"52 Ways to Screw an Artist, by Warner Bros. Records": http://bit.ly/UqoEH8
Their maps may suck, but at least they're honest.
Yup, that's what pisses me off. All the people suing Apple for its iTunes accounting practices, claiming they've been screwed. You know Apple, famous for paying late, if at all. Never honoring a deal. Forcing you to audit and then settle for less than you deserve.
They've been selling tracks at the iTunes Store since 2003. Apps, books and movies thereafter. And I've never ever heard anyone complain about the accounting, no one to my knowledge has ever sued. They may complain about retail pricing, but a deal's a deal.
A deal is never a deal in the music business.
It's just a starting point, a negotiating point. Hell, oftentimes the people "honoring" the deal are not those who made it. Which is kind of like complaining about your haircut to the barber in the next chair. Or bitching about your 1904 Hamilton watch to the company owning that name today, which is Swatch. But it's even worse, because unlike a haircut or a watch, copyrights are the gift that keeps on giving. So it's never settled. There's always income. Who gets it?
In a world where I can go on bit.ly and see how many people clicked on a link I've posted, where I've got reams of data at my fingertips, record royalties are still a black art. What I love most about the above lawsuit is after agreeing the royalty rate on "Mudslide Slim" is 11.5% in the first audit, after a rate of 10% and 11% was applied, then Warner only pays 11% thereafter. Whether intentional or sheer incompetence, why does this happen? Believe me, if an executive's paycheck was suddenly short, he'd drop everything and do his best to get it right, would stop coming to work and file a lawsuit if the problem wasn't immediately rectified. But if it's the artist? Well, the artists are dumb.
No, that's the major label business model. Theft from the artist.
And I know so many deals don't pan out, but is that really a reason to put your finger on the scale on those that do?
Deals could be simpler.
Royalties could be computerized.
But then profits would vaporize.
______________
And while I've got your attention, and that's all that's important, attention, money comes after that, I want to revisit something I posted in the Mailbag, about ticketing.
Tweets are evanescent, they come and go, they evaporate. Just because somebody tweets something, don't believe most people saw it. Most people are overloaded with information, they can hardly keep up with what's going on in the present, never mind comb the past.
Which is also to say, few people click on links. They just haven't got the time.
And I posted a link at the very top of the Mailbag, and I got almost no e-mail about it.
Click this link, now:
http://bit.ly/JWqAmR
You can watch the video or not.
But be sure to read the article. Wherein the head of the "Fan Freedom Project" is shocked, I say shocked, like in "Casablanca," that scalpers ended up with 75% of the floor seats for an Eric Church concert at the Bridgestone Arena.
You know, the Fan Freedom Project that wants to make sure you can resell your tickets on StubHub. No one's selling their tickets on StubHub but scalpers. This is kind of like voter fraud, the number of legitimate people reselling tickets on StubHub is tiny. It's a haven of scalping. And these people, via the "Fan Freedom Project," want to ban paperless ticketing, so you have the right to overpay a scalper who's never going to go to the show, just resell the tickets at a higher price to you, the fan. This Eric Church concert in Nashville had ticket buyers from 41 states, "248 tickets went to New York, 353 to Massachusetts, 495 to California." Is this Church's only concert this year, are people flying to Nashville for the show? Of course not, this is a profit center, that's overcharging you, the fan.
Yes, this is America in a nutshell, while you're bitching about Amanda Palmer scoring a volunteer horn/string section, unknown faces working in the dark are truly screwing you. Yup, while you're discussing Romney's "tape," you're clueless as to how private equity truly works, how Bain really makes its money.
And that's just how they like it. With you in the dark. Ignorant.
Who do you blame?
TICKETMASTER!
Yup, the country was ruined by Obama and Ticketmaster, and if we could just get rid of both of them, harmony would reign.
What a load of crap...
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Saturday 22 September 2012
Friday 21 September 2012
Rhinofy-After The Gold Rush
I really didn't know who Neil Young was until he joined Crosby, Stills & Nash. Oh, when he did I recognized his visage from the Buffalo Springfield, and I remembered he released a solo record...like anybody cared? But at the time, Stephen Stills was considered the star.
And I love "Country Girl" from "Deja Vu."
And hate "Helpless."
But sometime that spring I bought "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" so I could own "Down By The River"...so simple, yet so intense. At this point, the only track that's played from Neil Young's second solo is "Cinnamon Girl"...and that's great, especially the guitar explosion so often excised on terrestrial radio, but I prefer "Down By The River," and the second side closer, "Cowgirl In The Sand." Nine and ten minutes long respectively. Enough time to sink your teeth and let your mind drift.
And I can make a strong case that the first solo album is the best. Which was pulled and remixed shortly after being released, but it took me a while to save up the cash for that one, I bought the third solo album first, "After The Gold Rush."
History has been rewritten. It is said that "Harvest" broke Neil Young through, made him a superstar. That's incorrect. It was "After The Gold Rush." Sure, "Heart Of Gold" brought aboard some stragglers, but there wasn't a baby boomer alive who wasn't exposed to "After The Gold Rush," it was a dorm room staple. It was the first record released in my freshman year of college.
It was totally different back then. Physical ruled. You didn't steal your music before it was released or go online at midnight to download it from iTunes. Instead, you went to the store. And in 1970, indie retail was still nascent. Most albums were bought at the big box. But in Middlebury, Vermont, there was only one outlet, the Vermont Book Shop. A relic of a prior era, when books and music collided, yup, a purveyor of literature would have an inventory of classical music and a few overpriced pop records. No self-respecting young music fan would buy anything there.
But I had no choice.
I bought "After The Gold Rush" at the Vermont Book Shop. And only a couple of more albums there before I swore off. I had my mother buy my records and ship them from Connecticut thereafter, because of the price. When you're a heavy consumer, every dollar makes a difference.
And eventually, with access to a car, this was long before everyone who turned sixteen got an automobile, I didn't get my hand-me-down Chevy until I was a senior, I discovered the distributor in Burlington where I became a regular customer. I believe their best. Because I was addicted.
And I became addicted to "After The Gold Rush." I was the first person in Hepburn Hall to own it.
And there was no radio to speak of. Only the college station, which I only listened to when I was on. Ha! So I broke the shrinkwrap and the album unfolded brand new, imprinted itself on my brain fresh. That used to be part of the ritual. Before the concept of the advance single, never mind the before street date leak, whether intentional or not. You had such anticipation, you couldn't wait to hear the music. It was an experience that today's kids know nothing about. You dropped the needle and let the whole side play through. Then you flipped the record and played the other side. There was no cherry-picking the hits. Hell, we didn't know what the hits were! They came after we bought the album.
And if I told you I loved "Tell Me Why" right away, I'd be lying. I didn't hate it, I loved its acoustic jauntiness, but it didn't stick with me, it was just the lead-in to...
"After The Gold Rush." It was all about that line...
"Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970's"
I can barely believe it's the twenty first century. But it's much easier to comprehend than the 1970's. The 60's were an era of tumult. I can distantly remember going to first grade in 1959, but really, the transition to the 60's slid by without much notice. But the change to the 70's was monumental. Kent State. Altamont had followed Woodstock at the end of '69 and left a bad taste in our mouths. Everything was up for grabs, and the first person talking about it was Neil Young.
And yes, the first side contains "Southern Man," four years before Lynyrd Skynyrd's answer song, "Sweet Home Alabama"...and purists won't like it, but "Sweet Home Alabama" is even better. What a riff! And intelligent lyrics. But when have both the inspiration and the answer song been this monumental?
Never.
But my favorite song on the first side, initially, was the last one, "Till The Morning Comes." It was only 1:16 long, but its brevity and simplicity, its lightness following the heaviness of "Southern Man," endeared itself to me. I learned to play it on my guitar. My roommate, a music major, accompanied me on his trombone.
That was about the only time we bonded.
He didn't like my lifestyle or my irreverence. He took college seriously, I took it with a grain of salt.
And I also loved the brief second side closer, "Cripple Creek Ferry."
But the song that enraptured me, that hooked me, that had me dropping the needle to hear it again and again once it emerged from the album, was "Don't Let It Bring You Down."
This was the quintessential Neil Young song. The one people made fun of. With the nasal vocal.
That's what inspired me to write this. I heard "Don't Let It Bring Me Down" forty two years later on the satellite, and it sounded just as good!
It truly starts with the intro, the downstroke on the guitar, pregnant with meaning... This is an important story Neil Young is gonna tell...
"Old man lying by the side of the road..."
This is like the Torah to baby boomers. A religious text that roots us. To hear "Don't Let It Bring You Down" is not only to connect you to what once was, but it makes you believe you're a winner...you were there, when this music first came out, when musicians were the towering paragons of greatness and adulation, not bankers, when music ruled and changed the world.
"Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around"
PERFECT! What Neil was saying was to hunker down, don't get lost in 60's hangover, you can make it if you really try, by bonding with your brethren. Not everybody, just somebody.
And there's no version of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" I'm not interested in. Every live take moves me. Kinda like every live take of "Carolina In My Mind" is worth hearing.
But there's another masterpiece on side two... "When You Dance, I Can Really Love."
We're wired to be reticent. We must make an effort to move. And one thing that stimulates us to take action is watching another person dance. They're free. They're totally themselves. They draw us to them, oftentimes without even realizing it.
And "When You Dance, I Can Really Love" truly rocks, especially on vinyl, it'll shake your whole house if you turn it up. Neil was earning a reputation with wimpy records, but he was not going to be pigeonholed, he was not going to stifle his liberated, rocking side. He could be sensitive and boisterous. He could only be himself.
And that's why we loved him. His authenticity. And the songs. And the instrumentation.
On paper, it didn't work. These were not ditties. Neil had an imperfect voice at best. But the total package was undeniable. Undeniably different and great.
And anything I write will pale in comparison to the music.
Because music, when done right, is the artistic zenith.
"After The Gold Rush" was done right.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
And I love "Country Girl" from "Deja Vu."
And hate "Helpless."
But sometime that spring I bought "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" so I could own "Down By The River"...so simple, yet so intense. At this point, the only track that's played from Neil Young's second solo is "Cinnamon Girl"...and that's great, especially the guitar explosion so often excised on terrestrial radio, but I prefer "Down By The River," and the second side closer, "Cowgirl In The Sand." Nine and ten minutes long respectively. Enough time to sink your teeth and let your mind drift.
And I can make a strong case that the first solo album is the best. Which was pulled and remixed shortly after being released, but it took me a while to save up the cash for that one, I bought the third solo album first, "After The Gold Rush."
History has been rewritten. It is said that "Harvest" broke Neil Young through, made him a superstar. That's incorrect. It was "After The Gold Rush." Sure, "Heart Of Gold" brought aboard some stragglers, but there wasn't a baby boomer alive who wasn't exposed to "After The Gold Rush," it was a dorm room staple. It was the first record released in my freshman year of college.
It was totally different back then. Physical ruled. You didn't steal your music before it was released or go online at midnight to download it from iTunes. Instead, you went to the store. And in 1970, indie retail was still nascent. Most albums were bought at the big box. But in Middlebury, Vermont, there was only one outlet, the Vermont Book Shop. A relic of a prior era, when books and music collided, yup, a purveyor of literature would have an inventory of classical music and a few overpriced pop records. No self-respecting young music fan would buy anything there.
But I had no choice.
I bought "After The Gold Rush" at the Vermont Book Shop. And only a couple of more albums there before I swore off. I had my mother buy my records and ship them from Connecticut thereafter, because of the price. When you're a heavy consumer, every dollar makes a difference.
And eventually, with access to a car, this was long before everyone who turned sixteen got an automobile, I didn't get my hand-me-down Chevy until I was a senior, I discovered the distributor in Burlington where I became a regular customer. I believe their best. Because I was addicted.
And I became addicted to "After The Gold Rush." I was the first person in Hepburn Hall to own it.
And there was no radio to speak of. Only the college station, which I only listened to when I was on. Ha! So I broke the shrinkwrap and the album unfolded brand new, imprinted itself on my brain fresh. That used to be part of the ritual. Before the concept of the advance single, never mind the before street date leak, whether intentional or not. You had such anticipation, you couldn't wait to hear the music. It was an experience that today's kids know nothing about. You dropped the needle and let the whole side play through. Then you flipped the record and played the other side. There was no cherry-picking the hits. Hell, we didn't know what the hits were! They came after we bought the album.
And if I told you I loved "Tell Me Why" right away, I'd be lying. I didn't hate it, I loved its acoustic jauntiness, but it didn't stick with me, it was just the lead-in to...
"After The Gold Rush." It was all about that line...
"Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970's"
I can barely believe it's the twenty first century. But it's much easier to comprehend than the 1970's. The 60's were an era of tumult. I can distantly remember going to first grade in 1959, but really, the transition to the 60's slid by without much notice. But the change to the 70's was monumental. Kent State. Altamont had followed Woodstock at the end of '69 and left a bad taste in our mouths. Everything was up for grabs, and the first person talking about it was Neil Young.
And yes, the first side contains "Southern Man," four years before Lynyrd Skynyrd's answer song, "Sweet Home Alabama"...and purists won't like it, but "Sweet Home Alabama" is even better. What a riff! And intelligent lyrics. But when have both the inspiration and the answer song been this monumental?
Never.
But my favorite song on the first side, initially, was the last one, "Till The Morning Comes." It was only 1:16 long, but its brevity and simplicity, its lightness following the heaviness of "Southern Man," endeared itself to me. I learned to play it on my guitar. My roommate, a music major, accompanied me on his trombone.
That was about the only time we bonded.
He didn't like my lifestyle or my irreverence. He took college seriously, I took it with a grain of salt.
And I also loved the brief second side closer, "Cripple Creek Ferry."
But the song that enraptured me, that hooked me, that had me dropping the needle to hear it again and again once it emerged from the album, was "Don't Let It Bring You Down."
This was the quintessential Neil Young song. The one people made fun of. With the nasal vocal.
That's what inspired me to write this. I heard "Don't Let It Bring Me Down" forty two years later on the satellite, and it sounded just as good!
It truly starts with the intro, the downstroke on the guitar, pregnant with meaning... This is an important story Neil Young is gonna tell...
"Old man lying by the side of the road..."
This is like the Torah to baby boomers. A religious text that roots us. To hear "Don't Let It Bring You Down" is not only to connect you to what once was, but it makes you believe you're a winner...you were there, when this music first came out, when musicians were the towering paragons of greatness and adulation, not bankers, when music ruled and changed the world.
"Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around"
PERFECT! What Neil was saying was to hunker down, don't get lost in 60's hangover, you can make it if you really try, by bonding with your brethren. Not everybody, just somebody.
And there's no version of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" I'm not interested in. Every live take moves me. Kinda like every live take of "Carolina In My Mind" is worth hearing.
But there's another masterpiece on side two... "When You Dance, I Can Really Love."
We're wired to be reticent. We must make an effort to move. And one thing that stimulates us to take action is watching another person dance. They're free. They're totally themselves. They draw us to them, oftentimes without even realizing it.
And "When You Dance, I Can Really Love" truly rocks, especially on vinyl, it'll shake your whole house if you turn it up. Neil was earning a reputation with wimpy records, but he was not going to be pigeonholed, he was not going to stifle his liberated, rocking side. He could be sensitive and boisterous. He could only be himself.
And that's why we loved him. His authenticity. And the songs. And the instrumentation.
On paper, it didn't work. These were not ditties. Neil had an imperfect voice at best. But the total package was undeniable. Undeniably different and great.
And anything I write will pale in comparison to the music.
Because music, when done right, is the artistic zenith.
