February 2009 Archives
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.
The other night I attended a show by Chase Pagan
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
Over at THE pop punk/emo site with its finger on
the pulse, there is a great blog by a very wise and experienced
A&R/Producer Loren Israel. Even if you do not enjoy everything he says, he
has been involved in the business enough to speak the truth. However, some of
the stuff seems dated by a few years and a little too absolute. For example, if
you are really exceptional in one area (songwriting or image) you can be really
weak in another (oddly enough songwriting or image). Anything to add or
any disagreements? Link.
Yes, anyone who is the least bit of a music
theory student gets that there are only so many chord progressions and many
pops songs are composed from just a handful of them. This video puts together a
whole bunch of them! I think the interesting part of this video is which ones
use that pattern that I didn’t notice.
plug-in. He has a new plug-in for you to check out. (H/T to Adesh Deosaran)
So recently, every
male-in-a-collared-shirt-and-sweater’s favorite band, Death Cab For Cutie
Earlier in the year we wrote about the importance of humidifying your acoustic. Now that the weather has changed drastically, this is especially crucial. The above video will show you another interesting way to get your acoustic guitar case humidified, quickly and on the cheap. Look out for more helpful hints in our ongoing series Macgyver Moves where we will talk about easy ways to get by in a pinch.
Click the jump for our live blogging of the 2009 Grammys
It's plain to see that Autotune has taken over the freaking musical world. But what if Autotune starts to infiltrate the rest of our lives.... we've already shown you what it's doing to our children, but what about the news??
Ever notice there are bands, often very popular bands, that play the late night TV circuit, make the cover of magazines, are on the bills at huge festivals and yet still never seem to get airplay on the radio? Future of Music Coalition thinks you're not alone in your observation. Their recent massive study called "Same Old Song: An Analysis of Radio Playlists in a Post FCC-Consent Decree World", FMC tackles this issue in depth. Their findings? Apparently, the situation is not improving for indies and few people seem to be doing anything about it. Even after the recent payola schemes were uncovered and the major stations agreed to play 4,200 hours collectively of local, regional and unsigned artists, the situation (according to their data) doesn't seem to have improved. In short, the report confirms that radio, a medium that seems to be quickly dying as it is, is content to shoot its own foot off before it kicks the bucket. Full story here. 
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