Without a Yard

On the eve of MESH & a host of other busy-busy things this week, I thought I’d throw up a post of random thoughts from the past coupla days. The whirlwindweekend hasn’t caught up to me yet & I can’t believe that it’ll already be mid-week tomorrow. Apologies to buds that have suffered my burst of cancellations, I am making some preemptive strikes to make up for time spent MESHing during work hours & my social life is paying the price - sorry!

Top of mind, after the weekend’s transcendental Feist concert and a music-filled Santa Cruz is all the rehashing of industry trends - prompted by the NY Times article that ran yesterday. Find it here. It’s a decent enough summary of what a long strange trip it’s been and the puzzling lack of long-term staying power/traction that any new albums have had in the market for a looong tail…I mean looong while. You get it. Anyway, when industry navel-gazing gets the best of you, turn to Mr. Cuban for some perspective (& ego). The no-brainer suggestion to allow consumers to purchase music outside of their homes in the format they prefer (overwhelmingly Mp3) seems like a, well, no-brainer. So let’s get on that.

The scariest takeaway from the Times piece, IMHO, is hearing that companies like Warner are considering branching out into management, and are now vultures hovering over bastions like Sanctuary….if you were an indie artist considering signing to a label, would the prospect of having a guaranteed COI by combining in-house management to your contract sound appealing? Yikes.

In good online monetization news, PayPlay has launched & already features some fantastic progressive artists on its growing roster…PayPlay is kickass because it mashes up two of music geeks favourite online features - legal Mp3 downloads & referral services like Last FM & MOG. Ethical music geeks appreciate (besides that whole non-pirated thing, ugh…) the fact that PayPlay artists will recieve significantly more payment from downloads than industry-dominator iTunes pays out ($0.59 compared to $0.07 on iTunes - BRUTAL).

The next couple of days I might try to live-blog the workshops & conference panels…but I am sure that I will fail miserably. Gotta love Seth’s take on liveblogging attempts - it’s pretty accurate. Llooking back on SXSW uploads - 80% of that stuff was pretty raw & unreadable & certainly not-processed for casual consumption. That said, I will be jotting down quotable quotes and brainwaves - but I’m not promising a g.d. wiki or anything.

Anywhoo, running early tomorrow so I should sign off. & oh, I listened to the title line’s album (check it out here) at least six times today whilst in that zombie-state of intense under-grad-writing-mode (for a four pager, how sad - I used to be able to churn those things out!)

peace
meegs

Some spring-cleaning style back blogging is in order. Blogger’s assertion that they save your drafts automatically is of COLD comfort to yours truly having just lost a huge-ass post crafted this a.m.

Ugh. Forgot to write about martine’s brilliant Camaromance show as a part of Pitter Patter Nights at the Boat on Wednesday. her covers of The Magnetic Fields’ ‘Book of Love’ & Wolf Parade’s ‘I’ll Believe Anything’ (as well as her own compositions, of course!) were jaw-droppingly good. I was kicking myself for not bringing along an Mp3 recorder, but having rushed down to the club after a heart-breaking loss in b-ball, I just didn’t have my act together & didn’t even think to bring a camera, too. sigh.

Glad I didn’t try to bring along a camera (tho the Flickr site is seriously starving since SXSW….) to the !!! show Saturday night at Lee’s because I probably couldn’t have stayed still long enough to snap a pic. Although Eye Weekly’s heads up pre-concert blurb warned attendees to ‘be prepared to sweat’ - I naively thought it was going to be a dance fest along the lines of the usual electroclash suspects. Damn, I was so wrong. This was the most intense audience participation, leading singer charisma, danceable show since Les Savy Fav at Red Eyed Fly in March:….chk chk chk one will definitely rank in the Top 5 for 2007 - regardless of who comes to town in the next 7 months…!!!’s new songs are ridiculously good live, especially with guest vocalist Shannon giving Nic a rest every now and then - so he can focus on speaker dancing, set climbing & audience interaction….I actually got to dance w/ Nic thanks to our early arrival at the venue and strategic seating….we did the classic stage right wall perch for always-improving-never-boring openers Holy Fuck (tho no Buck 65 cameo - NOTHING can top that set…) and the surreptitiously weaseled our way down behind the barstooled front/stage right area by the speakers…Lo & behold about 3/4s of the way into the show Nic tightrope-style-walked along the mini bar for the stool-seaters & hopped off for a blissful 40 second boogie with yours truly. Le Sigh. & audience members were definitely not the only ones sweating. Nic took of his shirt halfway through the set and wrung about 1/2 cup of sweat onto his Carrot-Top mop and shook it onto the grossed-out vs. grateful front rows.