"After The Gold Rush" was done right.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Thursday 20 September 2012
Sales Week Ending-9/16/12
1. Dave Matthews Band "Away From The World"
Sales this week: 265,961
Debut
It sounds like what once was. Before Dave took a detour, trying to become a hitmaker, when hits still mattered. And I do like "Everyday," but I prefer Dave's darker material, made from the left of center as opposed to the heart of the mainstream.
I really like "Mercy." We can debate whether it's a hit, but that would be missing the point, that would be believing in radio and the hit parade, both of which are fading in the rearview mirror, especially for Dave's fans.
Credit Steve Lillywhite. Back from banishment and into the fold. He created this sound, he was the one who captured it on wax, and stunningly, he's brought Dave back to the place he once was.
Listen to "Mercy":
http://spoti.fi/S70mgN
Especially the instrumental ending. Great to see a band not worrying about the constraints, rather stretching out with all their ability.
And not only is "Away From The World" on Spotify, there's a special collection of Spotify live albums, recreating all of Dave's studio albums with pre-released live tracks. Some people realize the future is coming down the rails, others live in the past. If you're not on Spotify, you're just being ripped off on YouTube, where fans are placing your music and listening to it without you getting paid for these bootleg postings. And the audience has been trained to go to YouTube by a recalcitrant music business, so busy holding on to the past, afraid of the future, that it took too long to authorize Spotify and let YouTube take hold.
As for the decline from "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King"'s debut of 424,000, don't blame it on the music. Blame it on the aging audience. But blame it more on the death of the paradigm. Albums are a relic of a past generation. The audience has given up on them, it's the performers who are holding on to them, not the listeners.
But having put out new music, give Dave credit for playing it! I got an e-mail from the Hollywood Bowl show saying he played the entire new album, this reader was pissed.
But this is the way it used to be. When concert tickets were cheap. When acts weren't afraid of their audience. You'd buy the album to be prepared to go to the show. Granted, Dave only released this a day before the Bowl appearance, but the point remains... Don't put out new music unless you're willing to play it.
2. Little Big Town "Tornado"
Sales this week: 112,758
Debut
The power of a hit single.
I love this band. "The Road To Here" is one of my favorite albums of this century. Unfortunately, after a series of misfires, they're no longer working with Wayne Kirkpatrick, whose influence hooked me. I applaud their success, but prefer the earlier sound.
3. Bob Dylan "Tempest"
Sales this week: 109,545
Mission accomplished. Tons of press reaches old line customers, rendering a sales total that seems high today, but has little impact in the world at large.
I'd rather see the number of plays on Spotify than sales for a record like this. How many people bought it and listened to it again and again?
Usually, with press hypes...not many.
4. Avett Brothers "Carpenter"
Sales this week: 97,847
Debut
The little engine that maybe could. This is quite a good number for a band most people have still never heard of. They're earning their rep on the road. If they keep doing it, they'll get bigger. How big?
6. ZZ Top "La Futura"
Sales this week: 30,795
Debut
The problem with an album like this is reaching the target audience. Not an erudite self-conscious bunch reading the newspaper, but those wrapped up in their blue collar lives, drinking their beer.
Used to be you turned on the radio and found out what was new. Now the target audience is listening to talk radio.
So this album will or will not have legs based on the road.
7. Imagine Dragons "Night Visions"
Sales this week: 29,464
Percentage change: -65
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 112,774
Another Interscope special. A good record with a good track, but what's the staying power? These bands come and go, no one expects them to be credible, no one expects them to develop. This is what the modern major record business has wrought. Music with sheen but little longevity.
8. Matchbox Twenty "North"
Sales this week: 27,800
Percentage change: -71
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 123,034
A surprisingly good album.
The only problem is that Matchbox Twenty broke via Top Forty hits, which tend to undercut credibility. Therefore, there are few fans of the band. Mostly, they like the hits. But if you ever liked this sound, you'll be satisfied. Rob Thomas still has his talent, Matt Serletic is back from his failed attempt to be a record executive and the only thing wrong with this album is the times... Kinda like that old Brian Wilson song, "North" wasn't made for these times, rather the pre-Internet era where brand names were everything and everything else was irrelevant.
10. Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra "Theatre Is Evil"
Sales this week: 23,754
The naysayers won. Amanda's paying her horn and string section. Mission accomplished. Huh?
You could read Matt Taibbi's expose on Bain (http://bit.ly/Rm9dea), but that would take too much time, you'd rather bitch about an artist who is never going to go mainstream who understands the niches and the modern world better than you ever will. Amanda Palmer is running a cult. The only nexus with the mainstream is this chart and the attendant publicity/kerfuffle. It doesn't matter what the music sounds like, because you're never gonna listen to it. It's for fans only.
What Amanda Palmer did was motivate her fans.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with paying her pickup string/horn section, but I'd have felt better if she hadn't changed her mind. Because when you're going against the grain, you've got to be strong. You see things differently from everybody else. You don't want to be cowed, you want to give the middle finger. Once you've started capitulating, they've won.
That's one thing you've got to love about Led Zeppelin. They played by their own rules.
Amanda Palmer's only crime was being successful. Being the Kickstarter queen.
Let this be a lesson to the rest of you. Being the progenitor, breaking the mold, having success opens you up to boatloads of criticism, especially in the Internet era.
Amanda Palmer was looking for an amateur string/horn section. With imperfections and mistakes. She wanted rough edges and charm in an era where everybody's afraid to go off script, where they play to hard drive. She didn't want classically trained players, but those who were in the high school band, who were fans.
She had it right.
11. Maroon 5 "Overexposed"
Sales this week: 22,024
Percentage change: -25
Weeks on: 12
Cume: 583,766
What a fitting title. They live and die by the hit. Didn't used to be this way. But now even Bono is desperate, working with RedOne and...
If you're not willing to take a different path, you're not gonna last. Our culture doesn't celebrate conformity, just the opposite. But everyone is too afraid to be outside the mainstream public eye so they play by the rules. Once upon a time, musicians threw the rule book out. Ha!
12. Adele "21"
Sales this week: 21,100
Percentage change: -1
Weeks on: 82
Cume: 9,801,881
The twenty first century has been a period of deconstruction. The model has broken down. There's a mainstream smaller than ever before and a million niches. You want to know how you stand out? Via great music. Adele herself was not at the center of the hype. She led with her music. Let this be a lesson to you.
17. The Lumineers
Sales this week: 17,660
Percentage change: -3
Weeks on: 24
Cume: 295,206
They're on Dualtone!
This is a giant sea change. It's now not only Mumford & Sons, the giant crack in the music business is being filled by traditionalists, who can play and sing. In other words, the Lumineers will be around longer than Bieber, maybe even longer than Gaga. Because it's not about the hype, the penumbra, just the music.
25. Frank Ocean "Channel Orange"
Sales this week: 14,105
Percentage change: +1
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 309,290
I refuse to be manipulated. If only he spoke of his love of a man a few months before or after his album was released.
The press loves to champion something. This year it's been Frank Ocean. And I'm not saying he's not deserving, I'm just saying there's a backlash. The Lumineers snuck up on us, leading with their music. We were pounded over the head with Frank Ocean.
32. Cat Power "Sun"
Sales this week: 10,578
Percentage change: -54
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 33,828
There was a story in every publication known to man. A scorched earth publicity campaign that knew no bounds. And the target audience still reads traditional media, ergo these sales.
I'm sure the people at the label are high-fiving each other as I write this. Deservedly so.
But today you win on the road, where Chan Marshall has an iffy track record.
I've got no investment in her winning or losing. But based on the hype, you'd believe she's a superstar, with writers, mostly male, fawning over her like she's Brigitte Bardot reincarnated as the Beatles.
She's not.
57. Ed Sheeran "+"
Sales this week: 6,319
Percentage change: -13
Weeks on: 14
Cume: 143,473
The most downloaded act in the U.K. (http://bit.ly/RWIsTp), a hopeless also-ran in the U.S.
You know there's something wrong with our system when an act as charismatic as Sheeran stalls.
There's no place for him in mainstream America. He doesn't fit the radio format.
But he kills live.
He needs to go on the road and do a hundred dates in the U.S. His label has to know that this is a long term project, but Ed will break through, if he and they persevere.
58. John Mayer "Born And Raised"
Sales this week: 6,124
Percentage change: -51
Weeks on: 17
Cume: 484,531
Pretty good for a guy who couldn't go on the road.
His challenge is to maintain his career without hits. Mayer knows this. We'll see how it all works out.
60. Alanis Morissette "Havoc And Bright Lights"
Sales this week: 6,033
Percentage change: -45
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 49,884
Nobody cares.
This is not Bonnie Raitt going independent after a slew of successes, this is someone barely lovable continuing to slog on after only one glorified success, well, and a great single, "Uninvited."
61. Melissa Etheridge "4th Street Feeling"
Sales this week: 6,001
Percentage change: -61
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 21,548
Ditto.
Are you a celebrity or a musician?
Used to be Melissa was the latter. A lesbian with an edge who could truly rock. Now she's all warm and fuzzy and it's icky.
____________________________________
____________________________________
Forget sales. Go for mindshare. Don't worry about placating radio programmers, try infecting fans.
Nobody knows anything anymore, even though everybody will tell you they do, whether they be old-schoolers or wet behind the ears techno-nerds. You're truly on your own. You can try to be like everybody else, or just be yourself. The latter is the road less travelled, and much harder. Not everyone is Amanda Palmer, not everyone can social promote themselves 24/7. But that does not mean you can't have an audience.
That's the goal today. An audience. That hopefully is growing.
I'll leave the size desired to you.
But know if you're shooting for world domination, you're doing it wrong. No one can achieve that anymore. Despite the profiles of Bieber and Gaga, there are huge swaths of the public who are clueless and ignoring them. And you can't say they're really missing out.
The press keeps telling us we're missing out. The same press that says the iPhone 5 is boring and a disappointment, despite monolithic sales.
You make your own decisions, your own path now.
Good luck!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Sales this week: 265,961
Debut
It sounds like what once was. Before Dave took a detour, trying to become a hitmaker, when hits still mattered. And I do like "Everyday," but I prefer Dave's darker material, made from the left of center as opposed to the heart of the mainstream.
I really like "Mercy." We can debate whether it's a hit, but that would be missing the point, that would be believing in radio and the hit parade, both of which are fading in the rearview mirror, especially for Dave's fans.
Credit Steve Lillywhite. Back from banishment and into the fold. He created this sound, he was the one who captured it on wax, and stunningly, he's brought Dave back to the place he once was.
Listen to "Mercy":
http://spoti.fi/S70mgN
Especially the instrumental ending. Great to see a band not worrying about the constraints, rather stretching out with all their ability.
And not only is "Away From The World" on Spotify, there's a special collection of Spotify live albums, recreating all of Dave's studio albums with pre-released live tracks. Some people realize the future is coming down the rails, others live in the past. If you're not on Spotify, you're just being ripped off on YouTube, where fans are placing your music and listening to it without you getting paid for these bootleg postings. And the audience has been trained to go to YouTube by a recalcitrant music business, so busy holding on to the past, afraid of the future, that it took too long to authorize Spotify and let YouTube take hold.
As for the decline from "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King"'s debut of 424,000, don't blame it on the music. Blame it on the aging audience. But blame it more on the death of the paradigm. Albums are a relic of a past generation. The audience has given up on them, it's the performers who are holding on to them, not the listeners.
But having put out new music, give Dave credit for playing it! I got an e-mail from the Hollywood Bowl show saying he played the entire new album, this reader was pissed.
But this is the way it used to be. When concert tickets were cheap. When acts weren't afraid of their audience. You'd buy the album to be prepared to go to the show. Granted, Dave only released this a day before the Bowl appearance, but the point remains... Don't put out new music unless you're willing to play it.
2. Little Big Town "Tornado"
Sales this week: 112,758
Debut
The power of a hit single.
I love this band. "The Road To Here" is one of my favorite albums of this century. Unfortunately, after a series of misfires, they're no longer working with Wayne Kirkpatrick, whose influence hooked me. I applaud their success, but prefer the earlier sound.
3. Bob Dylan "Tempest"
Sales this week: 109,545
Mission accomplished. Tons of press reaches old line customers, rendering a sales total that seems high today, but has little impact in the world at large.
I'd rather see the number of plays on Spotify than sales for a record like this. How many people bought it and listened to it again and again?
Usually, with press hypes...not many.
4. Avett Brothers "Carpenter"
Sales this week: 97,847
Debut
The little engine that maybe could. This is quite a good number for a band most people have still never heard of. They're earning their rep on the road. If they keep doing it, they'll get bigger. How big?
6. ZZ Top "La Futura"
Sales this week: 30,795
Debut
The problem with an album like this is reaching the target audience. Not an erudite self-conscious bunch reading the newspaper, but those wrapped up in their blue collar lives, drinking their beer.
Used to be you turned on the radio and found out what was new. Now the target audience is listening to talk radio.
So this album will or will not have legs based on the road.
7. Imagine Dragons "Night Visions"
Sales this week: 29,464
Percentage change: -65
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 112,774
Another Interscope special. A good record with a good track, but what's the staying power? These bands come and go, no one expects them to be credible, no one expects them to develop. This is what the modern major record business has wrought. Music with sheen but little longevity.
8. Matchbox Twenty "North"
Sales this week: 27,800
Percentage change: -71
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 123,034
A surprisingly good album.
The only problem is that Matchbox Twenty broke via Top Forty hits, which tend to undercut credibility. Therefore, there are few fans of the band. Mostly, they like the hits. But if you ever liked this sound, you'll be satisfied. Rob Thomas still has his talent, Matt Serletic is back from his failed attempt to be a record executive and the only thing wrong with this album is the times... Kinda like that old Brian Wilson song, "North" wasn't made for these times, rather the pre-Internet era where brand names were everything and everything else was irrelevant.
10. Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra "Theatre Is Evil"
Sales this week: 23,754
The naysayers won. Amanda's paying her horn and string section. Mission accomplished. Huh?
You could read Matt Taibbi's expose on Bain (http://bit.ly/Rm9dea), but that would take too much time, you'd rather bitch about an artist who is never going to go mainstream who understands the niches and the modern world better than you ever will. Amanda Palmer is running a cult. The only nexus with the mainstream is this chart and the attendant publicity/kerfuffle. It doesn't matter what the music sounds like, because you're never gonna listen to it. It's for fans only.
What Amanda Palmer did was motivate her fans.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with paying her pickup string/horn section, but I'd have felt better if she hadn't changed her mind. Because when you're going against the grain, you've got to be strong. You see things differently from everybody else. You don't want to be cowed, you want to give the middle finger. Once you've started capitulating, they've won.
That's one thing you've got to love about Led Zeppelin. They played by their own rules.
Amanda Palmer's only crime was being successful. Being the Kickstarter queen.
Let this be a lesson to the rest of you. Being the progenitor, breaking the mold, having success opens you up to boatloads of criticism, especially in the Internet era.
Amanda Palmer was looking for an amateur string/horn section. With imperfections and mistakes. She wanted rough edges and charm in an era where everybody's afraid to go off script, where they play to hard drive. She didn't want classically trained players, but those who were in the high school band, who were fans.
She had it right.
11. Maroon 5 "Overexposed"
Sales this week: 22,024
Percentage change: -25
Weeks on: 12
Cume: 583,766
What a fitting title. They live and die by the hit. Didn't used to be this way. But now even Bono is desperate, working with RedOne and...
If you're not willing to take a different path, you're not gonna last. Our culture doesn't celebrate conformity, just the opposite. But everyone is too afraid to be outside the mainstream public eye so they play by the rules. Once upon a time, musicians threw the rule book out. Ha!
