Clinical Trials: Captain's Log

Ok, this is brilliant: Musicians, Venues, Money

2012-01-20T11:49:00.000-05:00

Required reading.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-Club-Owners

Give & take

2011-10-21T12:48:00.004-04:00

Great quote, very applicable to music:

"We're either going to try to do the best we can by our performer, or we're going to try to get the most we can out of our performer."

This is a quip from Seanna Sharpe, a bad-ass, beautiful aerialist who recently performed on the Williamsburg Bridge (and was consequently arrested). Check out a fantastic and really intelligent interview here:

and her Williamsburg Bridge performance here:

I think knowing exactly where you stand is essential - knowing the philosophy of anyone with whom you decide to work. It's all too easy for promoters and bullshitters and agents and bookers to siphon off the energy of artists, especially in NYC. There are just so many people striving to be heard, we'll compromise anything just to have a stage or a chance to get noticed. A comedian friend once said to me he'd do anything to perform - "I'll defile myself, I'll suck dick, I'll slap my own mother, just give me that chance... I'll do anything to get that mic in my hand, because that's the only place I feel good, and I need that chance to perform."

So are they helping you get on that stage, so you can do your thing - or are they profiting off your desperate need to get noticed? Sometimes it's both. My experience with promoters has been pretty alarmingly negative, watching them take massive percentages of the door charge for a show, refusing to pay artists unless they bring 20, 30, 40 heads, thereby making themselves hundreds of dollars per set while the band has to settle for a couple of drink tickets. And for what? Why do these greedy little shits get that money? Because they have become the key holders: they control certain nights at a venue. They're certainly not earning that money by any actual means of "promotion" - sometimes they don't even update the venue calendar or send out a single email with a band link or name. No, they've constructed a very unfair, artist-unfriendly method of maximizing numbers.

And it's hardly ever worth playing these shows. At best you might meet another band in your genre (though my experience has been a mish mash of styles and quality - metal next to rap next to acoustic), maybe earn a fan or two, at worst you spend time, money and energy moving your gear to a venue, playing in front of your own 10 friends, making the promoter $100, and waking up disappointed and hungover.

"The Culture of Mainstream is Bankrupt"

2011-10-17T10:47:00.002-04:00

I love me some Lefestz Letter.

"I Think You Can Do Better"

It's always honest, it's inspiring, opinionated & insightful. Lefsetz is doing for writing what he thinks musicians should be doing for music.

Podmixing

2011-10-13T15:59:00.001-04:00

Because...why not.

Clinical Trials Podmix 001: Dark & Aggressive, for the Brooding Type by Clinicaltrials on Mixcloud

Art & Commerce: Part I

2011-10-11T17:25:00.006-04:00

I've been thinking about this topic a lot - maybe more than I should, maybe some wasted creativity is being unnecessarily shunted in this direction. I googled "art & commerce," which led me to a pretty interesting discussion about being a sellout and how the definition has radically changed over the last couple of decades, but it didn't settle the debate in my mind.

Ok, let me clarify: what led me down this path of (sometimes) destructive thinking were two separate events.

1. The casual discussion of selling songs to commercials
2. Feeling financially gang raped by NYC promoters in regard to the artist cuts of ticket sales

You make art. In my opinion, the "best" art is something you make for yourself. This isn't a new idea or argument (check out "Letters to a Young Poet"). It implies that once you start writing with someone or something else in mind, the creation loses some of its purity. Once you write a song with the intent of fame, say, using the least common denominators in regard to melody, lyrics, etc., you're just polishing a non-art turd. Examples of this? Commercial jingles. The software that has been developed to write "hits." A lot (certainly not all) of top 40 music. It feels transient and doesn't grab you because it's shallow and made for mass appeal; it's not a personal expression of existence or feeling or pain or joy.

Art is like ...a religion, and the artist is his own high priest. They dig deep inside to find something genuine about who they are and then translate that into the expression called art. This expression doesn't exclude pop melody or catchiness, by any means. It's not always a drone of unlistenable sounds either (though sometimes dissonance is a beautiful expression of isolation). It's just diamond-like purity that comes after a kind of crushing existence and reflects outward the remnants of whatever "soul" is left. Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn:

"...one doesn't become an artist overnight. First you have to be crushed, annihilated. You have to be wiped out as a human being in order to be born again an individual. You have to be carbonized and mineralized in order to work upwards from the last common denominator of the self. You have to get beyond pity in order to feel from the very roots of your being."

