If you’re interested in the direction that music and the music industry is going, and you’re not already reading it, I highly recommend Music Think Tank. The postings are typically thought-provoking and knowledgeable.
Speaking of music blogs, Boston’s own Ryan Spaulding, of Ryan’s Smashing Life, was interviewed for this LA Weekly article about disappearing posts on music blogs hosted by Blogger. It’s certainly starting to look like Google (who acquired Blogger in 2003) might be violating its ‘don’t be evil‘ policy by eschewing takedown notices in lieu of simply deleting posts without warning. Ryan makes a morally compelling argument: “By pulling down my post, they destroyed my intellectual creativity, the very same thing they’re erroneously accusing me of doing.” (‘erroneously,’ because, like many music bloggers, he is posting MP3s at the behest of the same record companies who are presumably putting pressure on Blogger to remove posts). You can read Ryan’s own post on the topic here.
There’s an amusing posting at Panopticist about Andrew Hearst’s experience purchasing AC/DC tickets from scalpers, and the role of typography and design in differentiating between real and counterfeit tickets. [thanks, Clive!]
Should you let your fans pay what they want for merch? Dave Allen, the original bassist of the Gang of Four, recently made the argument on his music blog that bands can make more money by not posting prices at merch tables and instead letting fans name their own price for merchandise at concerts:
My thinking here is that those fans that really like the band and are leaning towards buying will ask what the price of a CD is. And the answer should be “how much do you want to pay?” I guarantee that the answer will be somewhat along these lines – “I only have $4,” “I’d like to give you $10,” “You guys were great, here’s $20,” “I have no money.” You should sell your CD at those prices to all of those folks and give one to the guy with no money. They will never forget the experience they had and they will tell their friends that you are the coolest band on earth for doing that.
Allen argues that, on average, bands are likely to make more money doing this than by having fixed prices. More importantly, however, this approach either leverages an existing relationship (people who have money are happy to give the band more than the ‘official’ cost of the CD) or it helps develop a relationship. Here at z=z, we recently discussed the role of relationships in differentiating artists in a world where the music itself may be fungible.
While I’m not a musician, I know that a number of artists read this blog – please let us know what you think. And if you decide to try this, please share how it works out!
Here’s yet another new concept in music distribution. Toronto-based electronic artist Deadmau5 released an album’s worth of tracks with an iPhone application that lets you remix them. You can pick two of the ten included tracks, and then mix them together using a small set of effects (loop, filter, flange, delay). You can even scratch. The one thing you don’t get to do (or have to do – how you feel about it depends on your perspective and experience) is beat-matching—the two tracks are automagically synched, and while you can speed up or slow down the bpm, the tempi for both tracks change simultaneously. While the app does an interesting end-run around iTunes pricing restrictions (it’s only $2.99), it’s mostly just ridiculously fun to play with.
I am a sucker for datavisualizations. So it’ll come as no surprise, therefore, that I was all over very small array‘s pair of information graphics of Pitchfork’s “The 100 Best Tracks of 2008.” Like all good visualizations, it makes you think about the data, like the fact that songs with male lead vocals outnumber those with female lead vocals 2:1.
In keeping with my current trend of not being in the same city as the shows that I want to see, what I would be doing if I was in Seattle on Saturday night is going to this show. Chop Suey is hosting “Dancing on the Valentine,” a benefit for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and it’s a tribute to Factory Records. So go watch 24 Hour Party People, dig out your t-shirt with the radiofrequency pulses or the yellow happy faces (as appropriate), and channel the spirit of Tony Wilson. And then go to Chop Suey on Saturday night.
Lineup: Peter Parker, Hotels, Police Teeth, Haunted Horse, Leaders of Men, Motorik, This is Friendly Fires, Funkscribe, Atticus & the Arteries
(to be perfectly fair, part of the reason I won’t be in Seattle is because I’ll be going to thisshow)
A couple of bands that are using technology in interesting ways…
Groove Armada is making waves with a new model of music distribution. They left Sony last year, and are now in a deal with Bacardi, of all people. Their plan is to reward people for sharing music. You go register at the site (attesting that you’re of legal drinking age, of course), download your first free track, and get a unique link to share with your friends. As more people get and share the song using your link, you are rewarded by being able to download more songs. I have to admit that I’m less interested in downloading the music than I am in seeing a data visualization of the number, timing, and distribution of how the links spread… (Why yes, I am a nerd.)
