FISTFULAYEN

I bought this on VHS in the 90s from one of those NYC street bootleggers. I was talking to a friend about it today and was stoked to find it on YouTube, since the VHS is in the garage and I don’t even have a VHS player anymore. I’m posting it here for you to enjoy and also so I can easily find it in the future.

Check out Elvis and The Attractions, never once resting between songs, just over-performing a string of incredible songs with amazing energy, Elvis DRIPPING sweat in that suit. Incredible. Flawless. The James Brown of singer/songwriters. No talk, just rock.

Every time I see a wishy washy singer/songwriter sitting on a chair under-playing what could be a great song and wondering why no one cares I want to show them this video, encourage them to get a killer band and give people something to be excited about. I seriously think this should be required viewing for anyone playing live. I don’t get the impression people think of Elvis Costello as having built his career on a blistering live show but it looks to me like he had that as part of the package.

It’s not just Elvis of course, Steve Nieve, Pete and Bruce Thomas — damn. That was a band. Pete Thomas is the star for me personally.

Of course it helps it’s only songs from my favorite three Elvis records. It was the perfect time to capture this band, much like the Bowie Santa Monica ‘72 recording.

With songs and a performance like that there’s NO FAILING.

For more this-period Elvis and The Attractions, be sure to grab that Live At Hollywood High record they just finally reissued (thanks Andy for the reminder).

Who is doing this today?

Ted Leo?

White Denim?

Lemme know, I want to check ‘em out at SXSW…

ian

In case you’re joining us late, I started managing a band at the end of last year and am trying to blog periodically about it here. The band is called Get Busy Committee and features Ryu (of Styles of Beyond and Fort Minor), Apathy (of Army of The Pharoahs), and Scoop Deville (producer known recently for producing tracks with Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, and others).

Short version of this post: In the spirit of releasing some new piece of content or major promotion each month, Get Busy Committee have just released a video directed by the fantastic Matt Lenski (remember the first Fall Out Boy video or the Mark Ronson “Stop Me” video? or maybe that Burger King commercial with the chickens who want to be fries?) with lots of post-production work from our friends at Lifelong Friendship Society. The song is “I Don’t Care About You” and so far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The video looks pro but was made cheaply with the magic of computers. You can watch the video right here:

For the longer version of this post I’ll take a more circuitous route…

Back in 2006 I gave a presentation at the first BarCamp LA entitled “Media 2.0 Economics, er, Physics”. The basic premise was lifted wholesale from (and credited to) Umair Haque from his “Blockbuster vs. The Snowball” presentation and could be distilled as:

• Media 1.0 was a world of limited distribution (there were only so many channels on the dial, only so many choices on FM) and therefore attention abundance (CBS was not scared to lose us as customers 25 years ago)
• Media 2.0 is a world of unlimited distribution (any jackass can start a Web site — see FISTFULAYEN.com for an example) and therefore attention scarcity (our kids will not know about watching golf on sundays because “it’s the only thing on”)

As a result a ton of things are changing, but basically:

At a certain point you get diminishing returns spending more $$ on marketing, and what matters is relevance. If something is liked by many it can have success regardless of how much money was or wasn’t spent marketing it. And no amount of money will get something no one enjoys attention in this new economy.

While the aforementioned presentation is a full four years old, I think it mostly holds true. This is the fundamental physics of everything that’s changing in media, IMHO.

As such, the old method of releasing records every three years and starting your marketing from scratch each time become much less efficient. That cold-start, all-in strategy (the “blockbuster” Umair identified in his original presentation) is based on limited distribution choices (only needing to be better than what’s on that other channel, not what’s on everyone’s iPod), having access to the limited marketing channels (radio, MTV, press), and an ability to blitz those outlets when you need to with a mass-appeal product. Now that achieving mass marketing is hard and getting harder and technology allows direct (permission-based) relationships between artists and fans, a campaign which looks more like a snowball has a much better chance at showing a return on investment.

I’ve been trying to describe this simply and practically to artists, managers, and labels like so:

• Goal: Have more fans tomorrow than you had yesterday.
• Measure: Grow fan connections as well as dollars. Every day should mean more email address, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and MySpace friends (and whatever other way comes along tomorrow that fans can connect with artists and say “please talk to me”) and of course dollars (via direct sales, iTunes, Amazon, etc).
• Action: Do something small weekly, something big monthly.

I’ve found that last bit, “Action: Do something small weekly, something big monthly”, to be really helpful in getting artists to consider a simple, practical model for interacting regularly with their fans without sounding like they need to start reading TechCrunch and taking Twitter tips from MC Hammer (no offense to Hammer, thanks for the follow!). There’s a lot of discussion of the “not every artist wants to share their every move” / “what happened to the *mystery*?!” variety these days, and I understand why artists have an allergic reaction to communicating constantly. Which is why I didn’t say, “Do something all day long every day and tell everyone about it.” While for some personalities I definitely think there are advantages to letting down the wall and sharing real life moments and observations with your fans, I certainly don’t think it’s necessary for success. But I do think you need to keep your fans up to date with what’s happening more regularly than artists did in the past and supply them news they’ll be inspired to share with others if you’re going to keep that fan base growing on a weekly and monthly basis.

I haven’t found an artist yet who doesn’t have *some* bit of news on at least an almost-weekly basis (”was in the studio with so-and-so this week”, “tour dates just announced”, “check this live session from WABC”, “the european tour was a blast”, etc) and some bit of creative output on a monthly basis, though I’ve met plenty who don’t *think* they do and aren’t in the habit of sharing this regularly. It’s these artists I’m making this appeal to. Please, establish the channels (Twitter? Tumblr? Flickr? Say Now?), make it easy for you to manage, and get in the habit. Even if you’re using the “album-a-year” model it works: One month is the album, a couple months will be videos — only nine more months to worry about! How about a remix? Single? Collaboration with another artist? Video blog? If you, your bandmates, and your manager can’t come up with something creative on a monthly basis you might be in the wrong line of work.

SIDEBAR:
These days it’s hard to imagine an artist making one great record a year and the more I know about the business the more difficult that seems. Which makes Bowie’s self-reinvention every year from 1969 to 1980 all the more incredible. Not to mention The Beatles thirteen full-length records between 1963 and 1970 or Stevie Wonder’s four albums between ‘72 and ‘74? Or, um, Zappa? Dayumn.

I love having this conversation with artists today. One of those “monthly” events could be something like this $1000 12″ promotion we did with Get Busy Committee. Or it could be the video blog follow-up to the “I went to lunch and Disneyland with a bunch of my fans” thing Josh Freese is working on now. Or anything, really; the medium is the massage and I love meeting artists who are inspired by the possibilities. It’s early and this change is just underway but I think we’ll start to see more artists take advantage of this freedom and start more of a creative dialog with their fans instead of delivering an album to them every three years followed by a tour followed by a vacation. Even larger artists can deliver this way; close to the topic at hand (Mike introduced me to Ryu and Apathy) consider what Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park is doing with his blog and their between-release releases — even though Transformers and a new, pre-album song/video for Haiti relief is on a different scale than most it’s clear they’re working hard to stay on the minds of their fans instead of disappearing between longer album cycles. There’s no shortage of places to look for lesser known artists who are always releasing a little something, check out My Name Is John Michael, who released a song a week for an entire year, or Mickey Factz, who parlayed weekly releases into notoriety and eventually a Honda ad and whose marketing company acts as an umbrella for releasing serial content. I’d be curious to know what artists you think are doing a great job here, please leave examples and links in the comments.