Art is a religion, and the artist crucifies himself a little each day to find that purity of expression. And as a result, we want to be in his congregation. I'm not going to kill this metaphor too much, but if you've ever loved a great song the way I have, you know this feeling. You connect to it. It's comforting. Maybe it's a beautiful distraction. Maybe it expresses your loneliness. Maybe you feel understood or reflected back in the words or the melody or the distortion. You consume everything they put out, the B-sides, the interviews, the liner notes, their heroes and idols and influences. It's the bread at the altar, the sip of kool-aid, and as humans, we crave it. Ah, it's not a perfect analogy, I know, but if religion is a cultural, belief-driven way we feel spiritual and face our condition as mortal humans - well, doesn't music also do that in many ways?

My last note on this ridiculous metaphor: I would liken crappy mass production music to the scamming money-hungry church services on Sunday morning tv. The purity is monetized and desecrated. The comfort and spirituality, all the authenticity is gone. We can immediately see the difference in varying levels of genuine expression.

And then it gets tricky. The lines become a bit blurry when you add money to the equation. I like the idea of money. I like that it is the "tool of exchange" (Ayn Rand). It means that I don't have to barter wheat for blacksmithing or horses for haircuts. By spending money on something, it expresses our valuation of it. By being paid for our work or services, it shows someone else's valuation of what we do.

What does it mean now that the modern value of recorded music is equal to zero?

What does it mean that new venue for getting your music heard is via car commercials and inextricably binding your art to product?

My first analysis of this is to say that society's value of the music-maker has bottomed out. Maybe we are becoming...almost archaic. Maybe we've been replaced, like robots eradicating the need for factory workers on an assembly line. You can scream and cry all you like: your position is becoming extinct. You might have 40 years of training and experience on the line, but the fact is that society's value of that position has changed; do you still expect to be paid for that service? If we still (over)pay that person, we are socialists - a whole tangential argument, but the fact is we live in a capitalist society, with all its faults and flaws, and in this system, we don't pay for things we don't need or want or value. I'm not going to give my money to a horseshoemaker just because he's very good at making horseshoes. I don't need them.

Ok, well maybe we still need music - but maybe it was just overvalued before. Remember when CDs were $20 at the local Tower Records or Virgin Store? And they sucked. I mean, most CDs put out in the late 90s or early 2000s were a couple of decent songs and then filler bullshit. Enter Napster. Music is completely devalued. Not even to $15 or $10 or $5 a record - to ZERO.

We're evening out a bit now. I'll pay for a track, I'll pay for a streaming service - but not much.

So you make music. And you want someone to pay you for it? The only buyers right now are in advertising. They're looking for the new "cool" to add to their product. They mix in indie tracks like high quality dark chocolate ganache on their commercial cakes. And they'll pay well.

I call myself a starving artist, half in fun, the other half dead fucking serious. Starving for your art. It's pure. Its dreams bathe in integrity. It's beholden to no one: no asshole label execs, no weaseling managers, no stylists or critics. But it's not a fun little joyride either. It's painful and gnawing at times, it's frustrating and drives you to the edge of insanity. And then you toe the line: do you "sell" your creations because you're hungry? Or even because you're just hoping to find those few listeners who might actually genuinely enjoy what you do? People say, oh, it's just the way the music world works now, everyone does it; but I can't help but think you somehow undermine your work, even if it's just a little...

Once you sell yourself - are you an artist anymore, or just a jingle maker?

Grumpy distractions

2011-10-10T13:18:00.005-04:00

Sometimes in my idleness I like to start future unfinished projects, manifestos, songs, blogs, etc. I guess I do this to procrastinate, mostly, often venting frustrations that my wife is tired of hearing over and over again.

This one still elicits laughter every time I read back over the old posts, and I think I'm going to have a spell of activity and update it regularly, until I forget or become bored with it again.

http://grumpyhipsters.wordpress.com

Other blogs & sites that regularly entertain me!

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/
http://lefsetzletter.com/ (music business rants)
http://www.lostateminor.com/

I have a music rant boiling over in me at the moment which, when combined with a previously explored metaphor about music as religion, may materialize as a blog entry soon(ish).

I'm a Zero

2011-10-09T06:08:00.002-04:00

Very much enjoying this song these days. I have a playlist called "Dark Shit" with:

March of the Pigs (NIN)
Milk (Nirvana)
I'm Your Here I Am (covered by Whisper Doll, originally by Diane Cluck)
Zero (Smashing Pumpkins)
Ghost Rider (Suicide)
I am the Sun (Swans)

...among other angst-fueling selections.

