Dub dot dash

One drop
When The Clash reissued London Calling recently, they followed their longstanding tradition of adding value for money for their fans, giving them the original album, a bonus CD of demos for the album, and a DVD of the making of the album, including previously unseen footage (mainly of the album’s producer Guy Stevens going nuts in the studio, throwing chairs round and swinging a ladder).

The flipside of this trend is the abhorrent practice of artists/bands releasing their album, then re-issuing it a year later with bonus tracks/remixes/instrumentals, making the fans go out and buy the same songs a second time. I got stung when Jurassic 5 did this with their debut Quality Control and ended up paying for the same album twice, when they reissued it for their 2002 Australian tour with a bonus disc of instrumentals. I traded in the first copy, but still made a loss on the deal. Just as well their gig here earlier this year was kick ass.

P-Money did the same thing with his debut album Big Things, reissuing it with a second disc of instrumentals and new tracks (to his credit, his second album Magic City comes with a bonus disc of instrumentals for early purchasers of said product). P-Money isn't the only local example, of course: other culprits include Mareko, Bic Runga, Dimmer, Brooke Fraser, and Golden Horse, who released their debut album three times. Sure, it’s a marketing tool to drag in new fans and bump up sales (nothing wrong with that), but if you went out and bought an album when it first came out and then you find out there's a 'new improved' version of it, you’d feel ripped off, right?

Which is why I got to send out maximum respect to Salmonella Dub – their latest album One Drop East has just been reissued (out Nov 29) with a bonus disc of remixes. But they have also made the second disc of remixes available as a mid-price single disc for their fans who already have the album. Niceness. Let's hope this starts a trend, known henceforth as "Not Ripping Off Your Fanbase". Remixers of the Dub include Mu, Digital, Concord Dawn and Mad Professor -I went to a workshop with Mad Prof back in October last year when he was out here working on this remix. One question - One Drop East came out with copy protection, which didn't impress some folk. Will the reissue be the same deal?

UPDATE: Stinky Jim reviewed the London Calling reissue in this week's Listener, saying that it "remains a stunning record, even with its dirty laundry now on parade", adding that "everyone's got to make a living, but let's hope that this is the last of the attempts to remarket a group that went out of their way not to rip off their fans when they were active." More here.





One of the world's most exciting DJ's Mr Scruff comes to our town this Saturday night playing at The Studio on K Rd, and I can't wait. He's doing one of his 5 hour sets (his preferred set length).
"He rates drinking tea and eating pies as the things he does most besides collecting, playing, and listening to music... He says he made the connection between his favourite band, 80s ska outfit Madness, and the ska of Prince Buster early on, but he's not so sure how important musical history is to people today. It's something that fascinates him, but do others care? "It's reliant on what you're exposed to as a kid. If all you see is MTV and listen to the charts you're just going to think it's supermodels who make music and all you need to do it is jewellery and cigars."
More of this interview (via NZH) over here . [update: The Herald has redesigned their site, and moved their content round the place, making this link dead. Stink - hang on, fixed it.]

He's playing in Wellington tonight (Friday) at Subnine, and after the Saturday night gig in Auckland, according to Mr Scruff's website, it's "Australia, here we come! Mr Scruffs "Keep It Solid Steel" continues to Australia where Scruff plays a series of dates, beginning on Sunday 21st November at 'Dux de Lux' in Christchurch." Dude is a wicked DJ, but somewhat geographically challenged. Any Mainlanders out there impressed at being lumped in with Australia?

Oh, and cruise on over here to hear the new single from the D4, called Sake Bomb, in English and Japanese versions - it pisses all over the Datsuns latest. Cambridge cissies!

PLUS: Catch Te Radar’s Dispatches from the Holy Lands – hear it on National Radio, 4 parts starting Saturday 20 November at 1.30pm (repeats Thursday 8.30pm). Join Radar as he attempts to shoot the seminal work on the Arab-Israeli conflict, his film called Christmas in Bethlehem: A Naivety Story