Wednesday, 30th May 2012
“For the average DIY, or unsigned musician who barely covers costs when they play live, is it really a smart strategy to remove your most obvious and immediate income stream?”
Music Think Tank | Can You Recover From Free Music?
Interesting article, but I’m not sure I’m convinced that giving music away is necessarily a bad thing. It’s quite normal to find the same music for sale at different prices from different retailers both on and offline in any case, and I think if a band is willing to give their music away for free directly even if, for example they still charge through an online retailer or sell CDs at shows at a certain price, both of which sort of involve production costs, then there’s a place for this as well. Particularly early on in a band’s career it seems like reasonable behaviour, but then that’s not to say that actually charging money would have a negative effect, or act as a disincentive, at least online. As it is, I think the fact that a band start charging for their music is an indication of where they are, or where they think they are as a band, and in their career. I may be alone in this, but I think part of me assumes when faced with two releases on a band’s Bandcamp, that the one that costs something, even if it is very little, is probably a better, more credible record, or at least a better representation of the band, than the one that’s free, so maybe that’s a useful tool in charting a band’s progression.
As for whether giving music away, and then turning around and charging for the next release is a difficult process, or alienates people, that may be the case. I know that I downloaded the first ††† (Crosses) EP for free, and kind of resented having to pay for the second one, due to a misplaced sense of entitlement, but that crisis did only last about 5 minutes and then I bought it anyway (frustratingly I sort of prefer the first one, although the best approach is probably to listen to both back to back and pretend it’s an album). I’m not sure that needs to be an issue though, is it really worth having fans who are going to be put off by the sort of thing anyway? Can they really be called fans if they’re not willing to invest in a band, or maybe investing emotionally is enough? There’s also the question of whether paying for music creates an obligation to invest more time in it, I’m still not sure about that. Basically, I’m on the fence.
21042012
It’s been a fairly quiet, but not unproductive, couple of months. Two or more of us have been gathering once or twice a week at the singer’s house to work on the current batch of songs we’re writing, and there’s now between four and six in total, depending on how optimistic I’m feeling on any particular day about how they might turn out.
Usually we record our parts, some written on our own beforehand and others together, into the singer’s computer and subsequently debate about the structure and everything else until we’re happy with it, and I’ve really enjoyed the process. It’s felt genuinely collaborative, which is what I’ve wanted. This isn’t to say that it hasn’t been hard at times as obviously there have been some disagreements but nonetheless, for me, it’s been enjoyable.
The decision to take time out from playing shows to write new material hasn’t been easy to live with however, particularly for the drummer and bassist, who are more of the opinion that a band aren’t really functional unless they’re playing shows, or at least intend to. As a result it’s been hard to keep up morale, because as far as they’re concerned we’re not really doing anything as a band, despite the fact that we’re writing, because we’re not regularly playing gigs. I can see their point, it hasn’t been particularly easy for me either, and I think I can actually be too wary of rushing things so maybe I’ve been advocating for taking time out a little too enthusiastically but, perhaps selfishly, I don’t really want to play any more shows until I can consider myself to have contributed to a reasonable proportion of the set. I haven’t advertised the fact I’m in a band too much so far because the songs anyone would then hear wouldn’t be songs I’m heavily involved with (either in terms of contribution, or emotionally), and I’d like to be able to point to something I’m genuinely really proud of, and feel like I’m a part of, before I start doing that.
Fortunately however, the songs we’re working on are getting to point now where we’ve done everything we can with them prior to taking them into an actual practice room, and we had our first practice working on two of the new songs last Saturday, so we’re very much on our way to getting a new set together to play live, something we’ll hopefully do over the summer.
Tuesday, 27th March 2012
The Star Of Kings, London
This is going to be great - PLEASE SHARE/REBLOG
—— STAR OF KINGS, 126 York Way, Kings Cross, London, N1 0AX ——
—— Thues 27th March 2012 ——
The Star of Kings is an 18+ venue. Bring valid photo ID.£6 OTD
FB Event Page HERE
(via holyroarrecords)
11:15am | March 26 2012 | 26 notes | Source: tinyangrymothers
“A sympathetic understanding of indie music is to see it as a morass of signifiers: guitars, fringes, young or youngish groups of mainly white people connecting the highlights of their music collection in an ever-shifting reconfiguration of the past. A more critical assessment would be that indie is the pinnacle of disengaged, querulous solipsism.”
Richard King - How Indie Labels Changed The World
As promised, our new single ‘Tongue’ is out today and available for free download over at http://music.clipstampfoldband.com. The single is accompanied by an amazing remix by the mighty Ylid.
