#9: Reading for pleasure is magical. Make time for it!

Just last February, I was planning my 21^st birthday party. Now, I’m facing 22 (or as I like to call it 21+1) straight on. Even though the last twelve months have gone by, it feels like just yesterday I was indulging in jello shots and margaritas. For my 21st. Because just yesterday I was indulging in jello shots and margaritas.

Looking back, though, much has happened in the past year. It seems I’ve learned a lot while Ke$ha put a dollar sign in her name and started brushing her teeth with a “bottle of Jack,” John Mayer proclaimed that he is on the search for “the Joshua Tree of vaginas,” and the Jersey Shore became a national phenomenon.

So here (in no particular order) is what I know for certain after turning 21. Perhaps you youngsters can take a few things from this:

1. Friendships should make you happy — not pissed off : Friends should be so much more than people you dance on tables with and dish about the weekend to. They should be there for you, and you should be there for them. They also should not steal your alcohol on your 21^st birthday and make out with the fraternity guy, all while puking as your boyfriend helps take care of them.

2. Raincoats are amazing: They are often understated and overwhelmingly overlooked when it comes to fashion. But even if they aren’t fashionable, really, you can’t complain when that slicker keeps your from frizzing. Without a rain jacket I wouldn’t have made it through the summer in London. And I think it actually kept me going to class this past semester. Why didn’t I realize this sooner? It doesn’t matter if you have a basic from Lands End or a super sexy trench from Dillards, just get one!

3. Go to the gym: Surprisingly enough, it is worth your time. Who knew? I sure didn’t, until I started going religiously with my boyfriend back in September. If you actually go to the gym and do more than hang out on the treadmill and elliptical for thirty minutes, you can see results. Plus, it teaches you patience on so many different levels.

4. Do not drink MD 20/20: Even if the frat-mixed mojitos are watered down and tasting a bit like a dirty dance floor, stay away from the MD.

5. Do experience a Pimms with Lemonade: Although you probably have never heard of this drink before, Pimms with Lemonade is a London pub staple. The Pimms is to Wimbledon, as the mint julep is to the Kentucky Derby. This fresh tasting, fruity cocktail will may be enough to convince you to study abroad for a semester. It’s to die for.

6. Puppy Love = True Love: Dogs truly give the most unconditional love. Even though my boyfriend got a dog back in September and it has been a ton of work, I can’t help but keep falling in love with the little darling. You can’t have a bad day whenever a puppy is around. However, at the same time, the realization that having a puppy is a huge responsibility is constant and serves as amazing birth control for many, many years to come.

7. The VS Miraculous Push Up Bra is a miracle: The Victoria’s Secret new Miraculous Push Up bra is the greatest and latest thing to come into the world of retail. With a level 5 design to push up and lift, this push up bra is not playing around – it increases your breast size by two full cups. Unlike a lot of push up bras, this bra actually makes your boob size look believable, all while supplying comfort.

8. Hell No to the Snow: I can never live where it snows on a daily basis during the winter. After what I deemed the Great Snow of ’09 in Virginia (in which 24 inches of snow fell in two days), this has re-arranged my life geographically for good. Those applications to Illinois for graduate school?  Out the window. My dream of always visiting Maine? Only if it’s summer.  Multiple inches of snow at a time? No thanks.

9. Reading is magical: Taking the time to read for pleasure in between reading for class is one of the best ways to relax. This past year, I have rediscovered my love for reading, all while falling in love with some great stories. Need something to restart your love of reading? Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon or Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu.

10. “That’s So You!” It’s important to have your signature piece, be it clothing, music or opinion. This has made my life simpler and more defined.

11.  Meeting the Parents: Meeting the parents is scary. However, whether they like you or not is out of your hands. You can be the sweetest girl they have ever met, but if they don’t like the idea of their kid being with someone without the qualifications they are looking for (i.e.: money, a professional school degree), it doesn’t matter how amazing you are or how much you have going on for yourself. Just accept it and try not to take it to heart … too much.

12.  Post-Grad is intimidating: Graduate, law, and business school applications are a lot more comprehensive than they lead you to believe on first glance. Those statements of intent and optional essays are really unlike anything you have written in the past, unless you are a professional graduate school applicant. Starting early is the only way to preserve your sanity as senior year rolls around. And taking the GRE or LSAT, well those should have occurred a year ago. Oops!

13.  “Welcome to the real world, she said to me…:” Although the quarter-life crisis often seems inevitable, I have learned that I definitely do not want to go down the John Mayer permanent-existential-life-crisis road. While his never-ending misery will supply good music for more and more years to come (without a doubt), I choose to not dwell. It’s much healthier this way, even if I do enjoy indulging in his misery sometimes.

14.  Stop reading beauty magazines: I’ve stopped buying magazines and I feel much more enlightened.  Instead, I have stopped giving my $3.99 to advice on how to make a man moan and enjoy the in-depth features in the feminist friendly Bust magazine, and the musically progressive Paste.

15.  Give a Little Bit: Helping others is amazing and it makes you feel better than anything else can.

16.  It’s Overrated: Being a senior is overrated. I have had more work and more responsibility than ever before and I feel like with every passing day, more and more obligations come my way. While it seems that a lot of seniors are spending their nights partying and hanging out, I am writing 20-page papers and doing graduate school rain dances to promote a surplus of acceptance letters.

17.  To Thine Own Self, Be True: To be a writer, you need to have extremely thick skin. Regardless of what your stance is, someone is always going to go against it and you have to be true to yourself and the piece you are writing. The same goes for all facets of life; you gotta be you and that’s that.

18.  Big birthday parties don’t prove anything: Big birthday parties aren’t all that they are cracked up to be. After years of over-the-top Disney birthday,  the whole high school teenage hang-out-birthday scene, and the exuberantly drunk and pretentiously planned college birthday, I will take the quiet and intimate birthday dinner over anything else.  It’s better to celebrate with those that actually matter.

19.  Lady Gaga is a goddess: She’s given us greatness, i.e.: “I’m bluffin’ with my muffin,” disco-bras, “Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah! Roma-roman-mamaa! Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!,” and perhaps the greatest line of them, “I’m a free bitch, baby!” Her stage presence is to die for, and her genuine, authentic, down-to-Earth personality (come on, didn’t you see her on Oprah?) is addictive. Plus, I’ve seen a slew of live performances and I have to say, Gaga outperforms the rest with her Monster Ball.

20.  Say No to Parent Drama: If your parents are magnificent – great. If they aren’t, it is time to accept it and move on, instead of constantly wishing for your mother to be someone she is not.

21.  The Little Things Count: It’s important to relish the little things. In college, so much happens at once, it feels like the world can pass you by – especially once you turn 21 and the end of college seems very near. The most important lesson I’ve learned is to take time doing something you enjoy. It doesn’t matter if you want to get crazy drunk on a Friday night or take an extra art class, but do what gives you the most pleasure. Make time for more sex. Make time to cook dinner with your roommates. Just make time! As each year goes by, it is also important to look back to see what you’ve learned (whether it’s good, bad, ugly, or silly).

What has been the most ground-breaking discovery of your 21st year or your last birthday? Share!

