To start off, recently i have been working remotely for my job… whole ‘nother discussion… and what was once the ‘office’ (read: extra room where we didn’t know where to put stuff and has my computers) i retired to during the nights and weekends has become my proper ‘office’ (read: i am in here all the time now). Essentially what this has boiled down to is having no boundaries of what music i can put on at any time – aside from the albums i had to leave behind at the store until i get another check and can free them.

John HiattOne_foot_in_the_grave BeckMuslimgauze

This also has lead to me digging around and discovering some old gems that i just never bothered to bring to work or put on the iPod. And i started to notice with the CDs that some of them would end. I’m enjoying my coffee. Hmm. It’s nice outside. Should i ta… ‘BA-DIT-IT-Y DUM WHIRRRRrrr’. What the hell is that!?! Oh… yeah… extra track stuck on the end of the cd… you can get out from under the desk now.

Does that happen any more? I haven’t bought a CD in a long time that has that 4+ minute dead space at what should be the end of the CD that then drops that hidden song on.

Todd at 14: ‘It’s not even freaking labeled on the jacket!?! What’s the name of this song? It’s awesome. Did Tim know that was there? Oh, man. That’s going onto the next mix tape.’

Todd just may have dated himself…

Anyway, I got to thinking… a) what happened to that suprise? is it that they still make ‘material’ CDs only for poor schmos like me who like to hold something and that the production is no longer based on someone buying more than one song? b) i wonder what the equivalant in the internet world this ‘extra track’ phenomenon is?

The answer to a) is probably yes and the fact that it was a fad. There was a time i couldn’t buy a CD without expecting an extra track hidden at the end, and i would spend my time hitting the seek button until i heard something. Was i disappointed if their was no extra track? Only if the rest of the album sucked and i felt i was suckered in by one song to buy it – looking at you Live. (remember this was a time before you could preview anything on the internet and it was a godsend if a record store had opened CDs you could pre-listen to…)

The answer to b)… hmm. Don’t know. I am always tempted to say ’skip intro’. But i don’t know… that wasn’t really a treat most times
And, aside from obvious design and nomenclature, i am wondering if there was something that was prevalent on applications or websites that you couldn’t get away from whether you were interested or not… kind of like how you can’t buy a decent glam album nowadays without it being remastered with more extra tracks than the original album had. Good and bad and leaves you wondering how long it will last and if you really care if it’s gone… but you’ll write a blog about it 10+ years fter the fact.

I don’t know where i am going with this. Just rambling and looking at the crates of LP’s and stacks of CDs for something new to listen to…

Posted in General, Music.