Obituary: Grammy winner worked with Steely Dan — Grammy-winning engineer and producer Roger Nichols died April 9 after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118035225?categoryid=16&cs=1&cmpid=RSS|News|LatestNews
Film News: Helmer eyed our imperfect institutions — My first exposure to Sidney Lumet came by way of a VHS copy of “Murder on the Orient Express” that I received as a Christmas present, owing to my childhood enthusiasm for Agatha Christie. At the time, I was too nascent a movie lover to know Ingrid from Ingmar, and I devoured the film with more concern for the fidelity of Paul Dehn’s screenplay than for the particulars of the director’s style, from which this star-studded bauble of a thriller is generally considered something of a departure. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118035221?categoryid=13&cs=1&cmpid=RSS|News|LatestNews
Mae Moore
“It’s Wednesday, Wednesday, gotta get down on Wednesay…” Nope, it just doesn’t work the same way. Oh well!
Rebecca Black has done the unthinkable – according to Gossip Cop, Black’s awesomecough music video for “Friday,” has officially become the most disliked video on YouTube in the site’s history, surpassing Justin Bieber’s “Baby” music video’s 1.16 million “dislikes”, with 1.17 million. Congrats, Rebecca, you officially have more haters than Justin Bieber! Now that’s an accomplishment.
However, Bieber still beats black in the fan department, with his 500 million views trumping Black’s mere 64 million.
Apparently, though, none of this is stopping Black from getting a recording contract of her own. Perez Hilton reported that while on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show this past Thursday, Mrs. Black expressed how “overwhelmed by the sudden burst of attention” her and her daughter are, so Seacrest hooked the singer up with Debra Baum, a manager from DB Entertainment.
Just because she’s signed doesn’t mean that she will be able to sing any better…although I will give the girl credit, her two-second rendition of the American national anthem on Good Morning America was not terrible! She might not be Christina Aguilera, but it didn’t make my ears bleed. That’s a start, right?
Check out Black singing the national anthem here, and be sure to head over to her “Friday” music video on YouTube and “dislike” or “like” it! And remember people, yesterday was Tuesday, today is Wednesday, tomorrow is Thursday, and the day after that is FRIDAY! Just in case you forgot.
Related posts: Rebecca Black Working on New Song Justin Bieber Makes Out With Toronto Fan K-os Interview - “Justin Bieber Is Black”
Vpage: Docu preems at Paramount — When HBO’s Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler first viewed Jerry Weintraub’s docu “His Way,” they told him it was fabulous.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034357?categoryid=4140&cs=1&cmpid=RSS|News|LatestNews
Ark Music Factory, the vanity production company Rebecca Black’s mom paid $2,000 to make that “Friday video,” just released this teaser video for something they’re calling “The Truth About Ark.” Not really sure what to make of this, but apparently it will counter all the mean things people have been saying about Ark, i.e. that they exploit their roster of tween girls’ misguided dreams of fame for profit.More
Travis Egedy, otherwise known as Pictureplane, is one of independent music’s most progressive, avante-garde and straight-up rocking artists. He also happens to be a Denver local and recently sat down with me to talk about music, evolving human consciousness and what it’s like being an artist in Denver.
Tell us a little background about Pictureplane — how you got started and what it’s like being an artist in Denver? I moved to Denver seven years ago to attend art school at RMCAD. I started going to a DIY spot in downtown Denver called “Monkey Mania” in early 2005. I met some amazing people in the local underground art and noise scenes and just started playing shows and having fun. Denver is a great place to be an artist. I have friends in New York and LA who pay four times as much as I do to survive, and there is a community of people here that are very special and talented. Read More… More on Denver Around Town
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/24/local-music-spotlight-pic_n_840372.html
It’s right above the Hollywood Bowl. Literally. Put a couch in the backyard and enjoy a summer’s worth of entertainment. That’s what Paul’s neighbors do. They knock on his front door. Now he knows what they want.
That’s what spinning records’ll do for you. Buy you a piece of real estate in the Hollywood Hills that makes jaws drop. That’s the American Dream. Even though Paul is English. Played in a band so crappy his mother insisted he become a chef to have something to fall back upon before he began the journey that made him a household name.
Oh, you don’t know who Paul Oakenfold is?
I didn’t either until eight or ten years ago, Vince told a story in Aspen…
I think this was right after 9/11. There was some restriction on flying. So they sent a private jet to France to pick Paul up for a gig in the U.S. Time was tight, it was the only way to make it happen.
