Stuff I Wrote On The Internet: MO1O Review

Mess and Noise review of this CDr release found here.

Stuff I Wrote On The Internet: Brand New Review

Review of Brand New’s album Daisy on The Vine.

Stuff I Wrote On The Internet: Giants Of Science Review

My first review for Mess & Noise. Read here.

Stuff I Wrote On The Internet: Talons Review

True story: I reviewed the debut album by Sydney group Talons for The Vine.

Dave Graney VS The Greatest of All Time

One of the first times I ever went to Melbourne on tour, I was lost and almost unloaded my band’s stuff into the wrong pub. It was a regular looking shit-stained Victorian drinking establishment and thus was exactly the sort of place my band would be playing at that point. I only knew it was the wrong place because when I went inside Dave Graney was in there setting up. And for some reason, from that moment onward I’ve always liked the guy. He strikes me as someone who can dance with shit on his shoes. It may not be totally rational, I can’t say I’ve ever listened to his music much, but there it is.

His writing for Mess&Noise, on the otherhand, is something I’m well acquainted with. He’s fearless and without fear in music-writing, the tone is not one of anger – that’s for noobs – no, fearlessness brings casual dismissal and honest, subjective opinion. I don’t think this fearlessness of his has been more apparent than in his latest column: Not-So-Hottest 100 Pt 1; a very casual, funny assessment of Triple J’s recent sausage party / popularity contest. Go read it.

And who’d have thought it: he seems to like metal. Except Guns and Roses. I don’t want to have too many spoilers here but how can you not love a man who describes GnR as such: Joke act. Shit singer, dopey guitarist. I dream of being so brutally succinct.

20 Years of ‘My Pal’

Some things don’t change because they don’t need to change:

1988 (God):

2008 (Violent Soho):

Don’t / Do Leave Without A CD

I occasionally receive emails from Derek Sivers, the guy who founded (and later onsold) CD Baby where I sell the No Anchor albums online.* At times Silvers gives off all the hall-marks of the entrepreneurial mindset that seems entrenched in American independent music: he talks about marketing and business as though artistic intent is either assured or irrelevant. It doesn’t bother me but it’s not my style at all.

But a recent post of his caught my eye: http://sivers.org/livecd

There Sivers advocates musicians making an emotional plea to an audience to ‘Don’t leave without a CD’ even if said CD is collected from the merch table free of charge. It’s not a particularly new or innovative idea at this stage of the game but one that has dragged in more than a few comments.

That page of Sivers doesn’t feel like the right spot to way into the debate on an ideological level, so I’ll do it here. To me, this model presents one central dilemma:

1. Is it honest? Can the average band make a sincere offer to the punters to just take the stuff if  they can’t afford it? I’m not sure I can. Maybe it’s the junior economist in me (circa 96 – 2001) and the post-grad pinko in me (circa 2002 – present) that makes me think that an exchange price of zero isn’t one that values my labour. Not a huge issue in music production of course…until  that exact moment of saying to Joe or Josephine Punter “I want you to pay what you can” where it becomes a total, unadulterated lie. I don’t want people at my shows to pay what they can. The recordings were not created and manufactured under such laissez-faire conditions and to pretend they were makes a fool and a flake out of everyone involved. It is – on the night – grossly insincere. But…
2. If over the longer term such a model of distribution works, then it’s not insincere. If, for instance, you tried this and people responded in kind and eventually the cost of manufacturing and labour was recovered – then there is no untruth in saying “You pay what you want because I’m confident the market will look after my art.” If there is that confidence, having an undesignated album price probably fits my vibe better than the usual price = cost of production model I use now.

If only I was as confident as someone who lived in America? Where the cities are many and so close together. Or should I be anyway? I’m going to let it stew.

Til then, it’s $15 for a hand-made full-length album and worth every cent.

* I use CD Baby because the service is off the chart. In an age of automated everything, CD Baby is still very hands on. You buy something from there – you get a confirmation email from a real person. And it’s fast, neat and efficient, even to Australia. I don’t love that my stuff is stocked there in amongst 10 billion other terrible records by Robber’s Dog (that’s the musical equivalent of Joe Blow) but I’ll wear that in light of the benefits.

Red Threads (The Nation Blue / Sonic Boom / FSS)

1. The Nation Blue destroyed on Friday night. A bunch of my friends walked out; it’s one of the things I love about TNB, they still completely divide people. You’re either up the front screaming yourself hoarse or you’re headed towards the door. On friday night when they pummelled down into a half-speed version of Damnation and turned it into ‘Babycakes’ by Magic Dirt, I was home. It was all my favourite things at once.
2. Ambrose Chapel (that’s me) played Tom Hall’s monthly Sonic Boom series last night. It’s the last of the year. So long favourite night of the month. It’s been a good year of rad, unrepeating line-ups, hosted in a house down the road for free. Doesn’t get much more pure than that. Doesn’t need to.
3. FSS (Flingco Sound System) is proving itself to be one of the more interesting labels around at the moment. (I love their vinyl + digital album delivery model). Today I sat down with a freshly minted copy of Eurostopodus Argus/Crypsis by bleak metal act Grief No Absolution (pictured). Split across a 10″ and a 7″ – the later is a sharp little fucker, the former a super dense layer of menacing fog – it’s a great package and beautifully presented. Go check it out.

Stuff I Wrote On The Internet: Telekinesis! Review

Telekinesis is a guy from Seattle. He’s good at what he does (i.e. making pop music). Read my review over at The Vine and listen here.

The Future of Music ANSWERED!

For years on end, on a research payroll and off, I have thought about the future of music.

I have considered the digital revolution, Web 2.0, P2P, bit torrents, the vinyl revival, formats (the single vs the album, the CD vs the MP3, and on and on), monetisation, clouds, distribution, streaming, stealing, marketing, blogging, listening, webcasting, producing, gatekeeping, managing, streamlining, cross-platforming and consuming. There have been highs and lows, flashpoints and floods, failures and near successes. But…

Really, why bother? There are only three concrete facts.

In the future:

1. High quality music artists will do what they need to do.
2. Mediocre music artists will do what the market wants them to do.
3. Music listeners will do whatever pleases them (including the cessation of listening).

Ergh, so that’s that I guess. Can we talk about something else now?