We haven’t done the best job of this as Get Busy Committee, in fact check Ryu bemoaning my request for regular updates from Get Busy Committee at the end of this video (around 3:30):

But these guys are prolific and understand the “just keep publishing” mentality inherently like a survival instinct. In fact the reason the group exists at all is because they made some tracks for fun and released them on YouTube to a positive response. One of the reasons I was interested in working with Get Busy Committee was because they were anxious to get the record out rather than shopping it so they could move on to finishing the second album, which was half written by the time they released the first. These are at least one-record-a-year kinda guys and that was part of the draw for me.

The component parts of this group are busier than you likely realize: in the time since I started working with them last September Ryu released a track with Rob Dyrdek and Bishop Lamont associated with an episode of Rob’s show, Apathy released a great solo album and toured Europe with Army of The Pharoahs, and Scoop produced and released tracks for Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, and others, all outside of what we’ve done with Get Busy Committee. With Get Busy Committee we started by leaking a couple of tracks, then released the album in a variety of formats (including an Uzi-shaped USB drive to get some buzz — we wouldn’t have been in Wired and Gizmodo if we’d have just made CDs), released photos from the release party, pushed the $1000 12″ promo, and now released a music video. We didn’t make enough noise in December, we were all busy around the holiday, but I’d argue we’re making good on the promise in general. We’re definitely trying. Next month we’ll have SXSW and beyond that a tour should start giving us more fodder. Hopefully I can get the group focused on this and it’ll happen naturally — I don’t really have time to help or even nag unfortunately (in other words, if it doesn’t happen blame them not me ).

Everything we’ve made up to this point has been done for free or cheap, as I mentioned in the original post on this topic we spent a little money on Web design/dev and PR/marketing but not much and that’s it. We had inexpensive videos in our original budget but quickly realized we couldn’t afford it and decided we’d just have to figure out how to beg/borrow/steal one instead.

The reaction to “I Don’t Care About You” was strong enough early on we knew we’d have to make a video. But we didn’t know how we were going to get it done. The band has friends who they’ve worked with on gratis videos in the past (see this great video for Scoop’s track “Fresh Off The Top” shot by their friend Fredo Tovar) but they wanted to step outside a bit so we started asking around. We put feelers out to anyone and everyone we knew. My oldest friend in the world (nursery school, Goshen, Indiana) Nate Weaver was a top choice and hopefully we’ll get to work with him in the future, but my friend (and ex-girlfriend) Kim Howitt connected us with Matt Lenski, a friend she had sent the album to when I first shared it with her. Matt loved the album and “I Don’t Care About You” in particular; not to spill his biz but he had just ended a relationship and identified with the song’s declaration of sovereignty, if you know what I mean. Plus he understood the group’s aesthetic and had an idea for a video inspired by this, a page which exemplifies everything which is both great and terribly wrong about the Interwebz in less than a minute, which we loved. Finally and importantly, the budget could be minimal. As Matt put it, “We can have anything you’d have in any hip hop video. You want money falling from the sky? No problem. You want fancy cars and girls? Easy. They’re just all animated GIFs.”

The video was shot in a day against a green screen at Lifelong Friendship Society’s (LFS) office with handheld video cameras. The LFS folks then spent many long nights in front of Apple computers (sorry, Bill) adding and animating graphics to make the final video. They did an incredible job IMHO, the video is unique, original, funny, and post-modern in its way (if you’ve read this far and haven’t watched the video yet you’re blowing it, click here to check out their handiwork).

When it was done they transferred a .mov file to me, I uploaded it to Topspin, YouTube, Vimeo, etc (even though I didn’t have the HD version; HD version getting uploaded tomorrow, Tuesday — and even though I didn’t have the edit; edited version for Yahoo!, AOL Music, etc coming soon), and we started sending Tweets and emailed the fan list. Now it’s Monday and we’ve had more than 10,000 plays total already on a holiday weekend. That may not be the 1.9M plays Bangs has had for his smash hit “Take You To The Movies” but when you can make a video with hand-held video cameras, edit something as crazy as what LFS did on computers, and release from your house on YouTube you have to admit we’re a long way from Media 1.0.

Thanks sincerely to Matt, Dexter, Brielle and the fine folks at Epoch, and Bridgette and all the talented people at Lifelong Friendship Society. Thanks for believing in Get Busy Committee, letting a bunch of hoodlums invade your space for a day, and for making an incredible video for almost no money. Dinner is on us, always, just don’t pick somewhere pricey. You know how we roll.

Thanks to you for reading this far. Hopefully I can follow my own advice and crank one of these out at least once a month for at least a couple more months…

ian

As you may have already read, I started managing a band called Get Busy Committee late last year and I’ve been trying to find time to blog about the experience. Things have been going incredibly well and I have a couple more blog posts waiting in the wings but I’ve been busy in my (all day every) day job, even through the holiday, and haven’t had time to crank them out. I’m in transit at the moment and don’t have time to be my usual wordy self (I’m sure you’re thankful for that) but something so surprising happened I had to take a moment and write about it — we offered a $1000 12″ vinyl record via Kickstarter and someone bought it in less than 24 hours!

More about that in a moment, first a brief update on what’s been going on with Get Busy Committee:

We are nearly SOLD OUT of the first 1200 Uzi Flash Drives. Wow. We’re going to re-order, though, as we’d like to continue selling these through the end of 2010. A few retail orders have come in and I’d love to see more of those. Wouldn’t these look great on the wall at Urban Outfitters? Come on, someone know the buyer there?

DJ Cheapshot made a killer Get Busy Committee mix tape. GBC plus Bjork and The Cure?! OK yes plz. Stream or download free right herrrrre:

Get Busy Committee shot a video with director Matt Lenski in Brooklyn. It’s been in post-production with our friends at The Lifelong Friendship Society for a few weeks. We’re looking at a rough cut tomorrow and hope to have it everywhere by Valentine’s Day, including a way for you to dedicate the song to those former loves you are now free from.

Believe it or not both college and commercial radio is telling us they love “I Don’t Care About You”. We’re definitely seeing where that thread leads (without losing our shirts in the process — easier said than done) and I’ll report back on how that goes ex post facto.

Get Busy Committee’s Apathy finished a SOLD OUT solo tour (with Army of The Pharoahs) in Europe in support of his album, Wanna Snuggle?!.

Now that Apathy is back in the US he has a couple of east coast shows then we get him back here in LA for rehearsals for the Get Busy Committee’s live assault, starting at SXSW in Austin in March. See you there!

Remixes are rolling in left/right and some are accumulating at the SoundCloud page. Thanks to DJ Cheapshot for pulling these together. The HavocNdeeD remix is getting a lot of play:

Get Busy Committee – I Dont Care About You (HavocNdeeD RemiX)  by  getbusycommittee

DJs and producers, the acapella tracks are right here and they’re free. Come and grab ‘em, and submit your remix via Soundcloud. We’ll feature it!

Get Busy Committee’s very own Scoop Deville has had a track in the top 10 for all of 2010, Snoop Dogg’s “I Wanna Rock”.

Not only that, the track he produced for Fat Joe and Young Jeezy, “Ha Ha” is getting written up everywhere you turn.

Congrats, Scoop!

Check out MTV’s interview with Scoop here.

Thanks to our friends at INgrooves we’ve been featured at iTunes, Amazon (still on the 50 for $5 list this month), Lala, ThinkIndie, Amie Street, etc. Thanks to INgrooves and all the digital retailers for the support. Keep it comin! Things are just starting to heat up…

But the news that caused me to (first, fall out of my chair, then) write this blog post came Wednesday, less than 24 hours after I posted this Kickstarter project.

We decided we wanted to press some 12″ vinyl, but only if people were excited about it. We thought people would appreciate it more if it was ultra-collectible, numbered, limited edition, picture-disc. We love Kickstarter and wanted to test it out for ourselves.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it’s a site where you can post projects which need funding, then ask the people of the Internet to help you out. People pledge at whatever level they’d like, and you can offer different premiums for different pledge levels. If you reach your goal, the project is funded and they disburse the money. If you don’t reach your goal then no one is charged, it’s just, thanks, try again later.

