Tonight I was going to debate the merits of compilation albums / physical music versus those of the internet / digital music as a means of finding new jams, but it’s actually a pretty boring topic. Basically, it’s about the same. When I bought “Punk-O-Rama III,” it was a focused, effective product. Over the course of that summer, I got like ten new favorite bands through that disc. (There were 25 bands on the CD.) Now, with the internet, I might check out songs from 25 bands a month but really love only a couple of them. It’s a broader, more scattered way to find things, and you have to wade through much more nonsense. Anything I like, I go buy. I don’t download much music because it takes away from literal and emotional investment. No artwork, no money spent, no reason to try and get anything out of it. I can just put it on while I write a stupid blog about something insignificant, and it fades to background noise and is quickly forgotten. I like buying records for the whole experience. In fact, records are some of the very few products I find to be completely worth their price. Compared to a movie, which is about 2 hours of entertainment for 10 bucks, a record is an awesome deal even at $20. Compared to Taco Bell, even if you’re eating from the dollar menu, records are still a great deal, because I could spend $20 there and still want more.

I recently bought the FLOOR 8-CD discography collection “Below and Beyond” for $40. So far I have only listened to the self-titled disc, because I can’t stop long enough to try any of the others. Money well spent, and they were awesome last week at the Empty Bottle. It isn’t really worth explaining their sound, because it’s too big for words. I’ve said it about Pelican before, but maybe not here — it’s like they are sculpting the sounds that come out of their amps. It’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to “touching” noise. Glad I had my earplugs.

I could go for 20 tacos right about now.

That reminds me: “Desolation Bowl” is officially in the research/pre-production stage. As promised a while ago, I will be producing an artsy cookbook. It will be available to you and all award-giving literary organizations within the next 12 months on Teenage Robotomy Press.