12. Adele "21"
Sales this week: 21,100
Percentage change: -1
Weeks on: 82
Cume: 9,801,881
The twenty first century has been a period of deconstruction. The model has broken down. There's a mainstream smaller than ever before and a million niches. You want to know how you stand out? Via great music. Adele herself was not at the center of the hype. She led with her music. Let this be a lesson to you.
17. The Lumineers
Sales this week: 17,660
Percentage change: -3
Weeks on: 24
Cume: 295,206
They're on Dualtone!
This is a giant sea change. It's now not only Mumford & Sons, the giant crack in the music business is being filled by traditionalists, who can play and sing. In other words, the Lumineers will be around longer than Bieber, maybe even longer than Gaga. Because it's not about the hype, the penumbra, just the music.
25. Frank Ocean "Channel Orange"
Sales this week: 14,105
Percentage change: +1
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 309,290
I refuse to be manipulated. If only he spoke of his love of a man a few months before or after his album was released.
The press loves to champion something. This year it's been Frank Ocean. And I'm not saying he's not deserving, I'm just saying there's a backlash. The Lumineers snuck up on us, leading with their music. We were pounded over the head with Frank Ocean.
32. Cat Power "Sun"
Sales this week: 10,578
Percentage change: -54
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 33,828
There was a story in every publication known to man. A scorched earth publicity campaign that knew no bounds. And the target audience still reads traditional media, ergo these sales.
I'm sure the people at the label are high-fiving each other as I write this. Deservedly so.
But today you win on the road, where Chan Marshall has an iffy track record.
I've got no investment in her winning or losing. But based on the hype, you'd believe she's a superstar, with writers, mostly male, fawning over her like she's Brigitte Bardot reincarnated as the Beatles.
She's not.
57. Ed Sheeran "+"
Sales this week: 6,319
Percentage change: -13
Weeks on: 14
Cume: 143,473
The most downloaded act in the U.K. (http://bit.ly/RWIsTp), a hopeless also-ran in the U.S.
You know there's something wrong with our system when an act as charismatic as Sheeran stalls.
There's no place for him in mainstream America. He doesn't fit the radio format.
But he kills live.
He needs to go on the road and do a hundred dates in the U.S. His label has to know that this is a long term project, but Ed will break through, if he and they persevere.
58. John Mayer "Born And Raised"
Sales this week: 6,124
Percentage change: -51
Weeks on: 17
Cume: 484,531
Pretty good for a guy who couldn't go on the road.
His challenge is to maintain his career without hits. Mayer knows this. We'll see how it all works out.
60. Alanis Morissette "Havoc And Bright Lights"
Sales this week: 6,033
Percentage change: -45
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 49,884
Nobody cares.
This is not Bonnie Raitt going independent after a slew of successes, this is someone barely lovable continuing to slog on after only one glorified success, well, and a great single, "Uninvited."
61. Melissa Etheridge "4th Street Feeling"
Sales this week: 6,001
Percentage change: -61
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 21,548
Ditto.
Are you a celebrity or a musician?
Used to be Melissa was the latter. A lesbian with an edge who could truly rock. Now she's all warm and fuzzy and it's icky.
____________________________________
____________________________________
Forget sales. Go for mindshare. Don't worry about placating radio programmers, try infecting fans.
Nobody knows anything anymore, even though everybody will tell you they do, whether they be old-schoolers or wet behind the ears techno-nerds. You're truly on your own. You can try to be like everybody else, or just be yourself. The latter is the road less travelled, and much harder. Not everyone is Amanda Palmer, not everyone can social promote themselves 24/7. But that does not mean you can't have an audience.
That's the goal today. An audience. That hopefully is growing.
I'll leave the size desired to you.
But know if you're shooting for world domination, you're doing it wrong. No one can achieve that anymore. Despite the profiles of Bieber and Gaga, there are huge swaths of the public who are clueless and ignoring them. And you can't say they're really missing out.
The press keeps telling us we're missing out. The same press that says the iPhone 5 is boring and a disappointment, despite monolithic sales.
You make your own decisions, your own path now.
Good luck!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Breaking Bad
It's the best show on television.
Who cares about a show with a twisted concept featuring a sitcom star on a second-rate cable network?
Not many. Only the TV aficionados. Who beat the drum for "Breaking Bad" to the point that now, in its final season, there's mania. People enduring weekend marathons just to catch up. Kind of like we used to discover the hit album and then buy all the catalog. When there was a catalog.
Old school is throw a lot of money at it and see if it sticks. If you don't think that's how the major labels work, you're still wearing your love beads. That's the American Way, find a deep pocket to rocket you to the moon. The only problem is no one's paying attention, and oftentimes you don't have it all figured out at the beginning. You don't know who you are, what the show is, you've got to play in the sandbox a while to figure it out.
This is also the opposite of today's major music world. Failure is not allowed. Which is why they've got all the new artists cowriting with the usual suspects and utilizing the same famous producers. Which is why all the music sounds the same and people bitch. Well, the people who remember when music was about testing limits as opposed to hitching one's star to a corporation.
So you've got the companies on the wrong track. And the audience disappointed. What about the acts?
Did you see that Dylan quote, about Neil Young?
I'd like to say David Carr's article is worth reading, it's not. But this nugget proves the point:
"'An artist like Neil always has the upper hand,' he says. 'It's the pop world that has to make adjustments. All the conventions of the pop world are only temporary and carry no weight. It's basically two different things that have nothing to do with each other.'"
http://nyti.ms/PqkkFc
Wow, clarity. Unlike Dylan's obfuscation in the latest issue of "Rolling Stone."
And you might be sitting there at home saying Neil Young started off with hits, and no one cared about Dylan until he scored the famous covers. I could debate the past with you, there are great lessons there, but the point is we're living in the future, and a lot of the old rules don't apply.
There is no mainstream you can latch on to other than the Top Forty sinkhole. Radio specializes in safe. You expect it to break you through?
So you've got to be on a mission. Of personal exploration and greatness. You can't expect immediate success. You probably don't deserve it. But when you find your way, deep in your career, when others have already given up and gone back to graduate school, then maybe you have a chance.
Not that everybody makes it. For every "Breaking Bad" there's a score of disappointments on the side of the road. But isn't it funny that the success is the most genre-bending. Mixing cancer, meth and school is akin to mashing up enough elements to catch the public's ear like Devo did. You want to succeed? Be different!
But at least Devo had KROQ.
You've got nothing.
You want to go viral.
But rule one of virality is the public decides. And you never know exactly what will go wide. Try to calculate and you'll ensure a failure. This is not MTV, airing only a handful of videos and if you make it through the filter you're on your way to the bank. This is the wild west where you're competing with zillions of new videos a day.
And it's not about a million views. Most truly viral videos are one of a kind. It's about growth. If your audience is not growing, you're doing it wrong. You're never going to make it.
So think before you make music. Know that it's the recordings and shows more than the publicity. Realize that if you have lasting success, it will probably come long after you've been at loose ends and were on the verge of giving up.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Who cares about a show with a twisted concept featuring a sitcom star on a second-rate cable network?
Not many. Only the TV aficionados. Who beat the drum for "Breaking Bad" to the point that now, in its final season, there's mania. People enduring weekend marathons just to catch up. Kind of like we used to discover the hit album and then buy all the catalog. When there was a catalog.
Old school is throw a lot of money at it and see if it sticks. If you don't think that's how the major labels work, you're still wearing your love beads. That's the American Way, find a deep pocket to rocket you to the moon. The only problem is no one's paying attention, and oftentimes you don't have it all figured out at the beginning. You don't know who you are, what the show is, you've got to play in the sandbox a while to figure it out.
This is also the opposite of today's major music world. Failure is not allowed. Which is why they've got all the new artists cowriting with the usual suspects and utilizing the same famous producers. Which is why all the music sounds the same and people bitch. Well, the people who remember when music was about testing limits as opposed to hitching one's star to a corporation.
So you've got the companies on the wrong track. And the audience disappointed. What about the acts?
Did you see that Dylan quote, about Neil Young?
I'd like to say David Carr's article is worth reading, it's not. But this nugget proves the point:
"'An artist like Neil always has the upper hand,' he says. 'It's the pop world that has to make adjustments. All the conventions of the pop world are only temporary and carry no weight. It's basically two different things that have nothing to do with each other.'"
http://nyti.ms/PqkkFc
Wow, clarity. Unlike Dylan's obfuscation in the latest issue of "Rolling Stone."
And you might be sitting there at home saying Neil Young started off with hits, and no one cared about Dylan until he scored the famous covers. I could debate the past with you, there are great lessons there, but the point is we're living in the future, and a lot of the old rules don't apply.
There is no mainstream you can latch on to other than the Top Forty sinkhole. Radio specializes in safe. You expect it to break you through?
So you've got to be on a mission. Of personal exploration and greatness. You can't expect immediate success. You probably don't deserve it. But when you find your way, deep in your career, when others have already given up and gone back to graduate school, then maybe you have a chance.
Not that everybody makes it. For every "Breaking Bad" there's a score of disappointments on the side of the road. But isn't it funny that the success is the most genre-bending. Mixing cancer, meth and school is akin to mashing up enough elements to catch the public's ear like Devo did. You want to succeed? Be different!
But at least Devo had KROQ.
You've got nothing.
You want to go viral.
But rule one of virality is the public decides. And you never know exactly what will go wide. Try to calculate and you'll ensure a failure. This is not MTV, airing only a handful of videos and if you make it through the filter you're on your way to the bank. This is the wild west where you're competing with zillions of new videos a day.
And it's not about a million views. Most truly viral videos are one of a kind. It's about growth. If your audience is not growing, you're doing it wrong. You're never going to make it.
So think before you make music. Know that it's the recordings and shows more than the publicity. Realize that if you have lasting success, it will probably come long after you've been at loose ends and were on the verge of giving up.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Romney And The Disconnect
Didn't he know there was a camera there?
Forget the content of Mitt Romney's remarks. What troubles me is he's so out of the loop, technologically and socially, that he didn't realize that anything you say outside of the privacy of your own bathroom, alone, in the dark, is no longer private, and will surface, if anybody truly cares what you have to say. Hell, did you read Xeni Jardin's post on the Amanda Palmer kerfuffle today? Wherein she exhumes Steve Albini quotes...
"To put Steve Albini's comments in context, this is the same man whose project 'Run N**ger Run' (redaction mine) released a track 'Pray I Don't Kill You F**got,' and was quoted in Spin as saying he wanted to call Big Black's second EP 'Hey N**ger.' He also once used the phrase 'I don't give two splats of an old negro junkie's vomit' and 'The future belongs to the analog loyalists. Fuck digital.' Doesn't mean he's wrong on the merits of his arguments, but Albini periodically makes provocative or offensive comments to provoke a response."
http://boingboing.net/2012/09/19/apparently-there-is-some-drama.html
Mm... I know this has got nothing to do with Mr. Albini's point about whether backup musicians should be paid, but it certainly undercuts his character. And that's all you've got these days, character and credibility.
Which is why Mitt Romney is enduring so much derision for refusing to make public his tax returns. What exactly is he hiding? In a Facebook/Twitter world where what someone had for lunch is now public knowledge.
Privacy is passe. Not completely. Teenagers realize drunken pics can hinder job prospects and therefore remove or refuse to post them. But then we've got a guy running for President who doesn't know this?
That's the disconnect we're enduring in today's society. Between the corporate titans and the great unwashed. The people with the money who believe they've got all the power and the citizens who might be close to broke but have technology at their fingertips, who can spread notice not only of their meager doings, but the faux pas of public figures.
I'm thinking we're heading for a revolution, an Arab Spring. With so few with so much and so many with so little, the income gap is staggering and stultifying. You want to know why music sucks? Because you just can't make enough money making it, all the bright people are in technology, or banking.
And despite protestations that the public is ignorant, that people have got no idea how the world works, never mind private equity, this is wrong, they do know how the world works. Especially today's online/connected world.
And Mitt Romney does not. So many politicians do not. Even giant media corporations do not. They're stunned when trolls and naysayers invade their domain. But that's today's game, where we may not be economically equal, but we've all got an equal voice.
Romney may have shot himself in the foot, but you should take a lesson from his behavior, all you wannabe public figures, especially musicians. It's now hard to be duplicitous and get away with it. To be in bed with the Fortune 500 and your fans at the same time. If they're beating up on Amanda Palmer for not paying volunteer musicians, just think if your profile was even higher!
You've got to be true to yourself.
That's today's game. Honesty is the best policy. And that happens when you play/get in the game. And you must.
Forget the celebrities apologizing constantly. Those are nitwits about to lose traction. The reason the Kardashians work is because we have contempt for them. Today it's all about having a backbone, standing for something, standing up for it.
It's now not only your music, but your complete identity.
This is how the labels got in a bind. Now even the lowliest wannabe knows the major label business model is theft...from its own acts. The labels think they can win the war by doubling down, saying they're entitled to their big profits, that they know best. If you think that works in the connected world, you're as stupid as Samsung, which took out NEWSPAPER ads saying their Galaxy S III was better than the iPhone 5 and then were excoriated online by truth-telling Apple fans. (http://bit.ly/ORZeyb)
Kids don't read the newspapers. That's old school. You want to reach everybody, you do it online.
And everybody's got a laptop and a cell phone. Soon everybody will have a smartphone. Hell, the hi-def video camera is built in and Mitt Romney believes he can get away with saying heinous, divisive things at a public meeting? How ignorant is he?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Forget the content of Mitt Romney's remarks. What troubles me is he's so out of the loop, technologically and socially, that he didn't realize that anything you say outside of the privacy of your own bathroom, alone, in the dark, is no longer private, and will surface, if anybody truly cares what you have to say. Hell, did you read Xeni Jardin's post on the Amanda Palmer kerfuffle today? Wherein she exhumes Steve Albini quotes...
"To put Steve Albini's comments in context, this is the same man whose project 'Run N**ger Run' (redaction mine) released a track 'Pray I Don't Kill You F**got,' and was quoted in Spin as saying he wanted to call Big Black's second EP 'Hey N**ger.' He also once used the phrase 'I don't give two splats of an old negro junkie's vomit' and 'The future belongs to the analog loyalists. Fuck digital.' Doesn't mean he's wrong on the merits of his arguments, but Albini periodically makes provocative or offensive comments to provoke a response."
http://boingboing.net/2012/09/19/apparently-there-is-some-drama.html
Mm... I know this has got nothing to do with Mr. Albini's point about whether backup musicians should be paid, but it certainly undercuts his character. And that's all you've got these days, character and credibility.
Which is why Mitt Romney is enduring so much derision for refusing to make public his tax returns. What exactly is he hiding? In a Facebook/Twitter world where what someone had for lunch is now public knowledge.
Privacy is passe. Not completely. Teenagers realize drunken pics can hinder job prospects and therefore remove or refuse to post them. But then we've got a guy running for President who doesn't know this?
That's the disconnect we're enduring in today's society. Between the corporate titans and the great unwashed. The people with the money who believe they've got all the power and the citizens who might be close to broke but have technology at their fingertips, who can spread notice not only of their meager doings, but the faux pas of public figures.
I'm thinking we're heading for a revolution, an Arab Spring. With so few with so much and so many with so little, the income gap is staggering and stultifying. You want to know why music sucks? Because you just can't make enough money making it, all the bright people are in technology, or banking.
And despite protestations that the public is ignorant, that people have got no idea how the world works, never mind private equity, this is wrong, they do know how the world works. Especially today's online/connected world.
And Mitt Romney does not. So many politicians do not. Even giant media corporations do not. They're stunned when trolls and naysayers invade their domain. But that's today's game, where we may not be economically equal, but we've all got an equal voice.
