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50-624: Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-so Sounds So-so, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten (usually simply known as Great Sounds Great ) is the second EP by The Clean , a lo-fi rock band from Dunedin , New Zealand . It was released by Flying Nun Records on 12" vinyl in 1982. The EP is included in its entirety, and in the same running order, as part of The Clean's 2002 CD release Anthology . Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-so Sounds So-so, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten at MusicBrainz (list of releases) Extended play An extended play (EP) originally referred to

100-659: A New World LP on an EP that was marked "Part 1". A second EP was planned, but never appeared; only the sleeve was printed. The first double EP released in Britain was the Beatles ' Magical Mystery Tour film soundtrack. Released in December 1967 on EMI's Parlophone label, it contained six songs spread over two 7-inch discs and was packaged with a lavish color booklet. In the United States and some other countries,

150-405: A double EP could usually be more economically and sensibly recorded on a single vinyl LP . In the 1950s, Capitol Records had released a number of double EPs by its more popular artists, including Les Paul . The pair of double EPs (EBF 1–577, sides 1 to 8) were described on the original covers as "parts ... of a four-part album". In 1960, Joe Meek released four tracks from his planned I Hear

200-543: A further album in this format, 1985's " Drinking Gasoline ", on the Virgin Records label. Double EPs can also contain the work of multiple artists split across different sides, akin to split albums . An example of this is the Dunedin Double EP, which contains tracks by four different bands. Using a double EP in this instance allowed each band to have its tracks occupying a different side. In addition,

250-506: A group of journalists, including Simon Reynolds and David Stubbs , who had run a music fanzine called Monitor from the University of Oxford , and Chris Roberts , from Sounds , who established MM as more individualistic and intellectual. This was especially true after the hip-hop wars at NME , a schism between enthusiasts of progressive black music such as Public Enemy and Mantronix and fans of traditional white rock ended in

300-484: A magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright ; the first editor was Edgar Jackson. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publication) New Musical Express . Originally the Melody Maker ( MM ) concentrated on jazz , and had Max Jones , one of the leading British proselytizers for that music, on its staff for many years. It

350-401: A pair of 7-inch discs recorded at 45 or 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm , or two 12-inch discs recorded at 45 rpm. The format is useful when an album's worth of material is being pressed by a small plant geared for the production of singles rather than albums and may have novelty value which can be turned to advantage for publicity purposes. Double EPs are rare, since the amount of material record-able on

400-516: A perspective previously reserved for jazz artists to the rise of American-influenced local rock and pop groups, anticipating the advent of music criticism . On 6 March 1965, MM called for the Beatles to be honoured by the British state. This duly happened on 12 June that year, when all four members of the group (Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and Starr ) were appointed as members of the Order of

450-480: A single song, instead resembling a mini album. EPs of original material regained popularity in the punk rock era, when they were commonly used for the release of new material, e.g. Buzzcocks ' Spiral Scratch EP. Ricardo Baca of The Denver Post said in 2010, "EPs—originally extended-play 'single' releases that are shorter than traditional albums—have long been popular with punk and indie bands." Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks. In

500-686: A specific type of 45 rpm phonograph record other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and 33 rpm long play (LP), but as of 2024 , also applies to mid-length CDs and downloads as well. EPs are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album, and have long been popular with punk and indie bands. In K-pop and J-pop , they are usually referred to as mini-albums . EPs were released in various sizes in different eras. The earliest multi-track records, issued around 1919 by Grey Gull Records , were vertically cut 78 rpm discs known as "2-in-1" records. These had finer grooves than usual, like Edison Disc Records . By 1949, when

550-439: A standard 45 rpm phonograph . In the early era, record companies released the entire content of LPs as 45 rpm EPs. These were usually 10-inch (25-cm) LPs (released until the mid-1950s) split onto two 7-inch EPs or 12-inch (30-cm) LPs split onto three 7-inch EPs, either sold separately or together in gatefold covers. This practice became much less common with the advent of triple-speed-available phonographs. Introduced by RCA in

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600-408: A time when they were praised by the rest of the press. In 1993, they gave a French rock band called Darlin' a negative review calling their music "a daft punky thrash". Darlin' eventually became the electronic music duo Daft Punk . Australian journalist Andrew Mueller joined MM in 1990 and became Reviews Editor between 1991 and 1993, eventually declining to become Features Editor and leaving

650-410: A trilogy of three EPs, beginning with She Is Coming , stated: "By delivering a trio of EPs throughout a period of several months, Miley is giving her fans more of what they want, only in smaller doses. When an artist drops an album, they run the risk of it being forgotten in a few weeks, at which point they need to start work on the follow-up, while still promoting and touring their recent effort. Miley