We priced out the vinyl we wanted from the good folks at Erika Records, one of the finest custom vinyl shops in the US. The purchase order came to $3,218.18. So we started a project to fund $3,218.18 and offered a few premiums:

1. For $5 you’ll get a digital copy of the album
2. For $18 we’ll ship the vinyl to you anywhere in the world, plus a digital copy
3. For $28 you get one of the first 200 numbered pieces of vinyl plus a digital copy
4. For $50 you get one of the first 100 numbered pieces of vinyl, a digital copy of the album, and a thank you phone call from Get Busy Committee.
5. And for $1000 Get Busy Committee will write/record a song ABOUT YOU which will go on the 12″, you’ll receive copies #1 and #2 of the run with #1 in a platinum plaque.

I published this project on Kickstarter at about 11pm on a Tuesday night, sent an email to the Get Busy Committee fan list, then had a hard time going to sleep after. I was laying there contemplating the ethics of my buying the platinum plaque myself in the final days of the project. Imagine my surprise the next day when I checked the site at 2pm and saw someone had pledged the $1000 needed to pick up the plaque. I actually emailed Kickstarter’s CEO, Andy Baio, and asked if there was some sort of bug. “Nope,” he said. “Someone bought it.”

Wow.

But we’re not out of the woods yet. We have 66 days to raise another $1500 on Kickstarter or we get $0. Please head over now and pledge any amount to help us reach our goal. A contribution and a re-tweet is very sincerely appreciated.

We’re working on a ton of stuff right now. I’ll try to find more time to post more updates but please forgive me if I don’t — this space is frankly the last one I fill after working on Topspin, Get Busy Committee, family, etc. If I don’t post here it’s because I’m too busy doing actual work. But I’ll try to find time to throw together at least short updates.

I fielded some criticism early last week for my lack of posting on this topic. The thought was that I wasn’t delivering on my initial hype and that things must be going badly because I was silent. Hopefully the above dispels the notion that things are going badly. But also, this record was just released at the beginning of November. We had ZERO fans just three months ago, the band didn’t even exist until then. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Get Busy Committee hasn’t even played a live show since the record came out yet. It’s waaaaay too early for a post-mortem. Financially we’re doing slightly better than break-even at the moment, which means no one is making a bunch of money but we aren’t losing money, either. Given how early it is you could take that and say we probably aren’t spending enough, but we don’t have deep pockets and are trying to keep pace with our spending all along the way. The plan for us is to keep growing the fan base, keep getting the music to more and more people, and keep promoting this album until we lose momentum. We’re not sure when that will be but it’s clear we’re nowhere close to it now, as you can see from the above. And the band is already half-way through work on the next album. This train will keep rolling for a few years, I hope.

Thanks for the continued interest and support. If anyone has ideas of opportunities we’re missing please leave us a comment or drop a line.

ian

I just gave as generously as I could justify. I hope you’ll do the same.

Thanks,
ian

I love this time of year. I’ve found some of my favorite music in the past going through the year-end lists at Pitchfork, Emusic, WFMU, Hype Machine, and various random blogs. I always end up stumbling across something great I’ve never heard of or meant to listen to but forgot, etc.

Sharing is caring and I’d be remiss not to throw my choices out there in hopes someone else will discover something they’ll come to love.

So here are my favorites from 2009 as I remember them, in alphabetical order. All very worth owning and loving, IMHO. I’m going to include streaming players for a few of them but not all because too many of these little Flash widgets on the page might freak your Web browser out, and I don’t want to do that.

Amadou & Mariam – Welcome To Mali [buy from Amazon]
Funky and soulful, worldly yet modern, Amadou and Miriam are blind, 50+, from Mali, and opened for Coldplay this year. What a world.

Antony and The Johnsons – The Crying Light [buy from Amazon]
Three cheers for Antony and Bloomington’s own Secretly Canadian.

Apathy – Wanna Snuggle? [buy from Amazon]
Still underrated, Apathy released this incredibly solid record in late 2009. Yeah, he’s a friend but I listened to this album so many times this year because I love it, not because I know the dude. Check out the tracks “I’m a Demigod” and “Victim”.

Bat For Lashes – Two Suns [buy from Amazon]
I heard a few people say they were disappointed by this and I wasn’t blown away at first but after multiple headphone listens on a few plane rides I fell in love. This got many many many spins (in a row) from me this year.

Built To Spill – There Is No Enemy [buy from Amazon]
I love Built to Spill. Doug Martsch is as important an artiste as our generation has, IMHO. He makes these amazing records sound effortless, like he could create them in his sleep. Keep ‘em comin, plz.

Chuck Prophet – ¡Let Freedom Ring! [buy from Amazon]
A great late-in-the-year entry. I can’t stop listening to this. It’s a relatively basic rock record, with hints of Petty, Springsteen, Stones, and even The Kinks, but when rock-n-roll songwriting is witty and sublime, delivered with attitude, and recorded sounding live in Mexico City by Greg Leisz, what’s not to like?

Dave Rawlings Machine – A Friend of a Friend [buy from Amazon]
Dave Rawlings is best known as the incredible guitar player who plays alongside Gillian Welsh but he’s been doing shows here in LA at Largo all summer with a crazy cast of characters ranging from Gillian to John Paul Jones under the name “Dave Rawlings Machine”. Finally he’s released some of the Machine’s goodness on an album. Hit play on the above and check out just the first song — “Ruby” is as fine a slice of Americana as has ever come before it. I play it over and over and over.

Dinosaur Jr – Farm [buy from Amazon]
Let’s hear it for the silver foxes! I’m such a huge J Mascis fan I wasn’t that excited for the D Jr reunion — I love the Mascis records where *he* plays drums (check out the J Mascis and The Fog records if you haven’t heard them, he’s a monster behind the kit as well as the axe). But Farm delivers. “I love my guitar more than anything” gems dripping with Mascis melody with a couple straight up Sebadoh numbers in the middle? Yeah, count me in.

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca [buy from Amazon]
I liked the idea of an arty band covering Black Flag’s Damaged, but try as I might, I couldn’t get into Dirty Projectors’ 2007 release, Rise Above. Bitte Orca is another story. I love the way this album sounds. Saying their sound is unique is an understatement, but the songs really work and hold up, too. We managed to catch them live at Bonnaroo this year and I was really impressed. I’m buying the hype here.

Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N Cheek [buy from iTunes]
I wasn’t a big fan of Dizzee early on but I loved Maths + English. Tongue N Cheek hasn’t even been released here in the US apart from iTunes yet which is too bad because this is a great record. Highly recommended if you’re so inclined.

The Drones – Havillah [buy from artist]
Australia’s The Drones, who I usually describe to the uninitiated as a cross between Neil Young and The Laughing Hyenas, are the most underrated rock band in the world (again, IMHO). I fell in love with their 2005 record Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By but the follow ups Gala Mill and this year’s Havillah have each been incredible in their own way. The Drones have probably accounted for more damage to my car speakers than any other band. Grab Havillah, turn the volume to its maximum, and enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: They released this album direct-to-fan via Topspin. Because I stalked them.

Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport [buy from Amazon]
Fuck Buttons win the “music to work to” award, 2009. Followed closely by…

Fever Ray – Fever Ray [buy from Amazon]
Half of The Knife returns with an amazingly great, moody (creepy, even) record. This is another one on my list that pushed me through many a long flight/email marathon.

Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another [buy from Amazon]
When McClusky broke up we all cried. Until they formed Future Of The Left and released Curses, which was even better. And now a second full-length and a tour — it’s Christmas all year long. Obtuse, poignant one-liners, repeated over fuzz bass and sometimes mathy riffs, FotL are new punk, no retro, the real deal. Not as exciting as if there was a new Steel Pole Bath Tub record in 2009, but close.

