TROPICAL POPSICLE THIS SATURDAY AT TIN CAN ALEHOUSE

  I read alot of blog posts by bloggers "about" bands and I'm always asking myself, "Well can this blogger deliver the goods for WHATEVER Artist he or she or they chooses to write about?  The people who are interested in whatever musical act are 1) those musicians and 2) their friends.  That's it.  Unless you are Pitchfork or Gorilla vs Bear you are not going to be the first person to write about a band OR if you are- no one else will write about the same band.

  So let me tell you something about Tropical Popsicle, a San Diego four piece that is releasing a 7" on "The Captured Tracks of the West," Volar Records.  You know what I say about comparing yourself to Captured Tracks?  Fucking go for it.  Make a g** d*** t shirt with that emblazoned on it.  Ride to glory Volar Records, ride to glory.

   The A Side is called The Beach With No Footprints and the B Side is Always Awake in shadows.   Volar Records website has "COMMUNITY NOT COMPETITION" and, let me just be bold here- maybe put that into Latin or Greek?

   "FUSCE JUSTO NEQUE" Ok so the t-shirt would be the Volar crest- the cat with the lightening bold?  And then underneath it "FUSCE JUSTO NEQUE."  That's a free idea.  Tropical Popsicle, in addition to the 7" has DATES including SATURDAY NIGHT at the TIN CAN ALEHOUSE (9/17.)   The thing I admire most about Tin Can Alehouse is that they fucking work for a living.  The reward needs to be earning a living though, looking for some kind of community acknowledgment isn't as important as using the opportunity to develop your community.

  TROPICAL POPSICLE is also going to be playing CMJ in New York this year- and if you are an East Coast reader you might want to check out the Indigenous showcase?  I assume they'll be running shit for Tropical Popsicle at CMJ.  Three things about Indigenous: One- the Rumble was a tough sell- but the idea of a regional touring circuit was a solid one and I myself have been trying to replicate it for the last six months.  SLOW GOING!  Two: Kyle Lynch is all right.  Three: If Tropical Popsicle is over 10,000 last fm plays by the end of the year they will be taking care of business.

  Finally, I think the category/genre is Tropical Popsicle and kind of Writer: more straight forward rock interpretations of the southern california basket of rock influences.  That tells me that the songs are going to have to be really good to get the "real fans" of that kind of music and then they'll need a catchy hit that is really well produced- DIY may not be the way to go- for bands with that broader sound it might be worth over playing in Los Angeles on the theory that the big time rock types are up there and blog love is going to be tough sledding.  Ha- Writer is playing a monthly showcase at the Echo in Los Angeles, touche, Writer.

Calculate The Estimated Fuel Cost of Your Road Trip

(CALCULATE THE ESTIMATED FUEL COST OF YOUR ROAD TRIP)

Driving a Ford Fusion... San Diego to New York City and back, 1108.00 - 5000 miles.
Driving a Ford Fusion... San Diego  to Houston and back... 540.00 - 3000 miles.

that six hundred bucks is the difference between life and death on a tour of a week or two.

The Roots of Texas Music

BOOK REVIEW
The Roots of Texas Music
edited by Lawrence Clayton and Joe Specht
Texas A & M University Press
p. 2003

  I think there is a fair amount of condescension about Texas in the Indie Music nation.  People living within the orbit of New York and Chicago tend to limit their definition of "cool" to those cities while making the occasional exception to representatives from the West Coast.  Outside of SXSW, most bands touring between the East and West Coast play maybe one or two dates in Texas, tops.   But uh, Texas has 25 million people and if you add that with California (37 million) you have just about 1 in every 6 U.S. citizens.  Unlike the other parts of the country, you can tour this territory year round, limit your dead zone to Arizona + New Mexico and skip the drama (and hard judging, and expenses of NYC.)