But what kind of artist thrives on the Internet? Those who can establish a personal relationship with their readers…[who have] the ability to conduct their online selves [in a way] that establishes a non-substitutable relationship with their audiences. You might find a film, a game, and a book to be equally useful diversions on a slow afternoon, but if the novel’s author is a pal of yours, that’s the one you’ll pick. It’s a competitive advantage that can’t be beat.
Putting a direct link to your band in your fans’ pockets seems like a good step forward in establishing this relationship.
To quote (and, well, repurpose) Hippocrates: “Life is short, art long.” So I have to appreciate The Hush Now‘s decision to make their self-titled debut available as a free download, in its entirety, in advance of tonight’s release party (February 12 at TT the Bear’s in Central Square, Cambridge). You have a few hours to listen to it in the warm glow of your computer before deciding whether you want to venture out into the cold Boston night to hear The Hush Now play live. Having given it a hearing myself, I think that their shoegazery-but-not-aimless music would be worth the effort.
As of yesterday morning, Ticketmaster and Live Nation announced that they’d merge into a single entity, with the caveat that the merger is still subject to regulatory approval.
But what I really suggest you do is the following: Take a look at the concert listings for your city, and choose an artist that you would like to see. Then go to the Ticketmaster website and ‘buy’ tickets for the concert. Here’s my test run: I picked The Killers, playing at the WaMu Center in Seattle on April 22nd. The face value of each ticket was $33, and after I selected ‘2’ as the number of tickets, I got the first of the additional charges: $9.70 x 2 and $2 x 2 in ‘convenience’ and ‘building’ fees (can’t they do the arithmetic and give me the total charge?). Then I chose their ‘recommended’ delivery method, a PDF of the tickets – apparently it costs them $2.50 to send me an e-mail that I have to print out myself (maybe they could get some hints from the airlines). Next, I logged into an existing account, but if you haven’t bought tickets from Ticketmaster before (lucky you!), you have to create an account. After investing all of that time in the purchase, I got an extra little surprise: $5.35 in ‘processing’ charges. Final tally: $97.25 for $66 worth of tickets, or a markup of 47% on each ticket. Needless to say, I didn’t push the ‘submit order’ button.
If you went through that process, especially for a band you do want to see, you probably feel like you’ve been held up by your ankles and shaken repeatedly to dislodge all the money from your pockets. So ask yourself this: is this the behavior of a company that is vying with its competitors? Or is it the behavior of a company whose business model is predicated on maximizing what the buyer is willing to endure? Ticketmaster already has a monopoly, if not over all live music, then certainly over a large chunk of artists and venues. Live Nation is the same. Given their current behavior, do we really want to allow them to join forces extend their de facto monopolies even further?
There is no way this merger is good for the consumer. Please do the right thing and refuse to approve it.
UPDATE: Less than a day later, and the Justice Department has already announced that it will scrutinize the merger; the investigation may take up to six months.
Some content on this page was disabled on August 18, 2016 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from PRS for Music. You can learn more about the DMCA here:
Whoa, I’m so stoked about this. Tomorrow (February 11), the Buzzcocks are doing a show in Amsterdam. UK site Fab Channel will be streaming it live on the web, starting at 11:30 am PST and 2:30 pm EST – nothing like a punk show while you’re at your desk working. If you’re not sure if you should bother to put on your headphones and watch (hint: you should), you can check out their website, Myspace page, Wikipedia entry, or this previous z=z post.
Clatter Clatter is another Boston-based band with roots at Berklee (gee, you’d think they were educating musicians or something). They just released their debut album, Too Many Boxes, in January. The songs range from gorgeously atmospheric (“Just to Say”), to Ben Folds-style piano-driven tunes (“Downpour”), to almost 70s rock sounds (“Australia”). It’s short notice, but they are playing at TT the Bear’s in Cambridge tonight (Tuesday, February 10th); if you miss them, you can check out their Myspace page for additional upcoming shows, including an opening spot for Youth Group in April.
So, if you are music geek to any degree, at some point you’ve found yourself saying (or at least thinking) some variation on “I liked them before they were cool.” (“I liked their first album better.” “I saw them play this little club.” The permutations are endless.)
I heard a recent Modest Mouse song the other day, and it made me think about how much more I liked their early stuff, and why that would be. So here’s an argument for why it’s not just musical elitism: The early stuff – the first music that you heard by a given artist – is what you chose. It’s the music that spoke to you, that resonated with you in some way that led you to pluck it from the sounds around it and hold it close to your heart. The later music, on the other hand, is presented to you. (“It’s the new album by X.”) It doesn’t have to elevate itself from the background noise in the same way that the first music that you heard by the artist did. So, while it’s great when you like a band more and more as they release new music, that’s unlikely to be the norm.