Get Busy Committee – Uzi Does It [buy from artist]
If you read this blog you know I manage this band so this entry probably doesn’t surprise you, but you also know I manage this band because I LOVED THIS RECORD when I heard it so I think it’s a valid entry despite my personal involvement. More blog posts to come on this topic (I just haven’t had time the past few weeks, sorry) but this has been a very fun project and we’re far from done. Look for lots of goodies (including a new album) from GBC in 2010. For now buy one of the Uzi-shaped USB flash drives before they’re all gone, we have less than 100 in-stock and I hand-package each one right here in my house.
DISCLAIMER: Topspin-released.

Girls – Album [buy on Amazon]
One of Lucinda’s (age 3) favorites of the year (after we took her to see them live), this is still on repeat in our house/car. Beautiful. And there’s nothing like hearing a three year-old sing the chorus to “Hellhole Ratrace”.

Japandroids – Post-Nothing [buy on Amazon]
Are Japandroids 2009’s Death From Above 1979? Two dudes from Canada hiding incredible songwriting and melodies under a wall of sound? Yeah, guess so. Saw this duo live recently, too. Ultimate energy and connection to the crowd. The real deal. Gives me hope.

Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications [buy on Amazon]
Speaking of the real deal, Jarvis Cocker found himself making a record at Steve Albini’s studio and while his wit might have gotten trampled afoot by the rock it’s still full of gems. “Angela” and “I Never Said I Was Deep” are instant JC classics.

Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall [buy from Amazon]
It was a big year for Jay Reatard. From the underground to Matador, two singles collection releases, a $75 fan club, and a tour where his band quit. The first Matador record, Watch Me Fall, is probably the highlight, though. Take a listen.
DISCLAIMER: The above-mentioned fan club is Topspin-powered.

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard – ‘Em Are I [buy from Amazon]
Jeffrey Lewis’ 12 Crass Songs is still one of my favorite records of the past however many years, but I love this new collection of originals, too. Understated, poetic honesty. Is this what they call “new folk”? Whatever. ‘Tis great. “Slogans” is a corker, “Broken Broken Heart” is one of the best sad songs of the decade, and “To Be Objectified” seems contrived at first but turns out to be the work of a genius working patiently at his craft.

Jello Biafra & the Guantanamo School of Medicine [by from Amazon]
Maybe it’s just my age but the people I know don’t seem as excited to hear a new Jello Biafra record in 2009 as they were in 1981. But take a listen, he’s nearly as good now as ever, pointed lyrics over excellent, raw music (provided by Ralph from The Victims Family). Don’t front. If you ever liked Jello, you’ll still like Jello. He hasn’t softened at all, have you?

Let’s Wrestle – In The Court Of The Wrestling Let’s [buy at Amazon]
Another late entrant (for me), I forgot to throw this on after Yancey from Kickstarter told me this was his favorite band and I regretted the lost time when I finally got around to it. Let’s Wrestle are limey indie rockers with the sense of humor of Art Brut but lyrical abilities leaning more toward Morrissey. According to their Wikipedia page they are “ultimatly trying to be as raw as possible and they try to write songs that make your soul crumble as well as making you smile, sing along and clap your hands”. It’s working, lads, keep it coming!

Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine [buy at Amazon]
Some Magnolia fans thought this record was a downer but not me. I could put on pretty much anything in their catalog any time of day and be happy.

Metric – Fantasies [buy from artist]
It’s been beyond fun to watch Metric do their thing this year, a band with no label selling records, selling out clubs, playing larger clubs every month, getting radio play, etc. What magic trick did they play to make it happen? They made a great record that was true to their growing fan base and accessible to an even larger group of people. This album was a huge favorite in our household this year, one that was loved by both girls (age 3 and 19) as well as mom and dad.
DISCLAIMER: Topspin-released.

Mission Of Burma – The Sound the Speed the Light [buy on Amazon]
Can you name another time when a seminal band has disappeared only to reappear 20+ years later and be EVEN MORE vital than they were originally? The Sound The Speed The Light is not as chaotic and is more melodic than The Obliterati (one of my favorite albums of the last few years, period), but different isn’t bad in this case — this record rules.

Morrissey – Years of Refusal [buy on Amazon]
I was never a huge Smiths fan and had never really spent much time with Morrissey’s solo records until You Are The Quarry, which I loved more than anything he’d done previously. Also produced by the late Jerry Finn (his last), Years Of Refusal is as close to You Are The Quarry as you could ask for. Forget what you think about Morrissey and spend some time with both of these albums.

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone [buy on Amazon]
Another family favorite, Neko Case still gets almost daily play in our house and this album has been on repeat all year. At Bonnaroo this summer our friend Jeff Colvin was in the back seat with a then two-year old Lucinda. We turned on the local Bonnaroo FM and Neko Case was playing. Lucinda turned to Jeff and said matter of factly before anyone else commented, “That’s Neko Case.” I think then he understood why I dragged her across the country to see live music, Neko in particular.

P.O.S. – Never Better [buy on Amazon]
I’d like to officially thank Leonard Lin for turning me on to this early in the year. One of my favorite hip hop albums in recent memory, for sure. It’s hard for me to find hip hop that captures the spirit which made me love hip hop once upon a time and this does it. Smart, furious, and punk as fuck. I love it.

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Communion [buy on Amazon]
Soundtrack of Our Lives returned after a five year hiatus with a 24-track double album, a song for every hour of the day. I love everything about this album, starting with the cover.

Spinnerette – Spinnerette [buy on Amazon]
Brody from The Distillers re-emerged this year with a record I loved without any guilt. But it was Lucinda who asked this to be played over and over this year — another family favorite. Sorry but I’ll take this record over either Them Crooked Vultures or Dead Weather any day.
NON-DISCLAIMER: While Spinnerette released singles via Topspin, this full-length album was not released via Topspin.

The Thermals – Now We Can See [buy on Amazon]
Forget Green Day, The Thermals rule the pop-punk concept album mountain. Simple tunes you can’t get out of your head which happen to be about the circle (or evolution) of life.

Vetiver – Tight Knit [buy on Amazon]
I’m calling any 2009 best-of list which doesn’t include this album suspect. We’ve played this album over and over and over this year. It’s also responsible for one of my favorite moments, a cross-country, three way Skype call with my daughter and my mom where we all found ourselves talking about how much we love Vetiver and this album. When three generations can all get what ails them from one album it’s either a great family, a great album, or both. Another great Vetiver moment this year was standing next to Cardinal Neal Casal at the Vetiver show while he sang every word. HE’S the real deal, and he was pointing at them, saying they’re the real deal. (Neal’s 2009 Topspin-released record is great, too, check it out at this link.)

White Denim – Fits [buy on Amazon]
This band is just unreal. If you’ve never seen them live, please do at the first opportunity. But recorded they’re incredible, too. I wish I could easily compare them to something but really, they’re just their own animal, the sum of their component parts: an incredible rhythm section and a guitar player who is sometimes funky sometimes proggy and sometimes just writing a song to sing. Fits finally came out on Downtown coupled with last year’s under-distributed album, too, and at $5 for all 23 MP3s has to be the best bargain in rock. Dig in and enjoy.
NON-DISCLAIMER: While their last record was released via Topspin, this album is not.

The XX – XX [buy on Amazon]
This was the biggest surprise of the year for me. I’d never heard of them when the label sent me a link to the MP3s. I downloaded, stuffed in my iTunes, and forgot about for a couple weeks. Then, when rummaging for something to listen to one day, I decided to give it a bash. I was taken immediately. Wow. Then to find out this seductive, mature album was made by *teenagers*? Woah. Love it. Really a special treasure.

