8 posts tagged “alternative music”
Did I mention yet that the new Rilo Kiley album is awesome? Well it is. I had listened to some of their early stuff before, and it just didn't hook me in. However, I really enjoyed the Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins album, so I figured I'd check out the new release from Rilo Kiley, just to see how it sounds. It had me immediately. I guess I'd say it is more commercial than their other stuff... but I sure do like it.
Did I mention yet that the new Rilo Kiley album is awesome? Well it is. I had listened to some of their early stuff before, and it just didn't hook me in. However, I really enjoyed the Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins album, so I figured I'd check out the new release from Rilo Kiley, just to see how it sounds. It had me immediately. I guess I'd say it is more commercial than their other stuff... but I sure do like it.
I went to the Morrissey show the other night at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. First, let me once again say how incredible it is to see a concert at that venue. I love that place. Any show there just seems more special to me.
One of the even better things about the show was that Steve had graciously stood in line at the venue a month or so ago, and scored us FRONT ROW seats! Yeah! We had the best view in the house, front row center. You can't ask for better than that!
One thing that was kind of funny was that there was an orchestra pit that they had put some stacking chairs on, just in front of us. It is one of those rising floor things, that could be raised to make it part of the stage, or lowered for the orchestra. There were chairs there, and they had seated a few people on it. This was just in front of us. In any case, as soon as the show started, a bunch of people rushed it, and snuck onto it. I don't think it was rated for that kind of weight, because the whole thing was moving around and bouncing as the people danced around. The whole show, the floor on that was sinking. At the beginning of the show, it was at about waste high to the stage. By the end of the show, the stage was above their heads! This was great for us, because our view got even better as the show went on!
The show itself was very good. Morrissey is a master, and an excellent showman. He's good at his craft, and the show was precise. His longtime band was with him, and they hit every song just as it should be. I really liked his recent "You are the quarry" album, but I was not too fond of his most recent release. He played some of the songs of that latest album, but also played quite a few of his older songs, and even some Smiths tunes. He started off the show with "The Queen Is Dead", which was freaking awesome! Some highlights for me included; "First of the Gang to Die," "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side," "Everyday Is Like Sunday, " and "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want". Finally, when he did "How Soon Is Now?" for the encore, I was really really satisfied.
Great show, great venue, great friends... just excellent all the way around!
Man, I love Elliott Smith's music. He's really one of those musicians whose music I just don't get tired of listening to. He falls perfectly into one of my favorite "genres" of music. The alternative music with perfectly crafted popiness, but with devistatingly dark lyrics. See also: Cardigans, Morrissey, Beautiful South, Michael Penn, etc.
I don't know how it happened, but I just fell into a Beatles trip recently. I kind of go in waves with music, and I just started to surf a Beatles wave. It is kind of hard to argue about them being the best rock band that ever was, but they pretty much are. Still, I'm not going to argue with you about it.
I'm not as into their early stuff, but after Revolver, they really hit their stride. If you listen to their albums, not the singles, but the complete albums, you just get your mind blown. The music is so complex and just pushes the boundaries of what was going on at the time so far, that it still sounds fresh today. Put on the White Album, if you didn't know it was the Beatles, you could really believe that it was put out this month.
Just a little punk rock to brighten up an otherwise boring Wednesday afternoon...
Billy Bragg is one of those iconoclast artists that just defy categorization. He is a wonderful songwriter, a political agitator, and a intellegent social critic. His music is just sublime, and brutish at the same time. His songs evoke powerful images and lyrically skip through working-class culture in a way that is unique. I'd compare him with Tom Waits, but they really are quite different. Waits evokes the bottom of the barrel and skid row in an honest way, and plays around with American roots and cabaret styles - while Bragg is firmly rooted in the English labor movement and tends more towards the stripped down folk tradition.
Bragg recently wrote an article for the Guardian, which tackled the topic of ownership of music and copyright in the digital age. It is really worth a read. The question of who "owns" an artist's intellectual property is an old one. In the bad old days, musicians were constantly taken advantage of by record companies, who "owned" the musician's work. In many cases, those same record companies still profit from the continued publication and sale of their back catalogues of music, while the artists who recorded those classics get little or in some cases, nothing. Now, with the rise of the internet, there is the possibility that artists can take control of their musical destiny, and cut out the record company middle-men. The question is, whether other powerful media concerns will step into the breech, and stop this from happening...
Now that physical production and distribution are no longer necessary, the question arises as to whether new artists need to sign their rights away to record companies at all. A band which records and promotes its own music via the internet could sign a deal directly with iTunes, keeping all of the profits and retaining ownership of copyright.
Although the task of breaking an artist should not be underestimated, the financial incentives are so great that it can surely be only a matter of time before the first truly independent artist breaks through via the internet without relying on a record company to market them.
With a potential shift in power away from the labels and towards the artists, it becomes crucial that new talent coming into the industry retains the right to exploit the material that it creates. The rise of social networking sites offers unknowns the opportunity to build a career via the new medium. Artists no longer wait to be discovered, short-circuiting the old routes by posting their songs and videos up on to sites like MySpace and Bebo where they can gain a following through peer-to-peer recommendation. Already, the vast majority of those uploading their work on to the net have no contractual agreements with anybody: no publishing deal, no record contract, no lawyer or manager advising them and that is as it should be in the spirit of the internet - let a thousand flowers bloom.
By the way, Billy Bragg is in the midst of a tour. He'll be coming to San Franciso in October for a couple of shows at the Great American Music Hall. I already have tickets. If they are not sold out, I highly recommend going to this show. It is going to be amazing.
I just took a listen to an old album that I liked when I was in college by Sun 60. As I remember, they had two albums, but perhaps they had more? It has been a little while, but their songs have aged well, in my opinion. Anyhow, there were two songs that I always liked, and I still like them all these years later...