Romney may have shot himself in the foot, but you should take a lesson from his behavior, all you wannabe public figures, especially musicians. It's now hard to be duplicitous and get away with it. To be in bed with the Fortune 500 and your fans at the same time. If they're beating up on Amanda Palmer for not paying volunteer musicians, just think if your profile was even higher!
You've got to be true to yourself.
That's today's game. Honesty is the best policy. And that happens when you play/get in the game. And you must.
Forget the celebrities apologizing constantly. Those are nitwits about to lose traction. The reason the Kardashians work is because we have contempt for them. Today it's all about having a backbone, standing for something, standing up for it.
It's now not only your music, but your complete identity.
This is how the labels got in a bind. Now even the lowliest wannabe knows the major label business model is theft...from its own acts. The labels think they can win the war by doubling down, saying they're entitled to their big profits, that they know best. If you think that works in the connected world, you're as stupid as Samsung, which took out NEWSPAPER ads saying their Galaxy S III was better than the iPhone 5 and then were excoriated online by truth-telling Apple fans. (http://bit.ly/ORZeyb)
Kids don't read the newspapers. That's old school. You want to reach everybody, you do it online.
And everybody's got a laptop and a cell phone. Soon everybody will have a smartphone. Hell, the hi-def video camera is built in and Mitt Romney believes he can get away with saying heinous, divisive things at a public meeting? How ignorant is he?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Tuesday 18 September 2012
Judgemania
It's over.
That's what the entertainment business does best, pile on. Rather than innovate, it imitates. If one western works, they do ten. Ditto with boy bands and singing shows.
What's interesting is "The Voice" and "X Factor" piled on a dying platform. Yup, it's not about ratings, but the underlying construct. In other words, it doesn't matter how many albums you sell, but whether people listen to the music. A hit band with a lousy record is already on the oldies circuit, it just doesn't know it yet.
And speaking of knowing it, don't Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj? Aren't they both smart enough to avoid climbing on to a sinking ship? Top-heavy with stars, but sans any competing talent?
Yup, what we've learned is you can scour America, promise instant exposure, and there's still very little talent. Certainly obvious talent. Let this be a lesson to you wannabes. It's not that you haven't gotten your chance, it's that you're just not good enough. As for those who will break through, they'll be radically different, just like cop shows supplanted westerns and eventually we got nighttime soaps and police procedurals. The spoils go to he who comes up with the next big thing, not the person who does a great imitation of what once was. So you've got the range of Mariah Carey and can melisma with the best of them... Even Mariah, the progenitor, has trouble denting the chart these days!
Yes, if you want to make it, think different. Hell, remember when Apple was a pooh-poohed also-ran? Told to liquidate by Michael Dell? Who's laughing now?
People have seen the movie. There's nothing left behind the curtain. Which is why "X Factor" ratings were so terrible. Isn't it funny that when it all comes down at the end the big winner from "Idol" will be Ryan Seacrest and not Simon Cowell?
Ryan realized it was not about him. That he could be replaced. So he diversified. It's not his radio gig that keeps him current, but his TV production duties. You may think it's trash, but "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" is a ratings juggernaut and couldn't be more different from "Idol" whereas "X Factor" is essentially a clone, requiring you to split the differences between the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync to separate it from the original.
Now that "X Factor" is fading, not only in the U.S., but the U.K., what does Simon Cowell do? He's a one trick pony. And that pony ain't so hot. It's not like he's Richard Russell, bringing to market Adele and the cavalcade of innovators at XL, Simon's about lowest common denominator crap, and that's harder to sell than ever. And what can he be other than a judge, a panelist on late night TV? He's barely different from Robin Leach, now relegated to doing commercials after once giving us a peek into the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
You wanted the "Idol" paradigm to die? It did, it quit making stars, it was a flawed concept. But it was always better TV than music, peppered with drama and antagonism. But we learned by putting J. Lo and Tyler on "Idol" that musicians make lousy judges and if you won't go negative, you've got lousy TV.
As for "The Voice"... It's a gimmick. A train-wreck that was successful before they closed the door on the concept.
I just don't get all the musician/celebrities joining up.
Britney? We all want to see if she melts down. Once. Not for an entire TV season. As for Demi Lovato... Asking us to care is like being interested in Miley Cyrus's acting career... Huh?
You get in early and you get out quick. That's the key to success in the entertainment business.
But these "stars" never got that memo. They're dumb. Which is why music is a second class citizen, peopled by idiots who think exposure trumps credibility, that money is more important than music.
You're a musician. Sing!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
That's what the entertainment business does best, pile on. Rather than innovate, it imitates. If one western works, they do ten. Ditto with boy bands and singing shows.
What's interesting is "The Voice" and "X Factor" piled on a dying platform. Yup, it's not about ratings, but the underlying construct. In other words, it doesn't matter how many albums you sell, but whether people listen to the music. A hit band with a lousy record is already on the oldies circuit, it just doesn't know it yet.
And speaking of knowing it, don't Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj? Aren't they both smart enough to avoid climbing on to a sinking ship? Top-heavy with stars, but sans any competing talent?
Yup, what we've learned is you can scour America, promise instant exposure, and there's still very little talent. Certainly obvious talent. Let this be a lesson to you wannabes. It's not that you haven't gotten your chance, it's that you're just not good enough. As for those who will break through, they'll be radically different, just like cop shows supplanted westerns and eventually we got nighttime soaps and police procedurals. The spoils go to he who comes up with the next big thing, not the person who does a great imitation of what once was. So you've got the range of Mariah Carey and can melisma with the best of them... Even Mariah, the progenitor, has trouble denting the chart these days!
Yes, if you want to make it, think different. Hell, remember when Apple was a pooh-poohed also-ran? Told to liquidate by Michael Dell? Who's laughing now?
People have seen the movie. There's nothing left behind the curtain. Which is why "X Factor" ratings were so terrible. Isn't it funny that when it all comes down at the end the big winner from "Idol" will be Ryan Seacrest and not Simon Cowell?
Ryan realized it was not about him. That he could be replaced. So he diversified. It's not his radio gig that keeps him current, but his TV production duties. You may think it's trash, but "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" is a ratings juggernaut and couldn't be more different from "Idol" whereas "X Factor" is essentially a clone, requiring you to split the differences between the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync to separate it from the original.
Now that "X Factor" is fading, not only in the U.S., but the U.K., what does Simon Cowell do? He's a one trick pony. And that pony ain't so hot. It's not like he's Richard Russell, bringing to market Adele and the cavalcade of innovators at XL, Simon's about lowest common denominator crap, and that's harder to sell than ever. And what can he be other than a judge, a panelist on late night TV? He's barely different from Robin Leach, now relegated to doing commercials after once giving us a peek into the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
You wanted the "Idol" paradigm to die? It did, it quit making stars, it was a flawed concept. But it was always better TV than music, peppered with drama and antagonism. But we learned by putting J. Lo and Tyler on "Idol" that musicians make lousy judges and if you won't go negative, you've got lousy TV.
As for "The Voice"... It's a gimmick. A train-wreck that was successful before they closed the door on the concept.
I just don't get all the musician/celebrities joining up.
Britney? We all want to see if she melts down. Once. Not for an entire TV season. As for Demi Lovato... Asking us to care is like being interested in Miley Cyrus's acting career... Huh?
You get in early and you get out quick. That's the key to success in the entertainment business.
But these "stars" never got that memo. They're dumb. Which is why music is a second class citizen, peopled by idiots who think exposure trumps credibility, that money is more important than music.
You're a musician. Sing!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Monday 17 September 2012
Mailbag
Hope you're well.
Lately, I've been revisiting the ticketing issues that we discussed a few years ago. My most recent story is here:
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/18609327/scalpers-get-edge-on-fans-at-eric-church-show
As part of that endeavor, I obtained ticketing documents for Justin Bieber's 2012-13 tour - you know, the one that sold out MSG "in 30 seconds!" and the whole tour in an hour! (Exclamation marks from the celebrity press.)
Well, it turns out again, that most of the tickets were sold long before the public onsale - either through AmEx presales or artist/tour holds. And, this time, we have direct evidence of tour-hold tickets being scalped directly through TicketsNow/StubHub/Ticket Network.
Phil
Phil Williams
Chief Investigative Reporter WTVF-TV
______________________________________
From: Berton Averre
Subject: Re: Playing for Free
Always nice to hear from Wendy Waldman, isn't it? Great thoughts, great feeling. It inspired me to share a memory from our band's early days.
We made a name for ourselves playing the clubs in Hollywood, bouncing back and forth from the Troubadour to the Starwood. We'd play almost anywhere to build up a fan base, and one night we found ourselves way the hell out in Lancaster at a club called The Wooden Nickel. Our agreement was to play one set for the pittance the club owner was paying us, which would cover our crew, gas money, and maybe the cost of printing up posters. Turns out the club owner wanted us to play a second set without paying us any more, and he and one of our three managers (at the time we had an unfriendly triumvirate of managers, if you can imagine) had a screaming match over it near our "dressing room". I couldn't make out our manager's words over the jukebox and the bar fights, but the owner must have had one of those voices that carried, for I distinctly remember him bellowing "You think this band is worth fifty dollars?!"
And Bob, you are so right when you refer to the immense significance of timing when it comes to success in music. I've never had many words of wisdom to offer on the subject of the biz if aspiring young musicians should ever ask. The one thing I've always told them is always to make the music you truly love yourself. I know that sounds fatuous, but artists do get lured into playing and recording a particular style of music based on someone's calculation (often not one of the artists) that this is the style people want to hear that week, and that's the way to get hits. My point is that ISN'T the way to get a hit, it never is. Worthwhile songs come from talented, motivated people engaged in an eternal love affair with music and their tools of the trade (guitars, voices, even computers I guess). No passion, no song. So the formula is work as hard as you can to make the music you love as well as you can, and hope to hell that you're doing it at that brief sliver in time when the world is ready to love it too. And, of course, be lucky enough that all your hard work yields a chance that people will hear it.
Our band was very lucky indeed, in that our time scrabbling to get a toehold was relatively short. I honestly don't know what might have happened if we'd had to endure years of Wooden Nickels. But I do know that if money was the immediate incentive we would never have stuck around to find out. And I'll never stop being grateful that in our brief sliver of time there were people who liked the same things we did.
______________________________________
Subject: Fred Armisen @ SXSW
Hey Bob,
I first met Fred in 1998 while working with Steve Albini. On a break he showed me this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOp1uPpjYgo
You're welcome.
Steve Taylor
______________________________________
______________________________________
Re: Roxette
_____
Hey Bob,
Nice piece on Roxette. I saw the front-end of this near two-year tour at Wembley Arena last November. They played a 12k plus sell-out house with nary a peep of a mention before or a review after. And yes, The main locus of my London visit was to see Roxette as I was doubtful they would make over here. I just love them and think Per Gessle is pretty much a genius level songwriter that can still turn them out 25 years on.
Until a couple of them got chucked-up on iTunes, their last five albums didn't even see release in the states and they are all good, with "Room Service' being a near masterpiece. I too was stuck by a world-class band that plays pop music taking to the stage in 2012 without a sampler,sequencer or click-track anywhere in sight . Jeez, the entire stage set-up could probably fit in one of those 19.95 a-day U-hauls.
But wow, what a great night.
Bill Inglot
______________________________________
I saw Roxette in San Francisco the night before... and they were simply amazing. There were tons of singalongs, not just "na na's" but like a full verse and chorus! People were freaking out.
In fact, I was so stoked by it, I just bought (downloaded) the greatest hits, the last 2 roxette albums, and 2 per gessle albums.
I am now totally a fan.
John Ashfield
______________________________________
I don't say this often, Bob, but I'm jealous! Love Roxette and didn't get the chance to see them when they were in NYC because it was over Labor Day weekend.
Roxette epitomizes what pop music was and what it should be. Amazing melodies, fantastic vocals, great writing and an overall enjoyable vibe. Marie could sing the phonebook and she is so believable and enthralling when she sings. Growing up in the 80s, a handful of their songs were all over the radio and they still sound memorable 20-25 years later.
Hopefully they come back again soon.
Richard Young
______________________________________
You hit the nail on the head. Roxette has been dismissed by many, but they are pure pop perfection. "Joyride" and the whole album is infectious. "physical fascination" from joyride is another favorite.
What music lacks today is a combination of talent, excitement, and a sense of wonder. I'm 40 and was raised in the 80s on MTV - not ashamed to admit that. I'll be seeing Peter Gabriel So Tour and Prince in the same week shortly....talent, excitement and wonder indeed.
Nathan Benditzson
______________________________________
Hey Bob,
Roxette's Per Gessle was a star in Sweden before Roxette with his band Gyllene Tider (Golden Times) that had a strong four album run before disbanding.
My collaborator Mats MP Persson was in that band and was a crucial background player in Roxette's success as well (as a co-writer of songs like "Listen To Your Heart").
Calling them a local hit rather than journeymen in their past might be a bit more fitting. Especially judging by the homecoming concert they did in their hometown of
Halmstad, Sweden in 2004. 40,000 tickets sold, a huge boom in their catalogue and screens in the city centre celebrating the end of their tour. I was in the audience. The place
went nuts.
I believe this was after their show in Gothenburg - where rock lives in Sweden - that set a new record for attendance at the Ullevi Stadium there with north of 50k showing up
shattering the previous record set by Bruce.
Vince Degiorgio
______________________________________
Bob --
Just got back from a speaking gig in Sweden at Hotel Tylosand.
I didn't know the place, and had to ask the staff why all the Roxette memorabilia was everywhere -- along with the fact the meeting rooms were chiefly named for the great rock photographers, which is obviously quite distinctive.
Turns out that Per owns the place. What I loved is that it's not a hotel that feels like someone doing a "corporate cash-in" (like Hard Rock does quite frequently)...instead the vibe is really terrific and unlike anyplace I've been.
The best part was that when I was speaking to the group about how to cultivate customers into a fan base, the very hotel we were in, and its owner, were perfect examples.
Scott McKain
______________________________________
I absolutely LOVE Roxette and always have. Was fortunate enough to see them at the peak of their initial popularity at their homecoming show in a sold-out arena in Stockholm. Sadly missed them this tour due to my own busy schedule, though I almost flew to Calgary and back for one night just to see them -- it was my only possible chance, and circumstances conspired against me. And I know I will regret not doing so.
Marie is an amazing vocalist. And her recovery from the brain tumour is even more amazing. To be able to do what she loves so much again and do it so well is a tribute to modern medicine and her own perseverance. This lengthy tour was no picnic, but after what she's been through, I am hoping she enjoyed it as much as the fans did. She's earned it.
Per Gessle is simply one of the most under-rated and under-respected music-makers of our time. He's not the best singer on the stage, nor is he the best musician. The musicians in Roxette are top-notch, his collaborators for two decades. And he works, year in and year out, with the same team of musicians, engineers, producers. But he can write and arrange with the best of them, and his feel for the rock/pop groove and his unending supply of hooks is spectacular. So many of his songs sound instantaneously familiar. He's the guy who pulls it all together around him and he's the guy who makes it all happen.
I have all the music, not just Roxette. Per Gessle solo. Son Of A Plumber. Gyllene Tyder (his Swedish language band that his HUGE in Sweden). All multi-platinum in Sweden. The Lonely Boys, a one-off collaboration with some other well-known Swedish rockers is the best-kept secret in his storied career. I don't even know how to begin to explain it. It's a bit more rough around the edges than most of his more-polished work, and sorta Sixties British Invasion version ofR&B inspired; it is supposed to be the soundtrack to a book. All I know is I love to listen to that album.
