Elvis Costello is gay? I did not know that.
I would hardly call pricing a product exorbitantly, and which one can freely decline to purchase, 'gay bashing' though.

Meatzilla: Elvis Costello is gay? I did not know that.


He's been married three times, each time to a woman. He must be the self-loathing type of gay.

Question: given that Declan (if that is his real name) controls ALL of his catalog, how did this set get released without his say-so?

Well, he's right.

Be careful. The detectives may be watching you.

"Frankly, his just about any music is vastly superior"

Fixed to my tastes.

Dwight_Yeast: Question: given that Declan (if that is his real name) controls ALL of his catalog, how did this set get released without his say-so?

This is an industry (the entertainment industry in general) that still claims Star Wars has not made a profit, therefore can not pay some of it's lesser known actors any royalties.

Well his dad died, you think he wouldn't be a little mad?

Im having a hard time stealing it from Amazon. I keep adding it to my cart and then jumping to a different web page, but for some reason its not shipping.

Was he giving this a long look everyday he wrote the book?

Can I just steal the Louis Armstrong boxed set instead?

I miss box sets. Hopefully some of the dying bands (Stones, Aerosmith, NY and Crazyhorse, hell even Prince) will start releasing all their archive stuff in massive boxsets - that would be so much fun to sift through.

GAT_00: Or, just don't give money to the gay-bashers of Amazon.

This. But Americans don't give a shiat about making a political statement not if you can buy a Muppets movie on Blue Ray for a couple bucks cheaper.

/which muppet movie?

There's been some recent box sets lately which I thought were far too highly priced...but this Elvis Costello one is the worst
David Bowie's Station to Station Deluxe boxset is a great deal. Price things out like this - 180g vinyl remasters cost about 20-30$ a disc. Bowie's boxset comes with 3 180g LPs...so those 3LPs would be about 90$. The boxset is 140$. For the extra 50 bucks, you get 5 more CDs,a DVD, huge booklet, tons of other stuff that is listed.

So that's The Good. The Bad would be something like Jethro Tull's Aqualung, 40th Anniversary Edition. Costs $112.00. Comes with one (1) 180g vinyl LP. The other 82$ gets you exactly 4 CDs and....a book.
I thought that was the most egregious price grab until this Costello thing. THIS is the Ugly. $262 for one CD, one DVD, and ...not even a 12", but a 10" record? Plus ..a poster?
They are putting out less and less in these deluxe packages and charging more and more, and it is pissing me off. I love to buy stuff like this but unless I see a semi-good deal, like the Bowie box set (which is just stunning when you pull out everything in front of you) I'm not buying it. And Kudos to Costello for putting his foot down.
I did note that Bowie and Jethro Tull ...probably printed upwards 10,000 of their sets and Costello's set is "limited" to 1,500. But duplication costs for CDs and DVDs are negligible, and it does NOT cost 300,000$ to make 1500 10 inch records!

Benalto: words

You do realize it's the 21st Century, right?

sirrerun: Benalto: words

You do realize it's the 21st Century, right?

You mean I should download everything and listen to mp3s? No thanks. I do like vinyl, especially the wave of high quality represses which for various reasons I won't go into here (it's not that kinda thread) sound better than they ever did. I look at these box sets as a way of getting the high quality vinyl portion. If it was just the CDs, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow.
And I am also old enough to like tactile stuff, especially when I pay money.

I love awesome re-releases and new attempts in packaging to get my dollar...but not huge rip offs like this.

Benalto: You mean I should download everything and listen to mp3s? No thanks. I do like vinyl, especially the wave of high quality represses which for various reasons I won't go into here (it's not that kinda thread) sound better than they ever did.

You sound audiophiliac. Science is working on a cure.

Im having a hard time stealing it from Amazon. I keep adding it to my cart and then jumping to a different web page, but for some reason its not shipping.

damn, thanks for the laugh!

Meatzilla: Elvis Costello is gay? I did not know that.
I would hardly call pricing a product exorbitantly, and which one can freely decline to purchase, 'gay bashing' though.

When he played my alma mater many years ago the story in the local paper described how he went about selecting groupies to shag after the concert, man has gotten more ass than a subway seat.

