* The Reverse Thread Blog

The New Way

2009-10-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone that's paying attention knows that the old mode of selling music is gone. Long gone. This is old news. It's about word of mouth, recommendations from trusted sources and authentic relationships between artists and fans.

What concerns me is that many very thoughtful people who are genuinely concerned with the state of the music industry (as opposed to the record industry) all seem to be headed in the same direction.

We study and listen and talk. We read Seth Godin and what his disruptive notion of permission marketing has inspired. We study the latest trends in D2F (direct to fan) platforms and the financial advantages produced by product bundling (Nine Inch Nails, Metric, etc..) There are some very smart people leading conversations and some innovative platforms in the market or coming to the market place shortly.

But if the smartest and brightest amongst us are all traversing the same path (more or less) will we all arrive at the same place at the same time only to realize there's a finite amount of everything sans bandwidth? Does it matter to be an early adopter when the time line in The Everett Rogers Diffusion of innovations theory / rate of diffusion is now so compressed.

The thought that keeps rising to the top of my mind is this: if most everyone is focused on genuine relationships, direct to fan sales, permission marketing, web metrics and the like how will anyone differentiate themselves from anyone else? The music lover only has so many hours in each day, only so much disposable income although some would argue that getting the fans attention is far more important than getting their money, or that the former leads to the latter.

Perhaps I'm missing the point, and the tools that I mention above will serve the smartest few with additional tools to achieve what we currently see as the real way forward: genuine contact, life long fans, true fans. Fans for life. 1,000 (or 10,000) true fans.

Everyone has access to twitter and facebook but only a few use those tools effectively.

This Week: Sept. 1, 2008

2008-09-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially over and regardless of our mortal delineations of the seasons you can really tell that it's so here in Upstate NY. Of course those that live REALLY Upstate laugh when I call Ulster County "Upstate", but it's relative I suppose.

The tomatoes from the Farmers Market are amazing, as are all the odd looking squashes (?) that I've never previously seen. The days are getting shorter, the sun is hanging lower in the sky. The nights are getting nearly cold and it's a great relief.

LISTENING:
Mike Doughty's Haughty Melodic
Jill Sobule / Underdog Victorious
Rough mixes of the upcoming "Country Classics" record by John Doe and The Sadies
Meredit Bragg record, courtesy of M. Lockwood
Terri Binion
Sea Wolf / Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low - EP
Jim Campilongo (live at The Living Room)
Dean and Britta live
Chris Isaak Live (don't ask)

WATCHING:
the septic guy suck out our tank.... uggh
Family Guy! Family Guy! Family Guy!
Presidential contest stuff / debates

READING:
NYTimes via my iPhone App. Excellent interface.
Salty by Mark Haskell Smith
blogs and more blogs: music blogs, science blogs, political blogs, celebrity blogs

PONDERING:
The sad and unexpected deaths of JH's 15 year old neice, and "Papa" Guardado, President of Hells Angels SF and a very nice guy.
How happy I am to have my new, super simple, one speed beach cruiser bicycle.
The joy of riding a bike in NYC when Park Avenue is closed to motorized vehicles.

The Week Ending April 18th 2008

2008-04-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

LISTENING:
Cass McCoombs
Juana Molina demos
Unreleased Aimee Mann record. (courtesy of Gail)
Lots of support act submissions for the upcoming Jim White Tour
Thom Monahans and Andy Cabics re-mix of John Doe's GOLDEN STATE.
Eduardo Mateo / Solo Bien Se Lame
Unreleasede Loudon Wainwright record (Courtesy of Joe H)
Mahalia Jackson

WATCHING:
The stunning white flowering buds on the trees near my house
Otto, the dog that we are taking care of
HGTV
Presidential contest stuff / debates, op-eds, etc.
StSanders "Shreds" videos (yes... STILL)

READING:
Endgame by Derrick Jensen (depressing)
Here Comes Everyone by Clay Shirky
The New Yorker
poems by Borges

PONDERING:
Sustainability
If major labels will EVER pull their collective heads out of their asses
the stupidity in spades that I seem to be encountering lately
subscription music business models
the root of self loathing
becoming a vegetarian again

TASTING:
home made fish tacos
extremely salty mixed nuts from Whole Foods
super dark chocolate
Chipotle Burrito Bowls