Now my dad was a skeptic. Tell him a tale and he’d constantly be searching for the “real story”. And people exaggerate and lie, and I’m my dad’s son, so it’s hard for me to take fantastical stories at face value. So I was loath to believe this tale, but it turned out to be true.
This was my first introduction to the world of electronica, of raves. Now I’m not saying I was unaware of their existence, I just had no idea how much money was involved, the passion of the audience.
And that’s why I journeyed out to a precipice in Hollywood last night. For a chance to meet Paul Oakenfold. Oh, ostensibly a group of us were going to debate the future of the music business, but that usually ends up a circle jerk, whereas there’s no denying the history, the success, the accomplishments of someone like Mr. Oakenfold.
Not that he had an attitude. Anything but. Get so many of these stars on their own turf and they’re normal.
And open.
Paul now tours in a bus. Usually three, by time he’s done, for the crew, etc. But he’s not partying late anymore, he gets up early, he’s got stuff to accomplish. Nine? Ten? Really?
Paul gets up at noon. Unlike the road dogs, who arise at two or three.
And when he’s not on the road he’s signing acts to his label, like the deejay from Greece. And there’s that speed rapper who was on “Ellen”…
And we’re standing in his backyard, pondering his domain, from the Hollywood Bowl beneath us to the Capitol Tower and the edifices of downtown over to the right. L.A.’s all about the real estate. And the cars. There was a Porsche in the driveway, but they replicate those on the assembly line every day. They don’t make property like this on a promontory more than once.
And Paul starts asking me about me and as I’m waxing rhapsodic a lightbulb goes on over his head, can I come inside, he’s got something to show me.
It’s a letter from Hunter S. Thompson. To Paul’s attorney. Over a deal. For the track “Nixon’s Spirit”.
And it’s better than anything Hunter wrote since “Fear and Loathing”. He carves this attorney to shreds, pulling out every metaphor and expletive in the book. It’s a work of art. It doesn’t belong in Oakenfold’s house, but the Smithsonian.
And Paul tells me the tale. Of recording Hunter’s vocal in the Chateau Marmont. Of Hunter getting so wasted on absinthe that he was slurring his words and of the entrance of Sean Penn in the middle of the night.
Now that’s Hollywood. That’s the entertainment business. That’s one thing that Wall Street’s money can’t buy.
And eventually we all gather around the dining room table.
There was the guy from Vevo, who said they’re about to go into longform programming.
There was the guy from Shazam, talking about making deals with Old Navy, the company gets a cut when it turns customers on and they make a purchase.
And there were women from RIM and Smirnoff. They do their endorsement deals.
But the best info emanated from Marc Geiger. He said that WME has got more bands breaking than ever before. And when they do, it’s often worldwide. He first noticed it with Gnarls Barkley. “Crazy” went to number one in umpteen territories. You no longer have to wait for a record company to release your record in France, the Internet knows no boundaries, you can break everywhere.
As for money…
There’s a lot of it around. He told a story about Trent Reznor scoring the cash for a heart transplant from his fans overnight. That’s the power of music, even if the gentleman with the hole in his heart ultimately died.
And Geiger said when they build the music platform, not only will discovery be codified, enabled, there’s gonna be a surge of cash coming our way.
He referenced the BlackBerries and iPhones in the room. It took ten years to get to here. Same deal in music. We’ve been living through chaos, but when we’ve got one platform, Spotify, a competitor, that is the Google of music, all kinds of things will be built on top, there will be Facebook integration, we’ll be living in a land of luxury.
In other words, he was optimistic.
And then we went downstairs to Paul’s studio.
This is where it now happens. At home.
Although Paul does go to the big rooms to mix, to use the SSL.
But it was what was nailed to the wall that caught my eye. An invitation to…meet with the Queen?
Yup, Paul had spread British culture worldwide, the Empire wanted to pay him back.
Not that the royal who shook his hand and spoke to him ultimately had any idea who he was.
But that’s the power of music. It opens any door.
But they only unlock if you’re not trying to break them down, if you’re about the music as opposed to the trappings. Put the music first and the world becomes your oyster.
If you stick with it, if you try really hard, if you follow your muse instead of the chart.
Come on. Tell someone in the seventies that you can make the bucks of a rock star by spinning records and they’d laugh!
