Friday, 17th May 2013
The Black Heart, Camden, London
(via tangled-talk)
Thursday, 18th April 2013
Birthdays, London (The Haxan Cloak) / Sebright Arms, London (East India Youth)
Friday, 29th March 2013
Sebright Arms, London
7:19pm | March 29 2013 | 1 note | Source: paintitblacklondon
“You also have to feel for those poor souls who make music that isn’t particularly suited to the live environment, those who are uncomfortable with public performance, those who are physically or mentally unable to tour. Those who make quiet music, those who can’t bring their bands with them, who don’t like sleeping on floors, who don’t like eating shit food, who get travel sickness, those who have families. Those who don’t have PR people working to maximize audiences in each town, who don’t have people plugging radio stations to get their songs played, who can’t negotiate for hotel rooms, who don’t have someone else to drive them or help carry their gear after a show. This is most people.”
Absolutely spot on comment in reaction to the “bands can go on tour to make money” argument, in this equally as spot on article about the lack of money in the creative industries by Ian Maleny on Totally Dublin. [read the full thing here]
(via soundisnotasleep)
Thursday, 14th March 2013
Birthdays, Dalston, London
11:15am | March 14 2013 | 1 note | Source: paintitblacklondon
“There’s no money in new bands, we all know that,” says Williams. “But now, with the hyper-speed of things in the music industry, you get in touch with a band who might be doing their first gig, and it’ll be, ‘Talk to our manager, who’s got to talk to the lawyer and the agent.’”
Purely to be seen to be doing their job, they tell me, a band’s representatives might now demand a guaranteed fee of anything up to £75. When the costs of a night at the Bull & Gate come in at least £200 before any musicians have been paid, that threatens the whole viability of the enterprise, not least when every promoter fears the turnout music industry lore knows as “two men and a dog”.”
John Harris in The Guardian: Can The UK’s ‘Toilet Circuit’ Of Small Music Venues Survive?
I liked this article and we definitely need venues like this, but it struck me as a little weird that paying the band was cited as one of the potential hurdles that needs to be overcome for a venue to stay open. Admittedly the £75 quoted is a bit steep as a guarantee for a band that potentially doesn’t have a sufficient following to justify it but, while this wasn’t necessarily what the article was getting at, the relationship between new bands and venues/promoters seems, to me, to be quite a strange one.
To some extent the relationship seems fairly symbiotic, venues need bands to draw people in so they can make money, whether it’s from ticket sales or from the bar, and bands need the venues for exposure and to play shows to people. I get the impression that most bands starting out are pretty naive, they aren’t worried about getting paid or even breaking even, they just want to play shows. But even if the band are OK with, or don’t see it as them being exploited, if the venue makes money off a band’s fans shouldn’t the band get compensated?
A small band with very few to no actual fans, who are encouraged by the promoter to bring all their friends, are basically asking people they know to give some relative strangers who happen to own a building some money and if they bring enough friends to cover the strangers’ costs, they’ll get to see some of it. If your friends want to help fund you doing something you love, then that’s cool and seems like something good friends would do, but it could be seen as odd that part of that involves funding a business they might not frequent otherwise.
Fair enough though, putting on shows does cost money, as does keeping a venue open, and anyone who does it well should be able to make enough money to keep doing it, but being in a band costs money too. A lot of these costs might be considered voluntary; it’s not like anyone asked you to buy an instrument and record a demo (then again, no one asked you to open a venue or put on a show, although I’m just as glad that you did), so you do take a lot of costs on the chin. But, expenses that directly relate to playing a gig at least involve some transport costs and, even if you assume you only need one practice to be ready for a gig, any band that’s not lucky enough to have somewhere to practice for free will be down at least £20-30 (£45 for a weeknight!) before they even get to the venue, so they have invested money as well, even if it is less than a venue’s production costs. In an ideal world would that be covered?
