Jason, Ryan and I made our annual trek to NAMM a couple weeks ago. “NAMM,” of course, stands for The International Music Products Association, which is a clear indication of why the retail music industry gets no respect.

The hot item for the show was Roland’s new V-Accordion, shown here with interested buyers. Through the use of fancy electronics it can simulate 30(!) different accordion sound sets (there’s more than one?) not to mention a large range of orchestral sounds. Having played it, I can tell you this: it smells funny when you squeeze it.