SxSW 2008: Who I Saw

2008-04-11T09:29:00.001-07:00

Trilobite
Ra Ra Riot
Zambri
David Dondero
AA Bondy
Deer Tick
Jeremy Fisher
Bowerbirds
Peter And The Wolf
Kevin Devine
Martha Wainwright
The Brother Kite
Sonya Kitchell
Money Mark
Jay Reatard
Clare & The Reasons (3 times)
Alan Hampton
The Watson Twins
Langhorne Slim
X
The Radishes
Vampire Weekend
Golden Dogs
Yellow Fever
Doveman
Portastatic
John Doe
Sons and Daughters
Nicole Atkins

Clare & The Reasons

2008-01-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

Death, Taxes and Lousy Weather.
It was cold out. And windy. I don't mind the cold or the wind, but it's a terrible combination, especially at night. Complaining about the weather in New York, however ubiquitous, is predictable and pointless.

Trash Compactor.
One of the reasons that I enjoy living in New York (unlike the lousy weather, see previous para) is that it's all so compact. I live about a mile from my office and depending on which route I choose to walk between the two I come within a block of Bowery Ballroom, Tonic (now closed), Mercury Lounge, Pianos, The Cake Shop, Arlene Grocery and The Living Room. If I want to hear music on a given night I'm lousy with choices. And most nights lately I have wanted to hear music. I'm on a roll.

What's in a name?
I was still nearly a mile away from my destination for the night: a Jam Session being put on by an old friend at Kenny's Castaways. I know, right? It sounds terrible but he's an old friend and an amazing bass player. So off I went to traipse through the cold. As I walked past The Mercury Lounge one name on the little sandwich board looked familiar. "Clare & The Reasons". Ugggh! Who came up with that name? Whatever. I remembered something good about the music on their MySpace. They were on in 15 minutes.

Luck Be A Lady
I thought that I'd peek my head in the door. I saw a few familiar faces and I like The Merc so I went it. It's friendly by NY standards and has a decent selection of beer. The sound is typically good to great, most often when the house sound guys are mixing. I don't know where they find these FOH folks, but man... they know their room and they know music!

Hype Machine.
The people I knew in the crowd were all pretty excited about seeing the show. They weren't over the top, or blabbering on like they'd had their fondness for the music validated by Pitchfork or BV or something. There was no "next big thing" vibe, the room wasn't full of industry people (like me)... they were just genuinely excited about what they knew was going to happen next.

The Proof Is In The Pudding.
And happen IT DID! It was that rare, beautiful and transcendent experience you get when you see the right band on the right night in the right room in the right mood. Great songs, amazing singing. Gorgeous string arrangements, inventive parts and on and on. You could hear the influences... LOTS of influences but nothing that came off that stage was derivative or pandering or even calculated. The songs have been called “cinematic love songs for a modern world” and “old fashioned”. Not a bad stab… I couldn’t do any better I suppose but there's way more to the musical story.

Prognostications.
I believe that beginning at SxSW 2008 much is going to be made of Clare & The Reasons. No one is doing what they do.. and what they do is awesome.

LISTEN NOW VIA MYSPACE.

The week of January 17th, 2008

2008-01-17T20:20:00.000-08:00

LISTENING:
My Brightest Diamond
Clare and The Reasons / The Movie, pretty much non-stop
Clare and The Reasons (live at Mercury Lounge)
Natalie Merchant (live at Hiro Ballroom)
Laura Marling (live at Maxwells)
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" video by Saul Williams
Keren Ann / Not Going Anywhere
Stew / Re-Hab
Lucinda Black Bear
Gary Go / The best demos of 2006
Eduardo Mateo
Simon Diaz

PONDERING:
The stock market
SxSW... will I have time to eat enough Tex-Mex?
Peak Oil
permission marketing
Espresso: to drink, or not to drink

TASTING:
Spicy Kale
Basmati Rice
SQUASH SQUASH SQUASH!
Guinness

WATCHING:
Family Guy twice nightly
The Tom Cruise video about Scientology
Lucien Freud show at MoMA

