Norman Records weblog thing

OK so the new Deerhunter is available now to (legally) download from a few sites but it’s not getting a physical release til late October. What does anybody think of this (if you care at all that is?) I’m a massive fan and I’m well looking forward to getting this but I’ll be fucked if I’m gonna buy a download. I’ll just wait for the vinyl to come in a couple of months time. Now I guess a lot of folks will download it ilegally and buy the physical thing when it comes in. Someone e mailed me a link to the album a couple of months ago as it got leaked early and I’ll cope with that til it’s physically available. Surely it’s in labels best interests to get all formats out at the same time (both physical and download). Especially as a large percentage of music buyers want to get things as early as possible. I’m pretty sure stuff like this will kill a lot of physical sales. God knows. It’s a minefield out there. Just wanted to get something up here to see what folks thought!! Apparently Bradford Cox had it in his head that this would be a fall album (ie (Autumn to you and me) so why would it be made available now for download?
Phil x

I was once fairly leathered on ale at a boozer in Manchester when at the bar I stumbled upon comedy genius John Thomas. I went up to him and told him I loved him in the Fast Show and to show my gratitude for entertaining me over the years I asked him if he wanted a pint. He obliged to have a scoop with me and then his missus piped up and said “I’ll have a white wine please” and I was like all laughing going “I never said I’d get yer missus one”. Anyway a week or so later old Johnny is on the front of The Sun having had some kind of alcohol related breakdown. I felt somehow responsible… Oh the guilt.

We’re now stooping to the levels of Heat and Now magazine asking do you have any famous people stories (music related or not) ??? -Ant X

OK all you read about is doom and gloom for physical sales and I won’t deny it’s true. Physical sales are spiralling downwards and the quantities of records ( by records I mean the physical formats…) being sold these days is pitiful to what it what it was say 10 years ago. BUT major labels have reported an increase in profits over the last year. They’ve diversified into other areas and aren’t just focusing on physical sales. Legal downloads aren’t really plugging the gap but things like merchandise, touring and ringtones (oh why oh why) and helping things turn around. So we’re clearly in a state of transformation but where on earth will it take us?? What do you think??

That’s all well and good for the majors but how on earth is the indie label gonna cope? is it gonna be small runs of 200 7″’s and 50 CDR’s that keep them alive? I hope Ninja Tune don’t mind this but this is nicked from the back of a promo CD for the last Cinematic Orchestra album and I thought it was quite pertinent.

“Before you copy, burn or upload these recordings, please take a moment to think about what you’re doing and what you’re not doing. You are not “sticking it to the man”. You are not “striking a blow against outdated copyright laws.” You are not “liberating content from the corporations”. Nor are you “promoting our recordings for us.”

By all means pirate the latest corporate spew from major central. But don’t pretend it’s the same thing as copying this. Because, one day, when we’re all gone and all that’s left is two or three giant multinational conglomerates putting out lowest- common- denominator bollocks, you’ll wish you hadn’t- No Clicking…” 

I can see their just being a couple of majors left and aside from that I’m not sure what else will survive. Despite the utter shite and extra toss brought on by the myspace generation it has presented young artists with a platform to promote their music and lots of ‘em are releasing their own records on their own labels. Quality aside this has to be a good thing (though you won’t get me to say that when I’ve got 10 of ‘em to review in a row….) So where are we gonna go?

Personally I think physical sales will be about for a while but over the next couple of years there will be some massive casualties of large labels, shops, distros etc… Rest assured we’re still battling on and you can also be guaranted that Norman won’t start selling downloads cos we think they’re shite.
P x

What classic tunes were never released as singles or were released but just never made it to the dizzying heights of our great British top 40 (it is a bit shite these days mind you)

Maybe Outdoor Miner by Wire would have been a huge hit had it have been promoted properly to an unsuspecting public?

Maybe you think windowlicker by Aphex Twin should have been a number one? It’s probably sold more than most number ones these days.

Perhaps you think Witness the Fitness by Roots Manuva or Jimmy by MIA?

Let us know what you think!
P x

yes opal fruits are back after a long break. Whoever decided to call ‘em starburst has been sacked and replaced by the original guy who knew what he was doing. Also they’re bringing Drifters back which is a huge stroke of genius. As you well know we like our sweets as we bang ‘em in with folks orders. What sweets do you like? What sweets need to be brought back? I used to love that Spanish tobacco when I was a kid which was that weird brown stringy coconut stuff. Haribo teddy bears rule as well.. you’d get them in your parcels if we could think of a safe way of them getting to you! Quattro as well though that was a drink….. Still the amount of sugar in it probably qualifies it as a sweet!

