Soundscapes accompany this entry the
10.20
Soundscapes accompany this entry: the Soundscapes recorded 30 minutes ago as the beginning to the musical day here at Chateau Belewbeloid.
I'm hoping these will contribute to honouring the commissions already placed. Both on Wednesday & today, the first 3-5 minutes "don't work". This is something akin to tuning the instrument, or "tuning the air" at a Guitar Craft performance. It is an engagement with the time & place by the particular player, an in-between zone where we leave behind the everyday and cross the threshold.
Perhaps some visitors know the story of The Rosenbergs? This is a story of everyday life in the festering mass known as the music industry. The Rosenbergs will be visiting the BTV office in Seattle (presently a thriving & artist-friendly mass of energy & wonderment) on Tuesday 9th. May. They may be visited at:
http://www.therosenbergs.com/
This is an excerpt from that site...
Well, first let us say that there are a LOT of good people involved in this unfortunate situation...the producers of the tv show have been nothing but supportive and enthusiastic towards us and our music as have some of the folks on the record company side...both sides are a bit askew as is expected with a record company on one coast and tv show on the other..but they are held together by an unbelievably unfair performance contract...We (The Rosenbergs) are scheduled to perform on this week's show with possibly the Counting Crows..however, this will not be the case as the details of the last few days will explain...
We were asked and agreed to fly out to Los Angeles this Wednesday to tape the show...this occured Friday at end of business at which point the Farmclub folks said they were faxing us the Performance Contract which we were to sign and return in fifteen minutes before they left the office-we were expecting the standard two page release or maybe something a bit more..what we got was a twenty three page disaster allowing farmclub a sixty day exclusive option to pick us up and take everything we've worked for...sure, most bands figure they won't be the ones optioned but that's the danger...for ones who ARE...the bands lose both ways...if they're optioned, they enter into a six record deal which basically affords them no rights to anything that used to be theirs, ESPECIALLY the Internet rights. Meanwhile if there's any kind of "buzz"(and we *hate* that word) surrounding a band after their performance on the show, it will be all but gone by the time two months roll around and the band is free to talk to other labels...can u imagine a label waiting two months to talk to a band they saw on Farmclub? In one week, the label head that likes them will have been replaced by a Mr.Coffee, so forget about striking while the iron's hot.
Enraged as we are by the actual terms of the deal itself, it's not that unusual according to our lawyer who had quite a nice chuckle over it...Farmclub will own our website, and all internet related sites-meaning, (as our friend,Lavonne at GAS puts it) "They are free to put up beer commercials on your website" also, in a few years, when mechanical royalties are all but phased out because most music is downloaded off the 'net, we will recieve birdseed as payment: having virtually no rights to our digital domain...Farmclub is the sole approver of what songs we record, which producer we'd use and which studio - meaning they could have us record in their own studio so we'd be borrowing money from them to pay them for the recording time...If a band member leaves, our royalties for that record diminish 25 percent and Farmclub may break up the remaining members...If our music ever gets used as a theme for a tv show or movie, Farmclub would own all the "sync" rights and as per the agreement get all the money - sounds fair, huh?...Also, there is no mention of tour support or marketing budget for any of the six albums we're signed on to do-not one dollar...so given this fact, they could actually have us record an album, release it for a week, say "It didn't do anything", pull it off shelves, send us back into the studio to record another one until they had a bonafide "hit" which they then would put on our-oops- THEIR website and the Farmclub website so people will come and listen for miles around and see the wonderful advertising links on their sites. Basically it's obvious (and we're not geniuses) that the tv show is a glorified ad for the website and the stage is a "demo deal" for bands...once they hit the stage, they are labeled suckers cuz if they're on there, they signed that Louie B. Mayer 1920's contract binding their lives to the studio for eternity for four minutes of airtime...remember, they may have a LOT of people contact them afterwards but they ! are powerless to do anything with them for sixty days and by then...well...
The thing that aggrivates us the most about this is that we were interviewed by a company that claimed to be moving onward and upward with respect to band-label relationships in an internet community that would only get stronger and become more of a "partnership" between the two rather than "master-slave"stuff ...cuz if you ask us, what they're attempting to do to bands this millenium we now deem as Cyberscrewing"...They are virtual wolves in sheeps clothing ready to take the unaware, eager songwriters and swallow them whole for breakfast and believe me, it's a buffet...I guarantee there won't be a shortage of bands on the show but NO band worth its weight will sign this agreement...the scary thing is the band that has nothing going on and figures it has nothing to lose will sign and then if they happen to hit it with a song, they'll spend the next ten years in court trying to recoup lost royalties and if they succeed, they'll owe twice as much to their attorneys...
