The Death Roots Syndicate is a free digital download label specializing in the promotion of dark country, folk, blues, americana and roots music. The Syndicate covers dark roots music in a very broad sense. The music is free (for promotion), legal (all releases are officially sanctioned by the artists) and spectacular (there's a virtual goldmine to immerse in). You can find a link to their Bandcamp page here. It's not common for the adjectives free, legal and spectacular to occur in the same sentence when it comes to music. But despite the high odds, sometimes it happens. Death Roots Syndicate is 100 percent non-profit. At the moment there are about twenty albums available for free download. Among them, three spectacular compilation albums released digitally: "The Death Roots Syndicate Volume I-III". Several "well-known" artists are represented: Sons of Perdition, Slackeye Slim, Uncle Sinner, Christian Williams and Reverend Elvis. But there are also artists that I guarantee you never heard of. It doesn't matter that the quality is shifting somewhat. It's the authenticity that counts. And there's no shortage of authenticity here, believe me. I have discovered (for me) new and fascinating music through the compilations. The selection process is loose. It doesn't matter if the song already has been released in another context or not. The artists come from US, Canada and Europe. The only thing they have in common are dark roots. The three compilations are shown below. The album covers are stylish. All cover art is designed Christian Dubé.

The three adjectives free, legal and spectacular appeal to me. It's free, which creates a small dilemma for me, since I want to pay for music and support the artists (in this case it's promotion), legal (well, you can read what I think about stealing music from artists in a blog entry here) and spectacular (the lengthy and time-consuming process of trawling the genre has been somewhat facilitated by The Death Roots Syndicate). The compilations reminds me of the fact that music is strange. When I hear Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" I instantly think of mass consumption music safely placed on the painted center line. But Sons of Perdition's version of the song on the third compilation is really scary(!). It's obvious the same song, but quite different performed or deformed. It's just a tiny little problem with DRS. The albums are not released in the cd format. My tiresome nagging about the CD format is not new to returning visitors of this site. In this case, digital release, is for the greater good. Otherwise, it would't be released at all. The compilations wouldn’t fit on a physical cd anyway, since they are packed with music and well over the 80 minute cd limit. On the other hand, the albums are luckily enough released in FLAC format so I can make my own cd-r albums including the beautiful artwork. The people behind "The Death Roots Syndicate" perform a cultural act when they put out this kind of music. I can only imagine how much time has been spent on contacts, planning, administration and the actual production of the compilations. The Death Roots Syndicate is an anomaly in music industry, non-profit and specializing in the promotion of music that doesn't reach out so easily (for very obvious reasons). It takes equal parts commitment, endurance and obsession to pull a project like this through. You can read more about The Death Roots Syndicate here.

O'Death released their long awaited album "Out Of Hands We Go" on Northern Spy Records on October 7th. The last album "Outside" was released in 2011. Some people missed the raw and rough sound from the two first albums (not counting the cd-r "Carl Nemelka Family Photographs") on this album and was not too amused by the worked through and more melodic sound. However, in my opinion it was the right move and a natural progression for O'Death. The right direction is always forward. I got a link with a digital download in FLAC format of the new album, while waiting for the physical cd copy to arrive. I was so curious of the sound that I condescended to this despicable format. This is what I found. "Out Of Hands We Go" takes its starting point from the point where "Outside" ended. The album starts off with "Herd", a haunting and beautiful song. The banjo-picking and choruses are extraordinary. The introduction to the album is so epic that for a moment I worry that O'Death have burned everything they have in just this song. In the following songs "Wrong Time", "Roam", "Wait For Fire" and "Go & Play With Dead Horses" they prove that my concerns are unfounded. A few songs on the album "All Is Light", "Apple Moon" and "When My Dog Gets Out Let Him..." don't meet the high quality standard of the other songs on the album. But it's a small remark on an otherwise almost perfect production. The last songs of the album "We Had A Vision", "Heal In The Howling", "Isavelle" and "Reprise" are very strong and reinforces the overall impression. This is without a doubt an album full of gifted songwriting, sparse and balanced instrumentation and worked through arrangements. It can be charachterized as a highly sensitive and introspective album. But, dont worry. It's still, by normal standards, raw and rough. This album is one of the best albums this year in the "gothic country" genre. You can order the album here.

