Twice in two days I've gone to the iTunes store to buy an album, and twice in two days I've been met by albums that seem to think an album-length collection of digital files is worth more than $9.99. Both of these albums were on the Sony label. Sony, you do realize that those of us who buy from iTunes instead of just grabbing what we like from BitTorrent or Soulseek are in the minority, right? We're your loyal customers. We buy stuff from you even though we don't have to; we give you our money even though we could take what you're selling for nothing, and nobody would ever catch us, and many of our friends would view our actions as noble, or at least as not-unethical. (It remains unethical to take the fruits of someone's labor without paying for them, however, whether the laborer suffers direct harm or not.) Are you guys trying to push me, and dudes like me, over to the other side? For future reference, and tell your friends: Albums on iTunes cost $9.99. If you're not comfortable with that, don't sell them there. It doesn't matter how many videos or other digital peripherals you tack on. Album costs ten bucks. It's real simple. If you keep trying to raise the price of what is essentially a good-faith purchase, you are going to badly alienate what's left of your customer base.

OK, I was going to listen to the whole album before saying anything about it, and probably write a long jeremiad about how this world isn't good enough for an act as singular and often bizarre as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - I was saving my best stuff for the single, "I Tried," which is the second fucking incredible rap tune in three years to be released by an old-school crew under that title (the other one was by the Geto Boys, and Willie D's verse still reduces me to tears every time I hear it) and which has a totally excellent video to go with it. And also a hook by Akon, and there's talk of people saying they have maybe had just about enough of hooks by Akon but this one is just incredibly sweet. And I was going to talk about that hook and the really special emotional weight of the Bone Thugs at their best, and how it's sad that Bizzy's not on the album but is if I can be corny about it kinda present in his absence, and maybe about how I like to think one of the things Eazy heard in this band was this paper-thin thread of sadness that darkens so much of their work. And then I got to the third song on the album, which is called "Wind Blow," and I heard this acoustic guitar at the top and it sounded familiar, and it always takes me a minute to place a sample so I was listening hard and then I was like "OH HOLY SHIT BONE THUGS HAVE SAMPLED FLEETWOOD MAC'S 'THE CHAIN' AND BASED AN ENTIRE TRACK AROUND IT, I'M SURE SOMEBODY ELSE MUST HAVE DONE THIS ALREADY BUT THIS IS THE FUCKING BONE THUGS, 2007 BEST YEAR EVER EVEN IF NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS."

Seriously.

You know, I fear getting excited about reissues the way some people fear incipient affection for Eagles tunes: that is, there's this thought that once you start to get pumped for repressings of unsung catalog gems, you're only a few steps shy of cashing in your 401k and pinin' for the better days of youth. Disaster! At the same time though you gotta be honest, and when I was reminded by PItchfork this morning that the For Carnation EPs are being repackaged, I was stoked. I am still stoked. You know why? Because this band never got its due. They got favorable enough press in their day as I remember, but their self-titled album from 2000 wasn't just good - it was fantastic, forward-looking noir stuff that reminded me of the weird 50s-gothic-pastiche-y stuff that fascinated L.A. scene rats in the mid-eighties only filtered now, and more smartly, through This Heat or Cale-produced Nico. I've still never heard Fight Songs, but I remember Marshmallows as being pretty good, if not the propulsive, dark mini-masterpiece that self-titled one is for me. We here at LPTJ are geeked for this reissue and wish you kids would get off the damned lawn.

Got the debut full-length from Raleigh's Bowerbirds in the mail today; it's due on Burly Time July 10th. A line from none other than your humble host ("my favorite new band in forever") adorns the top of the press kit. Listening to the album tonight, I wish I had put the case even more strongly; only once every ten years or so does one hear a new band this good, this bursting with ideas, this audibly in love with music. I will be surprised if, after living the album a year or two, I don't place it mentally alongside such holy-fuck debuts as the Gun Club's Fire of Love or more pertinently Souled American's Fe. It is that good. That they recorded this themselves, sweetly booming bass drums and roomy nylon-strung acoustics and all, just pushes the totally-bananas factor out there a little further. The lyrics, the rhythms, the feel, the never-too-much-always-just-enough sweetness of the vocals. The totality of the mood, the wide-ranging shades of melancholy and joy. The points at which the three members sing in unison like some cult who really have discovered the secrets of the universe. It is beyond stunning. This band is the complete package.

This morning over coffee I read this; ever since the decision came down on March 2, there's been much scrambling about to try and stop internet radio from being transformed overnight from an interesting thing to a dull one, but the day of reckoning now draweth nigh, as the power metal bands might say. Pitchfork does a great job of pointing out that SoundExchange's increased revenue would, or will, go to artists, which is what makes this whole decision kinda tough to think about, although the piece's author also seems to think that "a few hundred bucks oper year" is somehow not a big deal to musicians in this day and age. (It is, actually. Sales are down industry-wide, and that trend is going to continue, and artists are pretty desperate to do as they've been told and locate some non-sales-based streams of revenue.) I applaud them for linking to Save Net Radio and am happy to do so myself; internet radio is a glorious thing. I would further note that the artists who could use the extra few hundred dollars won't get it should the CRB's decision stand, since in the wake of it the only stations left online will be those capable of paying enormous royalty fees; it's an unfortunate correlation, but the businesses with all the money aren't often the same businesses interested in playing old Ash Ra Temple sides. If the decision stands, internet radio will sound like commercial radio: dead and boring and repetitive.

At the same time, I have to be honest: I think the cause is doomed. New legislation introduced by senators Brownback (R-KS) and Wyden (D-OR) would vacate the Copyright Royalty Board's decision to increase royalty rates on internet radio, but as far as I know both the House and Senate are rather more interested in Great Big Mongo Business than in small business, and Great Big Mongo Business won't mind the pending rate increase at all. Last Plane to Jakarta supports H.R. 2060 unreservedly, don't get us wrong. But in case it doesn't pass, oughtn't we have something ready? Like, say, a general Paypal fund that'll help stations offset the fees once they kick in? Sure sure, longtime NPR listeners know that pledge drive is a gigantic bummer, but it beats no NPR at all.

I am not the guy to organize this. I have a hard time organizing my silverware drawer. But it does seem to me that trying to get the House and Senate to do the right thing, if not entirely a lost cause, is at least a basket in which one oughtn't place all of one's eggs; doing it yourself is not a new idea, and while, yes, we want internet radio to remain free, we should be ready - and willing! - to pay for it if it comes to that. If everybody who cares about this issue pledged to cancel their cable or satellite subscription and give the amount of their monthly bill to internet radio instead, H.R. 2060 would receive mysterious and gigantic sudden infusions of cash from the cable companies. Support the bipartisan effort to save internet radio, yes. But let's get some backup plan to take matters into our own hands in case 2060 doesn't pass. It is seldom wise to rely on the goodwill of politicians, and Senators in recent days have not seemed all that internet-savvy.