my music jerk: List

Even though the compact disc turns twenty-five this year, there's a surprising amount of amazing records that have never been issued on cd and/or were issued and immediately went out of print. Even though everyone loves talking about how the cd is dead and blah blah blah, let me tell you folks, it's going to be a long long time until the cd isn't the main format for music anymore. They're still the most profitable and it doesn't look like downloads are going to overtake them in that aspect anytime soon. So...PEOPLE THAT HAVE THE ABILITY TO GET THESE RECORDS REISSUED ON CD NEED TO GO AND MAKE IT HAPPEN RIGHT NOW! I could go on and on about this but here are just ten examples of stuff that really need to enter the digital age.

bIG FLAME
In the past five or so years there has been a lot (some would say too much) mining of the Post-Punk era. One group that has been largely ignored is bIG FLAME from Manchester. They only released a bunch of singles and eps, never a full-length. In 1996 Drag City released a compilation of their works entitled Rigour and it is now out of print in a big way and very expensive. So yeah, this needs to be re-issued. If that can't be done, then maybe they can put out a Peel Sessions compilation as these guys did four sessions. The work of bIG FLAME being unavailable leaves a crucial hole in the Post-Punk spectrum.

Chris & Cosey
When the utterly brilliant and terrifying Throbbing Gristle broke up in 1981, they split off into three groups: Psychic TV, Coil and Chris & Cosey. All are great groups and all are hard to find on CD. I have had no luck finding any C&C cds for a reasonable price. Their records may be in print in the UK (I don't know for sure) but they are damn near impossible to find on this side of the pond. So somebody *cough*MUTERECORDS*cough* need to get off their hineys and reissue these amazing records.

Desperate Bicycles
These guys are famous for two reasons: 1. Basically giving birth to the entire DIY/Messthetics Indie/Punk movement in the UK and 2. Refusing to have their stuff issued on cd. I have a couple of their tracks on comps but that's it. Guys, COME ON! Just make a singles disc. It'll sell a lot more than you think. Nerds like me have been foaming at the mouth over this for decades. Just do it!

Le Car
This cd was only issued in 2000 and thus has no reason to be out of print. It collects the eps/singles from Le Car, one half of whom was Adam Miller of ADULT. As far as I know this is the only out of print cd on Ersatz Audio. I have had zero problems tracking down the label's other releases. You know, I see Miller at shows occasionally and i'm this close to going up to him and being all ~~"OMGWHYAREYOUSOAWESOMECANIHAVEYOURBABIES?"~~ *ahem* I mean, "Me want Le Car cd! You give me! Hulk SMASH! Army strong!" Don't make me resort to that Adam, please.

Organisation
This is Kraftwerk before it was Kraftwerk. Why this has NEVER been released on cd I have no idea. It's more of a weird "treated instruments" Psychedelic/Avant-Garde type of thing and really has little in common with classic Krafwerk. But it's Ralf & Florian from Kraftwerk. We need this! It was even released on RCA. So RCA, I know you're probably busy working on a Best Of Eve 6 disc or something just as exciting but let's just maybe consider reissuing this bad onto cd. kthanks.

The Plastics
Imagine if you will Devo if they were an insane Japanese Pop band. I don't think I really need to say anything else to convince you as to why we need these records back in stores.

The Pop Group
Considering that The Pop Group are one of the most important and essential Post-Punk groups ever their music is very hard to track down. Their first record, Y, was only available on cd in Japan for the longest time and just last year was issued on cd in the UK. It's still a pretty expensive import though. Their second record For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? has NEVER been on cd. Grrrr to that I say. Mark Stewert, if you're reading this, get 'er done!

Rip Rig & Panic
After The Pop Group broke up in 1980 after only two short years together, they split up into Maximum Joy, Rip Rig & Panic and one other band I think that I can't recall at this moment. RR&P's three full-lengths have NEVER been released on CD. I know I'm sounding like a broken record (LOLZ) at this point but geez, we're missing out on some damn good stuff here!

Squirrel Bait
Okay why this is out of print I have no idea. It was originally issued on cd back in the day on Homestead, who as we all know have been history for a while. But seriously, Squirrel Bait featured three dudes that went on to form Slint (among other groups) and another dude who went on to Bastro and Gastr Del Sol (among other groups). Hell, Drag City reissued the oop Bastro discography a few years ago so thus they (or someone) needs to reissue this bad boy pronto.

Whitehouse
Whitehouse basically invented Power Electronics/Harsh Noise as we know it. Wolf Eyes, Prurient, Load Records and countless others owe him. Some of his later works are available on cd but the early stuff has never been reissued on cd. This stuff is some sick shit and needs to be reissued yesterday.

Well that wraps it up. I could list a lot more groups but maybe i'll save those for another day. Anything YOU want to see reissued?

All right, let's kick this party off with a list of my favorite records. Why? Well mainly to give you a vibe of what kind of stuff I'm down with. Now, I left out some records I really love, this was only supposed to be a Top 20 but just getting it down to 25 was hard enough. I'm not going to put them in numerical order because that takes too long and would be fairly arbitrary. I'm also not going to talk about these records because it would just be me jacking off about how flawlessly perfect they are. Trust me and go check them out. A lot of them are records you're probably already familiar with but I doubt anyone reading this knows ALL of them. If you are, you get a cookie.

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