And one final favorite…Reissue of the year, hands down:

Death – …For the Whole World to See
If you haven’t already read the NYT article Mike Rubin wrote about and bought this long lost 1975 proto-punk masterpiece, don’t hesitate. It turns out there was a bridge between The Stooges, The MC5, and Bad Brains, and they were Death. This thing blows my mind over and over and over.

And just for Bob Lefsetz, who says I’m too nice and never dis, here’s a list of albums I wanted to like, or everyone else seemed to like, but I couldn’t get in to:

Animal Collective – Meriweather Post Pavilion
I loved the Panda Bear record but I’m yet to find an AC record I truly love.

Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
I want to like Bill Callahan, but I just can’t get into it.

DJ Quik & Kurupt – BlaQKout
I was excited about this record, I’m a Quik fan and the idea of him teaming up with Kurupt for a guilty pleasure masterpiece was exciting to me. But I played it twice and then didn’t come back to it, unfortunately.

St. Vincent – Actor
This record sounds cool enough sonically but I didn’t find myself returning to it at all.

Real Estate – Real Estate
Like Fleet Foxes for me last year — what’s all the excitement about? Makes me sleepy.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
See Real Estate.

Woods – Songs of Shame
See Grizzly Bear.

The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
I wish I liked The Mountain Goats but they are officially “for others”.

That’s it! Thanks for another great year, music. You’re the best.

Please let me know what albums I forgot in the comments. Would love to find some more great stuff I forgot. There are a few albums I’m guessing should be on this list but I just haven’t put the time into yet.

For some more hits from 2009, check out my daughter Zoe’s “Best of 2009″ show on MIT’s WMBR from December 14th. Click here to stream.

Music is the best,
ian

Hey all,

Need some quick help testing something.

At Topspin we are testing ways to help you get music directly into iTunes without needing to install a cumbersome application.

Download this zip file to help us test one way:

http://awe.sm/25EIK

PLEASE NOTE: This is beta software — USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I don’t think it will break anything but that’s the point, I need your help testing what it does on your system.

ALSO NOTE: This will add the Get Busy Committee sampler to your iTunes. This is not a marketing ploy, I’m just using content I don’t have to ask anyone for the rights to. Feel free to delete the files from your iTunes after if you’re not into it.

Download the zip, unzip the package, then run the appropriate application (there’s one for Mac and one for Windows). It should automagically add the tracks to iTunes for you.

Please help test especially if you have a Windows machine. I don’t have one to test on these days.

Just leave bugs and feedback in the comments here and I’ll pick it up. I won’t necessarily approve those comments, but I’ll see it.

Please leave feedback if it works OR if you find bugs. If it works well, we need to know that, too.

One known issue on my end is the doubling of the “Your files have been successfully added to iTunes” text. That’s getting fixed.

Another known issue: this app will add anything in the child directories to iTunes. So if you take this out of the directory it was unzipped into, it won’t behave correctly. We are going to add a check for that.

This is just one of a couple of approaches we’re testing. Your feedback is appreciated. We don’t have every flavor of Mac OS X and Windows in the office to test on so we appreciate your helping test on your box.

Thanks!

ian

I like Bob Lefsetz and while I don’t always agree with him I think the music industry is lucky to have such a prolific and unfiltered voice of dissent. I originally discovered Bob via the Rhino podcast many years ago. The podcast included “The Lefsetz Letter”, a portion of the show where an animated character (Bob) would tell you a story about some music he loved and how that music impacted him and his life. I remember one story in particular, a story of his driving to the mountains to ski with his dentist and listening closely to the group Yes for the first time. I hadn’t listened to Yes since I was 12, didn’t know this guy or care about his dentist, but because he was clearly a music fan I loved listening to his story. I distinctly remember thinking, “I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying this.” I didn’t care that Bob’s stories seemed to be reviews of things from Rhino’s catalog, I trusted his genuine music fandom enough to find it entertaining and even when he sang the praises of Loggins and Messina I assumed he was selecting the titles from the Rhino catalog he enjoyed enough to share some sincere stories about.

I met Bob many years later (but many years ago) when I worked at Yahoo!. As a result of my being passionate and outspoken about issues in the music business I’ve received praise in Bob’s written “Letter” more than once (for which I’ve received a few offerings of condolences but I’ve always taken pride in nonetheless). The biggest compliment Bob ever tossed my way was (paraphrasing) “Ian is first and foremost a music fan”. My life has been listening to and loving music and this was close to the highest praise I could have been given. As my friends/family will tell you, music is everything to me and has been since I’ve been old enough to have a personality (my mom could share that picture of me in footie pajamas playing the yardstick as a guitar). I don’t watch movies or TV (apart from the occasional music documentary), I just prefer music. Apparently I’ve passed the bug on to my kids, my older daughter (19) is the general manager of MIT’s radio station WMBR and my younger daughter (3) has already lived and loved her first Bonnaroo.

So you can imagine my disappointment when Bob called me out last week, saying I was all hype and insincere when I talk about music, specifically on Twitter. Here’s his original salvo:

…And those who think Twitter is purely for hype. Hell, I’ve now learned that Ian Rogers is not a discerning listener. Makes me wonder about Topspin. He’s constantly tweeting that the music of every act the company works with is good. That’s utter hogwash. Especially when the tunes are outside his normal flavor field.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Bob’s statement wasn’t factual, he was assuming more of what I was tweeting about was Topspin-related than actually was. I appreciate the vote of confidence, but unfortunately we don’t (yet) work with all the artists I love.

I asked Bob which tweets he was referring to and he sent a sampling. Neko Case and David Rawlings showed up as “outside my flavor field”, but not only do they have nothing at all do do with Topspin (I wish they did), I love both those artists and have gone out of my way to see them both live. He seemed surprised I’d want to watch the new Paul McCartney DVD (which was released via Topspin), but watch it I did (both discs), and was surprised myself how much I liked it. He mentioned Sloan which is much closer to the line he was saying I crossed — I probably wouldn’t have known about that release if a manager who is enthusiastic about Topspin hadn’t tweet’d the link to me. I listened to it, liked it, and tweet’d that I was listening to it for free, assuming my followers like free music and might want to check it out, too. Bob mentioned a Harmonia and Eno reissue but (unfortunately) Topspin has nothing to do with that, either. Of course there were two mentions of the band I’m managing, Get Busy Committee, and one which was letting people know there’s a list of Topspin bands people can follow en masse. As I said to Bob and laid out in detail in an earlier post, I started managing Get Busy Committee because I loved the record, and Topspin is more than a job, it’s a company I have most of my personal net worth and time wrapped up in. I love it and am insanely proud of what we’re doing. It’s a lot to ask me not to talk about it. I know not Marx’s alienated labor. I admit the line between personal and professional is very blurry for me, but that’s not a marketing ploy, it’s genuinely blurry in my life at the moment. Not sure a CEO of a startup can/should live any other way.

But thankfully I don’t actually talk about every Topspin artist and my tweets aren’t all hype. I took a look through my tweets for the week previous to Bob’s comment and did a little tally. I counted a total of 63 tweets from the previous Friday to that Thursday. In those tweets only 18 were Topspin-related (including the 5 Get Busy Committee ones). I covered 37 distinct topics and only 9 were of those referenced Topspin or artists we work with. Most importantly, the number of tweets which were about something I didn’t personally like, care about and think someone else might be interested in was equal to ZERO. So yeah, I like music and talk about our artists, but I don’t *only* talk about our artists, I certainly don’t promote all our artists regardless of my opinion and I don’t talk about things that are “outside of my normal flavor field” just because they’re on Topspin. If you’re curious, the tally is here, check it out for yourself and please let me know if/where you find something off-base with my personal tastes.

