CBGB's Went To The Dogs

Binky Phillips of the band The Planets, wrote a loving ode to playing CBGB's at SonicBoomers.com. His band opened for the Ramones and Television, which were probably the biggest draws for the club in it's early years. Apparently Hilly Kristal, the owner, used to make burgers and chili, which Binky thought were good until he saw Hilly's dogs deposits on the kitchen floor. Needless to say, shortly after that CBGB's stopped serving food.

Howard Stern Rumors

The Wall St Journal has a well-thought out piece on Howard Stern and his next career move. There is much speculation on him taking over for Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol. This would be a very welcome addition. With the subtraction of Simon, who is the star of the show, there are few people that could slip into the role, make it his own and keep the ratings alive. Howard has said on his Sirius/XM show if they want to offer him $100 million dollars to judge a karaoke contest, he's all for it.

Speaking of American Idol, the show has really lost a lot of it's charm this year. The loss of Paula Abdul as a judge is significant. She made the contestants feel at ease. Her comments were coming from the heart and her occasional wackiness made the show great. You don't see Simon and Kara getting into scuffles. Simon seems like he's checked out of the show already. His comments are short. There is a glaring hole where his critiques used to be. Did Kara really think that Andrew Garcia's cover of Paula's Straight Up was genius as she exclaimed on TV? It's a great song and it was a nice cover. Led Zeppelin ll, Pet Sounds, London Calling, Rubber Soul-ok, there is genius, but a cover of Straight Up, not sure it lives up to her hype.

Movie Studios (Again) Ignore Recent Music Biz History

Redbox, is a service that is essentially a red box vending machine found at supermarkets, etc where a person can rent movies for as cheap as $1 a day. It's very popular and it generates income for the movie studios. It looks like the movie studios don't want people to continue to use this service on the same level they were used to. A story in TechDirt points out that Redbox finally caved into Warner Bros crazy demand that they not rent films until 28 days after the DVD is released. This is similar to the deal that Warner's made with Netflix recently. Essentially what Warner is trying to do in a very short sided way is make the consumer BUY the DVD if they want to see it as soon as it's released.

This is another completely misguided, uniformed (I say uninformed because these companies are not listening to the consumer, whom they depend on) decision by a media company. The NY Times website is going back to a limited paywall. When people are used to getting something one way for a very long time, such as renting a DVD the day it's released, not paying for the NY Times online, there is no way to go back to the well to try and find water when it's bone dry. I have a strong feeling that these decisions will come back to bite both Warner's and the NY Times.

Why is it so hard for media companies to embrace the consumer? Why do they treat them like the enemy? The recorded music industry has been alienating fans for too long now and look where it's gotten them. We rarely hear from the musicians, actors and journalists whose livelihood is most affected by it all. These companies should all take a page from indie musicians who are making a respectable living connecting with their audience and being creative about how they generate income (while giving the fans something they want). Read Marian Call's blog.

Gratefully Archived

Thanks to the Grateful Dead's longtime office manager, the band's archives are copious and will be housed at the University of California at Santa Cruz. There are scholars who study the band and have been mocked and derided by politicians for it. The Dead's organization is now being hailed as the business paradigm for the 21st century. Practices that are second nature to the Dead are now embraced by big corporations as well as indie musicians. The Atlantic's article quotes he band’s lyricist, John Perry Barlow, who became an Internet guru. As early as 1994, the band was using their philosophy to embrace new technology.


Writing in Wired in 1994, Barlow posited that in the information economy, “the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away.” As Barlow explained to me: “What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then—the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value. Adam Smith taught that the scarcer you make something, the more valuable it becomes. In the physical world, that works beautifully. But we couldn’t regulate [taping at] our shows, and you can’t online. The Internet doesn’t behave that way. But here’s the thing: if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced. That was the value proposition with the Dead.” The Dead thrived for decades, in good times and bad. In a recession, Barnes says, strategic improvisation is more important then ever. “If you’re going to survive this economic downturn, you better be able to turn on a dime,” he says. “The Dead were exemplars.” It can be only a matter of time until Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead or some similar title is flying off the shelves of airport bookstores everywhere.

Most of the archives will be posted online. They are hoping that Deadheads and others will add to the colossal amount of information and material the band has amassed. Anyone/company who wants to know how to gain fans, keep them interested, interact with them and also be profitable should look to these archives. This should be required viewing for CEOs.

The New York Historical Society will offer the first glimpse of the archives in an exhibit there from March 5th through July 4th. Along with displays of concert tickets, posters and fan mail, the exhibit will focus on the band's business savvy and refusal to adopt the same working model as the major record labels.

Snow Days

The song Snow Days has been running through my head since last night. As the song goes it's coming down in New York City. There's a blessing on the ground. When the city decided it would close the schools today I thought of Snow Days by Trip Shakespeare. The band lived in Minneapolis, so I'm sure they were used to snow days. John Munson's booming voice takes you to a day of snow, ending the in words every kid (or employee for that matter) wants to hear go home and take a snow day. The lyrics are so visual you can't help but be brought back to that time when you were a kid listening to the radio or watching TV and you heard your school was officially closed. If your road's patrolled by children/There's no order to be found.

This is a beautiful version of the song by The New Standards which is the band John started after Trip Shakespeare, after Semisonic . It's rich, it's magical, it's snowing.



John and Matt Wilson (from Trip) have a new band called The Twilight Hours . They're on the road with upcoming dates in Chicago, Milwaukee, Philly and Brooklyn.

Need a Tough Skin to Play the Halftime Show

From postings and comments I've heard during and after every Super Bowl, whoever chooses to do the Halftime Show is putting themselves in the same category as the Christians being fed to the lions in Rome. Everyone has a definite opinion on the quality of the performance. This year, I'd say the negatives win. 70% hated The Who. Thought they didn't die before they got old, Pete's voice was bad, fake windmills, Roger looked like a used car salesman, etc. About 30% said everyone watching was singing along, loved the show and The Who still have it into their sixties.

