Friday, May 14, 2010
Moving Pictures Daniel Pujol Talks About Vinyl, Why CDs Are Lame
Posted by Lance Conzett on Fri, May 14, 2010 at 4:49 PM
About a month ago, I chatted with Daniel Pujol (of MEEMAW, Denny and the Jets, approximately 78 other bands) about his philosophy on putting out music, which more or less boils down to “CDs blow, they’re overpriced and nobody cares.”
I can’t really argue with that.
I had originally planned to do a mini-documentary about why vinyl is a “big deal” again, even though the music industry may or may not be in decline.
Well, that all fell through and I've moved on. It’s probably for the best, seeing as how All Things Considered/WPLN basically just did that story without the movin’ pictures and from the perspective of Third Man Records. I didn’t want that interview to die in the abyss of a Belmont computer hard drive, though, so I stitched it together real quick for your viewing pleasure. There's also this.
If you’ve got a jones for PUJOL live, by the way, you’ll be able to see him at the aforementioned Jack White love shack when he opens for Nobunny on May 21 at 6 p.m. $3 gets you in, plus a crack at a fancy black/blue vinyl copy of the Nobunny set.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
Like this like guy like is like full like of like shit. Or like whatever.
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It's a pretty interesting analysis if a bit rambly. A phonograph record is definitely a more interesting object than a CD. It's got grooves that make a little bit of information about the contents visible to the eye (there was some guy who could identify recordings of well-known classical works by the configuration of the grooves). It's got a nice little rounded rim, it's got a hole punched in it, it's got paper glued to vinyl. There's more visible constructed-ness to it than there is in a CD. And the size (whether 7 or 10 or 12 inches) certainly lends itself to more attractive packaging, which is a huge difference. To me, though, the line between CD-as-object and a disembodied computer file is a bigger line than it is to Pujol. It depends on exactly what you do with your CDs, of course. I don't routinely rip them onto a computer and I don't lose the inserts in the car (well, hardly ever). To me the CD, with packaging, is the terminal medium and not an intermediate one, just as with the phonograph record. In contrast, owning a song only as a computer file, one of many invisibly piled up inside a computer/warehouse, seems very impermanent and shadowy, like only a short step from simply committing the song to memory. The song is so easily wiped out, and comes with no textual information explicitly paired to it, as a CD with liner notes does. A lot of this arises from commodity fetishism, the same thing that makes some people get so much more joy out of shoes, for example, than just wearing them provides. What if somehow your shoes just disappeared when you weren't actually wearing them, rather than sitting in a closet or on a shoe tree to be enjoyed visually or tactilely? That wouldn't be nearly as fun, would it? Same thing with a marketed item of music. Its object-ness adds value to the music itself. It looks like Pujol sees things similarly but just doesn't find CDs much fun.
It's apples and oranges, people. Vinyl is all well and good if you've got alot of time on your hands, but most people don't. It's a nice thing to see it in such resergance, but all this "Vinyl is SOOOO superior to CD' stuff is stupid. It's a different format, that's all. If you really cared about marketing your shit effectively and not just coming across as some kind of cool purist, you'd have your shit available in as many formats as you can.
I like the nostalga factor, but alot of these kids didn't even see the 80's, so for them the tapes and records thing is just novelty. I remember when CD's came out! Wait til you're working all the time and raising a kid, then see how much time you have to play with your turntable. Ipod for the win. And yes, my band puts all it's shit out on vinyl so I'm totally full of shit. Now get off my lawn.
i think anyone who's read daniel's lyrics or listened to them, i guess, or read his editorials, would know that dude's got a sharp mind and a way with the pen (or keyboard, i guess). don't dis cos he speaks the vernacular. layman for the win over dictionary jimmy any day.
as for the content thing; obviously, for most people, it's going to come down to cost, ease, and marketability. most people don't give a shit these days, it seems, even with cd packaging... or rather, people either care or they don't. personally, i like the ease of cds for my car and i like listening to vinyl when i'm sitting down to listen to music. so when people do vinyl with a download, i'm a happy camper. i also like to do separate masters (when possible... it's definitely necessary when you're considering the sound of the final product -- cd versus vinyl -- but some people don't care or don't realize that, i guess). like with the last hands down eugene record, there are essentially two versions of the album... the vinyl version and the digital version (download -- though i don't know if that was ever released or not)... pretty much, it's just the mastering that differs but what a difference that can make, for both the listening experience on a given format and for the overall tone of an album. we mastered the digital hotter and made it a jump out of the speakers thing and left the vinyl more 70s sounding and less compressed so everything moved around a lot more. so, on that level, a band can choose to be creative about its releases almost like, but not exactly comparable to, mono versus stereo versions of old albums.
but, when it comes to actual cds; i will buy them if that's my only physical option, i just feel weird about them cos i know i've ruined so many in my car and floorboards and, unless i ripped it, i fucked that shit up. download with vinyl means i can burn as many shitty cds as i want and don't care if i scratched the last one up. kinda like that part.
but vinyl is not cheap, requires some planning, and takes longer to produce... and there are plenty of people who will say "oh, you have records... i don't have a record player" and want to just be able to buy a digital versions. and most bands putting out their own albums (and even a lot with labels behind them) can't afford to put out both cds and vinyl... so it's always audience (market), artistic preference, and then budget that seems to dictate who releases what format.
also, if you have a shitty record player and/or don't take care of your needle, there's no point in listening to records. it can be like listening to cds on the shitty boombox you got in 8th grade and expect it to sound as good as 24bit audio on your nice studio monitors.
oh, and then there's also who you press with and how well it's plated (don't ever use EKS in brookyln for vinyl)... blah blah.
tho i do understand how some of us older folk can look at it as false nostalgia for kids, unlike with cassette tapes, which are pretty much just an inferior quality product (as much as i used to love them as a kid and have tooooons of nirvana bootleg cassettes from high school), i think vinyl is a high quality option that, like others have said, offers the big packaging, now offers a few options (with the digital download) for the listener, and it's also a durable product as long as you store it well and don't jump around while you're listening to it.
anyway...
Another great thing about vinyl (to me, anyway) is the "ritual" involved. There's preparation involved, so you're committed to actively listening to what the artist intended and you won't usually skip around tracks, because you don't want to interrupt the flow (plus, it's a pain in the ass).
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