Some random emails from the weekend have gone missing. You may want to re-send. Did the interview chat thing on halfliferadio.com last week. It was fun and also interesting.
Got my MPD-16 drum pad thing on Friday and it didn't come with a USB cable. I will be exchanging it later this week for a unit that actually comes with all its parts.
My dog of the last 10+ years (named Penny) was put down today due to cancer and general sufferin'. It is a drag but it is also okay.
Here's a Slate article on Why pop songwriting's not what it used to be via Songfight.net. It's basically a big jab at Jessica Simpson's new song sucking (I haven't heard it, so I don't know), but the article has a lot of interesting chronology of the changes the singer/songwriter label has gone through. I think I noticed the blurring of the singer/songwriter lines first with Avril Lavigne a while ago. I was reading about The Matrix, the production company that wrote her debut hits yet they were still billing Avril as having written her own songs.
Really I'm not sure if it makes too much of a difference. It kinda makes it less impressive to be a singer/songwriter these days I guess as even 16 year old girls from Napanee can do it and sell millions. But worrying about whether entertainment is legit or not always seems like kind of a waste of energy to me. Everyone acts terrified of getting tricked, but then they really enjoy it when it works and they don't notice it happening.
I jumped the gun about posting it a week or two ago, but the Flak magazine interview with me is now actually online. There is a longer director's cut of the interview available here. Who knows what crazy junk I'll have said in the past! I'm also supposed to be doing an interview on Half Life Radio of all places on Wednesday evening.
This study claims that music sharing isn't negatively effecting CD sales. Here's a big clip for those of you too lazy to read the article:
For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.
"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."
Unlikely that this is the final word on the subject, but still interesting.
After a year or two of wanting to get some sort of rhythm input device, I just ordered one of these suckers:
It's an MPD-16 and it's very hip-hop. If all goes according to plan I may have it by the weekend.
I should also mention that if any of you musicians are in the market for a Yamaha DD55 (the drum thing I was thinking about buying before I decided on the MPD16), there are tons of them on eBay. They seem to retail for about $200-$220 US and most auctions are going for $100-$120. Just so you know.
I was told today that my album I Don't Know What I'm Doing is an Editor's Pick on Netmusic.com and my track Sick as a Dog is in their top 10. That's pretty sweet. Direct link to the album is here if you wanna buy something. Songs seem to be 89 cents, not sure what format the downloads are.
Magnatune and I got some props on the Creative Commons blog. That's pretty boss. (Boss is a word I am trying to bring back into popular usage.) After a lot of initial difficulty I think I'm finally starting to get my head around what the purpose of the Creative Commons is and how it can benefit artists and business-folk. I have an idea for a Creative Commons-heavy Brad Sucks project but I'm still asking around to see if it's possible.
Wow, I have a lot of poetry to read now. Thanks to everyone who suggested and emailed me stuff. I'll have to ask about good pulpy sci-fi books later.
Does anybody out there read poetry? I did when I was a teenager to impress girls but now I'm wondering if there's anything out there that isn't junk. Please tell me who the good poets are so I can go read some. Note: I'm biased against poetry that uses language normal people don't use. ie. "Thine heart hath made mine whole" = groan city from the Brad section of the audience.
So far the neatest poet someone has suggested to me is e.e. cummings who is at least pretty nuts a lot of the time.
This article claims the Fraunhofer Institute (the folks who invented MP3s) have announced that they've figured out a way to create surround sound MP3s. They claim it'll work with existing players as well, which seems like the real trick. Very cool. (via Slashdot.)
What's cool is that other people are starting to do the radio digest thing much like Steven Garrity's Acts of Volition Radio (of which there is now session 8 online). There's now Mathcaddy Radio Sessions and LugRadio. Very cool to see it spreading! Steven's also made up a helpful FAQ about his Acts of Volition Radio, it has a lot of helpful information for anyone looking to start their own. That guy is just plain helpful.
