Reverb, Seattle Weekly’s culture blog is reporting the closing of the city’s beloved underground music club King Cobra. Citing a debt that could pay down, the owners claim business was good but just not enough. The venue hosted a variety of acts including Punk and Soul nights as well as a wide variety of live acts. For more details check out Reverb.
If you hear of a venue going out of business or reformatting please send us tips @ musformation@gmail.com.
The other night I attended a show by Chase Pagan
at Bedford Ave.’s best live venue. Unfortunately, I heard news that I was
shocked didn’t come sooner. Soundfix will soon be no more.
Beloved to the softer rocking, folky, acoustic, poet, and comedian-types of Brooklyn, Soundfix a small capacity Bar/Club/Record Store will close in February (the record store will remain open). The blame is obvious to any one who has been there for a packed show. The neighbors complain all the time. It is no secret this area has seen the shift of gentrification from Artists to Yuppies. Apparently, when someone moved to this area close to McCarren Park, they assumed they would be getting peace and quiet. Unfortunately, this trend appears it will continue and shut down many more venues. Brooklyn’s Union Hall has also been experiencing a similar problem. Thankfully, they opened a superior venue in nearby Cobble Hill dubbed The Bell House that will carry on the tradition if Union Hall is to fall.
If you hear of a venue going out of business or reformatting please send us tips @ musformation@gmail.com.
Isn’t it awesome when
artists don’t hide behind the veil and actually share their secrets of what
makes them so awesome? Well MSTRKRFT is one of those bands that is totally
forthcoming. On their forum they have a greatest hits of their production
techniques, just waiting for you.
So Midem just passed us by again. In the past,
this was where a bunch of record company heads would get drunk with each other
and figure out which releases labels in Europe would license from bands that
will never tour Europe and promote their releases (j/k). Well now, for some
reason this is the symposium of how to save the music industry. Like the
Republican Party, the music industry is trying desperately to undo their Epic
Fail. So here we have an article from the BBC discussing how the industry may
go about doing this. Thankfully the songs going around this party isn’t about
“Magic Negores”! Just like the GOP, some of the real old dogs are basically
spouting the same old “why can’t it be like the days when I made
money?” Oddly enough, most of these people, just like republicans, made
all of their money when Reagan was around and are sad they are going to be
obsolete, just like Ronnie’s free market views. Anyway, back to the music
industry! Click to see a bunch of old farts say tired old answers and
some young folks making money now being REALLY optimistic.
Here is an
essential skill for anyone on the road all the time. LOCK PICKING! At some
point along your travels you or one of your band mates is going to lock your
keys out of the van. This may help save you if you don’t have the money
for an expensive locksmith or AAA. This article also shows how easy it is for a
criminal to get into your equipment so be on the watch.
For the last 18 years,
everyone has been looking for a Nirvana – the band to kill every trend in rock
with just 30 or so minutes of music. Brian Clark decided to write a
businessman’s look at some of Nirvana’s pioneering essence. It is a great
lesson for anyone in a band or even those looking to succeed in other areas of
life. There are many other lessons to be learned from Nirvana, but that is a
whole different blog. Check it out right here.
Yep, we are officially in the world of the
Jetsons. This article will tell you how to record a song on your iPhone. This
is going to make audiophiles really happy!
Yes, Google is taking over the world. As
musicians, we are a flakey bunch, but at some point the man makes us pay taxes,
and if we are lucky, we need to expense things to someone else! If you are like
me and your laptop is open all day, this is a great quick way to bring order to
your chaos. Lifehacker has the lowdown.
I hate to be the bearer of bad
news, but the economy is looking a little scary right now. Granted we all have
a whole lot of HOPE, this will CHANGE soon, but in the meantime it may be time
to learn how to save some money. Some non-profit has made a great site with
some awesome tips on saving money. If you are a musician or a part of the
business we all are aware of how uncertain our income may be right now and the
advice on saving money is smart and dead on. Plus the website’s name sound like
it would be an awesome metal song!
I was just sent this awesome video of a tour of
Electro-Harmonix, who make some of the coolest pedals out there. I use their
pedals everyday and it’s cool to see where they come from:
We all know anyone can write a study and come
up with any results they want; just ask Dick Cheney! Anyway, this study claims
that those really ethical Dutch folk use illegal downloading just to sample the
product. THAT’S ALL! Well, it probably says more then that since it is 140 pages
long. Anyway, people on both sides will praise and debunk this story. I think
no matter what, piracy is HELPING the economy. Anyway, I don’t want to start
that war, but if you have any interest grab a translator and head off into
Deutschland.
Some genius has taken a leaked track of DLR’s
amazing vocal track from Van Halen’s “Running With The Devil” and turned it into this AMAZING soundboard. This thing is lots of fun, next
time your girlfriend asks you if you want to watch the Sex And The City Movie
you can answer her by hitting the “Oh God” and then the “No” key. Even better
grab a delay pedal and start hitting the buttons on the long screams really
fast and you have the beginning of an awesome Animal Collective-esque track! (Courtesy of WFMU)
Looking for
some supplemental income while between gigs? The census bureau is hiring all
across America, a great decently paying gig for any of you looking for
employment.
Here is a kick ass video of how to turn Audio
into MIDI. Though it focuses on using Pro Tools 8
FANTASTIC Plug-in DTM which
comes free with the purchase of any of their other plug-ins you can use this to
trigger any MIDI capable Instrument. Drumagog
also offers a similar feature.
