The March issue of Mojo has hit the stands, and this time the free tribute CD is a re-recording of Sgt. Pepper by indie-bands I've for the most part never heard of. Do I really need these tribute CD's? They take up space and I never play them. Now, if they'd compiled a CD of songs inspired by Sgt. Pepper, that might have been interesting.

>> An alternative rock tribute, containing re-recordings of every track from the original album by Echo & The Bunnymen, Circulus, Fionn Regan, 747s, Simple Kid, Puerto Muerto, Unkle Bob, Bikeride, Stephanie Dosen, Chin Up Chin Up, Dave Cloud & The Gospel of Power, The Ms & Captain. <<

My question is this-how the hell did they get one of my favorite bands ever Echo & Bunnymen on this piece of crap???
Googa Mooga:
As a longtime subscriber of Classic Rock Magazine, believe me, I hear ya with these free CDs. Most of them are absolute garbage and I throw them out. Yet, readers always praise them and thank them for helping them discover such talent as Brixton Fart Club.
I just want the damn magazine, that's all!

Invisible Pedestrian:

Yes, just knock a pound off the cover price and be done with it.

These sampler CDs can be a valuable promotional tool for the participating bands/labels, and are frequently the source for otherwise unavailable material. There have been some really interesting thematic compilations over the years.

Sems kind of strange to hear music fans bashing free music, too. If you really don't have any use for such CDs, I'd be happy to take them off your hands...

Oh, I keep them all and listen to them at least once. All the good stuff is usually available on other CD's, though. I'm not really sure these free CD's are "free".

Yes, these are anything but free. Classic Rock costs quite a bit to get and these are just junky toss-ins.
If anything decent appears, I already have it. Only once a blue moon do I hear a good new band like The Answer and benefit.
Most of the CDs are from the same labels each and every time like SPV, Eagle, Sanctuary who are just desperate for any promo they can get.
Could there be worse things than getting a CD or DVD tossed in with a magazine? Of course, but when they're usually crap, it becomes annoying each month-especially when the send the DVDs in PAL!

I agree that many of these CD's are crap. However, every once in a while, Mojo or Uncut will stick a good one in there. Last year Mojo did a roots of Hendrix thing that included tracks by Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Albert King, Jimmy Reed ,and Robert Petway.Uncut did a new music sampler with tracks by Jenny Lewis, Sparks,Belle & Sebastian, Neko Case, and Kris Kristofferson. These may not be revelatory, but I find quite a few of them worthy.

Agree 100%. Mojo did a nice "garage disc", Uncut had the Stones tributes. There are some clunkers for sure but when a good one comes along it makes it worth it for me. Keep them coming. Even with a clunker the magazine is the main thing - nothing on our side of the pond comes close.

What I do is this: I play the bad ones once and file them away. I don't throw them out like Invisible Pedestrian does, because I consider them part of the magazine. I play the good ones on my discman in the train.

I should reiterate-I haven't thrown them all out, but most. Let's face it, between all the Cds I own and have burned, I don't need to keep crap CDs I don't care about taking up space just because they were free.
One thing I have done is give some of the CDs to kids in my coffee house if I think there's anything that might turn them on to some good stuff they otherwise wouldn't listen to.
If they don't want them-in the trash they go!

I'm with mjb. If anyone doesn't want their Sgt Pepper redo, please let me know, I'd be glad to have it. I don't usually buy these UK mags, but I have the Revolver Reloaded Mojo CD from July 2006, and there are a handful of tracks that I have listened to repeatedly, especially Mark Mulcahy's minimalist "She Said She Said". A nice way to hear bands that I have not heard of previously.
Roger

I buy Mojo and other UK magazines depending on what artists are being covered and, yes, if the disc is one I think I'll like. I really enjoyed Mojo's recent CD with songs inspired by Brian Wilson, and the James Brown (and friends) disc last summer was another keeper. They have also done some great collections of 60's British psychadelic music, Elvis covers, etc. Q put out a CD of dance music back around 2000 that is still on fairly heavy rotation in my car player. I don't have a massive CD collection (though my wife might disagree with that point) so for me these discs are a good way to fill in a few gaps and try out some artists I might not otherwise hear. I look at it this way: a decent compilation would cost you at least as much as the magazine anyway, so if the disc looks interesting why not?