I didn't listen close enough to offer a well-informed opinion. I though the staging was perfect for TV. It worked well. There was an abundance of shots of Zak Starkey on drums. The cymbals were very cool. Directors usually ignore drummers. I guess it helps that your lineage is Beatles. I did comment that I bet this performance was amazing if you were at the stadium. It's tough to capture the excitement of a live performance on TV. Many people complained that the mix was bad. I hate medleys. I would have loved to see them do 2 full songs. Someone mentioned that Pete Townsend said in a pregame interview that he wanted to do just that and Roger wanted the medley and won.

With all the attention paid to The Who, scant comments were made on Carrie Underwood's Nation Anthem. I was listening from a distance and not in front of the TV, but it sounded like she was shouting, not singing.

My favorite halftime show was Prince. He played in the rain. He played like nothing mattered. Someone suggested having John Mayer and Keith Urban play next year. I think Urban is one of the most exciting, gifted performers today and he could rival Prince.

Six Pack Albums

Warner Music Nashville is releasing Blake Shelton's latest musical offering as a "Six Pak". On March 2nd, Hillbilly Bone will sell as a six song album (this used to be known as an EP). The album is fast becoming a thing of the past. By releasing 6 songs instead of the 10 -12 usually found on an album, the artist can get music to the fans on a regular basis (sometimes the lag between albums can break a career by losing fan momentum gained from releasing a successful album). The artist can write and record faster and the bottom line is that very few people are buying full album's worth of music. This is the way to release music right now. Read the full article in Billboard.

On Blake's website, he's selling the record as a packages with t shirts, autographed copies and fan club access. Another positive sign: he's selling the packages from his website. You don't have to go to Warner's site. Country artists are the ones leading the way these days. They are also the ones consistently writing "songs".

Peace Love & Soul

Saturday night at 9:30pm EST, VH1 will air Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America, a documentary on the Don Cornelius hosted TV show. It featured the best in soul and R&B and it aired every Saturday morning. It was required viewing along with American Bandstand. Every musician passed through both those shows.

Check out the Soul Train dancers, don't miss ReRun. You can't miss Don's tie.

Grammy's Attract It's Biggest Audience

According to today's NY Times, The Grammy Awards had their best audience in years: 25.8 million viewers. Here are some more staggering facts from the article:

These numbers were up 35 percent from the 19 million who watched the awards show last year. It dwarfed such recent awards shows as the Golden Globes (17 million) and the Emmys (13.5 million). The Grammys this year were more popular than all of the NFL Sunday night prime-time football games this season on NBC as well as Game Four of the World Series, which was played on a Sunday night.

I caught a little of the show and I came away with thinking that only country artists know how to write a song. There was lots of spectacle. Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas and Jamie Foxx all danced and gyrated with robots and other shinny things. Beats, Beats, Beats! The big number duets which have become ubiquitous, were lackluster. Lady Gaga and Elton John's take on Your Song seemed misguided. Then again, I didn't watch the whole show only a small portion, which was enough.

The Heavy Get a Rare Encore on Letterman

The Heavy are from Bath England. They look like Dave Grohl, Mick Jones (of The Clash), a young Pete Townsend and Corey Glover. How You Like Me Now sounds like James Brown meets Pig Bag. Their performance on Letterman got them an encore. They played in and out of the commercial. This song has the power that Gnarls Barkley's Crazy had.

Speaking of Mick Jones, he recently went into the studio with former band mate Topper Headon to record a version of The Clash's Jail Guitar Doors with Bill Bragg on lead. It's to benefit Billy's charity with the same name. From their website: Jail Guitar Doors is an independent initiative which aims to provide instruments to those who are using music as a means of achieving the rehabilitation of prison inmates. Founded by Billy Bragg, it takes its name from the b-side of the Clash’s 1978 single ‘Clash City Rockers’. Breaking Rocks is a documentary about the recording and the organization as well as a tour which will begin in February in the UK.

Mick can also be heard with other former band mate Paul Simonon on Gorillaz title track for their latest Plastic Beach.

10 Good Reasons To Support Musicians

Mike Masnick of techdirt.com posted about his "10 Good Reasons To Buy" presentation at Midem. He elaborated on last year's presentation which was based on his equation of Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy (CwF+RtB). He gave a short talk and the broke the audience into groups to create business models for specific musicians. (Details on this will be posted at a later date.) He gave his reasons to buy, which is not new to his readers, but worth mentioning a few. Check out the full post.

Having managed bands and seeing what a positive connection with the fans and non-believers makes, I found 2 and 3 to be solid advice that does work.

2. Attention: One of the most important scarcities in the digital age. Attention is incredibly scarce, and if you've got it, you can do a lot with it.

3. Authenticity: This one also includes "trust." The ability to be authentic carries tremendous weight and is quite scarce at times. But if you can provide something that is authentic and valuable, it's often a very strong reason to buy.

The minute an artist goes south of what his/her creative path is and starts listening to others, the authenticity is gone, the music suffers and the fans know it. Believe in yourself, that's what drew your fans to you in the first place.

Midem Panels

Midem, the music conference, is going on in France as I write. Their website offers streaming, video and live blogs of the daily events. If you have a passion for the the music business or a passing interest, take a look and watch a few panels.

There is a real lack of female presence on these panels. The recorded music industry has always been a boys club, with very few women able to crack into the top echelon. That seemed to be changing with powerful female managers and female artists taking their careers into their own hands. Is there a dearth of females in the tech area of music? Most of the panels are tech driven. Not all consumers are male, not all points of view should be male. Would love to know what the women attending Midem think.

She Loves The Jerk

The song has been covered by Rodney Crowell and Elvis Costello. Here's the original by the very prolific John Hiatt.

