Death in general

I recently finished a book by Graeme Thomson: I Shot A Man In Reno: A History of Death By Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease And General Misadventures, As Related In Popular Song.

I reviewed the book pretty thoroughly on Goodreads, which you can see here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/704770342

A book you don't really like can still be good food for thought. In fact, if the issue with the book is that it provides unsatisfying answers to valid questions, that can be excellent food for thought as you try and make up for the book's shortcomings.

Tomorrow I am going to get into the musical questions, but I feel like first we need to address death itself.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so that's where my religious beliefs come from. One thing about that is that we believe in prophets and we believe in personal revelation. So, it's not just that I believe what someone has said, but I feel that it is true, and there have been experiences and other feelings that reinforce it.

We believe that when we die, our body separates from our spirit, and we refer to where the spirit is as the Spirit World. We believe that you are pretty much the same person there that you are here. So, if you tended to be sad, or angry, or resentful, you still have that to deal with. However, we also believe that the Spirit World is a place where you continue to learn and grow, and I believe that the help of others who are already there, and the increased perspective, may make some things easier.

Other things would be harder. If part of your bad feelings came from a relationship with one person, and you got to the point where you wanted to resolve it, and talk to them, but you couldn't, that would be hard. It is better to resolve things in life.

Obviously, there is more that goes on there, but my intent wasn't to get into theology so much (which I believe works better in personal discussions) as just to point out that this is a hopeful belief. I believe that God is good, and He loves us, and that this is ultimately a good plan. So I am sad for someone who dies in a bad state of mind, but I don't give up on them, because I know there is more.

I say "know", but it is faith and not knowledge. I have my own reasons and experiences that lead to my belief, but true knowledge won't happen until I die. I am okay with this, because living according to my faith makes me happy now. Religion that only encourages you to suck it up now for a reward later is insufficient.

Songs about death are really for the living, whether it is to deal with one's own mortality or the loss of another. Life also is for the living. It has to be meaningful on its own. That's not to take anything away from the afterlife. I will be so grateful to see some people again. I am glad that who I am will not disappear, but I am also glad that it will change. This progression we have with birth and aging and death has some beauty to it.

I am currently reading about music theory, and one of the names that came up was Boethius. He was in there because of his study of music theory and his transcriptions of folk music of the time. (Boethius lived from 480-524 AD.) He did other things, though, and one of those was writing The Consolation of Philosophy.

This is philosophy, not religion. His thinking is coming from observing and pondering life, and his conclusion is that the greatest joys in life come from treating other people decently and learning as much about the world as possible. He wrote this while he was in prison, and he was eventually executed, so he faced with the loss of freedom and the loss of life, but still found consolation in learning and in treating others well.

That makes a great life, but it makes a great death too, because you go into the next life with relationships and with knowledge, and having had the practice of actively seeking joy in those ways. That's someone who had a good life, and death will not negate that.

The least organized playlist

I mentioned recently learning that if I shared a Spotify playlist, I could add a note, and I used this to link to the appropriate blog posts. There was just one playlist that I  had never written about, and it may well be the one that needs the most explanation.

I don't remember exactly where the inspiration came from, but the title is 12/21/12, and the idea was a soundtrack for waiting for the apocalypse.

I honestly don't remember if I had been procrastinating creating it, which is certainly possible, or if it only occurred to me to do it that day. As it was, I was compiling it on that day, and just pulling things in that don't necessarily go there. It is messy and incomplete. It's a good thing the world didn't end.

While I don't remember exactly when I got the idea to do it, I know part of it came from a Rejects interview, where they were asked what song they would play for the world ending, and while I think they were leaning towards "Heartbeat Slowing Down", which they were all really proud of,  one of the more obvious choices was "Mona Lisa" ("You can sit beside me when the world comes down".) What they realized was that they had a lot of songs that would be appropriate.

My first thought was "It Ends Tonight". The problem with that is that the title is on the nose, but the song is about a relationship ending, whereas "Mona Lisa" is a lot more apocalyptic. Of course, "Heartbeat Slowing Down" is really personal as well, and this is exactly where it got messy.

There are songs about the end of civilization and destruction, which work, but there are also songs about death, that work, and then there are songs that aren't really about that, but they have kind of ominous titles, and then there are also songs about the human condition, which might lead us to the state of destruction. In addition, there were songs about hope, and not giving up. Also, there were songs that I just liked.

For example, when I was thinking about the Clash, "Armagideon Time" and "Time Is Tight" seemed obvious, based on the titles, though really there were a lot that would fit. They have so many songs that reference things spinning out of control, but I ended up putting in "Train In Vain", which doesn't relate at all, but I really like it, and isn't listening to the music you really like a reasonable way of going out?

I did a very similar thing with the Ramones. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" is there for acceptance, and "I Wanna Live" is for resistance. "Do You Remember Rock And Roll Radio" is for the nostalgia you might feel towards the end, and even though "Howling At The Moon" says "There's no law anymore" and refers to change, yeah, it's really just there because I love it.

So, it's not really an effective playlist, but there are things I like about it. I like having The New Radicals "You Get What You Give" on a list with "Always Love" by Nada Surf, because they hold similar emotional and philosophical places for me. It is weird to have "Babylon's Burning" by the Ruts and "The Promise Of A New Day" by Paula Abdul together, but sometimes, I am weird.

