PhDMusicology said:

There have been several notes/comments about last night...but I will add what I can remember.

I got there shortly after 10p...the parking lot was mostly full already. Initially we were all in the smaller "L4OA" room with a DJ playing music to...you guessed it...Nemo on the two screens. No food last night, just bottled water.

Out front they were selling concert T-shirts and a very nice photo book from the last concert tour for $20 (I don't recall how much the T-shirts were).

After about 30 minutes, they opened up the larger sound stage area and more DJ music was being played in there. I would estimate that there were 200 people or so. It felt like there was a good vibe...the stage was set-up...my hopes were there for a performance.

After another 15-30 minutes, there was a mass exodus to the lobby. Apparently the 3 girls had each selected 5 men to be able to go into Studio B to listen to the album. Hanna said "don't worry, everyone will get a chance to listen to the music." Then one staffer kicked us all out of the lobby and said "this will be a while - go back in and chill and have a good time."

I didn't see how it happened, but about 30-40 minutes later there was another large group huddled in the lobby and they let 15 women go back and listen. From that point on, it seemed like they just tood 15 men, then women, then men...so many people just stayed in the lobby trying to work their way up to the front to get in.

I was one of the last groups let in. I will say it was a cool experience to listen to new music in Sudio B on great equipment. The ladies were fantastic...fun...energetic...very welcoming....etc. Pretty cool to have them in there with us. I will admit that I was disappointed in that our group only got to hear 4 songs I think...and none of them were complete...only about 1/2 of each. So we had a very short listening session. I have a feeling they started realizing that this was taking a long time to just have 15 people at a time, etc...do the math....we were gunna need some pancakes!

I don't konw the names of the songs they played (sorry). The first one was an instrumental tha they said Donna wrote. Another one was talking about tic-tac-toe...frankly, that was not my favorite of the ones they played. I agree with the other comments about it being guitar heavy. I enjoyed the music...but to be honest...I felt like a lot of it sounded very similar. There did not seem to be a diversity of new ideas, but again, we only heard four 1/2 songs. Hanna's vocals are not bad...of course we would all prefer to hear Prince, but Hanna was not bad...but not anything special either...I don't know? I think those that are criticizing are doing so from the perspective that this is a Prince site...so we want to hear Prince.

I guess - it could have been super cool....I know nobody asked me...but it would have been really cool to play the whole album to everyone in the soundstage...again, I felt the energy was good...and perhaps they could have then jammed on 3-6 of the songs that seemed to get the bigger reaction from the crowd when hearing the album version? I'm not sure what was gained from the 15 person at a time method.

There wasn't a lot of Q/A during my session. They asked us "would you buy it?"....of course we would...kind of a silly question for this group of people. They asked "would you pay to hear it live?"...again - wrong group to ask that question. Someone asked "when will it be released?" And the response was "I'm not just saying this...but it's the real answer....soon" (or something to that effect).

I agree with many others that it's a little odd that this project has been around for a year or so and it does feel like they may not be settled on the track list...and there is no release date yet...does feel ripe for getting shelved. I hope not...I would buy it if it ever does come out.

When I came out of my session...there were probably 2-3 groups left to go in...not many people left in the soundstage...so I left about 1:40a assuming they would not perform for the last 40 people there.

All things being said - I still think it's awesome that Prince lets us in like that...to listen to music...new music...good music....in a great environment. Yes, we all want to hear him jam...and hopefully he will do that again soon...but nonetheless - thank you, Prince. He doesn't have to do any of this and I am grateful for the opportunity to experience it.

Whats the big deal of separating the sexes while listening this because reading from what you wrote (bolded) the men listen as a group and the women listen as a group???

[Edited 7/15/14 0:50am]

Jesse's Plectrum Electrum listening experience...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O3jFiN2kQM

EddieC said:

BartVanHemelen said:

.

LMAO. Yeah Prince, sure sounds like Warners are the problem when it comes to releasing new music.

Bart--

I just got done reading a post where you said there was "no way WB will allow P to release anything outside of their deal." So it sounds like (again, according to you, at least some of the time) Warners is a problem when it comes to releasing new music.

.

How the fuck is it WARNERS' fault that Prince is clueless about the 3EG record, something he's been working on for 18+ months, something he was promoting as about to be released in March 2014?

