Show Review: Can Prince Rama End the Buzz Drought of 2k11?

  I saw Prince Rama open for Grimes in the basement of a Buddhist Temple in Toronto during NXNE and thought they were pretty amazing.  Only after did I learn the back-story- "signed" to Paw Tracks, "discovered" during SXSW, and, most importantly- album to be released in the fall.

  Personally, I agree with HIPSTER RUNOFF that we are in the midst of a buzz drought.  In the same way that the Mayans had both 22 year cycles called "KATANS" and then cycles comprised of the cycles, Buzz is at a low point in two cycles.

 First, there is the yearly cycle that has been created by the new gatekeepers of the internet.  Specifically,  the calendar begins with strong buzz and new buzz bands, and then there is a decline, with the buzz generators exhausted by the start of the fall.  The months of september to november are given over almost entirely to "established" Artists, and little buzz is generated.  December, is, of course, a waste land for new music and that time is used by gatekeepers to 'recharge their batteries' and results in new buzz for the months of January and February.

  Second, there is the three year cycle for trends.  As I've said on this blog before, this is an end period for the larger "LO FI" movement that emerged in 2008.  The cycle ends in different ways for Artists and Audiences.  For Artists, some bands emerge out of the trend cycle and move into the regular music industry, for other Artists, they lose steam as the trend they are associated with loses stream.  For Audiences of those Artists, some move along with them, others begin their search for the next big thing.

  In terms of the Artists I write about on this blog and the associated trend of "LO FI" (2008-2011) here are some events that are hallmarks of the end of the period:

  1. Nathan Williams of Wavves is making a video game.
  2.  The next Best Coast record is being produced by John Brion.
  3.  The new Dum Dum Girls record was number one on the new artist chart.

  The end of the longer three year cycle coinciding with the petering out of the shorter calendar year cycle combines to create a "buzz drought."  I would suggest that it will resolve itself by mid January of 2012, by which time a new trend will emerge, but until then- relax, go back to roots, check out local bands.  Chill.

  Personally, I believe that Prince Rama represents the potential start of a new buzz trend, that of the incorporation of non-western song styles and motifs into the buzzosphere.  It's too soon to tell which Artist or Artists will fully develop this trend, or how it will be received by the public, but such a trend would provide a counter point to the low cost production and trad rock roots of most of the successful lo fi acts.

 Certainly, based on their performance last night, Prince Rama has what it takes to emerge into the wider consciousness of the general public.  The packed audience- obviously there early for the headliner Gang Gang Dance, was quite appreciative and there was little of the "outside drift" that I've often observed at the Casbah (outside drift is when people drift outside to the smoking patio DURING an opening band's set.)

   Their two person sister act is portable and seems built for the long haul- an absolute necessity in a period where regular touring is a substitute for advertising dollars and label driven publicity.  I am personally hopeful that the new Prince Rama record, TRUST NOW will be a critical and sales success and that more people will be exposed to their excellent sound.

Dirty Beaches, Purity Ring and Trailer Trash Tracys Playing Pitchfork Paris Pre Party

BUY TICKETS

PITCHFORK SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT

This show is 10/27 at Point Epherme, Paris FRANCE.

People Still Buy CD's

   Seeing as I'm involved directly in producing and distributing vinyl records, you might be supervised to hear me say that people still buy CD's.  But let me tell you something.  You know who buys CDs?  EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE G** D*** WORLD.

  CDs are what normal people who aren't music obsessives buy when they want to listen to music.  OH- I KNOW what you're going to say, "Normal people download stuff from itunes."  OK- OK- some people do, yeah.  But there aren't a lot of poor or even middle class people who will sit down and BUY five albums off Itunes at once.  But they'll go to a CD store and do that.  Just because buying electronic music is easy and cool, people assume that EVERYONE does it when they want to listen to music, but a lot of people:  Moms who shop at Target, People who get coffee every day at Starbucks, Guys who buy Video Games: They will stop and buy a CD.

  Here's something else- you know where else the vinyl revival is a big deal?  The UK and NOWHERE.  There are maybe a few thousand people in the United Kingdom who shop at independent record stores and buy vinyl.  Everywhere else?  Less then a thousand.

  Vinyl only is great if you want to test market an Artist, or to develop an Audience for a new Artist, or if making vinyl records is your hobby and you don't need to earn a living. BUT- if you want to play in the big leagues, musically speaking, the CD is where it's at my friend.   AND- here's another thing- when you get up to the very top of the Billboard 200- for Singles or Albums- the difference between 1-100 and 101-200 is weighted towards CD sales.  I'd bet you.

