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Monthly Archives: June 2008
Starving Foxes
Bob Lefsetz’s take on the record biz’s latest snake oil, 360 Deals, is worth absorbing.
Lefsetz letter 360 DEALS This whole business is top-heavy. And these lumbering giants are trying to maintain their power, however ignorantly.
The key today is leaving some money on the table. Be willing to give the audience something for free, you’ll get paid back in spades, if you’re good.
“360 deal,” the new means for dinosaur record labels to glom on to musician’s ancillary profit centers. Except, of course, what they really want to do is glom onto the artist’s primary touring and swag profit centers under the guise of integrating all efforts behind the about to expire CD ‘hard goods.’
So, once again, in exchange for contacted obligations to the artist the label will reach into the artist’s pockets for monies they never before could get hold of. There’s no charitable way to characterize the foxes figuring out a new fangled way to partner with the hens in exchange for the foxes being allowed to, so-to-speak, guard the henhouse doorway.
I think the record industry has hollowed itself out enough by now that it’s okay to hold the honchos and their minions accountable for this self-destruction. So, with the ’360′ it seems like starving foxes are offering the hens to do guard duty. At this late point in the old fashioned record industry’s death spiral, I’d blame the artist and their management for being stupid enough to even consider a ’360.’
Among the many pithy things about the record business artists have told me over the years, one of my favorites was when one described label marketing as: “Somebody making a lot of money whether they are good at their job or not.” Another favorite is concise: “They sit around and do nothing.”
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Crazy Bald Head
Incredible the king of the crates, D.J. Weirton, has tracked me down and tomorrow I’ll pitch him some props. He was my right hand man at the Record Den and even outlasted me as he served out his commission right up to the point the ship rolled and sank under the waves.
I can’t wait to find out what happened when he resurfaced. It’s been 8 years. He played a very important role in my musical journey. I’ve put together a seeqPOD mix that highlight six of his biggest tips: the downtempo sometimes drum & bass of Lamb; the crooklyn dub and roots of Dr. Israel; Bjork; Lee Perry.
However this doesn’t do his game changing contribution or the story of our working together in the last days of the old school record business any justice. I can summarize and suggest that he remade an inveterate jazzer by creating the conditions through which his own diverse good taste could rub off a bit on an old geezer. I especially got jazzed by drum and bass, illbient dub, the Bristol chill, and, much of the turntabilism he’d toss on sound system.
The curious thing is that the store was decidedly urban and its customers’ tastes ran mostly from G to R&B. I’m basically a longtime enthusiast of southern soul, whereas Cleveland is a northern soul town. DJ Weirton loved old school hip hop. We both loved Prince. We could get behind Badu and D’Angelo, but we were out of step with the trends even if selling those same trends paid our checks.
But we sure had fun turning ears with all the DJ Spooky and Skratch Pickles and Grooverider and Roots Manuva and Meters and Bill Laswell, Ninja Tune crews and many others we’d spin solely for the sake of preserving our insanity while watching what happened on the floor, as-it-were. Heavy props to the rest of the Den crew, Amadeus, RJ Sax.
- Lamb – Cottonwool (Fila Brazilia remix)
- Bjork – Army of Me (Liquid Riot remix)
- Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Purity Rock (DJ Spooky remix)
- Dr. Israel – Reconnection
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Rocky Roots
I’ve known my friend Kate for forty-two years. She comes back to town every now and then to visit her parents and we get together for brief moment. As it has happened, her husband, Rocky Maffit, is a fine professional musician with a long pedigree and very diverse musical interests.
She played me a track from his new album, a record close to the end of its journey to completion.
It was killer! The sound was gospelish with more than a nod toward the atmospherics of Daniel Lanois and the syncretic Peter Gabriel, and rootsy Ry Cooder. What also jumped out was the great care and intricacy of the assembled track, especially the subtle rhythms woven throughout. Now I just have to be patient!
One other thing: Rocky might be termed a globetrotting but regional kind of artist. I’ve tagged his link DIY Creative. This is the tag I use for musicians who have figured out how to make a go of it without yielding to the exploitative old school industry. See my page here: Business Advice for Musicians. The page sums up much of what I’ve learned after 20+ years in the business.
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Dreamy Days
Roots Manuva. See good news on my Explorations blog.