He's the real deal, a world-class creator of world-class music. This long-awaited worldwide Roxette tour is now coming to a close after what seems like at least 18 months and shows everywhere, and they even finally returned to North America at long last.
Per Gessle doesn't need America, that's for sure, and he's done quite well with minimal success in America for many years since Roxette receded from the American airwaves (just ask EMI Sweden, who have released all of his recordings).
But America needs more Per Gessle.
Toby Mamis
ALIVE ENTERPRISES
______________________________________
I saw them the night before in San Francisco - first time I'd seen them - and was blown away. The venue was awesome for this show, and nearly all the people there seemed to be huge fans. I put up a review on my site, and someone commented that they'd driven 1,500 miles for the show, and in talking with the couple next to me, they were traveling to see the show at the Gibson the next night as well. And there were so many Swedish flags being waved in the audience, I thought I was at the Olympics!
The capacity at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium is a little over 3,000, and it was nearly sold out. AWESOME crowd. If you judge a show by the crowd, it was a 10/10. If you see this video I show, you'll see everyone clapping, singing, out of their seats... http://youtu.be/WR9saxcluOA
I put up a review with a lot of photos and a few videos from the show in SF here:
http://rocksubculture.com/?p=7504
Jason DeBord
Editor in Chief
The Rock Subculture Journal
______________________________________
Roxette.... Another band where the magic hand to make them stars was Herbie Herbert! Uh.... Let's see... That makes: Journey, Steve Miller's career resurrection, Santana, Europe, Mr. Big, Nocturne the live event company, the money behind Michael Bolton, make the merch biz what it is today with his clients at Winterland productions and all inventive ways to sell products at live event. etc. etc. etc. He made a lot of people a TON of money. And he brought a lot of great music to fans all over the world.
Bob - I love ya... But even Cliff & Peter know what Herbie was all about. All he ever did was bring the world to the artist's door.
Your pal,
Eric Hoppe
______________________________________
Good to read your review of Roxette. They were over my way earlier this year and were just fabulous. I have dealt with them since 1991 and both Per and Marie are two of the nicest people you could meet in this industry. Both their Perth shows sold out in minutes and they easily could have done another two. My inbox went crazy for ticket requests when it was announced they were coming - had more requests for tix to see their show than I had for Coldplay a few years back. Per has a great love and knowledge of pop music and I remember sitting with him and the band many years ago discussing and debating many a pop act into the wee hours of the morning. They came back to Perth again a few years later and we continued our conversation. It was good to see them again this year playing so good and Marie nailing the vocals.
Cheers
Dixie
DIXIE BATTERSBY
Media Manager
EMI MUSIC AUSTRALIA
______________________________________
My favourite group...and no shame in stating so!
:)
Shayan
______________________________________
HEY ! I thought I was the only one who LOVED this band in the us!!?? I am so glad you said all this and I am not alone. I could never decide if it was Roxette or the Indigo Girls I liked to sing to more. But really, I think was Roxette. To the point of the entire dorm hall telling me to shut up and the guy down stairs hurling oranges at our window because he hated Roxette and it played constantly! She really IS good and deserved far more than she ever got. They did some neat work and it went unnoticed. Thanks for sharing!
Winifred Adams
______________________________________
Roxette in South Africa.
Hi Bob,
Last year, one of our concert promoters decided to bring out Roxette to the famous Sun City Superbowl.
The first response amongst our media "Hipsters" was "Why would anyone go see these has-beens" but they greatly underestimated our country's generation x's. They quickly sold out both nights at the Superbowl which has a capacity of about 8000 and went on to add 2 more nights that also sold out.
They were great and as you mentioned you could see she wasn't the same but no one cared. Cause the rest of the band carried her.
It was a massive event with all the nights filled with 30somethings across race, gender and even genre. There were guys in Metallica shirts standing next to their wife's singing every word!
That's the thing about Roxette. Their music is so catchy and they've had so many hits that you can't help but know all the words. And they still remain a core artist on our AC stations.
It's like it almost became cool to go, yeah I listen to rock but my secret pop vice is Roxette. Just because the songs were so good.
Greetings from SA
Francois Du Toit
______________________________________
Roxette are a phenomenon! We promoted the Charm School tour in 2011 and sold an incredible 52,000 tickets (across Sun City and Cape Town). ...and so we brought them back a year later, and still sold 26,000 tickets. Yes, there is Marie's incredible cancer recovery story...but really, its all about the incredible, catchy tunes played live as they sound on the albums.
Kind regards,
John Langford B.Comm. MBA
Chief Operating Officer | BIG Concerts International
www.bigconcerts.co.za
______________________________________
I'm a Swedish songwriter and producer living in Stockholm. I was so glad to read your post on Roxette. I really think Per deserves more credit for being the phenomenal songwriter he is. It's always difficult to be a prophet in your own town, and I don't think Per has received recognition enough. Now, more than 20 years after having penned the Pretty Woman soundtrack song "It must have been love", as you said, people still have the songs in their DNA.
I think Per has always just written the songs he wants to write and he does it so well. Never trying to write in the style of what's currently charting on Billboard to be a copycat. I would think that the same goes for another guy who lives a couple of blocks away from Per in this little town, Max Martin. He's simply the best at what he does. They both have a true gift for writing songs that inevitably ends up in your veins and will stay in your DNA, and they have both done this by not copying someone else but rather developing their own style of songwriting. Hate it or love it, but I think a lot of us will have difficulties getting Britneys "oh, baby baby" out of our heads for a long time even though this was more than 10 years ago. Yes, at the time you could hear a lot of people explaining how "simple", "sweet", or "cheesy" some of these songs were, but today, as you stated, these songs are appreciated by an audience that wasn´t really around when the songs had their initial success and some of the songs seems strong enough to stay in our blood. At the end of the day, it's all about the song, isn't it?
Best,
Peter Sjostrom
______________________________________
No insider scoop, just a perspective on Per from a layperson who met him by accident.
I sat next to Per at a Swedish friend's birthday dinner a few years back--while Elton John and Stevie Wonder gave us a private performance (yeah, there's money in sending your teenagers to Europe for a week) - and you'd never meet a more down-to-earth international star. Indulging this wanna-be rock star, he patiently answered my tell-me-everything questions, aware all the while, I'm sure, that I didn't really appreciate the magnitude of what he'd accomplished outside of the states.
He was funny, humble and approachable, and this while Marie was in the throes of her health issues. Glad to hear they're back on stage.
Ted Doyle
______________________________________
Hi there,
Loved reading this. I'm what you would call a typical Scandinavian hard rock fan, but after 25 years in the music industry (counting the first tentative years working in record shops - you know, with vinyl & cassettes) the horizon is broad enough to encompass most genres as long as the songs are there. And boy, are the songs there when Per Gessle is involved! I recently interviewed the songwriter of Norwegian melodic hardcore/punk band Blood Command, and even he acknowledges Gessle's influence, claiming that his goal is to write "abrasive songs, but with a solid Gessle chorus".
And, in case you haven't seen it, here's Per Gessle performing the Ramones song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend". Again, it's all about the song and the melody.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ELqW-7Mo0
Best,
Espen Nørvåg Slapgård
Label Manager
Cooperative Music
Norway
______________________________________
I've been listening a lot to 20 on 20 recently. They pounding a song called "Dream On" by Roxette. This is a fucking smash!! It reminds me of something from my distant pass but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe something from Herman's Hermits? Do you know this song?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-SU4rfZZPE
what song does this sound like in the hook? 60's
Jeffrey Naumann
______________________________________
I love Roxette! Tons of memories!!
Starting up Spotifiy right now. Thanks for reminding me :-)
And as far as the commercials go... Welcome to extreme capitalism. Money has always been, but now is more than ever, the most important thing in this country. In other countries too... Some others are getting into the same problem. But it all comes from the United States... It's all about the money here and I hate it. Nothing else counts for most people, everybody wants it all and a little more... it's so sad... Moving back to Austria next year. Not saying it's all perfect there, but still better than here. And I will be back to 5 weeks vacation ;-)
Have a good day!
Markus Unterberger
______________________________________
live nation fucked up the palladium the same way....when we ran the joint, everyone dressed up to go...it was a night out... you were served drinks by waiters and waitresses in bow ties and vests, and our VIP bar was packed and there was a scene...now...ads everywhere...bad beer in a plastic cups....no scene. I went to see Rebelution there and was horrified at what had been done to the vibe of that place (and they supposedly spent $ 20,000,000 fixing it up !) ....when we ran it, the bands called us to play there...including the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Roxy Music, T Rex, you name it.....It was the class party gig on their tour....
Sepp Donahower
______________________________________
"The Gibson" Amphitheater. The naming rights deal cost about 11 million bucks for 13 years' worth of ego strokes. There are many in the guitar biz who think the dough could have been better spent building better guitars...
My Best,
Rick Turner
______________________________________
Thanx for stopping by. We all had a great time at the Gibson. Marie had a tough day due to the fact we did a CBS morning show before the show talking about her illness. She hates that... + her son visiting............ Read your article. Wise words. Keep it up! See ya next time.
P.
Per Gessle
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Lately, I've been revisiting the ticketing issues that we discussed a few years ago. My most recent story is here:
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/18609327/scalpers-get-edge-on-fans-at-eric-church-show
As part of that endeavor, I obtained ticketing documents for Justin Bieber's 2012-13 tour - you know, the one that sold out MSG "in 30 seconds!" and the whole tour in an hour! (Exclamation marks from the celebrity press.)
Well, it turns out again, that most of the tickets were sold long before the public onsale - either through AmEx presales or artist/tour holds. And, this time, we have direct evidence of tour-hold tickets being scalped directly through TicketsNow/StubHub/Ticket Network.
Phil
Phil Williams
Chief Investigative Reporter WTVF-TV
______________________________________
From: Berton Averre
Subject: Re: Playing for Free
Always nice to hear from Wendy Waldman, isn't it? Great thoughts, great feeling. It inspired me to share a memory from our band's early days.
We made a name for ourselves playing the clubs in Hollywood, bouncing back and forth from the Troubadour to the Starwood. We'd play almost anywhere to build up a fan base, and one night we found ourselves way the hell out in Lancaster at a club called The Wooden Nickel. Our agreement was to play one set for the pittance the club owner was paying us, which would cover our crew, gas money, and maybe the cost of printing up posters. Turns out the club owner wanted us to play a second set without paying us any more, and he and one of our three managers (at the time we had an unfriendly triumvirate of managers, if you can imagine) had a screaming match over it near our "dressing room". I couldn't make out our manager's words over the jukebox and the bar fights, but the owner must have had one of those voices that carried, for I distinctly remember him bellowing "You think this band is worth fifty dollars?!"
And Bob, you are so right when you refer to the immense significance of timing when it comes to success in music. I've never had many words of wisdom to offer on the subject of the biz if aspiring young musicians should ever ask. The one thing I've always told them is always to make the music you truly love yourself. I know that sounds fatuous, but artists do get lured into playing and recording a particular style of music based on someone's calculation (often not one of the artists) that this is the style people want to hear that week, and that's the way to get hits. My point is that ISN'T the way to get a hit, it never is. Worthwhile songs come from talented, motivated people engaged in an eternal love affair with music and their tools of the trade (guitars, voices, even computers I guess). No passion, no song. So the formula is work as hard as you can to make the music you love as well as you can, and hope to hell that you're doing it at that brief sliver in time when the world is ready to love it too. And, of course, be lucky enough that all your hard work yields a chance that people will hear it.
Our band was very lucky indeed, in that our time scrabbling to get a toehold was relatively short. I honestly don't know what might have happened if we'd had to endure years of Wooden Nickels. But I do know that if money was the immediate incentive we would never have stuck around to find out. And I'll never stop being grateful that in our brief sliver of time there were people who liked the same things we did.
______________________________________
Subject: Fred Armisen @ SXSW
Hey Bob,
I first met Fred in 1998 while working with Steve Albini. On a break he showed me this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOp1uPpjYgo
You're welcome.
Steve Taylor
______________________________________
______________________________________
Re: Roxette
_____
Hey Bob,
Nice piece on Roxette. I saw the front-end of this near two-year tour at Wembley Arena last November. They played a 12k plus sell-out house with nary a peep of a mention before or a review after. And yes, The main locus of my London visit was to see Roxette as I was doubtful they would make over here. I just love them and think Per Gessle is pretty much a genius level songwriter that can still turn them out 25 years on.
Until a couple of them got chucked-up on iTunes, their last five albums didn't even see release in the states and they are all good, with "Room Service' being a near masterpiece. I too was stuck by a world-class band that plays pop music taking to the stage in 2012 without a sampler,sequencer or click-track anywhere in sight . Jeez, the entire stage set-up could probably fit in one of those 19.95 a-day U-hauls.
But wow, what a great night.
Bill Inglot
______________________________________
I saw Roxette in San Francisco the night before... and they were simply amazing. There were tons of singalongs, not just "na na's" but like a full verse and chorus! People were freaking out.
In fact, I was so stoked by it, I just bought (downloaded) the greatest hits, the last 2 roxette albums, and 2 per gessle albums.
I am now totally a fan.
John Ashfield
______________________________________
I don't say this often, Bob, but I'm jealous! Love Roxette and didn't get the chance to see them when they were in NYC because it was over Labor Day weekend.
Roxette epitomizes what pop music was and what it should be. Amazing melodies, fantastic vocals, great writing and an overall enjoyable vibe. Marie could sing the phonebook and she is so believable and enthralling when she sings. Growing up in the 80s, a handful of their songs were all over the radio and they still sound memorable 20-25 years later.
Hopefully they come back again soon.
Richard Young
______________________________________
You hit the nail on the head. Roxette has been dismissed by many, but they are pure pop perfection. "Joyride" and the whole album is infectious. "physical fascination" from joyride is another favorite.
What music lacks today is a combination of talent, excitement, and a sense of wonder. I'm 40 and was raised in the 80s on MTV - not ashamed to admit that. I'll be seeing Peter Gabriel So Tour and Prince in the same week shortly....talent, excitement and wonder indeed.
Nathan Benditzson
______________________________________
Hey Bob,
Roxette's Per Gessle was a star in Sweden before Roxette with his band Gyllene Tider (Golden Times) that had a strong four album run before disbanding.
My collaborator Mats MP Persson was in that band and was a crucial background player in Roxette's success as well (as a co-writer of songs like "Listen To Your Heart").
Calling them a local hit rather than journeymen in their past might be a bit more fitting. Especially judging by the homecoming concert they did in their hometown of
Halmstad, Sweden in 2004. 40,000 tickets sold, a huge boom in their catalogue and screens in the city centre celebrating the end of their tour. I was in the audience. The place
went nuts.
I believe this was after their show in Gothenburg - where rock lives in Sweden - that set a new record for attendance at the Ullevi Stadium there with north of 50k showing up
shattering the previous record set by Bruce.
Vince Degiorgio
______________________________________
Bob --
Just got back from a speaking gig in Sweden at Hotel Tylosand.
I didn't know the place, and had to ask the staff why all the Roxette memorabilia was everywhere -- along with the fact the meeting rooms were chiefly named for the great rock photographers, which is obviously quite distinctive.
Turns out that Per owns the place. What I loved is that it's not a hotel that feels like someone doing a "corporate cash-in" (like Hard Rock does quite frequently)...instead the vibe is really terrific and unlike anyplace I've been.
The best part was that when I was speaking to the group about how to cultivate customers into a fan base, the very hotel we were in, and its owner, were perfect examples.
