[Editor's note] After a heavily negotiated salary battle that lead to hurt feeling, tears, and crushed dreams, michelle is back and ready to write. She is here to tackle important issues such as ‘cellphones for the homeless’, ‘why most blogs suck’, and ’80’s television show ringtones’. So welcome her back and hopefully this time it will last.

As far as music is concerned, it’s been a little quiet on the western front. Granted, there’s certainly a lot of good music circulating right now. However, what’s mostly being discussed are the new albums from the heavy hitters. No one on a blog (or anywhere else for that matter) really needs to shake your shoulders and tell you about the new Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes, or Arcade Fire. With the kind of attention and promotion these albums receive, you think it’d pretty much be a given – right? Well, the labels don’t seem to agree and this point brings me to my semi-relevant-annoyance for the day: the “free with purchase”

It doesn’t seem that the corporate music world feels confidant that an album can sell itself anymore. If it doesn’t come with a free 7″, bonus disk, sticker, poster, or live DVD, it seems naked. A plain jewel case won’t do, so bands like Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire have been pushing “deluxe” versions of their albums with such (irrelevant and more expensive) features as a real holographic “neon” bible or a thicker booklet. Now, I don’t want to be misunderstood here. Extras and bonuses are great. Further, it seems that labels are doing their best to find ways to sell albums to a downloading market. It’s just that from my observation, it’s gotten excessive. An album purchase is starting to sound like a infomercial. Case in point: Saddle Creek’s promotions for the new Bright Eyes’ album, Cassagdaga. Pre-order to get the single 7″. Purchase the album and receive your choice of Cassadaga tote bag: two sizes; two colors. And what music purchase would be complete without a Cassadaga fortune cookie? The apocalyptic fortunes such as: “Best intentions are often crushed by the forces of the universe,” are a nice touch.

Good for the Saddle Creek crew for coming up with an attention getting way to sell the album. It’s fun for the fans and it’s good for business. However, today I watched a kid consider buying the new Kings of Leon album. He picked it up, looked over the track listing and then asked: “Does it come with anything else?” Oh, come on.