Bringing Back the Summer of Love and Saving CD's

I wrote this post awhile ago in my notebook while at work but never got around to typing it up. It was supposed to be a follow up to my "The Demise of the CD" posts, however, I am going to add a little twist to it while keeping the original post intact.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about the fortieth anniversary of the Summer of Love. A time of great music and a revolutionary style in the way people lived their lives. So many bands and artists encompassed this Summer of Love attitude, and obviously that time of psychedelic music has passed us by, and few bands have been able to capture that style and attitude. One band however, has done so without projecting an image of being artificial or overly pretentious. This band being The Flaming Lips, their concerts are like a giant orgy of sights and sounds which looks like an LSD trip minus the LSD. Their music is spacey and psychedelic, and as I stated before, something which sounds completely natural.

In keeping with that psychedelic sound, the band has released a few of their albums in DVD-A format which reproduces the sound in 5.1 surround which means that individual sounds can be isolated to a total of 6 speakers. We all know how often the sound of stereo could be abused by bands, for example, early Beatles material was poorly done on stereo with isolating vocals to one speaker which is quite irritating, especially when listening on headphones. Now if stereo, just two speakers, can be abused, imagine how bad six speakers could end up. Most DVD-A's and SACD's use the 6 speakers rather discretely, which shows that bands either aren't adventurous enough or are to cautious to make a bold step towards really utilizing the 5.1 sound. The Flaming Lips, unlike many bands, use the 5.1 sound remarkably well, they take an aggressive step towards giving a three dimensional sound field by tossing noises on different speakers and even trying to create the illusion of sounds swirling around your head.

Now moving back towards relating it to my "The Demise of the CD" posts, I mentioned how CD's aren't really offering enough bang for the buck, people are looking for more, and while I think DVD-A's and SACD's could really help the sales of CD's, they aren't the answer, mainly because of their lack of compatibility. Very few people own players that can play them, and they become extremely incompatible when you want to listen to them in the car. The Lips solve the compatibility issue fairly well. The DVD-A's I mentioned which the Lips released come both with the DVD and a normal stereo CD for the price of just a regular CD. The DVD doesn't even just offer the 5.1 audio but a ton of video extras as well, for example the making of the 5.1 audio, music videos, and the making of those music videos. Now if that isn't a great offer than I don't know what is.

Even the booklet which comes with the album is phenomenal, it goes into detail of what is going on in each song in terms of the 5.1 action. For example in the song "Fight Test" they say:

The drum kit moves clockwise around the listener. The lead vocals and the chorus vocals can both be heard at the same time...lead in the front speakers, chorus in the back presenting a two-dimensional story...the external story in the front speakers and internal thoughts emanating from the back.

The sound is done so well, it doesn't go completely out there with the surround where the music is lost and unlisteneable, they took it far enough so the music retains its magic and the surround work is noticeable and effective. I was jumping around continuously turning up the volume, and sticking my ears into each speaker to make sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. This is what the Summer of Love was all about, pushing boundaries and pushing the limits on what music could sound like as well as the way we listen to it. It's like tripping on advanced technology (I'm pretty sure that is the geekiest thing I have ever said.)

For the cost of just ONE CD you get all of this... Talk about inventive to actually get out and purchase a CD.