.

Obviously, WB would not be the reason it didn't come out some time over the last year, when there was no deal in place.

.

And WB is not the reason now. Prince is. He knew the 3EG record was vault bait the moment he signed the WB deal, since it is patently obvious he promised them a Prince album, not the 3EG one. This all sounds to me like he once again signed a deal and didn't read the fine print, and now he finds out that his secret plan -- to release the 3EG record by piggybacking on the PR remaster + new P album -- isn't possible.

lwr001 said:

You work at Traget HQ to say why they priced the way they priced or are you assuming. Like you got the email saying what they were doing

Uh, no. I personally visited over 100 Target stores in Florida, Georgia, South & North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, DC, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio. In 2009-2011 I was traveling all over, especially in my home state of Florida, and also Georgia. I purchased a ton of them at 99 cents, and sold most of them around $5, making a sad tiny profit on Amazon. It was discounted at most stores within a few months, and after a year, it was down to 4.99, and .99 by 1.5 years. It had fallen off the charts after 13 weeks. It made a slight comeback after falling to 99 cents, but the original poster made it sound like it was some smash album that spent all this time on the charts. I can't find proof of more than the 13 weeks, but it might have tacked on another 10-20 weeks when they were giving them away.

"Will you buy it?"

Lads, will you sell it??

It seems Prince wants Plectrumelectrum to be heard in a better audio quality...

He really seems clueless and i can`t understand how he can`t leave it to us- the buyer-

how we will listen to this record...

release it on Vinyl, USB stick, CD, Mp3 and people buy it or not...

The teasing is really getting boring....

The bitching about record execs is getting old, too....

linus4000 said:

It seems Prince wants Plectrumelectrum to be heard in a better audio quality...

.

Which is pretty rich coming from a man whose most recent CDs and downloads are awful sounding.

.

Also, playing things on studio speakers is just cheating. I know several artists and several of them have told me that the real test is playing a recording on a rinkydink player and see whether it holds up. One guy I know takes the recording and plays it on his car stereo, because "nobody has got studio quality speakers at home".

.

Focusing on the sound quality is just a red herring. Yes, it is important, but a great sounding recording of a shitty song remains a shitty song.

.

Also, this "selling it on USB" nonsense is just laughable. It reeks of Prince trying to find ways to circumvent his WB recording contract and/or him having vaguely heard about Neil Young's HiDef audio player.

.

.

Maybe they could just start a Kickstarter fund to sort of buy the record off them and once it hits target a link could be sent to everyone to download the tracks in a Lossless format?

.

An increased cost for anyone who wanted a Vinyl copies, that way they can get a firm number of how many to produce for the demand and funds already avalaible for them to do so, these people woudl also be send a link to the Audio once avaliable.

.

Fans around the world contribute £10 each to buying the Digital & Vinyl copies at a higher rate if 100,000 fans gets them a cool Million upwards, yeah it doesnt sound much, but how much would they actually get releasing it through a label if they only sold 100k copies after the label takes their cut?

.

Obviously they could set a minimum to hit a target, so if they felt they wanted £2 million set it as they need 200k backers etc... It could even exceed that any anything upwards is a bonus.

.

If they really wanted to release it independantly there are other ways for them to do it which wouldnt cost Prince upfront such as this.

.

The chances of them doing it though are pretty much ZERO they would rather Fanny around doing listening parties for something that probabaly wont see the light of day until a label gives Prince a nice paycheck upfront or something.

[Edited 7/15/14 4:32am]

theblueangel said:

lwr001 said:

outstanding....go listen to them

Your reflexive need to "defend Prince" is both hilarious and indicative of the type of sycophant he's surrounded himself with for far too long. Go tell him what a "masterpiece" LOL was, and how badly you want to hear a whole album with Hannah on vocals, Donna on guitar, and Josh on cowbell. In the meantime, I'll still be posting on here, listening to the Prince music that I like, and listening to those artists who are still pushing themselves artistically.

Totally agree with you, theblueangel!

For the first time since becoming a Prince fan at 16 years old, I think I've lost interest. I think it was better when if there was news, it had to be found. All of these distracting tweets and teases have basically watered down the excitement.

.

Seems like the days of "BAM! There it is." are gone. Also, having amateurs reviewing the new material is just annoying. Notice the distinct lack of musical references with all the reviews we've seen over the past two years.

