CD Gimmicks: Ironic Statement or Sheer Impractical Idiocy

When I set my CD jukebox player thing to play random tracks from 50 different CDs (well, what do *you* do in your spare time?), and I have that one in there, I get "*click clack CD changing* -ery sleepy rive- *click clack CD changing*" ALL THE TIME. I think the random mechanism tries to favor CDs that have large numbers of tracks on it.

The same band played a slightly less annoying joke on the end of Deserter's Songs, where there's a hidden track that happens in negative time (counting down from -2:00 or something), so you can't play it on some CD players.

Also didn't notice that Yerself is Steam thing. Maybe because I never really pay attention to the display. That way I miss all the fun except...this obscure French band, Luciele Vrague or Lucien something- something (Ned will know them, sort of French rip-off between MBV and Sonic Youth) had a 90-track loop of shimmering guitar-riff at the end of the cd...if I remember correctly.

My friend has a version of Yerself that doesn't do the track thing (and does not contain "Car Wash Hair", incidentally, which mine does). It says "STEREO FUCKED" on the side, which mine doesn't. He *also* has a version of Lazer-Guided that doesn't do the symphonic 4- songs-per-track thing.

So there are lots of different trackings around. The American version of KLF's Chill Out came up with multiple tracks with their own track titles but the original edition (I'm told) is all one track. The US version of Screamadelica uses the wrong version of "Come Together". And so on.

er, back to CDs.

The best use of the gimmick is Neil Hamburger's "America's Funnyman" CD. It's one track per joke, and there's a section where he's going "So how about the president? And have you been to a laundromat lately?" and the tracks just tick off.

Also cool is Modest Mouse's Interstate 8 EP, where there's a long bit of silece and ten another 30 minutes of material described as "Live in Sunburst, Montana" on the cover but actually just the band's demo.

I guess I like these gimmicks. Locked grooves, too (see other thread.)

I didn't realize that Spiritualized's Laser Guided Melodies was only 4 tracks long. I guess that means I tend to listen to it as a whole album Weird.

Just discussed the weird CD thing on another list lately. There are a few CDs with music before track one...the one I know off the top of my head is the X Files soundtrack, which has two songs if you rewind from the beginning of track one. (That's the soundtrack with Nick Cave and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, not the movie sdtrk or the Mark Snow incidental music CD). I know there's a list of CD tricks out there somewhere. I'll see if I can dig it up.

"Out Spaced" by SFA also had a hidden track at the beginning; not as good as the one on Guerrilla though.

Ooh, and I know we're talking about CDs, but Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief LP has THREE sides; there are two grooves on side two with different sketches on each.

I *like* gimmicks on vinyl, as per the locked groove thread. I am delighted by silly things like records which play from the inside out or back to front, or the like. (I hear tell of an absolute tour de force of mastering, where there were two parallel grooves which resulted in a different song being played, depending on which one the needle slipped into.)

But on CD, gimmicks never quite make me happy, especially if they disrupt the flow of listening to the CD. Listening to a record is an interrupted flow to start with because you have to get up and turn it over... listening to a CD should be one smooth experience. Hidden or bonus tracks are OK (we were SO upset when copyright law forced us to not just announce our hidden track, but provide copyright details for it...) but not if you have to go through some silly numbered track system to get to them. (The worst offended on this count was the second Stone Roses record, which forced you to go through 99 hidden tracks to get to them sitting round a campfire singing kumbyfuckingah, IIRC. Thank you for hiding that, wish you'd hidden the rest of the record, too!)

Spiritualized were absolutely devilish with the 4-track CD. Especially considering that early pressings of it contained a glitch whereby you'd have to listen to the first 30 seconds of the 3rd "movement" ::rolls eyes:: twice. It was good if you'd find it on a jukebox as 4 songs, because then you could listen to the whole album for a dollar. But very annoying if you were trying to make a mixtape, or just wanted to listen to one song. There are versions of the album where it's 12 tracks instead of 4, I'm not sure if this is a re-release or an import version.

I like this trick so much, I'd like to do it myself. You CD-burning folks out there - how's it done? Some clever fiddling with PQ sub-codes or some simple option in bundled software (Adaptec, Toast, etc)?

Saw a CD in the Rough Trade bargain bin a couple of weeks (can't for the life of me recall the title - some German electronica, I suspect) which featured (along with the digital audio) an engraved locked-groove to be played with a regular stylus. Can't believe I didn't buy it.

It kinda pisses me off cos I'd like to throw one of these on a mix tape. Maybe "I Want You"... rg...

dedicated 61702-44002-2 it sez here. 1996 dedicated distributed by bmg.

I guess that's what ya get for being all exciting you found an album (that you never seen in the good stores... ) like this for $14 in the mall.

"It is grouped nicely into four suites (the original US CD printing - now out of print - had each track separate) that have an amazing flow." -churchfan

sez:

"Reissue versions of LGM (with the four groups of songs) apparently have a defect at the beginning of "Angel Sigh" where the
song starts, jumps back, and then starts in again later in the song. The German reissue (Dedicated ZD75330 - which has the
songs apart instead of grouped together into four) doesn't have the skip."

Mine has that skippy thing....

Verdict: Idiocy [hello, it was Fine Young Cannibals]

Wasn't there a Flaming Lips album that you had to buy four versions of and play them all at once in order to get the full sound? I would definitely consider that an annoying CD gimmick.

What are we talking about, anyway?

martin to thread

hm. So it's worth the effort?

Yus, and indeed the dogs barking bit is a great moment to end on.

I wouldn't want to hear that on every release, but it was fun on this one.

Spacemen 3 have an LP that plays outside in...I forget which one