  One of the under appreciated aspects of a CD (vis a vis a tape or vinyl record) is that it's power increases the further it goes from its origin.  So, if you are an Artist in Los Angeles, and some kid sees your CD in a record/CD store in Krakow- it's going to have a bigger impact, and the consumer is more likely to buy it because it is "exotic."  It's the collector's habit of buying foreign editions of releases reversed and writ large across the earth.

  By the same token, having the CD of an indie artist in a small town CD shop INSIDE the US has a similar impact on the potential consumer. It's the shock of recognition of seeing something that the consumer has only read about, "in the flesh" so to speak.  It's a token, and the consumer gets the added sensation of recognizing the CD as a desirable possession.  There might be fewer people experiencing that moment then there used to be, but a CD is going to be your best bet.  This is especially true in markets where the Artist isn't going to tour.  For those people the CD is ALL THEY GET and even selling 1-5 a month adds up over time.

    The other advantage is that the number of places that sell CD's is roughly a million times more then the number of places that sell Vinyl Records.  Most people actually go to Record stores to buy CD's because they aren't that into music, don't have a record player, don't like the Artists who put stuff out on vinyl, etc.

     Also, CD's are sold at locations other then Record stores, whereas vinyl records are often not sold IN RECORD STORES (punch in "record store" into a mid-size mid western city map and see the search results to see that at work.)

BIG PRINCE RAMA SHOW TOMMOROW NITE @ THE CASBAH w/ GANG GANG DANCE

GANG GANG DANCE
PRINCE RAMA
$15
THE CASBAH, SAN DIEGO CA.

DON'T MISS PRINCE RAMA OPENING FOR GANG GANG DANCE AT THE CASBAH TOMORROW NIGHT.

        I fell in love with Prince Rama at this year's NXNE, where I saw them open for Grimes in the basement of a Buddhist Temple in Toronto.  They were amazing: Great songs, dynamic live performance and something different.  I didn't know it at the time, but I guess the guys in Animal Collective agree because they "signed" Prince Rama to a deal after a similar encounter at SXSW a couple years back- when they were a three piece even.  Now they are a two piece, and man- worth checking out.  Buy the new record while you are there, it might help people break the "buzz drought" that characteristically engulfs the blogosphere at the end of every calendar year.

  Also, Gang Gang Dance has a cool four million Last.fm spins, so I would expect this to sell out at the door. So get there early for PRINCE RAMA.

  Don't be the guy who figures out how great Prince Rama is six months from now and then belatedly learns that he missed the live concert that's happening tomorrow.  Don't be him.  Don't be the guy standing outside the Casbah at a sold out show, either.

Dum Dum Girls Bow At Number One on the Billboard New Artist & Heatseekers Chart

   First week album sales for Dum Dum Girls put them at:

#1 on the Billboard "Heatseekers" Chart  (BILLBOARD HEATSEEKERS ALBUMS)
#1 on the Billboard New Artist Chart
#13 on Alternative Albums
#16 on Independent Albums and "Tastemakers
#24 on Rock Albums
#101 on the Billboard 200 Chart

 CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE DUM DUM GIRLS FOR THEIR HARD WORK- IT'S NICE TO SEE IT PAYING OFF.  HATERS!  BACK TO YOUR PARENTS BASEMENTS!

CORPORATE RECORD LABELS ARE A TREND

    Am I the only person on Earth who is still disgusted by Fortune 500 corporations starting "indie" Record Labels?  I like when journalists and bloggers write about this trend "matter of fact" style- like it isn't a big deal.  These are the same people who are "occupying wall street" and they're willing to spend money on a Record put out by fucking Mountain Dew.  GROSS.

SCION AUDIO VISUAL:  Started 2005, Re-Started 2011.
ARTISTS: INNUMERABLE- 161 PAGES OF ARTISTS???
GIGANTIC CORPORATION PAYING FOR IT ALL: TOYOTA.

RUBBER TRACKS: Started 2011
ARTISTS:  NONE.  NOT ACTUALLY A RECORD LABEL BUT A "RECORDING STUDIO."
GIGANTIC CORPORATION PAYING FOR IT ALL: CONVERSE.

GREEN LABEL SOUND: Started 2009
ARTISTS:  WAVVES,  CHROMEO, THE COOL KIDS, FREELANCE WHALES
GIGANTIC CORPORATION PAYING FOR IT ALL: PEPSI-CO


FREE LABEL NAME SUGGESTIONS

PORK SAUSAGE WAX
FOR FARMER JOHNS BREAKFAST FOODS

GREASY TUNES
FOR CHEVRON

CANCER TRAXS
FOR PHILLIP MORRIS

WHAT DO YOU SAY???

