Since my work directly involves delivery/distribution of music to listeners, I've given a great deal of thought over the past several years to the way things have changed and are continuing to change. We're quickly moving towards a new reality where all existing recorded music is available to everyone all the time, which has been more or less inevitable since the distribution of music via the Internet became possible. There are many issues that need to be resolved, such as compulsory licensing s… Continue
I was on the phone with a musician client today, a veteran of the So Cal emo/punk scene. I mentioned that I'm from Indiana, and he immediately asked if I knew the band Mock Orange from Evansville. He said they were one of his favorite bands, and that they'd been around since the early '90s!
This did my head in, because I don't recall having ever heard of them. I assume they're an emo band or something like that - does anyone know anything about them? Are they worth checking out (or getting on t… Continue
A client of mine, a band called Dawes from L.A., told me about a fantastic show they played last night at an all ages club called The Firehouse in North Manchester, Indiana. They said they had a great turnout, and the club did a fantastic job of setting up a nice dinner, accommodations, etc. They really just flat-out raved about the whole experience.
Has anyone else heard of the place? Sounds like it should be on everyone's radar if it's not already. I'd never heard of North Manchester, but app… Continue
I was thumbing through a copy of Mansion on the Hill by Fred Goodman and I came across an interesting quote from Peter Wolf, the singer from the J. Geils Band. He said that for the first generation of folk-influenced rock writers post-Dylan, it was unthinkable to be concerned in any way about the business of music. They were artistes, period. For that generation of artists, thinking about royalty rates, publishing ownership, or recoupable tour support would have been ludicrous. As a major indust… Continue
Really thoughtful, favorable review of the ZBs re-issues on Pitchfork this morning: http://tinyurl.com/nvxcag Marvin, are you going to temporarily revise your regard for the publication? Continue
Here's a link to a nice blog write-up about Antenna, written by a DJ from WXRT in Chicago:
http://tinyurl.com/cnxkxm
Again, I apologize - I still can't get the effing hyperlink to work from this computer. Continue
I'm going to keep this short and sweet, because I have a bunch of work to do today; but there's something I've had on my mind since I wrote about the Zero Boys a couple months ago (which article, by the way, is the cover story in this month's Ryder Magazine in Bloomington). I've been thinking about the importance of technical proficiency in musicians.
When I first started playing drums, my goal was to get "good". I used to have arguments with my good pal Harry - also a drummer - about who was t… Continue
Must have something to do with my work computer, but I can never get hyperlinks to show up on MFT. Anyway, here is a URL for an article I posted today on the Know the Music Biz blog on Creative Commons licensing: http://tinyurl.com/cmdyew Continue
Thanks to Ben Deily for this link. This is the first ever Lemonheads video from 1987 for the song Second Chance, from the album Hate Your Friends. Ben is the singer in this one - for those only familiar with the later Lemonheads stuff, on the first three albums Ben and Evan shared the singing and songwriting. This was only a couple months after I joined the band - I joined just before HYF was released but after it was recorded. This was shot in and around Kenmore Square… Continue
This is an article/fan piece I've written about the Zero Boys to celebrate their recent Secretly Canadian reissues. I'm sending it around a bit to find a print publisher, so if you have comments about the facts or anything else, please post them or hit me privately. It should be obvious that this is more of a memoir piece that doesn't purport to be a definitive history. I'm not the guy to write the definitive history since I was on the sidelines, but perhaps that's something somebody should d… Continue
I’m currently writing an article on the Zero Boys in celebration of their upcoming catalogue re-issue, which I’m looking forward to posting soon. It’s gotten me to thinking about hardcore more than usual. I recently engaged in an interesting exchange in the comments section of my recent blog post “some random thoughts…” Somehow the subject of Michael Jackson came up. Thus far I’ve generated essentially zero support from my assertion that MJ is a great artist and an important cultural figure - so… Continue
I was trying to track down something using Google, and I stumbled across this: A writer named Jon Konrath wrote a novel (a rather long novel) titled "Summer Rain" about spending a summer in Bloomington in 1992 (published in 2000). I downloaded the PDF of the book from his site (www.rumored.com), and it looks pretty interesting. It's full of descriptions of Bloomington, and a quick scan revealed that at one point he goes to Second Story to see The Dynamos - a thinly-veiled Dynamics. Also it seems… Continue
Before getting into the substance of this post, I’ll confess that I don’t know much about lateralization of brain function. I have rudimentary (and probably in some ways inaccurate) understanding of general “left brain” and “right brain” characteristics. I’m going to forge ahead here with the disclaimer that my understanding is neither nuanced nor remotely scientific. This is all off the top of my head and the reader should feel free to disagree with me.