Is Soundscan Relevant?

Jeff Price, the founder of TuneCore has a post asking for a new way to quantify music sales. He points to a recent CNN piece The Plan to Save the Music Business. The focus of the piece is on A&M/Octone records, but it also speaks of the amount of new records released last year and those that sold more than 250,000 copies. From Jeff's blog:

"...106,000 new (music) releases in 2008" In 2009, TuneCore released approximately 90,000 releases This means, if their numbers hold true, almost every single new music release in 2009 was distributed via TuneCore.
In addition, the article went on to quote the following Neilsen statistic "Of the 63 new releases that sold more than 250,000 copies last year, 61 were issued by major music companies." Well then, according to Neilsen, there are now four major "music companies" - Sony, Warner, EMI and, according to Neilsen, TuneCore as all of the following TuneCore artists sold over 250,000 copies....and mind you, this is a not a complete list:

He goes on to list 11 acts and concludes with the following:

And what about the arbitrary concept of looking at a weeks worth of sales, why not a days, or a months, or a years? Things are moving much faster. More music is being recorded and released. Music buyers are moving faster too. Seems to me that the age-old concept of weekly album sales has lost its relevancy. It’s time to get a new system that more accurately reflects the new “IT” – and this time, its important not to consolidate the power of the reporting into the hands of one company.

Teddy Pendergrass

Sultry singer Teddy Pendergrass lost his battle with colon cancer at age 59. His career was derailed at it's peak by a car accident that left him confined to a wheelchair, although he did record and periodically performed. Originally he played drums for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and later became their lead vocalist. He forged a solo career with hits like Love TKO.

Carole King Ticket Prices Are So Far Away From Reasonable

I was looking forward to seeing Carole King. She's touring with James Taylor, which is an event. They are playing Madison Square Garden June 15th. Tickets go on sale at 11am this morning through Carole King's website.

I've been priced out of the show.

Here is a breakdown of the ticketing fees:

Base Price: $150.00 USD
Facility Fee: $4.50 USD
CaroleKing.com Service Charge: $15.00 USD
Transaction Fee: $4.00 USD
Our Price: $173.50 USD

Paying $173.50 ($23.50 of that in additional fees) for a show at the not-very intimate Garden in this economy is cost prohibitive.

The Garden is charging $4.50 a person/ticket. Capacity for a concert is 20,000, which means they are grossing $90,000 at sell out. They have to be taking a piece of the merchandise, concessions, etc. Do they also get a % of ticket fees? Does not seem like a great deal for the Garden.

Why is there a service charge and a transaction fee?
At sellout, CaroleKing.com will receive $300,000 in processing fees. Seems extreme for what is needed to execute the ticket sales. Tickets have to be picked up at the venue day of show. They are not physically sending tickets to buyers.

Not sure who gets the $4 ($80,000) transaction fee.

Once again, it seems like shows like this are a reality only for hedge fund managers. Too bad. I'm a huge fan of Carole's work. I've never seen her live and would love to, but it won't be on this tour.

I'm off my soapbox.

Saint Behind the Glass Live

I've already waxed poetically about the beauty of the song Saint Behind the Glass by Los Lobos. Here is a live version performed by the songwriters Louie Perez and David Hidalgo. Don't forget that Louie and David are playing a few east coast dates this week into next.

Harmless Pop Song, Serial Killer

When music is placed correctly in a TV show, film or commercial, it makes the piece that much better. It adds to the storyline. Music can become an additional character in the plot. Gary Calamar, the music supervisor for Dexter, among other shows, said there wasn't a grand story behind choosing Frankie Avalon's Venus for several episodes. A writer producer who wrote the script injected it into the plot.



This seemingly harmless pop song makes two significant appearances over two episodes. Arthur, played flawlessly and with serious conviction by John Lithgow, is a serial killer out to revenge his sister's death. John is so convincing as Arthur that he said that after watching a few episodes of the show with his wife, she repeatedly turned to him and said "Do I know you?". Arthur kidnaps and harbors a young boy who he perceives to be himself at that age. He was innocent then. He hadn't witnessed his sister's murder. Her favorite song was Venus. Arthur plays it on the phonograph in the basement where he keeps the boy. The 45 drops from the magnetic holder and starts to rotate. The arm moves slowly over the record to plop the needle on vinyl and we hear "Hey Venus" with the angelic background vocals ooo ooo ooo's. It's innocence. It's innocence shattered.



The song returns on the season finale. At risk of giving away anything for those who haven't seen this season (you MUST rent or buy it), the placement of the song is chilling, creepy, haunting and it will drill a hole in your brain. Venus will follow you for days, as will the events leading up to the final scene. It's a brilliant choice.

Another recent music placement that was spot on was The End Of The World by Skeeter Davis used during the closing credits on Mad Men. In the case of that show, the songs have to be timeline correct. It's a period show, set in the 60's. You have a finite list of songs to play with. This song summed up the episode and foreshadows future episodes.



I'm sure people think being a music supervisor is easy. Pick a scene from a favorite show and think about what music you would use to drive the story and convey the actions taking place. Sometimes it's knowing that there shouldn't be music. There are many an ill-placed song. This not the case with Gary Calamar's selections, which is why he is one of the best. He's worked in record stores and as a radio host. His depth and knowledge of music is far reaching. Although he didn't pick Venus, his choices are subtle (I'm partial, but his use of Brandi Shearer's Lullabies in the season premier of Dexter Season 3 was perfect) and well thought out. There was a show on ABC that was unwatchable because of the overuse and abundance of ill-informed music choice. Men In Trees was a sonic mess.

