Stripes

I saw an incredible movie yesterday.

It's called The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and you can watch the trailer on youtube, though I personally hate trailers and prefer to go into a movie as clueless as possible.

The acting, the colors, the story, it was all fantastic...and inspiring. But you have to be in the mood for something completely intense.

Santigold / Santogold

The big news is a recent name change in the face of being sued by a jeweler whose claim to fame is a string of strange infomercials, but what baffles me is that (a) Santigold is still pretty unknown and (b) she's gotten anything other than great reviews online and was beaten out by TV on the Radio, My Morning Jacket, and John Mellencamp for Rollingstone's album of the year.

This is the only album of 2008 that I can play all the way through - and though I'm not as big a fan of some of the middle tracks, they're still better than a lot of the crap out there now. Sure, she got some cool producers to help shape the sound of the album - Diplo, Switch, and Spank Rock pitch in, among others - but the songwriting and the hooks are there, and that's what counts.

Also of note - she's gotten some flack for "selling out" by licensing to Bud Light Lime, Converse, and Grey's Anatomy, among others. As much as I love the music biz rants of guys like Bob Lefsetz and the old school thinking of the DIY punk scene that hated sellouts and mainstream, I go back & forth on this subject... the business has changed, the income sources are different, and yet a good song is still a good song. Do I care if I first heard "Lights Out" on a Bud Light Lime commercial? Does the commercial mode of discovery prevent me from wanting to buy the song? Does buying the song then support the product?

And...does it make sense to crucify artists for wanting to support themselves through their music? The same people yelling - are they the ones who don't want to pay for music anymore? The music community is screaming out for great music - but in a recession, with vacillating gas prices that affect touring, and no one buying albums, can you really judge a musician for licensing to a commercial when that money probably funds the album that you're going to steal?

Music can be funny, too.

Well worth your time for a good chuckle:

http://www.just-whatever.com/2009/02/18/musical-statistics/

And there are tons more - but non-music related - here:

http://graphjam.com/

Blogger Blogs

I subscribe to Pet Marmoset, which is all about DIY artist strategies and using new media. They recommend new music as well, but what I really like is their approach and ideas when it comes to trying to cut through the white noise as a DIY artist trying to get heard.

I wish it were easy enough to just make good music and let the rest take care of itself...but the democratization of making music has widened the bell curve, giving us a sea of average to good to borderline incredible music - so you either have to be so @#$%ing good that you spread like wildfire, or you have to work at getting awesome while figuring out how to get the good songs out in front of the roar of the crowd. Hundreds of thousands of artists can record an album with Garage Band and some microphones (this doesn't mean they all should) so aiming for the top just got that much harder.

I have to admit, I took it a little personally when I first read this blog post about the strategy "The Art of Frequency" (hey, I've been working on a plan to release an EP for more than a year now) but it really makes so much sense. Whether you're releasing lo-fi demos or cover songs or singles, exposing people with what they really want - music - is the best way to get heard and start that long climb to quitting your day job.

The Raincoats: Liner Notes

I know, I know, I seem like a one-track-minded Raincoats zealot...but I have to blog this because I googled forever and couldn't find these liner notes online anywhere.

When the Raincoats' debut album was reissued on a CD, Kurt Cobain wrote the liner notes. I discovered the band years later - probably around 1999 - from a flippant comment in the movie "10 Things I Hate About You" (one of Heath Ledger's early roles) and fell in love immediately. I lost the CD at some point, and though I downloaded the album later on Limewire or whatever, I needed to read these liner notes again...they summed everything up so perfectly....so I re-purchased the CD from ebay and now that it's arrived, here they are, for all to enjoy.

FROM A STOWAWAY IN AN ATTIC
I know a lot of coolies who suck and feed off the fact that they know about and (supposedly) enjoy unknown, obscure band of present and past. These coolies thrive on their own little discoveries like those tiny fish who attach themselves to bigger fish and parasitically feed off the hosts' droppings and burnt coffee.

The Raincoats were not very well known in the States - I don't know about the U.K. and Europe. In fact, I don't really know anything about The Raincoats except that they recorded some music that has affected me so much that, whenever I hear it I'm reminded of a particular time in my life when I was (shall we say) extremely unhappy, lonely, and bored. If it weren't for the luxury of putting that scratchy copy of The Raincoats' first record, I would have had very few moments of peace. I suppose I could have researched a bit of history about the band but I feel it's more important to delineated the way I feel and how they sound.