I had a conversation with my brother Jak… Continue
Here's an analysis I wrote regarding Joe Satriani's potential copyright claim:
http://idolator.com/5106872/the-idolawyer-on-whether-or-not-coldplay-can-fly-away-from-joe-satrianis-lawsuit Continue
Here's the latest Idolawyer post. Even with Mike's tutorial, I can't get the hyperlink to work. Copy n' paste:
http://idolator.com/5103092/the-idolawyer-tries-to-figure-out-if-this-whole-used-mp3-store-thing-is-legal Continue
The thread to my "Idolawyer" post started to get into some pretty interesting territory regarding digital sampling, creativity and copyright law (more interesting than what anyone had to say in the actual Idolator comments). This is a video that's been on You Tube for awhile, but I think a lot of people here will find it fascinating. The question on the thread regarding "funky drummer" made me think of this. Continue
Below is a link to my latest article on Idolator on fair use/transformative use doctrine applied to Girl Talk. I thought some folks here might find it interesting, or might at least want to make snarky comments.
Bring on the snark, Whybark, because I still can't figure out how to make my damn hyperlinks work here. Here's the old-school copy n' paste link:
http://idolator.com/5083447/the-idolawyer-gives-us-some-real-talk-about-girl-talk" Continue
I've been named resident legal source on Idolator, and I guess I have a column of sorts. Here's the first installment:
http://idolator.com/5058272/can-bands-take-back-your-tickets-if-you-scalp-them-the-answer-may-surprise-you
Not sure how it happened, and I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to take a lot of abuse from the snarky commenters. Good thing I've been… Continue
I've taken down all of my memoir blog entries, with the exception of the most recent entry and a couple of entries that are tangentially related to the blog. If anyone wants to read them, or if anyone was in the middle of reading them and wants to finish, send me an email and we'll work something out. I'm going to edit them and then I'll do something with them, or not. Thanks for the support and encouragement. Continue
In anticipation of posting the final entry of my memoir blog (that is, whenever I find time to finish the damn thing), I've posted my Blake Babies tour diaries on my MySpace page -www.myspace.com/johnpstrohmmusic
There's a short diary from 1989-1990, and a much longer diary from the reunion tour, which relates to my next blog post. It's very long, and I haven't read it over myself or done any editing. I give thanks to Stacey Sledge, the Blake Babies and Juliana Hatfield webmistress, for preserv… Continue
I keep track of what I listen to, so honestly most of what I give a play is more older music, but these are the ones from the last decade that I listened to the most.
Godspeed You Black Emperor!- Lift Your Arms Like Antennae to Heaven
Boards of Can…
Arular - MIA
Alright, Still - Lily Allen
Parallel Play - Sloan
Cold & Kind - The 1900s
The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
Robyn - Robyn
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? - Of Montreal
Tallahassee - The Mountain Goats
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
T…
seconding 'the oughts,' except it is properly spelled 'the aughts,' as the ou-spelling meads 'should have' while the au-spelling means 'nothing' or 'zero.'
no list here.
off the top of my head the records that stay with me over the past decade:
W…
I love procrastinating with this kind of stuff. Here is a start, no order or top 10, but what I would place in the top 100 or so:
Boris, "Pink" and "Smile" and "Amplfier Worship"
School of Seven Bells, "Alpinisms"
Keren Ann, "Keren Ann" and "la Disp…
