Bullets

• Summer albums column on the way soon, I promise; along with some more Rock Doc Summer reflections.
• R.I.P. lala.com -- if you were a lala user, you know what a loss it was when Apple shut it down on May 31. Basically, as a subscriber you could listen to any album or song once for free, then you had several options of buying--as a web album for when you're on the 'net, regular mp3, album download, etc. The prices were all below ITunes, as well. It also had way more functionality as a social networking platform for music, with user-generated playlists and recommendations/reviews. I think I listened to about 100 new albums on there, and it made me a more active buyer...call me crazy, but I think it looked a little bit like a happy future for online music. But, since the future is already owned and branded by Apple, they snatched it up, halfheartedly tinkered with it and then shut it down. Bollocks.
• Highly recommend checking out the new Ratatat album, LP4, available for free listenin' at NPR. Electro-rock is really not my thing, and my previous exposure to Ratatat was confined to video games (true, really), but the production and vibe on this album is really engaging. Dig.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more coherent thoughts.