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Indie kids the world over have been salivating in anticipation of the new Sufjan Stevens album Illinois, the second of fifty albums about the fifty states, that was to be released today. Pitchfork even gave the new album, due to be released today, an astounding 9.2 rating. Mr Stevens himself even appeared on NPR’s Eight Forty-Eight this morning to promote his album…due to be released today.
Only it wasn’t released today. Sort of.
DC Comics has issued a cease and desist order pulling the new disc before it even hit the shelves due to the use of Superman on the album’s cover. To your left is the amended and much less exciting cover. The cover also contains depictions of Al Capone, the Hancock and some UFOs but there has been no word from any of those camps on whether or not they plan any legal action.
Chicagoist was lucky enough to snag a copy from an unusually slow Border’s out in the suburbs – possibly the first time we’ve found anything good about the ‘burbs, actually – so there are a few copies floating around out there despite the recall.
DC’s thoughts behind this move are unclear. Chicagoist enjoys entertaining the theory that the comics giant fears people will mistake this album as the soundtrack to the new Superman movie currently in production rather than the lush folk-rock album only tangentially connected to the state of Illinois that it really is. You know, because that’s the sort of dumb judgments large corporations jump to. Ha ha?
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this hasn't been released yet? i've had it for WEEKS, maybe even a month?
I picked a copy up at the Borders in the Loop over lunch (in the new releases section by the escalators). I was worried an alarm would go off as soon as the salesperson swiped the barcode, but I lucked out. I'd encourage other people to check there if they don't have it yet. Now it's a collector's item!
God bless the Internet.
Stevens is the kind of artist whose sales legitimately suffer when people bootleg stuff off the 'Net as his sales are not skyhigh like, say, Metallica. That didn't stop ME from downloading it, of course. But I will likely purchase a ticket to his Metro show now whereas I wouldn't have had I not heard the album. And I probably would have just borrowed it from someone else who purchased it anyway. I also want to check out his Michigan record now.
actually this guy at work gave it to me.. but im sure he got it online somewhere
Michigan is superb, though I wouldn't recommend listening to it while driving at night (Zzzzz....)
And, if y'all had gotten in on the pre-order over at insound, I bet you would have your recalled copy in the mail on its way to you.
The album is pretty sweet. Also pretty (musically.) Also sweet (melodically.)
Although the RIAA won't sue you for downloading this one since Stevens ain't a member, this is the perfect example of a disc that deserves your vote via consumer dollar.
I think that cow is a goat.
You're right...my contacts are smudged.
I read somewhere that artists make hardly enough money to survive based on touring.
it's merch merch merch that keeps them going
so downloading an album, but buying a ticket to their show
may not be as helpful as one might think
Of course, I'm probably not buying the merch if I'm not at the show...
I picked up two tonight (9 pm-ish) at the Borders on Michigan & Pearson on my way home from work. One for me, one for eBay! These suckers are already going for $60+ !
I was including cds and tshirts you can buy online as merch., nitpicker.
so no, you don't necessarily have to be at a show to be supporting them.
monkey, my cousin is in a relatively large band (a bit larger than sufjan), and she says they make virtually no money off record sales: only megabands really profit from their sales, the U2's and coldplays of the world. tours are where the medium-sized bands make all their cash.
is that based on tickets sold or merch at shows?
I wish I could find the article I saved. It was from a couple years back on Kill Hannah. And it talked about the business of music. I'll have to dig up my clipping and find it. Perhaps I'm remembering wrong. or perhaps that information is now out of date. who knows.
No, chicagomonkey, you're right. Bands generally make more money from touring and mostly from merch. I've heard that too.
And how did you guess the nickname my mother gave me?
I can feel a love connection, can't you?
I too was going to point out that artists don't make much from album sales, but that has been done for me.
I got my copy yesterday at the Virgin Megastore downtown around 2PM for $13.99. I saw at least one other copy. They didn't have it out with the new releases, it was filed with his other albums.
so I tracked down the article
but it won't let me post the info I want in comments here
so you can check out the by the numbers
while true, album sales don't amount to a whole much
until they repay their record companies for advancements
touring is actually worse on their wallets
sorry, those by the numbers are up on my blog
One thing that's being forgotten in this discussion is that Sufjan is a partial owner of his record label (Asthmatic Kitty), so he makes significantly more on album sales than your average major label act. So get out there and buy his albums!!