-Brian Eno, Interview with The Guardian, 1-17-10.

I guess I’m always shocked when I hear a musician coming from the standpoint that they’re not making enough money with their music, regardless of the reasons they offer as the causes for their lack of revenue. If you’re not on some major corporate label why would you expect that you can use your music as the primary source for your income? Without a great deal of press – press that goes way beyond pissant little blogs such as ours – you’re never going to have widespread name recognition. And beyond that if you’re making noise Industrial you pretty much have to expect that the audience will be very small. The VAST majority of music listeners like a great melody, a good singing voice and beat that has a definite hook. Maybe that doesn’t sit well with you, and hey – I’m with you. Maybe you want to make instrumental rhythmic noise without melodies and harmonies and have progressive, ever-changing beats and perhaps you feel there should be a wider audience for such music.

Where I come from we have a saying; “Tough shit, asshole.”

Just because you bought all the equipment and learned how to use it, just because you put together a series of tracks and recorded them, just because you manufactured CDs and art-filled booklets to sell to the public does not mean anyone is obligated to buy your shit. There’s this sense of entitlement I’m seeing coming from musicians who seem to think that just because they’ve put an act together and recorded music people must buy their stuff. And they get all pissy and throw out all sorts of scapegoating when there are no – or very few – takers.

Well, guess what? If not many people are buying your stuff you’re probably not very good. That’s the long and short of it right there. And yes, I’m a dick for saying it but refer to the above saying as a reference. Maybe you found some blog to give you a good review and that served as a great ego stroke but when regular people hear your music they pass. Our site reviewed nearly 100 new albums in the past year from a variety of labels. 100 albums within 12 months. And we didn’t even come close to covering all the music that was released in the limited genres we cover. You want to scapegoat? Instead of blaming file sharing and YouTube and such try blaming your peers – all the people out there making and marketing music. They’re the ones making it less likely people will buy your stuff. It really doesn’t matter how big a fan you are of a specific style, buying hundreds of albums within a year’s time is highly unlikely. Just trying to keep all the acts straight is next to impossible.

But it doesn’t just have to mean you’re no good. It could be (and I guarantee you this is the exception, not the rule) that you’re too good and your forward thinking art is a bit much for people to take. Perhaps they’ll eventually catch up to you and there will be success later on but it might not be until after you’ve thrown up your arms and quit in frustration.

Back when I was making music I never expected to build a career out of it. I already had a career as a laborer, one that gave me regular, predictable pay, benefits and even a pension that will ensure I don’t have to work until the day I die. Music was, to me, a hobby. It gave me a chance to flex my creative muscle and “communicate” with people in an abstract way. That was the reward. When we recorded an album we would sell them at shows but we would always put on the back “Unauthorized duplication would be cool” because we recognized that getting our music in as many hands as possible was the key, even if it meant next to nothing in sales.

And I really didn’t want my music to become my career. Music was my art and my art was an expression of life. Once the art becomes your life you lose the capacity to view life in a relatable way to those who might respond to your art. It’s the daily struggles of going to work at the scheduled time every day, dealing with the authority figures hovering over you, paying your bills on time and trying to successfully maintain and nurture relationships with workmates, acquaintances, friends and family that make compelling – and yes, mundane – life experiences which are then expressed in art that speaks to people. Honestly, I’d rather have musicians poor and struggling just like me than gallivanting all over the country or world, climbing out of bed whenever they want and partying/drinking well into the wee hours of every morning. That ain’t real life and once you make it to that point you have no idea what real life is anymore. Hence, your art becomes less vital.

“A working class hero is something to be,” Lennon once sang.

There are going to be artists who won’t be able to accept the new paradigm in music distribution. Some are already threatening to quit since – in their minds – there’s no point in making music if people aren’t going to hand over a ton of money for them to do it. I say good riddance. We have far too many people making music and I’d rather have the people who have a passion for music regardless of financial compensation stick around than those who just want to make a fast buck. I don’t believe the music is going to go away precisely because there are plenty of people who have that passion to express themselves and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make them rich and famous. What matters is the art. What matters is what is being expressed. That’s all that is relevant.

So am I saying artists shouldn’t be compensated in some way for what hey offer up for us to enjoy? Hell no. If you take something away from these gifts you should be willing to give something in return. I just don’t think the rewards should be so substantial that they remove the artist from the world that nurtured their art so effectively. That doesn’t adequately serve the purposes of great art.

Oh, and read the rest of the interview with Eno. Brilliant, brilliant man.

1) This is a small niche market. It seems somewhat doubtful that much of the music is meant (or will) appeal to a major listening audience. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be amused to no end if I could turn on the Top40 radio station and hear Winterklate… but even considering that prospect is utterly absurd. Other niche markets that I watch closely (academic publishing and martial arts instructionals) mainly work on charging absurd prices, because it’s assumed that sales are going to be extremely low but are guaranteed regardless of price. But while Death in June can get away with printing limited-to-100-pressing-super-expensive releases, this is not really a viable business strategy for industrial (etc.) record labels to follow. We can always make the speak-out-of-our-ass speculations on the scene dying or growing, but chances are it won’t get that much bigger or that much smaller. But until someone figures out a better way to indoctrinate listeners into the cult (it’s hard to use any other words), we’ll probably maintain equilibrium in numbers.

