did you see that the myspace mentions it will be out by Universal???
did Starbucks backed off?

I saw that. Wonder what it means. I couldn't find anything about the cd on the Starbucks site.

Dude - that link at the foot of your posts is AWESOME. I just got Kali Yug!!!!!!!!! :) sweet as a nut x

Starbucks Sells Out

Why Sonic Youth and Frappuccinos don't mix

August 10, 2007—When I walk into Starbucks, there are a couple things I've come to expect: One, I'll screw up the verbiage of my Mega-Grande-Retardo- Frappalicious Mochamajig™, and two, I'll be offered the chance to purchase the latest CD from Norah Jones or Sting or some other Adult Contemporary mainstay. And I like it that way—the second part, at least. Knowing that my taste in music is still hipper than Starbucks' legion of Alanis Morissette fans has always been comforting to me.

Which is why I'm saddened—no, outraged—by the recent news that the chain has enlisted art-rock demigods Sonic Youth to do a compilation. Predictably, indie ideologues are screaming "sellout!" over the band's "betrayal" of their former anticorporate code, but they're missing the point. Sonic Youth is just trying to make a buck. It's Starbucks who's betraying us.

How am I supposed to react if the next time I order a coffee they're blasting the latest Pitchfork-approved noise rock through their formerly safe and soothing speakers? Howard Schultz, you're shaking my sense of cultural superiority to the core. What's next? Will Staples begin publishing McSweeney's? Will Red Lobster produce the next Wes Anderson film, giving away free DVDs with every popcorn shrimp basket? To paraphrase Judd Nelson, If Starbucks gets hip... they'll all get hip... it'll be anarchy.

Adding insult to injury, the compilation has a nifty ironic title, Hits Are for Squares. And alterna icons like Dave Eggers and Chloë Sevigny are apparently involved in the conspiracy: They'll be selecting the tracks to be included on the disc. Et tu, Sevigny?

I'll tolerate having 35 Starbucks on my block. I'll put up with the ludicrous drink prices. I'll even suffer the angst of the blue-haired barista. But I can't go to Starbucks and hear Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Starbucks are for squares, Mr. Schultz, and for the love of God let's keep it that way.


— Robert Lanham
http://men.style.com/news/the_rant/081007

Yeah, I noticed that too. Perhaps it won't be a Starbucks exclusive. In line with the review you posted above, it seems like if Starbucks put it out by their lonesome, they'd have to be inclined to promote it, i.e. play it in their stores. What do you bet, they didn't really want to do that, so opted for a non-exclusive product tie-in instead?

I must be as old as I feel too, because I kind of like that cover. It is god awful, but that kind of works for this. The title and the photo are just so Huey Lewis referential I end up smiling at the horrific irony of it all. I want to be more cynical than them, but I just can't.

I came to the conclusion that the cover might appeal to all the "Lost in Translation" lovers.

You couldn't have put it better my friend. That being said, I don't think the cover is too horrible, though it could have been better.

The cover is so horrible I'm liking it in a sort of exotic way. In any case, hopefully this album will earn them enough dough to help them concentrate on making a good album, after this way too long mediocre phase.

It has been described in that Pitchfork article etc as a "joint effort between Starbucks Entertainment and Universal Special Markets".

im pretty sure that universal is Hearmusic's distributer, as it is for ecstatic peace

Slow Revolution!

Can't fucking wait for this.

me too.

I think it means that their next album is going to be the Doom metal one.