You blink and half a year passes. Worse yet, it takes a long weekend, exposed bone on my shin and a late night to provide the illumination of my priorities in life – eat, sleep, hike (the exposed bone as testament), listen, review. Now I know that this isn’t particularly novel (yeah, I tried the ol’ resurrection idea before) so I’ll keep this brief. I’m been steadily noticing all of this greatness that is abound from dear friends. You want names? Well, Toni, I have to say jealousy is all I have with your daring to take 6 months off to travel AND write about it (2 continents and counting…). And is that you Nina, heading off to your fashion design career in Italy? Yeah, that’s right. And then here is another reminder of all the missed opportunities to share in the glory that is music. Essentially, this is all an elaborate boot to get me out of the mindset that it’s too hard to keep up with everything. What is all this everything? And why is it taking up so much time? Just a poor excuse for not focusing on what I love. So let’s try getting back to this shall we? Everybody hold hands. And wait for more to come.
Archive for category Drop Kick
As if it’s not enough to have a totally absurd movie that purports everything wrong with the American pension for mashups (read: cutting corners, being lazy, and other silliness), I had to go and get this stuck in my head. Luckily, I used this as an opportunity to share my culture with Guillermo. This is my youth.
Back to the Future
Dec 2
Around this time of year, everyone starts recapping their favs of the year/decade/any other irrelevant time period that can be discussed ad nauseum on the blogosphere and over leftover turkey. The fine folks at Stereogum are taking things a step in the other (and frankly more exciting) direction by recapping a basic human instinct: anticipation. A present to the future. Why not indulge in the speculation of greatness, particularly when it seems like so much can go right in 2010. With an early lineup of some youngins (Panda Bear, MGMT, Yeasayer) and some vintage inspirations (Massive Attack!, Avalanches) we are sure to have a resurgence of great music. Finally, Animal Collective will not be the de facto leader (although they are coming out with some hotness too) for best of the year.
Start smacking your lips and getting your eMusic downloads in order
Resurrection
Dec 1
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to Bone, Thugs, and Harmony’s Crossroads and it hit me. No, I don’t need to start preaching to friends in the hood about ending senseless gang violence. Yes, I need to start acting swiftly, particularly with getting this blog back on track. So here I am, inspired by a Grammy Award winning song and ready to bring my fledgling insights on music back to my (fictitious) fan base.
A quick note: A big thank you to all who have pushed, prodded, nagged, and generally questioned me on when I was going to get back into the swing of this blog thing. The renewed focus will hopefully be apparent and I’m excited by the adventure of WordPress 
The Witch Hunt Begins
Jun 19
I’ve been casually following the lawsuit of the woman in MN who was accused of file sharing on Kazaa some 50 billion years ago. Low and behold the labels win. Massively. In MN?! I thought y’all were nice. Anywho, it’s now game on for the record industry. With precedent, who knows who or where they can target next (college campuses seem like a ripe playground for picking off innocent freeloaders…).
Kazaa! You now owe $2 million.
Cut Me Some Slack
May 27
And they did. The major labels are finally learning. The internet is not your enemy. You just have to find a way to harness it. Even if you kill a few start ups in the process of learning this tale, it’s nice to know that someone somewhere is listening. A whole heap of start ups are renegotiating their licensing terms with the major labels to positive effects. Even though I left Imeem in the wake of LastFM (and will be moving again soon…wait and see on the right nav), it’s good to see that they are not dissolving. And it’s good to see that record labels are trusting start ups to secure a longer term vision of the music landscape and the way we all will interact.
Here’s to new best friends. May they learn to love one another, even if they have occassional cat fights (oh Napster…).
German Know-How and Pastries
May 10
So the only things I love more than music are baked goods. It’s true. I went on a baking tear in London and never looked back. Last week – two strawberry rhubarb crumbles. For real (both are in season, what’s a girl to do?). So what could be better than music or a baked good? A musical service with a baked good name. Leave it to the Germans – a demented sense of humor. But I like it. Like last.fm and and the Pandora’s of the world, Mufin has many tools to help sift through the plethora of music available and provide relevantt recommendations. What I like most about Mufin is that 1) the main technology behind all of their applications was developed by Joseph von Fraunhofer. What a name. and 2) it’s a back end application. Thus you are tied into one application and resentful whenever a new technology or site pops up.
Cleaning Up Music on Myspace
Mar 11
Could it be that there is actually some thought and order being placed on the ever chaotic Myspace? Well, not the entire site. But the most important part of it – MySpace Music – is trying it’s hardest to clean up the junkyard image of it’s parent and to actually provide lots of content that is worthwhile. Like all music, not just the new stuff, from the big 4 labels. Quite an undertaking. Plus adding in album pages (I thought those things were dead…) for those iconic releases that predate ringtone rap.
OK, so the site is still hard to navigate and full of blaring ads (predominantly from the “I have so much cash to burn I’m inviting everyone to the bonfire” Apple). But underneath it all, the service is getting better. Not great, but better. And I am thoroughly impressed with CEO Courtney Holt’s thought process in regards to the ever expanding linking of music online. As much as I want music to be democratized from the current label down attitude, people still have to make money in the process.
The Junkyard Dog ain’t so nasty anymore
Say Hello to the Bad Guy
Feb 4
When once we thought there was hope (“Solid as Barack…”), there now is just despair. As a fan of live music, my heart just sank a little lower. A proposed merger of LiveNation and Ticketmaster is in the works. One company to rule venues, ticketing, promotional items, and even record contracts. So…there is officially no where to go that won’t charge me a few limbs to see a concert in a mid to large size venue. And there is no potential for competition to shake things up. As much as I hate our overemphasized legal process, I am absolutely hoping for an antitrust dispute case to rear it’s ugly and labor intensive head.
Did I mention the new name sucks. At least TRY to be creative.
This live nation is now my ticket master.
Build a 401k of Music
Jan 15
In continuing the tradition of upending the current record industry model of label to artist to consumer, Bandstocks says why not have consumers go directly to the source. You want to support someone? Buy stock in them. So far, there don’t seem to be an Madoff-like schemes involved. Plus, there seems to be some momentum in this movement across the entertainment sector ( like IndieVest for film).
I’m in. Literally. I enjoyed Patrick Wolf’s earlier creations. Why not get a piece of the action directly?
Buy low, sell high, and please don’t stop the music.
Get Me Bodied by Beyoncé