Scott McKain
______________________________________
I absolutely LOVE Roxette and always have. Was fortunate enough to see them at the peak of their initial popularity at their homecoming show in a sold-out arena in Stockholm. Sadly missed them this tour due to my own busy schedule, though I almost flew to Calgary and back for one night just to see them -- it was my only possible chance, and circumstances conspired against me. And I know I will regret not doing so.
Marie is an amazing vocalist. And her recovery from the brain tumour is even more amazing. To be able to do what she loves so much again and do it so well is a tribute to modern medicine and her own perseverance. This lengthy tour was no picnic, but after what she's been through, I am hoping she enjoyed it as much as the fans did. She's earned it.
Per Gessle is simply one of the most under-rated and under-respected music-makers of our time. He's not the best singer on the stage, nor is he the best musician. The musicians in Roxette are top-notch, his collaborators for two decades. And he works, year in and year out, with the same team of musicians, engineers, producers. But he can write and arrange with the best of them, and his feel for the rock/pop groove and his unending supply of hooks is spectacular. So many of his songs sound instantaneously familiar. He's the guy who pulls it all together around him and he's the guy who makes it all happen.
I have all the music, not just Roxette. Per Gessle solo. Son Of A Plumber. Gyllene Tyder (his Swedish language band that his HUGE in Sweden). All multi-platinum in Sweden. The Lonely Boys, a one-off collaboration with some other well-known Swedish rockers is the best-kept secret in his storied career. I don't even know how to begin to explain it. It's a bit more rough around the edges than most of his more-polished work, and sorta Sixties British Invasion version ofR&B inspired; it is supposed to be the soundtrack to a book. All I know is I love to listen to that album.
He's the real deal, a world-class creator of world-class music. This long-awaited worldwide Roxette tour is now coming to a close after what seems like at least 18 months and shows everywhere, and they even finally returned to North America at long last.
Per Gessle doesn't need America, that's for sure, and he's done quite well with minimal success in America for many years since Roxette receded from the American airwaves (just ask EMI Sweden, who have released all of his recordings).
But America needs more Per Gessle.
Toby Mamis
ALIVE ENTERPRISES
______________________________________
I saw them the night before in San Francisco - first time I'd seen them - and was blown away. The venue was awesome for this show, and nearly all the people there seemed to be huge fans. I put up a review on my site, and someone commented that they'd driven 1,500 miles for the show, and in talking with the couple next to me, they were traveling to see the show at the Gibson the next night as well. And there were so many Swedish flags being waved in the audience, I thought I was at the Olympics!
The capacity at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium is a little over 3,000, and it was nearly sold out. AWESOME crowd. If you judge a show by the crowd, it was a 10/10. If you see this video I show, you'll see everyone clapping, singing, out of their seats... http://youtu.be/WR9saxcluOA
I put up a review with a lot of photos and a few videos from the show in SF here:
http://rocksubculture.com/?p=7504
Jason DeBord
Editor in Chief
The Rock Subculture Journal
______________________________________
Roxette.... Another band where the magic hand to make them stars was Herbie Herbert! Uh.... Let's see... That makes: Journey, Steve Miller's career resurrection, Santana, Europe, Mr. Big, Nocturne the live event company, the money behind Michael Bolton, make the merch biz what it is today with his clients at Winterland productions and all inventive ways to sell products at live event. etc. etc. etc. He made a lot of people a TON of money. And he brought a lot of great music to fans all over the world.
Bob - I love ya... But even Cliff & Peter know what Herbie was all about. All he ever did was bring the world to the artist's door.
Your pal,
Eric Hoppe
______________________________________
Good to read your review of Roxette. They were over my way earlier this year and were just fabulous. I have dealt with them since 1991 and both Per and Marie are two of the nicest people you could meet in this industry. Both their Perth shows sold out in minutes and they easily could have done another two. My inbox went crazy for ticket requests when it was announced they were coming - had more requests for tix to see their show than I had for Coldplay a few years back. Per has a great love and knowledge of pop music and I remember sitting with him and the band many years ago discussing and debating many a pop act into the wee hours of the morning. They came back to Perth again a few years later and we continued our conversation. It was good to see them again this year playing so good and Marie nailing the vocals.
Cheers
Dixie
DIXIE BATTERSBY
Media Manager
EMI MUSIC AUSTRALIA
______________________________________
My favourite group...and no shame in stating so!
:)
Shayan
______________________________________
HEY ! I thought I was the only one who LOVED this band in the us!!?? I am so glad you said all this and I am not alone. I could never decide if it was Roxette or the Indigo Girls I liked to sing to more. But really, I think was Roxette. To the point of the entire dorm hall telling me to shut up and the guy down stairs hurling oranges at our window because he hated Roxette and it played constantly! She really IS good and deserved far more than she ever got. They did some neat work and it went unnoticed. Thanks for sharing!
Winifred Adams
______________________________________
Roxette in South Africa.
Hi Bob,
Last year, one of our concert promoters decided to bring out Roxette to the famous Sun City Superbowl.
The first response amongst our media "Hipsters" was "Why would anyone go see these has-beens" but they greatly underestimated our country's generation x's. They quickly sold out both nights at the Superbowl which has a capacity of about 8000 and went on to add 2 more nights that also sold out.
They were great and as you mentioned you could see she wasn't the same but no one cared. Cause the rest of the band carried her.
It was a massive event with all the nights filled with 30somethings across race, gender and even genre. There were guys in Metallica shirts standing next to their wife's singing every word!
That's the thing about Roxette. Their music is so catchy and they've had so many hits that you can't help but know all the words. And they still remain a core artist on our AC stations.
It's like it almost became cool to go, yeah I listen to rock but my secret pop vice is Roxette. Just because the songs were so good.
Greetings from SA
Francois Du Toit
______________________________________
Roxette are a phenomenon! We promoted the Charm School tour in 2011 and sold an incredible 52,000 tickets (across Sun City and Cape Town). ...and so we brought them back a year later, and still sold 26,000 tickets. Yes, there is Marie's incredible cancer recovery story...but really, its all about the incredible, catchy tunes played live as they sound on the albums.
Kind regards,
John Langford B.Comm. MBA
Chief Operating Officer | BIG Concerts International
www.bigconcerts.co.za
______________________________________
I'm a Swedish songwriter and producer living in Stockholm. I was so glad to read your post on Roxette. I really think Per deserves more credit for being the phenomenal songwriter he is. It's always difficult to be a prophet in your own town, and I don't think Per has received recognition enough. Now, more than 20 years after having penned the Pretty Woman soundtrack song "It must have been love", as you said, people still have the songs in their DNA.
I think Per has always just written the songs he wants to write and he does it so well. Never trying to write in the style of what's currently charting on Billboard to be a copycat. I would think that the same goes for another guy who lives a couple of blocks away from Per in this little town, Max Martin. He's simply the best at what he does. They both have a true gift for writing songs that inevitably ends up in your veins and will stay in your DNA, and they have both done this by not copying someone else but rather developing their own style of songwriting. Hate it or love it, but I think a lot of us will have difficulties getting Britneys "oh, baby baby" out of our heads for a long time even though this was more than 10 years ago. Yes, at the time you could hear a lot of people explaining how "simple", "sweet", or "cheesy" some of these songs were, but today, as you stated, these songs are appreciated by an audience that wasn´t really around when the songs had their initial success and some of the songs seems strong enough to stay in our blood. At the end of the day, it's all about the song, isn't it?
Best,
Peter Sjostrom
______________________________________
No insider scoop, just a perspective on Per from a layperson who met him by accident.
I sat next to Per at a Swedish friend's birthday dinner a few years back--while Elton John and Stevie Wonder gave us a private performance (yeah, there's money in sending your teenagers to Europe for a week) - and you'd never meet a more down-to-earth international star. Indulging this wanna-be rock star, he patiently answered my tell-me-everything questions, aware all the while, I'm sure, that I didn't really appreciate the magnitude of what he'd accomplished outside of the states.
He was funny, humble and approachable, and this while Marie was in the throes of her health issues. Glad to hear they're back on stage.
Ted Doyle
______________________________________
Hi there,
Loved reading this. I'm what you would call a typical Scandinavian hard rock fan, but after 25 years in the music industry (counting the first tentative years working in record shops - you know, with vinyl & cassettes) the horizon is broad enough to encompass most genres as long as the songs are there. And boy, are the songs there when Per Gessle is involved! I recently interviewed the songwriter of Norwegian melodic hardcore/punk band Blood Command, and even he acknowledges Gessle's influence, claiming that his goal is to write "abrasive songs, but with a solid Gessle chorus".
And, in case you haven't seen it, here's Per Gessle performing the Ramones song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend". Again, it's all about the song and the melody.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ELqW-7Mo0
Best,
Espen Nørvåg Slapgård
Label Manager
Cooperative Music
Norway
______________________________________
I've been listening a lot to 20 on 20 recently. They pounding a song called "Dream On" by Roxette. This is a fucking smash!! It reminds me of something from my distant pass but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe something from Herman's Hermits? Do you know this song?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-SU4rfZZPE
what song does this sound like in the hook? 60's
Jeffrey Naumann
______________________________________
I love Roxette! Tons of memories!!
Starting up Spotifiy right now. Thanks for reminding me :-)
And as far as the commercials go... Welcome to extreme capitalism. Money has always been, but now is more than ever, the most important thing in this country. In other countries too... Some others are getting into the same problem. But it all comes from the United States... It's all about the money here and I hate it. Nothing else counts for most people, everybody wants it all and a little more... it's so sad... Moving back to Austria next year. Not saying it's all perfect there, but still better than here. And I will be back to 5 weeks vacation ;-)
Have a good day!
Markus Unterberger
______________________________________
live nation fucked up the palladium the same way....when we ran the joint, everyone dressed up to go...it was a night out... you were served drinks by waiters and waitresses in bow ties and vests, and our VIP bar was packed and there was a scene...now...ads everywhere...bad beer in a plastic cups....no scene. I went to see Rebelution there and was horrified at what had been done to the vibe of that place (and they supposedly spent $ 20,000,000 fixing it up !) ....when we ran it, the bands called us to play there...including the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Roxy Music, T Rex, you name it.....It was the class party gig on their tour....
Sepp Donahower
______________________________________
"The Gibson" Amphitheater. The naming rights deal cost about 11 million bucks for 13 years' worth of ego strokes. There are many in the guitar biz who think the dough could have been better spent building better guitars...
My Best,
Rick Turner
______________________________________
Thanx for stopping by. We all had a great time at the Gibson. Marie had a tough day due to the fact we did a CBS morning show before the show talking about her illness. She hates that... + her son visiting............ Read your article. Wise words. Keep it up! See ya next time.
P.
Per Gessle
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Sunday 16 September 2012
Mailbag
Subject: Re: Roxette At The Gibson
I have told people for years that the reason I picked up the guitar when I was 10 was because I heard Led Zeppelin IV.
Total lie.
It was because I had bought Roxette "Joyride" and played it until my walkman wore through the tape.
True story.
Good lord that feels good to get off my chest!
-Austin Hartley-Leonard
_______________________________________
Subject: I interned for Amanda Palmer
Hey Bob,
I know you're done on the Palmer kerfuffle but thought I'd share my story with you.
I've been a fan of Palmer's since 2004. She's been my favourite musician since the Dolls.
Back in 2008 right before the release of Who Killed Amanda Palmer, Amanda's assistant Beth put out a twitter call out requesting an intern to help with several AFP projects. The intern did not need to live in Boston or NYC.
I reached out and got the gig. At the time I was living 600 miles north of Toronto literally in the middle of nowhere. I helped out with Amanda's online merch company, Post-War Trade, back when it was completely DIY artist commissioned work. I volunteered about 10-15 hours a week. I flew down to Toronto when the WKAP tour came through. I was on the guest list, Amanda gave me her love and any free merch I wanted. It was amazing.
June 2009, not long after the news came out that Neil Gaiman & Amanda were now a couple-- which might I add Neil has been my favourite author since 2000-- SPIN magazine organized events featuring an author & a musician for a night of readings & music. So in June 2009, a Neil & Amanda event was held in NYC.
Amanda paid my flight to NYC where I was a photographer for the event and also part of the crew for her headlining show at the Highline Ballroom two nights later. I stayed at her assistant's place in Brooklyn. My first time in NYC and I got to hang out with my favourite musician and my favourite author. I had my copy of Neverwhere that I've had for 12 years now, signed by Neil. He also drew me a picture of the Sandman that I'm getting tattooed.
For three magical days I was part of her world. And I would gladly do it again if given the opportunity. For free.
Kara
@KaraDawnElle
_______________________________________
Subject: playing for free
This is becoming a pretty funny discussion.
Some of my closest colleagues and I have been in this endeavor (or business as some like to call it) for 40 years.
We've always played/play for free when we needed to or wanted to or were inspired to, and we've always played for money when it was offered, starting back in the late 60s and stretching into, actually yesterday, when one of my closest allies mixed a track for me for free, a track we all played on for nothing.
There is absolutely nothing new about this under the sun.
You really think this is some new revolutionary idea???
Everyone is shouting about this like they've discovered the wheel.
Man, people have played for free since people could play.
And when we are lucky enough to get paid, we are doubly happy because then we can feed our kids and keep a roof over my head.
The best thing is when I get to pay musicians to work. After thousands of free gigs over these decades, of all types--studio, live, debts, favors, LA, Nashville, New York, Warsaw-- you name it--there's nothing like the feeling you get when you can put some money into the hands of say--your brilliant drummer who's toughing it out here in LA and supporting his family, and has played or recorded with you no questions asked for decades--or any of your marvelous colleagues who help you to accomplish your dreams. And you help them. Being able to pay them is such a fantastic thing--it means they can keep honing their craft and getting better and better.
And I have worked with superstars over the years, and they also worked for free--some huge percentage of those touted 10,000 hours....
We've made entire albums for free,--in the late 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, to today--- it was assumed --because we needed to make the records, or play the gigs or build the following.
It's no different, but suddenly people think it's NEW!!!!:)
We played the gigs and did our parts for free when it was required, and we always knew the favor would be returned.
And we've been doing it for decades.
it's silly to think this is new, or only for the downtrodden, young musician who's just making his or her way in this brave new cold world...
what do you think it was to be a jazz musician in the 30s?
More importantly, people were doing it generations and generations before those jazz musicians or later, we --ever showed up--first with our records and then our internet.
Ain't no big thing, it's what it is to be a musician, please.
Gotta actually study history and know the facts.
Wendy Waldman
_______________________________________
Subject: Sour Chablis
Wow what an interesting mailbag you have, Bob, and kudos for your being able to stomach the bitter vehemence of the wannabes, the hasbeens, and the not-really-beens-if-you're-gonna-be-honest-with-yourselves. Sheesh! I've been playing the sour grapes-game tonight; googling the names of people who sign their missives. its quite telling, Mr. Lefsetz..
