Re: hard haunted mansion
 

man....you've joined them in the twilight years :D;)

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

Fair enough. I'm just very invested in the band and would love to see them more.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

I've had to travel minimum 3.5 hours to see UW 4 times in the UK so don't be thinking you've got it easy. For the iTunes show I needed to travel to London, pay for vitals and eat/drink. Was it worth it? Yes.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

Lightweights. Come back when you have to fly a minimum of 2500+ miles to see any show. :p

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

i thought so too myself...when 1992-2002 came out, i thought no way they would ever produce 16 more tracks of this quality again..

however, it is 2010 now and they are getting damn close! i've always been pretty amazed by the consistancy of these guys.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

You live in what most people call 'paradise'. No sympathy for you. You choose to live in an island paradise rather than actual civilization.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

After last year's fiasco, don't you think the HARD crew will put a little more effort into making sure things don't go crazy? If anything I'm wondering if the security will be overbearing.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

They already successfully had Hard Haunted Mansion at the Shrine last year, so it should be fine again this year.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

A crucial component of touring is awareness. If Underworld aren't filling venues, it's because people don't know they're still putting new music out, assuming they've even heard of Underworld in the first place. I can tell you that hardly anybody I spoke to at the aborted Hardfest gig last year had any idea who Underworld were.

The solutions to that problem are -- and here I go again -- Internet presence and content distribution. All the major electronic acts that have remained or become relevant in the last ten years, from oldies like Daft Punk to the new lot like Fischerspooner or Justice, have done so in part by making their music wildly available and heavily promoted. Underworld willingly opted out of that industry system -- in my opinion, to their peril. With the exception of A Hundred Days Off, Underworld have spent most of the last decade making it nearly impossible for the casual listener to discover and obtain their music:

The early albums' availability is spotty at best; their greatest hits package is, I believe, out-of-print; their RiverRun series of EPs and singles were released in the most bullshit fashion imaginable; the 3-disc Live in Tokyo record, arguably the best Underworld release of all time, was practically impossible to obtain; the Sunshine soundtrack was hopelessly delayed; Oblivion With Bells was a proper album with proper avenues of distribution, but the promotion was dreadful: homemade music videos, bizarre single choices in the form of Holding the Moth and Ring Road, assuming you could buy them in the first place (I don't have a record player, so no Ring Road for me). Of course, some of this stuff is available digitally, but what if nobody knows it exists at all?

Finally, the Underworld website is demonstrably lacking, to put it mildly. True, the shop is now equipped with a good chunk of the back catalogue, assuming there are no longer problems buying any of it, but the site itself looks really unprofessional, is difficult to navigate, is home to no useful information beyond the dubious shop and barebones tour dates -- no bio, no gallery, and no free music beyond what's available in that weird pop-up media player despite releasing so god damn much of it over the years.

But it looks like they're turning it around this time with Barking. DJs are actually able to get their hands on the material, for one thing. "Scribble" is making the rounds in the rave scene here in the States, from what I've been hearing. Thankfully the Twitter and Facebook integration has become more useful as well with relevant information and some coherent fan interaction.

I get so frustrated about all this stuff because I think Underworld are the best band in the world. Barking seems poised to be a Beaucoup-level success, so hopefully Underworld will finally emerge from the underground.

Re: hard haunted mansion
 

^ What he said.

One thing I can't stand is the work I have to put in to get different versions of songs. It it wasn't for RTSR, I'd probably just have the albums and what their website has to offer.

I had to torrent the Tokyo CD (let me buy it and I will, otherwise I'm not sorry) just to hear stuff I've never heard (You Do Scribble).