Gary's TV Show credits include Six Feet Under (Breathe Me by Sia in the series finale) , Weeds, House, True Blood, and most recently Men Of A Certain Age. The theme song for Men is the Beach Boys' When I Grow Up To Be A Man. Again, on the surface the production and the background vocals proclaiming the aging of a man 22, 23, 24, etc. make it seem like a harmless pop song. A typical Brian Wilson song is never what you think you hear on the surface. The lines "Will I love my wife/The rest of my life" convey the anxiety about growing up, which essentially is the theme of this show. Ray Romano's character is living the song. As an aside, the show's website proclaims "Every memory has a soundtrack" and you can create your own digital scrapbook to share with others. The choices you are given to create that musical scrapbook: Styx, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Whitesnake.

A Rare Tour From An Uber-Creative Duo

A rare tour by one of our country’s greatest songwriting duos graces the Northeast this month. David Hidalgo and Louie Perez, the main songwriters for Los Lobos and Latin Playboys will be playing a series of dates that encompass the breadth of their collaboration, which began in high school. “We started this musical conversation back in about 1970, and we havenʼt stopped talking,” Pérez says.

Beside several dates on the West Coast, the last time David and Louie performed outside of Lobos was with Latin Playboys. Those performances were a remarkable mix of creativity, stellar musicianship and excitement.

The shows this month will have an interactive flavor. The duo takes audience questions and if they’re open to requests, I’ll put mine in now for the NY show: Peace. Making it a family affair, David’s sons, David Jr. on percussion and Vincent on bass will be joining their father and Louie. The show will have a local moderator. In New York, Rita Houston of WFUV is set to the take on the role.

In conjunction with the tour, the guys will be releasing The Long Goodbye. This collection of previously unreleased recordings (with the exception of Take My Hand) might be considered an album of love songs. The music is at it’s basic, letting the songs “sing for themselves”.

Exploring the roots of American music has always been paramount in David and Louie’s songs, so it’s no surprise that this album embodies country, R&B, rock, soul, jazz and tejano.
Louie and David know how to combine musical genres better than anyone. They mix genres up, blend them together, twist 'em around and create a masterpiece. If you’ve never listened to Kiko the entire way through, do it right now.

The opening song What Good Is Love is a rocker. It’s defiant. It’s in your face. The rhythm of the acoustic guitar drives it. I would love to hear Keith Urban get his hands on this one. Don’t You Know brings to mind John Fogerty/Creedence. It could bookend the Lobos gem A Matter of Time.

I heard the original demo of Cure For Love, when it was presented to Bonnie Raitt, who wound up recording it for her 1998 album Fundamental. I remember thinking: wow an obvious love song from David and Louie. It blew me away. David’s unmistakable guitar and background vocals grace Bonnie’s version. Fellow Latin Playboys bandmates Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake produced that album. It’s a sexy track. Bonnie sings it with a bold attitude. David and Louie’s version takes a more soulful, Marvin Gaye approach. As with many of the songs on The Long Goodbye, it’s filled with the pain of a love gone away, whether real or impending. The song begins with You bring me roses/You give me kisses and ends with When the phone rings/no one answers. The letters comeback saying/"Lover cannot be found". Have they have been hording all those “obvious love songs” for this album?

The upbeat, get off your feet and dance track is Till The Hands Fall Off The Clock. I can see the crowd rising as they do with the first notes of Anselm at a Lobos show. The immense amount of fun one is having with a newfound love is evident in this song about not wanting the night to end.
Well there's nowhere else to go And no one will ever know And we'll dance this way till the hands fall off the clock

Leading up to and preparing us for the title track is a magical, visual spoken word piece from Louie called 1964. His childhood, his family and his neighborhood are remembered in a loving embrace. Then there is a moment that changes things. There may be a long goodbye involved. Life goes on. We grow up, but we never forget that loving embrace. It’s what makes us who we are.

David and Louie are aptly playing the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center on January 15th. No one embodies more of the American experience in their songs than David Hidalgo and Louie Perez.

Tour Dates:
01/14/10 Boulton Center Bay Shore, NY
01/15/10 Lincoln Center For Performing Arts New York, NY
01/16/10 South Orange PAC South Orange, NJ
01/17/10 Tupelo Music Hall Londonderry, NH

The Crash of the Record Labels in the Digital Age

If you have any questions on why the major record labels are faltering, read Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash Of The Recording Industry in the Digital Age. It’s well organized, well researched and well written. It’s a page-turner! It’s not a lament about piracy killing the business. In fact, the author, Steve Knopper (a contributing editor for Rolling Stone) barely uses that as a reason for the destruction. He confirms what hit me in the mid 1990’s: the major labels were always about 3 years behind technology, which probably increased to about 8 years behind as the 1990’s became the 2000’s. The unwillingness or arrogance to embrace anything outside their business model (which is rooted in the 1950’s) has led to the downfall.

The book traces the labels troubles beginning in 1979, which is about the time I started to get my feet wet in the music business. Disco was selling. People seemed to love it and the lifestyle or hate it. Steve Dahl, a DJ from Chicago lived the Disco Sucks credo. With the help of Mike Veeck, son of the White Sox owner, he organized a death to disco promotion at Comiskey Park. Anyone bringing a disco album to the game on July 12, 1979, got into the park for 98 cents. 59.000 fans showed up for the game. Crates of disco records were “blowed up real good” in the words of Dahl, fans rushed onto the field. This ignited the fire that would kill disco. Here’s the shocking news of what that meant to major labels: Sales plummeted by almost 11 percent in 1979 after 10 years of growth. Casablanca Records (Donna Summer and Kiss) founded by the big spending, lavish lifestyle lover Neil Bogart, was probably the biggest casualty. PolyGram purchased half of Casablanca for $10 million in 1977. As seems to be common practice, a label pays high and comes in on the end of a trend. Labels seem to think the wave will never crash to the shore. Besides out of control spending, Casablanca had no problem shipping way more product to stores than was needed. Of course unsold product got shipped back to the label. In 1978, fueled by the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the recorded music industry brought in $4.1 billion in sales. The anti-disco trend sent the business into a tailspin from 1979-1982. PolyGram spent years cleaning up a $30 million Casablanca mess. CBS Records laid off 2000 employees.

