The New Gatekeepers
Democracy has come to creativity, and capitalism has come to overwhelm democracy. I am, of course, talking about the Amazon review scandal that has come to light, revealing that as many as 1/3 of all reviews on Amazon were bought and paid for. This is a catastrophe for everyone involved — musicians, writers, consumers, and […]
Anybody Else Tired of Personal Branding?
One of my favorite lines of poetry is from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, where he writes: Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.) This guy: sweaty-toothed madman,hates branding. As artists and human beings, we should probably be trying to embrace diversity, and what better place to start than […]
The Universe Does Not Owe You Free Music
Here’s how the last three days have gone down in the world of musical discourse: Emily White writes on the NPR All Songs Considered Blog that she has over 11,000 tracks in her music library, of which possibly 200 were acquired by paying any money whatsoever to anybody. Summary: I love, love, love music and […]
Cutting a Swath Through the Self-Releasing Jungle
Years ago, people started sounding the death knell for traditional music distribution models, and now much of the doomsday scenarios have played out exactly as feared (or hoped, depending on your particular relationship to the mainstream). Unfortunate casualties have been the record store, many independent radio stations, livable advances for musicians signed to labels, and […]
Here’s to Leslie Cochran
Leslie Cochran died today. Like many, many people who lived in and around Austin, Texas, for any amount of time, I had a chance to meet him on a couple of occasions. That was sort of his business, meeting folks. That, and rocking a thong, stuffed bra, and high-heels. For those outside of a certain […]
Nirvana and Pearl Jam, 20 years on.
On August 27, 1991, Pearl Jam released “Ten,” their first album. A month later, on September 24, 1991, Nirvana released their second album, “Nevermind,” so for the last month there has been a ton of media coverage about the 20th anniversary of each of these landmark records. I don’t need to say anything about how […]