2) Over-saturation! You can’t stop people from making music (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Access to equipment and means to producing music are getting cheaper day-by-day, thanks to the digital revolution. All of it will eventually be released in some way, shape, or form — the tree can fall in a forest without anyone hearing it. This means a niche market is slowly being divided into smaller and smaller pieces.

3) Less free capital floating around to spend on leisure goods. This isn’t that complicated and maybe one of the rare cases where larger economic trends may have some baring on whatever the hell it is teh scene thinks it’s doing. Inflation – regardless of how you measure it – is going up. There’s currently a trend in the west to focus more on subsistence then leisure goods.

4) Who listens to cds? Don’t get me wrong, collectors have been the backbone of scene from the very beginning (we all knew that one guy that bought everything, and then dubbed or burned us copies). I know plenty of people, myself included, that still on occasions buy cds – they are quickly burned and placed on the shelf to gather dust.

5) Parasites! I use the words somewhat lovingly and ironically (we all know a Bowie fan sleep agent). I recall being at a warehouse party in New York a few years ago. I was having drinks with this guy that worked for a PR firm, which worked at trying to push major acts on what he called the “goth scene” and other alt niche markets. The guy might have been a schizophrenic or a liar, but regardless of the fact, it worked quite well. A small part of me dies every time I’m out at ‘da club’ and I hear Goldfrapp. When your industrial (etc.) night turns into an alt top 40 disco, it’s time to politely resign – your scene has been co-opted.

6) There is no capital and little to no infrastructure. The means of producing are always rented out as a service from someone else. While everyone in teh scenes from artists, to club nights, to promoters loose money, it gives out money left and right to everyone from cd printing presses to the alcohol vendors.

You can look to the above and keep ignoring them (there’s also a few tracts in economic thought that claim that intellectual property rights are inassimilable to market capitalism). But quite frankly, if you want to maintain the same level of operation, rely on advertising, and depend on markets to sell your product – you’re going to be shit out of luck fairly shortly.

Quite frankly, the only way to hope for survival and to not loose money is for closer association. We’ve all grown acustom to isolating ourselves, and calmly sitting in our own convenient private worlds. But we’ll probably need to start associating with those in and close to teh scene, on a much closer basis – it doesn’t mean you have to be friends or even like them, just be aware that if you want anything you’re going to have to co-operate. This isn’t just meant as an interpersonal statement. In the near future it might be helpful to look into co-ownership of club venues, cd vendors, hell maybe even microbrewing. But unless there’s some internal circulation of capital, this scene is simply unsustainable.

And I’ve been burned countless times. Not all the purchases I’ve made have been worth the price.

So the furor over file-sharing tends to get lost on me. It’s not that I refuse to be sympathetic with the artists. Look at what I do here. I spend a great deal of my free time actively promoting the works of people I don’t even know. I don’t openly advocate that you obtain this music for free. I want you to buy it, particularly if it’s actually really good. I want you to support the artists that are worthy of financial support. I’m an admitted music junkie and I openly confess that I’ve downloaded albums. I have engaged in what some would have you believe is the single greatest threat to music. If not for this new scourge artists and labels would still be able to support themselves and move out of Mom’s house.

Except that this isn’t a new phenomenon. Not by a long shot.

Decades before I participated in file sharing I found a way to hear music for free. We called it “dubbing” back in the day. I would take a friend’s cassette tape and copy it with a dual cassette deck. This way my friend could keep his or her cassette and I would also be able to listen to the album away from him or her. I didn’t do it because I wanted to screw the artist or the label. I didn’t have any sort of malicious intent. I did it because I loved the music and I didn’t have any money to give them. Any way you slice it neither the artist or the label was going to get my cash because there was none for me to give. Yet I was able to hear the music and develop into a “fan.” As a “fan” when I did get money I was able to spend it on concert tickets to see the artist and even buy merchandise. And as an ersatz collector I eventually purchased a copy of the album as well. If you’re as old as I am – or older – you’ll remember the cries in periodicals and on the streets that, “Home taping is killing music!” Note that it most certainly did not. The RIAA even lobbied congress for a high tax on blank cassettes in an effort to turn that shit around and make it work for them.

Later in life I struggled with things like rent and food. As such I couldn’t spend a lot of money on my love. The full price of a CD was exorbitant to my tiny budget. Yet I managed to collect the music I adored while at the same time preventing the artist from receiving any money. Again, this wasn’t out of moral turpitude. I wanted the music but couldn’t afford its steep price. So I would look for the album in the used CD section of my local record store. The prices were often slashed by two thirds and I didn’t feel any guilt over the practice especially since many albums I purchased, either new or used, had a number of songs I just didn’t like. When you spend, say, fifteen dollars on a CD with ten tracks on it that comes to $1.50 a track. After listening to it repeatedly you figure out that, in your estimation, only four tracks are particularly good and when you listen to the CD you skip over all the other tracks. In essence you were screwed out of nine dollars. No, seriously. Many view it as such. You might be able to sell off the CD to a used store but they only give you a couple bucks for it. Any way you look at it you didn’t get your money’s worth. You lost money on the deal.