There might be the seeds of multiple playlists here, having one for death, and one for apocalypse, and one for perseverance, and one that would be the equivalent of the desert island playlist, where there are just songs that it is important to be able to hear. Those things could happen.

Currently I am not planning on creating any additional playlists, but this was the right time to write about this, because thinking about the roles that music can fill in the face of uncertainty is going to play into the next post or two.

Plus, now I can share this playlist and add a link to an appropriate blog! I am always multi-tasking.

Band Review: Ivan and Alyosha

In much the same way that "country" did not seem to be an entirely accurate description of Rattlesnake Gunfight, "folk" does not seem completely accurate for Ivan and Alyosha. It's not that some of the hallmarks of folk are not there, but there are enough updates and twists that people who would normally be put off by the genre should still check them out.

There are definitely some rock elements, reminding me a bit of Roy Orbison. Some of this is probably due to the inclusion of electric guitars, rather than going with strictly acoustic. Also, there are some interesting beats and tempos. The vocals are dominant, and there is a tilt towards social consciousness, which is pretty fold, but it is just not all there is.

"The Rebel Jesus" is probably the most stereotypically folk song, though it also works as a Christmas song. It makes some good points, and has a depth to it that I value. It also, even though it apologizes for judging, feels a bit judgmental. That balance can be difficult to achieve, when the world's injustices have you down.

That being said, much of their music is edifying, and they give value to various types of relationships, including romantic. "Be Your Man" is relatable and has a fun video, which demonstrates pretty clearly that the band does not take themselves too seriously.

The web store is currently undergoing maintenance, but Amazon does carry their music.

http://www.ivanandalyosha.com/

https://twitter.com/ivanandalyosha

https://www.facebook.com/ivanandalyosha?rf=130165677020912

http://www.youtube.com/user/IvanandAlyosha

http://www.amazon.com/Ivan-&-Alyosha/e/B004QXJ16G/

Band Review: Rattlesnake Gunfight

Back when I reviewed Crow Black Sky, I noticed that they were in some ways not typical of black metal, and wondered how much of that was an effect of them being South African instead of Scandinavian.

By the same token, on Rattlesnake Gunfight's Facebook page, the genre is listed as country. Now, I had already noticed that they did sound kind of country, but they are not all the way country. There are touches in the background like what a fiddler would do, though I think it is all guitars, so there is some of that feeling for sure, and yet it does not annoy me, as country almost always does. Perhaps this is because they are Australian.

At times there is more of an Irish pub feel, cheery and unpretentious. I noticed it first in "Jaked On Green Beers", and thought perhaps that made sense because it could all be a St. Patrick's Day reference, but it is an Alkaline Trio song, and the original has a different feel. Rattlesnake Gunfight puts their own spin on it, and it's a good one. They work similar magic on The Replacements' "Color Me Impressed", though they add an optional "u" to "color".

Although the band is working on original material, most of what is currently recorded is covers. However, they are clearly making the songs their own, and a lot of it is live. That generally does not result in sound quality issues. "High Up Above" sounds a little messy, but that could be a reflection of the original song. (I say this from listening via Spotify, but music appears to be available via Bandcamp, Amazon, and iTunes.)

I think we have to consider them to be a band still in development, but worth keeping an eye on. I'm sure they would be good live.

Navigation on the web site is not perfectly intuitive, but it has more information than Facebook. I am including two Twitter accounts: the main one for the band, and one for the singer, Matty, who is actually the one who followed me.

http://rattlesnakegunfight.com/longwayhome

https://twitter.com/MJGunfight

https://twitter.com/Matty_TGUK

https://www.facebook.com/RattlesnakeGunfight/info

http://www.youtube.com/user/RattlesnakeGunfight

http://rattlesnakegunfight.bandcamp.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Rattlesnake-Gunfight/dp/B00C7WUPAE/

But I kind of hate VIP packages

Incidentally, there were more developments in the Polaroid feud. I don't even know that there was that much from the leaders - I only know if someone re-tweets it and I see it - but there were fans getting involved in mocking both sides, which has been very stressful for those who are fans of both Sleeping With Sirens and Bring Me The Horizon. I hope everybody chills out and grows up and all that.

I do still find the notorious Polaroid package to be reasonably priced when you look at everything included. Also, it feels like this type of personal experience should be something I support.

Yes, production and distribution of music can be done quite cheaply, but it is fairly difficult to get people to pay for it. It tends to be easier to get people to purchase tickets, but there is overhead with the venue and crew and transportation. You can do a lot of those things pretty cheaply, but there are limits.

With VIP packages and meet and greets, there tends to be low overhead. Maybe you are including a photo and a poster, but primarily you are spending time, and yes, it helps support the band, and it is clearly something a lot of fans want. Sorry, I still hate it. I have tried to find a logical reason for this, and it is a bunch of things working together. 

First of all, I have had some great musician encounters over the past year. Meeting Lindsey Way changed my life; that is not an exaggeration. Meeting the other members of MSI was also cool, and they were all out there. If you hung around and waited, you could meet everyone in the band, but that was a free gift from the band.

I had mentioned that Lindsey hugged me (twice, actually), but I haven't written about the hug I got earlier that evening, from Trash McSweeney of The Red Paintings (they opened for MSI). He was hanging out over by the merch table, and I had been moved by their show. I went up and complimented him, because I do that. If you have something nice to say, I firmly believe in saying it. And yes, sometimes I compliment people who could not care less, but sometimes it really does matter.

