Greetings from the Vault,
Ok, most people might call it “my closet”. Heck, even I call it “my closet” sometimes as it is, technically, a closet (though since I rent, I suppose there’s some possibility for an honest difference of opinion as to the whole “my” part of it, but we’re splitting hairs now).
WAIT - don’t just skip down to the part about the show. I’ll pick it up a bit.
The point is, the vault/my closet holds what I like to call “my archives” but, again, you might like to call it an overwhelming amount of audio, video, photos and press clippings on tapes, CD-ROMs, minidiscs, hard drives, 3.5 inch floppy discs and even more esoteric media formats that I have amassed during my disturbingly large number of years making music. There’s also at least one metal kazoo (the plastic ones suck).
Since the beginning of the year I’ve been going through it, attempting to identify, date, label and catalogue as much of it as I can, then digitizing it and putting it all in an absurdly over-organized, quickly-filling 1TB hard drive. You down with OCD? Yeah, you know me.
But why am I telling you all of this? Is it because I was under the misguided impression that you were all fascinated by even the most insignificant details of my life?
No (though that’s probably why I’m on Twitter).
Oh right, I was picking it up a bit. Sorry.
Anyway, it’s a big, BIG project that I’ve wanted to tackle for a long, LONG time and I’ve decided that this is the year. You’ll be hearing about it from time-to-time as I push my way through it and turn up things I think you might be interested in.
Which FINALLY brings me to:
RARE (AND NOT-SO-RARE) BOGGIA LPS NOW AVAILABLE VIA BANDCAMP
I’ve come across a lot of the original source material for not only my three “official” albums, but most of those other quirky, homemade, limited-release albums as well. By original source material, I mean the full-fidelity, CD-quality audio files (AIFFs, for you technically-minded folk), as opposed to the tiny, crappy-sounding mp3s that I’ve had on my iTunes as my only copies for so long.
At the same time, I’ve found this great site called Bandcamp, which sells downloads but uses full-fidelity, CD-quality audio files (AIFFs, for you technically-minded folk), as opposed to the tiny, crappy-sounding mp3s other sites use for their source material. They give you the ability to download songs in all sorts of formats that sound A LOT better than what you can get on iTunes (even mp3s, which they offer at 320k quality, over twice as good as what you get on iTunes). Are you one of those people cool enough to know about and use FLAC-format? I’m not, but if you are - they have it, and lots more (Ogg Vorbis, anyone? I’m not even making that up).
They also pack the files with lots of extra stuff like:
- Lyrics - Yes, lyrics. I don’t even print those in the CD booklets!
- Credits - Ever wonder who played electric sitar on ‘Bubblegum 45s’? These files will tell you!
- Liner Notes - You mean, the meandering, nearly-incomprehensible stuff I write about the albums? Yes, that’s the stuff!
- Original Promo Emails - You didn’t save the uproariously funny email I wrote heralding the release of ‘JPGR’? Now you can laugh again!
The three studio LPs are there, but also ‘Transistorized 220′ ‘JPGR’ ‘4 Sketches’ ‘Transistorized 220 - Volume 2′ and ‘The Abbey Road Session’. I’m still looking for high-quality versions of ‘Tragical Blistery Lure’ and the Oxfam record. I’m sure they’ll turn up and when they do, I’ll post ‘em. I’m also working on getting a lot of the things I released on the podcast together (can you say ‘Somebody to Love’?).
I’ve had a lot of fun finding this stuff and hearing it again in high quality for the first time in years. There were moments hearing a lot of this music where I was actually able to listen to it like I wasn’t the guy who made it and it sounded damn fine to me. I really hope you’ll enjoy it, too.
The Recap:
JIM BOGGIA on BANDCAMP
Click the link and you’ll be taken to the index page. From there, click on the individual albums and enjoy!
FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2010
THE NIGHT CAT
EASTON, MD
Stepping out of my closet for a trip down to Easton, MD to play the Night Cat this Friday (6.11.10) at 8p. A comfy room with good sound and Bryan Russo opens, to boot.
The Recap:
Friday, 6.11.10 - 8p
JIM BOGGIA
The Night Cat
5 Goldsborough Street - Easton, MD
$15. All Ages.
Bryan Russo opens.