In 1982 Michael Jackson released Thriller. It can be argued that he single handedly saved the business. Walter Yetnikoff described by one as “the bearded, Yiddish, smack-talking dervish” was chairman of CBS. Knopper beautifully weaves the story of Yetnikoff into the advent of MTV, which issued a new round of life support for the business, even though MTV would wind up reaping huge benefits, while getting the labels to pay for their programming. Labels covered expenses (which were billed back to the artists) for the making of the videos and provided them and access to their artists for no fees. It was considered “for promotional purposes”. They were giving away free content. Something the labels haven’t grasped when it comes to file sharing.

The advent of the Compact Disc is a fascinating tale. Knopper takes it from its infancy as James Russell experiments with the technology behind the CD in 1965 to convincing the major labels (as well as recording engineers) that the CD would be as a new source for selling music. In 1981 it took Marc Finer (product communications manager) of Sony to play a CD of Billy Joel’s Honesty to label heads to break the wall of resistance to the CD. Those running the labels finally “got it”. Now there was a way to charge more for an album and charge back higher production costs to the artists for this new technology, therefore garnering higher profits for the label. Production costs quickly lessened for the labels, but this was never reflected in artists’ bottom lines. For this chapter alone, it’s worth reading the book.

Throughout Appetite, there is a six part series outlining “Big Music’s Big Mistakes”. They run the gamut from The CD Longbox to Independent Radio Promotion to the final blow, Sony BMG’s Rootkit.

As they say history repeats itself and it’s never more evident in this book. The teen pop bubble is another trend the industry thought wouldn’t end. Napster is the new technology that is ignored. It took an outsider to make digital music sales work: Steve Jobs and Apple get it right with the iPod and iTunes, once again taking a huge chunk of profit out of the labels (and artists) hands.

Knopper considers the future. Artists are now taking their careers in their own hands and it's working, ie Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails. Noted that they did have the benefit of a label to launch their career. Subscription services would probably be the most lucrative for the labels if they want to hang on. 360 deals are examined. The label that makes this deal receives a percentage of all the artists income for an advance and a record deal. The point that is overlooked in these deals is that the label is not equipped to handle the other aspects of the artists’ career to warrant that extra money. They are not in the touring, management or merchandise business. Companies like Live Nation are signing artists such as Madonna and Shakira to these contracts and are revamping their staff to handle such things as product endorsement pitches. I don’t think anyone knows the fate of the labels, but as Knopper points out repeatedly in the book, unless they are willing to move into the 21^st Century, this could be the beginning of the end of record labels as we’ve known them.

Happy New Year!

Here's to a year of unprecedented creativity!

Fairy Tales For The Ears

It’s not always easy for a musician to make music the way she/he hears it. If there is a record label behind an artist, the label, as well as the artist have an idea of the kind of record they want to make. Those two camps don’t always agree and the label is usually not shy about enforcing their vision with the artist. Lisa Germano has recorded for major record labels and independent ones. She has never compromised her vision. Listening to several of her records reminded me of that. Her most recent is Magic neighbor. I was spoke with her last week about the record, collaborating with other musicians and Oxfam.

Lisa first came to my attention when she performed violin with John Mellencamp. We worked with her at Side One Management on her debut album, On The Way Down From the Moon Palace. The first single was the wonderfully whimsy and droll You Make Me Want To Wear Dresses.

If it is possible to do a valid remake of Valley Of The Dolls (not sure that anyone can top the 1967 epic), Lisa’s music would be the perfect soundtrack. It has a childlike feel of wonderment, yet the lyrical themes are very adult. It’s lilting, haunting, melancholic and upbeat. It’s very cinematic. It’s visual in an audio format. When told that, Lisa acknowledged that “People tell me this often, but I can't say why. I am not influenced by film scores as far as I know. I do love movies and I love when the music fits perfectly. I think my music is more like little stories, maybe fairy tales and those are also visual when you read them.”

Magic neighbor is comprised of fairy tales for the ears. The leadoff track is marypan, a beautiful, yet short musical interlude. Lisa notes that “I've had this little song for awhile and it was even shorter, just one time through …a nice moment, a breath. When recording it, Jamie (Candiloro) suggested playing it through again with the addition of the pedal steel. I'm glad we made it longer. It didn't need to be turned into a song with lyrics, as it felt fine as a melody.”

In another instrumental, the fairy tale-like kitty train, the piano is reminiscent of hearing your music teacher playing piano at a school recital. It’s a song that Lisa often plays on the piano. “Sometimes when I practice, I need a break from my voice. I get tired of hearing it. A simple piano song is helpful for this break.” Lisa loves cats so it’s no surprise that she pays homage to them in this song. “I changed kitty train a bit when recording it since it was reminiscent of my three cats who come rushing into the kitchen all in a row like a train waiting for their breakfast so I made the tempo change like a train: starting and slowing down and starting again.”