The week of 09 JAN 2008

2008-01-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

LISTENING:
Fireflies (live at Mercury Lounge)
Bess Rogers and Dan Romer (Live in Brooklyn)
Jenny Scheinman (Live at Banjo Jim's)
Juana Molina (unreleased sessions with special guests, and demos for the next record)
Eduardo Mateo / Solo Bien Se Lame
Danya Kurtz / Another Black Feather
AA Bondy / American Hearts
Sybarite / demos
Mathew Dear / Leave Luck To Heaven
David Byrne / UB Jesus remix by Mark Saunders

WATCHING:
Walk Hard (the movie, not that great)
There Will Be Blood (the movie, pretty great)
Jeremy Blakes show at the Corcoran in DC
the gorgeous winter light in New York

READING:
Endgame by Derrick Jensen (depressing)
a number of short stories by Jim White
Gloria Steinem Op Ed piece in the NYT about race / gender in the presidential election
my friends facebook pages

PONDERING:
Sustainability
Americas obsession w/ food
money matters
the snow upstate over the last 2 weeks in December
rebuilding the floor of the new wood shed upstate
Ingrid Michaelson: a blip or something more?
my good fortune

TASTING:
roasted chicken, unsplit breasts on the bone, per Cooks Illustrated
kale, kale, kale!
Indian Curry w/ bananna at "Rice" in Dumbo
home made yoghurt (courtesy of Kristine Larsen)
Artisans cheeses from a farm upstate

A.A. Bondy @ The Mercury Lounge

2007-12-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

Have you heard the A.A. Bondy record "American Hearts"? A guy with a guitar and harmonica. You kind of expect it to sound a bit like Dylan. And it does, but only to a point. No disrespect to Fionn Regan, who seems dead set on imitating Dylan in song, dress, mannerism and even hair style, but A.A is his own man.

He's original yet familiar. A great songwriter with a cool voice. His show last night at Mercury Lounge was inspiring. So much music from one skinny little guy. Great dynamics, too.

WTF?

2007-12-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

What's happening in the music business? It's no secret that sales of CD's have plummeted and the major labels never miss an opportunity to MISS an opportunity. Every decision they make seems to insult the intelligence of the record buying public and stupidity abounds. (which is strange to me as there are some very clever folks at the majors. I deduce that they are powerless to make any significant changes.)

Even as recently as 10 months ago I felt like I had a handle on how many / most serious bands might get a foothold. It seemed that word-of-mouth marketing in consort w/ direct contact with fans (and potential fans) via MySpace, YouTube and social networks in general was a great way to spread the word.

Now MySpace has become a huge wank: bands selling themselves to other bands. Very little genuine contact between band and fan. There are exceptions to be sure, but the time required for an artist to personally manage their MySpace (and FaceBook, iMeem, etc.) is not practical for most artists.

I'm full of optimism about the music business. The record business is another story. I'm impressed with Yep Roc and Merge as they meet the customer / fan / consumer just about every place that customer can be found which of course varies from act to act. This includes utilizing social networks, e-mail blasts, and fun + engaging promotional devices that feel.... real.

For a start those 2 labels (and I imagine a few others) are adequately staffed with people that know and understand how their customers engage with music, which by the way is not the same for those 2 specific labels.

Regardless, It's challanging and rewarding to navigate the course, one artist at a time, what might work, what will work, in achieving their goals. There never has been (now more than ever) no single plan, no silver bullet, no fast track to success. Not with genuine artists at least.

Music, the week ending November 9th, 2007

2007-11-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

Arthur and Yu

Red Hot and Lisbon

Luaka Bop / All Our Bunnies In A Row

Thao Nguyen / Brave Be Stings And All

Battles / Mirrored

Live: Mary Gauthier at Joe's Pub

Live: John Doe at Joe's Pub

Live: Music from "I'm Not There" at Beacon Theater

Chris Garneau / myspace songs

namelessnumberheadman / wires reply

Cass McCombs

Music, the week of October 31, 2007

2007-10-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

Album Leaf / In A Safe Place.
Console / Mono
Ollabelle / Riverside Battle Songs
Floratone / Floratone
Joan As Police Woman / Real Life
IVY MAIRI / WELL YOU
Loudon Wainwright III / Strange Weirdos
Gig: Lucinda Williams Live at Town Hall
Jim White / Transnormal Skiperoo

Music from last week (Sept 14, '07)

2007-09-20T12:10:00.001-07:00

Marvin Gaye / "What's Goin' On" Detroit Mixes
Mahavishnu Orchestra / Inner Mounting Flame
Blackbright Morning Light / Self Titled (Thom Monahan rocks)
Best Of The Staple Singers
Floratone / Floratone

Less = More

2007-09-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Richard and I went to see a free outdoor show at the WFC last night. The line-up was Ollabelle, The Holmes Brothers and Nick Lowe. I guess that we got the times wrong as Nick (the headliner) was already on stage when we arrived.

