No Anniversary Event, The Smithereens Mega Box Set and Other Disappointments
With the one year anniversary for 80s Airwaves arriving this Sunday, May 1, you may have guessed by now that there will be no celebration. Instead, we decided to use the money that we would have spent and attempt to market to new listeners. Yes, that is more responsible than we are known for, but one year after the launch, the future of the station is still in question.
Plus, we have an important family event that we must attend in DC this weekend. That means tonight, there will be no Friday Night Fantasy Concert series with Hal and tomorrow will not be a normal All-Request Saturday - I’ll insert tracks that were requested during this last week, but I will not be around to insert new requests during the day tomorrow.
Now to make this a Trifecta of bad news, the Smithereens box set that I was so excited about a month or two ago, arrived yesterday. Those of you who know me or read this blog or our montly Transmitter regularly know that I am a sucker for great packaging. Give me some really nice booklet, bonus discs, limited edition box and I’m drooling. I was amazed when my wife bought me the Freaks & Geeks DVD/Yearbook from Shout Factory! for my birthday. Packaging perfection! I am envious of those who work at Rhino Handmade or McSweeney’s because they get first crack at these limited edition sets. If I owned a video store, it would probably only contain Criterion DVDs because of the care they obviously put into the video transfer, the audio quality, the bonus materials and the included book inserts. So, you can imagine my horror when I opened my box from NJ to find a black plastic box (about the size of one of those 10 disc changer magazines), stuffed with 21 plastic sleeves, with 21 single page, poorly printed inserts that represents my $100 Mega Box set. Sure, it’s numbered and signed by Mr. DiNizio, but it is dangerously close to being a homemade affair - and not in a good way. The credit that needs to be given, if any, is to the fact that he actually had the discs mastered and printed at a duplication house. At least he didn’t burn these himself, but the rest of the packaging fails to live up to the “Mega Box Set” hype promoted.
Despite my preoccupation with packaging, I’m not a “record” collector. I don’t buy the German release because it has a different cover, but with the same music. If there is no “Bonus” or “Unreleased” tracks, then odds are I have no interest. And this is where this plastic box set shines. True Smithereens fans will still want to own this set just for the rare music, demos, outakes and live performances this set contains. Just to be able to hear how a song like “Only a Memory” progressed from a 40 second song idea, into the song I know and love today, is worth the price of admission alone. So, I will not be returning this and asking for $100 back. Actually, odds are good, I will be adding this entire set to our on-air library for requests by listeners. Each disc I sampled was truly FULL of great music (74-78 minutes each). So where the packaging failed, Mr DiNizio delivers by making sure we have just about EVERYTHING he and the Smithereens have recorded in a studio, bedroom or basement. If you are a serious “Smith Herrins” fan, (as my mom called them while trying to read my concert shirt sideways 20 years ago) you will want this box set, despite the lack of effort with packaging.
-pjc
PS: On the good news track, the April issue of the Transmitter is almost done! =D It will be out next week Tuesday. So sign up and all that. Enjoy your weekend! Think of us on May day.