When it comes to selling music these days, it’s not enough to just put an album out and have people listen to it. A good album isn’t like a well-sourced, well-prepared, well-cooked steak dinner wherein customers will simply consume, digest, and applaud. No. Music’s all like fondue now. The customers gotta be able to fuck with it themselves. Case in point, a little while ago, Stones Throw posted the usual yadda-yadda about old-school funk proselytizer Dam-Funk releasing a new 12-inch maxi-single “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Star” in preparation for his upcoming full-length Invite the Light. Pretty standard stuff.
Then they revealed that said 12-inch contains, in addition to the title track, a cover of Prince’s “17 Days.” A little juicer.
Then, they further revealed the news that the single is going to be — get this — released alongside the “Dam Drum,” a handheld drum machine and sequencer with four unique sounds selected by Dam-Funk himself. Jackpot! Move over “experts”! It’s time for us inexperienced mouthbreathers to push all the shiny buttons!
This little tiny hand-held work distraction was developed by the Austin, Texas company Bleep Labs (which, as Ad Hoc pointed out, is the same company that built and released the Neon Indian guy’s PAL198X mini-synth) and can be ordered directly from Stone’s Throw’s site, but you gotta act fast, because there’s only 100 of ‘em to go around, and I have a feeling that they’ll probably sell out some time between the time it takes me to think of a snappy headline for this story and the time it takes you to read it YEP IT’S GONE. But just because you missed out on your chance to be the coolest and/or most annoying kid/grownup on your block/sales floor by snatching up one of these little things, don’t sweat it. You can still listen to the Prince cover below. You’ll just have to jam along on your calculator instead.
• Dam-Funk: http://www.myspace.com/damfunk
• Stones Throw: http://stonesthrow.com
• Bleep Labs: http://bleeplabs.com
More about: Dam-Funk