Them Crooked Vultures are already planning on releasing a second album by the end of the summer, Paste Magazine is reporting, which means fans of the Foo Fighters or Queens of the Stone Age may have to wait that much longer before they hear new music.

The supergroup is made up of Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame.  Apparently, the trio has found a creative groove as their debut album only hit the shelves in November of 2009. Jones pointed to a great chemistry and shared work ethic between the group’s members as contributing to the decision.  He also confirmed the news to Paste Magazine saying “We’ll do a second album this year. By the end of summer, something like that.”

What do you think? Did you like their first album?

New music first – HP

Friday, February 19 HBO will premiere an epic new series, Funny or Die Presents, which will hopefully be world’s better than Eastbound and Down and have a limited inclusion of not-funnyman Danny McBride. (Or better yet – how about not including him at all!)

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s website, Funny or Die, is the site that brought you The Landlord starring that adorable little Pearl, and also features clips made by actors such as Elizabeth Banks, Aziz Ansari, Zach Galafianakis, Tiffani Thiessen, and many others with equally as hard-to-spell names.

I must admit – I do need more Funny or Die in my life. Check these: PeeWee gets an iPad, Breakups in a noisy diner, or even Terrible Decisions with Ben Schwartz (and also the Tiffani Thiessen clip! mmm, Kelly Kapowski).  They’re all so amazing. So yes, HBO. I am totally down for this series.

And when does Will Ferrell ever go wrong? Ok, there was that Bewitched remake. And Land of the Lost. And Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda (oof).

But seriously – as long as Danny McBride doesn’t show up every week, I think we’re in for a treat.

Big shoutout to Paste Magazine. That magazine (and site) is the cat’s pajamas.

(I almost called this post “Is Indie Dead?” as well, but thought I’d distance myself from the attention-whoring title while still using it to provoke people into clicking on the link. Oh don’t mind me, I’m just over here having my cake and eating it too.)

There’s an article in Feb’s Paste Magazine called, you guessed it, “Is Indie Dead?” I was linked to it from a friend’s facebook page, and found it somewhat worthwhile, despite some pretty gnarly extended analogies. You should probably read it before you read on here. I’ll wait.

I have a few responses to this article that branch off in various, semi-related directions. Since I don’t hate it, this won’t be the kind of unified diatribe that has appeared here once or twice. Okay, so, yes, first I’ll acknowledge that comparing the (in)famous Time magazine “Is God Dead?” to the question “Is Indie Dead?” is ridiculous, but I mean, it’s a lead in. Moving on.

1. I’m kind of amazed that people are still getting surprised that advertising co-opts things that have personal meaning to people in order to sell products. This is literally the definition of what an advertising company does. It’s not immoral, it’s just amoral. It devours every image or style that it can make use of, and does not care about the other contexts of such things, only about using them to do what it does. It is beneficial to make paradoxical appeals to people’s individualism in order to sell them mass produced things. Yes it feels weird to be in the target demographic, but it’s nothing personal. It’s quite the opposite. I find it hard to get outraged about things like this. The machinery of capitalism is just machinery. They want your money and they’re not trying to hide it, so either give it to them or don’t. They’ll keep trying. I don’t like most of these companies either. What else is there to say? I feel like there are better places to direct our outrage.

1b. In a related note, I don’t really believe in the idea of selling out. Yes, when you are making music solely to obtain money, something is probably wrong (usually the thing that is wrong is that the music is terrible), but it’s not so cut and dried. The thing is, people like to imagine music (especially music with which they deeply and personally identify) being forged out of some kind of incalculable personal pain and suffering or cast down from on high. But, music is both an art and a craft. One of the best pop songs I ever wrote is a song that I would never have written if I hadn’t been forcing myself to write something every day. It is the product as much of work as of inspiration. True, once I got started it felt no different from writing any other song: a loss of any sense of time, intense focus, some kind of curtain of emotion that has to be kept undisturbed as long as you’re working. But the origin of the song was in work, not divine inspiration. Sometimes I think we get so heavy on the artistic purity tip that we deny that some skills are necessary in making and recording music, and we wind up with a thousand bands recording a bunch of reverb-drenched mumbling into Garage Band. It IS great that anyone with a laptop can make okay-sounding songs nowadays, but to make really great sounding music takes a real mastery of not just musical technique but also recording technique. The latter is like a whole other instrument and it takes just as long to learn, and it costs money to employ that expertise. Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people getting paid for having their songs used in commercials as long as they don’t disagree with the ethics of the company in question. Someone’s songs are going to be there. Should we reserve those funds for corporate music? Also, I feel like anyone who does a lot of downloading sort of loses their right to bitch about the ethics of musicians looking to sustain their careers in other places. Then again, I was never a punk, so I’m not quite so hung up on the idea that getting paid for music is wrong.

2. Equating those mayonnaise commercials with “indie” is not really fair, because it’s not like some previously respected band recorded those songs. It’s just a corporation aping what’s hip. See #1.

3.

In all cases, just because you can do something—or want to do something, or were once told you could do something—doesn’t mean you should. But as a musical movement founded on sheer hopelessness and utter lack of popular appeal, one that relished the freedom to be unruly, untrained and unconcerned, that’s a tough stance for indie to take.

I think this is a really interesting point, actually. I agree with the first half very much so, but on the other hand I feel like those things will sort themselves out eventually. People who are really terrible (not just stylistically terrible, which is a separate thing) at what they’re doing will get discouraged by failure and wind up in accounts payable in like 5 years. But it is interesting that the bedroom-DIY aesthetic naturally prevents anyone from being critical. This is a trend that you can see all over the place (notably in the pervasiveness of lousy music), but I especially notice it in music blogs, which are slaveringly positive about every band they post (because there are so many music blogs, something without a 100% positive blurb will be ignored), never offering any kind of tempered enthusiasm or smart criticism. It’s either “this is the best song I’ve ever heard” (+ like 100 unnecessary adjectives and made up genre names) or “this band is a joke but i’m not even going to explain why. Oh you don’t already know? how pathetic.” In some media, like painting or architecture for example, creative people examine each others work with a fine tooth comb, brutally criticizing every flaw they can find. It’s rough going, and one needs to be careful doing it, but in the end I think it produces people who are more confident in what they’re doing, more easily able to explain why they’re making the artistic choices they’re making, and more able to adapt and change their techniques as they move through different periods of creativity. Most rock/pop/whatever musicians have their one trick and they cling to it with a deathgrip. Maybe a little mutual criticism society would be a good thing for us.

4.

“To insist that underground music be snarly and abrasive is to subscribe to a hidebound cliché, which is ironic since the whole idea of the music is to dispense with hidebound clichés,” he says. “Underground music stands against and apart from mainstream culture in order to offer an antidote to it. In eras past, mainstream culture was blandly, blindly complacent, so underground music was angry and dissatisfied. [...] But now, mainstream culture isn’t complacent, it’s stupid and angry; underground culture reacts by becoming smarter, more serene. That’s not wimpy—it’s powerful and productive.”