When I listen to The Raincoats I feel as if I'm a stowaway in an attic, violating and in the dark. Rather than listening to them I feel like I'm listening in on them. We're together in the same old house and I have to be completely still or they will hear me spying from above and, if I get caught - everything will be ruined because it's their thing.

They're playing their music for themselves. It's not as sacred as wire-tapping a Buddhist monk's telephone or something because if The Raincoats really did catch me, they would probably just ask me if I wanted some tea. I would comply, then they would finish playing their songs and I would say thank you very much for making me feel good.

- Kurt Cobain, June 1993

Singles

Ok, these are the tracks on heavy rotation right now:

"Iamundernodisguise" - School of Seven Bells
"So Fine" - Telepathe
"Walking on Thin Ice" - Yoko Ono & Jason Pierce
"Endless, Nameless" - Nirvana
"Pretend We're Dead" - L7
"Fairytale in the Supermarket" - The Raincoats
"Heroin" - The Velvet Underground

martinis & sweet guitars

Last Thursday I shared a bill with The Delay at Martini Red (which, I understand, is the coolest place in all of Staten Island). And can I just mention how insane it is that they CHARGE you to enter Staten Island? Ten bucks, no less! I could maybe understand if cost you to get out...

The Delay was awesome and the guys have some sweet guitars (a Jaguar and a Mosrite) not to mention cool riffs and really catchy songs.

This week:

Check out Artspace Underground's site for all the details!

Heavy Rotation: Day Job Woes

My commute has been mostly centered around the Yeah Yeah Yeah's EP, Is Is (you can listen & watch videos for the songs on their site) which is awesome. The sound and feel of the songs is pure garage rock - I'm particularly jealous of the guitar tones - and the tracks are totally cohesive... They probably could have been integrated into an album with more tracks that weren't in this vein, but it's really cool to have this set of tight, related, hook-ladden songs that are a work individually and as a whole.

Maybe I'll do ONLY EPs....

While interweb goofing at work I came across this sweet blog post: Do great songs really ever go unheard? - and someone posted a mention of a truly great songwriter, who, of course, is almost completely unheard of. I wish I had time now to go through everyone's posts, but alas, I have another blog to update....

Check him out: http://www.myspace.com/sjdmusic

No Looking

It's sort of strange that most of the time when you go to the doctor they try to make you better, but when you go to the opthamologist they really f$%&* up your eyes. After getting my pupils dilated I spent half the day in a fuzzy haze avoiding bright light (ok, not the first time that's happened...) but on the plus side I kept thinking of one of my favorite songs, "No Looking" by The Raincoats. I used to play their self-titled album on repeat and dance around in my dorm room with my first (very crappy) electric guitar that came free if you bought a practice amp...I would sing/scream/speak along and feel perfect rock bliss for 35 minutes...highly recommended.

"No Looking" on Last.fm

Though I totally dig them, I was never as much of a Slits fan, but man Palmolive (who was in both The Raincoats and the Slits) is one of the coolest drummers EVER. She had her own crazy tom-centered melodic style, which hugely influence me in terms of the beats I program (and my lingering preference for toms over snare drums).

Now that I can see again I'm going to try to find some old Raincoats youtube video.

lost / found

Saturday night we got lost on Staten Island driving around on our way to a spa opening on the hunt for free wine & cheese. One wrong turn and we're on the top of this crazy steep hill with sweet houses hanging off the side and a great view of the Verazzano. Next time we go with sleds and a map.

Originally the plan was to get back into the city and catch Hunter Valentine and The And Wutz at Arlene's Grocery; I shared a bill with them at the GoGirls Fest show a few months ago. It was a disastrous show for me - my guitar was freaking out, one of the backline amps was on the fritz, I couldn't hear the loop pedal, and the mic feedback was pretty nasty. Kiyomi of Hunter Valentine lent me her guitar halfway through the set to try to help mitigate the shittiness of the show, which was pretty awesome of her to do considering (a) we had never met and (b) who knew whether the source of the technological trouble was actually some contagious voodoo hex that I was carrying? Her sweet sounding hollow body Gibson could have been the next victim....

We got into the city early enough to try to catch one of my favorite local bands, Cruel Black Dove, whose sound is a perfect cross between PJ Harvey & Nine Inch Nails. I was stuck with parking duty and only heard the last song...but in a happy twist of fate, my girlfriend got to meet a radio DJ from 91.5 New York Radio, who may feature Cruel Black Dove live + interview on her show The B-Sides (*local artists, you should check out this show and send in your CD).

Hunter Valentine rocked it, but we had to move the car before The And Wutz took the stage.

Damn city parking.

We went home and ate a million girl scout cookies.