TravisBickle62: Meatzilla: Elvis Costello is gay? I did not know that.
I would hardly call pricing a product exorbitantly, and which one can freely decline to purchase, 'gay bashing' though.

When he played my alma mater many years ago the story in the local paper described how he went about selecting groupies to shag after the concert, man has gotten more ass than a subway seat.

He was my customer probably 14 times when I was a bartender. Most times he had a miraculous piece of ass with him that shamed all of us. I recall being envious.

He's also a really nice guy. We never discussed the fact that he was Costello; just talked about random shiat. He knew I knew who he was, but we talked politics, jazz, etc without bringing up his fame. Nice cat.

_{/shiatty tipper, though}

BroVinny,
I don't consider myself an 'audiophile', or maybe I consider myself an amateur audiophile...I don't think mp3s are total crap, I don't think less of anyone who doesn't spent a couple paychecks just on a turntable to be 'lesser' or anything. Some people are snobs, and I get very similar looks from the stereo store when they find out, for instance, I don't run a discrete pre-amp or my receiver isn't a tube!! Most of my music listening is probably done in the car which is just a crap standard system, and I don't mind. But for stuff I really really like, or really want to listen to, I like to pull out the LP and put it on my home system and sit in the center of my couch and listen. I've always used the movie analogy, most movies I am fine with watching at home on my CRT (!) but if I REALLY want to watch a movie, I'd like to do in the theatre.

Benalto: sirrerun: Benalto: words

You do realize it's the 21st Century, right?

You mean I should download everything and listen to mp3s? No thanks. I do like vinyl, especially the wave of high quality represses which for various reasons I won't go into here (it's not that kinda thread) sound better than they ever did. I look at these box sets as a way of getting the high quality vinyl portion. If it was just the CDs, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow.
And I am also old enough to like tactile stuff, especially when I pay money.

I love awesome re-releases and new attempts in packaging to get my dollar...but not huge rip offs like this.

Fair enough.

Downloadable music isn't REQUIRED to be compressed, actually. They could offer lossless if they wanted.

I am probably your age, or older, and agree about the tactility, but these "box sets" have always been cynical ploys to get at fans' wallets, and I think it's anachronistic that in the age of bits and bytes that they've only gotten more expensive and offer even less 'real' value than they ever did.

The music is the "thing," but they want to obscure that with "collectibles" and other such nonsense.

Who's 'Amazon Elvis Costello'?

Hero tag on Thanksgiving break?

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Who's 'Amazon Elvis Costello'?

Came in here to say this ^. Thank you.

Favorite Elvis Costello moment:

Conan O'Brien had a spoof segment called "Real Celebrity Secrets" (or something close to that)

Elvis came on in a leather jacket, looks into the camera and says:

"I write about 15 new songs a day. Record the best ones, sell the good ones, give the rest to Phil Collins."

BroVinny: Benalto: You mean I should download everything and listen to mp3s? No thanks. I do like vinyl, especially the wave of high quality represses which for various reasons I won't go into here (it's not that kinda thread) sound better than they ever did.

You sound audiophiliac. Science is working on a cure.

Science and audiophilia have been estranged since the mid-80s.

No cure is coming for the voodoo, hoodoo audio crowd; too much ego and money is at stake.

Gunderson: Favorite Elvis Costello moment:

Conan O'Brien had a spoof segment called "Real Celebrity Secrets" (or something close to that)

Elvis came on in a leather jacket, looks into the camera and says:

"I write about 15 new songs a day. Record the best ones, sell the good ones, give the rest to Phil Collins."

No love for sticking his finger in NBC's eye in 1977? I saw that shiat live, and it was pretty awesome.

I need to pick up the pogues boxset..

You dont really need it.

sirrerun:

Fair enough.

Downloadable music isn't REQUIRED to be compressed, actually. They could offer lossless if they wanted.

I am probably your age, or older, and agree about the tactility, but these "box sets" have always been cynical ploys to get at fans' wallets, and I think it's anachronistic that in the age of bits and bytes that they've only gotten more expensive and offer even less 'real' value than they ever did.