This is an idea that appeals to me quite a bit, though that is perhaps only because it reinforces precisely the things I am already doing. The culture against which we push is not the same as it was in 2000, let alone 1977, so naturally our response to it shouldn’t take the same forms. It should be constantly shifting and challenging itself. Mainstream culture now is simplistic, so we should be subtle and complex. Mainstream culture now is alternately angry and vapid, and shapes itself to the caprices of ever-shorter attention spans, so we should be thoughtful, consistent and ambitious.

5. Here is the main reason this article is worth it:

“Over the last three decades, indie has built itself a subculture that is just as dependent on trends, superficiality and the whims and caprices of the listening public as the pop mainstream has ever been. It’s generally less egalitarian toward female and minority performers than the mainstream. And even within its most narrowly defined bounds, indie is susceptible to its own ravenous appetite for the next big thing.”

There it is. Truth.

Paste Magazine has launched an opportunity to donate money to charities helping in Haiti and as a thank you, they allow you access to their download vault with over 400 songs. I donated last week and I’ve been listening to these songs and I’ve found some that I really like. I’m going to share my favorites with you and encourage you to donate whatever you can to any charity you support. Thank you.

All That I See – The Alternative Routes
Lemons – Amos the Transparent
Crushes – Andy Shauf
Making the Move – Ari Hest
Mute With a Bullhorn – Ben Sollee
Missing Piece – Blue Rabbit
Boys Keep Swimming – A Camp
The Expert – The Champion and His Burning Flame
Mustard Seed – Damion Suomi
The Blood and the Wine – David Berkeley
Prayer in Open D – Emmylou Harris
Sugar Tongue – Indigo Girls
Black Rock – The Infamous Stringdusters
Noise – Jesse Terry
Lucky – Kat Edmonson
Kaleidoscope Machine – Katie Costello
The People You Love – Lynn Miles
Under My Bed – Meiko
I’ll See You There – Orlotan
Moth’s Wings – Passion Pit
Rail – Reid Jamieson
In A Dream – Skybox
So Much Pain – Star & Micey

Mayonnaise and Pabst Blue Ribbon: The two major indie food groups. Image from Paste Magazine.

Indie music died. It was announced by Paste Magazine writer Rachael Maddux at 7:30 am January 26.

Cause of death: semantics.

There is quite a wonderful article over at Paste today lamenting the state of independent, or “indie,” music. Name ostensibly reports that the pseudo-genre has met it’s end and provides a few thousand words and few dozen sources to back up his assertation.

If you have a bit of time I would highly recommend reading this article. It is very well thought out and researched. Kudos to Paste for once again finding the best thing to write about and having the balls to rip apart exactly whats selling their magazine.

My favorite quote from the whole thing:

“Perhaps, like the “greenwashing” that’s spread in the wake of the eco-chic movement, we’ll dub this “indiewashing.” Still, we’re left wondering how this particular sensibility (the fey instrumentation, the aw-shucks cutesiness and all that goddamn hand-lettering) has become broadly synonymous with “indie.” Apparently, this is just what happens when you tell anyone they can make music—screw the mainstream, screw the man, screw labels, screw lessons, screw context—and then give them the thrift-store instruments, a bootleg copy of Pro Tools and the MySpace page with which to do it.”

And this gem:

“Everyone is out there searching for the next big thing, but it’ll never be the next big thing on the scale Nirvana was,” Stosuy says. “It’s Wavves, which is a little depressing in context.”

Read the whole thing here.

Bands and musicians supporting Haiti in crisis

To make sure you didn’t miss out on it, this past Thursday I let you know of a few ways that caring souls in the music community were pitching in to help raise awareness and garner donations for the victims of the recent 7.0 earthquake that occurred just outside of Port Au Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Bands and artists are finding unique ways to urge people to chip in to the relief effort. Music for Relief, a non-profit organization founded by the members of Linkin Park that has raised $3 million dollars since its founding, is currently offering a compilation album for free on its website, urging you to donate after the download. The album features unreleased music by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Alanis Morisette, Linkin Park, The Dave Matthews Band and more. You can check out the full track listing and get more information about Music for Relief on their website by clicking here.

Download “Typical Situation (Live)” by The Dave Matthews Band off of Download to Donate for Haiti – courtesy of Music for Relief

Paste Magazine's Songs for haiti

Paste magazine has set up songsforhaiti.org, where hundreds of artists have donated tracks in an effort to entice more people to donate. The funds raised will be split three ways between Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. Artists in the download archive include quite a handful of Peak regulars: Andrew Bird, Ben Folds, Bob Mould, Cowboy Junkies, Indigo Girls, Marc Broussard, Of Montreal, She & Him, The Avett Brothers, Dan Dyer, The Decemberists,  The Jayhawks, The String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee and many many more.

Paste is aware that this may not be the best way to raise support. In their words:

We don’t think people should donate to the relief efforts in Haiti just to get a reward. But this gives Paste and artists a way to help, using the thing we’re most passionate about—music.

And seeing as they’ve already raised over $100,000 through Songs for Haiti, it has proven to be a smart idea.

Régine Chassange

In the realm of raising awareness, one artist has gone above and beyond normal measures in telling her personal story. Régine Chassange, of The Arcade Fire, wrote a heart-breaking piece for the Guardian the Sunday before last documenting her shock and disbelief as she saw and felt the events of the earthquake unfolded. Régine is one of the founding members of the Montreal band, where she sings vocals and mans the accordion (and the drums and xylophone and piano from time to time). Although she is a citizen in both Canada and the U.S., her family emigrated from Haiti before she was born, and therefore news of the earthquake affected her in ways that those who don’t have relatives there will not be able to understand.

She writes,

I ran downstairs and turned on the television. It was true. Tears came rushing right to my eyes and I let out a cry, as if I had just heard that everybody I love had died. The reality, unfortunately, is much worse. Although everything around me is peaceful, I have been in an internal state of emergency for days. My house is quiet, but I forget to eat (food is tasteless). I forget to sleep. I’m on the phone, on email, non-stop. I’m nearly not moving, but my pulse is still fast. I forget who I talked to and who I told what. I leave the house without my bag, my keys. I cannot rest.

Partners in Health

In her article, she beckons her readers to donate to Partners in Health, saying that PIH is the best relief organization “in terms of thorough medical care, follow-up and combining of parallel necessary services (education, sanitation, training, water, agriculture)”. You can read the full article here.

But for every shining instance of goodwill, there are plenty who pass up opportunities to pitch in. If none of the above relief efforts moved you, here is a list of ways to help support those in need, including a breakdown how each organization uses its resources.

Thank you for doing your part to help those who, at this point in time, can’t help themselves. To quote Régine again we, as humans, are “[i]mpossibly weak, but standing”. And as we look to the horizon in this dark night and broaden our awareness of those in need, we can see the sun begin to spill outward and upward. My thoughts are with Haiti.

~Josh

———————————————————-

PEAK KEYWORD: HAITI

by Cat Johnson

Our local(ish) psych superstars continue to rise. This morning Paste Magazine named Sleepy Sun their Artist of the Day and declared them among the Best of What’s Next. If the band looks familiar, they should, as their ascent began right here in Santa Cruz. If you look closely, you might even recognize an old Streetlighter.