This has been going on for as long as music has been packaged and sold. Hell, the whole debate on property, “intellectual” or otherwise, has been bandied about for a couple hundred years. You should read what Thomas Jefferson had to say about how the rights of the “inventor” shouldn’t be so all-encompassing and relate it back to this “intellectual” property nonsense. So now, along comes the internet and you no longer have to depend on personal friends or disgruntled consumers to provide you with music. You can find it online, download it and “try it before you buy it,” at a higher quality than a dubbed cassette even! Granted, it’s not always of the highest quality but it’s enough to get a good idea if the music is actually worth it. The consumer is no longer the victim of the moderately or occasionally talented artist. Some have even argued that “Creativity depends upon the owners of creativity having less than perfect control”. The fact is the consumer has been the victim of dishonest or unethical business practices within the music industry for decades. An album is released with the fanfare of a couple hit singles. The consumer is led to believe that the album is a real gem based on these singles. The album is purchased and it is discovered that these two singles are the only worthwhile tracks on the whole album. That’s like being tricked into buying a car with a fresh new paint job only to have it die on you a couple hundred miles after you take it home because the engine was never maintained. But just as you can take a prospective auto purchase for a test run and even pull it into a mechanic’s shop for the once-over before purchasing it you can also let an album grow on you before you commit to buying it. That only seems reasonable. It’s fair.

How many albums do you own that are filled with tracks you love? Be honest. And how many CDs contain multiple songs you skip over because they just aren’t as good as some of the others on the album? Obviously the artist felt the songs were good because he or she put them on the album. But the artist was wrong and the “product” is actually inferior. Yet just as there was no malicious intent on the artist’s part to screw the listener/fan out some hard-earned cash the music admirers out there have grown weary of feeling screwed and now have the means to easily rectify the situation. This isn’t an evil, destructive thing. In reality it’s empowering to the avid music listener/consumer. And it should serve as a wake-up call to the artist to be more selective about any album you assemble. It should also be a warning to the labels. If an artist provides you with what you believe is a substandard selection of songs you are certainly well within your right to decline putting it out. If the artist feels you are in error they can always go elsewhere or release their music independently. Music fans now get to judge whether or not a CD has any value before purchasing it. If the value isn’t worth the price in the mind of the consumer then the consumer isn’t going to waste the money. If Cevin Key pulls all his scabs then places them in a plastic baggie and puts it up on ebay it might actually get some bids. Hell, it might sell for a few hundred dollars. You might think that’s crazy but that would be the “worth” of his bag of scabs because someone was willing to pay that price. If someone isn’t willing to pay fifteen dollars for your CD after hearing it then guess what? Your CD ain’t worth fifteen dollars no matter how much you may protest. It simply does not have that level of value in the mind of the consumer.

Music is no longer subject to Caveat Emptor. It’s time for the artists and labels to realize this and either put up or shut up because file sharing isn’t going to go away no matter how much you whine, piss and moan. In fact, the MORE you whine, piss and moan the more you’re going to turn off/alienate your audience. I hear both artists and those running labels/imprints actually putting down their prospective audience, saying that they’re freeloaders and just want everything for free. What a brilliant way to get people to buy from you! [/sarcasm] Even if someone figured out a way to eliminate file sharing completely I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t see any uptick in album sales.

Learn from the past. When Garth Brooks railed against used CD sales cutting into his profits back in the early Nineties his fan base revolted. When Metallica’s Lars Ulrich railed against Napster in the mid-Nineties the fans revolted. So you think that wailing like a bitch about file sharing is somehow going to endear you to your audience? Are you really so daft?! You’re in the wrong business. If anything, file sharing is going to weed out the people who shouldn’t be creating and marketing music. Music will always be there. Music will survive. But if you aren’t capable of adapting to the market you’re going to fail and no amount of whining or scapegoating is going to matter one. goddamn. bit. And the best way to adapt to the new market is to be better at what you do. Be better than everyone else because there are a ridiculous number of people out there doing just what you’re doing and vying for all that money floating around out there.

But I’m not just going to sit here and rail at the artists and labels. As with anything there invariably are people who abuse a system. There are people who download everything and buy nothing. I don’t like those people. Just as I don’t like it when I hear people complain about high ticket prices or the prices of shirts at concerts. If you like an artist you should be willing to support the artist. But I’m not going to demonize everyone who has downloaded albums because I understand. These days you want to be sure you’re not spending your money frivolously. In my interview with ESA’s Jamie Blacker I asked him his opinion on file sharing. It angers him. And what he stated was “I think that there are enough sites out there which make available a platform to sample what a band or artist has to offer. With this in mind, there is no excuse for illegal downloading and file sharing.” I would have to respectfully disagree. While some artists will actually put their entire new album up for streaming on MySpace before the release most do not. Whether I visit a band’s webpage, their MySpace, the label’s site, etc. I typically get to hear only a couple tracks and sometimes just friggin’ snippets of tracks. Hey, this is okay if you’re offering songs on a track by track MP3 basis. I’ll just buy those songs. But I’m not going to dive in headlong anymore for an unproven act who has two really damn good songs on their MySpace page and a CD full of filler of which I was not aware. As I stated earlier I’ve been burned too many times. And even if all your music is up online the speakers on my computer aren’t nearly as good as those on my stereo in the other room and you’ve compressed the shit out of the music to post it anyway.