Here's the Spin Symposium radio ad for your listening pleasure. I've been told it's been heard on CHOM FM in Montreal. Just remember: when you think extreme winter sports; think Brad Sucks.
Some other Brad Sucks related stuff: Apparently my song Making Me Nervous is going to be in a radio ad for the same event the TV ad is for. Not sure what stations it's running on, but I think it's cool to be sneaking onto radio in this manner.
Interview in Flak magazine - Here's an interview I did a month or two ago. I was kinda "in the zone" and rambly so here's hoping I make at least a bit of sense. At least I got to say "The arts are just fucked." Thanks to Adam for his time and patience. (Turns out this wasn't officially online yet, I'll replace the link when I get the word.)
My music's been being used on Binary Revolutions' HackRadio. They also feature a lot of other cool indie bands so I'm in good company.
Too Old To Rock, Too Young To Die describes the exploits of one Jef Hickey, roadie:
He's contracted gonorrhea (six times), crabs (four times), syphilis (three times) and herpes. For more than a decade and a half, with lab-rat consistency, Hickey carpet-bombed his cortex with enough pills to stock a hypochondriac's medicine cabinet.
Anyone who enjoys good crazy rock stories will probably get a kick out of it.
98.5 WNCX Classic Rock in Cleveland says:
We wanted to play "Darkside of the Moon" in it's entirety since it is the #1 album voted by YOU!! But we are unable to since the album contains the song "Money", which is deemed indecent by the U.S. Government since it contains the "S" word. Current pending legislation calls for a fine of $275,000 if we play that song.
This is getting pretty crazy. A couple of months ago I was thinking that the airwaves in general had gotten more liberal and permissive and suddenly it's like decades of progress is being undone. Glad the Internet is still full of swears.
In this article Ernest Miller suggests that remix construction sets (such as the Jay-Z Construction Set) are the future of music. He compares it to gaming mods, which is an interesting comparison. This sort of thing has actually been going on for a while now, specifically in the Acid community where artists like Madonna and Beck have been offering up the source files for some of their songs in remix competitions for years now (there are even prizes).
When I originally started doing this net music thing I started offering my own full bloated source tracks on CD for $5. I thought it'd be a neat way to get people involved and engage listeners and also get across that I don't care too much about copyright (for the nerd cred). But hardly anybody ever bothers with those things and when I eventually revise my FAQ I'll probably take the offer out because it doesn't seem to accomplish anything.
I've been giving some thought to chopping up my album into loops so that it's smaller and easier to distribute without having to mail actual CDs around but I'm not sure if it's really worth the hassle. Are there really a ton of would-be remixers out there?
There's been a lot of buzz about song analysis software lately, but this is the first one I've seen that actually mentions a song. Hit Song Science Scores A Hit On First Attempt – Anastacia's Left Outside Alone:
"HSS takes a song that sounds like it might be a hit and makes sure it can be one. With finely tuned adjustments in the mix we can ensure it has the optimal mathematical patterns for maximum market performance," said Wake who has been using the new HSS technology in his studio for several months. "With that base covered, the odds of success are tremendous."
Sounds like they're talking about it analyzing more mix-related stuff rather than the actual songwriting and performance itself. I'm not sure if I buy that minor adjustments in the mix can turn something from being a dud into a hit, though I can definitely see how it might make label execs feel like the song is 100% perfect and ready to have lots of money invested in it.
I'm retiring, says George Michael:
Pop star George Michael is abandoning the music business to release his songs online for free instead.
The multi-millionaire singer said he will never make another album for sale in record shops because he does not need the cash and does not enjoy fame.
Fans will be given the option to make donations online in exchange for downloading the tracks, and the proceeds will be given to charity.
Neato.
A few things I meant to link to over the past while:
Probably I'm forgetting some others.
Looks like my song Making Me Nervous is gonna be in a commercial for Spin Symposium '04, some sort of skiing/snowboarding thing. The spot will be airing on the French-Canadian MusiquePlus video channel starting Saturday through the end of April, if you see it, let me know! I've uploaded a copy of the ad here, if you're interested.