But as Bob said (in an email to my wife, one of Bob’s readers who came to my defense without my asking her to), “Perception is everything in this business. Truth is two steps behind.” Just because Bob’s statement isn’t factual doesn’t mean that isn’t the way my activities are perceived. I really don’t think he was calling me a hypester to be mean, this was truly how he perceived my relentless enthusiasm — he assumed most of the bands I was excited about were somehow Topspin-related even though this wasn’t the case — and he wasn’t alone. Bob forwarded me a note from another reader who feels the same way and someone else on my Twitter feed @replied and said they often feel marketed to by my tweets. As someone who is genuinely passionate about what I do the last thing I want to be perceived as is a phony; I started thinking about the issue here and how to improve it.

So, starting now if I’m tweeting about something related to my company, Topspin, it will be clearly marked with the hash tag #topspin. Bob’s point was a good one, I wasn’t delineating when my tweets were or were not related to my company. I naively thought it was fairly obvious, if I was linking to Amazon, iTunes, Lala, Rhapsody, or some other non-Topspin experience then it was unaffiliated, but obviously that’s not very well thought through — most people don’t click nor do they have the same ability to immediately ascertain if something is or isn’t Topspin-related. Very poor assumption on my part. So from now on I’m going to make it clear: if my tweets don’t contain the hash tag #topspin you can rest assured I don’t have a personal interest in what I’m tweeting.

Additionally, I’ll tell you right now I won’t tweet about something I don’t care about or think you’d be interested in even if it does have to do with Topspin, but I appreciate that’s difficult to believe and it seems it’s just good practice to disclose things which could be construed as pure hype or promotional in nature.

There’s a semantic web-esque side effect of creating a stream of easily segmented #topspin tweets, too, and while that’s fun that’s definitely not my motivation here.

You might think this is a bit pointless and/or pedantic but I actually think it merits at least a little thought and discussion. For whatever reason more than five thousand people follow me on Twitter, vaguely caring what I have to say. I appreciate their sharing a bit of their scarce attention with me and want to respect that connection. If this simple step makes my voice more legitimate I’m all for it, and I thank Bob for the nudge.
 I’m sure many will think I’m overreacting to Bob’s criticism but I’m not one to take my credibility lightly, sorry.

I’m not sure I can solve what seemed to be Bob’s biggest complaint in the end, though: I’m too positive. Bob told me the fact I don’t say enough critical things makes my positive comments lack context and also hurts my credibility. He’s not wrong that I avoid the negative. I stop myself from critical comments from time to time. The example I shared with Bob was this aborted tweet: “RT @nprmusic The Decade’s 50 Most Overrated Recordings http://su.pr/1sCMZD”. I held back because I knew what was meant as humor and sarcasm with a bit of criticism would have been taken as mean-spirited, which I am not. Don’t get me wrong, I am a music snob and an equal opportunity hater and the likelihood I like your favorite band is small. But I also understand the doom metal supergroup I’m listening to in headphones while I type this is not likely up your alley, either. More than ten years ago Phil Wilhelm taught me the important lesson of the concept known as “for others”, and I instantly became less of a dick. Lots of music, art, food, styles of life, belief systems, and entire forms of entertainment are “for others”. Not for me, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their place. I’m not writing endless holier-than-thou diatribes about the evils of TV just because I hate it. Do your thing. As Jenny Aurthur famously (in our house) once said, “Don’t yuck yuck my yum yum,” or my favorite Ricky Powell quote, “Why dis when you can be nice?” Sometimes I can’t resist a critical statement, I’m not saying I never dis, but it’s true I don’t make a habit of it.

When my daughter Zoe was in second grade she loved Spice Girls and even had a “Spice Girls Club” at her school. Spice Girls was terrible drivel, non-music, to me and you. To her it was inspiring, (literally) moving and when she and her friends performed dance routines on the playground at recess it had nothing to do with the way you and I heard Spice Girls, it was kids having fun and a-ok by me. It might sound silly but that Spice Girls experience buried the music snob in me at least a few levels deeper. It taught me that taste is not absolute, and there’s little to be gained from me telling you your favorite band sucks. I just don’t have it in me. [As an aside, Kathleen Hanna took something similar from Zoe’s Spice Girls experience, sang “Wannabe” karaoke with Zoe at a wedding, and mentioned it in a Punk Planet interview which you can read as part of the collection, "We Owe You Nothing".]

I’m sorry, while you will occasionally read critical tweets from me you’re not going to hear me say I don’t get the Kid Cudi record and want to fall asleep every time I listen to Fleet Foxes (both of which are true), I’m not going to waste a lot of energy yuck yucking your yum yum. It’s just not my style. If that makes me less credible I guess I’ll have to live with it. Personally I don’t buy the theory, I am much more interested in what my friends Isac Walter, Sam Velde, and Jay Babcock are listening to than what they are not. They have turned me on to tons of great music to *like* over the years, not music to hate.

If you follow me on Twitter, here’s what you’re going to get: lots of tweets about stuff I like, including:

• Music
• Music industry and technology news and commentary
• Poor, pathetic attempts at humor
• Proud papa bullshit you probably don’t care about but I don’t care — hopefully you will give me a pass on loving my kids

Here’s what you’re not going to get:

• Hate
• Talk about TV shows, sports, or movies (all of which I dislike but I really, truly don’t care if you dig ‘em)

If you’re interested, cool. Follow me, subscribe to my blog via RSS or email. If none of that sounds interesting to you or my lack of negativity somehow makes the things I *am* sincerely excited by less interesting, don’t. That’s the best part about the future of media. No one has a megaphone. Consumers of information have infinite choice and power.

Bob, I am truly honored to be one of the 40 people you follow. I hope I stay there. And I hope clearly delineating Topspin-related tweets helps. Maybe TweetDeck can filter those out for you?

While I don’t actually spend time or energy asking people to find/follow me on Twitter, I do appreciate that anyone would care what I have to say. I can’t make people care, but I care enough to not want to be misunderstood. I hope clearly delineating when something has to do with Topspin will help. If not, I’ll try to define my field of flavor here for further clarity: my top three favorite albums are Sly and The Family Stone’s Fresh, The Stooges Fun House, and Willie’s Spirit. Also in the field: Neko Case, The Beatles, Brendan Benson, Robert Wyatt, and Morrissey as well as EYEHATEGOD, Genghis Tron, Slayer, Burzum, and Iron Maiden plus NWA, Lord Finesse, and Jay-Z not to mention Joe Higgs, Bunny Wailer, and Burning Spear not to forget Lefty Frizell, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Townes Van Zandt and Funkadelic, The Dirtbombs, Jamie Lidell and Arts Blakey and Pepper, Chris Potter, Horaces Silver and Andy… can I stop now?

Thanks for following,
ian

ps – Interestingly, these barbs from Bob sandwiched an unrelated post referencing Seth Godin and permission marketing. But the post didn’t mention that Twitter is as much a form of permission marketing as opting in to an email list is. The 2.7M people who subscribe to Oprah and the 18K people who subscribe to Pepsi on Twitter are committing an act of permission marketing, giving Oprah and Pepsi permission to market to them amongst the tweets from their friends. And trust needs to be similarly respected, or subsequently lost. That, I suppose, is really what this post is about, why I care, why it’s worth talking about, and why the delineation is a good idea.