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

PasteMagazine.com — January 19, 2010.
Feature piece on Athens band for Paste’s site.

For Nana Grizol bandleader and songwriter Theo Hilton, songwriting is an introspective self-help mechanism. “It’s like I’m writing something on my hand reminding me not to get too worked up,” he says. At the same time, Hilton and his friends in Athens, Ga.—who run Orange Twin Records from a self-sustaineding nature conservation community where they grow their own food—are helping others too, redefining what it means to make far-reaching statements about local consumption of both art and food.

Nana Grizol’s second album, Ruth (released on Orange Twin in December) combines Hilton’s rough-edged folk background (he also plays in the acoustic-punk band Defiance, Ohio) with a pristine horn section that once belonged to Neutral Milk Hotel, plus friends from Elf Power and the Music Tapes, making for a record of soft, catchy melodies ready for sing-a-longs amongst small groups of friends in intimate settings. Paste recently spoke with Hilton about living in Athens, making music with friends and working on the Orange Twin homestead.

Paste: How would you describe Nana Grizol to someone who has never heard your music? Specifically, how would you describe the new album?
Theo Hilton: Nana Grizol is a band of six people who all have been playing music together for a long time. I would say our new record is largely about the way things change in your lifetime, and things and people you miss. It’s sentimental.

Paste: How does the record sound?
Hilton: It sounds close to our live show. The line up is like a rock band. Most of the songs have two drummers, guitar, bass, keyboard, horns. It goes from being spare and only guitar for a while, to fully orchestrated. In comparison to last record, it’s a lot more polar—where I feel the last record was a consistent feeling, the new one has highs and lows, thematically and musically.

Paste: What were some of your major influences while writing this record—musically or otherwise?
Hilton: Musically, I always think of The Kinks and Otis Redding. I have also been listening to old Motown-y stuff. And I would say friends. We’re really fortunate to know a lot of people who are making great music and art. In Athens we have so many friends who are in great bands who we’ve gone on tour with and played shows with. It’s awesome when you see really awesome art and you know what influenced it. That influences me to want to make more.

Paste: What is it like to live and play music in Athens? What makes it such a great place?
Hilton: Well, I definitely have a bias for Athens because I’ve lived here my entire life and my parents are here and I love them, so that helps. I feel there’s a really positive energy here—or, I mean, I think that energy can be anywhere if you’re looking for it—but there is also this sense of community that I feel, and this sense of people being really relaxed. I feel like here I perceive other people as being a lot more open to letting their guard down and being able to be really open up and interact.

Paste: A friend of mine once described your music to me as like “finding a diary you never knew you wrote.” What are your goals in songwriting?
Hilton: For me, I tend to write songs almost like I’m writing a little piece of self-help literature for myself. It’s like I’m writing something on my hand reminding me not to get too worked up—“You gotta remember this Theo!” A lot of the new songs on the new record are direct like this, like I say, “Don’t do this! Don’t live this way!” Which could be perceived as me being preachy. But at the time when I’m writing, I’m always saying “Theo, you need to chill the fuck out,” or I’m thinking, “People should not be like this, but I recognize that I am, and I shouldn’t be.” I end up playing and liking songs the most when I can see how they could apply to someone else’s life. I also tend to write songs when I’m massively bummed, to make myself feel better, so I guess it’s that too.

Paste: Can you tell me about Orange Twin Records and how the record label and the conservation community are connected?
Hilton: The record label initially started because of the conservation community. That was a little over 10 years ago. The record label started 10 years ago as a website. It was a place where people who were involved could raise awareness of the project, and sell their artwork to help fund the project, and then it just progressed from that into a label that benefits the conservation community. We put money from the label into funding projects on the land.

Paste: What exactly is the conservation community? Who lives there?
Hilton: My friends Laura [Carter, of Neutral Milk Hotel, who leads Nana Grizol’s horn section] and Andrew [Rieger, of Elf Power] and I run the label and are part of the conservation community. The conservation community is a plot of 155 acres of land on the outskirts of Athens. One hundred of the acres will always remain largely untouched. On the other 55 acres, we have this one house that used to be in downtown Athens, but four years ago when the city threatened to destroy in because of new building projects, the Orange Twin community had it moved to the plot of land outside of Athens. That’s also where the record label office is. We have a bunch of chickens and bees. Our next new project is going to be building a barn—with goats, donkey, horses, and a really big garden. The farm vibe is kinda increasing all of the time, which is cool. It’s neat to see your self-sustainability increase.

Paste: What would you say the long term goals of the conservation community are? Do you think a lot more people will move onto the property?
Hilton: Somewhere down the road, everybody who is a member or shareholder intends to live out here in a community. People are interested in building little cabins and stuff on the two areas of the land at different village sites, but in order to do that we’d have to put in roads. I will be very expensive and it’s still a super long term thought. I think to me, the most important goals are keeping those 100 acres conserved and untouched. So much of our town is turning into a big business strip mall, so the fact that its protected is great. And also, to grow more food and just raise awareness about how much better food is when it comes from your immediate surroundings. It makes a humongous difference for the world at large.

Paste: How do you think these goals about farming and eating locally translate to the music and art being produced by the community? Are your reasons for eating locally and supporting music and art locally intertwined?
Hilton: Yeah, for sure. Food is so much better when it comes from your immediate surroundings. From a garden you have yourself, or from a local farmer. And then with music, even just in terms of what the songs are about, it’s cool when you have music that is local or regional, made by people who know about the same specific things you know bout or are into things that you’re experiencing, more than whatever mainstream big music does. And I guess also I think like anything—I don’t typically think very much or talk about where you’re putting your money-but we do live in a capitalist system, and individuals have a lot of power to help people who are immediately relevant by going to see shows, buying records from local musicians, just like how buying food from local farmers will help someone out who is more in tune to your needs than say, Kroger’s.

We are glad to have “Burden Beast,” the first single of ‘A Single Revolution,’ included in Paste Magazine’s
“SONGS FOR HAITI.”  If you’d like to donate, the moneygoes to Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.  Or, if you’ve already donated to another organization, just let Paste know and you can STILL download great songs as a thank you! Over 200+ artists have given their songs
to this great relief effort.

Good music and good causes. A great combination. The music world is no stranger to facilitating aid of many sorts (scaling from the 1985 Live Aid concert to fight famine to the Red Hot Organization compilation series for HIV and AIDS relief).

Now, as the devastation grows in Haiti following last week’s earthquake (of which CNN has produced some notable online coverage), many people in the music biz are stepping up to contribute to the relief effort. Below you’ll find a list of various individuals and groups helping out by offering music benefits.

And I hate to suggest that people require an incentive to donate to a cause such as this. Surely, giving for the sake of giving in the name of genuinely helping others reigns supreme. But it’s absolutely worth recognizing these artists and other industry insiders doing their part to raise awareness and funds. Good music and good causes. A great combination.

(Keep in mind that scams continue to pop up on the internet. Also, amid allegations that rapper Wyclef Jean has benefitted personally from some of the money his organization has raised, it’s a good idea to check out any donation site before offering your money. Make sure the organizations that benefit from your donations are legitimate, and research how the funds will be used. In this case, it only takes a few minutes to see what organizations these bands and websites are directly supporting.)