Today is the official release date of Those Poor Bastards' new album "Vicious Losers". Since I pre-ordered the album and Tribulation Recording Co. is a fleet-footed and effective company I've had the opportunity to listen to it for a couple of days. Those Poor Bastards has been very successful in maintaining a high quality throughout their albums, without repeating themselves. The new album is no exception. It has the usual and desired properties (that is) dark and gritty, but yet playful and ironic. At the same time, the approach feels fresh (in contrast to the adjective rotten which they probably are more comfortable with). Many bands in the genre have, alas, switched to a softer sound over time. However, Those Poor Bastards seems to go in the opposite direction. In my opinion, with "Vicious Losers" they raise the bar for extreme death country. The album starts off in an intermittently and cacophony manner with "I Am Lost" with rowdy guitar riffs and bass lines, pounding drums and frantic vocals. The mood for the album is hereby set. The second track is "Getting Old", almost overly hard played with ultra-distorted guitars and roaring vocals "Why is my skin melting like wax, Why is my hair so grey and thin, You're getting old buddy, Noooooo!". The third track on the album "Let Us Rot" has the classic TPB characteristics: catchy, seductive and morbid. The next track on the album is a joyous sing-a-long "Give Me Drugs", where TPB explores a number of uses and purposes for drugs. The fifth track "All Dolled Up" is a warbling piece built up with rolling bass lines and hilarious lyrics, which actually makes you wanna dance (or at least move your limbs). The track "The Lonely Man" starts with "Time for some sad stuff, honey". In this song Those Poor Bastards return to a more traditional country expression, if it wasn't for the sad and inconsolable lyrics, manifested in sentences like "I eat my dinner alone". And it gets worse. The track "Strange Dark Night" is not a bad song, it just don't stand out like the other songs on the album. The best track on the album is without any doubt the catchy "Born To Preach". "I was born to preach the gospel, And I sure do love my job". Zebulon Whatley from Sons of Perdition plays banjo, bass, slide guitar and contributes with backing vocals. The ninth track on the album, "Big Trees" is very short, only 49 seconds, but Those Poor Bastards really knows how to tell a story effectively. Big trees can, among other things, protect you from the terrible sight of neighbours. The song ends with a wish for trees to grow mighty and tall. In the next track "The Only Time" TPB tells a story where the protagonist only has any fun when he is either drunk, stoned, cheating, hurting, praying or stealing (in that order). There's, of course, a moral in it. Another great track on the album is "Trouble At Home" which has the usual TPB beat and groove, but with reggae guitar chords (!). The lyrics are quite accurate as always. The lament "I don't want to be no square" [a fate worse than death, my remark] is repeated in the lyrics of the next to last track "Loser's Prayer". There's loads of lonesome banjo picking on this track. With TPB standards it's melodic. My only negative criticism is related to the last track "Today I Saw My Funeral" which is almost eleven minutes long. It's long. The things Those Poor Bastards have to say in a song are usually said in three to four minutes. "Today I Saw My Funeral" is built up of fragments of vocals, air raid warning, telephone signal, piano strumming, radio static and other sound effects. In my opinion, the concept is not sufficiently worked through and the song doesn't meet their usual high quality standards. With that being said, "Vicious Losers" is a very good album. In fact, as many as five songs qualify for my compilation, which you can find here in the main article about Those Poor Bastards. With this album Those Poor Bastards retain their leading position in the "gothic country" genre. "Get ready for the gloom". You can order the album here.