Anyway, we talked for just a moment, and then he hugged me. It was a little, spontaneous thing and I'm sure he doesn't remember it, but in that moment we were connected, and it warmed my heart. It was real.

There have been so many little things that sprung up from unpredictable moments: realizing one moment too late that Cy Curnin thought I had been Maria, finding every single Gin Blossom around the hotel and talking to two of them, rounding a corner and finding Mike Kennerty after being too shy to talk to him earlier. There is randomness here, and unpredictability. I have no selfies proving these things happened, but they were all special to me, and they cannot be bought.

And, you can't have that with every band. There are bands for whom it would be neither safe nor practical to come out into the throng. The VIP experience can resolve some of the difficulty there, but that gives you different problems.

One is that it becomes such a perfunctory thing. Sign, snap, shake hands, move on. The experience has become a commodity, and is thus cheapened, no matter how expensive it gets. The kids still make a big deal out of finally meeting their idols, but then they expect to meet them next time too, and there are many other issues here, with positive and negative effects from the level of a young person's identification with a band, and fandoms, and when it results in a perverted sense of ownership and hostility, but I'm not ready to go there yet.

What I will say is that I hate the economics in other ways, because what about the kids who can't afford it, or the parents who can't afford it, then it seems like it could result in a stratification of the fans, and division into haves and have-nots. And if that seems to be over thinking it, remember that the economic difficulties that we have occurring now are issues for bands too. If we had single-payer health care, would that take some stress off of musicians? If the regular job market was good, would that help some aspiring musicians, and some fans? Everything is interconnected.

If I sound like a cranky old person shaking my cane at the kids on the lawn, well, I do feel like one more and more all the time. 

References:
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/05/concert-review-mindless-self-indulgence.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-daily-hat.html 

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/05/concert-review-red-paintings.html 

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/12/in-concert-all-american-rejects.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/01/concert-review-gin-blossoms.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-fixx-live-at-music-millennium.html

 

Finding your musical path

A few months ago I was at a party talking to the friend of a friend. He is a drummer, and not currently in a band, but he knows enough bands that need drummers that he gets to play pretty often. He also does some studio production work, and having a lot of contacts helps there as well. That has resulted in a career where he is doing what he wants to do, he can provide childcare when his wife works, and between the two of them they are getting by financially.

That wouldn't satisfy everyone, and not everyone would be able to do it. Obviously it did not happen all at once. Building contacts happened over time, when he was playing in bands. What I am getting at is that there are many different ways to be a musician. The key is to figure out what you want, where you currently are, and what the path is between those two spots.

If you have a satisfying day job, but you also play a gig every month or so, and between that and practices your need to play and spend time with your band is met, that is great. If that is all you need, but your band is not getting any gigs, then you need to start checking around with local bars and clubs, and do some networking. If you are getting a bar gig every other month, and you want to support yourself and your family by music, or you want to become very wealthy via music, this is going to require a bigger shift.

Now, about that band I offended. I don't know for sure that I offended them. As is normal, I wrote the review, tweeted the link in general with them as a keyword, tweeted the link specifically to them, and posted it on their Facebook page. A lot of bands will Like or Favorite or Re-tweet or Share, or reply and thank me, all of which I love. Sometimes there will be a delay, but usually not more than a week.

In this case, none of those things happened, but they had a tweet shortly after that about finally having something interesting to say. I had called their tweets boring and repetitive. It could be a coincidence, but it felt like an indirect pointed at me.

I was right though; they tweet the same things over and over again. If they are happy with their current level of success, that is fine, though I suspect the tweets are not instrumental to that level, and could be dropped. However, if they want different results, they should do different things. My point was that they seem to build loyalty fairly well with those they spend time with, so build on that. Visit more radio stations, more event promoters, and put in a lot of face time with fans.

I remember seeing New Politics when they opened for Fall Out Boy, and just from the performance I thought they would be successful; they were good! That was reinforced by seeing Boyd work the crowd. Soren and Louis might have been as well, but where I was standing it was Boyd, talking to anyone he could, giving out stickers, taking pictures of people holding the stickers, and engaging in any way he could.

Farewell, My Love is amazing for use of Twitter. They worked really hard in the beginning to get everyone to follow all of the individual band members. These members have endearing personalities, so as more people follow them and see their tweets, it strengthens the overall attachment for the band.

Also, they are constantly promoting something, whether it is their crowd-sourcing efforts to acquire a van, pre-orders, new videos, or new performances. They go through periodic spurts of repetitive tweets, but then they will offer something new. They also re-tweet the appreciation they get from followers, which serves multiple purposes as it reminds followers that they are following a great band, provides new content so that not everything is about pre-ordering the new CD, and makes the followers who have been re-tweeted feel good.

And about those tours, even though they had just completed one tour, and were already booked to open for Blood On The Dance Floor, they were asking for help in getting onto another tour. There is no resting on laurels here, and they are smart not to. Getting established doesn't even mean the same thing it used to now, and you can't take anything for granted.

The Gin Blossoms use Twitter in a different way. So far, only two members of the band are on Twitter, and it took a while to get the second of those on. However, the band account is really good about following back, passing on good information, re-tweeting, and giving what access it can. Maybe Robin will not get on Twitter, but when there is a web site chronicling his trip up Mount Everest, it can at least link to that.