.

It's tough being "bored" with Prince... but I'm sure that will change. Everything does. It's the only constant.

.

[Edited 7/15/14 7:13am]

Giovanni777 said:

For the first time since becoming a Prince fan at 16 years old, I think I've lost interest. I think it was better when if there was news, it had to be found. All of these distracting tweets and teases have basically watered down the excitement.

.

Seems like the days of "BAM! There it is." are gone. Also, having amateurs reviewing the new material is just annoying. Notice the distinct lack of musical references with all the reviews we've seen over the past two years.

.

It's tough being "bored" with Prince... but I'm sure that will change. Everything does. It's the only constant.

.

[Edited 7/15/14 7:13am]

same here. the games are getting old. the excuses are getting old. the overly negative and the overly positive "fans" make me nauseous. the blaming Warner Brothers talk is 20 years old. release it or not. i just want new music. forget the bs. create. distrubute. promote. tour. simple

Astasheiks said:

PhDMusicology said:

There have been several notes/comments about last night...but I will add what I can remember.

I got there shortly after 10p...the parking lot was mostly full already. Initially we were all in the smaller "L4OA" room with a DJ playing music to...you guessed it...Nemo on the two screens. No food last night, just bottled water.

Out front they were selling concert T-shirts and a very nice photo book from the last concert tour for $20 (I don't recall how much the T-shirts were).

After about 30 minutes, they opened up the larger sound stage area and more DJ music was being played in there. I would estimate that there were 200 people or so. It felt like there was a good vibe...the stage was set-up...my hopes were there for a performance.

After another 15-30 minutes, there was a mass exodus to the lobby. Apparently the 3 girls had each selected 5 men to be able to go into Studio B to listen to the album. Hanna said "don't worry, everyone will get a chance to listen to the music." Then one staffer kicked us all out of the lobby and said "this will be a while - go back in and chill and have a good time."

I didn't see how it happened, but about 30-40 minutes later there was another large group huddled in the lobby and they let 15 women go back and listen. From that point on, it seemed like they just tood 15 men, then women, then men...so many people just stayed in the lobby trying to work their way up to the front to get in.

I was one of the last groups let in. I will say it was a cool experience to listen to new music in Sudio B on great equipment. The ladies were fantastic...fun...energetic...very welcoming....etc. Pretty cool to have them in there with us. I will admit that I was disappointed in that our group only got to hear 4 songs I think...and none of them were complete...only about 1/2 of each. So we had a very short listening session. I have a feeling they started realizing that this was taking a long time to just have 15 people at a time, etc...do the math....we were gunna need some pancakes!

I don't konw the names of the songs they played (sorry). The first one was an instrumental tha they said Donna wrote. Another one was talking about tic-tac-toe...frankly, that was not my favorite of the ones they played. I agree with the other comments about it being guitar heavy. I enjoyed the music...but to be honest...I felt like a lot of it sounded very similar. There did not seem to be a diversity of new ideas, but again, we only heard four 1/2 songs. Hanna's vocals are not bad...of course we would all prefer to hear Prince, but Hanna was not bad...but not anything special either...I don't know? I think those that are criticizing are doing so from the perspective that this is a Prince site...so we want to hear Prince.

I guess - it could have been super cool....I know nobody asked me...but it would have been really cool to play the whole album to everyone in the soundstage...again, I felt the energy was good...and perhaps they could have then jammed on 3-6 of the songs that seemed to get the bigger reaction from the crowd when hearing the album version? I'm not sure what was gained from the 15 person at a time method.

There wasn't a lot of Q/A during my session. They asked us "would you buy it?"....of course we would...kind of a silly question for this group of people. They asked "would you pay to hear it live?"...again - wrong group to ask that question. Someone asked "when will it be released?" And the response was "I'm not just saying this...but it's the real answer....soon" (or something to that effect).

I agree with many others that it's a little odd that this project has been around for a year or so and it does feel like they may not be settled on the track list...and there is no release date yet...does feel ripe for getting shelved. I hope not...I would buy it if it ever does come out.

When I came out of my session...there were probably 2-3 groups left to go in...not many people left in the soundstage...so I left about 1:40a assuming they would not perform for the last 40 people there.