"Legalized theft / Leaves me bereft". This excerpt of the lyrics from the merciless Morrissey song "Sorrow Will Come in the End" does not apply to my situation, but to all artists whose copyright rights are not respected and who are not getting paid for what is rightfully theirs. "Thou shalt not steal" is one of the Ten Commandments, but sadly a moral imperative in dissolution. Even swedish politicians wavers in this matter. Our resigning Prime Minister from the Moderate Party (right-wing) said: "We can't criminalize a whole generation" and later elaborated his thoughts: "We can see that the technical possibilities now exist and that we can't chase a whole generation of young people for doing something that is super easy and we don't have judicial resources to correct". This statement comes from a leader of a political party well-known for their hard attitudes in property law. Let's examine the logic. Could you imagine him say: "We can see that burglary methods have improved lately and that we can't chase people for breaking into homes and stealing things and we don't have judicial resources to correct". Personally, I don't think so. This kind of unbridled populism is not limited to this particular party. The Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party (right-wing parties) are all on a slippery slope when arguing that copyright "must be adapted to technological changes". What this mean is very unclear. Copyright is however not an right-left issue. The Green Environmental Party (left-wing party) is flirting openly with former Pirate Party voters (who wants to re-establish a "balance" in copyright law) when they argue that "copyright inhibits the emergence of new culture and creates unreasonable consequences for ordinary music consumers". However, they are unable or unwilling to elaborate what they mean. The only political parties that stand up for copyright is the Social Democratic Party and the Left Party (left-wing parties). But, what can you expect? As I wrote in a blog post a couple of weeks ago, see link, politicians and music don’t go well together. It may be appropriate to end this blog entry with a greeting, to those who don't respect the artist and steal their music, in form of a quote from the above-mentioned song: "But Sorrow will come / To you in the end / And as sure as my words are pure / I praise the day that brings you pain". 

Note: The song "Sorrow Will Come in the End" refers to the law suit where drummer Mike Joyce sued Johnny Marr and Morrissey (the Smiths) for an equal share of performance and recording royalties. Joyce won the case (wrongly, of course).

One of life’s mysteries is the asymmetric shipping cost when shipping a cd from US to Sweden or vice versa. I often buy used cds. I know, the term "used" is rather meaningless when it comes to cd, since “used” in almost every case is similar to almost new. I usually buy used cds from Amazon (UK and US). However, the shipping cost is completely different: £1,82 ($3) from Amazon UK, and $14,95 from Amazon US. On the other hand, the cds are more expensive on Amazon UK, so “what you gain on the roundabouts you lose on the swings” (slightly modified proverb). The cds that I’m interested in are often only available from the US (and Amazon US). Several times I have bought hard-to-find cds for less than $2 and then paid $14,95 for the shipping (the factor is >7 between cd and shipping). This is totally incomprehensible and also very offensive. Let’s dissect this phenomenon in more detail. Of course, there are costs associated with distributing packages for here to there (salaries, transport costs and other costs). The Amazon US standard domestic shipping rate is $4, which is almost the exact the same level as standard domestic shipping rate in Sweden (28 SEK). This seems to be a fair price. So far so good. The shipping rate for sending a cd from Sweden to US is 60 SEK ($8,50), while the Amazon shipping rate to Sweden is $14,95. The factor between domestic and international in the US is 3,75. The same factor is 2,14 in Sweden. The difference is almost the double. Something happened between domestic and international. Is it more costly to ship in one direction (from US to Sweden, that is)? Some may argue that this is the case. Let's scrutinize the postal and shipping components. It's the same standardized service in both countries, while salaries for postal employees are lower in US, gasoline prices are considerable lower and jet fuel are slight higher in US. All in all, US has cost advantages compared to Sweden. There should also be considerable economies of scale in US. It should therefore be cheaper to ship from US to Sweden than from Sweden to US. Postal service is a public good and its price should be held at a minimum to promote trade, prosperity and building up my record collection.