  The indie rock infrastructure in Texas markets like Dallas and Houston has grown to a level similar to that in smaller west coast markets like San Diego and Portland- this gives the touring band a strong thursday/friday/saturday segment to anchor the Texas leg of a tour.

  Despite popular conception, Texas has long been a fertile location for American music, as The Roots of Texas Music convincingly demonstrates.   Texas played a decisive role in the development of Blues and Country music in the first two decades of the twentieth century, as Blacks and White migrated from the East looking for work in the oil boom of the first part of the 20th century.  Texas's infamous criminal justice system was a direct inspiration for many of the classic Blues recordings and Blind Lemon Jefferson, by virtue of his early recordings, may be the most influential blues artist of all times.

  In the world of Country music ("Country and Western"= Western equals "Texas") Texas was key in developing the "honky tonk" song, with the now familiar tales of hard living that characterize much of the lyrical content of today's Nashville sound.  Texas was also the spawning ground for the "outlaw country" of Austin and the "bakersfield sound' of Buck Owens (born in Texas.)  Much of the country music produced in California was created by Texas immigrants.

  And of course, Texas played it's part in the rock and roll revolution.  Wolfman Jack broadcasted into Texas from a Mexican radio station across the border, and of course Buddy Holly came from Texas.

  So, it seems to me- if you are an Artist at a "DIY" level, and living somewhere between Seattle and Houston you're better off working the area between Texas and California- even outside of SXSW- then racing to get to New York City and wasting the opportunity.  When the time is right for New York City- you'll know.

From "Local Band" To "Regional Band" To "National Band" in 5 Easy Steps

     I've decided that local bands ought to be called "new bands."  There is no time limit to how long a specific project can be in this category, the same way that at "new artist" for the purpose of the Billboard Chart is measured by sales over the length of the entire career.

     Activity by new bands is typically the form of becoming a "local" band, wherever they are.  Often the question is "What is the best way for new band with no track record to get noticed?"  Answers these days typically take the form of either "going local"- playing local shows, network with bands touring through your home market OR international: start a blog, start a record label, run a kickstarter page, etc.

     I would argue that both of these approaches are less efficient for a new band then trying to tour regionally.  First of all, touring regionally is cheaper then putting out a proper record yourself AND bears almost zero chance of "failure" provided planning is proper.  Second, this is the most efficient way to network with other Artists in your area- playing a show together attended by 5 people is typically a bonding experience of some kind.  Third, getting our of your home market allows you to improve out of sight of your home audience- and most importantly, keeps your number of local performances to a lower level.

 Almost every band in the world should be able to plan and save for a road trip of a week- if you can't do that, i.e. get a vehicle, save up money for expenses on the theory you won't make any money, etc. you may not be ready to take advantage of any success  you might have.

     So for any band in the US, there is some regional tour of about a week that makes sense.  For West Coast bands, it's up and down the West Coast.  For bands from Texas, it's going up to Oklahoma City, cutting across to Memphis and then playing New Orleans and Texas.  From this perspective, the ideal place to be would be in between Chicago, New York, Atlanta and East Texas (Houston/Dallas) because then you have the access to four different week long circuits with little muss or fuss.

   The only markets excluded by this approach are Las Vegas, Denver, Boise, Phoenix, Albuquerque and Montana/Wyoming and the Dakotas.  You could also break off Boston from New York and say that there is a fifth circuit centered on Montreal.

 So, step one- figure out which region you are in. Step two, play regular, but not too regular local shows with bands from other areas in the region.  Step three, use those contacts to book a regional tour.  Step four, put together a recordings with more then one song.  Step five, attract record label and/or booking agent by pointing to what you've already done WITHOUT HELP.

  If your a bedroom artist reading this, you don't need to get a band together to play local shows.  No one expects it, no one gives a shit, and paying a band is impossible until you're at step five.

  If you are wondering how this analysis applies to a specific project, please feel free to email me and I will dispense specific advice.

