Posts Tagged ‘music recording’
The new traditionalist
I am the new traditonalist. I only care about digital recording. I only care about things that can be cut, spliced, chopped up, mashed up, repasted, reposted, edited, snapped to a grid, aligned to the right key through some kind of automatic tuning mechanism (“autotune” if you will). I care not for analog. Analog is dead to me.
Well, maybe I’m not that extreme.
But honestly it’s such a tired cliche: artists and musicians talking about the good old days when everything was on 2 inch tape, run through a huge board that breaks down every couple of days. We didn’t have this many overdubs man! We could never fix it in ProTools! We had to get it right. I had to build my own pedals man! From the skin of an old armadillo, copper wire and a 9 volt battery. None of this digital nonsense, none of these amateurs with their home recording sessions. It was real players playing real music that you couldn’t fake. And I was there. And so was Jimi. And so was Janice. And I am authentic. And you are artificial
Blah blah blah. I call bullshit.
Tags: music recording
The new record label
I mentioned that Pete’s band, Elizabeth and the Catapult, just got signed to Verve. Same label as Brazilian Girls. Great news for Pete and I’ll obviously be following how things turn out for them. They’re all incredibly talented in that band and richly deserve the success they’ve earned.
But I have to admit that I still am not sure what it means exactly to ‘get signed’ these days in the context of helping an artist earn a living playing music. Because record labels, per se, if they’re still calling themselves that, seem (a bit) like an antiquated idea. Record labels made money selling records because people bought records. Now people don’t. So record labels look for revenue in other arenas and the deal (as everyone knows) becomes less about the ‘selling of the record’ than about a venture capital investment in the ‘brand’ of the artist. That has always made sense to me. These 360 deals that everyone is talking about.
I haven’t seen the specifics so I don’t know how onerous they are but the one thing I do hear repeatedly is that they still don’t seem to reflect a basic understanding of reality on the part of the ‘establishment’. It’s still trading a lot of control and creativity and intellectual property for a fairly restrictive contract. And instead of taking really radical approaches to the concept of empowering artists to earn money, the labels and the musical establishment just look for ways to get their hands on more revenue streams. They don’t offer much. They don’t know a lot about enhancing these streams or growing them. But they want their cut. And their cut will be more than it should because they won’t give you accurate accounting.
Tags: music and the web, music recording
Playing Guitar Badly: An Email Exchange
sir-
in answer to your questions:
1. yes. she is confirmed to sing on dwc and hold my heartache. i was also going to cover the song ‘all my friends’ by lcd soundsystem but do it in my own inimitable style. it’s a 6 minute dance song and i’ll turn it into a 3:30 minute heartbreaker. it’s about growing old, nostalgia, getting clean. has some resonance for me.
2. my playing sucks. we all know it. so no dis taken. i was thinking i needed an acoustic of some sort so i was considering playing but i’d be happier not to play to be honest. i think i can perform/emote more as a singer anyway. hadn’t thought of a multi-instrumentalist. maybe rob burger will play? j/k. will have to think about it. there’s also no harm in having some space in the sound. plus this is just the first show.
3. you mean for me? i was thinking of standing. sitting is kind of interesting though. i do want it to be a show and project though. but standing around playing percussion badly or off time is not something i enjoy. my tambourine playing is just as bad as my guitar.
4. comment on don’t look away: i have been listening and i think it might benefit from not having amber on this one. it almost detracts from the rest of the song and doesn’t work for me as well as she works on the other tunes.
5. did you read this article on the net about the pink spiders? very interesting.
i love the moment when they are giving mixing notes to tom lord-alge and he doesn’t say anything but just points to the wall of gold records.
6. hope your vaca is going well.
aloha. i’ve been thinking about your show. yes, this is what i do on vacation.
1. have you invited amber to sing? you mos def should.
2. i don’t think you should play guitar at all. no dis to your playing, but it would good to establish your role as the front man, begin developing those chops, and keep your focus on the notes. might want to even consider someone to play acoustic guitar along with pete on some stuff??? a multi-instrumentalist could carry you all a long way – bells, chimes, synths, noises, etc…
3. final question. to stand or to sit?your friend
pb
Tags: music recording, playing live