• Paste Magazine launched Songs for Haiti, which offers tracks (many unreleased) from more than 200 artists—including Switchfoot, Andrew Bird, Of Montreal, Ben Folds, String Cheese Incident, and Ludacris— in exchange for donations.

• A few heavy hitters are contributing to the effort by teaming up with Music For Relief to offer a compilation of unreleased songs. Those on board with the project include the Dave Matthews Band, Linkin Park, Peter Gabriel, Kenna, Lupe Fiasco, and Alanis Morissette.

• The World Music Network (a UK-based record label) specializes in music anthologies that explore different nations and regions, including the “Rough Guide to the Music of Haiti” compilation. Well WMN is currently donating all proceeds from the sale of this CD to help those in the country. Keep in mind that the website prices the compilation in pounds.

• The Red Hot Organization gave a $150,000 emergency grant to Partners in Health. But the group didn’t stop there. The proceeds from all Dark Was the Night (a compilation that made my 2009 Top Albums list) album sales during the next two months will also go to Partners in Health.

• Arcade Fire’s Regine Chassagne is urging people to support by contributing to Partners in Health as well. The singer’s parents emigrated to Canada from Haiti before she was born. (Here’s a link to an unofficial video accompanied by the Arcade Fire song “Haiti” from the band’s 2004 release “Funeral.)”

• Punknews.org, along with Paper and Plastick, has started an online benefit auction, with test pressings and merch from bands like NOFX, Against Me!, Minor Threat, and Fallout Boy.

Paste Magazine
Paste is opening up its 250+ mp3 song download vault to anyone who donates to Haiti relief efforts. A diverse array of artists have donated mp3s (many unreleased) for Paste’s “Songs for Haiti” project. Musicians are also welcome to contribute songs. Click the above link for complete information.

For Christmas I got all the kids in my life two things in order to try and sway their young and impressionable minds in the right musical direction. Each child got their own Indie Rock Coloring Book and each house hold got a copy of the Indie Rock Alphabet Book. Even with ordering the presents later than I should have they all arrived just in time for gift giving day. The one surprise though was that Paste Magazine’s distributing center sent my order of 3 Indie Rock Alphabet Books twice. So now I was sitting on 6 books only 3 of which I had plans for. I’ve contacted Paste Magazine twice trying to figure out how to get the additional books back to them, after all not 6 months ago they were about to go bankrupt. After no replies I sent my last email saying that if I didn’t get a reply I was just going to raffle them off on the blog. Lucky for you there has been no reply.

So tMiM will be holding a giveaway to two lucky people (I know, you’re saying that there were 3 extra books. You’re right but I’m being greedy and keeping one for my future indie rocker).  To enter simply send an email titled Indie Rock Alphabet Book Giveaway with your name and address (US citizens only on this one please, the shipping’s coming out of my pocket after all). Entries will be accepted until January 29th and the winners will be contacted via email.

Update: The wife has a good idea in the comment thread. With your entry please include how you will use this book to rear your children, future children or how you could have used it to raise the children that have already grown up.

Here at tMiM our hearts go out to the people of Haiti and we encourage everyone to help as much as they can. But if the reward of just knowing that you did something to help your fellow man isn’t enough then Paste Magazine can help. They’ve set up “Song For Haiti”, an organization where more than 200 artists have donated over 250 songs that are available for free download to anyone that donates through the campaign or by any other means. 100% of the donation will be divided between Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross and Wyclef Jean’s relief support via Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Some of the great bands that you can download songs by are Amos The Transparent, Andrew Bird, Ari Hest, Backyard Tire Fire, Damion Suomi, Deer Tick, The Avett Borthers, The Decemberists and many, many more.

So far they’ve been able to raise just under $20,000. That might not seem like a lot considering the expansive devastation but we have to start somewhere.

We’ve donated, now it’s your turn.

Photo by Steve Cross, with editing by Jeremy Ferguson and Tristen

Nashville own indie singer/songwriter darling Tristen is featured today on Paste’s “Best of What’s Next.” Check it out here. Tristen has been doing quite a bit of touring recently as a solo act accompanied by cellist/vocalist Larissa Maestro. Her debut album will be out soon. She’s releasing it herself last I heard. Way to go Tristen!

The Polaroid film format & camera aren’t quite dead yet. As we all know, the film production was abandoned, but was recently revived again. Now a new line of re-designed cameras will be hitting the market later this year. Thank GOD. This will still be a niche market, but nostalgia is becoming more and more of a hot commodity, so I see no reason why this Polaroid resurgence won’t continue. (Via Gorilla vs Bear)

Also of photographic interest- American Pixels is a project wherein Joerg Colberg processes his photographs with a weird compression algorithm called ajpeg that doesn’t focus on preserving image quality, but on creating these rather surreal images. (Via Kottke.org)

Disclaimer: I am NOT suggesting that Paste is in any way a “music snob” or a “music snob” magazine. I quite like it, really.

I read an article written by the assistant editor of Paste the other day that brought a smile to my face. (Well, two, but the other was about the Hanson Christmas album.) And I have decided that as much as I loved Paste before, now I think I’d like to go to Georgia and shake their hands, maybe have a drink.

This article was about how the editors of Paste love music, all sorts, and have no desire to be pretentious. I feel like I need to broadcast this to a group of people I went to high school with. I guess because my school was so art-oriented, they felt like their music had to be a sort of elite club. Actually everything was a part of some elite club. We had a Communist Art Club, for heaven’s sake.

“Do you listen to Appleseed Cast? Yes? Oh, that’s good news! Do you listen to Alkaline Trio? The new stuff? Yes? Oh, well, it was nice talking to you.”

I remember broadcasting my love for Damien Rice, but hiding my secret love of The Donnas (they’re like a 2000s version of The Bangles!) around one group. I remember loving Bright Eyes in one group and Disturbed when I was around another. It was ridiculous. At some point my senior year, I gave up trying to keep it all straight. I liked all of them. I can even be persuaded to listen to Tupac for a bit if the timing is right. And I have had to sit through more than my fair share of Jonas Brothers songs, and I didn’t find it that torturous.

The editor of Paste apparently made a list of his favorite songs of 2009, which praised a Sufjan Stevens and a Taylor Swift song at the same time. Chaos ensued. It reminded me of high school so strongly that a smile touched my face. Bowling for Soup was actually right; high school truly never ends. I know this isn’t the best example, but if Miley Cyrus can listen to John Lennon and Britney Spears simultaneously so can everyone else.

I know that I’m just some girl blogging from her run-down apartment, but I definitely appreciated what Rachel Maddox was saying in the beginning of this article; plus, I love that she ended the article with her two holiday music run-ins.

So my advice for the week: branch out your musical horizons. Listen to Katy Perry and Eminem and Rosie Thomas and Queen and Alesana and Tim McGraw and The Monkees and Tchaikovsky.