Of course, the Gin Blossoms had an existing fan base from back in the day, so while acquiring new fans is good, a focus on reconnecting with existing fans is a valid approach to take. Again, you are using what you have.

Even with all that, Twitter is just one form of social networking, which is just one tool. The point is that you need to have a realistic view of what success would mean to you, and how you get there. Record companies are not fairy godmothers, and that's okay.

Tomorrow we will talk a bit more about money matters, but as you are building your picture of success, what I will recommend now is that you include sanity and integrity. I know that if you don't value them now, my saying so won't change that, but that doesn't mean that you won't miss them some day.

Music in the Digital Age

When Spotify offered to help me find AFI tickets, it felt very familiar. I realized they were starting to do a lot of things that had been in the potential business model for Napster.

I knew this because I had recently completed Steve Knopper's Appetite For Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry In The Digital Age.

The book was pretty interesting in general. Much of it took me back to my time at Intel, because of the changing technologies, yes, but mainly because of the corporate issues. The biggest one for the music industry, over and over again, was an unwillingness to change in response to emerging trends, because the old way had been working well for them, and making them lots of money, and they wanted things to stay that way.

This wasn't just a resistance to digital music; they resisted CDs too, and then resisted getting rid of the long box, and so resisting digital music was exactly what you would expect based on past behavior. The problem has been that waiting to accept the future direction results in missed opportunities. They kept bouncing back nicely because other opportunities would come up, and the labels would make millions of dollars, despite stubborn foolishness.

You may remember Napster as a villain in this story, but that is a selective telling of the story. There were attempts at negotiation between Napster and record labels. There were talks about different business models, like having a monthly subscription fee, with a limited number of downloads per month, or you could have done a payment per download.

I don't know what level of artist royalties would have been built into a plan like this, but there were definite benefits. First of all, at the time you could have had a subscriber database of 26 million. That's compared to 2.5 million Pandora subscribers, and Spotify apparently has 24 million users, but only 6 million paying users. Getting Napster in with subscribers early would have established a pattern of paying for digital music early, before people got so used to free online music.

The other opportunities were that Napster would be good at leading people to concert tickets and band merchandise, as well as helping people discover new bands, who were not signed, a cause close to my heart.

The thing that was most frustrating for me in all of this is that it wasn't even so much that the bands would be getting a bad deal through this, but that the labels were resistant because it would subtract from their enormous cut, and this is after reading about a lot of exploitation of artists via labels. It's not that they never do anything helpful to a band, but so much of the success comes via dumb luck, and they get such an exorbitant amount for what they do. I know, my anti-corporate bias is showing; what's new?

Regardless, this is the world we've got now. I am sympathetic to a lot of the sides. As much as I love albums, I understand the value in being able to download a single, and sometimes that is all I want. I still have a fondness for CDs, but I understand the convenience of digital. Some MCR members were tweeting a while back about lugging a big folder of CDs on tour. Now you can get thousands of songs on a little iPod. That's easier. There are good things about this new world. There are bad things too, but we need to take a realistic view.

First of all, it was never really easy to make it big. Making it stratospherically big is harder now in some ways, but making music a career at all is kind of a more democratic process. You don't need a label to produce music, or start acquiring an international fan base, or to tour.

For some bands in the past it was primarily the label that would get record sales, and the band would get ticket sales. Now there is not enough money in record sales, so you get 360 deals and it may not be worth it.

I don't think people are going to get back into purchasing music the was it was when you had to. Yes, I keep telling people to buy music in these posts, but it is so easy to download, or burn, or to listen via free services that technically pay royalties but in microscopic amounts, that I think that is going to be the standard, and so it is necessary to adapt.

That can mean many things. You don't have the big budgets for music videos anymore, so interesting things happen there. Band merch has become more creative, so instead of one or two basic shirts bands will have twenty different kinds, as teen wardrobes become as much about musical affiliation as fashion.

Some get very creative. Beck created a song reader with his sheet music. Touring is important, and we see add-ons to the touring experience. Some of the innovations are great, and some are hideous, but that's what change is like.

This is something we will be exploring more, including tomorrow, but for now I am going to link to two old posts from last year. "It's Not Priceless" links to several good (if lengthy) articles on digital music issues.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/10/its-not-priceless.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-love-albums.html

Band Review: Jeff Keyson

Jeff Keyson doesn't seem to do a whole lot of self-promotion, but there is an album, See You Around, on Spotify, and there also seems to be music available for purchase via iTunes and Amazon, though not the same songs.

I have primarily been listening to the See You Around album, and it's pretty good. The opening track, "No Hesitation, No Reservations" starts off as fairly straightforward alternative rock, as do "Tale Of History" and "See You Around" with their strong intros. Interestingly, though, a lot of the other tracks end up with a more techno sound.

They don't completely lose the alternative rock sound, but cadences and patterns come in that seem inspired by dance and hip hop, where it seems like the songs could do well in a club setting too, without necessarily being of the club. Listen to the machine beat and effects on "So Long" for an example of that, or the vocal patterns on "How The World Goes Around".