It was a wonderful shock to see how much drama, impact and effect could be created by one 60 year old man with a single acoustic guitar. (and a few effects on his voice from time to time). Nick still has a strong, gorgeous unaffected voice without a hint of irony, tremendous dynamics and world class songs.

He made nothing of the fact, but hearing him sing "Peace, Love and Understanding" a stone's throw from the WTC site was sad and inspiring at the same time.

Music from the past week: Sept 8, 2007

2007-09-08T16:13:00.001-07:00

Martha Wainwright
Loudon Wainwright
Corenelious
Mary Gauthier / unreleased
Hellwood / Chainsaw Of Life
The Rosebuds / Birds Make Good Neighbors
Gillain Welch / Time (The Revelator)
Ryan Adams / Easy Tiger
Eliane Elias/ Eliane Elias Plays Jobim
Matmos / The Civil War
Daft Punk / the one from 2001

This from the always thoughtful Seth Godin

2007-09-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Labor Day by Seth Godin. (click to view Seth's Blog)

I'm working today. In fact, if I'm conscious, I'm working. That's largely because it doesn't seem like 'work' today. I'd write this blog even if no one read it.

More and more people are lucky enough to have a gig like mine... work you'd do even if you didn't have to, even if you didn't get paid to do it. This is a bigger idea than it seems, because it changes the posture of what you do. Different motivations ought to lead to different results.

My version goes like this: If I'm doing this for fun (and I am) then I might as well doing something remarkable/great/worth doing. Otherwise, why bother?

Here's something I wrote in 2003, shortly before Purple Cow came out. I reference it a lot, I guess I think it's good:

Your great-grandfather knew what it meant to work hard. He hauled hay all day long, making sure that the cows got fed. In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser writes about a worker who ruptured his vertebrae, wrecked his hands, burned his lungs, and was eventually hit by a train as part of his 15-year career at a slaughterhouse. Now that's hard work.

The meaning of hard work in a manual economy is clear. Without the leverage of machines and organizations, working hard meant producing more. Producing more, of course, was the best way to feed your family.

Those days are long gone. Most of us don't use our bodies as a replacement for a machine -- unless we're paying for the privilege and getting a workout at the gym. These days, 35% of the American workforce sits at a desk. Yes, we sit there a lot of hours, but the only heavy lifting that we're likely to do is restricted to putting a new water bottle on the cooler. So do you still think that you work hard?

You could argue, "Hey, I work weekends and pull all-nighters. I start early and stay late. I'm always on, always connected with a BlackBerry. The FedEx guy knows which hotel to visit when I'm on vacation." Sorry. Even if you're a workaholic, you're not working very hard at all.

Sure, you're working long, but "long" and "hard" are now two different things. In the old days, we could measure how much grain someone harvested or how many pieces of steel he made. Hard work meant more work. But the past doesn't lead to the future. The future is not about time at all. The future is about work that's really and truly hard, not time-consuming. It's about the kind of work that requires us to push ourselves, not just punch the clock. Hard work is where our job security, our financial profit, and our future joy lie.

It's hard work to make difficult emotional decisions, such as quitting a job and setting out on your own. It's hard work to invent a new system, service, or process that's remarkable. It's hard work to tell your boss that he's being intellectually and emotionally lazy. It's easier to stand by and watch the company fade into oblivion. It's hard work to tell senior management to abandon something that it has been doing for a long time in favor of a new and apparently risky alternative. It's hard work to make good decisions with less than all of the data.

Today, working hard is about taking apparent risk. Not a crazy risk like betting the entire company on an untested product. No, an apparent risk: something that the competition (and your coworkers) believe is unsafe but that you realize is far more conservative than sticking with the status quo.

Richard Branson doesn't work more hours than you do. Neither does Steve Ballmer or Carly Fiorina. Robyn Waters, the woman who revolutionized what Target sells -- and helped the company trounce Kmart -- probably worked fewer hours than you do in an average week.

