Recycled Music Bullshit Express

There's much "notable" music news today, but these are perhaps the notable-est.

The Pixies have confirmed that they are heading into the studio to record a new album. This reminds me of a joke:

What's the definition of "mixed emotions?"
When your mother-in-law drives off a cliff in your new Mercedes.

This is good news because the Pixies are a very good and important band, etc., etc. This is bad news because the two new songs they've released since reuniting are, at best, uninteresting. Okay, they are shit. Let us join hands and pray that they write some good stuff and they get Steve Albini to produce.

Today is the ten-year anniversary of the .mp3 file. Another case of mixed feelings. (Rant alert!) On the one hand, music portability is ultra-convenient, and the democratization of music access is a great thing... in theory. Look, it's great for bands that want to increase their profile without spending a lot of money and it's really great for people who genuinely like music but were always too lazy to actually go out and find new music. But you know what? Fuck those fucking people! For those of us who have always crawled around in the arcane and esoteric annals of music, buying 7"s, lying about being journalists to get free promos, reading pretentious Limey magazines, and actually listening to college radio, it fucking blows that every frat-boy Pavement fan on Earth suddenly has access to the same stuff with about 1% of the effort and love required. Is this an infantile, "my toy" response? Sure. You bet it is. Call me rock snob. Call me geek. But I am those things because I've always believed that great music is worth putting up with snotty record-store clerks, annoying promoters, wasted money, etc. I just wish MP3s (and the Internets in general) didn't reward people who never put in the effort before.

That said, it's great to have all this music at one's fingertips, and lots of people discovering great bands every day is a very, very good thing. And let's face it, iPods are a godsend. So happy birthday, .mp3 file! [scoop coutesy of Stereogum]

Finally, and this is not related to anything, but does anyone else think Xiu Xiu is just the crappiest "band" on the planet? Like, even worse than Wilco?