Caveat emptor

Man, the modern music industry is fascinating. I won’t bore you with the raves and details of my trip to SXSW, because every other fucking blog and radio program on the planet did so as the thing was goign on, and belaboring the details a week and a half removed would just be pointless. Suffice it to say, music industry people creep me out, Beerland is one of the best bars I’ve ever been to, and Go Bites is your source for amazing burgers.

However, I’d also like to discuss the fact that the new Raconteurs album drops today. Entitled The Consolers Of The Lonely, it got fast-tracked to a release. The album was finished three weeks ago, then (according to the press release, anyhow) it got taken to a record plant, then a cd plant, and the soonest date both formats would be done for simultaneous release was today. And they rushed it, too. My copy arrived via overnight FedEx, as did the various local record stores’.

Honestly, tho’… at least their last album had a 45’s worth of good songs. The Village Voice gets it right in their review when they say it “only has a few really great moments.” The songs go on far longer than absolutely necessary, and it seems to be this Springsteen-esque drive to get every band member on every fucking track.

If you need to engage in some sort of backwards-looking retro music (and, really, Jack White is nothing if not a fetishist of every ’60s icon to come down the pike), why not spend your money on some actual old music? Go hit up Haunted Town Records‘ website and get your reissue of Naked Raygun‘s debut full-length Throb Throb? Twelve bucks on your choice of oxblood red or gold vinyl. And you know it’s worth your money.

Naked Raygun – “Surf Combat” (live)