My favorite is "No Hesitation, No Reservations", which reminds me a bit of Foxboro Hottubs. That being said, I wanted to mention "Face In The Crowd", which may be the most interesting. It has the most explicit content, with some profanity and drug references, which it uses in telling the story of someone searching for fame and being thoroughly disillusioned. I was initially put off by it, interpreting it as judgmental. On additional listening I feel like there is some depth and understanding in the telling. I hope that following creative desires hasn't been too much of a downer.

http://www.jeffkeyson.com/

https://twitter.com/JeffKeyson

https://www.facebook.com/JeffKeyson

http://www.youtube.com/jkillakey

Band Review: Kris Orlowski

The Facebook description for Kris Orlowski say "orchestrated folk pop", and I was wondering about that. Should it be orchestral? Because they do make use of expanded instruments, and featured a 17-piece orchestra on the latest EP. At the same time, "orchestrated" could refer to a certain deliberateness of the manner in which the music was implemented.

It struck me (possibly leading to overthinking it) because what I had noticed in listening to the music was that without being really showy, there are all of these little bonuses in the music - trills and plinks and other small musical surprises. Because of this, it may be valuable to listen multiple times, or at least to pay close attention. There are rewards for it.

None of these extras are overpowering, so the consistent attention to detail strengthens each song while making them stand apart from each other. In "The Way You Are", they accomplish a mood that I have heard others try to establish and fail at. With all of that, I think my favorite song is "Waltz Of Petunia", so make to not miss it.

They do some things with violins here and there that are just beautiful. "Steady And Slow" may be the best example of this, but their violin deployment is consistently good. The funny thing is that while the violins imply a more elegant sound, they are also doing things vocally that are almost like scat, but not quite. Maybe they are referencing scat. That seems like they styles would clash, but they work out. And then they can go with a completely different feeling and strong percussion on "Follow".

The overall feeling tends towards mellow. Several of the songs are upbeat, but as a whole it still seems more calming than not. More important, there is a naked vulnerability below it all, keeping everything heartfelt. The craftsmanship is not sterile.

Portland-area readers, they seem to come to the area pretty frequently. Check the main web site for details.

http://krisorlowski.com/

https://twitter.com/korlowskiband

https://www.facebook.com/krisorlowskiband

And the dialogue begins with Kellin Quinn

In Going Emo I mentioned that there were various musicians for whom I had some positive feelings, without having listened to their music yet. This comes from tweets and Tumblr posts by people I follow.

Kellin Quinn, the lead singer of Sleeping With Sirens, has been at the point where I could  recognize the face and name, but that was about it, until recently, where there were two issues getting a lot of re-tweets. Since both of the issues pertain to problems and opportunities in the modern music industry, we will use those as jumping off points, and this will probably bleed into next week.

The most recent issue was two tweets, from Kellin, re-tweeted by multiple users, and a reaction to the VMAs (Video Music Awards):

"I've lost faith in music after watching last nights VMA awards.. If that bulls*** is what music is today.. Then I f***ing quit"

"This! This is music, this is inspiration.. I think it's time artists look to where we started from, and begin again. pic.twitter.com/7SBFM4cVQe"

(Asterisks are mine.)

The picture shows works by several artists, including Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen, and Aerosmith, so covering multiple decades and genres.

As you might expect, I am sympathetic to that sentiment, but my first thought was "Oh, don't be such a drama queen." I can say that, because for me, that is not what music is today. Yes, I have spent a lot of time listening to past music, but there is contemporary music in there too. Great albums have been released this year and last year. Good bands are in the studio now, working on new material. It is easy for me to feel positive because of that.

(Also, I did not watch the VMAs, and I think that helped. I highly recommend not watching.)

It is true that this music is not what is making the headlines, or the big bucks. There are ways in which that is a problem, and I hate seeing dreck rewarded, but it's important to focus on the positive, and on ways of making things more positive. For me, the band reviews are my contribution, and the other music blogging, and maybe more playlists, because I keep thinking of other ways to be more effective. Spread the good music!

That works in two directions. One goal is that we are trying to help more people find good music that suits them. Music is so important emotionally, and can bring so much joy and pleasure, that there is a real value in that.

The other part is, of course, that these artists producing good music need to be able to live, and so people need to buy their music, or concert tickets, or band merchandise. This leads to the next Kellin issue:

http://propertyofzack.com/post/57443271811/kellin-quinn-responds-to-polaroid-controversy

Long story short: Oli Sykes (of Bring Me The Horizon) tweeted about charging for pictures, which was indirect, but seemed pretty clearly pointed at a Sleeping With Sirens package.

Honestly, $80 for a Polaroid would seem like a bad deal, but as the full package includes the ticket, early admission, a question and answer session and a signing, along with a signed poster, that's probably a pretty good deal. The thought of using a Polaroid so the fan can get her own picture with Kellin signed is pretty clever as well.

So, I can't really hold this package against Sleeping With Sirens, or Kellin. I also don't hold the other tweet against Oli that much. I suspect he just saw $80 for a Polaroid, and did not investigate fully before going off. I will hold this against a professional music writer, and I would hold it against myself, but with musicians tweeting maybe the bar can be set a little lower. And of course from my point of view these guys are all just kids anyway.

That being said, there is something that I hate about the package too. Again, it is completely reasonable for them to get in on the act: Meet and Greets and VIP packages are becoming really common, with lots of bands, and something that everyone is looking at now is how to get more money. Digital streaming has a very poor cash return, actual album sales have become less and less popular, and so what used to feed the labels has largely dried up, leading to the labels wanting more out of the touring piece of the pie.

