Music Thread

[Viva la Ben]

Sir Ray Davies was knighted by Prince Charles today at Buckingham Palace.

[Gaucho]

[columbia]

I can't say that was aware of this offshoot of The Melvins: both Mike Patton and Dave Lombardo in on the fun.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7BfnJK3CzZY

[columbia]

Chuck Berry (RIP) Reviews Punk Songs by The Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Talking Heads & More (1980)
http://www.openculture.com/2017/03/chuc ... songs.html

[Kraftster]

Anyone hear of this Tarquin Manek dude? XMU played a 16 minute song yesterday that had a bit of a Psychic TV/Coil vibe to it.

https://soundcloud.com/ears-have-ears/e ... our-hearts

(that's the only place I can find it)

[columbia]

The world needs more cowboy funk...


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dc4n8EuK78

[Gaucho]

Did EPMD sample that bassline?

Edit: No, in fact George Michael did.

[columbia]

Someone should have.

[tifosi77]

[Viva la Ben]

Matador releasing remastered Helium albums, & new comp LP.

http://matablog.matadorrecords.com/2017 ... -reissues/

[shafnutz05]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/twilight-o ... 1490439609

It's going to be very interesting to see what the concert scene will be like in 20-30 years. I think it is highly unlikely that any of today's stars will still garner the fan interest and revenue that you see from acts like Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones, and GnR. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact that pop culture is so widespread now, as opposed to the 60s and 70s when rock stars dominated.

I have a feeling total concert revenues are going to drop off a cliff once a lot of these acts die out.

[Gaucho]

The less people listen to Billy Joel the better.

[Gaucho]

Or the fewer. Both.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

only 80s joel

[Miami Vice]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/twilight-o ... 1490439609

It's going to be very interesting to see what the concert scene will be like in 20-30 years. I think it is highly unlikely that any of today's stars will still garner the fan interest and revenue that you see from acts like Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones, and GnR. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact that pop culture is so widespread now, as opposed to the 60s and 70s when rock stars dominated.

I have a feeling total concert revenues are going to drop off a cliff once a lot of these acts die out.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently.

Rock music isn't really that popular anymore. It was codified in the 50s and 60s, grew in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and now its become so fragmented that few "rock bands" (defined here as two guitars, bass, drums, and maybe keyboard) actually try to write and record mainstream music. They've splintered into a hundred niche genres.

The electric guitar was a new invention in the mid 20th century any rock music grew with it. In the last 10 years the laptop has become the primary instrument that mainstream music revolves around.

I also think that listening to music as an activity in and of itself is not very widely practiced anymore, and certainly not by putting on an album by a single artist and listening to it enough to fall for that one artist. Kids put on a Youtube music video of Kanye and let it autoplay through the rest of the crap that makes money.

[tifosi77]

Rock music isn't really that popular anymore. It was codified in the 50s and 60s, grew in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and now its become so fragmented that few "rock bands" (defined here as two guitars, bass, drums, and maybe keyboard) actually try to write and record mainstream music. They've splintered into a hundred niche genres.

Like them or not, this is one of the reasons why I love Foo Fighters so much. They fly the rock flag.

[Miami Vice]

When I was in middle school I wanted to be Metallica. I'd watch their Year and a Half in the Life VHS and see them playing in front of all those stadiums full of people and I thought that was just so cool, to play a guitar like that and whip everyone into a frenzy.

Today it would be what, a video of David Guetta or Skrillex clicking on a laptop?

[tifosi77]

That's always been my thing about torrenting and Napster and whatnot. There are people that have musical integrity and believe in what they're doing, but you don't sign a contract with a label unless you want to be a star. That may mean different things to different people, and to some the extent of that is being able to subsist by playing music to a crowd and selling a few t-shirts. But that star making power was the value-add of the record industry (to the extent the talent ever really saw any 'value'). And the advent of the 360 deal is record companies trying to retain some semblance of relevance in a world where any schmoe can record and release an album in their spare time.

[Miami Vice]

In the summer of 2003 I was in my first "real" band and we got on some decent shows (we got to play the last show at Club Laga, which was one of coolest things I ever did). We were part of the Warped Tour scene and at that time Finch's What It Is To Burn album had been out about a year and was getting played on radio like The X.

I had a college buddy who went to high school with the guys in the band Senses Fail, who were getting really popular around that time. They were on the same label as Finch (Drive Thru, launching pad of New Found Glory, Midtown, HelloGoodbye, The Starting Line) and were touring that summer with Brand New, who had just released their second album.

My friend managed to get me introduced to Senses Fail that night and I spent about an hour talking about the music business and what life was like on Drive Thru. What shocked me, and really put everything into perspective for me, was that at that time one of the guys in Senses Fail guestimated that each member of Finch was bringing home about $50,000 a year. They're playing infront of 3,000 every night of their own tours, and playing for several times that at festivals. They're on the radio and all over MTV2, and yet they made barely more money than an entry level big four accountant.

Then theres this famous article I eventually found about how a record deal is really just a bank loan with a kabillion percent interest rate http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17

Band member net income each:
$ 4,031.25
The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month. The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never “recouped,” the band will have no leverage, and will oblige. The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won’t have earned any royalties from their T-shirts yet. Maybe the T-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.

[tifosi77]

When I first saw that Albini essay, it was like 1999 or 2000 and I was still in the music industry. Baby band boilerplate deals paid reduced royalties for CD sales ('New Technology', 50% of base rate), and a packaging deduction was charged to the recoupable royalty account for all sales, including digital downloads.... which had no packaging.

[Miami Vice]

This is another good one:

One of my favorite bands was held hostage for the better part of two years by a slick young “He’s not like a label guy at all,” A & R rep, on the basis of such a deal memo. He had failed to come through on any of his promises [something he did with similar effect to another well-known band], and so the band wanted out. Another label expressed interest, but when the A & R man was asked to release the band, he said he would need money or points, or possibly both, before he would consider it. The new label was afraid the price would be too dear, and they said no thanks. On the cusp of making their signature album, an excellent band, humiliated, broke up from the stress and the many months of inactivity.

Two bands I really liked that this happened to were The Starting Line and The Juliana Theory. They both signed with [multiple] major labels, and after signing all the people that promised them the moon had left. TSL had their major label album out for two weeks before the label essentially told them it was over and they weren't going to do anyhting else to help sell it (promote it to radio, get it into movies/tv shows, finance touring)

[Miami Vice]

So yea, 20 years ago I started playing guitar solely to try and get famous or whatever. Now I'm playing for myself and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. I spent all day Sunday listening to Curtis Mayfield Pandora and playing along to every song that came on. That's way less stressful than having a contract with Clear Channel Entertainment (now Live Nation) putting me on the hook for $1,800 in ticket sales as a local opener.

[tifosi77]

A good friend was the bass player in a band called Lo Mass Republic, and had a similar situation. They were signed to Arista and got their $250,000 advance, and went and recorded their first record up in Seattle with a Big Name producer, but the label didn't like it and wanted them to re-record it. The record was never released.

[iamjs]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ancMN5HDbo
Country Mike, of course being Mike D.

never heard of this until this morning. It's so bad that it might be good.

[Gaucho]

Birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirsty.