WRONG NOTES: a blog of ear reverence
Wrong Notes collects posts on music, art, culture and fun stuff. Also included: news about the Ear Reverends.
Music is for sharing
One of main attributes that we enjoy in music is that music is a way of sharing enjoyment between people.
This is just a couple thoughts:
The main thing we want to do with music we enjoy is share it. A fundamental part of the enjoyment of music is that the enjoyment can be shared, just by sharing the music. Music is a way of sharing enjoyment (and more, deeper, feelings), and enjoyment is often shared through music.
So, if we're ever interested in paying for anything with music, it's the opportunity to share music better. That's the real, timeless, music business: giving people some opportunity to share some music, for which they will gladly pay something reasonable—just to ensure that opportunity.
When we want to own some music on a CD, it's because having a disc gives us more potential opportunities to share the music. When we want to have some music in mp3s, it's because having a digital files gives us other potential opportunities to share the music.
There are very few reasons to relate to music in terms of totally private purposes, without sharing. There are some—and I assume that most people have some bit of music that they like to listen to privately more than with others. But, even then, just because I like to listen to some song when I am alone doesn't mean I don't want to share that song with others—it's not really that private. At best, some music is kept truly private by some people in rare cases!
But, the rest of the time, we just want to share the fuck out of every piece of music we love!
My new SAD (song-a-day) diet
I started a new thing, what I call my SAD (song-a-day) diet.
Last week, I started a practice of writing and recording a song everyday. In the ideal, that would be all 7 days a week. Practically, I've got time blocked out on Monday–Thursday, so it may be more like 4 days a week.
On Monday last week, I ended up using my block of time to finish some rearranging and setup in HereJam studio. Then, Tuesday–Thursday, I wrote and recorded three new songs. Friday–Sunday, I also wrote a song / piece each day, but didn't recorded anything. And, today, I wrote and recorded another song / piece.
Given the constraints of this practice, one of the things I now find myself doing is remembering ideas for musical things I want to try—and writing and recording with those. So far, I've recorded a psychedelic pop song, a surf punk instrumental, a goofy pastoral with banjo and tuba, and an electronic funk piece based around the samples of dying audio chip's last sounds.
Here's some more background on why I started doing this, and what I've learned so far:
Over the years (since I was a kid, really) I've had a lot of days where I've written new music for hours and not recorded any of it. And—especially more recently, I've had a lot of other days where I spent hours fiddling with the same recording, over and over.
Between the time that I completed Err or Man and the beginning of this year, as I started preparing to record the next Ear Reverends' album, I realized that I was spending a lot of time waiting for big chunks of free time to write and record. And, then when I finally got those chunks, I felt a lot of pressure to get a lot done. And, so to relieve that unnecessary pressure, sometimes, I just wouldn't try to get anything done and would "goof off" and have fun in the studio (which worked temporarily to relieve the pressure).
So, I came to appreciate that all of this was a pretty extreme way of working, that was not really what I wanted. But, I was stuck in that pattern for a while and not sure what to do differently.
I know of a number of authors who write for a specific period of time everyday—either a set number of words, or a number of pages, or a number of hours. My cousin Lisa does this, and talking with her about it has been helpful. I also found Cory Doctorow's description of his practice, and the idea of leaving a rough edge, to be useful.
***
When I original started Wrong Notes, and recorded the Wrong Notes Music in 2004–2007, I thought I would use the blog format and ideal of posting daily to drive myself to write and record and post more music. But, I found that publishing / releasing creates its own pressures. And, altogether, the blog format doesn't encourage the kind of editing / curating that tends to become an essential differentiator between a "work" and a "practice."
So, with this current song-a-day practice, I'll release some things at some points, but I am not in any way thinking of each song / piece as "the next blog post."
***
A couple other observations:
Getting up in the morning and getting immediately into writing and recording is just really great. I don't get online or deal with stuff until after the morning session.
Stopping is hard. It's too much fun to stop in the middle of a creative moment. I am trying to stop "on time" everyday. Still working on that a bit.
Having a fixed time to work changes what I write and how I record it. My definition of "recording" for the SAD diet is pretty loose. I've been doing multitrack recordings everyday so far, but I am sure I'll write some stuff on paper or do a quick demo on days when I am writing something with more depth. So far, the songs / pieces I've written are simple in some ways—but, even so, the time limit forces me "marry" simplicity when I might otherwise tend to "fool around" with more elaborate options.
I don't usually write lyrics in the morning, unless they are carrying over from something in a dream. I've only recorded lyrics on one day so far (started in a dream). I'll probably start using lyrics written at other times (which times, I realize now, are generally at night).
All of the songs I've recorded so far are now "almost done." I know from past experience that there's potentially a big difference between almost done and done. I am not sure yet whether or when I'll finish these. Sometimes I think it's good to just leave them as is and keep moving forward—right now, that's the point in some sense: no going back and getting bogged down in something from the past / always being open to the next new thing. But, I'll see in a few weeks what's what.
***
If you've ever done something like this and/or if you have some practices that you find useful, I'd love to hear more about your experience.
@herejam at Twitter
The Ear Reverends are on Twitter at @herejam.
As part of February being the month when every musician in the universe started self-promoting and/or doing cool things on Twitter, I got on there too (actually, in November last year—and, hopefully doing the latter).
You may remember that I used to list my personal (@imjay) Twitter account on the about page. I still tweet there too, but I've made @herejam the official Ear Reverends' channel for cramming ideas into 140 characters. Typically, I like to say something once or twice a day about music or art, or about what's going on in the studio.
Also, unlike how I use my personal account (I follow only a few people I know well), @herejam works for me to connect with new people—especially other musicians, artists, fans, etc. So, if you're on Twitter, please give us a follow @herejam, and we'll follow you back as well!
This town ain’t big enough for the both of us
Music is so amazing in its reach across people and places and time. I always dig looking at this—and, the other day, just for kicks, I collected videos for 18 versions (many, covers) of the Sparks' song, This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us.
I've always been interested in Sparks (official site, Wikipedia). During the time when I was a kid and watched music videos on MTV, Sparks had popular videos for songs like I Predict and All Your Ever Think About is Sex.
In spite of my interest, I've never listened to them very much. But, over the past few months, I've gotten really into Sparks' latest album, Exotic Creatures of the Deep. So, I am listening to Sparks much more now. And that somehow led me to find all these Sparks videos of This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us on YouTube.
I knew that the Sparks' song, This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us (Wikipedia, fan site's story of the song) was a big hit in the UK. But, it's not one of the Sparks' songs that I ever heard more than once or twice—it was never as popular in the US.
Anyway, it's a cool song—and also a very archetypal Sparks song. Like, if you wanted to play someone one song, such that they'd have a good idea of what Sparks sounds like, I think this would be a good choice.
And, this is what makes it interesting both as a cover song, and as a song to see Sparks themselves play across the eras of the 70s, 90s, and past few years.
So, I didn't include absolutely every video of the song on YouTube. There were several 1974-era TV appearances with Sparks lip-syncing that I left out. And, there were a couple super low quality cover versions that I left out too. Also, I tried to put them in a meaningful sequence—there's a somewhat intentional progression there. Anyway, I ended-up (at this time) with these 18 videos:
(Finally, I'll note that I am always hoping that there'll be some interesting innovation with music players that allows us to rotate through different versions of songs we like. So, for example, imagine a player with a playlist item for This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us that, each time that items comes up for play, a random version is selected, rather than the same exact track. . .
Tim Leary meets Billy Idol by Joey Ramone on 1993 Television
The 1990s start looking like a fictional past when you watch this video of Timothy Leary interviewing Billy Idol about the "cyber" future on a show hosted by Joey Ramone, that also features an interview with the band Television about their album from 1992.
This video is from a show called ABC in Concert—I never watched it (I totally tuned-out of TV during that era). The video is online as part of what's turning into an amazing resource, the Timothy Leary Archive, at the Internet Archive.
It's strange to see—a weird purgatory era—for Billy Idol, for the Ramones, for Television—for the web. I don't know what things were like in general for Tim Leary at that time (he rants a bit about still being seen as a "public menace" in the UK). His comments about cyber-culture are really insightful. But his appearance in this video—interviewing Bily Idol, nevertheless makes me think of the 1990s as being "out of time."
At just before 16:45 minutes, there's an interview with Television. It's neat to see them, at that time, as a band. The album they're promoting, Television (1992) is one that I rushed out and bought and listened to (because their earlier Marquee Moon is one of my all-time favorites—and I also am big fan of Tom Verlaine's albums in-between.) But, "Mars" was the only song I ever got into on Television.
Again, it's like it's "out of time." You draw a line between Marquee Moon and Tom Verlaine's current work, and Television (the album) maybe isn't even on that line.
(btw, we we're just turning-on some friends to Tom Verlaine's 2006 instrumental album, Around the other night. That gets played a lot around here.)
Anyway, here's the video:
Timothy Leary Interviews Billy Idol - In Concert with The Ramones (1993)
Err or Man music and images online
MP3s of all of the 20 pieces on Err or Man are now online!
Each of the 20 pieces from Err or Man now has its own page on the site. Each page currently features the corresponding "view" art from the Err or Man book. You can listen to each track on its page, or select from all of the tracks on the main Err or Man home page, as well.
This is an interim online release while I am still working on the bigger site upgrade, which is based around an integrated music / playlist player. After that launches, I'll also make lossless versions of all of the pieces available for download, and post additional images from the Err or Man book, as well as lyrics and other goodies.
Here are links to each page for the 20 pieces:
Err or Man:
On now. Invisible boy. Break in the jam. Pain refrain. I've killed a million. Lord of beginnings. Entaruption. Like a volcano pointing down. Rock stars. In my head. Boy with a blog. Waiting for the octopus. I'm selling my mind. They are the same. Death is provided. Made from the sea. I am a mirror. Err or man. Yes yes song. So sung.
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And this hereby concludes the 2008 portion of Wrong Notes. Now let's all have a happy new year!
British Library’s William Blake’s notebook
I am enjoying looking through William Blake's notebook online, seeing his drawing and where he wrote "The Tygre."
The British Library is currently exhibiting William Blake's notebook, and they now have it online as a virtual book, in their Turning the Pages™ viewer. (Go to that page and click the link to "William Blake's Notebook" to view it.)
The virtual book viewer is a bit unfortunate—it's pretty hard to use a computer mouse to simulate the physical motion required to turn the page of an actual book. (That will make more sense if you go try it yourself.) But, that said, it's more generally awesome that you can see each page of the notebook, magnify it and look at small details, and then there are also text and audio annotations / commentary that one can bring-up.
(There are also non-virtual / web / accessible versions of the books, which I'd normally link to out of principle, e.g., The Notebook of William Blake. But, having personally braved the technological oxymoron of the virtual book, I think these are the rare cases where it's worth it—you get much more of a "wow, they wrote that by hand, right there" feeling than in the web / accessible versions.)
Currently, there are actually 18 different books available via Turning the Pages, including Mozart's musical diary (which also has musical-audio annotations) and Lewis Carroll's original hand-written and illustrated Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which is especially cool to see!
Top 10 ways the music business died in 2008
I think this past year has seen some interesting transitions in the way recorded music is produced and sold.
In order to properly hype-up this post, I am hereby declaring it to be, all at once, a top 10 list!, an end-of-year list!, and a list all about the death of the music business! Oh, and while I am at it, I'll throw in some predictions of the future! too. (For the astute, long-time readers of these Wrong Notes: let's just say that what follows are just some observations about how we musicians and music fans are evolving our music bazaar, circa 2008.)
These can be understood as little "deaths" of what the record companies long promoted as "the way music is supposed to be." Things actually do change. And we're now releasing and listening to recorded music in new ways—different than what we did just a few years ago.
So, here are my observations—er, em, I mean the Top 10 ways the music business died in 2008!:
- 10. Death of the One Package
- 9. Death of the One Release Date
- 8. Death of the One Price
- 7. Death of the One Transaction #1 (Subscription)
- 6. Death of the One Transaction #2 (Advertising)
- 5. Death of the One Record Label
- 4. Death of the Compact Disc (Again)
- 3. Death of the One Player-Format
- 2. Death of the One-Button-Play (Remix and Reuse)
- 1. Death of the Dustbin
10. Death of the One Package
In the past, an "album" was fundamentally a package. And, each album was almost always one package: there was an album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and one could buy the one package that was that album. Also, functionally, the package contained the music—you heard the music only by playing by the contents of the package: the disc.
Now, albums released online are fundamentally package-less. And the music isn't tied to a disc or other physical item. So, the online aspect of music breaks the "package" idea altogether: one doesn't need a package to get the music, and the music isn't attached to anything that comes in the package anyway.
But, we're people, and we like our packages! So, in 2008, we've seen a resurgence of album-packages that complement the online / digital tracks. And, since people don't really need a CD to get their digital files, these albums are "packages for packages-sake," and are being released in multiple versions to match-up with different fans' package fancies and budgets. Notable examples include Brian Eno and David Bryne's Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (free, pay download, CD + download, and Deluxe Package), Radiohead's In Rainbows (download, CD, limited edition "disc box" with vinyl LPs) and Nine Inch Nails' The Slip (limited editions, CDs, free downloads).
Prediction for the future: we'll choose albums we like by getting them online for free, and then, after we find out that we like them, we'll shop amongst a variety of packages and buy ones that match our own styles of object possession and obsession (this pairs with my 2004 prediction about the future of music playbacks).
9. Death of the One Release Date
While in the past, single track and album releases would be spread-out a bit for marketing reasons, physical packages shipped on certain dates and there was this generally solid concept of a "release date" for each album. How solid you ask? Well, go into most any library catalog, CD site, or music list and there will be only one release date (year) associated with each album.
But, in 2008, this idea is no longer so solid. With albums coming out in multiple packages / formats, what's more typical are multiple release dates. This includes both albums that are released in process and/or released track by track, and albums that are released in multiple, final, forms. In some cases like Radiohead's In Rainbows and the Ear Reverends' Err or Man, the release timespan crosses multiple years (2007 and 2008 in both cases).
Prediction for the future: albums will be less and less associated with one specific release date, and will be appreciated by new audiences as new release-packages hit at different times.
8. Death of the One Price
Free downloads, pay downloads, CD and deluxe packages: need I say more? Oh yes, choose your own price, as Radiohead allowed for the digital download of In Rainbows. Also, music subscription services like eMusic offer different tiers with different costs, and Magnatune now offers a choose your own price subscription as well.
Altogether, this means, in 2008, that there is no longer "one price" for an album or track of music.
Prediction for the future: even more variety of prices for music.
7. Death of the One Transaction #1 (Subscription)
In 2008, more of us stopped paying for albums and tracks via single transactions. This can be said generally about the album purchase being folded in with overall sales of musician's offerings (concerts, merchandise, licensing, etc.). But, more generally, a lot of us got hooked up with subscription services like eMusic where we pay some amount every month, and no longer really pay on a per album or track basis.
Prediction for the future: subscription music services will grow to Netflix-like ubiquity.
6. Death of the One Transaction #2 (Advertising)
We also are paying for music via the many small, but invisible, transactions of advertising. Advertising supported music services have a long way to go to prove their viability altogether. And, advertising supported music labels like RCRD LBL were still very new in 2008. But, the general principle is there: break-up the music sale into many small transactions, and find people (in this case, advertisers) who are attracted to this pay-as-you-go arrangement.
Prediction for the future: more advertising supported music sites.
