Yeah, the weather is awesome - so what? Now you feel *pressured* to go outside just because it's nice out even when you'd rather stay inside and watch The Biggest Loser and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's.
Or maybe that's just me....?
I do, however, leave the apartment for two important reasons:
1. to get more ice cream
2. to play and/or attend rock shows
This Thursday, April 30th*
Show time: 9pm
Cost: I have no idea. Maybe 5 bucks?
Perks: outdoor smoking on roof, Jen Urban & The Box, Communication Corporation, bars are slightly less crowded on Thursday
Location: Sugarland, 221 N 9th St between Driggs & Roebling
*(coincidentally the last day of my employment - feel free to celebrate with me....)
It's a fun time.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Music Business Rollercoaster
The ebb and flow - excitement and disappointment - it's so draining you get to a point where you don't let yourself get excited about anything because nothing is certain or permanent, and the industry is in so much confusion and turmoil it's hard to know what goals to have, let alone what steps to take to get there. Sure, this is true of life anyway - especially when you're younger, at transition points in life - but this is a constant state of existence in the music business.
Get a band, lose a band....label interest, an A level producer - ah, it doesn't pan out... what you think is going to be a big show turns out to be a crowd that's dead or not there to see you...gear up for the next show, the venue is almost empty...then a breakthrough, stage diving, people talking about it for days after...excitement about the mastered final mixes turns into scrapping it all to start over - then you do start over and the end result is awesome and you think you're so glad you didn't stop.
So now? Maybe it doesn't break through, maybe no one connects to it or it's the wrong time - maybe you go on the road and come back with stories and scars and some cash! - or just a week-long hangover. The ups and downs start to wear on you, they destroy a bit of you at every downturn.
But maybe what's leftover - after all that turmoil and uncertainty and disappointment - maybe that's the best part anyway. It's the rawest part of you, and the strongest.
So the moral? You can't change any of this. It's part of the game. But you can react by saying f*ck it and not letting it slow you down for long.
Get a band, lose a band....label interest, an A level producer - ah, it doesn't pan out... what you think is going to be a big show turns out to be a crowd that's dead or not there to see you...gear up for the next show, the venue is almost empty...then a breakthrough, stage diving, people talking about it for days after...excitement about the mastered final mixes turns into scrapping it all to start over - then you do start over and the end result is awesome and you think you're so glad you didn't stop.
So now? Maybe it doesn't break through, maybe no one connects to it or it's the wrong time - maybe you go on the road and come back with stories and scars and some cash! - or just a week-long hangover. The ups and downs start to wear on you, they destroy a bit of you at every downturn.
But maybe what's leftover - after all that turmoil and uncertainty and disappointment - maybe that's the best part anyway. It's the rawest part of you, and the strongest.
So the moral? You can't change any of this. It's part of the game. But you can react by saying f*ck it and not letting it slow you down for long.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Blitz
I've listened to the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD approximately 11 times since I downloaded it into my iPod. Most of this has been in the car driving all over town and out to Long Island - and Car Based Listening is still one of my favorite ways to enjoy music.
Headphones never have enough bass.
While Yeah Yeah Yeahs could put out a completely acoustic flute based CD and I would still buy it, I have mixed feelings about a dance album. First off, there's always a balance/question of an artist evolving & experimenting vs. straying away from the core of what makes them good and keeping their overall sound. Some musicians can completely change their sound while maintaining awesomeness (The Beatles, Radiohead, Bjork, PJ Harvey) while others can put out album after album of good music that's all in the same vein while not sounding like the same rehashed song over and over again (Led Zeppelin, Prince, Ladytron). And of course as an artist you can have the pitfall of not really changing but seeming to somewhat stagnate and feel recycled (recent NIN and Depeche Mode albums feel this way, although they both have their exceptional highlights).
My second point: there are tons of great electronic/dance artists that create this sound - I can put in CSS or Ladytron or the Presets for electro-dance-rock - but how many truly awesome modern rock bands are there? What makes their music stand out to me is that somehow Yeah Yeah Yeahs feel fresh and cool while still being rock music. It's kind of a shame to think they would throw that aside and instead imitate the synth based music of the 80s. And I'm not saying some of the songs aren't awesome or that they fail at creating a nice retro dance feel; I'm saying, why step backwards and copy what's been done? Why not push the sound forward somehow? What makes Radiohead and albums like OK Computer so great isn't that they suddenly decided to put out a 70s sounding southern rock album - it's that they tried to create something that was completely new and undone up until that point.