All things being said - I still think it's awesome that Prince lets us in like that...to listen to music...new music...good music....in a great environment. Yes, we all want to hear him jam...and hopefully he will do that again soon...but nonetheless - thank you, Prince. He doesn't have to do any of this and I am grateful for the opportunity to experience it.

Whats the big deal of separating the sexes while listening this because reading from what you wrote (bolded) the men listen as a group and the women listen as a group???

[Edited 7/15/14 0:50am]

Marketing research!

BartVanHemelen said:

linus4000 said:

It seems Prince wants Plectrumelectrum to be heard in a better audio quality...

.

Which is pretty rich coming from a man whose most recent CDs and downloads are awful sounding.

.

Also, playing things on studio speakers is just cheating. I know several artists and several of them have told me that the real test is playing a recording on a rinkydink player and see whether it holds up. One guy I know takes the recording and plays it on his car stereo, because "nobody has got studio quality speakers at home".

.

Focusing on the sound quality is just a red herring. Yes, it is important, but a great sounding recording of a shitty song remains a shitty song.

.

Also, this "selling it on USB" nonsense is just laughable. It reeks of Prince trying to find ways to circumvent his WB recording contract and/or him having vaguely heard about Neil Young's HiDef audio player.

the whole selling it on USB isn't anything new either. a lot of bands have done it.

most notably The Beatles USB (remastered albums) -which indeed did have one

heck of an amazing soundquality.

/

i'd be more interested in him releasing an ultra deluxe remasters package of all

his WB albums with extra content in such a fashion.

/

plectrum electrum somehow deserves all this now, when even his last
release "the breakdown" (not to mention the sound on 20Ten) is shockingly bad?

/

and to whomever is suggesting listening booths in various cities: i would rather

shoot myself in the foot than experience a new prince album (which in my sad

little world is still 'an event') sitting with a group of other people, yapping and

what not, trying to be interesting.

/

as a consumer i'd like a few options. a simple download on itunes, a physical cd,

or whatever new batcave shit prince has cooked up on his own website or as a

limited edition release in stores.

/

after that, i'll probably still be listening to everything on my so-so speakers or

with my so-so headphones. or on my less than so-so car system.

and guess what, even on those, i can still tell the difference in mastering between

something like beck's "morning phase" and "20Ten".

/

i'll never have a great audio system and that's ok. thousands of his fans don't i'm

sure. great he wants us to experience THIS album this way. but soon he'll be on

to the next thing and we might get a heavily clipped PR remaster.

/

just master all new and old music to the highest standard possible and release it

on lossless and cd.

.

[Edited 7/15/14 20:26pm]

Baron3121 posted the follow sequence on twitter, whether it is the actual track listing of the album, I don't know:

.

Wow, Pretzelbodylogic, Aintturinaround, Plectrumelectrum, Whitecaps, Fixurlifeup, Anotherlove, Tictactoe, Marz, Stopthistrain, Funknroll.

.

Aintturninaround with Hannah vocals, and Whitecaps being a Prince and Hannah duet. I think Stopthistrain also has Hannah on vocals. I hear Anotherlove is getting a lot of praise both on here and on Twitter, described by Baron3121 as a rocky/bluesy Million Days type song.

BartVanHemelen said:

tatocorcu said:

As usual, the people who were there are a lot more positive than those who were not...

.

Yeah, who would expect that a bunch of sycophants who were nuts enough to travel to somewhere in the middle of nowhere would proclaim this the best thing ever?

This is a totally unnecessary comment. You've just shit on a bunch of people who you don't even know. Chanhassen isn't in the middle of nowhere, especially not if you already live in or near Minneapolis.

This is a formal warning and I'm putting a strike on your account. Calm your tone. Your constructive comments, as always, are welcome. Unwarranted negativity on the other hand is not.

is this the final tracklist?

Wow

Pretzelbodylogic

Aintturinaround

Plectrumelectrum

Whitecaps

Fixurlifeup

Anotherlove

Tictactoe

Marz

Stopthistrain

Funknroll

I suppose it was inevitable that earlier previewed songs were replaced (Screwdriver, LOL, um...)

[Edited 7/15/14 14:59pm]

BartVanHemelen said:

tatocorcu said:

BartVanHemelen said:

.