According to Paste Magazine:

“The merger of two of the music industry’s most powerful juggernauts—Live Nation and Ticketmaster—has been in the works for nearly a year, but it wasn’t until late last week that the concert promoter and ticketing giant received their shareholders’ approval to merge. Still holding up the merger is the U.S. Justice Dept.’s negotiations with the two companies over possible violations of U.S. antitrust laws.

Shareholders may have given the go ahead to both companies, but the merger cannot go through without approval from the Justice Department. All three parties have been negotiating a deal—so far with no real progress. Reports say that the Justice Department wants Live Nation and Ticketmaster to make a number of compromises to ensure that this merger—between the world’s largest concert promoter and the world’s largest ticketing group—would not create an all-powerful monopoly in the industry.”

I know I’m disappointed because whether it’s technically a monopoly or not, the options to buy tickets in any other way is fast becoming as rare as [insert some apt, witty example of rapidly-declining trend].  I often get excited about a reasonably priced-show until I realize a $12 ticket price will soon be bombarded with handling fees, venues fees, fees for such-and-such’s cousin frank who is somehow  involved twice-removed with the ticket process somewhere…  For the music industry, who as a whole has realized much like the rest of the country, that they can no longer rise above such a stagnated economy, they sure are finding even more ways to alienate their customers.

Introduction

It seems only appropriate that I’m finally finishing the second installment of A Digital Rolling Stone, a month after the tenth anniversary of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) suing Napster for allowing millions of consumers to download free, copyright music. The result as you know, was a federal judge and appeals court finally ruling in 2002 that Napster was liable for contributory copyright violations. This marked the beginning of my fascination with the progression of music culture and marketing. However, it was my love for music that actually introduced me to advertising and marketing. It was interesting to observe how Napster affected consumer behavior and perceptions, the practice and business model of music and caused great controversy.

Within the music industry, musicians shared divergent ideologies. Artist such as Dr. Dre and Lars Ulrich (Metallica) insisted that peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing would ruin the music industry and asserted that this belief was not based on profitability, but control over their creative expression. Also, along with the RIAA, many musicians attacked consumers with trial court orders. I’m not sure if this really supports their argument for creative expression over profitability, unless of course they just wanted justice. And they got it.

Napster became a part of pop culture and died the death of a pop star – abruptly and at a young age. And so did many of Napster’s successors like Gnutella, Kazaa and BitTorrent. And worst of all, MP3s and P2P sharing changed consumer behavior and perceptions immensely and left consumers without any source to fulfill their music needs and desires. These changes include:

• Acquisition & Accessibility: Consumers no longer visit brick & mortars, but instead download music online
• Emotional Response: Digital music provides instant gratification for consumers, as they can download music when they want, wherever they want. While traditional forms require patience, which is not common in the digital age
• Morals & Ethics: Consumers were accustomed to downloading music illegally instead of purchasing the music and did not question their behavior, until they were attacked by the industry
• Decision Making Process: Consumers were influenced by online friends that shared similar music tastes
• Convenience & Portability: The actual tangible element changed from CDs to a digital form as MP3 files, making it much easier to transport and experience
• Listening: Consumers no longer listened to albums as complete compositions, but instead as individual songs in random order (e.g. shuffle)
• Form & Function: Historically, consumers collected the jackets/sleeves of records and even CD cases, however since the tangible element has changed, many consumers no longer value the form, but only the function (however vinyl records are making a comeback, more on this later)

This also changed the practice and business model of music forever, specifically in regard to the marketing mix:

• Product: While the actual cost of producing music did not change much, the process of producing the music form and distribution changed dramatically (e.g. CD to MP3)
• Price: Instead of purchasing an album for $10 or $12, consumer began to purchase individual songs at $0.99. It was a return to the days of 45 RPM records, when artists released singles. However, due to the distribution method, it was even more compelling and convenient for the consumer to accept this pricing structure. Also, as musicians began to realize that illegal downloading was hurting their bottom line, they changed their marketing strategy and began to focus more on concerts and apparel as a form of revenue
• Promotion: Promotional tactics also changed immensely with digital technology. Before the internet and Napster, bands had to create press kits to get shows, promote shows using posters, tour relentlessly and pray that a record label would catch them at a show. However, Napster allowed consumers to view and download music files on their friends’ computers and word of mouth (WOM) became a powerful factor in the marketing mix. Social media sites like MySpace and Facebook allowed bands to create profiles and share their music online to a broad audience without getting a record deal and in some cases it facilitated record deals. Consumer behavior became the source of WOM in cases like iLike, Last.FM and Pandora.
• Place (Distribution): Consumers could now download music whenever and wherever they wanted and in some cases could work directly with the artists they loved

As a music enthusiast and musician, I have a unique perspective on this topic. I believe that everyone should have accessibility to not only music, but all arts: dance, literature, film, photography, paintings, etc.  The arts provide an experience unlike any other, experiences that are:

• Entertaining: The inherent ability of the arts to stimulate all five of the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) and in a manner that can affect your emotional and rational state of mind
• Inspirational: The chord progression of an orchestrated composition or punk-rock anthem, a Van Gogh or Dondi; or a sonnet or manifesto can inspire you to view the world from a different perspective and develop innovative ideas
• Educational: The arts enhance critical thinking and teamwork skills in students. More specifically, learning and performing music as well as attendance at music performances improves reading, math and science skills in students

While I do believe everyone should have access to the arts, I also believe there is a compelling business opportunity to inform and persuade the consumer, even during this consumer behavioral transformation and digital movement. This intriguing transformation inspired me to approach this problem and find a resolution during my experience in the Master of Arts in Advertising program at Michigan State University years ago; here are my results. I then approached this problem again in a blog post titled “A Digital Rolling Stone 1.0.” In this analysis, I hypothesized that the music industry must progress with culture in order to remain profitable and relevant by reflecting cultural trends and integrating technologies that create an experience for the consumer with added value. This hypothesis was composed over a year ago and I have collected several case studies that document this consumer behavioral transformation in regard to music and the brands that have effectively progressed with culture to create augmented experiences for the consumer. Also, in the case studies below, I have also identified the casual attributes for marketing success and recommendations to continue these innovations in the music industry. Lastly, unlike artists before them, artists such as Radiohead and Trent Reznor of NIN understood not only the consumer, but the future of music. They paved the way for many musicians to find a sustainable business model in the digital age and seize OFF=ON opportunities.

Applications

As music aficionados continue to battle over the death of the album or resurgence of vinyl, there are several cases that show interactive and mobile applications are emerging as a viable form and part of the marketing mix for musicians. Deadmau5, a Grammy-nominated electronic artist created an iPhone app, available on iTunes for $3, that allows users to mix and remix every song on the album. Users can modify the beats-per-minute, apply effects, loop and cross fade between tracks that they create (via Wired).

In addition to releasing “The Slip” online as a free download and under a Creative Commons license (attribution-noncommercial share-alike) allowing fans to create derivative works for non-profit use as long as the source is attributed. Trent Reznor of NIN has created many innovative experiences for fans. One of which includes NIN Access, a GPS-enabled iPhone app that allows fans to post messages or photos and communicate with people in the same geographical area via the app. It is completely integrated with the social media platform on NIN.com and utilizes many open source APIs (e.g. Flickr, YouTube, Google Earth, etc.) to extend the NIN experience across multiple platforms, not just NIN.com. As culture and technology continues to evolve, so will the music industry. This evolution provides more business and marketing opportunities for artists. As Reznor stated in a Wired interview, “As an artist, you are now the marketer.”