It's no soulless cookie-cutter hipster electro pop, I assure you. Those screamy guitar solos get me every time.

A long awaited Riot Girl resurgence...

2011-02-03T11:28:00.002-05:00

I've been suspecting that a new riot girl-esque movement is on the horizon for a while...mostly because you can't go far in Brooklyn these days without running into a really fantastic female fronted or all female band / project. To name a few:

Rad Pony (electro/dance-pop)
Mitten (electro-pop)
Plastiq Passion (indie/alt)
Crazy Pills (punk/garage/rockabilly)
Tara Elliott & The Red Velvets (garage/punk)
Heliotropes (indie/grunge/psychedelic)
The Shondes (indie punk/political)
Living Days (new wave)

And of course, Shilpa Ray, oft-mentioned by me as the female incarnation of Jim Morrison...

Anyway, I've been very surprised to see so little collaboration, all female-bills, compilations, etc. I don't know if it's just the industry or competitiveness or lack of organization, but the last time Cici and I played a show it was overwhelmingly male dominated - on stage and in the audience. We got the hipster bored stare from some disinterested dude in the crowd with terrible big black framed glasses, almost punched a ridiculously dressed kid in an oversized bingo sweatshirt and tights, and despite the fact that the other musicians were very sweet (and headliners Final Club were really talented) the sausage-fest factor was a little depressing.

Here's to the first wave of the riot girl resurgence. February 6th at Death By Audio...in case you want to opt out of the testosterone battle bowl.

Link to the Bust Magazine write-up

2011: Batshit awesome

2011-01-15T13:27:00.002-05:00

Today is the last day of Clinical Trials' Enjyn campaign to raise funds for our new EP. Since drummer Cici Harrison joined the project, it's been a whirlwind of writing and exploring some new sounds. The term "grunge reggae" was certainly used at one point.

Excited yet?

We have a few older songs that you might recognize from our live set, including this somewhat um...dark track inspired by Jonestown:

White Fence (rough mix) by Clinical Trials

Also, our new shirts are available for purchase at shows and via our Bandcamp page.

More previews & news on the way!

I can't get enough of your fish hook soft skeleton love (and ampersands)

2010-02-24T09:25:00.002-05:00

On repeat...this morning and maybe forever:

Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton" , "Knives Don't Have Your Back"
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers, "A Fish Hook An Open Eye"

Highlights:
Emily's "Our Hell"
Shilpa's "What the Fuck Was I Thinking?" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"

Aside:
Maybe I need an ampersand. Clinical Trials & the Risky Autopsies. Clinical Trials & the Antidote. Somer & the WTFs. Somer & the Ampersands.

Thank you for stealing

2010-02-11T13:38:00.003-05:00

So these days I spend a lot of time hitting up bloggers to get the word out about the EP release (which we hope to follow up rather quickly with another set of recordings...stay tuned). In my Google search to see if any of these attempts at electronic PR are sticking to the proverbial wall, I came across more than a few sites like this one:

http://getalbums.ru/indie/print:page,1,249230-clinical-trials-in-the-wake-of-the-digital.html

(that's Cyrillic - love it) and this:

http://www.taringa.net/posts/musica/4605516/Clinical-Trials---In-The-Wake-Of-The-Digital-Afterlife-EP-%282.html

I find this both hilarious and a true honor. So basically someone has taken the time to "steal" the tracks (which are technically available for free, at the pay-what-you-want Bandcamp site), then re-post them for someone else to steal-download. If someone in Bulgaria thinks it's worth the time and effort...well, what a compliment, really! You know you've achieved some level of success when people start stealing your music.

Other links that come up when during a Google search for "clinical trials digital afterlife" include: stories about near death experiences; tips for managing urinary track infections; a story about a suicide bomber; and, my favorite:

"Mouse Brain Simulated on Computer"

Happy stealing to all, and to all a good computer-simulated mouse brain!

Happy 2010: Here's a free download

2010-01-13T09:57:00.002-05:00

2010: In it to win it.

They say silence is golden, but in the blogger world it's just lame. Here's to a resolution for more chatter.

In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this:

<a href="http://clinicaltrials.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-wake-of-the-digital-afterlife">Polly Got Away by Clinical Trials</a>

After too much delay and procrastinating, this is the official release of the EP I worked on while still technically a solo artist. The download is available in multiple formats, from crappy mp3 to high quality mp3 to full CD quality file.

