No Rock And Roll Fun

CHRISTMAS ON MARS: Good and bad news from the Flaming Lips camp - first, Christmas on Mars, the Lips' Eraserhead-meets-Oz flick is getting a release before, um, Christmas and presumably not only on Mars; second, and on the downside, they're the latest band to pull the crappy 're-release the album a few months later with extra gubbins on it' trick, with another Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, this time coming with a bonus DVD. Is the record industry really trying to kill first week sales stone dead? Because who'd bother buying a new album when they're making a habit of ramping up the goodies after half a year has passed?

Which actually leads us on to a moral question - answers on an email, please. To take the Placebo album as a recent example - we bought that when it came out; paid list price or something close to it. Now, after a few months, it's retailing for less money, and it has a bonus album of cover versions with it. Would it be wrong of us to download those extra tracks from, say, Kazaagoogoo, bearing in mind we'd already bought the album it came with? And shouldn't the record company be forced to announce at time of release that it intends to release a better version in a few short weeks?