How Do I Get Rid Of 700+ Identical CDs?

As a formerly world famous and massively successful indie musician, I naturally possess some back stock of old releases. Specifically, there are more than 700 copies of Stars or Streetlamps in my basement, complete with original shrink wrap.

Out of the, uh, limited edition of 1,000.

As my youthful practices of gigging and selling these things are far in the past, I can’t rely on eager fans swooping them up at 10 bucks a pop anymore. So I’d like to give them away. Ideally, I’d like them to be distributed across the country and they’d end up in the hands of people who just might appreciate them. I have some ideas, but I welcome yours as well.

• Mailing each one to a different random person. Expensive (more than $1 per CD adds up quickly) and labor intensive.
• Standing outside an airport and handing them out to world travelers. Would likely result in my ass in Gitmo.
• Leaving individual copies in coffee shops, book stores, etc., where hipsters would spontaneously discover and share them. Probable actual destinations: lost and found boxes, trash.
• Sending boxes of them to select friends in different locales for them to distribute locally. Also somewhat expensive and burdensome.

What do you think?

The 2nd Listen: A Review of Muse’s New Album, “The 2nd Law”

I tend to judge albums quite harshly when I first hear them. They’re never exactly what I expect, so they can’t live up to that standard. With bands I love as much as Muse, the latest album can also clash with what I want to hear – more songs along the lines of my favorites from years past. I almost couldn’t stand their last album, The Resistance, because it was so different from their earlier work.

With a second listen, though, I know vaguely what to expect and can let the album speak for itself. The 2nd Law also stands out quite starkly from early Muse, so to judge it on its own merits required a cooling off period of about a day before I gave it another shot. Read more of this post