While Lisa's music is beautiful, the lyrics and themes do take on mature matter. There is a recurring message in the songs on Magic neighbor of wanting to enjoy the moment and if it’s not working start the relationship over. Women can easily relate to what she’s saying, although may not always heed the advice. Lisa said she doesn’t write with women in mind. She did get some strong male reaction when she released geek the girl several years ago. “I got reviews from men who thought I was a real hard-lined 'I hate men’ woman...which I'm not. At the same time I received more gay fan mail from men who thanked me for this record as they related to it. It was pretty cool.”

a million times is about coming to terms with the fact that maybe the person you’re with is not who your thought (or who you wanted him to be) he was, but living in denial. Unfortunately, too many people have lived this scene at least once.

we fell in love and we were caught

inside this game we call “together”

and it felt good until we found

we had more fun when we were strangers

Besides being lyrically intriguing, a million times also has interesting percussion and guitar. The production is spot on. “I wanted the song to be monotonous as the actions of the lyrics suggest, so it needed to be a bit boring but it also needed a kick to say ‘What? Again? OK’ To emphasize the mundane, Lisa used an everyday item, but it didn’t exactly end up sounding the way she envisioned it. “I did want it to be even weirder, like when the vacuum machine turns on every chorus. I really wanted you to hear that it was a vacuum machine, cleaning the house yet again, but on pro tools since it already had a lot on it, there's only so much space. You can't really tell it's a vacuum. The percussion had to be things in the house to hit, lots of simple things like spoons, glasses, stuff at the home where you keep repeating your actions a million times”

The guitar in simple brings to mind the Kink’s song Lola. Lisa doesn’t have any connection between the two songs, but said “simple just needed to feel heavy because of the self indulgence and the weight that is on your mind and then it needed some irony so the circusy recorders on the chorus could help make fun of this self indulgence. You can look at it easier.”

There doesn’t seem to be another musician out there with such captivating song and album titles ((lullaby for liquid pig, dream glasses off, you make me want to wear dresses, Magic neighbor, on the way down from the moon palace). Many times the titles do not appear in the songs lyrics. “Song titles to me are what the song is about in general. Sometimes it's simple and sometimes it's the same as writing the song, which might need stripping away of a lot of the obvious to get to the heart of the song: what is it actually about. Sometimes the titles don't come until much later for me. Like to the mighty one. It was titled it's a beautiful day, but for me I knew there was some deeper meaning to the song. Do you know how many songs there are in the world called a beautiful day? LOTS. My cat Lou was fighting cancer, as well as people I knew that had cancer... and I was fighting my bad side so I titled it to the mighty one. The song is about fighting your demons and at least trying to take control as much as you can overthings you have little control over except for a huge try. These are the mighty ones and the beautiful day could be just one day.

“Magic” in Magic neighbor is the only capitalized word of Lisa’s song titles. “Every time I see my name or titles of my songs capitalized it just simply feels wrong. It's too big...missing an intimacy for me. But Magic neighbor felt wrong in all lower case. Somehow it needed the Magic to be big because it takes Magic to deal with the horrible unconsciousness that it takes to put two cats to sleep when they aren't even sick, which my neighbor did and how this can lead to blowing up people and fighting stupid wars...boom boom.”

Being a fan of album artwork, she isn’t happy about the digital age making it somewhat a think of the past. “I love a record with artwork to help the whole concept and these days people don’t seem to care about it so much. I want a cd to hold and love. It’s always a gift when people give you their art. Dean (he did the artwork for Magic neighborhood) is a friend of Neil Finn and my friend Tchad Blake. I've known him for years. When I decided to put this record out I contacted him cause his paintings are amazing and make me feel so much. He let me use anything I wanted for free. Check him out : deanbuchanan.co.nz”

Besides John Mellencamp, Lisa has played with a list of amazing musician including Neil Finn, Johnny Marr, eels, Sebastian Steinberg and Latin Playboys. I remember getting chills hearing and seeing her and David Hidalgo face off on stage during one of those all too rare Latin Playboys shows. She considers herself “the luckiest person ever” to be playing with these artists. “They are drawn to me which I struggle to understand but which also gives me confidence that there is something to my music when I feel insecure.”

7 Worlds Collide, The Sun Came Out is a collaborative record spearheaded by Neil Finn. Proceeds from the sale of the record benefit Oxfam. Lisa recorded and wrote Reptile for the album. “I got involved with 7 Worlds Collide back in 2001 when Neil got a bunch of people together to create a band that did some shows before they would break up. It was friends he had met through the years who didn't know each other but knew Neil and it was an amazing experience. We all have been on him to do it again.

Finally he had an idea how to do it but do it differently: get everyone together in New Zealand and in 3 weeks record a record for Oxfam. Everyone on the first 7 Worlds came except for Eddy Vedder, who just had a child. There was the addition of some new friends such as Wilco and KT Tunstall. Everyone came with their families and it was huge and crazy with all the energy around. Since everyone was performing with each other and pretty busy I decided to use Jeff Tweedy's boy Spencer as my main drummer on Reptile. We recorded it with him, Seabstian on bass, Glenn Kotche on percussion and me on guitar and got it in one take. All the kids (Jeff Tweedy and Johnny Marr’s children) were around having fun but rather bored so I decided to have them come in and sing the chorus. It was great fun and I think the songshows this especially with Neil at the end playing a marimba that was in the room. The kids were singing with a big smiles on their faces...good stuff!”

Looks like there be some live performances for Lisa in 2010. “I am planning a 10 or so day tour with Boybrain in Europe at the end of March beginning of April. Philip Selway of Radiohead has made a record under the name Boybrain which should be out early next year. To make the record, he put a band together of people he knew from this last 7 Worlds Collide experience with Sebastian Steinberg from Soul Coughing, Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone from Wilco and me. On tour it'll probably just be me, Sebastian and Philip doing some of his music and some of mine. 7 Worlds may be at SXSW in some form...still being worked on. If Lisa performs anywhere near you, make sure you get to her show. You'll count your Magic stars.

$500 YouTube Video Nets Director Hollywood Deal

Panic Attack, a 5 minute movie made for $500, has Hollywood opening their pocketbooks. Federico Alvarez runs a post-production visual effects house in Uruguay and is the director. He worked on the project in his spare time according to newslite.tv. He has been given millions of dollars by a Hollywood production company for a bigger project and would work with Sam Raimi says Cinema Blend.

