away w/ it b/c nobody barges into their warehouse with the intention of inspecting their merchandise.  Someone w/ the FBI or Interpol - or whoever handles this b.s. - could walk into B&N & easily pick up a copy of SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND and use that as probably cause for shutting them down.  With Amazon's warehouse, you A) need to get a warrant (which could happen I suppose.....) and B) you need to figure out which warehouse they stock their "illegal" imports, which, I guess might be all of them.  What's worse is the amount of time it would take to sift through Amazon's inventory just to find a harmless piece of music - which would be more destructive than anything to remove from the marketplace, since if the buyer can't buy the freakin' thing he/she can always go the thepiratebay & download it since public domain could go into effect.  Actually, I think it still would apply as things are, but it would be up to the judge & you never can be too sure about that kind of thing...I mean, the music is still IN-PRINT, it's just more expensive than it "should" be...and who cares if the music is remixed??!  Oh, and I forgot to mention, you can buy the original mixes @ Amazon's MP3 store although you might have to sacrifice your pursuit of audiophile-quality sound, although that doesn't apply to most people, The Judge included (most likely), so...ya know; it just kinda sucks the gov't has to overlook one law so they can successfully enforce the other...
  And Kate Bush's THE WHOLE STORY has been out of print for at least a couple years now.  So what's left?  Between lagging CD sales & a lack of opportunity to carry the absolute best music that exists on record, B&N has decided based on those factors to mainly carry greatest hits CDs & top selling new releases...
  So...their website is more where my interests are at.  Unless I get a hankering for a latte - which is unlikely, since I had one at a Target Starbucks & another at the actual Starbucks and another & "The Barnes & Noble Cafe" & none of them really satisfied me, although the B&N Cafe one was hands down the best of the three & was less money spent, too...If I do get a hankering for a latte, I'll probably go downtown to Cup & Cork...although maybe not; sometimes their stuff is too sweet...I tend to mix lattes with Coffee Fool coffee & the mixture of real hi-Q coffee & latte is way better than any latte I've had in recent memory.
  I still have $12 to spend on ??? this month.  I already bought a CD ($4.60) & spent $2.38 on late fees at the video store closest to where I live - Family Video (I owed them $11.50 as of last night...I could pay all of it down, but that would be an absolute waste of $; I don't even remember the last movie I saw that I actually enjoyed enough to sit through the entirety of.)

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