So what prompted this rant? Back when I made a post entitled You’re Killing The Music I got a large number of responses in favor of what I had to say. There was one respondent, however, whose tone stuck in my craw. And one thing in particular that was stated irked me to no end. In response to my suggestion that people should be making mix CDs for their friends to introduce them to new music this individual’s retort was, “YEA! that’s real legal!”

Seriously? That’s what it’s come down to? You are so vociferous in your aim to ensure no one puts one of your songs on a blank CD that you’re going to go after someone innocently trying to build your name and promote your product. THIS is why I’m so angry. Every time I hear someone go off about file sharing it just seems like they don’t get it. They liken it to “stealing” when that seems a questionable metaphor for what’s actually going on especially given the dubious arguments regarding “intellectual property.” If I walk into a store and steal your CD then I’m guilty of stealing it. If I make a rip of the intangible melodies on the physical CD I’m just not convinced that’s stealing because if I like it I buy the CD and if I don’t it gets flushed.

Fortunately there are some artists coming around and recognizing the potential file sharing offers and embracing it rather than continue to fight a battle they’ll never win. That’s called good foresight and great business sense. A couple of these artists have even stated that albums aren’t the way to go for them and they’ll be offering releases on a song-by-song basis. For these particular artists I think that’s a wise decision since their albums did have plenty of filler, sad to say. A number of acts have offered their releases with the “suggested donation” route and came away with more money than they made on their previous CD release. I’m conflicted about the waning influence of CD sales. I like having the physical manifestation of the music, the booklet, the lyrics, the artwork, etc. Although it’s getting really difficult to accommodate the sheer volume of albums I own with the limited space in my home. I don’t think a physical medium like the CD is ever going to disappear completely but I’d say that within the next ten years it’s going to be reduced to the sort of relic status only die hard collectors hold onto, just like with vinyl.

The bottom line is that you can’t stop what’s happened. And if your perspective is such that you think you would be selling twice the amount of albums if it weren’t for file sharing I would again have to respectfully disagree. Especially when it comes to Industrial, EBM, or any of the darker, electronic sub-and-microgenres the overall “scene” has shrunk, people are much thriftier these days and there is so much music coming out that it’s almost impossible to keep up. We struggle with it here all the time, trying to maintain the reviews page in a timely manner and occasionally getting buried, literally, by all the new material to review. In spite of all the cries and rants about how file sharing is killing music it’s insane how much new music is constantly being put out there for such a small, niche pool of customers.

A recent independent British poll resulted in an astonishing conclusion: people who regularly download music actually buy more music than anyone else. And you know what? That only makes sense. In these frugal times music junkies like myself, who still devote a good deal of income to this habit, have to be more selective in what we choose to do with our money yet we still spend the money when we find something of value. I do believe that those of us who can’t get enough music – in particular those of us with these less popular genre tastes – are even more loyal and dedicated to supporting the artists we appreciate. So I reject the assertion that it’s file sharing that is making it more difficult for you to sell CDs. In fact there have been many studies done recently, most of which suggested there are so many more factors involved in the perceived decline in sales and if you’re at all business savvy you’ll quit with the pointless scapegoating and start moving forward with some fresh new ideas and strategies.

I kind of look at Rammstein the same way I view Insane Clown Posse. It seems inconceivable that there’s been this amount of longevity in such a one dimensional Nu Metal pop rock act that initially came across like a complete joke. I was introduced to the band from Reznor’s soundtrack to the David Lynch flick Lost Highway. I believe that was around ’96 or so. Yet the Neue Deutsche Härte sound, of which Rammstein are practitioners, was actually pioneered about twenty years ago by Oomph! who are a much more striking act. And recently a newer band called Eisbrecher takes the sound that’s been popularized by Rammstein and gives it some much needed intelligence and vitality.

So I guess it makes sense that, out of desperation, Rammstein would resort to juvenile sexuality and pornographic images in an effort to galvanize their base of fans. When you hear Rammsein in the club it’s typically because someone requested hits from over a decade ago like “Du Hast” or “Engel.” And I typically want to hunt down the person who requested those overplayed nuggets and punch them in the throat. Yet with those songs you recall the music and not their forgettable videos. Having sat through the video for “Pussy” (from the new album Liebe ist für alle da) a few times and then listened to the song without the visuals I can tell you that beyond the initial, cheap shock value the song is instantly forgettable. Sure, the video has gone viral on the web and everyone is giggling like schoolchildren over the graphic penetration and cumshots but once the hype subsides there won’t be a damn thing left of any substance to carry the recording even though the song was apparently written in response to the practice of “sex tourism” – booking a vacation to a specific destination for the sole intent of engaging in “relations” with the locals. It’s just a really bad song with even dumber lyrics than we’ve grown accustomed to hearing when Till Lindemann tries his hand at English.

But hey, I’m not going to sit here and piss all over Rammstein’s parade. They’ve managed to amass more “fans” than all the acts that do what they do so much better. Good for them. They’ve been able to sustain a career in music for a decade and a half. Congratulations.