....Just some insights gleaned from the latest barrage of AFP mail:
The angriest guy is the guitarist who not only propped Avril Lavigne, but also the comeback of one of the OTown boys. I'd say he has a right to talk about gear, but not about music, nor talent--- and certainly not about being indie, or marketing oneself to ones fans... he's also 29 so should know better but doesn't. Which is probably why he's reading Craigslist Musicians Classified (and thinks he can speak for what "we" all know ...and thinks a Mercedes costs a million dollars)
Then you have 'promoters' who pride themselves on paying the bartender and the coat check girl etc,. Aside from the fact that so much of the "music" they promote is nauseating -- there's also a slew of them who won't let their bands put more than 1 minute of video on youtube (really? I can't hear a full song? buh-bye!) ...and then there's the Self-Indulgents-- again with their minute-long samples on soundcloud and myspace (really. not even a wikipedia about you?) sometimes they have chops. But who cares if they can't make a song out of it? And those promoters are doing a disservice to their talent. ...Some real dreck-peddlers and shovellers of shit (you might say they're the same thing, but the difference is in the polish) emailing and coming down on Amanda for a poorly worded attempt at getting even closer with some of her fans.
it would be easy to say they're just jealous. which to a degree they must be-- the guy who sings like Woody Guthrie with a harmonica will never have legions of fans (so 'Woody lite' he feels a right to shit on Amanda's voice), same with Avril's guitarist. But one last telling thing--- you talk about privileged kids---- look at this sad fact: These promoters and professional artists who all claim they are hard working-- and yet have some sense of pride for their own ignorance and laziness; so many of them say they haven't heard her music. Wow. So they can hit reply on gmail, but can't be bothered to go to youtube for a second and listen to what they're cutting down? They're not Bob Lefsetz--- they don't get a million people asking them to hear their crappy demos every day... Plus they're chiming in, if they care so much about music, and care enough to chime in-- it's not one of those "I wont listen until people tell me about them" schticks, they read about her, they're thinking about her and even responding. At this point they ought to do a little work (type 'amanda palmer' into youtube) before sending off an email. But that's not how it works anymore. These stale bitter people can't even bother to listen before shitting on her.
Why am not surprised that at the end of my little Sour Grapes Game I've found Zero Cool New Bands from the angry letterwriters (some session musicians i will never care about but no new talent) at the same time I have watched AFPs new video a bunch of times (I know how to use Youtube) The Killing Type;
"I'm not the killing type I'm not the killing type I'm not, but I would kill to make you feel"
....and it made me feel. enough to listen a second time looking at the lyrics--- love it even more now! Haters will stay miserable in their cold hardened certitudes, Amanda Palmer is going to have a killer tour and loads of fun. Which would you rather be?
Thanks Bob for once more showing what is important in this music racket!!!
and Shana Tova!
(PS Not that you would print this, but if you do, please with no name... thanks!)
_______________________________________
Subject: RE: The Apple Keynote
I'm going off piste here bob...triggered by something in your letter about apple and the foos
Allegiance to bands.
It has amused me for decades that singers in bands or lead guitarists in bands or the main writer in a band so often foolishly assume that the fan base is all about them. this is of course because to a singer everything is always all about them. the idea that the fans could be fans of the band not of any one individual - or at least only as long as that individual remains in the band? Surely not.
And yet as you eloquently described, van halen lost a string of singers thought of as indispensable by said singer, yet forged ahead from strength to strength.
Surely genesis couldn't continue without the charismatic peter Gabriel, replacing him with their little balding drummer could they? Surely pink floyd couldn't lose their singer AND their primary writer roger waters and fill in with their chunky guitarist could they?deep purple, white snake, AC/DC little feat, and on and on.
The point is this: we become fans of a football team. We love the star
players. Then the biggest star player is poached away by a rival team. Do we follow that player to his new team? Do we even consider it for a second? No, we not only welcome his replacement but we boo the old guy if he comes back with his new team to play a home game.
Be warned singers. It's not all about you. if you leave you're forgotten. If you put out a solo record (mick jagger take note) nobody cares. If you produce your own record and play all the instruments it'll suck...but if you go back to your band the fans will love you all over again
Cheers
Robin Millar
_______________________________________
Subject: Bob Alan Frew from Glass Tiger here
I would like to add a slight twist to the notion of " sometimes you just have to " give up".
I have in my book THE ACTION SANDWICH and in my public speaking gigs always hammered on the fact that successful people at "any level" ( remember what success is to one may NOT be considered success to another regardless of financial gain) follow two universal concepts ;
1) they "feel" the fear but do it anyway and
2) they "never" give up.....ever.
I therefore, when diving into any project always march to the drum of "maybe it's not about THIS even although everything tells me I should be doing THIS maybe in fact it is really all about THAT.
Following this philosophy in my opinion is a far cry from giving up.
As a matter of fact even when I devoted a year of my life to my book and was in the depths of writing it I always followed the principle that it might just not be about "the book" itself with my selling a shitload of copies and making a fortune from it but rather I always kept in my head the notion that I might only sell 4 or 5 copies but in doing so those 5 copies may well direct me onto a different pathway that may lead me to that fortune elsewhere. Having this belief does two things for me . 1) it keeps me sane and grounded in the knowledge that it really may indeed only sell a handful of copies and 2) gives me the strength to keep going keep moving keep shifting in the event that indeed it does only sell FIVE copies . In my 35 years as a professional entertainer I have been handed more than my air share of opportunities to "give up" but I never do.......ever.
In the end my book sold some 8,000 copies here in Canada and that number was mostly due to my tenacity and action, not earth-shattering by any means but in doing so it turned me into a public speaker of the highest order bringing me an abundance of great paying gigs that far outweighed the money my book made from sales.
I did not give up on being an author but instead "shifted" the same energyn into becoming a speaker. The doing THIS was indeed really about going on to do THAT.
To me "giving up" is about laying in the fetal position groaning like a wounded animal with the words "fuck it" tattooed on your forehead whereas recognizing you're flogging a dead horse at one thing but taking all of the receptivity and desire belief and energy etc that you had for it in the firstbplace and "shifting" it to the next thing to me is far from giving up. It simply becomes re-energizing : re-focussing : reworking the clay. If you cannot be vase be an urn.
Success on your own terms is the greatest of ALL successes . Giving up will never get you there but realizing as you go that it may not be about THIS but rather it may really be about THAT is in my opinion a necessary tool in the tool-kit of any success.
Those of you who may think Glass Tiger was a one hit wonder ?
I understand why you may think THIS but go to www.alanfrew.com and you'll find out just why it was never just about THIS it was really always about THAT and THAT and yes, ..,,,,THAT too ;)
Cheers Bob
Alan Frew author of The Action Sandwich (a six-step recipe to success doing what you're already doing).
_______________________________________
Subject: Re: Giving Up
Bob,
Love this! My dream had always firmly been to "make a living in the music industry." I have done that for 17 years now.
Of course, I thought "rock star" first, as a young man how could you not. But as time moved on and the industry changed, I realized I had to as well. That dream of rock star (singer/songwriter, guitarist, and frontman) would now also include: marketing, booker, composer, producer, publisher, licensor, writer, consultant, teacher; sometimes all in the same week!
But I did it, and am doing it.
"Ain't nothin' wrong with my aim, just gotta change the target"
Cheers to all who call this business home - in whatever neighborhood they live.
Michael St. James
_______________________________________
Subject: Re: Giving Up
When I was in high school my friend and I put on our first show as "promoters" at a VFW hall in Beech Grove, Indiana. We brought down two bands from Chicago -- Even Score & Trenchmouth. $5 to get in, I think.
Even Score featured a 19 year old singer named Tony Brummel who had just put out his third 7" on his label, Victory Records. Nobody had heard his band so before each song, he'd teach the kids the choruses so they could singalong. Clearly he had a bright future in marketing ahead of him.
I still have a set of photos from that show. I believe it was 1990. I met a lot of people there who are still friends.
Two years ago I was working the MTV movie awards (I wrote the MTV news pre-show) and a colleague and I saw Fred Armisen outside waiting for someone to bring him his ticket.
Normally I don't randomly approach actors but I had to talk to him about doing that Trenchmouth show in a VFW hall. He remembered it and spoke to me in the friendly and easy going shorthand of two DIY veterans rather than the "SNL star talking to MTV Movie Awards writer" one may expect.
In other words the guy totally rules. And Portlandia is so spot-on, it's ridiculous. Only someone who has experienced, loved (and somewhat loathed) the things on that show could lampoon them so effortlessly and so brilliantly.
Ryan Downey
_______________________________________
Subject: From Fred Armisen
Wow. You are incredibly nice. Thank you so much for your kind words.
F
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
I have told people for years that the reason I picked up the guitar when I was 10 was because I heard Led Zeppelin IV.
Total lie.
It was because I had bought Roxette "Joyride" and played it until my walkman wore through the tape.
True story.
Good lord that feels good to get off my chest!
-Austin Hartley-Leonard
_______________________________________
Subject: I interned for Amanda Palmer
Hey Bob,
I know you're done on the Palmer kerfuffle but thought I'd share my story with you.
I've been a fan of Palmer's since 2004. She's been my favourite musician since the Dolls.
Back in 2008 right before the release of Who Killed Amanda Palmer, Amanda's assistant Beth put out a twitter call out requesting an intern to help with several AFP projects. The intern did not need to live in Boston or NYC.
I reached out and got the gig. At the time I was living 600 miles north of Toronto literally in the middle of nowhere. I helped out with Amanda's online merch company, Post-War Trade, back when it was completely DIY artist commissioned work. I volunteered about 10-15 hours a week. I flew down to Toronto when the WKAP tour came through. I was on the guest list, Amanda gave me her love and any free merch I wanted. It was amazing.
June 2009, not long after the news came out that Neil Gaiman & Amanda were now a couple-- which might I add Neil has been my favourite author since 2000-- SPIN magazine organized events featuring an author & a musician for a night of readings & music. So in June 2009, a Neil & Amanda event was held in NYC.
Amanda paid my flight to NYC where I was a photographer for the event and also part of the crew for her headlining show at the Highline Ballroom two nights later. I stayed at her assistant's place in Brooklyn. My first time in NYC and I got to hang out with my favourite musician and my favourite author. I had my copy of Neverwhere that I've had for 12 years now, signed by Neil. He also drew me a picture of the Sandman that I'm getting tattooed.
For three magical days I was part of her world. And I would gladly do it again if given the opportunity. For free.
Kara
@KaraDawnElle
_______________________________________
Subject: playing for free
This is becoming a pretty funny discussion.
Some of my closest colleagues and I have been in this endeavor (or business as some like to call it) for 40 years.
We've always played/play for free when we needed to or wanted to or were inspired to, and we've always played for money when it was offered, starting back in the late 60s and stretching into, actually yesterday, when one of my closest allies mixed a track for me for free, a track we all played on for nothing.
There is absolutely nothing new about this under the sun.
You really think this is some new revolutionary idea???
Everyone is shouting about this like they've discovered the wheel.
Man, people have played for free since people could play.
And when we are lucky enough to get paid, we are doubly happy because then we can feed our kids and keep a roof over my head.
The best thing is when I get to pay musicians to work. After thousands of free gigs over these decades, of all types--studio, live, debts, favors, LA, Nashville, New York, Warsaw-- you name it--there's nothing like the feeling you get when you can put some money into the hands of say--your brilliant drummer who's toughing it out here in LA and supporting his family, and has played or recorded with you no questions asked for decades--or any of your marvelous colleagues who help you to accomplish your dreams. And you help them. Being able to pay them is such a fantastic thing--it means they can keep honing their craft and getting better and better.
And I have worked with superstars over the years, and they also worked for free--some huge percentage of those touted 10,000 hours....
We've made entire albums for free,--in the late 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, to today--- it was assumed --because we needed to make the records, or play the gigs or build the following.
It's no different, but suddenly people think it's NEW!!!!:)
We played the gigs and did our parts for free when it was required, and we always knew the favor would be returned.
And we've been doing it for decades.
it's silly to think this is new, or only for the downtrodden, young musician who's just making his or her way in this brave new cold world...
what do you think it was to be a jazz musician in the 30s?
More importantly, people were doing it generations and generations before those jazz musicians or later, we --ever showed up--first with our records and then our internet.
Ain't no big thing, it's what it is to be a musician, please.
Gotta actually study history and know the facts.
Wendy Waldman
_______________________________________
Subject: Sour Chablis
Wow what an interesting mailbag you have, Bob, and kudos for your being able to stomach the bitter vehemence of the wannabes, the hasbeens, and the not-really-beens-if-you're-gonna-be-honest-with-yourselves. Sheesh! I've been playing the sour grapes-game tonight; googling the names of people who sign their missives. its quite telling, Mr. Lefsetz..
....Just some insights gleaned from the latest barrage of AFP mail:
The angriest guy is the guitarist who not only propped Avril Lavigne, but also the comeback of one of the OTown boys. I'd say he has a right to talk about gear, but not about music, nor talent--- and certainly not about being indie, or marketing oneself to ones fans... he's also 29 so should know better but doesn't. Which is probably why he's reading Craigslist Musicians Classified (and thinks he can speak for what "we" all know ...and thinks a Mercedes costs a million dollars)
Then you have 'promoters' who pride themselves on paying the bartender and the coat check girl etc,. Aside from the fact that so much of the "music" they promote is nauseating -- there's also a slew of them who won't let their bands put more than 1 minute of video on youtube (really? I can't hear a full song? buh-bye!) ...and then there's the Self-Indulgents-- again with their minute-long samples on soundcloud and myspace (really. not even a wikipedia about you?) sometimes they have chops. But who cares if they can't make a song out of it? And those promoters are doing a disservice to their talent. ...Some real dreck-peddlers and shovellers of shit (you might say they're the same thing, but the difference is in the polish) emailing and coming down on Amanda for a poorly worded attempt at getting even closer with some of her fans.
it would be easy to say they're just jealous. which to a degree they must be-- the guy who sings like Woody Guthrie with a harmonica will never have legions of fans (so 'Woody lite' he feels a right to shit on Amanda's voice), same with Avril's guitarist. But one last telling thing--- you talk about privileged kids---- look at this sad fact: These promoters and professional artists who all claim they are hard working-- and yet have some sense of pride for their own ignorance and laziness; so many of them say they haven't heard her music. Wow. So they can hit reply on gmail, but can't be bothered to go to youtube for a second and listen to what they're cutting down? They're not Bob Lefsetz--- they don't get a million people asking them to hear their crappy demos every day... Plus they're chiming in, if they care so much about music, and care enough to chime in-- it's not one of those "I wont listen until people tell me about them" schticks, they read about her, they're thinking about her and even responding. At this point they ought to do a little work (type 'amanda palmer' into youtube) before sending off an email. But that's not how it works anymore. These stale bitter people can't even bother to listen before shitting on her.
Why am not surprised that at the end of my little Sour Grapes Game I've found Zero Cool New Bands from the angry letterwriters (some session musicians i will never care about but no new talent) at the same time I have watched AFPs new video a bunch of times (I know how to use Youtube) The Killing Type;
"I'm not the killing type I'm not the killing type I'm not, but I would kill to make you feel"
....and it made me feel. enough to listen a second time looking at the lyrics--- love it even more now! Haters will stay miserable in their cold hardened certitudes, Amanda Palmer is going to have a killer tour and loads of fun. Which would you rather be?
Thanks Bob for once more showing what is important in this music racket!!!
and Shana Tova!
(PS Not that you would print this, but if you do, please with no name... thanks!)
_______________________________________
Subject: RE: The Apple Keynote
I'm going off piste here bob...triggered by something in your letter about apple and the foos
Allegiance to bands.
It has amused me for decades that singers in bands or lead guitarists in bands or the main writer in a band so often foolishly assume that the fan base is all about them. this is of course because to a singer everything is always all about them. the idea that the fans could be fans of the band not of any one individual - or at least only as long as that individual remains in the band? Surely not.
And yet as you eloquently described, van halen lost a string of singers thought of as indispensable by said singer, yet forged ahead from strength to strength.
Surely genesis couldn't continue without the charismatic peter Gabriel, replacing him with their little balding drummer could they? Surely pink floyd couldn't lose their singer AND their primary writer roger waters and fill in with their chunky guitarist could they?deep purple, white snake, AC/DC little feat, and on and on.
