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THE INDIE ROCK BLOG
The Indie Rock Blog is a collection of Sugartune Artist News and entries from our friends at the Rock and Roll Report. If sweet, sugartunes are stirring in your soul, keep your soul stirred with a subscription to our news feed. 
The Register has an interesting article on the economics of running Apple’s iTunes record store (Your 99c belong to the RIAA - Steve Jobs). The bottom line: They don’t make any money doing it! Now, doesn’t this sound like one of those business models from the late ‘90s “dot bomb” era?
Later.
If you want to check out fandom at its most anal, check out the debates over the new Beatles Let It Be… Naked CD over at the Abbeyrd Beatles Page News Briefs section (which in my humble opinion is the best source for Beatles news hands down). Beatles fans are notorious for their debates over Mono vs. Stereo vs. Simulated Stereo Vs. this mix vs. that mix, it really is quite fascinating to read. Now I’m no Beatles purist but I would consider myself a cut above the casual fan but how much hand wringing and tongue wagging can you have over a band that broke up in 1969? (face facts it wasn’t 1970 and it certainly wasn’t in a court room in 1971). I am certainly not denigrating Beatles fans, far from it. The Beatles were probably one of the most important pop groups in the history of rock and roll and debating Beatles esoterica is really quite fun but sometimes I think that having a fit because they used George Harrison’s guitar solo from take 19 and inserted it into the final take 26 (which itself was composed of takes 12, 14, 3 and 31) is a bit much. I finally heard Let It Be off the new CD and to me, it is still a great, majestic rock and roll masterpiece. Enjoy the music, stop complaining and Let It Be.
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With all the excitement happening over iTunes, Napster 2.0 and all the rest of these legal download services have we stopped to wonder if this is all really good for the record business? Well according to Same Old Song: The Net hasn’t changed music—except maybe for the worse the answer might surprise you. As I have maintained before, downloading is here to stay but as in the resurgence of vinyle people might, after first blush, want to actually buy a physical thing that they can touch, and pop into their CD player and read the liner notes and lyrics. These people in the future might be considered horribly retro, or out and out luddites but they will be listening to their music while we struggle with corrupted hard drive files and hopelessly virus infected infected e-mail attachments. Who will be bopping to their hard bought tunes then?
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Well, I am finally retiring my circa 1996 PC for a brand new circa 2001 PC! Actually, it’s my wife’s old office PC that I have used a bit in the past but we bought it so now the headaches are all ours! The hard drive had crashed (literally crashed. It was making all kinds of weird tapping and knocking noises!) but this has been replaced (under warranty thank god) and a 512 MB RAM upgrade is in the works. What this means to The Rock and Roll Report is probably more important to me than you but 2 things stand out. I will finally be able to install an RSS News Reader program to track all the rock and roll blogs I like and hopefully make it easier to post their coordinates to my site. Also, I am going to be trying a program available that allows my PC to record Internet radio so I can play it back at a time more convenient to me. This will allow me to better review all of the cool rock and roll stations that I listen to but at a time when I can concentrate and enjoy them better and hopefully help me in putting together my Global Rock and Roll Radio Report that I posted about yesterday. I also have to decide if I should migrate from Windows 98 to Windows XP so any comments would be appreciated in this regard. I’ll let you know how all this geek stuff works out and recommend what I can. At the end of the day, my new PC should make things easier for me so that I can spend what little time I have available listening to, reading about and posting on all the cool rock and roll that’s out there. Of course, I never expected my hard drive to crash in the first place so I’m currently in “once bitten, twice shy” mode but hey, everybody tells me that technology will be our salvation and who am I to argue about it? I might even think they’re right. Now how to format that new hard drive? I think I’m supposed to shake it twice, spin it once and what the hell is this wire for?…..
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If you are looking for a very cool record label from my very own country, then check out the stuff over at Canada’s Bullseye Records. Whether it’s the Star Spangled Pop Program or the Killer Dwarfs, Mainline or The Fast, this label has all kinds of cool rock and roll goodies. Check it out!
Later.
I have never been a huge fan of U2. Why I have no clue but I like a lot of the stuff that I do hear I just haven’t forced myself to pick up the majority of their CDs and really get into them for a couple of weeks to see the light. I haven’t even finished “Unforgettable Fire: The Story of U2″ by Eamon Dunphy which I think I started that book probably 3 years ago! A quick scan of my record collection shows The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby on CD, Unforgettable Fire and Rattle and Hum on cassette and War on Vinyl. I want to like U2 more. I think they are very cool and I love their approach to rock and roll tours which is usually over the top rock and roll extravaganzas. They are gearing up for a massive world tour in 2004 with a new album out in the spring that is supposed to be aggressive, angry and real “rock ‘n roll” according to The Edge and Bono. I need a U2 crash course before they come to Montreal because I will be seeing them this time around and I want to know what I have been missing out on. U2 are cool. You know it and I know it but I need to really believe in the hype to get the full U2 effect so help me out on this one.
Later.