Too bad they can’t get laid in Germany or, apparently, anywhere else without the assistance of CGI.

Including DarkTwinCities there are only about ten quality sites devoted to dark electronic. Okay, we’re not exactly “quality,” so I guess there are only nine. People who are into Metal are totally devoted to it while people who dig Industrial, EBM and Dark Electro are lazy, self-serving do-nothings who complain about the fact that there aren’t many good shows and not enough people are into the music they like but have never done a goddamn thing to remedy that situation. Too harsh? Perhaps. But certainly not way off base. Metal grew to an enormous degree thanks to all the word of mouth while dark electronic languishes on in obscurity and the few people who do listen to it merely sit around and talk about how it’s all dead.

Great strategy.

Years ago it felt interesting to be part of a “scene” where the participants seemed far more intelligent and thoughtful than in any other. But I’ve been rethinking that idea lately because the people into these styles of music don’t seem all that bright, honestly. I mean, many of the artists come across as thoughtful, open, honest, hard working and vigilant. They’re tireless in their efforts to create and promote. But the “fans” come across as the equivalent of a limp dick. And you’re not going to impress anyone by trying to shove a marshmallow into a piggy bank, y’knowhati’msayin’?

These styles survive almost solely due to the fact that there are some great artists out there putting out album after album of killer music that no one is buying or sharing with the general populace. And they are supported by little independent labels and imprints run by fervent admirers of the styles who give everything to what they do, often taking a loss in the process.

Those goofy religions out there have a thing called “tithing.” It has something to do with a concept regarding giving up a percentage of your money to the church or god or whatever. In turn god will reward you with…I dunno. Virgins or something? Whatever. I’ve never fully understood the whole “save wayward souls collect valuable prizes” ethic but I do recognize that giving of yourself will reap some kind of reward. And by helping out the artists and promoting their material you’re making it more likely they will continue to create their music. And by getting more people into it you’ll build a larger audience making live shows/tours more frequent.

Anyway, you should support these artists we’re always writing about. Start expanding your collection. Go to shows, buy some merch. But more importantly start spreading the word for fuck’s sake. You’ve all got fucking Livejournals and MySpaces and Facebooks and Twitters and what-fucking-not. TALK about these acts you admire. Quit keeping it to yourself like a selfish prick. If someone makes music that inspires you inspire someone else to check them out. Make mix tapes, er…CD thingies. Start your own blog or website devoted to discussing music and reviewing CDs. It can be a great hobby. Just ask the residents of CastleDTC.

Okay, don’t ask any of us. We’re all pretty cranky and always have way to much to do to answer any of your stupid questions.

Bottom line: there are Death Metal bands out there landing on the charts. Regularly. If a brutal style of music featuring blast beats, barking vocals and speed riffing can land on the charts you would expect that a club thumper with some harsh vocals would be able to score five figure sales lickety split, nooo shit. And there is so much of this music coming out – a lot of it quite good – that we here can’t even keep up with it all. And that’s our job. It’s what we’re here to do.

It’s not enough to just listen and keep your mouth shut. That’s exactly what’s killing these styles. Not some goofy ideals about the way things were as opposed to the way they are now. Not file-sharing. Not the economy. It’s you. You’re killing it. You’re just turning your head and ignoring its death throes when you could be administering the life-giving boost it so desperately needs right now.

Start proselytizing. Don’t keep it to yourself. We need advocates. We need voices.

And we at CastleDTC would love more competition.

]]> http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/07/youre-killing-the-music/feed/ 23 http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/limitations-and-limited-editions/ http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/limitations-and-limited-editions/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:50:43 +0000 Christopher http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/?p=1795 When a new album comes out and I read there’s a limited pressing I’m typically quick to act. I appreciate a hard copy over a digital download in most every case. I would imagine I’m not the only one who feels this way and I just don’t want to get caught resting on my laurels and missing out on a great CD. For example, when I heard that Cenotype was putting out a limited edition remix album as a companion to his amazing debut, Origins, I was pretty excited. Then I found out he was self-releasing the disc and pressing a mere 250 copies. I immediately headed over to his Origins Productions site and clicked on buy. This was a more than satisfying purchase as I’m sure you can glean from my review of Origins Unfold. I recently asked Lenny if he sold out of copies and was surprised to learn he still has some left.

Seriously? There weren’t at least 250 people champing at the bit for this release? I realize our tastes in music represent a fairly small, niche crowd but it seems hard to imagine one of the most imaginative new acts couldn’t sell through 250 copies in a short time.

I recently put up a review for SE’s brilliant Epiphora (MySpace page) and mentioned that it was limited to a pressing of 333 copies so prospective buyers should head on over to the Tympanik Audio site and act fast. Yet I’m now wondering if there’s enough of an audience to make it through such a small number. It’s perplexing. We do what we can to get the word out on these great releases but I suppose I find it a little disconcerting that the numbers we’re seeing are so paltry. These are hard times and not everyone has the spare change to throw at CDs but the prices certainly aren’t outrageous.

My only hope is that we don’t come to a point where some of these great artistic minds just decide to give up because they begin to feel there’s little point in making the effort. And I also hope that as fans in such a “niche” market our numbers grow rather than dwindle into nothingness.