Lana Del Rey is Signed To Interscope

  Columbia signed Cults, and it looks like Interscope Records has it's own horse in the 50s/60s/David Lynch/spooky pop music derby, Lana Del Rey.  I call Lana Del Rey the "female Dirty Beaches" and I can honestly say that it's an honor and a privilege to watch Interscope try to execute the blog rock opening for her LP1.  Limited edition vinyl? Check.  Debuting with a 7" on an obscure- non-Interscope label? Check.  Blog buzz, oh my yes, with the BNM from Pitchfork and headnod from Gorilla vs Bear  ALREADY IN HER BUZZ SACK.

   The fact that Lana Del Rey is signed to Interscope is public knowledge, but I've hardly seen it mentioned on the indie blogs so eager to embrace her sultry stylings.   Isn't it dishonest for blogs to disguise the fact that the Artist they are promoting is signed to a major label such as Interscope?  Isn't that fact relevant to their readers?  Isn't, in fact, their entire reader relationship predicated on disclosing that kind of fact.  And since when does a major label actively disguise or not disclose the fact that they've signed a contract with an Artist?  What is that all about?

   I'm not saying that the fact that Lana Del Rey is signed to Interscope makes any difference in the authenticity of her music, but regardless there are questions about her authenticity as anything other then a pop music artist.

Looking Up At Down: The Emergence of Blues Culture

BOOK REVIEW
Looking Up At Down: The Emergence of Blues Culture
by William Barlow
p. 1989
Temple University Press


   The story of the Blues is interesting on a number of levels that have nothing to do with the fact that most white rock and rollers trace large portions of their style, music and performance on the Blues.  First, the Blues are interesting because it was one of the modern musical forms that emerged in tandem with the invention of phonograph.  Second, Blues are interesting because there was a thirty year gap between the first artistic and cultural flourishing of the Blues and the appreciation of that flourishing by the music industry, music consumers and music intellectuals.

   Looking Up At Down: The Emergence of Blues Culture is a well rounded look at the historical facts that trace the emergence of Blues as a genre.  The bare facts of that emergence should be known to almost all modern music fans: After the Civil War white planters moved into the area south of Memphis and cleared huge areas for cotton plantations.   Slavery was now unconstitutional, but Delta planters still used African Americans for field labor, and those laborers were kept in a state of quasi-slavery. BUT- and this was important- the economic circumstances of the Delta area meant that African American field laborers did pretty ok by the standards of the time, and there was mobility- the spread of plantation agriculture meant that labor was always in demand.

   From this new found mobility and relative economic well being, musicians were able to travel between plantations and ply their art form.  What is funny, and this is a fact that Barlow gives short shrift to, is that we probably wouldn't know ANYTHING about the Blues without the records that were released in the 20s and 30s.  This is because of the 30 year gap between the blues recordings of the 20s and 30s and the post World War II blues revival.  Basically, all Blues history consists of people listening to 30-50 year old recordings and then trying to reconstruct how it went down.  Make no mistake, Blues records sold before the Great Depression laid waste to the record business, but white intellectuals didn't hail Blues as a major new art form.  The records came out, black people bought most of them, and then everyone forgot about the Blues until after World War II.

     After World War II academics, intellectuals and fans wrote the history of blues based on the recordings.  From the recordings, these interested individuals were able to go back and locate the still living musicians and from there locate and name artists who either didn't record or whose recordings were "lost" from lack of attention.

  Most of the institutions that supported the spread of blues between 1890 and 1933 were either criminally owned night clubs, gambling dens, houses of prostitution or some combination.  Once the Blues became "known" outside of its historic home in the Mississippi Delta and East Texas, it spread via traveling musicians- generally moving in a band between Atlanta to Chicago, hotspots being Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago.

   By the onset of the Great Depression, Blues had established itself as a down market alternative to Jazz, though with little of the white interest and critical acclaim that jazz generated.  And then... nothing.  No records, no books about blues- nothing- until the close of World War II.  

