I hate 5" records

The 45 or 7" or whatever you want to call it is the perfect musical delivery system. Whether it is classic soul or 14 songs of the rawest hardcore, the format keeps it short and sweet. No time for any double LP foolishness. Shorter isn't always better though. Case in point, the 5". Where novelty and collectiblity collide and no one is the winner. Big Black did one with the pigpile VHS. I remember it was almost impossible to play since most turntables with the automatic arm return pick up before the track starts. Great.
RFTC did one which figured prominently in a previous post and not in a good way. I am sure I have a few others (slap a ham maybe?)and I know I have some 60s/70s novelty jingles on 5"s. Do I play them? No. I can't even seem to remember them.
The format sucks. It is too short. Sound quality seems shoddy and you can't really file them with your other singles.
Record collectors are pretentious assholes said someone smarter than me and this format proves the point. Get less for more.
Never mind the fact that the existence of the stupid RFTC one woke me up out of a deep sleep and ruined an uber-nerd theory I was developing. So ruining my day alone, 5"s are on my shit list but there is more.
A format that sucks almost as bad as flexis(flexis will always be cooler) and is almost as a big a pain as 78s, but holds less music and is harder to play.
What is the upside?

RFTC ASGIII

RFTC were one of my favorite bands. Sick live show, tons of merch, and hard to get records. Like Kiss only for people with taste. Their "all systems go" comps compiled there singles and hard to find tracks. Volumes one and two were cool, since it saved me having to transfer all the vinyl to digital, but V3 really is a keeper.
The holy grail to any record nerd are lost tapes-whether it is unreleased tracks, false starts, alternate takes, etc-doesn't matter. 4CD boxsets have been built on false starts cause record nerds are nerds first. So this 20 tracks of practice space 8 track recordings including alternate takes, instros, and unreleased was something really special and if we are lucky will have endless follow up volumes(like Dylan and the Bands Basement Tapes only good....)

As I was listening to this driving home an odd thought hit me. I couldn't name a cover song that RFTC had played or recorded. Weird for a group of dudes totally obsessed with music. I wracked my brain from 128 to 24 to 495 to 6 and still couldn't come up with an answer. Google was my obvious destination since I was moving in the opposite direction of my record collection, but why use the anonymous google when you could use the anonymous "contact" feature on most websites? So around inning eleven of the Soxs vs Rays, I wandered over to the computer and sent Swami Records my question,and went to bed.
Around 2:30 I woke up in a cold record nerd sweat, mumbling"plays the music machine". Shit, they did that stupid fucking 5" covering the music machine. So much for my grandiose conspiracy theory of them not recording covers.
To add insult to injury as I was drinking my morning coffee, I had time to read the ASGIII liner notes, and "this way out" is a wall of voodoo cover. Another head shot to my theory. A 5" full of failure was tough to take, but then a wall of voodoo cover? Fuck. That is a low blow. So now instead of waiting anxiously for a reply email that is full of "you figured it out...". I am waiting for something along the lines of "try again retard". And the Sox lost in 12 innings. Perfect
And finally as I type this, I am remembering that they did do one double thumbs up cover. Red C "pressure's on". Nothing like some harDCore to make it all all right.
So yes RFTC recorded some covers, but more importantly ASGIII is killer, the demo versions of "dick on a dog" and "when in rome" are great and most of the unreleased stuff holds up real well. Best comp yet from the RIP RFTC.
My anger towards the 5" format is only growing.

Odds and Ends

GreaseMonkey hit Euro-Bike. Two cool sets of photos on his flicker site. DeRosas looked cool. Another must have beer/axle nut wrench. New Fondriests are not working for me.

Onion. Ouch.

Mussewes flax bikes are looking Colnago cool here. But he also making wheels that would like sweet on your fixed gear??? I guess if you can't afford custom airbrushed Lightweights this might be an OK compromise.


So much racing it's hard to keep track of. Some frenzied activity has teams fade away. Cavendish is a fucking beast. Vuelta has another transitional stage before the Sat showdown on Angliru! Followed by 2 more tough mountain stages. Contador better win all he can before Lance rolls back in.
Tour of Britan is always special for me as I get to track the performance of the Plowman Craven RT team. I love that name. Plowman Craven sounds like some pissed off medievel serf or a bad FC. They keep it real with "Race Clean" right on the arm of their stunning pink and blue kits.

US if kicking but in Tour D'Avenir with Peter Stetina in the lead by 2:27. Always good to see youngsters making it happen. And Garmin forming a Rabobank like web of up and comers with their VMG/Felt squad.

5K running season is in full effect, how did the summer blow by so fast?

Paul Weller

So the modfather rolled into Boston last night. Berklee was filled with plenty of old people and a few time warped mods and skins. 5 piece band with enough organs and pianos on stage to be Joe Cocker circa 71. First hour or so went pretty heavy on the new record with most songs getting extended workouts. "From the Floorboards Up" was probably the most straight ahead rocker he hit during this phase. Maybe at 50 he is turning into the Progfather? He got nice on the electric piano during "Picking up Sticks". D
They hit a short acoustic phase in the middle. "Brand New Start" was included here.
Back to the amplifiers they went. The one two punch of "Echoes round the sun" and "come on/let's go" was epic and probably the highlight for me. 2nd half off the set rocked a little harder.
Wrapped it up with a full power version of "Town Caled Malice" which was pretty perfect and even had the geriatriacs in attenedance singing along.
Weller's guitar tech had on a Ronnie Lane shirt-which I was pretty envious of. Of course some mid-life crisis moron was screaming "Yeah,Ron Wood". Shut the fuck up already. Faces is a pretty apt comparision for some of the rock they were busting out last night. He may have been a little self indulgent, but he rocked out none the less.