The music is the "thing," but they want to obscure that with "collectibles" and other such nonsense.


Box sets previously - let's say, 70s and 80s - were for the most part a VALUE thing. I remember Elvis box sets where you'd get 10 LPs for the price of 7. The first 80s box set, the Springsteen live, that was five records for I think 30.00 at a time when LPs were 8.99 or 9.99 depending. That was always a good deal. The other big box sets of the 80s...say, Dylan's Biograph and Bowie's Station to Station sets were similar with being a deal if you broke it down per item. And they always had a little extra, a little promotion gimmick thing, or a huge pull out booklet with extensive liner notes, whatever.
And that carries over to smart modern CD box sets - like, the Beatles Stereo Box is 180.00 for 17 CDs. The CDs retail for 13. That's still a savings ...about 3 CDs worth, which isn't much. (and the box set, well, comes in a box and has a bonus DVD).

But now we're getting fancy deluxe box sets where the price per actual item (CD, DVD, or vinyl) is astronomical and the 'worth' is in the trinkets alone. It's a trend over the last 3 years, and it's getting worse!

steverockson: Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Who's 'Amazon Elvis Costello'?

Came in here to say this ^. Thank you.

So did I.

MFAWG: Gunderson: Favorite Elvis Costello moment:

Conan O'Brien had a spoof segment called "Real Celebrity Secrets" (or something close to that)

Elvis came on in a leather jacket, looks into the camera and says:

"I write about 15 new songs a day. Record the best ones, sell the good ones, give the rest to Phil Collins."

No love for sticking his finger in NBC's eye in 1977? I saw that shiat live, and it was pretty awesome.

Oh...you mean...THIS?^*

_{Apologies for any ads that may or may not pop up previous to the awesomeness of the video.}

MP3s aren't too spectacular, and companies need to offer a better consumer format.

Vinyl is overrated, too expensive, and easily marred.

CDs are perfect. CDs are perfect, and THAT's the format you hipster douchebags decided to kill.

I haven't clicked, but as a weary fan I can't imagine there's anything left to buy. EC is the king of the repackage rerelease and the Best of. The rhino re-releases were exceptional and the bonus discs frequently better than some of his official releases. What the fark could possibly be left?

JudgeItoBox: MP3s aren't too spectacular, and companies need to offer a better consumer format.

Vinyl is overrated, too expensive, and easily marred.

CDs are perfect. CDs are perfect, and THAT's the format you hipster douchebags decided to kill.

See, I wasn't being dogmatic or anything, but then you had to come out with something like this...

I actually think it'd be better to download something than buy a CD (though my collection of CDs is close to 3000, so 3000 CDs lossless...that'd be a lot of needed room computer storage!) CDs are far from perfect. They are too easily wrecked. Now, let's say you screw up a pristine record - your cat jumps on it, or something awful happens with the needle, or something like that. You might get a pop. You might get a skip, even. But it'd be fairly discreet.
CDs, if you have a 1/8" scratch in the wrong spot, you can't even get it to play. And CDs are actually pretty fragile.
I have 10" Hank Williams records my father bought in the 50s that are in, let's say, very good to excellent shape. These were not encased in lucite upon purchasing. These were pulled out once in awhile over the last 60 years and still sound pretty good.
I've got CDs I purchased in the 90s which are near-unplayable. Starts stuttering on the first song and I gotta flip through songs to find ONE that will play all the way through. I'm sure we all have seen this.
Does anyone think a CD they have and listen to is going to be playable in sixty years?
(by the way, if I buy vinyl all the time every year since 1978, at which point did I become a hipster douchbag?)

GAT_00: Or, just don't give money to the gay-bashers of Amazon.

Gay bashers? I think I missed something....

JudgeItoBox: MP3s aren't too spectacular, and companies need to offer a better consumer format.

Vinyl is overrated, too expensive, and easily marred.

CDs are perfect. CDs are perfect, and THAT's the format you hipster douchebags decided to kill.

