Code for XO∆E: DVD-A? SACD?

An interesting press release crossed my desk (read: popped into my e-mail Inbox) on Friday:

"John Mellencamp's Life, Death, Love, and Freedom, from Hear Music, July 15."

Buried down in the fourth paragraph is this:

"The album will be the first-ever release in the XO∆E (CODE) format. T Bone Burnett [who produced Mellencamp's new album] and his team of engineers developed CODE, a proprietary technology that creates high-definition audio files that are virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes. The resonance, warmth, and presence that has been realized with CODE is unprecedented in the digital era."

"Unprecedented"? Doesn't that sound, um, familiar? Read on . . .

4 Record Stores in 1 Record Store Day

That's what my photographer son Tony and I accomplished last Saturday (April 19) on the first annual Record Store Day. As I announced here previously, RSD is an effort (spearheaded by indie-shop organizations) to remind people that, yes, record stores still exist. And on Saturday, some participating shops had specials, and some even had in-store appearances, such as the one you see above: The Parlor Mob at Jack's Music Shoppe. For more on that and the other three stores that Tony and I checked out, click below.

Old-School MP3 Player

Have you been looking for a way to recapture the glory days of your youth that doesn’t involve Botox or having someone cut and paste your face back together? Do you want to return to the days of big hair, glam rock and synthesized sounds that were the '80s but don’t have the flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts needed for a quick trip back in time? The folks at ThinkGeek.com have you covered.

How to get free music, legally . . . from the government!

Ahh, who doesn’t remember the Golden Age of Napster? When music was “free” and just a click away. Then those pesky record labels had to come along and ruin everything. And whether it is fear of Big Music showing up on your doorstep with a subpoena for your hard drive or just displaying solidarity for musicians, many people have wisely chosen to stop illegally downloading music.

But before you cast your iPod to the wind (that’s a They Might Be Giants allusion for any of you cool enough to get it), I’ve got a terrific alternative to the conscience-searing shame and potentially embarrassing/costly legal entanglements which can come from illegal downloads. And in the sweetest irony of all, this solution is courtesy of the government. That’s right, read on to find out how The Man can support your free music Jones.

Get Thee to a Shoppery!

What's a "record store"? If you've never been to one, it's time for you to paddle away from your computer keyboard's virtual Amazon and enter the real world of bricks and mortar. And if you're, ahem, an older buyer who hasn't been to one in a while, it's time for you to remember the future. (Band? Nationality? Year? Famous guy who joined them later? Answers below.)

Stones. Scorsese. "Shine a Light." Smash!

Too old to rock & roll? Not the Rolling Stones, as they prove in Martin Scorsese's killer concert documentary Shine a Light, which opens today.

The subject of age seems to be on most other critics' minds, but I honestly wasn't struck by the Stones' advanced years until "As Tears Go By" — six songs in — when Mick Jagger's face strains to hit certain notes. His voice, meanwhile, hits nearly all of them.

Indeed, Jagger is in amazingly fine vocal form throughout the film, which was shot at New York City's Beacon Theatre on October 29 and November 1, 2006. And it's his voice, and of course the band, that will keep you thinking young, too — if not forever, at least for the 2 hours of Shine a Light.

But first, a little comedy . . .

SXSW, Day 4: Saturday, 3/15

Welcome to International Night! No, that's not an official SXSW designation for the last night of the festival. But even though I've already taken you to places as far flung as Australia and the Faroe Islands, tonight I'll take you to Brazil, Norway, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, and even Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. — all in one night! So, fasten your seat belt and click below as your humble tour guide, Ken Richardson, takes you spanning the globe in search of rock & roll & what have you, wherever we may find it.

SXSW, Day 3: Friday, 3/14

Yes, it's Friday! And that means: It's the weekend! And that means: The Vampire watch begins!

But first, in order to guarantee that I'm inside the famous club Antone's when VW takes the stage at 11 p.m., I need to get there for the first act and stay put. Will I be lucky with the three unknown-to-me bands leading up to the main attraction? Ken Richardson here, yet again, inviting you to read on.

SXSW, Day 2: Thursday, 3/13

As I warned you in SXSW: The Night Before (under Rule No. 4), tonight is the night I make my pilgrimage to Soiled Mattress & the Springs. The photo at left is the opening image on the band's MySpace page — and I can't think of anything better to sum up their . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself again. Ken Richardson here, folks, inviting you to click below for another wild night at SXSW.

SXSW Keynote: Reed on Sound

"I have a B.A. in dope, but a Ph.D. in soul."

That, of course, is the line extracted for today’s front page of The Austin Chronicle, reporting on yesterday’s SXSW keynote interview of Lou Reed, conducted by producer and friend Hal Willner.

And sure, it’s a great quote, but it’s even better when you get the full context that preceded it, which the Chronicle never gives:

After reciting lyrics from "Rock Minuet," Reed said the following: "People say, 'Is this stuff real?' Dance to a rock minuet — when you dance hard, slow-dancing, repetitive, when you dance to a rock minuet. People say, 'How would you know that? You’re joking, right? You're supposed to give qualifications for lyrics. You gotta be joking.' "

And then came the answer: "I have a B.A. in dope, but a Ph.D. in soul."

Reed is indeed a man of many things. He and Willner were ostensibly at the Austin Convention Center yesterday morning to promote Julian Schnabel’s film of Lou Reed’s Berlin. But the musician aired out many of his passions in his talk with Willner. Most intriguing for readers of Sound & Vision, he spent more time discussing sound quality than anything else.