Measuring Artist Momentum

   For those of you who saw the panel yesterday at the San Diego Music Thing- thanks for attending!  It's tough not to appreciate the sheer achievement of the San Diego Music Thing and it's sponsoring entity, the San Diego Music Foundation.  And by San Diego Music Foundation, mostly I mean "Kevin Hellman."  No I'm just kidding, there are actually five members of the San Diego Music Foundation Board of Directors: Hellman, Bryan Spevak, Larry Munroe, Benton Moore and Dang Nguyen.    Whatever your musical persuasion, it's impossible not to appreciate the contribution that the San Diego Music Foundation has made by promoting the San Diego Music Thing.  It's a certifiable hit, even if the black out played havoc with the timing this year.  What can you do?

    I wanted to expand on my analogy of the relationship of Artists and Independent Record Labels being like that of comets with planets and stars.  Yesterday,  I said that Artists are like intersellar bodies- comets, chunks of debris, asteroids, floating through the universe.  Every Artist has a specific momentum- a combination of Mass and Velocity.  The higher the momentum, the more potentially valuable the Artist.  Record labels are like planets or stars:  They sit in place and try to capture floating bodies and pull them into orbit.  In doing so the goal is to maintain and increase the Momentum (mass x velocity) while making the progress regular and predictable(i.e. the orbit.)

     The measurements for the forces that influence the Mass and Velocity of the Artist are easy to understand.  Mass can be expressed in terms of record sales, concert attendance, mailing list subscribers, plays on streaming services and volume of available products.

     Velocity for an Artist is as simple as the rate by which specific measures of Mass increase over time. The difference in velocity for Artists with 0 vs. 1 vs. 5 mailing list sign ups a day is significant.  Similarly, the difference between in Velocity between an Artist with 0 record sales, vs. one who can sell out a 500 press 7" vs. one who appears on the Soundscan New Artist chart vs. one who appears on the Pop Chart is enough to literally explain the difference in success between different Artists.

    So the Artists are bodies in space, and then the Labels are more or less stationary objects that are trying to look at all the rocks flying by and pick which have enough Momentum to warrant the investment of resources.  Everything else is the universe itself and the rules that govern that universe (Physics).  So it's possible to talk about the unvierse and the rules of the universe, in terms of a specific artist/rock flying through space, but if you aren't talking about the Momentum of the Artist itself, you can just stay away

    When I am trying to evaluate the potential of an unknown Artist, I try to measure their size and velocity.  When I compare known Artists, I compare their size and velocity.  Representing an independent record label I both exist as an entity in the universe- selling records for a specific artist, which leads directly to new fans (mass) and an increase in awareness (velocity)  AND I'm interested in figuring out the rules that govern the universe- and they are totally separate concerns.

       You can BE a star/planet/independent record label and exist without giving a shit about the underlying rules governing your existence.   I would argue that both Jello Biafra and Justin Pearson fall into this former category, as well as most of the earlier punk/DIY/indie labels- the consciousness of these entities being limited to the knowledge that they are a smaller star/planet relative to other bigger competitors (the indie vs. major debate.)

      The awareness of the rules for the universe only become important when there is some new force in the universe- you can call it a supernova/black hole- something that effects the universe itself (destroys stars, planets, etc) and the rules governing the existence of that universe.  The supernova engulfs big and small planets alike- it does not give a shit.

      The supernova in this scenario is the influence of the internet on record sales, the total size of the audience and the corresponding impact the supernova has had on Labels and Artists trying to exist in that  universe.

   Has the supernova/black hole swallowed entire star systems?  Well yes, and I'm sure being engulfed into a black hole is a bummer for all involved.  But, all the movement creates new bodies (Artist and Labels) and increases the Mass AND Velocity of all these objects because of all the crazy shit going on.  So there is destruction and creation going on at the same time.  And you can talk all you want about the supernova/black hole and why it happened and what it means, but really, for all the planets and asteroids and stars in the area- it's just a fact.