Start spreading the word.

]]> http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/limitations-and-limited-editions/feed/ 0 http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/the-perils-of-booking-guest-blog/ http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/the-perils-of-booking-guest-blog/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:29:06 +0000 Christopher http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/?p=1761
Photo credit: Jason Boose

ED. – In The Trenches is a new, regular column exclusive to DTC and hosted by Dan Clark of Stromkern, Null Device and The Dark Clan focusing on music from the perspective of a recording/touring artist. Our hope is that through this and other guest blogs music fans and admirers might gain a new perspective on what it’s like from the musician’s side of the table – or stage, as the case may be.

BOOKING

There was a time when I was a lot angrier about the state of booking shows in the music world. Granted I was younger then and more apt to be angry about pretty much whatever, but the hodge-podge of bizarre, baroque, weird, mysterious, and sometimes downright aggravating behaviors exhibited by bookers, sometimes the same one at different points in time, was a frequent target of a singular and exceptional vitriol on my part. Past polemics were written from the following perspective; I, a quasi-professional musician, was trying to play by what I had been assured were “The Rules” and was getting irritation and — notably — no shows for my troubles. I assumed all bands played by “The Rules” and couldn’t understand why bookers were so difficult to work with. Since those heady days of youth I’ve learned a few things and gained some perspective. I feel I have some insight as to why booking is so difficult but I still feel it shouldn’t be that way and I’m still angry about it. I’m just not angry at the same people or in the same way. I mean, live music venues want to have bands and bands want to play at live music venues. Why is this so difficult? The short answer is: people. People are involved and people are difficult. Too many people, too many bands, too many who want too much.

Let’s set up some hypothetical characters in the tragic play that is a typical booking.

The bar manager/owner – wants to have bands because in her mind she pictures her club full of people who come to see Hip New Band and order great volumes of expensive liquor from her stylish and hip-but-approachable bar staff. The hundreds of people the band brings in make her mountains of money, get her club noticed and written up positively in local media and as she adds more bands to her live roster the money and fame just get bigger. She becomes a tastemaker, gets thanked in the CD liner notes of albums by world-famous bands who played/drank at her bar, and is beloved by all. Also, she gets laid a lot.

The musician – wants to play at the club because in his mind he pictures swaying the hundreds of club regulars with the power of his awesome music, converting them in great swaths from casual listeners to buyers and selling out run after run of his band’s CDs which provides him with enough income to quit his dead-end day job and focus solely on making music, expanding his connections and networking. Soon he’s playing bigger and bigger clubs and signing to bigger and bigger record deals until soon he’s touring the world and living the dream. Also, he gets laid a lot.

The booker – wants to have bands play at the club because in his mind he pictures the hundreds of people the band will bring mixing with the hundreds of regulars at the club and forming a grateful throng that is thrilled he had the great taste and 20-minutes-into-the-future foresight of what’s cool to book Hip New Band and put on a great show. Afterward both the club and band are happy to give him a generous percentage of the take from the door. As he books more shows and his network grows he becomes a power broker and tastemaker, booking sold-out shows for bands big and small all over the city, then the region. He is written up favorably in local media and thanked in CD liner notes by world-famous bands he helped get their start. Also, he gets laid a lot.

So granted there’s a lot of exaggeration going on here for (hopefully) comic effect, but I don’t think my three archetypes are that far off from the players in your average booking. The dreams and mistakes of each are often born out in behavior I witness at the club, to wit:

• Everyone dreams of “making it,” however they may define that term. Some want to be rich and famous, some just want to be independent, but everyone wants to have that, preferably with as little effort on their part as possible.
• Everyone assumes everyone else will bring in “a crowd.” Bands always think there will be club regulars, clubs always think bands will bring fans, and bookers think both will provide the crowd.
• Really, the getting laid part is the most realistic expectation anyone has.

Everyone’s de juro booking experience is different but I’ve been booking bands for a while now and the process tends always to go one of a few ways. Here are some real-life booking stories that I experience over and over again:

1. The club has a dedicated contact and phone number/email address for booking. You confirm with various staff at the club that the number and name of the person to contact are both current, and you begin calling. And emailing. You do this for weeks, then a couple months. One night, while watching a friend’s band play at the same club you’re trying to get booked at, you ask the staff if there’s some secret to getting a booking and they all shrug; “Did you call the number?” Yes, you did. “That’s all you can do, that and email.” You ask if the booker is on the premises, and are informed she is not. Your friends got the show when someone introduced them to the booker at a random party they both happened to be attending. Unless someone else gets you on a bill you will never play this club, and you will never know how anyone else ever plays this club.

2. The club has a dedicated contact and phone number/email address for booking and she responds in a timely manner to your queries but she also never books you. You ask for a Friday or Saturday about month out but no dice. Next time you call you ask for a Wednesday or Thursday about a month or two out but no dice. The next time you call you ask for any open day about three or four months out but are told the club isn’t booking that far ahead. Unless someone else gets you on a bill you will never play this club and you will never know how anyone else ever plays this club.