In a completely different but no-less interactive arts night, we caught the preview performance of Bluemouth Inc’s ‘How Soon is Now?’ in an abandoned warehouse at Landsdowne/Dupont. Like the Globe review here (in today’s paper), the choreography, blocking, use of space and multi-media displays are SO attention-grabbing & unconventional - it’s hard to stay focused on the characters/dialogue themselves…I left feeling completely overwhelmed by the barrage of noise, song, steps and movement (audience, too, btw) - but still detached from the struggle of the protagonist. Outside of the sense of detachment, this is still an entertaining escape and a theatre experience completely unlike anything I’ve seen before - mainstream or fringe combined. The ‘Peter & The Wolf’ themes of safety, societal boundaries, outsiders, etc. resonate well through all media used - I’d recommend checking it out just to witness the troupe’s transformation of the building.

Needless to say, the rest of the long weekend (besides celebrating glowing Magda’s b-day dancing to rockabilly tunes at the Dakota Tavern to a very long, high-energy & ambitious set by the Kensington Hillbillies (who I am SURE my Mom will freak out over & hopefully cause some well-needed respite to her BeBop Cowboys records…) & strolling around w/ Amanda through downtown…) was spent outside getting my walk on & the inevitable burn. But it was worth it! This afternoon will probably bring more outside time, reading & editing the Beau’s CPSA masterpiece…..

Peace
Meegs

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger of lates. Truant for a week - ugh - sorry. Many worthy links have been hastily posted on Facebook, which is no legit replacement for the notorious b.l.o.g. So yeah, I’m sorry - work has been a black hole of time for the past two weeks or so. This week has prompted a major paradigm shift - many buddies have been offering (un)solicited advice and your comments are greatly appreciated. It is a huge relief to know that there is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom available at my fingertips! Good friends old and new have been exceptionally resourceful and shone some much-needed perspective on some state-of-the-union talks. So thanks - you are all MacGyvers in my eyes.

Events throughout weeknights this week have also enabled blog-neglect. Catching up dinners, concerts, receptions, oh my! Tonight I’m going to have to pass up what I know will be an amazing gig - The Mike Evin Residency at Tranzac - to catch the vagabond boho-beauty, Martine, at the Boat. She’s playing under her stage name - The Camaromance - among a lineup of very strong Montreal acts. Please do come. If you can’t trek to the Market - then support Mike E in the Annex. The choice is yours - both shows are super cheap or free, so don’t forget to ante up when that hat comes around. You need all the good karma you can get these days. How’s that for nagging? & Don’t Talk Back!

Got sick of my music collection & trolling around (most) Mp3 Blogs, so I’ve resigned myself to the fact that between the hours of 8ish-6ish KCRW takes over my life - in the past hour alone, they’ve spun rare/amazing Feist, Bloc Party, Muse remixes - so good - almost makes me ready to splurge on paying for Mp3s…Especially the Feist remix stuff. You ain’t No Picasso (gratis) will have to do for now….In the meantime, I’ll brush up on my tricks to navigate the high seas & load up the iPod to survive my bus rides…speaking of which…(caught a mini-reference to this on TV last night & was promptly sent this link by my legion of buds that are looking :

Most of the Facebook posts were dribbly drabbly without proper tags or comments - lots about DRM and other rant-ables. Today’s brutal news from the DMCA ranks right up there, though…the possibility of criminalizing “attempted infringement” or copyright law. Bizarro World we live in.

On the bright side - after reflecting on what I really want in music journalism - I’ve decided that most of my fav qualities can be found here, at Sound Proof Magazine. Added bonus is Justin’s sublime retelling of an off-kilter Kweller concert experience. Great job, Aussie.

Anywhoo, gotta jet for basketball….

Peace
Meegs

“From: XXXXXX
http://www.myspace.com/XXXXXXX
Date: 05/05/2007
Flag as Spam or Report Abuse [ ? ]
Subject: No Subject
Body: Whats good wit ya,dis (insert really lame MC name here) breezin thru to see what it do and to say stop by my page and peep my music.Leave a comment or sumthin.Any love for this 618 movement is appreciated,holla back “

Sorry Mr. Weather Pattern Name, I can’t be bothered to show any more love for any more area codes - my heart is forever torn between da 705 & my homies in the 416….some shout outs to the ATX 512-crew.

PEACE WE OUTTA HERRRRRE