I guess the obvious response is ‘sell merch’, but you need money to invest in that and once you’re there, assuming you’re not just trying to sell more stuff to your friends, who have already shelled out for a ticket and are just trying to be supportive, you’re pretty much in direct competition with the bar. People come to a show with a finite amount of money, and the choice between another drink or a CD just before the headline starts is pretty inevitable.
Having said all that, bands really need these venues and don’t always treat them particularly well, not least by agreeing to play shows they know they can’t bring enough people to.
I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make here, maybe this doesn’t need articulating, but the relationship is quite fraught and, just like everything else in the arts in 2013, there’s not enough money on either side. This doesn’t really feel like the best system, but it’s how it is, and a lot of the bands I really love I discovered through shows on the ‘toilet circuit’, and anything good that’s ever happened to a band that I’ve been in wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t play those shows. For a lot of bands, including mine, there’s not really any other way to play gigs and I hope they continue to stay open.
Thursday, 28th February 2013
Birthdays, Dalston, London
12:01pm | February 26 2013 | 5 notes | Source: birthdaysdalston
'Is The Connection Between Music And Artwork Disappearing?' on The 405
Great piece on The 405 on the connection between music and artwork, with some interesting comments from a couple of labels like Mute and Ninja Tune. While reading it did occur to me though that revealing album art is still one of the first steps in an album campaign, sometimes coming before any music, so maybe it can still form a lasting impression of the album, albeit months in advance.
That’s different from it being a proper part of the package though, and seeing it sidelined as just ‘Content’ does seem like a shame. It’s also quite possible that the people that “listen to MP3s on their iPods without any artwork” aren’t really the same people that read news pieces about album releases on websites/blogs either, so it probably doesn’t actually help.
“What has happened is that labels end up releasing albums which don’t sell too well as the market is saturated and promoters struggle to find new acts that can pull punters or sell festival tickets, as acts aren’t getting the chance to grow a fanbase and develop into something special. Half the time people get caught up in a buzzstorm because something sounds good, but it’s often just rudimentary plug-ins in logic or they got lucky with a good hook, maybe two, and they’re not sure how they managed to get it right, so flail around, buoyed by the confidence that these head-nodding plaudits from people who like it provide them, and end up thinking they can wing it, without becoming brilliant.”
Sean Adams of Drowned in Sound in ‘Buzzblogs! Death! Hypeblogs! Magazines! THE FUTURE! - An Interview’
“To my knowledge nobody has ever done this, but the dream is to just say you’ve released a record, not bother and then tell everyone it’s sold out. Instant cred with none of the hassle.”
Mazes’ Jack Cooper. No. 9 in The 10 Golden Rules Of Being In A DIY Indie Band on The Guardian. Made me laugh but I’m actually a little surprised no one’s ever done this, or perhaps they have and I just believed them.
Also, the Mazes album stream is sandwiched between numbers 5 and 6 and is worth a listen. I saw Mazes a few months ago supporting Cloud Nothings and enjoyed their set but neglected to follow it up. Glad to have come across them again as on first listen the album sounds pretty good.
Port St. Willow - Tourist
I came across the Port St. Willow album, Holiday, in the end of year list on The 405. I’d never heard of them before but it sounded like the kind of thing I’d like, based on “sparse, ambient and clearly heartfelt” and the fact that they’ve toured with The Antlers, and it turned out to be genuinely amazing.
This song is particularly splendid.
28012013
Over the weekend the band had our first practice at Storm Studios in Holloway. It’s a pretty amazing space, everyone who worked there was really nice, and it’s the same price as where we normally (it’s a safe bet that by ‘normally’, I really mean ‘used to’) practice, but far less sticky. Plus all the equipment worked, and there were no crudely drawn genitals on any of the walls.
At first I missed those sharpie penises and their subtle nihilism, but not for long. Who is it who even draws them? What are their core values? How do they live their lives?
(via clipstampfold)