MP3s are fine at high bitrates for the average person provided that they're made from high quality sources in the first place. That's usually the primary problem, followed by low bitrate encodes. Only somebody with top of the line equipment is going to really hear a huge difference and most people don't care about whether the subtle textures of the sound match the master recording perfectly. They just want to hear the tune. Since MP3s are pretty small overall (especially compared to any uncompressed format like FLAC) and thus cost little to no bandwidth and space to serve, well, there you go. Besides, there are -PLENTY- of places that allow you to pick the format anyway, so you can get the FLACs if you really want to.

A CD and DVD of a concert for $260?

Yeah, no.

PizzaJedi81: MFAWG: Gunderson: Favorite Elvis Costello moment:

Conan O'Brien had a spoof segment called "Real Celebrity Secrets" (or something close to that)

Elvis came on in a leather jacket, looks into the camera and says:

"I write about 15 new songs a day. Record the best ones, sell the good ones, give the rest to Phil Collins."

No love for sticking his finger in NBC's eye in 1977? I saw that shiat live, and it was pretty awesome.

Oh...you mean...THIS?^*

Apologies for any ads that may or may not pop up previous to the awesomeness of the video.

That skips the part where they start playing another song, Costello stops the band and then they play 'Radio, Radio'.

But yeah, that's the one. The thing people don't understand today is that you couldn't hear these bands on the radio AT ALL, and there was no other way to hear them without paying for the record. Even casette tape was still in it's infancy.

MFAWG: That skips the part where they start playing another song, Costello stops the band and then they play 'Radio, Radio'.

Dude, the first 7 or 8 seconds is another song, he stops the band and goes into Radio Radio. I double checked, so unless something weird happened, I don't know what you clicked on.

BroVinny: Benalto: You mean I should download everything and listen to mp3s? No thanks. I do like vinyl, especially the wave of high quality represses which for various reasons I won't go into here (it's not that kinda thread) sound better than they ever did.

You sound audiophiliac. Science is working on a cure.

There's a kind of ritual in setting up a record player and setting aside time to listen to music, as opposed to dragging a bunch of icons to VLC to listen to in the background, music becoming just another app to ignore.

It's not so much about the sound quality so much as it is the music experience quality.

PizzaJedi81: MFAWG: That skips the part where they start playing another song, Costello stops the band and then they play 'Radio, Radio'.

Dude, the first 7 or 8 seconds is another song, he stops the band and goes into Radio Radio. I double checked, so unless something weird happened, I don't know what you clicked on.

Weird: I watched it maybe 40 minutes ago wanting to post it, and swear to god it skipped that part!

Anyway, that was pretty epic. The Sex Pistols were scheduled to be on that week, but couldn't get visas. It was quite the to-do at the time.

Benalto: JudgeItoBox: MP3s aren't too spectacular, and companies need to offer a better consumer format.

Vinyl is overrated, too expensive, and easily marred.

CDs are perfect. CDs are perfect, and THAT's the format you hipster douchebags decided to kill.

See, I wasn't being dogmatic or anything, but then you had to come out with something like this...

I actually think it'd be better to download something than buy a CD (though my collection of CDs is close to 3000, so 3000 CDs lossless...that'd be a lot of needed room computer storage!) CDs are far from perfect. They are too easily wrecked. Now, let's say you screw up a pristine record - your cat jumps on it, or something awful happens with the needle, or something like that. You might get a pop. You might get a skip, even. But it'd be fairly discreet.
CDs, if you have a 1/8" scratch in the wrong spot, you can't even get it to play. And CDs are actually pretty fragile.
I have 10" Hank Williams records my father bought in the 50s that are in, let's say, very good to excellent shape. These were not encased in lucite upon purchasing. These were pulled out once in awhile over the last 60 years and still sound pretty good.
I've got CDs I purchased in the 90s which are near-unplayable. Starts stuttering on the first song and I gotta flip through songs to find ONE that will play all the way through. I'm sure we all have seen this.
Does anyone think a CD they have and listen to is going to be playable in sixty years?
(by the way, if I buy vinyl all the time every year since 1978, at which point did I become a hipster douchbag?)

As opposed to a pathetic old man living in the past?

MFAWG: Weird: I watched it maybe 40 minutes ago wanting to post it, and swear to god it skipped that part!

May have been a different site. Which...that's the most awesome part, dunno why they'd chop it off.