The rumors hit this week and it was confirmed this morning: Apple is buying streaming site Lala. I had heard the purchaser may be Google and thought Facebook or Amazon also seemed like acquirers, but I wouldn’t have pegged Apple for this. This raises all sorts of questions in the competitive landscape for everyone involved in digital music but at a very high level as a music fan this makes me very excited about the future ubiquitousness of music. Here’s why:

Lala is a great product. Of all the streaming services it’s the one I most prefer using:

• It’s easy to use, the pages load and music starts playing fast. I’m a Rhapsody subscriber but only really use it with my Control 4. If I’m sitting at my desk I’d rather use Lala. It’s faster and more reliable than Rhapsody.com.
• Lala consolidates my MP3 collection for me to access anywhere. I buy tracks from Amazon and Emusic and I automatically have access to the tracks I buy from any other computer.
Funhouse [Deluxe Edition] – Th…
• It’s easy to share. Every page has an easy to tweet or email link, and you have a good likelihood to sharee is going to have an easy time playing what you sent them. It’s easy to embed on your blog, share into Facebook or just share into the Lala ecosystem. Derivative community features such as “top influencers” are very smart.
• The front page stream of friend activity is a great discovery tool. A lot of times I’ll just load the homepage, see what my friends are listening to, and use that as a jumping off point.

It’s come a long way from the original CD sharing service, but they’re finally starting to get the formula right IMHO.

They also have the most forward-looking of all the streaming models. Lala clearly anticipates a day where all consumption is streaming. By converting my local collection to the cloud and selling both download and streams I can stuff in my locker Lala has the only plausible bridge transition from the download world to the world of all streaming. We’ve all been talking about the day music is in the cloud for more than fifteen years, but Lala has a great service timed with the reality of streaming to iPhone, Android, etc. You’ll find a lot of people who predicted the world of music in the cloud a long time ago who are jaded on the topic but the fact is it’s upon us and we’ll all be making the transition over the next five to ten years max.

Let’s face it, the use case for buying downloads is driven primarily by the iPod. When iPods are all connected (and Apple is already reporting iPhone sales are starting to displace iPod sales) and streaming services offer great apps on mobile, the use case for downloads starts to dry up.

It’s amazing to project forward and think how short-lived the download as a format will have been. An industry that took 10 years to get their head around downloads will have to evolve to streaming as a format in the next 10 years. This sort of adaptation is clearly not their forte. I hope they’ve been preparing for it.

I always thought Apple would move up-market away from music, into movies and living room apps in general. But it appears they are going to move up-market *with* music. They have learned that music leads the adoption curve and sells devices and they are going to use it to sell wired devices. For those of us who love music and love to see Apple wowing the market with incredible hardware, this is pretty exciting. If Apple can conquer the living room and the car it will be amazing to watch and a fun time to be a consumer.

This is going to affect a lot of businesses, including ours (Topspin), but personally I love that Apple continues to make music a joy to experience and culturally important. Don’t get me wrong, the entrepreneur and music business person in me is worried about Apple’s dominance and intends to work with Apple to make sure the future of music isn’t available solely via Apple hardware and services. But the music fan in me is excited to think about a beautiful experience in my living room and car where all music is available all the time and easy to share legally, without syncing and managing files.

ian

ps – A funny side effect of this news is that I’ve been getting more Lala friend requests in the last 48 hours than ever. Turns out getting sold is a great marketing plan for a fledgeling service. Add me as a friend on Lala!

The Black Keys have created their own version of the classic Heavy Rhyme Experience, live music mixed with great hip hop MCs, and have called it Blakroc. I’ve been excited about this since I first read about it. It was released yesterday and is currently #1 on iTunes’ hip hop chart, (where I bought the download today). I’m stoked to listen, but puzzled by the way they’ve released this.

My curiosity was piqued after an email from Tara (also a fan) wondering why they hadn’t updated their Web site (still says coming Nov 27th, today is Nov 28th). I started poking around online and found it was only available two places: iTunes and Indie Retail stores (via the good folks at CIMS).

iTunes and CIMS stores are both great retailers and partners, but I’m not sure why you would release at these two outlets exclusively. If I was going to do an iTunes exclusive for a highly anticipated album like this, I’d want to see some serious promo from iTunes in return. But there is literally zero promo for the Blakroc album on iTunes as far as I can tell, nothing on the home page, nothing on the hip hop page. Maybe it’s because they released on a Friday and iTunes can’t update their promo card mid-week? Dunno.

Not only that, a hotly anticipated track featuring Ol Dirty Bastard seems to have been left off the iTunes release. Note the comments at the bottom of this page:

No worries, it’s easy enough to find elsewhere, for free:

I like the “Indie Retail Black Friday” part of their release approach. I bet those stores have it well-positioned and hopefully the holiday sale foot traffic bought lots of copies.

But why not have the CD available via Amazon?

Someone who wants the CD and lives in northern Indiana, where I grew up, has two options to get the CD: 1) drive to Chicago or Indianapolis (3 hours by car), 2) Buy from Blakroc’s Web site (Music Today) for $21 ($14 + $7 (!) shipping/handling):

Ouch. Guessing it would be closer to $13, delivered on Amazon, no?

And why not make it available at ALL digital retailers? It’s not any more work, releasing at all digital retailers is as easy as checking a box with digital distributors such as TuneCore, INgrooves, IODA, etc.

I searched for the album in order of my personal retail preference: 1) Emusic (I’m a subscriber, so for music available there, that’s my cheapest option), 2) Amazon (I’m a loyal Amazon customer and have an Amazon credit card, so buying from Amazon is simple, comes in MP3 format, and has a 3x points on my credit card), 3) Rhapsody (I have Control 4 in my house so anything playing in my house plays through Rhapsody). When I struck out at all of those I fell back to iTunes, which did the trick, of course. But why assume all your consumers are buying from the same place when it’s no more work to make it available at all digital retailers in one fell swoop? If it was a temporary iTunes pre-sale to get some good promo I’d understand, but the lack of iTunes promo tells me that’s not it. Also, is “Only Indie stores! And iTunes!” ironic to anyone else? Saluting the indies at physical and thumbing your nose at them at digital doesn’t quite compute for me.

And International? Why not at least make it available internationally on the same day? Again, this is as simple as checking a box at the digital distributors mentioned above. Note the comments on this page from International fans, asking where they can get the release.

I think I know where these fans are going to get the record: there are 500K results on Google for “Blakroc Torrent” and another 500K+ for “Blakroc Download”, including links to Mediafire, etc:

I wonder if the illegal release has the ODB song that’s missing from the iTunes version. If so, ouch, again.

Not to mention that releasing at Lala and elsewhere would improve your Google search results (they would be playable and the top result would link to a point of purchase).

So to be specific, my release strategy would have been:

1. Pre-sale of a limited edition unique product on the Blakroc web site
2. Pre-sale of CD on Amazon, with promo from Amazon
3. Pre-sale of digital on iTunes, with promo from iTunes
4. Simultaneous release of CD on Amazon and at indie retailers
5. Simultaneous worldwide release of digital at all digital retailers (Amazon, Emusic, Zune, Lala, etc etc)

And this isn’t completely theoretical for me, this is what I just did with Get Busy Committee, an album which admittedly was much less hotly anticipated, with great results.

This really isn’t meant to be a criticism of whomever is releasing this (I don’t even remember who it is — apologies, I think someone told me who was doing this once upon a time, and now I’ve forgotten, so it’s *really* not meant to be a slight, I don’t even know who I’m talking to here!). We’re all trying to find the path forward at this point. Just thought I’d put it out there to open up discussion on how we’re all releasing albums these days, and see if there’s something I’m missing as to why the approach being taken with the Blakroc record is better than the one I’m suggesting.

Regardless, the record is fucking great. Get over to iTunes or to your favorite CIMS store and buy it.

Comments welcome.

ian

Sorry no installment last weekend. I would have had this post up last Sunday but I came down with a pretty nasty flu/fever thing which put me down/out/way behind this past week. Ouch.

