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Showing posts from May, 2013

Fourteen years...but is it still stuck in 1997?

Time continues to fly! It has now been 14 years since the day my website, Rarebird's Rock and Roll Rarity Reviews , was launched on May 31st, 1999. I remember a visitor to my site making a comment back in 2004 that my site "looks like it's stuck in 1997". I must say I was amused by that statement, because at that point in time, 1997 did not seem like a long time ago at all. But his point was well taken: web design technology and standards had rapidly evolved during those seven years, and my website was looking like an antique. I like to think my site is now a bit more pleasing to the eye than it was a decade ago, since I know more about web design now than I did in the beginning. But I've never felt the need for a complete overhaul on the look of my site. I've felt it was best to keep it simple, and it's worked fine for me so far. Is it still stuck in 1997? I'll let you decide. But if my site is still "stuck" in the late '90's,

Three Hits "Pressure Dome" EP (2013 Record Store Day release)

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Michael Kurtz, the co-founder and co-manager of Record Store Day , was once a member of a North Carolina indie-pop band called Three Hits, who issued two singles in 1984 and 1985, and an eight-song EP titled Fire In The House in 1989. Kurtz and his brother Danny were the quartet’s guitarists; the singer and bassist was a young woman named Sheila Valentine, who was influenced by both Blondie and rockabilly. Being the co-manager of Record Store Day earned Kurtz the right to have a limited-edition vinyl EP of his former band’s recordings released on that day, and he was granted this wish in 2013. Limited to 1,000 copies and pressed in transparent purple vinyl, the 12-inch EP Pressure Dome contained the A- and B-sides of the 1985 single of the same name, as well as an additional track from the same Don Dixon-produced recording sessions, and two songs from Fire In The House . The EP also came with a download card that allowed the buyer to download mp3 files of those five songs, as well