It's all about getting your work in front of people. If you keep it under a bushel, it will stay there. You not only have to build it, but you have to set it free. Reap the rewards later.

Not Exactly What They've Been Listening To

Arbitron has been monitoring people's listening habits for years. Their method was for listeners to record their habits in a book and send it in. Radio stations use this data for everything from advertising rates to changing formats if the ratings aren't there. For the past year, Arbitron has been using electronic monitoring systems called the Portable People Meters and needless to say, there are some results that vary from the old paper diary method.

The NY Times talks about these glaring difference. Men were thought to make up 34.7 percent of the soft rock listeners. Well it turns out they may have been closeted Air Supply fans. The new report puts the men at 40.1 percent of the audience. Taking a blow are the classical music stations. Their market share fell 10.7 percent. Talk radio also had a hit with their audience down 2.6 percent. 80% of talk radio is conservative.

I guess every once in awhile guys need an Christopher Cross fix.

Govt gets inovlved in saving Hollywood from piracy

Is this really where our government should be spending $30 million? According to a post on Cynopsis:

The U.S. government earmarked $30 million in new funding to help track down and prosecute piracy of Hollywood content. The funds are part of the Omnibus Appropriations Conference report, targeted for personnel and programs authorized by last year's bipartisan Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act and will be divvied up as such: $20 million will be allocated in state and local economic, high tech and internet crime prevention grants; $8 million will be used to put FBI agents on the case targeting IP crimes; and $2 million will be reserved for new Dept. of Justice IP prosecutorial activities. MPAA CEO Dan Glickman released a statement thanking Congress and calling attention to the impact piracy has on industry jobs. The MPAA and RIAA also praised this year's "Operation Holiday Hoax," launched by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a task force dubbed the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.

There are so many other worthy causes out there (first and foremost the high number of unemployed people) that our government should be focusing on. If the film industry had taken any notes on how badly the major record labels handled the digital age, they would not be in a position to need $30 million to fight piracy. Note: piracy is not why your industry is flailing.

Vevo: Music Video Content All In One Place?

Universal, Sony and YouTube are partners in Vevo. The two record labels are trying to control how their content is presented (and I'm sure monetized) on the web. They have created Vevo to be the destination for music. A few results are in and they are not promising. Read Fred Wilson's review.

Kinks To Be Celluloid Heroes

NME is reporting that director Julien Temple will be involved in a biopic of The Kinks. The film will explore the love/hate relationship between brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are the founding members of the band. Screendaily adds that Ray Davis is working with Temple. The film is tentatively titled You Really Got Me.

Royalty Statement Fiction

Tim Quirk, a member of Too Much Joy is also a music industry executive with Rhapsody. He had been trying for years to get an accurate royalty statement from Warner Brothers Records for the records the band released on that label. Although he knew the band was not recouped (paid back all the advances given by the label), he did not see one digital royalty listed. Being that he worked at Rhapsody, he had access to the Too Much Joy account there and was able to see what they were making and what was paid to the label.

In his blog, Tim details his experience dealing with Warner Bros accounting. This is a pretty common scenario and I've spoken many time about artists I've worked with who have sold over 1 million units a title and never saw a dime in royalties from the label. Tim points out that the label makes money on many bands that never recoup. Bands usually receive between 10-18% of the retail selling price. That money goes to recouping the advance. The bulk of the money goes to the labels. What Tim doesn't mention is that the labels often bill unapproved expenses to the artist. In most cases the musician's contract does not specify that they need to get approval for spending. Labels can spend tens of thousands of dollars on radio promotion (yes that includes gifts for programmers, giveaways and promotional items), crazy marketing ideas (let's put the band's name on a hot air balloon for $6,000) and dinners with the band. It's not limited to these things, but the spending builds. I've yet to see a truly transparent royalty statement. Tim astutely notes that if they accurately report to the bands that don't recoup, they have to do the same to those that do recoup and that means shelling out more money than they want to. If they can afford it (it's very costly), an artist can audit the label. From what I've heard from managers, there is always money to be found.

Top Ten Lists of 2009

The Top Ten Lists are popping up everywhere. David Dye (longtime host of World Cafe) notes that his list is of the moment. Ask him to list the songs at another point in the year and his choices might be different. I wonder how many journalists and djs look back on their past lists and say "what was I thinking?" Music can endure and it can also hit a momentary chord (pun intended). Sometimes a beat can intrigue, sometimes it's a melody. No matter how, why or for how long the music affects you, it has to be an honor for a musician to see her/his work be singled out from the increasing myriad of music that gets released each year. When Los Lobos released Kiko in 1992, it was staggeringly wonderful to see the amount of people that had it in their top 10 of that year. It was a well deserved crown on an enduring, classic album.

Art From Art

Art comes in many forms. Taking existing art (album covers) and creating new art (coffee table), is a specialty of BugHouse. They are an art and design company based in LA. I probably have enough lps to make 4 coffee tables.

Amanda Palmer Chats with Her Audience

Hypebot has a recap of an Amanda Palmer show at the State Theatre. She came out before the opening act to answer questions from the audience. The crowd was aware of the agenda before they came to the show. It's all about artists connecting with fans. The writer explains that he left the venue just before 1am and Amanda was still at the merch table chatting with them. Dedication + Talent = Great Satisfaction.

Carl Kasell retiring, but Wait, Wait...

Carl will still leave his voice on your answering machine if you answer two of the three questions right on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, but he won't be delivering your NPR news. The familiar voice will retire at the end of 2009 after 30 years with Morning Edition.

Free Music Websites Can No Longer Exist

I've been reading so much about the high fees major record labels are charging legitimate music licensing websites that play music for free. Wired has summed up the many stories I've been hearing in one article. Ad supported music sites can't keep up with the licensing payment. The piece sites MySpace Music, imeem, MOG (had to implement a $5 a month subscription fee), Spotify (which might not be able to launch here in the same fashion it did in the UK) and Google who are all losing or plan to lose money due to the fees owed the music companies. YouTube is the only licensed, free, on-demand music service that should break even. If these sites shut down, it would narrow the ever shortening playing field to an even more select group of places to hear music.