There's a lot that's ugly about it, and when you add it all together it is not just a revenue problem or a publicity problem, but a new world that requires a new way of thinking.

So, I think I want to spend some time there next week, and maybe I will explain that crack about what I would hold against a professional music writer. See, I can be indirect too, though I think I was indirected recently as well, which I think means I offended a band that I reviewed, but there were reasons for that. Anyway, it's not stopping me, so you can look forward to reviews of Kris Orlowski and Jeff Keyson, coming up.

Spotified

I started out listening to the various guitar songs via Youtube, but had moved to Spotify for the most part by the end. The selection on Youtube was greater, and it is nice being able to see the artists, but when I had only an artist, instead of a specific song, it was simpler to get an overview through Spotify via their "Popular" section at the top of an artist's section.

I did end up making the Guitar Sampler playlist, and then I noticed that if I clicked "Share", I could add a note, so I went through and added relevant blog posts for each playlist, because I have written about almost all of them. Using "Share" for this ability means that they were all on my Facebook timeline, but the connection to Twitter did not seem to work.

Spotify was very useful to me in this project, and I appreciate that. There are two things that I appreciate less.

One is of course the low amount of royalties paid. Technically I think their payments are lower than Youtube, though with Youtube if the video is not loaded specifically through that group's channel, they are probably not getting anything for it. That would not be an issue for Spotify, though since I have seen at least two cases of groups with the same name having their songs mixed in together, I do have to wonder how that works. Regardless, I know that it takes hundreds of thousands of plays to earn a dollar.

Therefore, my first point here is to reiterate the importance of buying music. I love that I can listen to songs and albums before I purchase, but once I know that I like this, and I want to listen to it multiple times, then it's time to buy, whether you purchase a physical or digital copy.

Currently, I often use Spotify to listen to music I already own. This is partly to benefit the bands more, even if only infinitesimally so, but it's also a matter of convenience. I've sort of let the alphabetical order slide on my CD rack, and the dog is often sleeping in front of it, so it's often just easier. Still, I buy.

The other thing that sometimes bugs me about Spotify has everything to do with monetization. This is an important topic, and one that's close to my heart as someone who cares about bands getting the financial support they need, so we are going to talk about that more tomorrow.

For now, I am just going to focus on how that comes into play specifically with Spotify, which functions on the principle of the add-on sale. It is more sophisticated than asking if you want fries with that, because it is looking at your history to make the appropriate offers. In theory, the ads  you see on Facebook have a similar technology behind them, though what piece of data leads certain ads to appear is beyond me. I question their algorithm.

Spotify is a little more sophisticated for that, I guess, except that they don't understand that the way I listen to music involves a lot of exploration and study. This means that I am usually pretty up on what is out there, so the link to get tickets for AFI is nice, but I already have mine.

It also means that sometimes I am listening to things that I hate for academic purposes. Therefore while they have accurately identified a band that is similar to the one I was listening to, this in no way means that I have any desire to listen to them.

Of course, sometimes science can't account for anything anyway. By all accounts, as someone who loves My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, I should love Panic! At The Disco, and band members will be mean to me if I don't like them, but I don't like them! I'm sorry! I don't know why they annoy me; they just do.

Finally, sometimes Spotify hits a nerve. "You have been listening to (this song) a lot lately; would you like to listen now?"

What are you implying? Are you calling me obsessive? I mean, I like the song but I like lots of songs; you are way off base trying to ascribe some deeper meaning to it. I am not in love with the bass player!

Ahem. In conclusions, Spotify can be quite useful for exploration and convenience, but it is not a way of supporting artists. More on that tomorrow.

What about Bowie?

As you can see by the title, I am not considering this post to be part of the Greatest Guitar Songs series, but it does have its roots there.

If you recall, in sorting through the comments regarding the list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs as deemed by Rolling Stone, the worst of the comments was someone who just put "Bowie". Looking up a specific song or album is easy. When someone only gives an artist name, that can be a little harder, but still doable. But Bowie? There was just too much there.

I tried listening to different things, and talking to a friend, and that led to some thoughts, but I really thought there was just going to have to be a lack of closure on this one. I would not know what the original poster meant. Then I started The Platinum Collection, and it just clicked. Somewhere in the first few songs I nodded and thought "Now I get it."

(Those specific songs are "The Jean Genie", which I had never heard before, followed by "Space Oddity" and "Starman". Probably at about track 7, "Let's Spend The Night Together", the guitar starts to be less of a factor, but I was nonetheless just grateful to feel like I understood.)

It was a relief to have that thought, but I wanted to go over a few points that had come to mind when I was still thinking it was hopeless.

First of all, even though I trying to focus on a Bowie song or timeline that would make sense when talking about "greatest guitar songs", I had sort of thought "Let's Dance", and Karen mentioned that one too. The guitar is good in it, though I'm not sure it stands out. The big problem is that generally when listening to David Bowie, I am focusing on the voice or the piano or the saxophone.

I think I know why we both thought of "Let's Dance" though, because I'm pretty sure that was where Bowie first became accessible to us. I had seen videos for "Under Pressure" and "Ashes to Ashes" early on, but they were a little off-putting with the grotesquerie and extremity.