The point is this: we become fans of a football team. We love the star
players. Then the biggest star player is poached away by a rival team. Do we follow that player to his new team? Do we even consider it for a second? No, we not only welcome his replacement but we boo the old guy if he comes back with his new team to play a home game.
Be warned singers. It's not all about you. if you leave you're forgotten. If you put out a solo record (mick jagger take note) nobody cares. If you produce your own record and play all the instruments it'll suck...but if you go back to your band the fans will love you all over again
Cheers
Robin Millar
_______________________________________
Subject: Bob Alan Frew from Glass Tiger here
I would like to add a slight twist to the notion of " sometimes you just have to " give up".
I have in my book THE ACTION SANDWICH and in my public speaking gigs always hammered on the fact that successful people at "any level" ( remember what success is to one may NOT be considered success to another regardless of financial gain) follow two universal concepts ;
1) they "feel" the fear but do it anyway and
2) they "never" give up.....ever.
I therefore, when diving into any project always march to the drum of "maybe it's not about THIS even although everything tells me I should be doing THIS maybe in fact it is really all about THAT.
Following this philosophy in my opinion is a far cry from giving up.
As a matter of fact even when I devoted a year of my life to my book and was in the depths of writing it I always followed the principle that it might just not be about "the book" itself with my selling a shitload of copies and making a fortune from it but rather I always kept in my head the notion that I might only sell 4 or 5 copies but in doing so those 5 copies may well direct me onto a different pathway that may lead me to that fortune elsewhere. Having this belief does two things for me . 1) it keeps me sane and grounded in the knowledge that it really may indeed only sell a handful of copies and 2) gives me the strength to keep going keep moving keep shifting in the event that indeed it does only sell FIVE copies . In my 35 years as a professional entertainer I have been handed more than my air share of opportunities to "give up" but I never do.......ever.
In the end my book sold some 8,000 copies here in Canada and that number was mostly due to my tenacity and action, not earth-shattering by any means but in doing so it turned me into a public speaker of the highest order bringing me an abundance of great paying gigs that far outweighed the money my book made from sales.
I did not give up on being an author but instead "shifted" the same energyn into becoming a speaker. The doing THIS was indeed really about going on to do THAT.
To me "giving up" is about laying in the fetal position groaning like a wounded animal with the words "fuck it" tattooed on your forehead whereas recognizing you're flogging a dead horse at one thing but taking all of the receptivity and desire belief and energy etc that you had for it in the firstbplace and "shifting" it to the next thing to me is far from giving up. It simply becomes re-energizing : re-focussing : reworking the clay. If you cannot be vase be an urn.
Success on your own terms is the greatest of ALL successes . Giving up will never get you there but realizing as you go that it may not be about THIS but rather it may really be about THAT is in my opinion a necessary tool in the tool-kit of any success.
Those of you who may think Glass Tiger was a one hit wonder ?
I understand why you may think THIS but go to www.alanfrew.com and you'll find out just why it was never just about THIS it was really always about THAT and THAT and yes, ..,,,,THAT too ;)
Cheers Bob
Alan Frew author of The Action Sandwich (a six-step recipe to success doing what you're already doing).
_______________________________________
Subject: Re: Giving Up
Bob,
Love this! My dream had always firmly been to "make a living in the music industry." I have done that for 17 years now.
Of course, I thought "rock star" first, as a young man how could you not. But as time moved on and the industry changed, I realized I had to as well. That dream of rock star (singer/songwriter, guitarist, and frontman) would now also include: marketing, booker, composer, producer, publisher, licensor, writer, consultant, teacher; sometimes all in the same week!
But I did it, and am doing it.
"Ain't nothin' wrong with my aim, just gotta change the target"
Cheers to all who call this business home - in whatever neighborhood they live.
Michael St. James
_______________________________________
Subject: Re: Giving Up
When I was in high school my friend and I put on our first show as "promoters" at a VFW hall in Beech Grove, Indiana. We brought down two bands from Chicago -- Even Score & Trenchmouth. $5 to get in, I think.
Even Score featured a 19 year old singer named Tony Brummel who had just put out his third 7" on his label, Victory Records. Nobody had heard his band so before each song, he'd teach the kids the choruses so they could singalong. Clearly he had a bright future in marketing ahead of him.
I still have a set of photos from that show. I believe it was 1990. I met a lot of people there who are still friends.
Two years ago I was working the MTV movie awards (I wrote the MTV news pre-show) and a colleague and I saw Fred Armisen outside waiting for someone to bring him his ticket.
Normally I don't randomly approach actors but I had to talk to him about doing that Trenchmouth show in a VFW hall. He remembered it and spoke to me in the friendly and easy going shorthand of two DIY veterans rather than the "SNL star talking to MTV Movie Awards writer" one may expect.
In other words the guy totally rules. And Portlandia is so spot-on, it's ridiculous. Only someone who has experienced, loved (and somewhat loathed) the things on that show could lampoon them so effortlessly and so brilliantly.
Ryan Downey
_______________________________________
Subject: From Fred Armisen
Wow. You are incredibly nice. Thank you so much for your kind words.
F
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Roxette At The Gibson
They were fantastic!
I was horrified by the venue. Once upon a time the Universal Amphitheatre was topless, it was a magical place that was the toast of L.A. Then they put a roof on it. So the neighbors would stop complaining and they could do shows year-round. Now it's like the bar scene in "Star Wars." Post-modern. So laden with advertising you'd think Live Nation was having a closeout sale and was planning to close up shop immediately.
There was a Heineken beer garden with Red Bull tables.
Drinks were served at multiple Tecate stands. There was advertising for a supermarket. And when you reached down to place your overpriced drink in its holder in front of your seat, you found it was wrapped in a Bud Light sticker. Something is terribly wrong in music. It's got no heart, no soul, it's mostly about the money. And if you think the public does not know, you're sorely mistaken.
I didn't see a single person I knew the whole damn night.
I expected the venue to be empty. Because they didn't even have someone to park your car backstage. I mean I can do it myself, but usually they charge or do it as a courtesy/security. Finally someone came out from the building and lifted the tape and allowed me to park. I expected the venue to be a ghostland, a financial and emotional disaster.
But it was 85% full.
I didn't understand it. The band didn't have a U.S. record deal. They hadn't been in the States in twenty years. Who'd know?
So it must have been papered. To avoid embarrassment. Punters out for a night of next to free entertainment.
But when the band hit the stage there was thunderous applause and a standing ovation. These people knew every word. Who were they? Kids raised on MTV? The average age was about thirty. Huh?
And at first I was a bit disappointed. You see they were a little rough. Emphasis on "little." Because we expect perfection. Because so many of today's live performances are not. They're basically singing to hard drive. So the kids won't be disappointed. With a lot of whiz-bang effects to make sure their short attention spans don't wander.
And Marie Fredriksson... There was something wrong with her.
Now I know there's something wrong with her. She had a brain tumor. They said she's fully recovered. That she was healthy. But she's not. She doesn't walk so well and according to Wikipedia, she's blind in one eye.
But she can still sing. Boy can she sing!
Like I said, it took a few numbers for her to warm up. And the band too. Because they were playing live. What a concept! This show made you want to go home, practice and play, they were having such a good time, it was the essence of what once was. Music!
You know the Swedes. They can do what we can times two. Maybe because it's so damn cold and dark they've got no option. The lead guitarist could play in Guns N' Roses. With his distortion and technical flair. Oh, he didn't look the part. But didn't you hear that music comes from the inside?
As for the drummer. He looked like he just came in from working on the railroad. With that cap and long gray hair. He's the original guy. But he had power rivaling John Bonham. He was truly the engine driving the band.
And then there was the producer on keyboards and a bass player and Per. Who looked much younger than his years but has been a rock star in Sweden for twenty five years. And just about as long on the rest of the Continent, in the rest of the world. Yes, Roxette are superstars everywhere but here.
And it's easy to see why. It's because of the songs!
You know, they've got THE LOOK!
Sure, it was a big MTV hit, but that stinging guitar riff might not be "All Right Now" but it's close. You couldn't help but stand there and sing the "na-nas" at the top of your lungs when the band broke down and let the audience perform. Which happened multiple times. And, like I said, everybody knew every word.
And they did "It Must Have Been Love."
And when they did "Perfect Love," anybody would have swooned. Just Per and Marie. You know that authentic sound of an acoustic guitar, played perfectly by a master, the ringing truth that emanates? That's the essence of music, not the cacophony, but the simplicity. A little is enough. A Pete Townshend so eloquently put it, "there once was a note pure and easy."
And you can bet Roxette listened to all those Who records. Because history is important if you want to make it big, top the charts. You've got to have a foundation.
And I ignored Roxette at first. Just another lightweight pop confection. But then I got infected by "Joyride," I couldn't hear it enough, I taped the video from MTV so I could play it whenever I wanted, this is what we did way back when, before the Internet era.
And I loved it so much, I decided to play the album.
And that's when I truly got hooked. By "Watercolours In The Rain." It's like a Led Zeppelin record. Starting with twisting acoustic guitar, then getting heavy and electric and going back again. If you like "Ten Years Gone" you'll like "Watercolours In The Rain."
And there were other winners on the "Joyride" album. Like "The Big L." and "Church Of Your Heart," which was done acoustically as the final encore. But what totally blew me away was last night's performance of "Spending My Time."
Funny how these songs are in your DNA. I haven't played "Spending Your Time" in years, but I know every note, because if you've ever broken up, you know it's true, with a feel exactly like you feel, wistful.
"Spending my time
Watching the days go by
Feeling so small
I stare at the wall
Hoping that you think of me too"
That's it exactly! That's the essence of disconnection, of breaking up. You're experiencing emotional torture, are they too? Do you cross their mind, or are they happy and smiling in their brand new life?
Per and Marie didn't have instant success. They both were journeymen before they hooked up. And worked together before they broke through. You see music is a life. With twists and turns. And just maybe, you'll get lucky. Like when an exchange student returns to Minneapolis from Sweden and gets your record played on the local radio station.
But the old men in suits don't believe in anything this simple anymore. They don't want talent. They want Silly Putty, something malleable they can put through their machine, that they can squeeze and manipulate, a product to be consumed today and then discarded tomorrow.
I'm not saying that there's not a future for electronic music or rap, but the essence of the business, the bedrock, is songs. That's how you endure, by writing nuggets of truth that you present in such a way the public finds them irresistible.
That's what Roxette does.
That's what they did last night.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
I was horrified by the venue. Once upon a time the Universal Amphitheatre was topless, it was a magical place that was the toast of L.A. Then they put a roof on it. So the neighbors would stop complaining and they could do shows year-round. Now it's like the bar scene in "Star Wars." Post-modern. So laden with advertising you'd think Live Nation was having a closeout sale and was planning to close up shop immediately.
There was a Heineken beer garden with Red Bull tables.
Drinks were served at multiple Tecate stands. There was advertising for a supermarket. And when you reached down to place your overpriced drink in its holder in front of your seat, you found it was wrapped in a Bud Light sticker. Something is terribly wrong in music. It's got no heart, no soul, it's mostly about the money. And if you think the public does not know, you're sorely mistaken.
I didn't see a single person I knew the whole damn night.
I expected the venue to be empty. Because they didn't even have someone to park your car backstage. I mean I can do it myself, but usually they charge or do it as a courtesy/security. Finally someone came out from the building and lifted the tape and allowed me to park. I expected the venue to be a ghostland, a financial and emotional disaster.
But it was 85% full.
I didn't understand it. The band didn't have a U.S. record deal. They hadn't been in the States in twenty years. Who'd know?
So it must have been papered. To avoid embarrassment. Punters out for a night of next to free entertainment.
But when the band hit the stage there was thunderous applause and a standing ovation. These people knew every word. Who were they? Kids raised on MTV? The average age was about thirty. Huh?
And at first I was a bit disappointed. You see they were a little rough. Emphasis on "little." Because we expect perfection. Because so many of today's live performances are not. They're basically singing to hard drive. So the kids won't be disappointed. With a lot of whiz-bang effects to make sure their short attention spans don't wander.
And Marie Fredriksson... There was something wrong with her.
Now I know there's something wrong with her. She had a brain tumor. They said she's fully recovered. That she was healthy. But she's not. She doesn't walk so well and according to Wikipedia, she's blind in one eye.
But she can still sing. Boy can she sing!
Like I said, it took a few numbers for her to warm up. And the band too. Because they were playing live. What a concept! This show made you want to go home, practice and play, they were having such a good time, it was the essence of what once was. Music!
You know the Swedes. They can do what we can times two. Maybe because it's so damn cold and dark they've got no option. The lead guitarist could play in Guns N' Roses. With his distortion and technical flair. Oh, he didn't look the part. But didn't you hear that music comes from the inside?
As for the drummer. He looked like he just came in from working on the railroad. With that cap and long gray hair. He's the original guy. But he had power rivaling John Bonham. He was truly the engine driving the band.
And then there was the producer on keyboards and a bass player and Per. Who looked much younger than his years but has been a rock star in Sweden for twenty five years. And just about as long on the rest of the Continent, in the rest of the world. Yes, Roxette are superstars everywhere but here.
And it's easy to see why. It's because of the songs!
You know, they've got THE LOOK!
Sure, it was a big MTV hit, but that stinging guitar riff might not be "All Right Now" but it's close. You couldn't help but stand there and sing the "na-nas" at the top of your lungs when the band broke down and let the audience perform. Which happened multiple times. And, like I said, everybody knew every word.
And they did "It Must Have Been Love."
And when they did "Perfect Love," anybody would have swooned. Just Per and Marie. You know that authentic sound of an acoustic guitar, played perfectly by a master, the ringing truth that emanates? That's the essence of music, not the cacophony, but the simplicity. A little is enough. A Pete Townshend so eloquently put it, "there once was a note pure and easy."
And you can bet Roxette listened to all those Who records. Because history is important if you want to make it big, top the charts. You've got to have a foundation.
And I ignored Roxette at first. Just another lightweight pop confection. But then I got infected by "Joyride," I couldn't hear it enough, I taped the video from MTV so I could play it whenever I wanted, this is what we did way back when, before the Internet era.
And I loved it so much, I decided to play the album.
And that's when I truly got hooked. By "Watercolours In The Rain." It's like a Led Zeppelin record. Starting with twisting acoustic guitar, then getting heavy and electric and going back again. If you like "Ten Years Gone" you'll like "Watercolours In The Rain."
And there were other winners on the "Joyride" album. Like "The Big L." and "Church Of Your Heart," which was done acoustically as the final encore. But what totally blew me away was last night's performance of "Spending My Time."
Funny how these songs are in your DNA. I haven't played "Spending Your Time" in years, but I know every note, because if you've ever broken up, you know it's true, with a feel exactly like you feel, wistful.
"Spending my time
Watching the days go by
Feeling so small
I stare at the wall
Hoping that you think of me too"
That's it exactly! That's the essence of disconnection, of breaking up. You're experiencing emotional torture, are they too? Do you cross their mind, or are they happy and smiling in their brand new life?
Per and Marie didn't have instant success. They both were journeymen before they hooked up. And worked together before they broke through. You see music is a life. With twists and turns. And just maybe, you'll get lucky. Like when an exchange student returns to Minneapolis from Sweden and gets your record played on the local radio station.
But the old men in suits don't believe in anything this simple anymore. They don't want talent. They want Silly Putty, something malleable they can put through their machine, that they can squeeze and manipulate, a product to be consumed today and then discarded tomorrow.
I'm not saying that there's not a future for electronic music or rap, but the essence of the business, the bedrock, is songs. That's how you endure, by writing nuggets of truth that you present in such a way the public finds them irresistible.
That's what Roxette does.
That's what they did last night.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)