Art & Commerce: Part I

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

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

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...

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

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)

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

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!