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“This is a short survey about the healthy appetite of consuming the most pure sonic medium in all the land. Thank you in advance for your responses, and have a righteous day!”

Please check it out for yourself, I welcome your input.

And as far as I can tell, I associate with some good people. Smart, sarcastic, and suckers for a good time, but damn good people. The first couple questions set the tone and distribution, as seen here, and the open-ended commentary was often hilarious and insightful. While not as devilishly and cleverly executed as one may hope, it still proves useful, and proves further still friends have got your back. No matter what!

Thank you for you time and consideration.

A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content (excluding blocked users), using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.”

“Wiki” (/wiːkiː/) is a Hawaiian word for “fast” or “quick.” “Wiki Wiki” is often a redundant reduplication. “Wiki” can be expanded as “What I Know Is”, but this is a backronym. Enjoy!

My Wiki: VinylRevival
My Class Wiki: The Best Places To Visit In Los Angeles
The Almighty: Wikipedia

Just sharin’ the love…

(click the photo for the link)

That’s right. By using Google Docs I was able to effectively produce and monitor a short survey, embed my findings (see below), and evaluate them in a manner most can understand. By utilizing Google Forms I created a short survey based on my passion, making it relevant to this blog; Google Spreadsheets allows me to monitor and check out the answers from you, peeking into your psyche (or inner smartass), and craft simplistic graphical representation; and Google Analytics is an interactive gadget that automatically extracts, organizes, and summarizes my data, use of this tool will allow me to analyze the data, make comparisons, detect patterns and relationships, and discover trends. Technically speaking, I could use this data to allow me to notice where my friends obtain their music, possibly where the best hubs for purchasing are, maybe meet them there or spark conversation when I spot them. No, I won’t start stalking them, but coincidence is a plausible stretch. The best part about this set of Google tools is, if you have a Gmail account it’s completely free. A powerful set of tools at your fingertips…FOR FREE?!? That’s unheard of. Head on over to docs.google.com to check it out!

My findings…were pretty conclusive. Everyone seems to know their stuff. Or think that they’re going to outsmart the form (users be warned, sarcasm loses its punch across the internet, right Sara?) just by being a wisenheimer. Yeah, I’m slowly turning 90, call me what you will. It wasn’t considerably difficult, you can see for yourself if you like by clicking the “A+” pic-link above, and a few of my friends who filled it out were either on one side or the other, (i.e. they either had a bit of fun and amusement with it, or didn’t really know too much about vinyl). That’s okay, I’m here to help Hey for my first time through with a new tool, it went quite seamlessly. It’s an amazing interface, very user-friendly (the best ones are) and that more than made it nearly idiot-proof.

“Is it a revolution?” says Luke Lewis, president of Costello’s label, Lost Highway. “Fuck, no. But our beliefs have been validated a little bit — not to mention we’re making a couple more bucks. It’s hard to do that now in the record business, you know.” Is it the next evolution in the music industry? Hardly. More of a return to the finer things in life. The simpler veins of societal commonplace and cultural abnormality, that is back in the day when we didn’t have digital media and the warmth of diamond tipped styli pressed to heavy weight polyvinyl chloride filled the vacuum tube amplifiers. Ah, those were the days.

But it is nice to know that vinyl is making a comeback, even when considered as a “niche” market. New technology is merging the two, nowadays when Grandma questions that USB-what-port? out the back of the new turntable you just showed up with. Oooooh, fun times.

So I’m not exactly sure as to whether or not the cover art for metal masters Lamb of God‘s newest release, the adequately titled “Wrath” which debuts 2/24 here in North America, will remain as pictured here, or if it will change. It seems to me a bit too innocuous and overtly simplistic. The graphical representation is nowhere near the dramatic flare of Ashes or the sensibility of Sacrament, hell even the re-deux of New American Gospel changed for the better. I’m hoping there’s just some insane foldouts or the back has a sepia toned collage from their last tour, something larger than life for these monolithic rockers at the top of their game.

Secondly, the album leaked last week and is up practically everywhere, I wonder what Chris has to say about that, it won’t be here though, this isn’t that kind of blog (you know where to find those). I’ve heard it, and yes it is amazing, but it took me a few listens to come to this conclusion. It hit me first as an album I might not be too into, sure the singles pulled me in, but I really felt there wasn’t much more left. It has since grown on me. This record is a brilliant testament to the evolution of a once ‘holier than thou’ attitude. The staccato riffing and thunderous drums are ever present, but a newer undertone of soulful musicianship is finally on display, giving new life, depth, and breadth to a sound that was once thought to be almost utterly perfected. The production is a bit more relaxed than that of Machine (see Sacrament) and it belies LoG’s origins with a raw and crunchier feel, making it that much more tangible. I can’t wait to hear it on quality vinyl.

The picture link above will send you over to Lamb of God’s personal store-website where they have some killer package deals, whether you’re into digital or analog. Shirts, stickers, and even the possibility of a free hat and belt-buckle lie there so do check it out. Or if you simply prefer the disc in hand, like me (I already have 3 LoG shirts) please see my favorite ebay seller Fetch A Disc’s newest online site here, not only is it the cheapest around, he makes sure to hand pack every item insuring safe on-time delivery. Happy Hunting!

Although droves of consumers have turned to the Internet and all-encompassing stores such as Target and Wal-Mart for their music purchasing needs, independent record stores have seen an influx of customers turning to smaller retail outlets for new and used merchandise.

The biggest influence on this public one-off stores involves the resurgence of the vinyl LP as a viable moneymaker in the world of music distribution. In 2008, 1.88 million copies of vinyl LPs were sold — the highest recorded number since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking vinyl sales in 1991. Two out of every three vinyl LPs were purchased at an independent retailer.

So where do L.A. music lovers go to find new releases and worn copies of classic albums? The following list picks out the best independent music retailers — places where vinyl LPs reign supreme, and where modern audiophiles can purchase their favorite CDs and DVDs all under one roof.

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See permalink @ the Daily Trojan for the remainder of article

Okay okay. Mastodon is one of the best metal bands in existence and they continue to put out more and more outstanding material time and again. (See Leviathan, Remission, and Blood Mountain) And yet they continue to astound and amaze, their newest material, the first track off of Crack the Skye, which is due out on March 24th, hit the web last week and is available for streaming via their myspace (see link above) if you prefer legal means. It is called “Divinations” and not only is the single art work something to behold, the track just freaking rocks…hard.

That aside, they released an object of sheer magnitude so heavy, it would crush any fair-weather collector with its amount of limitless brutality. Stand rapt in awe and admire this beauty, the 9 LP limited edition super deluxe box-set featuring Mastodon’s entire recorded output from the Lifesblood EP all the way through to Blood Mountain… [cue ominous looming overtone]

Apologies for the poor res, it’s all Relapse has to offer, but still… I WANT IT! It’s amazing, simply amazing, just a bit out of my price range, y’know being jobless and all right now… Any takers?