3. The club has bands, a website and print ads but you cannot locate any contact info. You show up one night to see a show and drop off a press kit. The bar manager takes your PK but says the guy who does the booking is never there for shows and you should stop by between 3 and 5 on Tuesday as that’s the only time the booking guy is in. When you dutifully return (with a fresh PK of course) on Tuesday at about 3:30 the bar is closed. You hang around until someone shows up to unlock the door at 5:30. The booking guy is of course not there and the bartender has no idea if or when he ever is. Next week you try calling during those hours and still get nothing. Unless someone else gets you on a bill you will never play this club and you will never know how anyone else ever plays this club.

4. The club has bands, a website and print ads but only a phone number for publicly available contact info. Whenever you call it all you get is an answering machine announcing upcoming shows. Guess how you get to play this one?

5. The club has bands, a website, print ads and full contact info. The booker returns your call/email in a timely manner and offers you a show on the date you requested. She is courteous and prompt. It’s so easy you go into shock and are even more baffled by all your other experiences.

For the record, all of the above stories are true and actually happened to me. The last case – of the booker who is available, friendly, and actually books you for a show – is by far the most rare of all. There are of course other experiences, but in general every time I’ve tried booking it’s come down to;
1.) You cannot get a hold of anyone. ever.
2.) You can get a hold of people, but they never book you.
3.) You can reliably book shows on a variety of nights.

The main lesson I’ve learned from dealing with this over the years is that really, in the end, I’ve always had the most success when I’ve talked to someone face to face, preferably no more than one degree of separation from the club booker. In other words, I’ve always had the best luck when meeting and speaking with the booker directly or when working with just one friend who speaks with the booker directly and gets me on the bill. Anything beyond that tends to be a crap shoot.

One time, while making idle chitchat with the booker at a club where I’d been trying to get a show for a couple months, as she was penning my band into the book for a Thursday night show she shook her head and said, “Man, you wouldn’t believe how many bands I get trying to get booked here. It’s crazy.” She then pulled a paper grocery bag out from a cabinet under the far side of the bar. The bag was overflowing with 8×12 glossies, press kits, demo CDs, etc. There must have been a couple hundred in there. I noticed my band’s press kit and demo in the pile, near the top. “Huh. That is a lot of bands,” I said sympathetically, watching as she put the bag right back where she got it from. She never noticed that she just booked one of the bands in the bag. And really, that full paper bag was my first key to a booker’s perspective on things. The vast majority of bookers I’ve ever met are not bookers (or promoters) full-time. They’re a bartender or former bartender or waitperson or random friend of the owner who either volunteered or has been drafted into service, possibly with dreams and goals not dissimilar to my goofy archetypes I went through at the beginning of this thing. Then, they get handed the Full Paper Bag and are told there are 501 voicemail messages and 45,233 emails waiting for them from bands that want to play the club. It’s overwhelming. Someone with a normal person’s schedule and obligations simply can’t wade through the massive, massive amount of bands that are asking for shows and vouch for quality so they probably end up doing one of two things; they either don’t ever answer the phone or email except randomly or sporadically and rely mostly on friends/connections to book shows or they just give anyone a show on a first-come, first-serve basis regardless of whether or not the band is any good. It’s depressing, really – especially when one considers how few people even end up going out to shows anyway – to think how hassled and frustrated and overwhelmed everyone on all sides of this equation gets over something that’s supposed to be cool and fun and creative and rewarding.

And man, let’s not even try to get in to booking shows out of town. That’s a whole ‘nother post there all by itself.

To wrap this up I’ll say this; as the shows get bigger the potential crowds and money and fame get bigger, the opportunities for skullduggery also get bigger and the likelihood that a promoter or club owner or booker is going to try to swindle someone gets greater. I’ve seen some of this myself while on tour with national acts but I’ll let a more, er, direct voice finish this article – namely Mr. Steve Albini. This is an excerpt from his final tour diary during Big Black’s last run around the globe. If you like it, you can read the whole thing here.

“[L.A. promoter] Tovar bid five grand, so we gave him one of our shows, sent him a contract and that was the last we heard from him for three weeks. The day before the deposit was due, I began a series of daily phone calls to him each one ending with his promise to call me back “tonight” with final word on which venue the show would be at. Turns out that the guy who runs the Variety Arts Center, where we were originally booked to play, thinks we’re a bunch of racists and won’t let us play there. Why he thinks this, I have no idea. Ultimately, this iron-clad guaranteed five grand gig gets turned into a $2,500 gig at some smaller dive, so I told him to eat shit. Boy is he irritating to talk to. He sounds like one of your back-of-the-bus-types from sixth grade doing a Tommy Chong impersonation.

I won’t know for certain until Monday whether or not the N.Y. promoter is a shitlicking liar, but that’s the way it looks now. It also looks like his six grand N.Y. gig has already evaporated. That’s $11,000.00 we blew this week, and it’s much too late to book any replacement dates. Not with a bang but a whimper.

Anyway, I haven’t slept in two days, my mind is snapping and I’ve still got to figure out how to cover the lost $3,000.00 of the N.Y. promoter’s missing deposit. Oh, and to fly to Germany. Oh, and work twelve hours at the straight gig. Christ I hate my job lately.”