Special thanks to Mark Damian of Trig Media, Dan Huron, Brian Speaker, Emily Hope Price, Mike DiSanto, and my supportive and awesome girlfriend (she puts up with a lot).

Cherokee Blood remix of "DiscoHeadphones"

2009-11-15T22:42:00.002-05:00

Hello friends, fans & lovers:

Our newest member and remixer extraordinaire came up with this tasty treat for you to snack on this week. It's low calorie, organic, free range, and completely carb free.

Come check us out at midnight, this Friday, November 20th, at Fontana's. I'll also be sitting in on a few songs with a hipster cover band (think Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, Muse, etc.) who plays before and after us.

It's all true. Every word.

Rock the Vote

2009-09-09T13:06:00.005-04:00

Summer is over and we're gearing up for my favorite time of year, when the days are short, the sky is dark, the weather is miserably cold, and I can disappear into my hobbit hole to be angsty. Yeah...I know I'm not right in the head.

In other news, we're in the running to be the New York Press best new emerging artist. This is maybe my least favorite kind of competition... because although we were chosen to be in the finals based on talent, it's now just a popularity contest to get your friends and family to vote on you.

And having a lot of friends has never been a strong point for me (see paragraph 1).

So when you get a chance, hop on over to the site and just scroll down to vote for Clinical Trials as your favorite friend's band...I mean "new emerging artist..."

http://nypress.com/flex-126-new-music-competition.html

If we win, this is how we'll celebrate:

In other news...this week's show:

Don Pedro's
Saturday, Sept 12th at 9pm
90 Manhattan Avenue
Bushwick NY

with Cinema, Cinema

More Boat

2009-08-31T16:37:00.008-04:00

Thought you might enjoy a few more photos from the night...courtesy of Donna Rizzo.

A sip of Vindaloo.

Every party needs a good...blood ocean.

UN:ART:IG put together this video with part of our performance and an introduction from Richard Vindaloo:

...and another of Miho Hatori's set:

The best part is at around 2:30 when some clueless creepster tries to grind on her and she punches him.

Boat Party

2009-08-31T14:36:00.007-04:00

So Saturday morning I got a few messages about this cool boat party that takes place in Bushwick. I guess someone bought and converted an old Staten Island ferry which has quickly become a hot party spot for hipsters, dance freaks, and the occasional musical act, including Miho Hatori (of Cibo Matto and Gorillaz).

As I'm filling out the RSVP form, I get a text from Dan (our drummer):

"You around tonight? Nate is trying to book us for this boat party in Bushwick."

So... the afternoon was a bit chaotic. Victor, our synth player, was in Boston. We waited a while to hear whether it was confirmed. I tried to figure out what I would need to bring for backline and who was coming with us. But the stress was so worth it.

This place is hidden on a canal in Bushwick. Partygoers RSVP to the site, get a secret location where the shuttle bus gets them, and then travel behind a junk yard and through a narrow, shoddily constructed walkway, where they are greeted with fake snow, fog, and splash off water from the above ground pool that now rests atop the ferry deck.

Rain threatened to keep the audience thin, but eventually it subsided while the band got a little tipsy and gave Dirty Santa our toy list...

Later, Donna and I flanked Julie, aka The Party Goddess:

To be honest, I thought our set was pretty sloppy and I'm pretty I forgot to say our name, but we did have a stellar time...

Flight Playlist

2009-08-19T22:02:00.002-04:00

I was in a weird mood coming back from Chicago Monday night...epic, heavy songs were on heavy rotation:

School of Seven Bells - "Iamundernodisguise"
Depeche Mode - "I Feel You"
The Arcade Fire - "My Body is a Cave"
Xiu Xiu - "I Luv the Valley OH!"
CAN - "Vitamin C"
PJ Harvey - "Plants & Rags"
Yoko Ono & Jason Pierce - "Walking on Thin Ice"

We have a huge show Friday at Shea Stadium (not THAT Shea Stadium). This new, confusingly named venue provides from multitrack recording for all who play there, so we'll be releasing the live recordings after the show. If you come by, let me know so I make sure you get a free copy...

Heat Wave

2009-08-10T17:39:00.002-04:00

Man, it is really freakin' hot in my apartment. The dog has been hiding in some secret less hot corner of the closet all day and I've been sitting in front of the fan with one of those spritzing water bottles in my underwear.

Too much sharing?