All this aside, I've still got "Dull Life," "Dragon Queen" and "Runaway" on repeat.
Headphones never have enough bass.
While Yeah Yeah Yeahs could put out a completely acoustic flute based CD and I would still buy it, I have mixed feelings about a dance album. First off, there's always a balance/question of an artist evolving & experimenting vs. straying away from the core of what makes them good and keeping their overall sound. Some musicians can completely change their sound while maintaining awesomeness (The Beatles, Radiohead, Bjork, PJ Harvey) while others can put out album after album of good music that's all in the same vein while not sounding like the same rehashed song over and over again (Led Zeppelin, Prince, Ladytron). And of course as an artist you can have the pitfall of not really changing but seeming to somewhat stagnate and feel recycled (recent NIN and Depeche Mode albums feel this way, although they both have their exceptional highlights).
My second point: there are tons of great electronic/dance artists that create this sound - I can put in CSS or Ladytron or the Presets for electro-dance-rock - but how many truly awesome modern rock bands are there? What makes their music stand out to me is that somehow Yeah Yeah Yeahs feel fresh and cool while still being rock music. It's kind of a shame to think they would throw that aside and instead imitate the synth based music of the 80s. And I'm not saying some of the songs aren't awesome or that they fail at creating a nice retro dance feel; I'm saying, why step backwards and copy what's been done? Why not push the sound forward somehow? What makes Radiohead and albums like OK Computer so great isn't that they suddenly decided to put out a 70s sounding southern rock album - it's that they tried to create something that was completely new and undone up until that point.
All this aside, I've still got "Dull Life," "Dragon Queen" and "Runaway" on repeat.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Killing Yourself to Live
I'm reading Chuck Klosterman's book Killing Yourself to Live. I was loitering around Barnes & Noble and I always gravitate toward the "Music" section even though I've been through a hundred times and I know there are 40 books on every Beatles lyric and 10 on Nirvana, and about 56 on musicians I don't know. But since I'm a musician I guess I'm curious to see what new books have come out and what old, dead, or overrated artist now has a bio written about them.
Surprising finds:
- Nothing on Roy Orbison
- but a book about Modest Mouse
- I know there is a Sonic Youth bio, but I guess it's not popular enough for B&N to carry it
- more hair metal bands than I care to name
So I think I like Chuck Klosterman. I like how he seems honest and doesn't give a shit whether his musical tastes are "hip." Is he a hipster? I don't know. I guess. But he definitely seems to make fun of them enough to tell me he is either (a) not a hipster or (b) the only hipster who kind of knows/admits that hipster culture kind of sucks.
There's a great passage about authenticity when he talks about the Station fire:
"This was not a bunch of hipsters trying to be seen by other hipsters; this was a bunch of blue collar people all trying to unironically experience music that honestly meant something to them..."
And later:
"I honestly think that people of my generation despise authenticity, mostly because they're all so
envious of it."
Yeah. This is a pretty sweet insight - I'd never thought of it exactly that way. And this is why I don't give a #$%& whether my music is ever popular in that particular subculture.
Surprising finds:
- Nothing on Roy Orbison
- but a book about Modest Mouse
- I know there is a Sonic Youth bio, but I guess it's not popular enough for B&N to carry it
- more hair metal bands than I care to name
So I think I like Chuck Klosterman. I like how he seems honest and doesn't give a shit whether his musical tastes are "hip." Is he a hipster? I don't know. I guess. But he definitely seems to make fun of them enough to tell me he is either (a) not a hipster or (b) the only hipster who kind of knows/admits that hipster culture kind of sucks.
There's a great passage about authenticity when he talks about the Station fire:
"This was not a bunch of hipsters trying to be seen by other hipsters; this was a bunch of blue collar people all trying to unironically experience music that honestly meant something to them..."
And later:
"I honestly think that people of my generation despise authenticity, mostly because they're all so
envious of it."
Yeah. This is a pretty sweet insight - I'd never thought of it exactly that way. And this is why I don't give a #$%& whether my music is ever popular in that particular subculture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