THE WORLD OF THE HUNS

BOOK REVIEW
The World of The Huns
by Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen
University of California Press
p. 1973

   The Huns sacked the Western Roman Empire in the mid 5th century AD and were the straw in the drink of the so-called Dark Ages.  With them, the Huns brought Germans (then known as Goths),  Scandanvians (Gespids), Alans (Iranian language speaking white folks from Central Asia) and the Huns themselves.   Despite their historical importance, little is known about the Huns because their language was not written and the Romans of the time had more important things to do then write histories of the folks who were sacking their Empire.

   Maenchen-Helfen's book is an unfinished masterpiece- he emigrated from Nazi Germany, ended up teaching at UC Berkeley, but he died before The World of the Huns could be finished.  Even in it's unfinished state, it's quite the accomplishment.  Maenchen-Helfen draws upon sources written in Latin, Chinese, Persian, Armenian and Arabic.

  There was nothing especially original about the Huns or their methods.  Basically, they practiced the Iranian style of mounted horsemen using composite bows.   They would ride up to Roman (or Barbarian armies, then retreat and shoot their arrows at the opposing soldiers.    They didn't invent this method of combat- it was much in evidence during the centuries long wars between the Romans and the Parthians and Sassanids in the northern part of the Middle East during the 2nd and 3rd century.  However they did bring their hordes right onto the doorstep of the Roman Empire and then sacked the shit out of it.

   Attila and his Horde didn't much persist after the death of the man himself.  Part of the problem is that the Hunnic hordes, being poly-ethnic, didn't have a "nation state" mentality- more like a "we are only going to stick around until we can get the hell out of here."  Thus, after Attila's death, the Goths- serving as his lieutenants, rebelled against his successors and started their own statelets.  Also, Germanic speaking peoples were pushed into Europe from the Russian plains in an attempt to flee the Huns.

   Prior to the hey day of Attila, the Huns were often paired with the Alans- an Iranian language speaking people from the Northern Caucuses.  However, after 400 AD the Alans split with the Huns and settled in  Southern France and the Balkans, where they were a potential source of Zoarastrian/Cathar ideas in Europe.

  As to the ethnic/racial/linguistic characteristics of the Huns, Maenchen-Helfen, comes down on the side of the Huns being poly-racial- being a mix of "Mongoloid" and "Europoid" peoples, but speaking a Turkic language.   SO NOW YOU KNOW

BOOK REVIEW: Tennyson The Unquiet Heart

BOOK REVIEW
Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart
A Biography
by Robert Bernard Martin
p. 1980
Oxford University Press

  Tennyson is THE Victorian English poet. From the mid 1840s to his death in the 1880s, he was England's "Greatest Living Poet."  At the height of his career his new books were being printed 50,000 copies a printing and selling through multiple editions in both the United States and the United Kingdom.  Not bad for a cat who never did an honest bit of work in his life.  Tennyson is like the prototype for the modern Art Celebrity.  Within his lifetime he complained about the unwanted attention of "Cockney's" and Americans who would hassle him on his island retreat.

   Tennyson, however, had his celebrity thrust upon him, initially opposed to publication, his hand was forced in the 1830s when an American publisher put out an edition without his permission.   Tennyson came from a wealthy family and he never had to work.  He spend most of this 20s and 30s wandering around England and Europe and very, very, very slowly writing verse.  Tennyson married at the age of 41, and there is no sign that he actually had sex before then.  He liked to smoke inside and talk about himself.  Among the literatti he was widely recognized as a formidable literary character even before he became "the People's Poet."

   It's hard to escape the conclusion that Tennyson was in the right place and the right time to take advantage of an explosion in readers of verse and publishers of literature.  He was the number one guy at the time these changes in taste and habit took place.  It's not like his poetry was particularly modernist but he benefited from the emergence of the modern, mass market for cultural products.

   Tennyson is thus both a  very foreign and familiar figure all at the same time.  You can see the echoes of Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain in his anxiety and dissolute life style but his inheritance and pension from the government belong to a pre-modern time.

Show Review: DUM DUM GIRLS, CROCODILES & COLLEEN GREEN

Show Review
DUM DUM GIRLS
CROCODILES
COLLEEN GREEN
@ The Casbah, September 30th

   In the past I've reflected that musical trends move in 3 year cycles.  The cycles begins when a music trend of genre is "named."  It ends when the acts synonymous with the cycle either "move up" or quit.  The process of discovery/expansion/co-option is not specific to any music genre, but Artists and Audiences have genre specific patterns of discovery.

      As 2011 draws to a close, the so-called Lo Fi revival is closing with it.   Between 2008 and 2011 a number of Artists and Audience members embraced the Macintosh recording program Garage Band, and succeeded in gaining entrance to the music industry.  Like other musical revival movements, lo-fi trafficked in nostalgia  and limited budgets.  Artists who emerged from under the lo-fi banner in the period of 2008 to 2011 faced challenges similar to those faced by Artists who emerged in other revival movements.