We rocked it at Staten Island this weekend. Exhibit A:

For me the highlight is the very end, thanks to AJ. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean.

We also played the Antifolk Fest last night at Sidewalk Cafe, which was a bit of a disappointing homecoming for me.... the energy just wasn't there in the beginning of the set. However, at some point you just have to say f*#% it and start your own mosh pit.

If you're interested in joining my ongoing mosh pit, come out tomorrow at 9:30ish - we're playing The Charleston on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

Oh, and I've been uploading videos from our shows to our new youtube channel:

www.youtube.com/user/clinicaltrialsmusic

I've been having a little trouble with the quality and streaming (especially when I use Safari as my browser...go figure) and a little tip I heard was that if the videos are jumpy add one of these strings to the end of the URL -

&fmt=8
&fmt=18
&mft=22

I don't know what it does, from a technical standpoint, but usually it works if your videos are jumpy or skipping. I'm here to help, people.

In the news...

2009-08-04T12:20:00.003-04:00

As we gear up for Staten Island and my glorious return to the Antifolk scene this weekend, we'd like to link to some awesome press we recently got from one super cool music blogger and the Deli Magazine's front page.

Check out Billy Suede's kind words about Clinical Trials and subscribe to his blog because it's a great way to find great new music.

We were also mentioned on The Deli Magazine's main page blog, but they move pretty fast at Deli, so by the time you read this you'll have to scroll down quite a bit to find us.

Battle Scars & Boston Fun

2009-08-03T09:45:00.000-04:00

My girlfriend says I shouldn't throw my guitar.

Glasses courtesy of Creepy Guy, who later engaged in some inappropriate back touching.

Victor loves to stand next to air conditioners.

Boston, or whatever.

That pizza was ordered around 3pm the previous evening. It slept on my air mattress...we might have spooned.

It's unclear what would cause a large circular patch of bush to turn that particular shade of reddish brown, but my guess is that there are a lot of pyros in Boston.

Somer in Somerville

2009-08-01T15:33:00.001-04:00

Yes, it appears they have pre-emptively renamed the town after me in anticipation of us rocking the #$% out of Massachusetts this evening. This will be our 8th show, I believe, and though we'll miss our bassist AJ, we'd like to wish his girlfriend a happy birthday.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to vent.

We recently played a loft party in Brooklyn. Now, the beauty of playing a loft show should be that it is laid back and fun, and the major benefit is that you're not dealing with some asshole promoter who does nothing to promote, takes 100% of the door, and complains when you don't bring enough people. We've heard about even worse situations where they treat the artists like shit and - get this - if you bring people to see you, they actually push you back OR don't even let you play! The logic of this is that your friends & fans stick around and drink, waiting for you to play. Pure exploitation.

So, after about 4 years of playing around the city, learning to avoid this situation, can you imagine the disappointment of finding that a homegrown, DIY loft space was using this same tactic? I'm not going to name names here - if you're an artist playing around NYC and you want to know who to avoid, you can email me - but we were ready to pack our equipment and bag the gig when the guy running the venue tried to push us back from 9pm to 10pm to 11pm to probably midnight since we were given excuse after excuse about why another band would be playing before us.

How can you avoid this situation? I wish I had some advice. Music + commerce are a dangerous mix.

So much to do, so little blog

2009-07-29T17:02:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a busy month, to say the least. Sure, I could have blogged a bit to update & commentate, but I was really really busy...playing too much online poker. Damn you, addictive personality!

This is what I've been up to:

And by "I," I now mean "we."

It's official: a new era of Clinical Trials has begun. Please welcome Dan LeMunyan, Victor Navarro, and AJ Annunziata. Right now we're hard at work booking shows and emailing bloggers to listen, watch, check us out. I ditched the hire-a-PR-firm idea so it's all DIY style.

After all, what else am I going to do with my life of unemployment? Play online poker!?

Future Sounds

2009-06-22T15:48:00.000-04:00

"Polly Got Away" was played in the Hot Five last week on Future Sounds! The best part was listening to the broadcast and being thoroughly blown away by the awesomeness of the tracks they played. Check out Apes of Wrath, Portugal. The Man and Band of Skulls. It was an honor to hear my track played alongside these fantastic acts.

We're playing the next Future Sounds showcase at Fontana's on July 22nd! In the meantime you should listen to woxy.com for some killer music.