In defense of the elitism aspect, though, sometimes artists make conscious decisions to be more accessible, musically or lyrically. For example, in the Dresden Dolls‘ first EP, A is for Accident, the live version of “Coin-Operated Boy,” contains the line, “I can’t even fuck him in the ass.” It was later changed, in their debut self-titled album, to the considerably more radio-friendly “I can’t even take him in the bath.” It’s hard to fault them for this, and I still love the new version, but I do prefer the uncompromised former version.
Coraline opens today and, while debcha might be most excited about the production of a favored author’s work, I have multiple reasons to be excited. I like gothic spooky, but can’t stomach horror (at least until a Hollywood hack proposes the cheap vampire crossover Underworld vs. Twilight — I may actually already be in line for that movie), and Hollywood doesn’t usually make much of a distinction. I have a lifelong love of children’s entertainment that doesn’t take a dim view of children. And this movie will fill out my double feature of Animated FilmsFeaturing the Voice Talent of Humorous Non-Fiction AuthorsWho I’m Secretly Stalking.
But mostly, I’m excited for another off-kilter, animated film by Henry Selick. The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my ten favorite movies of all time, and while it’s thought of as a Tim Burton movie, Selick was able to give the same eerie look and feel toJames and the Giant Peach. That’s not to take away from what Burton brought to Nightmare, but just to point out that Selick, given good source material, can perform the same artistry again. “But wait,” I hear you say, “Isn’t this a music blog? What are you rambling on about?” I’m getting there.
debcha has previouslywritten about the changing business model of music, one piece of which is the increasing placement of songs in other media. For television, this has resulted in the “Music From” album. But in their ever-increasing effort to squeeze out every last drop of marketability from a product, we’re now starting to see things like this—albums of covers of music from TV shows or movies. Now, unlike those Amazon commenters, I don’t think this is inherently bad, but then, I like covers. And although the initial album is a different beast entirely, it’s that same premise that brings us to Nightmare Revisited.
The album came out in September and, though it caught my interest, I hadn’t gotten around to listening to it until just a couple of weeks ago. Now, if you read blogs devoted to cover music, they’ll pretty universally claim that what makes a cover worthwhile is the artist taking the material and making it their own in an interesting way. This album definitely does that. But it took a bit more thinking, first about the songs themselves and then about the theory of what makes a good cover, to figure out why the album was disappointing (not bad, just disappointing). The instrumentals were mostly enjoyable, and the instrumentation for the songs generally sounded better than the song turned out to be.
In making the covers their own, what was missing was the sense that the performers understood what made the songs good in the first place. In particular, I think the difference is that the singers (I’ve never before used that term to describe Korn, and God willing, I never will again) are just that—singers—rather than actors. They use their voices to convey a story, but not to convey a character. So in the original “What’s This?”, Danny Elfman both tells the story of Jack Skellington’s arrival in Christmastown and gets across the somewhat-crazed excitement he feels at being there. Lacey Mosley of Flyleaf, despite making some really interesting changes to the structure of the song and instrumentals, sounds wrong to me largely because she isn’t doing that kind of emoting. And that’s not to pick on her, as most of the songs have a similar problem—interesting and promising instrumentation choices marred by voice work that doesn’t make adequate sense of the words being sung.
Brooklyn-based The Bloodsugars are doing a show at the All-Asia in Cambridge on Saturday night (February 7). Man, there’s all these greatEastCoastbands that aren’t making it out to the West Coast. If you’re on the right side of the country, go check out The Bloodsugars sweet indie pop. While they are presumably supporting their recent release, BQEP, they have do two songs on the 1980s cover album Guilt By Association 2; I know I’d have my fingers crossed for their version of Chris De Burgh’s “Lady in Red.”
I think that Boston’s Logan 5 and the Runners pretty much had me at their name (if you are not as much of an über-geek as I, this is the reference. If you are, there might be a new version coming out next year.) But it’s their Britpop-esque sound that sealed the deal – if Pulp and Roxy Music, had a bastard love child who was born in the 90s and is now an avid consumer of TV, movies and the Internet, it might sound like Logan 5 and the Runners. Singer David Berndt (who bears a resemblance to actor Michael York, which inspired the band name) has a voice which sounds raw and sexual with an overlay of sophistication, or possibly the other way around. As befits their sci-fi namesake, Berndt’s vocals are backed by synthesizer hooks and tense guitars, coalescing into a catchy and memorable sound that evokes an alternate-history 1980s London.
They’re playing at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain on Friday, February 6th, in support of their recently-released debut album, Featurette. Check them out.
