Articles by Mark Zip

You’ve Got PoOP!!!!

February 2008 Dear Comrades-In-POOP: Let there be POOP. And there was. And it was good. At age 21, POOP enters adulthood. After two decades of blather and bile, POOP seems to have taken on a life of its own. We’ve developed quite the tight community of music lovers who each year, with a little cajoling, faithfully bundle their favorites into cute little lists. It’s all very sweet. I feel like a proud papa (to quote one list). This year a record 36 fans, fanatics and people with some serious record collecting issues have bundled. If you’ve been here before, feel…


New poops up from Emilio Alicia Bill Still and others PS I am typing this on my friend’s iPod Touch.







DC go-go update

Steinski (finally!) has a blog. A recent post gives a really interesting overview of the current DC go-go scene. Some really nice video clips too.


First PoOPs of the new year are in

First PoOPs of the new year are in: Mike Jurkovic Andy Stewart Ken Beck And now, a word from our fearless PoOPmeister… ‘Tis the season [again] to write POOP lists, fa-la-la-la-la. The usual ground rules, which include: limit your swill to 2 sides of a page make it copy-ready by leaving at least a one inch margin on both sides deadline: NO LATER THAN JANUARY 31st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send to this email address AS AN ATTACHMENT, if you are able to do so Also send me a hard copy to the address below Toss in a few bucks. I never state how…


How’s this for a Christmas single…

Malcolm Middleton used to be in Arab Strap. He’s released solo record and one of the songs on it, We’re All Going To Die, is about to be released as a “Christmas Single” in the UK. The “Christmas Single” is a long-lived and somewhat odd little artifact of the UK charts. Basically, it comes from the fact that the UK market is so small that if a (not always huge) number of people all buy a single on the same day, and for a couple of days afterwards, the song stands a very good chance of getting into the official…



Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses and Content vs. Context, a Presentation for Some Music Industry Friends

….. But in the middle I gave a brief, twenty minute presentation to some friends in the music industry about why it’s time we pay closer attention to consumer needs when it comes to digital music. I thought I’d share my presentation in case others were interested. Hello. My name is Ian Rogers. I’ve been building digital media applications since 1992, dropped out of a Computer Science PhD program to tour with Beastie Boys in 1995, and have been purchased by both AOL and Yahoo! in the ten years since then, with a stint running the new media department for…


Must see addition to hip hop blogs

www.illdoctrine.com – Jay Smooth,long-time radio host on WBAI, posts a series of short videos dealing with hip hop etc. Funny, to the point and very watchable.



Music industry types say "Stop us before we compress again…!"

Today I spotted a disc by someone called John Ralston. It is called “Sorry Vampire” and is due in stores in the US on October 2, 2007. It was completely unremarkable except for a note on the back: This record is intentionally quieter than some to preserve the dynamics of the original performances. Visit TurnMeUp.com for more information. Apparently, the official copy now reads like this: To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performances this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (www.TurnMeUp.org) I’d be interested to see the list of…


Sgt Pepper must die!

Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? It’s meant to be a classic album, but all you can hear is a load of boring tripe … we’ve all felt that way. And so have the musicians we asked to nominate the supposedly great records they’d gladly never hear again Sgt. Pepper Must Die! (Guardian UK)


Spinning Into Oblivion

The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. Spinning Into Oblivion



village voice > pazzandjop06

The copycats over at the Voice have their own PoOPlist out: village voice > pazzandjop06 Chris Ott wonders if we need it: The Sheep Take a Buffalo Stance (but i liked Timbuk 3)…