Friendly Music

2009-06-07T12:34:00.000-04:00

I would like to take a moment to point out a few awesome artists who also happen to be friends. These are people who I met in person before hearing their music, but who nonetheless deserve fame, fortune, and a healthy supply of groupies.

The Significant Figures
www.thesigfigs.com
= Elliott Smith + Spoon + The Beatles

Apes & Androids
www.myspace.com/apesandandroids
= [David Bowie + Queen] / electro awesome

Spirit Elevating Brains
www.myspace.com/spiritelevatingbrains
Experimental electronic music - check back often because my friend Sebastian is constantly creating new tracks

Inflagranti
www.myspace.com/inflagranti
Perfect dance music. Sexy & cool.

Jason Conley
www.myspace.com/jasonconley
Pop ballads that you feel you already know all the words to. My personal favorite/the track I am most jealous of is "Heart Attack".

New Musics

2009-05-22T14:15:00.000-04:00

It's hard to stay on top of the music scene now that it's morphed into a massive MySpace ocean of disenchantment. Yeah, I said it. I don't have time to dig through all the hundreds of pages crap just to find one decent track from one up & coming band who really needs more time to evolve but somehow manages to catch my ear. So I subscribe to a few impressive blog of music excavation who do the work for me. And now I bring you:

My Favorites of the Favorites of My Favorite Blogs

Castrovalva - UK-bred balls-out experimental heavy rock. Makes me want to mosh on the couch.

Sea Sick - for fans of Bat for Lashes, Sea Sick has more edge - check out "XX" or "Ring of Fire."

Yonlu - this 16 year old Brazilian artist ended his own life about 12 albums too early. I get chills during "A Boy and His Tiger" when the tape speeds up... the genius of The Beatle's White Album blended with the rawness of Nick Drake.

Beth Jeans Houghton - another UK artist, but the flipside of rock. I'm not a huge folk fan - I prefer fringe folk like CocoRosie or Diane Cluck (check out "Easy to Be Around" or "I'm Your Here I Am" ) but Houghton's vocal strength and melody lines are undeniably impressive.

And that is the cream skimmed from the half and half of the 2% milk for this week. Check back for more stolen recommendations and ridiculous analogies!

Youtube killed the MTV star

2009-05-13T09:58:00.000-04:00

All the playing fields have been leveled. It's the internet world wide web digital revolution: MySpace hits, YouTube plays, Facebook friends. The system used to make you beg for the attention of a label, whose reps would make you sound more mainstream, put your face on MTV, and write a check for your album - which, by the way, was just a loan, money you would owe right off the top of your first few hundred thousand sales. And with a limited number of labels and a finite amount of MTV programming time, few could achieve the glory of getting to see themselves lip syncing to their songs on television, the highest pinnacle of fame & stardom for a budding rockstar!

Fast forward a few decades.

MTV plays reality & game shows.

The biggest selling musicians are selling a fraction of the CDs they did just a few years ago, and the numbers are getting smaller.

The music world has been democratized.

And anyone can make a music video for the internet.

I have to say, there's something missing when I watch a music video on YouTube. The size, the grainy, digitalized quality - and yes, the fact that it isn't anywhere near as glorious as the old school elitism of MTV. It's a sea of mediocrity, and even though we've seen a few YouTube "stars" break through with budget videos and viral talent, I hope there is some new replacement filter in the works, something that gives us the cream off the top and makes the mediocrity fight harder to be good....because I'd rather have a few moments of greatness than a hundred thousand hours of average.

I'll be throwing my hat into the ring soon enough! On Monday I shot footage with Julie Tseselsky, a long time friend and talented producer & editor who was visiting from L.A. Stay tuned for our YouTube link....

Electro-punk-dance explosion: Thursday in Williamsburg

2009-04-29T09:37:00.000-04:00

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.

The Music Business Rollercoaster

2009-04-23T17:15:00.000-04:00

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.

Blitz

2009-04-06T11:01:00.000-04:00

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.

Killing Yourself to Live

2009-04-01T12:26:00.000-04:00

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.

Stripes

2009-03-30T17:04:00.000-04:00

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

2009-03-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-03-20T13:23:00.000-04:00

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

2009-03-19T14:21:00.000-04:00

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

2009-03-12T19:27:00.001-04:00

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

2009-03-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

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

2009-03-06T12:53:00.000-05:00

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

2009-03-04T15:47:00.000-05:00

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

2009-03-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

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

2009-03-02T17:20:00.000-05:00

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.

Experiment 1

2009-02-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

This is a test of the emergency Clinical Trials system