5. Death of the One Record Label
With artists planning multiple release packages, making use of online music subscription service, and all of the above mentioned developments of 2008, where do record labels fit in? If record labels are all about the music package, release date, the product-for-price, making the sale, etc., they certainly aren't the be-all-and-end-all for any recording musician.
So, for an artist looking to do a traditional release, the traditional record label still can be important. But, it's less likely to be the traditional, completely exclusive arrangement, because in 2008, musicians need to get their music out in other ways. Radiohead's example with In Rainbows is a clear one: they released the album online themselves (as their own label, essentially), and then partnered with a record label for the mass-market CD release.
Prediction for the future: record labels become more of a specialized service in some cases, more of a brand affiliation in others. But, altogether, look for musicians to be less exclusively tied to any one record label. And, also look for more labels like Asthmatic Kitty that are almost as much in partnership with other labels themselves, as they are with individual artists.
4. Death of the Compact Disc (Again)
This is a cheap-shot, but is anyone putting on CDs and listening to music on them? OK, sometimes—I put them on in my car. But, in 2008, even my friends (and I) who are the most die-hard CD addicts, are listening to all of our digital music via non-CD players (mp3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, etc.).
Of course, I am listening to vinyl LPs way more now too! But, the CD is little more than a delivery mechanism and backup copy for the files on our computers and other digital music players. The music business based on CD sales died (again) in 2008.
Prediction for the future: death of the compact disc (again). It's going to die again every year for a couple more years.
3. Death of the One Player-Format
With the death of the CD, what's emerging as its replacement is not so simply a new "format" or a new kind of music player. True, the successor to the CD is the digital music file—but the CD was really just the original way digital music files became popular.
What we have now in 2008 are people each with multiple digital music players. Between the computer, iPods, etc., people are listening to music all over the place on all kinds of devices that have huge music collections. The "format" isn't the CD or the album or the single or the playlist, and the context isn't individual / personal or shared / group. It's all of the above.
Prediction for the future: something like what I wrote about in 2004, in the future of music playbacks— lots of different players with lots of music on them in a lot of contexts. Now someone please make some software that's like iTunes, but works for with the multi-headed music library monster we're all creating!
2. Death of the One-Button-Play (Remix and Reuse)
Although it's common to talk about people as "listeners" of music, I think all of these music devices make people more like players of music. We each make music by pushing that play button—we make specific music happen in a specific setting by doing this.
But, the old music business was focused on sales to listeners. The expectation was that people would hit play and sit back. And, this missed-out on the change in attitude wherein people recognized that they were, themselves, making music—and they liked it!
In 2008, musicians are recognizing their fans as active co-creators of music. And, so, more than simply assuming fans will hit play, musicians are embracing the people who remix and reuse their music. These are the people who want to play music with more than just a play button.
Most visibly, musicians are capitalizing more on the larger music culture, that includes karaoke and karaoke-like music games like Rock Band.
Prediction for the future: more music released in games, and more musicians finding ways to connect what they do with the sales of actual musical instruments and gear (which sales increased markedly in 2008). If someone hears your music and goes out and buys a guitar, maybe you want to get in on that action.
1. Death of the Dustbin
With all of these developments in 2008, all bets are off on the demise of any particular recording. Albums are reappearing in music games, becoming popular in karaoke bars, being released in new packages, finding new life as part of subscription services, and becoming popular as digital downloads. And, let's not forget the rise of "user generated" videos on sites like YouTube, and the extensive use of old and obscure recordings in these videos.
Finally, add to this the ongoing attraction of licensing music for reuse in TV and films.
Prediction for the future: some years in the future, at least one track from Err or Man will end-up in widespread circulation via a viral video and feature film (sorry, I couldn't resist!).
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So, what else happened in this last year, or so? What else should we add to this list.
nearby posts:
Wrong Feeds
Wrong Pasts
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- September 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- June 2006
- April 2006
- October 2005
- September 2005
- December 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