As I’ve mentioned, by the time I came into the Get Busy Committee project the record was finished, so I was and will be mostly be talking about the marketing and distribution of the record, not the recording process. But it was occurring to me that this was an interesting part of the story and worth including. It’s not news that you can record on your computer these days, but personally I was surprised when they told me they made the record on Acid, and at the end of the project Apathy saved us some money by mastering it himself instead of sending it off to a third party to do the mastering. So I thought I’d ask the band a few questions about how, technically, they recorded the album. I grabbed them for a few minutes last weekend before a photo shoot, and just before I became a feverish, useless lump.

The results are below, transcribed dutifully by Aidan Nulman. Thanks, Aidan!

Ian: So how did you record this album, technically? Did you guys spend a million dollars, book a month at the Record Plant…

Apathy: Yeah, you know. G4s, Lamborghinis, that’s how we do it basically.

Ryu: For the next record we’re renting a G5, calling it The Mile High Club.

Apathy: Yup. We recorded the whole thing on a plane. Mile High Club, coming soon… Nah…

[back to serious tone]

the thing is is that we’ve all been signed to majors, we’ve all worked in the biggest studios — crazy, elaborate, fancy studios — and you don’t get as much of a vibe as when you’re chilling at the crib, hanging out, and working out of the home studio. And that’s what we prefer. When it comes down to the thing of “if I had to work in some crazy-fly, super Dr. Dre studio or work at Scoop’s crib,” I’d rather work at Scoop’s crib ‘cuz we’re gonna be more productive, gonna catch a better vibe.

Ryu: We were just telling Scoop yesterday, “do not get rid of this apartment.”

Scoop: Yeah, we gotta keep the apartment, keep it a full-time studio.

Ryu: I don’t care if we gotta buy the whole building out.

Scoop: Yeah.

Ryu: You gotta keep that place ‘cuz…

Scoop: [Otherwise] the vibe will be gone.

Ryu: We vibe out at our studio in Reseda, and at Scoop’s crib. That’s where we do everything.

Ian: And whose studio is that in Reseda?

Ryu: It’s the Styles of Beyond studio. It’s Cheapshot, Vince Skully, myself, Sean Berman, you know, we’ve been recording there for a long time.

Ian: So you’re making the beats and whatnot at Scoop’s and then going and recording the vocals in Reseda?

Ryu: Both.

Scoop: We’re doing both at my crib. Everything was set up so we could do it at my house ‘cuz we had the full studio there. When Ap comes into town, we just all get together and work on stuff until… we were in the studio yesterday until, like, 4 in the morning or something.

Ryu: Scoop and Ap use Acid, so they’re on the same program, so that works out.

Apathy: The computer program: Acid…

Scoop: Not the drug.

Apathy: …not the mental-stimulation acid.

Ryu: (to Apathy) See? I didn’t even elaborate. I was going to leave it up to them.

Ian: That was my next question: on the technical side, are strictly using Acid to make the beats?

Apathy: Yeah, strictly. I started off making everything in Acid: we record in Acid, we mix in Acid, we use it in correlation with Soundforge.

Scoop: Everything, including effects. It definitely has a unique sound when you hear the record; there’s nothing that sounds like it recording-wise.

Ryu: Not everything was made in Acid though. We used Reason sometimes, too.

Scoop: Reason, yeah. For the next album, we’re going to experiment with more stuff. But we definitely had a certain sound we wanted to use. And it definitely was easy [to collaborate with Apathy], because we were working on the same stuff. We’d just bounce records back and forth to each other.

Ryu: Using a, what, a little Roland NT-1000 mic?

Scoop: Yup.

Ryu: That’s it.

Scoop: Just keep it moving.

Ryu: We don’t even care if it sounds messed up. We don’t care if the shit ain’t even plugged in correctly.

Scoop: Yeah, it can sound any way it sounds.

Ryu: My Little Razorblade is probably the worst recording ever. The vocals are all blown out.

Apathy: Our vocals are blown and it just sounds like shit, but I love it. You know, that’s the thing, a lot of people go crazy, they’re fanatical about sound quality but their songs suck. You can have your thing sounding all pristine, but your songs are boring and they suck.

Apathy: Yeah, straight up. If you listen to old Wu-Tang Clan, you’ll hear a lot of errors in it, you’ll hear a lot of flaws, but that’s what’s hot about it. You listen to an old Raekwon or GZA album, it’s grimy and it’s fucked up, but that’s what’s hot about it.

Scoop: I mean, a lot of people think that you need a big [sic] thousand-dollar studio to make a hit record, and really it’s not about the wand, it’s about the magician. So, you know…

Ryu: I wish I had a thousand-dollar studio.

Apathy: I wish I had a thousand-dollar wand.

Ian: As I was writing about releasing this record on my blog, it was occurring to me that there’s a similar story on the recording. It’s not like you guys borrowed money to record this, like some label owns part of it; it’s something that you guys have been working for almost a year, right? In your spare time, and across the country, and for essentially no money. Your own time, and your own investment, and your own studio.

Ryu: We’ve been recording the same way since the ’90s. Even when we were on majors, we still just did it our way because that’s just the way we’re comfortable.

Apathy: There was a time when I was on Atlantic and I had a big studio blocked out, and I was over here in LA recording for, like a month, and it was just whatever. And then as soon as I go home and I’m chilling in my bedroom with my setup, I start producing all this crazy stuff, and it comes out a lot better.

Ian: How long have you guys been essentially computer nerds with recording? Recording on programs like Acid?

Scoop: Years. I’ve been on it for years. For about 10, 11 years now.

Ian: Did it change things for you?

Apathy: 110%, man. It was completely… I have so much control, now. Back in the day, you had to do things through the ASR-10 and sequence things a certain way. Now I have control over every little second.

Scoop: [Previously] you could only do like, 10 seconds of a sample on certain machines. You couldn’t do what you can do nowadays, like take a sound and manipulate it into a whole different sound; take the voices out of the instrumental and just have the, you know, the sounds of the drums. There’s all kinds of stuff you can do.

Apathy: Not only that, but for all the producer nerds out there: I have, when I work in Acid, I have a drum beat, or I have a 4-bar break looped, or the drums, or whatever, I can have the entire sample underneath and view each part and jump around to each part like you jump around on a record. So I can mess with whatever, do whatever, and manipulate it. So it’s just control. Constant control.

Scoop: That’s the thing about computers: you can see it. You can actually see the audio. Cut it where you want to cut it.

Apathy: I think there’s a big thing, though. Even though a lot of people produce with computers, you can line up your snare visually to how that one looks, but it’s still super-important to listen to it. And sometimes, sight is deceiving. You look at certain things, and you’ve still got a…

Scoop: Sometimes you’ve got to put it a certain way, and it lands a certain way.

Apathy: Yup.

Ian: And, Scoop, is this the way you do it for everything you produce? I mean, if you’re producing for Snoop or The Game, anything’s any different?

Scoop: Yeah, I mean, it’s the same thing. I’ll bring a set-up to the studio, a portable set-up, just make a beat off of anything. A lot of the computer programs nowadays, you can just bring it, set it up, and dump it down to Pro Tools or whatever the case is. You can just make a beat off of a keyboard. I mean, whatever sounds good, man.

Ian: Alright. Any other words of wisdom for anybody out there who’s interested in making a record?

Apathy: No. Don’t.

Ryu: No.

Apathy: Don’t make a record.

Ryu: Yeah, it’s the worst way to try to make a living.

Apathy: There’s more people onstage than in the audience nowadays.

Ian: Why do you guys do it if it sucks?

Apathy: We do it ‘cuz it’s too late, we fucked everything else up. So this is what we’re stuck with.

Ryu: We still didn’t graduate yet, so our options are limited.

Apathy: Rap or McDonald’s? Ehhh, let’s go to rap for now. McDonald’s will always be there.

Ian: Perfect.

Listen to Get Busy Committee’s Uzi Does It in the streaming player below. If you like what you hear, buy the album direct from the artist in a limited edition Uzi-shaped USB flash drive, here.

ian