She developed an appreciation for his envelope pushing pretty quickly. For me, I didn't really get "Ashes To Ashes" until a few years ago, where it was used for...I guess it would be considered a modern dance. It was pretty close to ballet, but perhaps not strictly all ballet. Anyway, in a new setting, I could actually hear the music, and I loved it. It is an amazing, brilliant song. I still don't like the original video for it, though it's not quite as overpowering as it was for a fourteen-year old girl.

So, there might be more room for exploration on the topic of music and visuals, and I may go there, but the real point is how many places there are to go. You can write doctoral theses on Bowie, from the themes he incorporated, the influence he had, the psychology involved, and possibly the part that is most important, the ability to reinvent himself over and over again. Some of that is being able to be a musician or an actor or an internet service provider, which is impressive, but it's probably more impressive of how he was able to adapt musically.

I don't want to give unalloyed praise here. I don't believe in pushing the envelope for the sake of pushing the envelope, or for publicity's sake. There are consequences to it, and Bowie himself felt Ziggy taking over his life. I am seeing a lot of people getting overly caught up in things, where they may be cheating their real lives, and so the foundation you are working from is an important thing. I want to focus more on things he does right.

First of all, Bowie is a total innovator. Lots of good things can come from one person doing it a different way. Maybe not everyone can see the possibilities at first, but once that door is opened, other people still get to go through. So having that vision, and the willingness to chase it is important.

Also, he is good at recognizing the talent and abilities in others. David Bowie is gifted musically, and he can do a lot on his own, but he still does amazing collaborations, and that is helped by his being open to other styles. So he can work with Stevie Ray Vaughn, Brian Eno, Bing Crosby, Cher, Mick Jagger, or Nile Rogers, and take influences from others, even if he might not work with them, and putting it all together not be confined to one genre or sound.

Finally, he seems to know when to take a rest, and let one project go, start a new one, or take time off.

When I say "finally", that is not in any way implying that this is the final word on Bowie, or even a particularly complete word on him, but all of these things have come up, because they are things that I am thinking about for other bands, and for music in general. So, don't be surprised if those issues come up again. That's why this is not a continuation of the "Greatest Guitar Songs" - we're moving on.

Band Review: San Juan

San Juan is a folk/alternative band out of Seattle. Their music currently seems to be most accessible via Facebook, with recordings of four songs being performed live.

While the songs generally have a bit more groove than traditional folk (perhaps indicating that they lean more towards alternative), there is a definite folksy feel as you listen to their banter with the audience while performing. The band seems very accessible.

"She's Been Out There" has some blues-y bass in it, whereas "Hey Yo Sister" and "Golden Shoes" are a little mellower, and softer, conveying a different emotion, but one that works within the songs.

The only song I really want to complain about is "I Need You", which strains so horribly for rhymes I thought it must be a joke. Actually it's a cover of a country song, which I guess makes sense, but I have to recommend against it. If the audience tends to give a good response. maybe the band should stick with it. The band performs it well as far as that goes, but it's just hideous. This could just be a result of my prejudice against country music and abuse of the English language, but my recommendation is to go to their page and listen to the first three songs only.

Music does not currently appear to be for sale, but appearances do get displayed on the web page.

http://sanjuanband.com/

https://twitter.com/SanJuanBand

https://www.facebook.com/sanjuanband/app_178091127385

Band Review: The Repeat Offenders

The Repeat Offenders are available on Spotify, but it took a while for me to find them due to similar names. I am almost certain that even when I did find them, their catalog is mixed in with another band with the same name (or possibly two). However, they do have a well organized site of their own, which gives you access to several tracks, a couple of videos, and other dates and news, so that's probably the best place for starting out.

Here is how the band self-describes:

"They’re The Stone Roses meet The Rolling Stones, with an Oasis attitude. It sounds like utter chaos but their sound is tinged with a Richard Ashcroft vibe to even things out."

I really heard the Oasis on one song, "Slide Away", which is actually an Oasis cover. The Rolling Stones is probably more in the guitars and the vocal delivery. It's that feel of Brits who have been hanging out in American juke joints, and they blend those different influences together. There is some grit to the music, like they have seen the harder side of life. In fact, they are still there, but they are standing steady against it.

"Beg, Steal, or Borrow" is probably the funkiest of the tracks. I like the guitar play on "Fade Away", which is a little more rock, and then you have "Perplexed Mind" which feels more contemplative and sad. And yes, "Slide Away" is beautifully sung. It is an overall good selection with a mature sound.

Their EP Frame Of Mind is available via iTunes. Look for that album name specifically, or it could be someone else.

http://www.therepeatoffenders.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/therepeatoffendersmuzic

https://twitter.com/repeatoffender5

Greatest Guitar Songs: The Sampler

It's time to wrap this up. Well, I do intend to revisit the Bowie issue, but I am not technically considering that part of this series. That will either launch me down a different musical road, or I might take a break from writing about music. Some of the things I have to say might be better later.

For now, I thought it would make sense to put some music together for someone who might be wondering where to start, and create a Spotify playlist. It won't be definitive or conclusive, which is not even possible. It is somewhat chronological, but not strictly. So really, it is just a departure point, but it comes from hours of listening and writing.

If you have been following along, I have written about many of this before, so sometimes I will not put a lot of detail. We have songs from the Rolling Stone list, songs from the Stereogum comments, and songs from my disagreements, sometimes more strenuously than others.