Yeah, who would expect that a bunch of sycophants who were nuts enough to travel to somewhere in the middle of nowhere would proclaim this the best thing ever?

I know, right. Why listening to people who have heard the music when you know better...

While Bart isn't right in calling people who went to Paisley a 'bunch of sycophants', I know I would have jumped at the chance, he has a point. I watched the DrFunkenBerry spreecast the other week, and by most, objectivity was thrown out of the window and people were saying things like 'each song gets better and better' and blanket terms like 'rocking' or 'funky'.

thisisreece said:

The spreecasts are pretty much a joke as far as finding out anything new. The one exception being the interview with the english journalist awhile back. I do think Dr. Drunkencherry has gotten better over time.

[Edited 7/15/14 16:50pm]https://soundcloud.com/chameleon-circuit

[Edited 7/16/14 11:28am]

Giovanni777 said:

For the first time since becoming a Prince fan at 16 years old, I think I've lost interest. I think it was better when if there was news, it had to be found. All of these distracting tweets and teases have basically watered down the excitement.

.

Seems like the days of "BAM! There it is." are gone. Also, having amateurs reviewing the new material is just annoying. Notice the distinct lack of musical references with all the reviews we've seen over the past two years.

.

It's tough being "bored" with Prince... but I'm sure that will change. Everything does. It's the only constant.

.

[Edited 7/15/14 7:13am]

exactly. is Jester saying the new album is great supposed to generate some excitement?

his strategies to increase hype and interest for Plectrum Electrum aren't really working.

nothing that i've heard and read about this album makes me eager to hear it..

[Edited 7/15/14 17:11pm]

Whatever. Just more BS PR. Release it, eat it, dump it, just do something or shut up. A listening party? I wouldnt have drug my ass 5 hrs for that. Anyone get a crappy copy of a crappy release?

Pass.

purpleshadow said:

purplethunder3121 said:

Astasheiks said:

Whats the big deal of separating the sexes while listening this because reading from what you wrote (bolded) the men listen as a group and the women listen as a group???

[Edited 7/15/14 0:50am]

Marketing research!

no doubt!!!

tatocorcu said:

I didn't watch the spree cast, and haven't read all of this thread either, but there certainly are a few 'reviews' on the first few pages which are a lot more objective than that.

.

I haven't read anything about the songs that tell some anything relevant, other than "Hannah on vocals". Why isn't anyone offering useful comparisons, e.g. "sounds like song X crossed with song Y", for instance?

.

We've been burned so often with the "fams review upcoming release" routine. Remember how the LotusFlow3r website was supposed to be this magical place, and it turned out to be a slow as fuck Java component with a bunch of well-known videos and barely any worthwhile content?

.

These fam reviews are set up to be misleading. Note how the album wasn't played to the whole group; instead small groups are selected and lead to a studio and get to listen to a selection of tracks (and as the night went on, only excerpts from those tracks) in the presence of band members and with Prince listening on a phone. That isn't looking for honest reviews, that's planting propaganda seeds.

BartVanHemelen said:

tatocorcu said:

I didn't watch the spree cast, and haven't read all of this thread either, but there certainly are a few 'reviews' on the first few pages which are a lot more objective than that.

.

I haven't read anything about the songs that tell some anything relevant, other than "Hannah on vocals". Why isn't anyone offering useful comparisons, e.g. "sounds like song X crossed with song Y", for instance?

.

We've been burned so often with the "fams review upcoming release" routine. Remember how the LotusFlow3r website was supposed to be this magical place, and it turned out to be a slow as fuck Java component with a bunch of well-known videos and barely any worthwhile content?

.

These fam reviews are set up to be misleading. Note how the album wasn't played to the whole group; instead small groups are selected and lead to a studio and get to listen to a selection of tracks (and as the night went on, only excerpts from those tracks) in the presence of band members and with Prince listening on a phone. That isn't looking for honest reviews, that's planting propaganda seeds.

.

.

I Do agree with this point, all the people who attended are fans, no one is going to speak up when the band ask them what they think and say what they really thing about it, combine that with the fact Prince is probabaly sat in the room next door watching everyone on a monnitor and listening in. If they wanted honest feedback they would be inviting music critics and things to attend to do proper indepth write ups.

[Edited 7/16/14 2:25am]