But now those gigs where they spin records are more vital and more profitable than those with bands. Because there’s an energy, an honesty, a purity that the audience is drawn to.
Paul invited us back during the season.
Not to see the Dodgers, but the L.A. Phil and Diana Ross and Hall & Oates and the rest of the varied acts that play the venerated shell.
I’m going!
We’re learning something important about music startups. If a company is cool and people like it, there’s a good chance that they’re either getting sued or working their way up the magical list. Grooveshark is a perfect example of this. More and more people are getting turned onto the site because the interface is pretty and the user experience is great. Is it the best music service? No. But it’s the best at what it does.1 Then there’s Sony’s Music Unlimited service. It’s backed by major labels which means it’s going to be and is boring. There’s nothing about it – “Qriocity”2 – to be excited about. It’s safe bet. After using it, you might blindly go and fill up your iTunes cart and go buy some CDs. There’s nothing about Music Unlimited that screams “Purple Cow” – something worth making a remark about – as marketer Seth Godin might say. It’s a brown cow in a field of brown cows. No one cares. Cows are boring. Music services that follow the record label rule book are boring. Imagine a music service that broke all the rules. No, not LimeWire. A site that threw the rule book out the window and did things so cool that no one could shut up about it. Every single publication gawked at it – like an iPod – and every tech-company wished they had thought of it. Spotify is as close to this as the music industry has gotten; it’s a remarkable service. However, if it gave up their vision and followed the record label rule book, it would be boring. No one would care. Spotify would be boring. If the musicor industry doesn’t let music startups break the rules and create conversations, the second digital decade is going to be bleak. iTunes isn’t forever. It may never supplement the money made off CDs. But once iTunes and single song downloads die off and lose interest, if all record labels have left to fall back on is a handful of startups they backed, the cliff will look prettier than the sunset. Reinventing the music industry will get you sued. Be boring or go home. There’s no room for awesome here.3 “What other failed services have shown is that if you play to the record labels’ rule book you get nowhere. These startups need to make their own rules, and not let the labels lead the conversation.” – Mark Mulligan (Read on.)
THE BLACK KEYS This Greg Kot story is full of nuggets. 1. The band intentionally tried to create a radio single. In other words, you can follow your muse all you want, maybe create some great shit, but there are rules for radio, and if you follow them, you’ll have more success. A great track is not necessarily a hit. A hit is something infectious, that people need to hear again and again, usually a bite-sized nugget that tastes good but requires further consumption, like potato chips. 2. Just because the band had a hit, that doesn’t mean this new audience is going to stick with them. I’d say the odds are low. At least the Black Keys have a real fan base they can rely on. But if you think the casual listener, the Johnny-Come-Lately who likes your track, is really a fan of your band, you’re dreaming. Some people like the cut, check out more and become diehards, most people bop their heads and forget you. Unless you’ve got another hit. But then you’re in the hit game, not the career game, and it becomes what have you done for me lately and those people play clubs, not arenas, at least not for long. Hell, look at Christina Aguilera, how many real fans has she got? DMB hasn’t had hits in eons and they do 20,000 a night, Christina Aguilera had to cancel her tour because of low demand. Sure, ticket prices were high, but sometimes you can’t even get people to come for free, because it’s not really free, you’ve got parking and eating and merch and…time. 3. The Black Keys fear for hip-hop because of declining recorded music revenues and the lack of a profitable touring paradigm. This is fascinating. Especially in a field where it’s all about the Benjamins and it takes so much money to create and market a hit. 4. The Black Keys make 85% of their money on live shows. They claim they’ll make twice their record advance on New Year’s Eve. In other words, it’s about fans, not looky-loos. A looky-loo might buy a $1.29 download, but a fan will buy not only a ticket, but merch, they might even come see you more than once! 5. It took the band seven years and seven albums to sell out the Riviera in Chicago twice at the end of 2009. Talk about artist development. If you’re in the game to become rich and famous overnight, you’re sorely mistaken. Music is a hard life. You’ve got to make a lot of it. You’ve got to play to few fans. If you’re waiting for your one big hit to catch fire, you’re doing it wrong. You satiate your growing fan base year after year to the point where you may be able to have a hit which makes said fan base kvell, since they’ve been into you for so long, and gives you some added revenue. The hit is the cherry on top, not the end all and be all. Black Keys’ breakthrough year: Here’s how they did it: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2010/12/black-keys-breakthrough-year-heres-how-they-did-it-.html