While we’ve previouslydiscussed the role of advertising in getting new music heard here at zed equals zee, it’s just come surprisingly close to home. Nike decided to use a riff from the song “Guilty,” by Boston band and z=z favesElectric Laser People for their “Be Transformed” campaign. The song is part of the soundtrack for an ad called “Punching Bag,” which features Hong Kong volleyball player Sonia Kong working out with a heavy bag, which then transforms into an animated monster. The whole ad campaign is really interesting, actually – it’s for Nike Women, and it focuses on women transforming themselves through sports and competition. Given that its target market is Asia and the Pacific Rim (including countries like India, mainland China and the Philippines), it really does send a strong message to cultures that haven’t traditionally valued women.
You can read more about it at the ELP blog and at TrashBagAesthetics, where you can also watch the ads. Or you can see them in the wild at one of the Nike pages, such as this page for India.
Because Electric Laser People are super cool, you can download their whole album, Straight Talk on Raising Kids, at their site (it’s free and under a Creative Commons license). Also, you should go check them out live at the All-Asia Cafe in Cambridge, MA on February 27, and if you are an MIT person (or enjoy hanging out with MIT people), they are playing The Thirsty Ear next Friday, February 13th. More tour dates at their blog.
So, in the comments to a previous post, there was a brief discussion on the future of vinyl records. Aaron char Manders quoted the CEO of Newbury Comics as describing vinyl as a ‘novelty,’ a description which suggests a certain transience.
Here’s a couple of starting points for discussion:
In the world of electronic music, long a stronghold for vinyl, there is a steady movement towards digital music – so much so that next Friday, there’s an underground party in San Francisco billed as ‘Nothing But Vinyl’ and featuring Sammy Dee and Marc Schneider.
If you look at the top ten vinyl sellers last year, there is a solid mix of old (Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon), new (In Rainbows, Fleet Foxes, and Portishead’s Third), and, notably, indie classic In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.
Given that vinyl is currently, as Aaron memorably put it, ‘an unassuming pimple on the large, albeit slimming, butt of CDs,’ will vinyl remain a viable, if niche, medium indefinitely? Or is this the faddish last gasp of popularity before vinyl fades forever? I’d be interested in arguments on both sides – what do we think?
I’ve been on a roadtrip in the Central Coast of California all this week, and it’s beautiful, but I think I am temperamentally more suited to grey Seattle, icy Cambridge, or even foggy San Francisco. This became particularly apparent to me as I took a look through my music collection for this trio of songs. No sunshine, no surfing, no California dream in sight.
I have to admit that I’m OCD enough that I love when venues post set times, and bands follow them. The clock with the big red LED digits at TT the Bear’s is my friend.
Tomorrow night (Thursday, January 29) is the premiere of “Influenza,” a new Boston-based monthly show that features local artists playing a mix of their original material and covers of songs that influenced them (hence the title). I think this is a great idea – one of the things that makes it a little tough to see a new band for the first time is the absence of the familiar. You don’t really know what they sound like, or what to expect, and unless you are a dedicated neophile, that’s a little off-putting. “Influenza” makes it a little easier to go out and try some new music, because you know you’ll hear something you’ll recognize, even if it’s from a band you’ve never heard before. Conversely, however, you’ll get to hear original music too – it’s a far cry from cheesy cover bands.
So, last Friday, my friend dragged me out to see this guy Jonathan Colton. We got there right at eight and we didn’t have to wait very long at all, which was good because my mom wanted me home by 11. *pout*
The opening band were pretty fun – I don’t really remember their name. Paul and…something? Thunder? But ewww! One of them got some things called jafa cakes, they didn’t really look like cakes, they looked more like cookies and he dropped one on the floor and HE PICKED IT UP AND ATE IT! EWWW GROSS!!!
I didn’t really get a lot of the main guys songs. There seemed to be a lot of robots. And there was something about a vacuum cleaner? All of the songs seemed to be about guys who have crushes on girls. Just ask them out already! Unless you’re really a dork, cause then they’ll probably just say no.
All in all, it was a pretty good concert. I got to wear a really cute outfit but it was really, really cold in the theatre so I had to keep my coat on so no one could see it. But it was still really cute.
Current mood: 🙂 happy
[For those of you thinking ‘WTF?’, today is Rabbit Hole Day. For those of you not thinking ‘WTF?’, might I refer you to someofmyotherpostings? If you actually prefer this one, you may wish to return to the LiveJournal from whence you came. And my sincerest apologies to Jonathan Coulton and to Paul and Storm.]
[photo: Jason Creps/NY Times]
Clatter Clatter
zed equals zee 