700-509: A victory for the latter and the departure of writers such as Mark Sinker and Biba Kopf (as Chris Bohn was now calling himself), and the rise of Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie , who pushed NME in a more populist direction. While MM continued to devote most space to rock and indie music (notably Everett True 's coverage of the emerging grunge scene in Seattle ), it covered house , hip hop , post-rock , rave and trip hop . Two of

750-478: Is doing her best to game the system by recording an album and delivering it to fans in pieces." However, this release strategy was later scrapped in favor of the conventional album release of Plastic Hearts . Major-label pop musicians who had previously employed such release strategies include Colbie Caillat with her fifth album Gypsy Heart (2014) being released following an EP of the album's first five tracks known as Gypsy Heart: Side A three months prior to

800-427: Is the mini-LP , which was a common album format in the 1980s. These generally contained 20–30 minutes of music and about seven tracks. A double extended play is a name typically given to vinyl records or compact discs released as a set of two discs, each of which would normally qualify as an EP. The name is thus analogous to double album . As vinyl records, the most common format for the double EP, they consist of

850-633: The Record Mirror also printed EP charts. The popularity of EPs in the US had declined in the early 1960s in favor of LPs. In the UK, Cliff Richard and the Shadows , both individually and collectively, and the Beatles were the most prolific artists issuing EPs in the 1960s, many of them highly successful releases. The Beatles' Twist and Shout outsold most singles for some weeks in 1963. The success of

900-537: The 1950s. Examples are Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender from 1956 and "Just for You", " Peace in the Valley " and " Jailhouse Rock " from 1957, and the Kinks ' Kinksize Session from 1964. Twelve-inch EPs were similar, but generally had between three and five tracks and a length of over 12 minutes. Like seven-inch EPs, these were given titles. EP releases were also issued in cassette and 10-inch vinyl formats. With

950-516: The 1980s) were introduced in 1970, with tracks selected from an album and packaging resembling the album they were taken from. This mini-LP format also became popular in America in the early 1970s for promotional releases, and also for use in jukeboxes . In 2010, Warner Bros. Records revived the format with their "Six-Pak" offering of six songs on a compact disc. Due to the increased popularity of music downloads and music streaming beginning

1000-524: The 45 rpm single and 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm LP were competing formats, 7-inch 45 rpm singles had a maximum playing time of only about four minutes per side. Partly as an attempt to compete with the LP introduced in 1948 by rival Columbia , RCA Victor introduced "Extended Play" 45s during 1952 . Their narrower grooves, achieved by lowering the cutting levels and sound compression optionally, enabled them to hold up to 7.5 minutes per side—but still be played by

1050-631: The British Empire . By the late 1960s, MM had recovered, targeting an older market than the teen-oriented NME . MM had larger and more specialised advertising; soon-to-be well-known groups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages devoted to "minority" interests like folk and jazz, as well as detailed reviews of musical instruments. A 1968 Melody Maker poll named John Peel best radio DJ, attention which John Walters said may have helped Peel keep his job despite concerns at BBC Radio 1 about his style and record selection. Starting from

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1100-506: The EP in Britain lasted until around 1967, but it later had a strong revival with punk rock in the late 1970s and the adaptation of the format for 12-inch and CD singles. The British band Cocteau Twins made prolific use of the EP format, releasing ten EP's between 1982 and 1995. In the Philippines , seven-inch EPs marketed as " mini-LPs " (but distinctly different from the mini-LPs of

1150-539: The Osmonds , the Jackson 5 , and David Cassidy . The music weekly also gave early and sympathetic coverage to glam rock . Richard Williams wrote the first pieces about Roxy Music , while Roy Hollingworth wrote the first article celebrating New York Dolls in proto-punk terms while serving as the Melody Maker ' s New York correspondent. Andrew Means started writing for Melody Maker in 1970. During his time, he

1200-504: The US in 1952, EMI issued the first EPs in Britain in April 1954. EPs were typically compilations of singles or album samplers and were played at 45 rpm on 7-inch (18-cm) discs, with two songs on each side. The manufacturing price of an EP was a little more than that of a single. Thus, they were a bargain for those who did not own the LPs from which the tracks were taken. RCA had success in

1250-551: The United Kingdom, an EP can appear either on the album or the single chart. The Official Chart Company classifies any record with more than four tracks (not counting alternative versions of featured songs, if present) or with a playing time of more than 25 minutes as an album for sales-chart purposes. If priced as a single, they will not qualify for the main album chart but can appear in the separate Budget Albums chart. An intermediate format between EPs and full-length LPs

1300-529: The United States, the Recording Industry Association of America , the organization that declares releases "gold" or "platinum" based on numbers of sales, defines an EP as containing three to five songs or under 30 minutes. On the other hand, The Recording Academy 's rules for Grammy Awards state that any release with five or more different songs and a running time of over 15 minutes is considered an album, with no mention of EPs. In

