Category: Music

THE RICH RUIN EVERYTHING

The corporations bought up the blog thing and fucked it up (I was there when AOL was filling up the search engines, churning out websites, buying HuffPost, Seed).

The corporations bought up podcasts, and things ain’t working out, so now we’re gonna hear how “Podcasts lose their edge.”

No. Cheap podcasts that are profitable and also reach 1,000,000 per episode, and make lots of money for dude bros in suits are dead. RIP.

Now Spotify has a new AI DJ. Fuck off.

We had a thriving internet community with message boards, and email lists, and music blogs and websites, but then we relented. We all fell for the shiny objects called Facebook and Twitter and streaming music.

“That’s where everyone is,” is the biggest lie the devil ever told.

Not everyone is on Twitter.
Not everyone streams.

If you’re looking for the Superbowl Audience, sure, you better play your cards right and make the music that millions wanna hear.

But there are still record stores. Go shop at ’em.
Local music stores exist. Go buy some strings.
Bandcamp exists. Go buy a digital album, or a shirt.

Yes, the biggest players make the biggest noise, but the dam is breaking.

Layoffs, mismanagement. The consolidation of power isn’t natural.

Start your website, your email list, own your music, and talk to people and build your communities.

LOVE JON MAKES BEATS

I have zero idea how he does anything with that Octatrack MKII, but it sure looks cool, and Jon’s delivery is my viiiiibe, man. Give me laid back and chill over all the glitzy, in your face, over the top music stuff any day. A true wizard at work.

I love how he talks about using presets, which goes nicely along with this video of Andrew Scheps talking about using less things instead of more. Just because you have 1500 snare sounds doesn’t mean you should take a month searching for the right one, when you can just focus on writing a great song instead.

Jon Makes Beats: YouTube / Patreon / Twitch

BANDCAMP ROULETTE FOR VALENTINES DAY

Tired of everyone crying about Rihanna playing the Super Bowl? Or “overpriced” merch from Gojira? Then just go to Bandcamp, click on three random items that just sold on Bandcamp, and see if you can’t find a new favorite artist.

Glitchy, speedy electronic music. It’s tagged “psytrance” and it’s from Norway. Whatever, this is fun.

Selenoplexia present six songs of “Blackened Death in Chicago.” Good stuff!

Released today on Valentines Day, K, Le Maestro put out this remix, I think. Pretty groovy.

NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE DOING

From ‘Forty Years In, Yo La Tengo Are Still Making It Up as They Go‘ over at Pitchfork.

When Yo La Tengo invited Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley to sit in with them for the entirety of their second-night set, the drummer pleaded, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “You don’t have to,” Kaplan told him, adding, “We don’t know what we’re doing.” He only hopes that Yo La Tengo’s faith in their collaborators will spark “something interesting.” 

RAGE AGAINST THE CONTENT

Love this from ‘2022: The Year Music Broke‘ from Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi):

We are in a far worse situation than we were in 1991. Thurston’s part-jokey, part-deadly serious condemnation of the industry then – “When youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do?” – feels like an understatement today. It’s no longer just about youth culture; it’s all cultural production that’s monopolized by big business. Thirty years of capital consolidation have created monopolies larger and more disconnected from “content” than we could have imagined even at our snottiest in the 90s.

I was in the thick of the 2001-2005 music blog frenzy. A good Pitchfork review helped sell thousands of albums, but by 2007 cracks were already starting to appear. Consolidation, the fight for Google search results, social media killing the comments sections, and the push by everyone to get a mention in a blog post drove the value down. CPMs plummeted, it was a race to the bottom and some people won, and lots more lost.

The biggies came in, sold their ads, and when it crashed to the ground, they moved on to other companies with shiny new job titles.

Scorch the earth, destroy the culture, and reap the rewards!

DIY CHILL VIBES MUSIC VIDEOS

I’ve been watching a lot of these videos on YouTube on mute, and pairing them with various releases I find on Bandcamp. It’s a fun way to build some relaxing videos to watch, especially if you mess with the playback speed.

Now you’ve got some slow motion chill vibe video playing, with whatever music you want alongside. Good times.

And then like… if you find two that pair well together, you can share both of those with your friends, or embed them both on a blog (like this), or Tumblr, or social media (for now).