Five Reasons 'Meet the Beatles!' Changed Rock

Last Friday morning, I got to spend 40 minutes talking to author and Beatles expert Kenneth Womack about the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' American debut album, Meet the Beatles!. I could go on all day about the Beatles, so I'm glad I've got a gig that accommodates that. Check out the five ways in which the album left its mark on rock music. 

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Bits of Things: Insults and Thin Rays of Hope for Music

Stuff has been happening. Here's some of it.

- The war against Nickelback continues. After Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney dissed the ever atrocious Nickelback in Rolling Stone, saying ""Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world," Nickelback tweeted thanks for the "biggest band" compliment. You're welcome?

- Good news for people who've had mostly bad news. For the first time in seven years, music retailers saw a bump in music sales. It may be a meager 3%, but hey, we'll take it. This also means that the new Nielsen Soundscan report is out, which is just about as exciting as the annual State of the Media Report. I believe a "woot" is in order.

- And speaking of selling music, The Beatles's Abbey Road sold 41,000 copies– vinyl copies, that is– in 2011. That makes it the top selling vinyl record of the year, as it should be. Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Mumford & Sons, and Radiohead rounded out the top five.

- Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs is set to release his fifth studio album, What Kind of World, in April. What's more, he'll release it on his own label, Readymade, which is also brand-spanking new. 

- Another release to look forward to is Of Montreal's forthcoming album Paralytic Stalks, out Feb. 7. Until then, Pitchfork is streaming a song from the album titled "Dour Percentage." Have at it. 

Drive My Car : The Beatles

The past couple of days have been pretty snowy in Nashvegas so we've been listening to a lot of records around the house, one of which being Rubber Soul, the album that followed Help and preceded Revolver.

While it's not a popular opinion, I think Rubber Soul is a better album than Revolver. It's more of a complete piece, whereas I always thought Revolver was a bunch of really good songs that could more or less stand apart from each other.

In any case, I wanted to post "Drive My Car," the opening track of Rubber Soul. There's not much to say, it's a great song– very peppy, Paul McCartney doesn't use his "pretty" voice and it features cowbell. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Beatles on a Stick

Looking for a Christmas gift for your favorite Minimalist/Beatles fan? EMI is releasing the entire re-mastered, 14-album Beatles collection in stereo on-- get this, on a flash drive this coming Dec. 8th. Yes. A flash drive. An Apple-shaped flash drive, to be exact.

Can this possibly be the same thing? Granted this is about as close to digital as EMI is going to allow the Beatles catalogue to get any time soon, but seriously, a flash drive? This feels wrong.

Obviously I still advocate the tangible album, be it cd or vinyl, but this is way beyond that. Album art in itself was integral to the outward signs of the band's growth. Meet the Beatles was miles away from the Revolver cover, and that's part of the experience of the band as a whole-- it's the progression. Digital tracks exist in a vacuum, I don't care how iTunes is starting to package digital liner notes. The Beatles on a flash drive are The Beatles without context.

Fortunately, only 30,000 flash drives will be made, so it will probably only be the die-hard Beatles fans who spring on it, but I don't think it bodes well.

I cringe to think that some 12-year-old kid's first experience with The Beatles would be getting handed a flash drive with everything already on it. No context, no collecting-- it's too easy. The rest of us had to wait for holidays and birthdays to get new albums. Or, if you're old enough, you had to wait for the band to release something new.

Is it not sweeter that way?

TMI Mini Mix no. 2

Is there a better way to start off 2009 than with TMI Mini Mix no. 2? I can think of none. Last week my friend gave me a copy of an album called The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit, a group from Scotland. I've been spending some quality time with the album and I'm liking it a lot. I put a good deal of stock in what my friend recommends and he's yet to suggest a dud.

I thought I'd build the mini mix around one track called "Old Old Fashioned" which as got this awesome skiffle thing going on and that inevitably brought me to "I've Just Seen a Face" by The Beatles and things just spiraled. Anyway, take a listen. It'll be up all month.

Best of luck in 2009, here's to hoping you've sufficiently recovered from last night.

1. I've Just Seen a Face : Paul McCartney
2. Old Old Fashioned : Frightened Rabbit
3. Long Day : Matchbox Twenty
4. Turn On Me : The Shins
5. The Underdog : Spoon