P x

Something a bit more upbeat…. Me I’d like to say my personal faves so far are the Bersarin Quartett CD, The Advisory Circle CD, the forthcoming Ass album on Static Caravan (simply fantastic), The Brian Jonestown Massacre album… mm loads. There’s been some great records out this year. What do yous lot like?
P x

A bunch of record shops have formed together to form something called the ‘coalition’ to save record shops. In this coalition participating shops will get exclusive releases and deals on certain releases all to encourage folks to get back into their stores. Anyway as we’re not a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ shop we’re not allowed to be part of this ‘coalition’. This is ludicrous to me… in a time where physical sales are at an all time low, indie retailers should be pulling together, not disintegrating things even further.

In the UK there are about 15-20 indie record shops left which contribute to a total of around 30 UK based indie shops and mail order places. Being that there are so few in total it would make sense to do something all together rather than just include bricks and mortar shops. Yes it’s admirable… don’t get me wrong. But the greater cause is selling music as a physical form and I don’t think that is being recognised. The problems lies with Amazon, Ebay, Play and downloads… not small internet mail order places.

There’s not many of us left in the UK now and I have to say there won’t be many places like us who deal with bands and labels direct supporting underground acts and giving ‘em a chance week in week out.

Now if these releases were just physically available in shops I could live with that (as I do think it’s a good idea) but it isn’t. Those shops who have websites will be selling it on their sites, those who don’t have sites will be selling it on ebay and amazon (which doesn’t help the situation in the long run). That is the bit I struggle with. If the point is to encourage folks into shops I can’t see how online sales will help this? Encouraging people into shops is a great idea but as there’s so few record shops left in the country and if you don’t live near one (many of you don’t) then you buy mail order. There’s many reasons why people don’t go into record shops as much anymore and I’m not going to go into that now All that will happen is the shops with websites will do will with these releases….I don’t think splitting the indies into 2 groups is a good idea (ie online and physical shops) as that will cause problems… I think the problem affects all independent music retailers and we need to work together towards the common goal of supporting and promoting independent music.

Let me know what you think
Phil x

I was listening to that 1st moonshake album this morning and I realised what a great album it is and how fresh it still sounds tdoay. Too Pure back in their early days were a completely fantastic label with Moonshake, Stereolab, Faith Healers, PJ Harvey etc…. then were bands like Quickspace and there was all that cool stuff from Bristol like Movietone, Third Eye Foundation. I call a lot of these bands experimental indie bands for want of an easy way to put it. Is it me or was music better then? Maybe I’m romanticising a bit?? You had bands like Moonshake and Disco Inferno who were mixing up styles and genres and making something new….. You had Quickspace being a shambling mess everywhere but making some completely fine popsongs. There is still no one to this day who sounds anything like Quickspace. There didn’t seem to be the excess of copycat bands we have now which seem to be in it for the quick buck.

So where have all the good bands gone? I know there’s lots of great music out there but indie wise there doesn’t seem to be too much to get me excited these days.

What do you lot think?
P x

We’ve been arguing in the office about this week. Everyone else seems to think they have their merit but I reckon they’re boring. No idea what I’m on about? Well, when you go to a gig and the performer is playing with a laptop and all you can see is the back of a laptop, the light glare on their stupid face and that’s about it. I can’t be arsed with it. They could be playing  whacka whacka III online against a load of cybergooks for all I know with their 3G wireless broadband dongle. Where is the performance? Sure the music may be great but what’s the appeal?? Maybe the social aspect? Get your friends round and play a selection of their tracks instead. Is that not the same? I remember seeing Four Tet ages ago and I admittedly had a good time but that could be something to do with the drugs I rammed down my chubby neck rather than the grinning goon losing to some random 13 year old spotty oik called Beeblebrox playing counterstrike online.

Sure there’s plenty of bands who have the ‘regular’ set up who are boring beyond belief BUT I’ve never been to  a decent gig where the artist has been fiddling away on a laptop. I’m talking the performance here…. not the social aspect cos with the right people you can have fun in any situation.

Gauntlet laid down…. stab me or agree with my face
P x

They used to be your favourite band… you’d play ‘em to death. Day in… day out, annoying your friends, family and neighbours. Months… years later you go back and play the records again and wonder what on earth you were on at the time to like it. Time to get rid and move onto something else. What bands have you got bored of? Did you find something unsavoury out about someone you liked and went off ‘em? Did you burn your Gary Glitter records when you found out he was a paed?

Let us know what you think and we’ll stick ours up when we’ve had some time to think about it!!
Phil x