I guess I spoke too soon.  Based on an insert in my copy of Band on the Run, MPL is going to rerelease Venus and Mars, McCartney, McCartney II, Ram, Wings at the Speed of Sound, and Wings Over America sometime in the future.  Unfortunately, that’s about it for information so there’s nothing about release dates or bonus tracks on any of the disks.

I only have McCartney and Ram on CD, so I’ll definately pick up the rest of them, though McCartney is one of my favorite solo Beatle albums so I’ll probably end up with that one as well.  Other than a couple of his later solo albums like Tug of War I can’t see myself getting his whole solo catalog but who knows.

Really only two things I’m interested in came out today as far as I know.

The first is a re-release of Band on the Run.  When the John Lennon remasters came out recently I realized that for someone who loves the Beatles as much as I do, I don’t have a lot of their solo work.  I honestly think I have more Ringo Starr solo albums than any other Beatle so I don’t even know what that says about me.

I’ve seen the 2-CD, 1-DVD edition for around $15 so I’ll be picking it up.    For the life of me I don’t know why I don’t own this in the first place….it’s probably his best known solo album and the track list looks solid, so it should be good, right?  RIGHT?

On a side note, a couple of weeks ago I was shocked to see that Venus and Mars is out of print so I’m hoping that strong sales of this leads to Paul’s other stuff being re-released.

When I saw that Neil Diamond was coming out with a new album, I was pretty excited.  12 Songs and Home Before Dark were great so I thought this would be something to pick up.

Except that it’s a covers album.

I despise covers albums.  I’ve never owned one that I was really satisfied with.  I usually end up liking maybe a third of the songs which isn’t enough to get me to listen to it on a regular basis.  It doesn’t help that I’m not interested in the songs he picked out.  “Desperado”?  Yuck.  “Halleluia”? I don’t need to hear another version of it.

I’m going to pass on this one, although I’m sure it’s light years better than Carlos Santana’s recent release.

Some interesting things out this week but the only thing I’m positive about picking up is from an ex-Beatle who falls on my list of artists whose stuff I always pick up regardless.

Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City

Yes it’s another Paul McCartney live album, but the setlist on this is different enough from his previous live release to make it interesting, plus it comes with a DVD.  I’m looking forward to “Helter Skelter”, “A Day in the Life” and “I’ve Got a Feeling”.

John Mayer - Battle Studies

I need to hear this first.  I respect John Mayer as a musician and songwriter but a lot of times his stuff leaves me cold so I’m leery about buying this without hearing it first.  With every new studio release I keep hoping that it will capture the energy of his live show, so hopefully this is the one.

Rush - Working Men

Really Rush?  Another live album?  With the exception of 2112 I don’t see anything that wasn’t on the last one.  I love them live but this is just too much.

Them Crooked Vultures - s/t

I had no idea they even had a studio album coming out.  This is why the radio sucks, why hasn’t any station been playing this?  I really want to hear it first.

Fall Out Boy - Believers Never Die - Greatest Hits

I like Fall Out Boy enough to pick up a couple of their discs used but for some reason I have no interest in this.  I could see myself listening to it a couple of times and then just putting it away.

While not quite iTunes, it was announced that 320kbps MP3s and FLAC files of the Beatles’ discography would be available for purchase on a 16GB apple shaped USB drive, limited to 30,000.

For $279.99.

Now let’s do the math here:  14 albums for US$13.99 apiece plus let’s add three dollars apiece for the white album and Past Masters since they’re double.  So that’s $201.86.  That’s a fair amount cheaper, plus - for me at least - I would rather have the physical CDs and rip them than to purchase this.

Now I’ll admit the apple thing is really nice looking.  When I originally saw this I was hoping that you could get one of these for a single album which I would do in a heartbeat.  It’s just strange to me that this thing that is presumably cheaper than manufacturing 14 CDs is more expensive than them.  I’m sure part of it is just me.  Despite working in technology I still have a problem buying things in a digital format.  I guess I’ve seen enough hardware failures that I don’t have any faith in how they’re stored.  I don’t even like buying software that’s in a digital format only - I would much prefer to have it shipped to me on a physical CD/DVD so I have more confidence that I still have it.  Like I said, I’m sure it’s just me.

Let’s face it though, considering the demand for the mono box set, there’s more than enough Beatles fans to sell all 30,000 of these things in no time.

Boingboing has posted the animation sequences from Beatles Rock Band, and they’re amazing.  The intro video is especially good, going through the Beatles’ live career and then transitioning into something completely wild.  It’s almost enough to get me to buy the game.

My only experience with these type of games is the time I spent with Guitar Hero 2 on the PS2.  Admittedly it’s a lot of fun and I really liked the song selection on the game, but I felt that it was just wasted time when I would finish it.  That’s odd because I don’t have that feeling after playing Halo for a similar amount of time.  I think I just had the feeling that I could have spent the time practicing the guitar or the banjo and at least I would have gotten something out of it.

A lot of old-timers like me tend to badmouth these types of games, saying that kids think they’re able to play an instrument after playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band for a few hours.  I disagree though - as someone who’s been playing video games since the Atari 2600, it’s amazing that they have come so far and are so accessible to people.

Of course, in my opinion Guitar Hero was never as much fun as my all time favorite musical video game - Donkey Konga.