We start out with Django Reinhardt with "Minor Swing". There were many good song candidates, but I thought this was a good example of his style, and it focuses on the guitar a bit more perhaps, where many of the combo pieces focus on violin or bass.

Next up is Robert Johnson, "Believe I'll Dust My Broom". This is for the boogie bass line, taking something previously belonging to pianos and now standard in guitar, making it perhaps the most appropriate song for representing his influence on guitar.

"Ain't That Just Like A Woman", by Louis Jordan, is really boogie piano, like the music from which Robert Johnson borrowed that bass line, but with Carl Hogan on guitar it gives us that famous riff, after which we jump a couple of decades and get it amplified and electrified in Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode".

There is a sound to that guitar, beyond the notes, that seems to lead into Dick Dale and the Surfaris, and a lot of instrumental music, but I am going to go with "Rumble" by Link Wray next, because I think it hints at some of the aggression and societal unrest that is so relevant to rock.

It does have room to get funkier though, and shouldn't forget its blues roots, so this is where I'd like to bring in "Green Onions" by Booker T. & the MG's, which gets us into the '60s.

That's kind of all I want to do from the '60s. It's easy to put in Beatles, Stones, and Hendrix, but they are on all the lists, and we already know what they sound like. I was tempted to put in "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, but I feel like it would drag things down. Therefore, I am going straight to 1976, with the release of The Ramones and "Blitzkrieg Bop", followed by "Shot By Both Sides" by Magazine.

Despite yesterday's debate on whether "Blitzkrieg Bop" is their best, it is definitely a good song, and it is really early for them. They are brand new here, and they must have been a revelation. They never got as much play as they could have, but for those who were listening, this must have been a breath of fresh air. That also may be how the original list settled on "London's Calling", off of The Clash, two self-titled debuts by two great bands. So I get that, but I am going to go with a different track on the same record, "White Riot".

"Shot By Both Sides" is just a cool song that I had never heard of before. Also, right around here is the time for "Crazy On You" by Heart.

It would be completely reasonable to put Van Halen's "Eruption" in here, but it sounds like Eddie Van Halen was not happy with the recording, so for mind-blowing instrumental I am going with Joe Satriani's "Surfing With The Alien". Yes, that is a Silver Surfer reference. This recording session did not go exactly as planned either, but I still think it came out very well, and it's pretty amazing. On one level it reminds me of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Captain Nemo music. Don't overthink it.)

And now we are into the '80s, my old stomping grounds. "Beat's So Lonely" by Charlie Sexton makes it in, but so does The Knack's "My Sharona". I was thinking about putting in some Kinks for earlier, and nothing felt right, but I always feel like this song has some affinity with the Kinks, and so that sound is still kind of represented.

It is a harder sound, and a bit longer, but Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" needs to be here, because it shows some mastery of composition here, with the ground they cover and they way it builds. We will then relax a little with Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel The Noize".

Two songs I feel awful about excluding, but they are not on Spotify, are "Take It Easy" by Andy Taylor (1986) and "Saturday Night" by the Misfits (1999). And they don't have "I Love Rock N Roll" as performed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts! The '80s are already well-represented, but I am afraid I am going to give short shrift to the '90s. This is where I started to pull away from contemporary music, as I didn't care for grunge, or for the direction rap was heading. My band was the Gin Blossoms, but I'm going to hold on to them for right now. Our '90s songs will be "Dammit" (Blink-182) and "Basket Case" (Green Day).

Actually, I think of "Island In The Sun" (Weezer) and "The Middle" (Jimmy Eat World) as the '90s, but they were post 2000, brining us into the new century, and this is possibly where we are going more into things that I specifically love, rather than songs I learned about from this project, and now it feels weirder to write out the full song and band names, because I just mentioned all of them yesterday. However, I'll try not to start coasting.

I picked on one comment for suggesting what was basically a coffee shop duo type song for the greatest guitar songs list, and for greatest, it doesn't work. For a sampler, though, where we are just trying to remember what guitar can do, and why we like it, that makes sense. So we are including The Weepies here, with "World Spins Madly On". This is from 2006, though I only discovered it a couple of years ago.

Similarly, "Mercy Me", by the Alkaline Trio, is from 2005, but I only found it this year. Perhaps this is why my Fall Out Boy selection is "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me": I am always late.

And then it is totally time for "Triumph Of Venus" by Torche. Actually, of the songs remaining, I think I have expressed my love for them so frequently and clearly, that I don't know that a lot of comment is necessary. We are getting "Summertime", "Great Expectations", "Fast & Slow" and I think I am going to throw in "Bulletproof Heart", though I had not originally intended too.

However, the one I really want to talk about a little is "Don't Change For Me" by the Gin Blossoms. As important as they were to me in the '90s, and as much as I still love those songs, it was really important to me to find that they were still around. That song is great for me specifically, but also, just still having them here, and for a while I didn't know how they were.

The distribution system for music has changed greatly, and it's easy to miss stuff, and not even think that there is anything out there for you. You have to look harder, or at least differently, but there is rich, vibrant, glorious music popping up all over. I think about it a lot for the new bands I review, and for the older bands I still love. If the occasional blog post or playlist helps, I'll do my part. Long live rock and roll.

You can find these songs on Spotify as the creatively named "Guitar Sampler" play list for Gina Harris.