Over the last couple of months writing The Rock and Roll Report I have highlighted some incredible radio stations playing exciting, eclectic and allways fun rock and roll. A lot of these stations are affiliated with colleges and universities, some of them are non-commercial listener sponsored and a great number of them are increasingly ‘Net based webcasters run by music fans for music fans. Could this be the wave of the future, the weapon to increase radio diversity and bring rock and roll fun back to the airwaves? The Boston Globe article “Online radio adds to voices, choices: Amateurs gain worldwide reach” seems to think so and I would tend to side with them on this one. The Internet opens up the world to the dedicated webcaster and as I am learning everyday, rock and roll fans who are craving the real stuff are often turning to the ‘Net for their rock ‘n’ roll fix and the results so far have been quite positive. A station like Turn Me On Deadman, or Technicolor Web of Sound or Power Pop Radio are perfect examples of what you can find out there if you take the time to look. The choices are staggering, so much so that I am attempting to put together a Global Rock and Roll Radio Guide to help everybody find their own piece of rock and roll radio nirvana. Look for it hopefully early in the new year. All contributions in the form of tips, hints and web site addresses will be gratefully accepted. With this growth of quality online radio comes some exciting mobile ‘Net access developments in MP3 players and Palms and Pocket PCs that will soon allow you to take ‘Net radio with you anywhere you go once and for all breaking down the barrier between you and the great online rock and roll that you crave. The one thing that we can do now is encourage our favourite stations any way we can and truly enjoy it while it lasts. Hopefully this kind of radio will last longer than the FM boom ushered in during the late ’60s and that seems sadly played out by now, spent of all artistic daring, at least in North America. But don’t lose all hope for quality rock and roll on the FM band. It’s still being made in little corners of the radiosphere and I am here to point you in its direction since we’re all in it for the music right? Right. Crank up the speakers and join the revolution baby. You have nothing to lose but your sleep.
Later.
According to the Music Dish article “Coalition Calls for Boycott in Response to Second Round of RIAA Lawsuits” a coalition of over 177 websites is calling for a weeklong boycott of major label music. The website Stop RIAA Lawsuits is pretty impressive but does this mean I can’t go and pick up the new R.E.M. greatest hits In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Special Edition) that I was supposed to get for my birthday? Being a music fan can certainly get confusing these days. It’s all shades of gray.
Upon further reflection and review I notice that a quick scan of the websites in question lists only 3 record labels (APN Records, Audio Anime Records and Go-Kart Records) as part of this proposed boycott. I personally would take this stuff a bit more seriously if some more indie rock labels were involved and less of the Bullshit Hall of Fame type of websites. Not that they don’t have valid concerns it’s just that I would be more open to their arguments if this was put together by a coallition of independent record stores, record labels and radio stations tha’s all. Just my 2 cents.
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According to this LA Times article “DreamWorks Agrees to Sell Label to Vivendi” there is much movement afoot in the land of the major record labels. Watch and learn.
Later.
Well I must be a glutton for punishment because I picked up the latest issue of Spin over the weekend, yet another magazine with a cover story on The Strokes (It’s a collectors item. They are available with 5 different covers featuring a different Stroke on each one. How fab!). Why? Mainly ’cause I wanted to read the article on rock star deaths (where I learned more about GPS receivers than rock star deaths) but the fact that they featured Montreal’s own The Stills was kinda cool and The Darkness article was interesting I guess. Did it change my impression of Spin? Well, the cover price is cheap compared to my faves Mojo and Uncut but whereas those magazines I typically keep, Spin tends to go the way of the recycle bin (the non-computer type) pretty quickly. Ya, I guess it was an OK read and definitely better than Rolling Stone but at the end of the day that’s not saying much now is it?
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Scott Woods and his Rock Critics empire (Rock Critics and Rock Critics Daily) maintains a huge list of links to all kinds of interesting blogs, e-zines, homepages and other cool rock and roll web sites that you should check out. An excellent source of rock and roll wisdom that will take you hours to explore (and perhaps a good excuse to get a news reader program). If you find it as helpful as I do e-mail Scott with a thank you as it is an incredible amount of hard work to keep something like this going.
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As a follow up to my post on Friday about that article in the Montreal Gazette on “Garage Rock” this is the story: “Garage rock gets revved up: True devotees say garage music never left, it’s just getting attention again - thanks to its crusaders.” Of special interest will be the two top 10 garage rock classics lists that follow the story. Let the debate begin! And don’t forget to add Mimi la Twisteuse to your rock and roll radio listening diet!
Later.
This week’s Radio Station Spotlight is a bit different in that it doesn’t stream on the Internet. To listen to KCDX you actually have to be in Arizona using an actual radio. On top of it all, I have never actually listened to KCDX so I am not talking about this station from personal experience. Why am I listing a station that I have never listened to and that only broadcasts in some state where I will most probably not be able to visit to check it out for myself? Very simple. Barbara Flaska at Flaskaland sent me a link to the Phoenix New Times article “Ghost Radio: Who’s behind Arizona’s nonstop oddball rock time capsule?” and I immediately ordained it with the coveted Radio Station Spotlight of the Week but you will have to read the article to see why. Somebody actually programming music, on the radio because they love music. Wow, what a concept! Now I understand that due to economics and market realities, outside of the webcasters and listener sponsored radio stations that I crow about that this is probably just a one off radio station run by a guy who can afford to do it. But doesn’t reading this article infuse in you just a little tinge of excitement and longing for radio like this? Doesn’t it actually make you wish that you had a station like KCDX? It’s like discovering some long lost dusty book in the attic that you had forgotten all about because now all you do is watch TV and the next thing you know you just spent the last two days reading it non-stop and you now find yourself pawing through your old books looking for more because all of a sudden, TV is not nearly as stimulating to you as it once was. Radio doesn’t have to be bland and bloated, playing the same stuff over and over. People will listen to the weird, the eclectic, the forgotten, the “B” sides and the unknown if somebody would just give it a chance and do it right. No, it will not be a colossal money generating business per se but maybe that’s the problem, maybe good radio is supposed to be about something more than money. Maybe it is supposed to be about the art of playing great music in an artistic and caring way by music fans for music fans that generates enough money to pay the bills and keep the records turning. Why can’t this work other than in the deserts of Arizona? I want my own KCDX, what about you? I am now being forced to remove my rose coloured glasses. Sigh.
Later.
Creature
Moonshine Orchestra
The Snitches