Mariah Carey Takes on the Major Record Labels

Mariah Carey on record labels: “Frickin’ idiots! Big, powerful music-industry executives made a giant mistake, and now we’re all paying the price. Frickin’ idiots!” Read the article in timesonline.

It also talks about her deal with Elle Magazine. You get the issue dedicated to her if you buy her new album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. She commandeers the issue. The article states She and her record company, Island Def Jam, part of Universal Music Group, sold the ads (in this issue) for up to $100,000 a page, making far more than the peppercorn Elle was paid to produce the magazine. “I can’t tell you how little money we made on this,” says Carol Smith, the chief brand officer of Elle, ruefully. She also covers Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is.

Jody Denberg, the Soul of Austin Radio

Since KGSR's beginning in 1990, Jody Denberg has literally been the voice of Austin. He's leaving the station after 19 years for a charge of the creative battery. He was always a supporter and fan of the musicians I worked with. He will leave a large hole in radio. His fans are numerous, which is apparent from the postings on Austin360.com.

2000 Year Old Man Reissued

Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks created the 2000 Year Old Man 60 years ago and Shout Factory! is reissuing it this month. The two spoke with the NY Times. It's a back and forth with two great friends who still have their comic edge.

Carole King & James Taylor to Tour

The only US date posted so far is the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on May 16th. Tickets go on sale for that show on Nov 23rd. It's a reunion commemorating their first show together in 1969 at the Troubadour. Carole King's website has the full press release.

Hypebot plays the game of casting the upcoming HBO movie based on Rolling Stone journalist Steve Knopper's "Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age".

The most amusing of the suggestions is Danny Boneduce to play Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Suing Bon Jovi and MLB: Titles Were Similar

Tech Dirt posted yet another ridiculous claim from a Red Sox fan who is suing Bon Jovi and MLB for stealing his idea. He wrote a song called "(Man I Really) Love this Team" in 2004 and claims he gave it to Red Sox officials. When Bon Jovi wrote and recorded "I Love This Town", which was used by MLB in 2007, he felt he has a claim to it. The songs apparently sound nothing alike and the district court threw out the case. He doesn't stop there, he has appealed and is asking for $400 BILLION. Someone is not grounded in any reality. Another waste of court time, lawyers and money, not to mention tons of frustration for MLB and Bon Jovi.

Add Some Music To Your Day

They did in Stockholm.

Sonny Gets His Share

Forgotten gems turn up when you're cleaning. I came across Bonograph: Sonny Gets His Share. This CD pays tribute to the musical genius of Sonny Bono. There are covers of songs he wrote by Flat Duo Jets, Scott McCaughey, The Skeletons, Peter Holsapple and Ben Vaughn. Perhaps the most haunting song Sonny wrote, gets a haunting treatment: You Better Sit Down Kids is performed by What Else featuring Jim Babjak and Dennis Diken of the Smithereens and the latter also of Dennis Diken and Bell Sounds. The pounding of drums accentuates the spoken lyrics. It's driving home the message: hey kids divorce isn't pretty. It's the facts. The narrator/father is blunt, to the point and not mincing words. By the end of the version you might think the father has gone mad. Taking a song and turning it upside down is probably one of the greatest compliments to a songwriter.

A father is telling his kids that he and their mother are divorcing, a taboo subject in 1967 and still a strange topic for a top 10 hit. Cher took it to #9. Her version is eerie as the lyrics weren't changed to reflect a female singer. She's singing lines like "Your mother is staying and I'm going away." The production is varied. There are musical interludes that sound reminiscent of "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" the Shangri-La's hit, which preceded this song by 3 years. The lines "Say your prayers before you go to bed/Make sure you get yourself to school on time" are sung with urgency and speed. The ending is a blizzard of music: A foreshadowing of the chaos in the family? The staging of Cher's performance on a 1960's TV show is creepy. Why the cuts to mannequins of children? The song begins about 1 minute into the video.


Sonny faced realities in his music. Laugh At Me, his only solo hit (brilliantly covered by Mott the Hoople), was a protest song. "What do they care, about the clothes I wear?/Why get their kicks from making fun." He was famous for his fur vests and if people didn't like it, tough.
"So I don't care
Let 'em laugh at me
If that's the fare
I have to pay to be free
then baby
Laugh at me, and I'll cry for you
and I'll pray for you."

No grudges held. Sonny was too good a songwriter for that.



The Boss Divulging All?

The NY Post seems to think so. The Post claims that Bruce Springsteen is quietly working on his autobiography and kept voluminous journals throughout his career.

Dane Cook

I knew nothing about Dane Cook, except that he was a comedian, until I heard him on Howard Stern this morning. Musicians trying to make a name for themselves could take a page from his book. When his career was stalled at age 27, he decided to post video of himself whether it be from a club gig or a unfinished joke on his website and MySpace page. He said he originally had 9 followers and he knew their names. He kept adding to that 9 and at the height of MySpace, he had 2.5 million followers. He's hosting a show at Madison Square Garden tonight and he's made several movies. If you keep at your craft and you're dedicated and consistent, it will happen.

He also talked about his half-brother who is in jail for allegedly stealing what Dane estimates to be $11 million from him while his brother served as his manager. The brother is awaiting trial. Dane's career continues to pick up steam.

You Gotta Love Guster

Guster has been engaging their fans for years. They are on tour performing their Lost and Gone Forever album in it's entirety. They're also giving away tickets via video clues on YouTube or Twitter. They are entertaining. Do they spend late nights on the bus coming up with creative ideas to get fans involved? You Gotta Love Guster!