1350-424: The advent of the compact disc (CD), more music was often included on "single" releases, with four or five tracks being common, and playing times of up to 25 minutes. These extended-length singles became known as maxi singles and while commensurate in length to an EP were distinguished by being designed to feature a single song, with the remaining songs considered B-sides , whereas an EP was designed not to feature

1400-411: The cover. Several journalists, such as Chris Bohn and Vivien Goldman, moved to NME , while Jon Savage joined the new magazine The Face . Coleman left in 1981, the paper's design was updated, but sales and prestige were at a low ebb through the early 1980s, with NME dominant. By 1983, the magazine had become more populist and pop-orientated, exemplified by its modish "MM" masthead, regular covers for

1450-443: The format with Elvis Presley , issuing 28 EPs between 1956 and 1967 , many of which topped the separate Billboard EP chart during its brief existence. Other than those published by RCA, EPs were relatively uncommon in the United States and Canada, but they were widely sold in the United Kingdom, and in some other European countries, during the 1950s and 1960s. In Sweden, the EP was a popular record format, with as much as 85% of

1500-406: The full album; and Jessie J 's fourth studio album R.O.S.E. (2018) which was released as four EPs in as many days entitled R (Realisations) , O (Obsessions) , S (Sex) and E (Empowerment) . The first EPs were seven-inch vinyl records with more tracks than a normal single (typically four of them). Although they shared size and speed with singles, they were a recognizably different format than

1550-404: The groove on the physical record could be wider and thus allow for a louder album. In the 1960s and 1970s, record companies released EP versions of long-play (LP) albums for use in jukeboxes . These were commonly known as "compact 33s" or "little LPs". The jukebox EP was played at 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm, was pressed on seven-inch vinyl and frequently had as many as six songs. What made it EP-like

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1600-415: The late 2000s, EPs have become a common marketing strategy for pop musicians wishing to remain relevant and deliver music in more consistent timeframes leading to or following full studio albums. In the late 2000s to early 2010s, reissues of studio albums with expanded track listings were common, with the new music often being released as stand-alone EPs. In October 2010, a Vanity Fair article regarding

1650-403: The likes of Duran Duran and its choice of Eurythmics ' Touch as the best album of the year. Things were to change, however. In February 1984, Allan Jones , a staff writer on the paper since 1974, was appointed editor: defying instructions to put Kajagoogoo on the cover, he led the magazine with an article on up-and-coming band The Smiths . In 1986, MM was invigorated by the arrival of

1700-487: The magazine in 1993. He then went on to join NME under his former boss Steve Sutherland, who had left MM in 1992. The magazine retained its large classified ads section, and remained the first call for musicians wanting to form a band. Suede formed through ads placed in the paper. MM also continued to publish reviews of musical equipment and readers' demo tapes , though these often had little in common stylistically with

1750-535: The market in the late 1950s consisting of EPs. Billboard introduced a weekly EP chart in October 1957, noting that "the teen-age market apparently dominates the EP business, with seven out of the top 10 best-selling EPs featuring artists with powerful teen-age appeal — four sets by Elvis Presley, two by Pat Boone and one by Little Richard ". Other publications such as Record Retailer , New Musical Express ( NME ) , Melody Maker , Disc and Music Echo and

1800-477: The mid-1960s, critics such as Welch, Richard Williams , Michael Watts and Steve Lake were among the first British journalists to write seriously about popular music, shedding an intellectual light on such artists as Steely Dan , Cat Stevens , Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd and Henry Cow . By the early 1970s, Melody Maker was considered "the musos' journal" and associated with progressive rock. However, Melody Maker also reported on teenybopper pop stars such as

1850-418: The new editor and attempted to take Melody Maker in a new direction, influenced by what Paul Morley and Ian Penman were doing at NME . He recruited Jon Savage (formerly of Sounds ), Chris Bohn and Mary Harron to provide intellectual coverage of post-punk bands like Gang of Four , Pere Ubu , and Joy Division and of new wave in general. Vivien Goldman , previously at NME and Sounds , gave

1900-510: The paper improved coverage of reggae and soul music , restoring the superior coverage of those genres that the paper had in the early 1970s. Internal tension developed, principally between Williams and Coleman, by this time editor-in-chief, who wanted the paper to stick to the more "conservative rock" music it had continued to support during the punk era. Coleman had been insistent that the paper should "look like The Daily Telegraph " (renowned for its old-fashioned design), but Williams wanted

1950-546: The paper to look more contemporary. He commissioned an updated design, but this was rejected by Coleman. In 1980, after a strike which had taken the paper (along with NME ) out of publication for a period, Williams left MM . Coleman promoted Michael Oldfield from the design staff to day-to-day editor, and, for a while, took it back where it had been, with news of a line-up change in Jethro Tull replacing features about Andy Warhol , Gang of Four and Factory Records on