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) been all the rage for the past year or so with brands like GE and BMW creating amazing experiences for consumers; however, could AR apps be just another fad? Do they really provide value to the consumer? What are the benefits? AR can provide value if the idea is inherent to the product or service. For example, Yelp provides consumer reviews and local search capabilities for users on Yelp.com. The Yelp mobile app provides the same thing, however it includes augmented reality, allowing users to utilize their handset’s built-in camera to visually experience consumer reviews and local search. The AR is the service and the service is augmented with AR.

How can musicians apply augmented reality to enhance their product? Zehnder Communications, an advertising agency in New Orleans, did just that. Zehnder created the Voodoo app using Layar 2.0 (an augmented reality browser) to allow festival-goers to view artist information, concert schedules and stage locations using Android smart phones or Apple iPhones. View a demonstration of the app here. The key with AR is to not only make it entertaining, but also useful.

Crowdsourcing & Content Curation

In Bb 2.0 is my favorite interactive music experience created thus far. It is a collaborative movement initiated and created by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and brought to live by combining the contributions of a community. Multiple YouTube videos of instruments, voices or sounds in Bb, are combined on one page. This allows the User to simultaneously play and mix sounds at their own discretion to create a new composition. It all started out with a few YouTube videos that Solomon recorded of himself playing instruments (glass marimba, electric guitar, Kaoss Pad/synth, Rhodes electric piano, and the electric bass) in Bb, at no specific tempo or groove. Solomon then utilized crowdsourcing and called for submissions online for people to record their own YouTube videos and the movement of In Bb was born.

The composition of music can be a personal experience or one shared with others through collaboration. Artists like Darren Solomon or those musicians involved in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra embrace collaboration. Another example of crowdsourcing with a bit of content curation is Taped Together by Maria (@brainpicker) & Mel (@melex). Imagine creating the perfect playlist and then allowing people to reflect upon their selection, all online, bringing you the modern day mixtape with emotion. The concept is best explained by the creators:

“We… love music. And we think crowdsourcing and content curation are two of today’s most powerful cultural propellers – seeming opposites with an even more powerful intersection. So, we’re doing the obvious: Crowdsourcing a seasonal playlist from interesting people we know. Each day of December, we’re uploading one season-inspired song, curated by a different person. On December 31, we’re putting the compilation together as the world’s first crowd-curated holiday playlist for anyone who wants one.”

Exclusive Content

Many professional and indie artists have argued that record labels are no longer needed in the current music environment, however there are some record labels that are doing their job. According the the Paste Magazine article “EMI Becomes First Record Label to Provide Hulu-Exclusive Videos” written by Christina Lee:

“EMI has struck a deal with Hulu to become its first record-label partner, and is set to distribute music videos and concert footage exclusively through the video-sharing site.”

This exclusive video content included in Norah Jones’ new video and never before seen footage from a previous concert. This is a great idea, however P2P downloading could become a competitive force if not implemented or enforced effectively.

Interactive Experiences: Video Kill the Radio Star

The Cold War Kids took the basic idea of multi-track recording and created an engaging, interactive music video that is brilliant. In “I’ve Seen Enough,” each of the 4 musicians in Cold War Kids have 4 pre-recorded audio tracks with corresponding visual performances resulting in 16 total different performances and allowing the user to explore and re-create 256 permutations of the song ranging from the album version to acoustic versions to solos.

Like the Cold War Kids, the current music video format just wasn’t enough for AC/DC. So they turned to an unlikely source of inspiration for their music video “Rock N Roll Train“: Microsoft Excel. While the AC/DC concept is not nearly as interactive, it does have a true lo-fi feel that anyone would appreciate.

Lifestyle Integration

Among the many elements that must be analyzed when considering brand extensions, it is important to analyze not only consumer behavior, but lifestyle. Sony PlayStation did this when they created the online service to sell books, videos and music (via Engadget). Gamers are a captive, passionate audience at their consoles playing video games for hours on end. This is a great opportunity to integrate product into the experience. Another example of lifestyle integration for music is skate videos. Growing up, my friends and I would watch skate videos before and after every skate session, and many of the songs featured introduced me to new artists and genres that would later shape my love for music. It’s a powerful opportunity that leverages contextual relevancy to ultimately affect and influence consumer overt behavior by simply making the information accessible.

OFF=ON

The greatest movement for music in 2009 was the transformation of music as sound to integrated experiences, offline and online. One artist that adopted this OFF=ON approach was Mos Def with his release of the album “The Ecstatic” as a music t-shirt. In collaboration with Invisible DJ and LnA Clothing, Mos Def created a t-shirt that had a download code on the tag of the t-shirt with album artwork on the front and track listing on the back. I think this is a brilliant idea, however hope other artists utilize the opportunity to its full potential by embracing the concept and creating fashion instead of simply placing artwork on the front. Nonetheless, this is a perfect example of integrating analog and digital.

Another case study is Of Montreal’s release of the album “Skeletal Lamping” as a complete package. According to the Paste Magazine article “Of Montreal reveals Skeletal Lamping package details” by Michael Saba:

“Of Montreal’s stated mission with this ambitious release is to ‘expand the perception of music packaging beyond traditional flat, square artwork and to bring consumers back to record stores to get it.’ In other words, Of Montreal wants to save the record.”

And I believe they accomplished this for their audience. The unique package included a CD, LP, poster, tote bag, t-shirt, button set, paper lantern, wall decal set and download of the album.

Open Source

To launch (RED)Wire, a digital music magazine, (RED) partnered with Modernista! and Evan Roth to create the first music video with open source code available to download. The music video is for “Brooklyn Go Hard” by Jay Z. Not only is the song great, but the video created with the typography of letters from the word “Brooklyn” is one of a kind and leaves you wondering what will come next for music videos. The open source feature also allows the song to permeate throughout the interwebs as individuals download the code and customize. On another note, Evan Roth is also the creator of the EyeWriter Initiative, make sure you check it out.

Social Media

Iceland has produced some of the most creative and innovative musicians in the past 20 years including Björk, Múm and Sigur Rós. Further, it has produced an artist, Ólafur Arnalds, that harnessed the power of social media to create an unprecedented connection and relationship with music fans.

In a More Intelligent Life interview titled, “The Q&A: Ólafur Arnalds, Musician, Experimentalist,” Paul Sullivan writes that:

“After an equally compelling follow-up EP, Variations of Static (2008), Arnalds embarked on a more experimental project, which involved creating a new song every day for a week, and then immediately making it available online at foundsongs.erasedtapes.com. The project, called Found Songs, earned attention by making use of social-networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr (on which Arnalds ran a forum/competition for corresponding artwork). Erased Tapes Records , an independent London-based label, recently released a CD, download and 10″ Vinyl edition (which features seven photographs chosen from the Flickr group).

