TSB Goes to Digital Only Submissions, I Reflect on Materiality

After returning from Ecuador, I managed to have a very satisfying week in New York before packing up and moving here, to Montreal where I am currently studying at McGill University. But instead of writing about any of that, which perhaps one day I'll have the urge to discuss, sooner than later I'd bet, here is an email I sent out to all my colleagues at The Silent Ballet in early July. We had recently switched to a digital only submission policy. TSB headquarters had to move, and it is becoming to difficult to mail out all the CDs we receive each year, not to mention ripping them and adding them to the FTP. In addition, digital only ensures a certain fidelity, and is 'greener.' I support the policy. But on the other hand...
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Have you ever gone back and read all your old reviews? I mean, I look at my music library all the time, but rarely do I pull out a physical CD any more. Sure, sometimes I’ll put on a vinyl record when I’m home, but I’m usually so often on the move or perpetually in front of a computer, that the mobile, CD popping days of my youth, mostly in cars it seems, is a thing of the past. There is a really important difference between the solid product and a digital library. Most of the discs Jordan sends me end up in a pile by my stereo.

Last fall, I had a rental car for a few work trips, and I’ve learned one must remember to bring CDs, unless you have a transmitter for your iPod. I do not, so I began carrying around a stack of CDs again, as I did in high school, and even a few years ago in college. I would have the pleasure of digging through piles of CDs and concocting a bizarre or fun combination. For the road trip cross country last summer, I had Metric alongside Johnny Cash, and Trane and Monk with Justice. When I’d go skiing, Boards of Canada and the Drift would fuel our late night drives to the mountain, and P Funk and house music on the way home. So the only time I ever look at my CDs are the off occasions when I'm driving a car. (I normally ride a Vespa, so no stereo, or I wear my iPod.)

So tomorrow I’m driving a rental car to Montreal. I am now digging through my CD piles. And as I dig, I find myself remembering reviewing this album three years ago, sounds and names I hadn’t called to mind since then, mostly. One artist I can remember what I wrote almost verbatim, but cannot remember the band’s name for the life of me! As I flip through mainly chronological stacks, I come across Sumner McKane’s latest album. But below it, is, out of order, McKane’s Two if by Sea, which is one of my favorite albums of recent memory. And it is still in the shrink wrap. So I have the uniquely 21st century experience of being surprised by having an unopened physical copy of a favorite album. Of opening my favorite album.

Or not. Perhaps I should keep it unwrapped, as something of a testament to an age.

I didn't think I'd miss CDs when we discussed going to digital only submissions, but really, without the packing, something is really lost.