]]> http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/the-perils-of-booking-guest-blog/feed/ 0 http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/teh-scene-rant-professionals-with-no-infrastructure/ http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/teh-scene-rant-professionals-with-no-infrastructure/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:42:07 +0000 P_machine http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/?p=1733 I’ve been closely following various forms of industrial (etc.) journalism/forums/reviews/real-life discussions for over 10 years. During that time, I’ve heard various opinions about just every damned subject you can think of. But there’s always one word which crops up, which really makes me want to stab myself in the proverbial eye – “un/professional.”

Now before I get to this, I should mention that there’s a whole field of studies about changes in workplace environments from the shift of the 1940s Taylorist model to the 1970s and beyond post-Fordist model. This involves various spatial re-arrangements, a rapid increase in communication, higher knowledge requirements of workers, “friendlier” relations between employers and employees, psychotheraputics (industrial organization), and a plethora of words designed to politely terrorize and interpolate employees. One of these words is “professional,” and there’s a whole discourse surrounding its use and possible interpretations.

You find the word “unprofessional” a lot when it comes to the industrial scene. There seems to be an absurdly high bar set in the industrial scene for professionalism of operations of records labels, promoters, club nights, etc. The moment someone fucks up, word of it will spread through the internet at a viral pace. So whether rightly or wrongly, if a promoter is dubbed as “unprofessional” word of it will spread at rapid pace, and they’ll be put on a “soft verbal black list” (generally-not-recommended-to-work-with). Now don’t get me wrong, there are legitimate complaints issued (ex. someone didn’t get paid). But many of these complaints seem to demand for everyone to act like they’re in the “professional entertainment industry.”

…now… whether the “professional entertainment industry” is a good model to emulate, is another question in-itself. However, there’s one key difference between the industrial (etc.) scene and the entertainment industry — the latter makes money while the former bleeds money. In order to be “professional,” you should probably be turning a profit. So it’s really a bit baffling that anyone bothers to go through the professionalist-act. Industrial (etc.) scene promoters, bands, and record labels are all bleeding money. In fact, there’s a good case to be made for “teh scene” getting a federal bailout. Where would the army surplus industry, the alcohol industry, CD-printer, late night dining establishments, M-audio, and the good folks of Access Music (producing the synthesizer that has pretty much structured the EBM sound) be without industrial enthusiasts?

This is simply what happens when your scene owns no infrastructure, there’s no internal circulation of capital. So the industrial (etc.) scene can play-professional all it wants, while actual professionals make money off of it.

]]> http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/teh-scene-rant-professionals-with-no-infrastructure/feed/ 0 http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/cagematch/ http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/cagematch/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:44:44 +0000 Christopher http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/?p=1653 So yeah. Marilyn Manson. Train wreck. Do I even need to be posting about this? Because by reporting for those that haven’t been keeping up that Manson has been acting ridiculous as of late, apparently on some sort of drug-and-alcohol-fueled path to self destruction I’ll most likely be informed that I’m turning DTC into some sort of rumor-heavy tabloid or something.

But c’mon. Did you read the BBC Interview? Have you been keeping up with the man’s antics?

And then there’s Trent Reznor’s reactions to Manson as of late. They had a falling out some years ago, then they reconciled. Well things are obviously not kosher between the two again as Reznor has made many chiding (and childish) statements on Twitter and in other areas, leading Manson to make bizarre retorts on his MySpace Page.

From Manson I guess I expect little more, especially considering his shoddy musical output in the last few years. But I guess I expected Reznor to act considerably more adult. I mean, the guy is in his forties. And he’s “bringing the drama,” not just with Manson but with Chris Cornell as well. What an ass. I dig the guy’s music, but how embarrassing.

Hey, Manson! Stay away from reporters and interviewers (and social networks) for a while. You’re obviously in no condition to promote either your music or…yourself. And get some friggin’ help.

Now I feel dirty for even typing up this post.

]]> http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/06/cagematch/feed/ 2 http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/02/black-is-black/ http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/2009/02/black-is-black/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:42:21 +0000 Christopher http://darktwincities.com/dtcblog/?p=1291 Just because you have a cellphone which supports video that doesn’t necessarily mean you should be sharing your poorly rendered attempts at film with the world. I guess this is just another example of the “YouTube Generation” thinking they captured something of worth. They didn’t. But I’m sharing it with you anyway because I’m a dick. It’s basically W.A.S.T.E.’s “I Don’t Give a Fuck” live at Das Bunker in LA. And while the music is somewhat easily recognizable the drunk ass who recorded it is lucky there wasn’t much of a light show because the way he was waving the phone around this shit video might have caused a seizure.

At least, I hope it was a phone because if it was actually a video camera someone needs to take it away from this Parkinsons-inflicted douche and never allow him the opportunity to film anything ever again.

See if you can pick out the Virgin Mary in all the darkness. We might be able to make some money off this otherwise useless footage.

And while we’re on the subject of W.A.S.T.E., what the hell ever happened to To Mega Therion’s follow up to Blood Rituals? I mean, sure, Vendetta re-released (or simply released) the debut album after Sistinas failed to…well, do much of anything for any of the bands signed to the “label,” but around last summer I was led to believe the next proper album from TMT was imminent. Now I can’t find any news or information about anything anywhere. Goddammit I want some Black Noise!

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