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June 28, 2005
Gotta Be In It To Win It
Looks like Regular has found some traction in the world of podcasting. Seattle and Beyond has named me "Artist of the Week". If you'd like to hear the award-winning broadcast, go here. Apparently, Regular will also be played on the Insomnia Radio podcast. More on that later.
All this as Apple announces the inclusion of podcasting support for its iTunes software. I smell the fear of record executives. I see the death of AM/FM radio. I hear the voices of deserving independent artists being played worldwide, untethered by corporate expectations. Count me in...
Posted by jfk at 09:44 PM | Comments (1)
June 21, 2005
Harmonies for Homebodies
I stay home a lot. I'm not a big fan of crowds. They make me nervous. Massive crowds, though, are somehow comforting. Walking around in a big city can make you anonymous. Go figure. Also ironic is that I don't mind performing in front of people. I just don't see it as a primary concern in the continuum of music making.
So, how does this square with pursuing an ostensibly public career like music? I don't know that it has to. At least, not as much as it used to. I think of two groups of people, both voracious consumers of music:
The first group lives for the live show, as it were. They want to see the band, get up close, contribute to the energy of the performance, feel some kind of personal connection. This sensation becomes their reference point for a band's recorded material, whether or not the CD was bought before or after the live show. Oh yeah, and paying 8 dollars for a beer rocks. Woooooooo!.....
The second group are production consumers. By this I mean that the primary kick in music, for them, comes from the unique space created by a studio recording. The EQ, the panning, the backing vocals, etc. This is what interests them most about music, and they rarely go to live shows. If they're not careful, they become fastidious esthetes who appreciate the garden variety sarcasm found in any alternative weekly, in any city.
Of course, there is a little bit of each group in everybody. These are less-than-perfect distinctions. Each paradigm has its benefits - A good show is a good show, and a good album is a good album.
How does all this square from the musician's point of view?
David Berman of The Silver Jews, in an interview for ReadyMade Magazine entitled How to Become a Rock Star Without Leaving the House, makes the distinction thusly: “Rock music has a double life as art and entertainment. I’ve chosen to treat it strictly as art. Live shows are a device to sell records, and I’m not a salesman.”
June 18, 2005
Still Plugging Away
Last Sunday we practiced again, and everything went smoothly enough. I hadn't worked all the songs into as finished a state as I wanted to, so we worked on the one I did. That proved to be time well spent, as we finished it up. One down.
The plan is for me to keep writing, and for us to keep practicing, until everything is ready to record. Then it's my hope that we can bang out an album's worth of basic tracks here in the Diller Hotel in about a week's time, if not less.
From there, various overdubs will be added until the voices in my head tell me to stop.
Meanwhile, a guy named Ken Clark got a hold of me, and has offered to play some Regular on Monday's edition of his podcast, Seattle And Beyond. I gave a listen to his latest installment, and I like the way he presents stuff.
Posted by jfk at 02:25 PM | Comments (1)
June 08, 2005
Wax On, Wax Off...
For the last four years or so, Banjo the bass player has practiced an interesting physical routine. For the first half of each year, he cleans himself up. Dead sober. No drugs, no cigarettes, no booze. He exercises, plays in a baseball league, rides his bike everywhere.
From January through June, the transformation is amazing. You can see him shedding pounds. His skin clears up, he looks younger. It's astounding.
I don't know what his plans are this year, but in the past, he's taken all the money he's saved by living this way and traveled; through Europe, around the US, stuff like that.
As we rehearse for the next Regular album, the clock is ticking. Somewhere around the end of this month, Banjo opens his personal flood gates, and the shit hits the fan.
The artist in me sees this as one of the most brilliant ongoing performance pieces I've ever witnessed. The discipline, the commitment, the consistency. Beautiful...
The friend in me, however, worries for Banjo. He will take a wrecking ball to himself. Every time I see him, he will be wasted, high, hung over, sick, or all of the above. And from time to time, at various parties, he will start to politely ask if it "would be cool if I got naked".
Amazingly, he will keep his job. He will pay his bills, maintain friendships, and his bass playing will not suffer.
Nonetheless, I will urge moderation. I will remind him of all the money he saved, and how good he felt. I'll encourage him not to stay up for days - to get some rest, goddammit. He'll understand my concern, and will even agree with me.
And it won't change a thing...
Posted by jfk at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2005
You Might Already Be A Winner!......
You're probably just as skeptical of contests and sweepstakes as the next guy. All you ever seem to get for your troubles is a place on 50 more mailing lists. And, of course, if you paid an entry fee well, kiss that goodbye...
You know all this. But you can't help but wonder if the indie artist isn't somehow served by exploring these options not as viable "contests", per se, but as opportunities for exposure. But there are some hitches...
The first problem is money. You're not gonna blow your wad every time some stupid contest promises you a "studio package", are you? The economics of that proposition are obvious, and I'd like to think you're not that moronic.
The second problem is akin to pissing in the ocean. There are so many contests on the web, so many sites that will review your demo, so many online publicity firms, and so many "indie" forums, how do you know which to go with? You're trying to create a respectable buzz, not look like a web whore, right?
Then again, it kinda sounds like you're already a whore when you use phrases like "respectable buzz". So, what is there to lose?
That's exactly what I thought, so I submitted a song to the USA Songwriting Competition
Wanna come over after school? We could hang out and be morons together...
Posted by jfk at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)