WOEBOT_lite
I'm opening a new Category for WOEBOT which is going to be called WOEBOT_lite. Within it i'll simply be posting collections of images of record sleeves with extremely scant commentary.
I've thought about this long and hard. When it comes to putting together what I used to call "Specials", the real effort, and the area I'm most interested in, comes in cherry-picking the "right" records. I try to accurately build up a picture of what was going on with an artist, a label or a scene. When it comes to the writing more often than not I rely (rather cheaply) on the inter-web. Sure there's always a healthy element of stuff I've read in books and magazines and what I've experienced first-hand, but I often feel that this written element is unnecessary window-dressing.
There's also the question of what place writing has these days in the appreciation of music. At least with posting images I feel I'm contributing non-detrimentally to the promotion of music in a way that benefits the ecology of the net. Have you ever searched on Google images for a rare record sleeve? Very often you'll find WOEBOT images at the very top of the rankings. Compare the format of this blog to the mp3 blog, and really, in the most mercenary sense, what exactly am I offering up usefully beyond pictures?
Moreover what I try to convey here at WOEBOT is (pretentiously/portentously) the value of music as an object and not, I think, for trivial reasons. There's the dimension of the fetishisation of the vinyl format; failing to grasp the importance of the object has been key to the collapse of the music business. Intertwined with this is a celebration of the power of the record cover, of the art, design, fashion and style which goes goes hand in hand with important music. Finally because the images I'll be posting will exclusively be from records in my own collection, records I've paid good money for, that should convey some sense of their libidinal worth. It's possible that by simply posting images I'll be getting closer to what I'm trying to achieve than rambling on incessantly. Though I'll be doing that as well.....