Radio Free Punknews

Check out the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of new music from recent or upcoming releases. Our latest additions include:

• The new EP from Orlando, FL's Donor

Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%

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Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: MP3's sound like crap. But, most people don't seem to care. Will the music industry develop or continue to make a better sounding physical alternative? Will they push better sounding digital products, such as flac? Are we doomed to shitty sounding songs?

A: The fact is, I think we are doomed to shitty sounding recordings. Music is more disposable now than it has ever been before (though, lest you forget, the 50’s were full of disposable novelty and dance craze tunes) and most music sales aren’t due to people looking for a full, textured, engrossing, music experience. When you are just buying tunes for the beats that you will forget four days from now, it doesn’t really matter if you can hear the full range of the backup singers’ voices.

I’m like you. I LOVE great sounding recordings. I was thrilled with the onslaught of "remastered" discs in the early 2000’s. For the most part- Rush, Stones, Stooges, Alice Cooper, Clash, etc- they sounded fantastic and really did make music more enjoyable. For an even better example, the recent CRASS remasters completely show how important good sound quality is- the new CRASS discs have such a more full sound, as well as tons of previously unheard bits.

But, for those of us that do love quality sound, we are a very small minority. Some places, like band camp, do provide higher quality files. But the mere fact that iTunes doesn’t usually offer this solution despite the relative ease of it, shows that our small market can’t even bare this small implementation.

What makes it even worse is that a lot of bands are mastering their music to be heard on shitty, forty-five cent apple earbuds. So, the mastering job is really "loud" and if you burn it to a CD for your stereo or car CD player, it sounds like crap.

Right now, there is a cottage industry of higher quality sound- the record itself, as well as the CD, priced against iTunes are both premium items that will fade out- likely in the next five years.

So, I’m afraid that my prognosis is doom and gloom. The age of premium sound is over and I don’t think a technology will come along to increase sound quality- didn’t Neil Young supposedly have a great sound format or something? Frankly, although we music aficionados want the best sounding jams, the public doesn’t care that much and there’s not enough money to be had for better sound to be developed and marketed. (compare this to TV, where sound quality and picture quality is considered a must- look how quickly DVD merged to Blue ray and other technologies- music technology moves at a pace roughly ½ or even 1/3 to that of video).

Snatch up them CDs and vinyl while you can- nothing lasts forever.

-John G

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The People Must Have Something Good To Read

In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands and artists. Don't miss out on these interviews:

• Joel Tannenbaum of Ex Friends
• Domenic "Nicky" Palermo of Death of Lovers
• Rebecca Reed as part of our Rad People Who Make Rad Art Series
• Ezra Kire of Morning Glory and his top 10 war songs
• Alex DiMattesa of Grave Mistake Records
• Craig Setari of Sick of it All