None of the people who are racking up amazing success stories and creating cool stuff are doing it just by working more hours than you are. And I hate to say it, but they're not smarter than you either. They're succeeding by doing hard work.

As the economy plods along, many of us are choosing to take the easy way out. We're going to work for the Man, letting him do the hard work while we work the long hours. We're going back to the future, to a definition of work that embraces the grindstone.

Some people (a precious few, so far) are realizing that this temporary recession is the best opportunity that they've ever had. They're working harder than ever -- mentally -- and taking all sorts of emotional and personal risks that are bound to pay off.

Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you'd rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier. And, after you've done that, to do it again the next day.

The big insight: The riskier your (smart) coworker's hard work appears to be, the safer it really is. It's the people having difficult conversations, inventing remarkable products, and pushing the envelope (and, perhaps, still going home at 5 PM) who are building a recession-proof future for themselves.

So tomorrow, when you go to work, really sweat. Your time is worth the effort.

Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth sez:

2007-08-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

"The Pixies reunion was a real success, and Dinosaur Jr. seems like a big success, and both those bands play as good as they ever did. Mission Of Burma blew my mind when they came back. But a band like us never did break up. Which was to our own detriment. What would have happened if we did break up after (classic 1988 double album) Daydream Nation - or even after (1990's) Dirty - and had gotten back together two years ago? You'd be interviewing me at the Chateau Marmont as I'm waiting for my limousine. We probably would have made so much money. This was our biggest career faux-pas - not breaking up."

This Weeks Spins:

2007-08-30T08:36:00.001-07:00

Midlake (Still great!)
Junior Boys
Christina Courtin
Laura Veirs (as always)
Illinois (via MySpace)
Trespassers William / Having
Jenny Owen Youngs / Demos and "Batten The Hatches"
Danger Doom

This weeks top spins are....

2007-08-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

24 AUG 2007

John Doe / A Year In The Wilderness
AA Bondy
Tim Fite
The National
Joe Henry / Civillians
Joan As Police Woman / Real Life
Sean Hayes / Flowering Spade
Cornelius / Sensuous
Trespassers William / Having

NYC Venues

2007-08-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

I finally saw a show at The Box last night. A great space, beautifully designed and implemented. All around a gorgeous and wonderfully ostentatious event space with a visual point of view.

The sound was clear all over the building as they've installed high quality delay speakers throughout and the whole system is very well time-aligned and balanced. The bar staff was aloof and the drink prices obscene, but at least when my wife asked for a glass for her beer she was offered a GLASS, not a plastic cup.

Which brings me to the recently opened Gramercy Theater, aka Blender Theater At The Gramercy. How is it possible that the most well funded and deeply established promoter in NY (Ron Delsner Presents = Delsner / Slater = SFX = ClearChannel = Live Nation) could open such a fantastically mediocre venue? It's drab and in every choice of paint, decor, carpet etc they've used the cheapest, most generic items I've ever seen.

In fairness, they DID spend money on a line-array PA system but it seems to have design flaws or is improperly installed as it sounds terrible. The lighting system, which seems to be more than adequate is hung in the theatre in such a manner that the center line of the upstage truss doesn't match the center line of up downstage truss!

It appears that no one was paying attention to the details, or whoever WAS didn't have the eye or knowledge or taste to bring any vision to the decor or prevent the budget from running roughshod over every consideration for the patron.

Downstairs is conceived to be a bar / socializing space a la Bowery Ballroom, which is a wonderful idea. Again however the choice of carpets, furniture, soft goods and mirrors could not be more banal.

Thank goodness the staff is polite.

Must See.

2007-06-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

There are websites that I visit almost every day. They’re all great at something. Some are trashy, some are provocative, some inform and others annoy the hell out of me.

They all act to help keep me in touch with what’s going on around me, and keep me thinking. What are your “must see” sites?

David Byrne's Journal

BoingBoing

Gawker

Seth Godin

Brooklyn Vegan

Mr. Malcolm Gladwell

Red Herring

Memepool

Gawker Stalker

Salon.com

Pitch-snark

Wonkette

Ze Frank

Guy Kawasaki

Macintosh Daily News

CNet

Science Daily

Stereogum

FOM

Espous

McSweeney's Lists

Cool Tools