Arnalds leveraged social media and crowdsourcing to develop a magnificent composition that involved fans in the creative process, fostering a close relationship with the artist and providing a sense of ownership. Thus translating to increased interaction and encouraging word of mouth to extend the project throughout the interwebs.

Conclusion

At the close of 2009, as many people prepared for the upcoming decade, many also reflected on the past decade. In a segment from NPR’s All Things Considered titled “The Decade In Music: How Musicians Create,” Jacob Ganz reflected upon the digital decade and how it changed the experience of making and distributing music:

“Maybe the best way to sum up the reality of the music industry in 2009 is a Steve Albini interview with musician Ian Svenonius for VBS.tv. Keep in mind: Albini recorded classic albums by the Pixies and Nirvana and has always loudly favored analog recording. But he says the current digital trends don’t bother him.

“I see these changes as changes that are happening outside of me, that I have no control over,” Albini says. “So I basically treat them like the weather. Like, it’s going to be kind of bloggy and MP3-ey for a while.”

The music industry spent most of the past decade caught outside without a raincoat. Record labels, especially the big ones, didn’t embrace digital music at first. In fact, they spent a lot of time and energy suing the source of their income: consumers.”

I hope that the record labels learned from the past decade, but more importantly, I hope that the artists have learned that music whether they like it or not is their product, and can be extended regardless of the popular format of the moment because it will change. CDs are going the way of the cassette and soon MP3s will follow a similar course. However, artists will always have their product to market and must find a sustainable model that reflects culture and integrates technological innovations to seize OFF=ON opportunities.

And if all else fails, follow The Fiery Furnaces lead and release a silent record.

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via The Artful Dodgers: Santigold & Vampire Weekend :: Music :: Features :: Paste.

Now as we stand in 2010 and the Oughts or 2000’s or whatever you call the last decade is behind us, it’s time for best of the decade lists. Today, I bring you several best of the decade album lists. The greatest surprise? Rolling Stone didn’t fill its Top 10 with U2 and Bruce Springsteen albums. Buh-dum-dum-chh… Oh man, I crack myself up. If I can offer any praises or critiques, a big shout out to Paste Magazine with going with Sufjan Steven’s Illinois over the consensus Radiohead pick. Maybe it’s just being contrarian, but it takes some guts to go against the conventional wisdom especially when it comes to music critics and their Radiohead. My critiques? Well, Gillian Welch’s Time and The Avett Brothers’ I And Love And You on the Paste list? Seriously? Good albums but don’t belong in the top 10. Same goes with the Pitchfork picks of The Avalanches’ Since I left You and Panda Bear’s Person Pitch. Which leaves me to say that Rolling Stone has the most defensible list. Wow, I hate saying that. Anyways, without further ado, I bring you the best albums of the 2000’s: (I’ll give you the top 10 but feel free to click on each link for the full lists)

Rolling Stone

1. Radiohead- Kid A

2. The Strokes- Is This It

3. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

4. Jay-Z: The Blueprint

5. The White Stripes- Elephant

6. Arcade Fire- Funeral

7. Eminem- The Marshal Mathers LP

8. Bob Dylan- Modern Times

9. M.I.A.- Kala

10. Kanye West- The College Dropout

Paste

1. Sufjan Stevens- Illinoise

2. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

3. Arcade Fire- Funeral

4. Radiohead- Kid A

5. Bright Eyes- I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

6. The White Stripes- Elephant

7. Gillian Welch- Time

8. Outkast- Stankonia

9. The Avett Brothers- I And Love And You

10. M.I.A.- Arular

Pitchfork

1. Radiohead- Kid A

2. Arcade Fire- Funeral

3. Daft Punk- Discovery

4. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

5. Jay-Z- The Blueprint

6. Modest Mouse- The Moon & Antarctica

7. The Strokes- Is This It

8. Sigur Ros- Ágætis Byrjun

9. Panda Bear- Person Pitch

10. The Avalanches- Since I Left You

Unfortunately, if I don’t eat every two hours my hands start to shake, I get grumpy (even a little weepy if it’s been a very long time) and sleepy.  The hunger shakes struck when I was out running errands and so before I got really nasty or passed out we stopped at Swensons for some blazing hot tater tots.  It’s a family run, strictly Northeastern Ohio drive-in burger joint that has a special spot in most every NE Ohio native’s heart, unless they’re a total Scrooge.  By the time we got home I was still hungry which catapulted exponentially after browsing through Paste Magazine’s 15 best food movies.  So, I whipped up a BLT.

Fried 2 strips of bacon, and once I flipped them I threw in a handful of halved grape tomatoes.  While those were bouncing all over the place, I stuck 2 pieces of wheat bread in the toaster, then turned the burner off under the b and t.  Next a little miracle whip spread on one slice of bread, tomatoes over top, 2 slices of havarti — one on each slice (or you can put the cheese over the tomatoes while they’re still in the pan until it melts a bit), then the bacon halved so it makes 4 pieces.  A scoop of horseradish on one slice spread over, or under, the cheese, then a big wad of crisp romaine.  Crunchy, creamy, bacony goodness — really nothing beats a BLT in a pinch:  ”So shines a good deed in a weary world” (courtesy of Willy Wonka).

A reader/friend tip from Raliegh (thanks Andy Wood) led me to check out Michael Ford, Jr. & The Apache Relay and their first album, 1988. The band, which formed at the well-respected music school of Belmont Univeristy in Nashville, has a similar sound to the earlier The Avett Brothers albulms (when they were still playing bluegrass), but with stronger, more polished musical talent. Ford’s voice is much like that of Sam Quinn of the now defuct folk duo, the everybodyfields. I’m a fan.

Paste featured Ford & Apache in its “Best of What’s Next” column earlier this week, where Ford discussed how the band came together, the new album and how the band is trying to mesh before they hit the road.

1988, a record born of inspiration from Springsteen’s stripped-down solo effort, blossomed into something far more lush as Ford welcomed the Apache boys into the fold. It’s a spirited collection of songs that shine with hope like light under a doorway. “Sweet Louisianne,” Ford’s love letter to his hometown of New Orleans, brims with optimism as he consoles, “Remember who’s on our side,” over fiddle sighs and mandolin chirps. His songwriting is consistently earnest, kind and comforting, traits matched in the bright bluegrass accompaniment. “Seasons were meant to end / I will not try to start again,” he sings to an old friend on “Sisters, Brothers, Lovers.”

“A lot of the time, people and friends and things that happen are for seasons,” he says of the track. “And you have to move on and realize that and not get stuck.” He and his Apache Relay are taking this to heart, approaching each phase of their collaboration without looking back but taking every opportunity that crosses their path. Their summer of touring has lasted well into the fall, and they’ve got more shows in the works for the winter and spring. “This season’s almost like the calm before the storm,” says Ford. “One thing we’re really focused on is having right relationships within the band before we get on the road with each other. So right now, we’re just trying to love one another and be healthy as a band before we hit the road to tour.”

My favorite tracks are “Sweet Louisianne” and “Sugarcane.”

Paste Magazine: “Best of What’s Next: Michael Ford, Jr. & The Apache Relay”

1988 on lala