This month, once again, Budnick on a Soapbox (trust me Budnick's happy to be on anything as he's not an excessively tall man). Anyhow, this past weekend at Berkfest I was standing around yapping with a few musicians who were marveling at the masses in attendance (yes I know the experience was not quite as marvelous for all of the massed attendees but that may be fodder for next month's editorial). Anyhow, these two musicians, who both perform in nationally-touring bands that receive regular coverage on this site, were struggling with a dichotomy. They are able to draw a steady stream of fans to their shows in almost any city, their mailing lists and on-line communities are very supportive and yet...they can't seem to sell CDs. Okay that's not quite true- they certainly do sell some of their discs but by no means in any meaningful proportion to the amount of tickets they sell to their live gigs (and certainly not relative to the fervor of their respective audiences).

From my perspective this is unsettling on a few levels. First off, I think that some fans within this scene are a bit too quick to dismiss studio albums in particular. Trust me, I am like you- I believe that there are few experiences as profound as those that occur on the road, in a venue, engaging with performers who thrive in the live setting and can dig deep for some complex, compelling improvisation. Nonetheless, I wish that more people would see fit to recognize that a studio album is a medium onto itself and one that can yield results just as sublime (in a different manner) as a raging live show.

But that's only one element of this month's semirant (after all, what about live albums)? In addition, I want to emphasize (and this may not surprise you) that it couldn't hurt to support the bands themselves. Yes, you can vote with your feet and attend the meetings but even so, to be successful professional, touring musicians your favorite group can use the revenue bump from CD sales (particularly if they're not selling out arenas). Look at it this way- you can be real selfish about it- if you dig a band and you want to ensure that you'll be able to continue to be captivated by their sounds, then hit their merch table and pick up their newest release. Or pick up two and turn on a friend...

Okay, what else? Ahhh, we have a new issue. In fact this issue marks the end of our second full year of jambands.com (kudos to all of our staff, contributors and readers). It looks like we'll mark this anniversary with a new design, new features, new partners and the same overabundance of content both this month and next. There's plenty to read on the site...so get to it :)