      The Lo Fi Movement drew from American, British and European influences, but the sponsoring institutions were largely located inside the United States, with New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Southern California all seeing the growth of separate lo fi "scenes."   All of these separate scenes contributed Artists and institutions.

    Lo Fi is characterized by a heightened interest by the Artists in the institutions of the music industry- Lo Fi Artists have also been Label Owners and Writers/Thinkers.  Like other musical revivals, Lo Fi benefited from generational change over among  publications covering the music industry and technological changes in how the Audience listened to music.

    I would argue that Colleen Green is the last great, new Artist to emerge out of Lo Fi (2008-2011.)  She is, in a sense, the last of a lineage that includes Bethany from Best Coast, Piper of Pearl Harbor/Puro instinct and Dee Dee from the Dum Dum Girls.  In a sense though, Colleen Green is braver, bolder and infinitely more radical then the other three Artists.    For example, Dee Dee emerged as the member of a band.  Piper began playing with her sister and added a drummer.  Bethany wasn't IN Best Coast till she hooked up with Bobb Bruno and he was always part of the act.

   The essence of the appeal of lo fi to a broader, non passive audience is the immediacy of the connection between the Artist and Audience.  All the twittering, facebook updates and general self awareness is something that passive listeners LIKE because it allows them to "know" the Artist.  In this regard, Colleen Green is a pure connection- so when you SEE her perform,  you're more likely to pay attention when she plays a show, more likely to "look her up" on the internet, etc.

    Before Dirty Beaches came out in March of this year, lo fi was already 'over' as far as the cutting-edge tastemakers were concerned, but the fact is that the genre was in full swing, with the associated Artists playing major festivals, being featured in mass media publications on a monthly basis, and selling quantifiable, but not spectacular, amounts of music.  As it stands, several lo fi Artists have already established careers in the Music Industry and their presence will extend after the "end" of the revival itself, in the same way that bands like Green Day and Blink 182 emerged from a "wave" of bands in different geographic areas with similar sounds around the same time.

   You can already see this in effect in the prior wave of "garage rock" bands, Black Keys being a notable example, but also Black Lips.  "Garage Rock" and "Lo Fi" stand shoulder to shoulder in time.

  BUT my main thought watching Colleen Green last night is that she was going to be the last one through that particular door, and that she is the apotheosis of all the associated Artists because her vision is  BOTH the most AUTHENTIC and the  most STYLIZED.  That's a golden combination in popular music.  So I'm interested to see Audience reaction on this upcoming tour.  Her CUJO EP is avaiable for vinyl pre-sale and digital starting TUESDAY.  BUY THAT SHIT.

  Crocodiles are on tour in between records.  But the way I look at it, the Artist is an electrician, and they need to go to all the different markets and "turn on the lights" to make sure that people give a shit when their next record comes out.  The energy to "flip the switch" comes from the live performance- it's generated by the interactions that small groups of people have while attending the show.  Last night, Crocodiles turned on the lights in the room, let's put it that way.

  After the Dum Dum Girls took the stage I noticed that Richard Gottehrer was "in the house" specifically standing next to the sound board.  HE WROTE "I WANT CANDY"" AND "MY BOYFRIENDS BACK."  HE WAS AT THE SHOW.  Along with Scott Cohen, Orchard honcho and Dee Dee's manager.  So then I was like, trying to watch the show through his eyes, since he's obviously going to be giving advice.  And you know, I could see it- I could tell that Jules and Bambi had more elaborate hair styles and that Dee Dee was singing more expressively and generally speaking that Dum Dum Girls looked and sounded better then they did last time I saw them in Toronto.

  Here's a Dum Dum Girls anecdote, I was standing in the back by myself and there were two gay bros slow dancing to a Mario Orduno selection.  The Audience had a significantly higher bro AND gay Audience then before.  It rather suggested a future for Dee Dee and the Dum Dum Girls as campy Vegas style characters.

  As I watched their set, I had in mind a show that Dirty Beaches was playing at a Night Club in Philadelphia- with Anika and FACTORY FLOOR, and I was thinking about how Night Clubs must have more money to spend on talent then rock clubs.

  You could perhaps see a world in which Dee Dee DJed outside the rock club circuit.  Perhaps the future in an alternative world.  I think the decision to have this tour play smaller venues was the right one, since the goal is to generate a strong electrical charge- and a larger audience at a much larger venue might have a weak charge among the attendees.   Also, the "family" connection between Dum Dum Girls, Crocodiles and Colleen Green is as "authentic" as music gets, with genuine DIY roots and relationships fostered via both record sales and touring.  I say, as long as you're promoting the new record, play that up.

       It's something DIFFERENT at least, then being an Artist who is anxiously eager to suck the dick of the Mass Market.