2000-518: The paper's writers, Push and Ben Turner, went on to launch IPC Media's monthly dance music magazine Muzik . Even in the mid-1990s, when Britpop brought a new generation of readers to the music press, it remained less populist than its rivals, with younger writers such as Simon Price and Taylor Parkes continuing the 1980s tradition of iconoclasm and opinionated criticism. The paper printed harsh criticism of Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker , and allowed dissenting views on Oasis and Blur at

2050-582: The rest of the paper, ensuring sales to jobbing musicians who would otherwise have little interest in the music press. In early 1997, Allan Jones left to edit Uncut . He was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly of NME and Smash Hits , who thus "fulfilled [his] boyhood dream" and stayed on to edit the magazine for three years. Many long-standing writers left, often moving to Uncut , with Simon Price departing allegedly because he objected to an edict that coverage of Oasis should be positive. Its sales, which had already been substantially lower than those of

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2100-621: The seven-inch single. Although they could be named after a lead track, they were generally given a different title. Examples include the Beatles ' The Beatles' Hits EP from 1963, and the Troggs ' Troggs Tops EP from 1966, both of which collected previously released tracks. The playing time was generally between 10 and 15 minutes. In the UK they came in cardboard picture sleeves at a time when singles were usually issued in paper company sleeves. EPs tended to be album samplers or collections of singles. EPs of all original material began to appear in

2150-545: The singer's dormant career. During the interview Bowie said, "I'm gay, and always have been, even when I was David Jones." "OH YOU PRETTY THING" ran the headline, and swiftly became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed his success to this interview, stating that, "Yeah, it was Melody Maker that made me. It was that piece by Mick Watts." During his tenure at the paper, Watts also toured with and interviewed artists including Syd Barrett , Waylon Jennings , Pink Floyd , Bob Dylan , and Bruce Springsteen . Caroline Coon

2200-531: The songs are spread across two 12" 45 rpm discs. Also, the vinyl pressing of Hail to the Thief by Radiohead uses this practice but is considered to be a full-length album. In 1982 Cabaret Voltaire released their studio album " 2x45 " on the UK-based label Rough Trade , featuring extended tracks over four sides of two 12-inch 45 rpm discs, with graphics by artist Neville Brody . The band subsequently released

2250-426: The songs were augmented by the band's single A- and B-sides from 1967 to create a full LP –a practice that was common in the US but considered exploitative in the UK. The Style Council album The Cost of Loving was originally issued as two 12-inch EPs. It is more common for artists to release two 12-inch 45s rather than a single 12-inch LP. Though there are 11 songs that total about 40 minutes, enough for one LP,

2300-689: The trend noted post-album EPs as "the next step in extending albums' shelf lives, following the "deluxe" editions that populated stores during the past few holiday seasons—add a few tracks to the back end of an album and release one of them to radio, slap on a new coat of paint, and—voila!—a stocking stuffer is born." Examples of such releases include Lady Gaga 's The Fame Monster (2009) following her debut album The Fame (2008), and Kesha 's Cannibal (2010) following her debut album Animal (2010). A 2019 article in Forbes discussing Miley Cyrus ' plan to release her then-upcoming seventh studio album as

2350-409: Was headhunted by Melody Maker editor Ray Coleman in the mid-1970s and promptly made it her mission to get women musicians taken seriously. Between 1974 and 1976, she interviewed Maggie Bell , Joan Armatrading , Lynsey de Paul , and Twiggy . She then went on to make it her mission to promote punk rock. In 1978, Richard Williams returned – after a stint working at Island Records – to the paper as

2400-432: Was prolific and had the responsibility of covering folk music. He was with the paper until 1973. He later wrote for The Arizona Republic . He was also a freelancer and wrote for Sing Out! , Billboard , Jazziz , Rhythm and Songlines etc. In later years he was a fiction writer. In January 1972, Michael "Mick" Watts, a prominent writer for the paper, wrote a profile of David Bowie that almost singlehandedly ignited

2450-649: Was slow to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the New Musical Express ( NME ), which had begun in 1952. MM launched its own weekly singles chart (a top 20) on 7 April 1956, and an LPs charts in November 1958, two years after the Record Mirror had published the first UK Albums Chart . From 1964, the paper led its rival publications in terms of approaching music and musicians as a subject for serious study rather than merely entertainment. Staff reporters such as Chris Welch and Ray Coleman applied

2500-421: Was that some songs were omitted for time purposes, and the most popular tracks were left on. Unlike most EPs before them, and most seven-inch vinyl in general (pre-1970s), these were issued in stereo . Melody Maker Melody Maker was a British weekly music magazine , one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media , the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as

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