Farmclub needs to take directions from Den music or Atomic Pop, etc...not that these are such great deals either but they are more of a "partnership" between bands and labels..which is what they are claiming to be...our attorney told me today that he has said to a couple of labels that are doing things like this "Don't do it- don't draw a line in the sand and tell bands it's your rules and what you say goes because the internet is an opportunity for bands to gain power and a record company that realizes this and works WITH a band will prosper exorbitantly more than one that just keeps screwing them throughout the decades whether it be with pen or mouse"..Let us reitirate that we've come in contact with some very good people working for this company and it's not their fault that this is the way it is...heck, even the V.P. of A&R said he hasn't seen the agreement as of today. BUT- right now all Farmclub.com is succeeding at doing is driving the wedge between band and label farther apart..good job Jimmy....watch and see the power of the internet as this story makes its way to the desks of millions in the next couple of days...
"Somebody's gonna get a record deal"...is that a threat?>
20.08
Yes! It's the English press!
In our lunch break I read out Andy Gill's review from today's The Independent (UK), posted on the Guestbook, for Trey, Pat & Bill Munyon. Their immediate comments:
"Wow! It can only go up from there!" - Bill.
"How can you top that one?" - Trey.
"Shall we send this guy `I Had A Dream'?" - Pat.
All these comments with smiles & laughs. Somehow, I don't think these reviewees take the review as seriously as does the reviewer; nor do they take the reviewer as seriously as he takes himself.
The Independent was once my newspaper of choice (abandoned for the FT several years ago). I never liked the tone of its reviews, which were persistently snide. Andy Gill is perceptive, and one of the few professional writers who has recognised my MO. It's a pity his "side" (as is said in Dorset) colours his work. A few years ago when Virgin were setting up reviews for me, they included one with Andy Gill. I declined. I have no objections to debating with someone who dislikes my work, or holds a contrary opinion (surely we learn from different views?), but goodwill needs be involved. Mr. Gill continues in a critical tradition begun in England by George Bernard Shaw just over 100 years ago: the reviewer is the focus of their own review. But GBS had wit.
So, let's hear it from the English (music) press --
<By any standards, Robert Fripp is an exceptional guitarist, technically accomplished and innovatory, as demonstrated by his mesmerising "Frippertronics" pieces and his work with Bowie and Eno. Why, then, should his own band be so turgid and ponderous? Whether essaying a dark, swampy blues like "ProzaKc Blues" or a more complex art-rock piece like "FraKctured", The ConstruKction of Light bears all the tarnished hallmarks of redundant Seventies prog rock: the dense, clotted riffing that seems to regard listening pleasure as somehow incidental, if not simply an annoyance; the pointlessly complex polyrhythms; the frantic fretboard exercises; the vocals offered in discrete single words darting from speaker to speaker - a strategy also followed by the guitar parts on the title-track, the two channels serving almost as each others' grace notes. Once again, it's proof that music is far too important to be left to musicians, who as a rule are overly concerned with performance, with the "how" rather than the "why" of music. Apart from a few isolated moments - notably Trey Gunn's touch-guitar solo on "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum", which resembles one of Conlon Nancarrow's player-piano pieces - this is quite the most unbearably solipsistic music I have heard in years.>
One might enquire, then, why bother to listen to or review an album which causes the reviewer such distress? Clearly, because it causes the reviewer distress. This position is idiosyncratically English. If the reviewer likes the album, the editor finds a writer who doesn't (cf the Mojo last December, where the new editor sought to emphasise personal disputes between members). This concern to broadcast negativity is astonishing.
What strikes me most in Mr. Gill's review is "that music is far too important to be left to musicians who are overly concerned with -- the `how' rather than the `why' of music". (Does Mr. Gill mean the "what" of music? He seems to be addressing functionality). The implication is that musical choices should be left to reviewers & commentators, perhaps even Mr. Gill himself. This is a truly terrifying prospect, even to one who has heard struggling, aspirant, dopey & non-reflective players (including myself) present conceptually-underdetermined ideas in group situations over a period of 39 years.
Once upon a time, journalists were the only interface between players & their public, but no longer: the internet allows & encourages wider commentary. The commentary isn't necessarily better informed, but it is broader; and players need reliable feedback. But for musical choices to be seconded to an English reviewer? Come on, dude! It's an easy shot, but - hey! - musical commentary & feedback is too important to be left to the merely opinionated.
The bad news! <This is quite the most unbearably solipsistic music I have heard in years.> Well, at least the album got under Mr. Gill's skin.
The good news! An "isolated moment"! <Trey Gunn's touch-guitar solo on "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum", which resembles one of Conlon Nancarrow's player-piano pieces.>
Actually, it's not a touch-guitar solo. And it's not Trey. Perhaps King Crimson music isn't important enough to be reviewed by a critic who can differentiate between the players in the band and their instruments.
21.04
Today: we ran through VROOOM material, as well as the new repertoire. We're all pretty tired, but moving steadily forward. Programmes & sounds have to be written & modified, but spirits are good. E-flurries continue.