Tracklisting:
- Clip Stamp Fold – Tongue
- Clip Stamp Fold – Tongue (Ylid Remix)
CSF
11:04am | March 13 2012 | 4 notes | Source: music.clipstampfoldband.com
Hello Pink Mist: Volume 2
I like Pink Mist. It seems like a logical progression, growing out of some labels who have worked together quite a bit in the past on co-releases and splits, for example, the Holy Monsters split that had one of the few Brontide recordings available at the time. In a way it works rather effectively as a kind of branding for a group of taste-makers, that goes beyond the rosters of their respective labels, and further unifies a scene that’s been building in the UK for quite some time, that I think we’re really lucky to have. While the labels involved span a number of different genres, there’s a consistent thread running through the music these labels release or recommend, and the shows they promote. It’s not necessarily something easy to articulate, but it deals with relatively underground, interesting, exciting, sincere, passionate and progressive music, and that’s what I’ve come to expect from Pink Mist, and it’s constituent parts.
As far as I know, there’s only been two releases actually on Pink Mist, the vinyl compilation that came out for Record Store Day last year, and the second Tubelord album, R O M A N C E, and I’d be interested to see what they collectively release next. The first Tubelord album was released by Hassle (the Big Scary Monsters to Hassle transfer seems to be a fairly well-established move at this point with Blakfish, and more recently DZ Deathrays, doing the same thing for their respective albums), so the return of Tubelord to something involving BSM almost seemed to imply they’d be using Pink Mist as something their more successful bands could graduate to, in order to have the labels’ combined weight behind them, rather than them having to go elsewhere. That hasn’t happened since however, and I get the impression that R O M A N C E wasn’t the best test run, if indeed this was even the plan. All four labels have more than enough of their own releases to be going on with, as well as co-releases (Tall Ships seem to be continuing to be co-released by Big Scary Monsters/Blood and Biscuits), in any case so maybe they don’t need to, or don’t have anything coming up that one or two of the labels can’t handle on their own, but I hope that we’ll see some more releases from the collective as a whole in the near future.
Anyway, a couple of days ago they launched their official website, and with it a compilation, which serves as a reminder of how great the selection of music on these labels really is. Here’s what the labels themselves have to say about it:
In celebration of our brand spanking new website, the four labels have decided to give you some free music so you can celebrate with us! Big Scary Monsters, Holy Roar, Blood and Biscuits and Tangled Talk have put their heads together and have come up with a compilation of banging tunes to kick start life at our new online home.
Featuring tunes from Cursive, Gallops, Monolith, Veils and many more, click here to download. We hope you enjoy.
Track Listing:
- Cursive – Wowowow
- Veils – Standing Alone (Isolation)
- Crocus – 222E
- Three Trapped Tigers – 11
- Tubelord – My First Castle
- Dad Rocks! – Weapons
- Listener – Falling In Love With Glaciers
- Last Witness – Magnolia
- LA2019 – Explosions
- Make Do And Mend – Home Away From Here (Touche Amore cover)
- Shapes – Judgement Bespoke
- The James Cleaver Quintet – Think Or Swim
- Monolith – Cold Lesson
- Gallops – Rhythm Is A Misery (Demo)
- Algernon Cadwallader – Cruisin’
- The Long Haul – Holes In The Ground, Bliss In The Skies
- NIbiru – Earthbreeder
- Teej – Slow Motion Summit
08022012
We’ve spent a fair amount of the last month or so working on new material. We’ve been looking at changing our sound slightly as well, so a lot of that time has been spent fiddling with bits of kit and generally experimenting, and there’s been a couple of false starts, but we’re putting together one song at the moment that will hopefully serve as a kind of blueprint for things to come.
We haven’t been as productive so far this year as I’d like, we’re all quite busy and it’s been hard to tear focus away from wanting to book and play shows, preparing for which takes time out of practices where we could be doing other things. Our next show is this Thursday though and we don’t have any more booked for after that (and we’re being more picky about which shows we do play these days), so I’m hoping that will give us the opportunity to really get into writing a new set.
††† - EP ††
The last ††† EP was a definite highlight of 2011, very much been looking forward to this one.
EP ††
Fron†iers | Prurien† | †elepathy | †rophy | 1987
Thursday, 12th January 2012
The Old Blue Last, London
(via theoldbluelast)
4:08pm | January 12 2012 | 28 notes | Source: shoesandsocksoff
Monday, 16th January 2011
Cecil Sharp House, London
I realised earlier today that this is less than a week away now. The album came out last year on Erased Tapes and is incredible, and I’ve never been to Cecil Sharp House, although I have been past it, but apparently some theatre companies, or orchestras, or music schools, or something like that (don’t quote me) hold auditions there because of the acoustics, so it seems like an appropriate setting. Even if that’s not the case, I’m really looking forward to it.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Clip Stamp Fold - Echoes & Swells (He Who Fights Monsters Remix)
A while ago I got the stems through for a song we’d recorded, and thought it might be fun to try and do a short remix.
It was briefly considered that we might release a more finished version of this along with the original song, but we’re releasing the original now as we’re not totally happy with it. The remix was really just for fun anyway, I’m not saying it’s any good, but I really enjoyed working on it, so I thought I’d upload what I had for it to Soundcloud, just for posterity.
So, here is a short, badly mixed remix (if that’s a thing) of an unreleased, and unlikely to be released, track by Clip Stamp Fold.
The Long Haul’s debut solo release, Debtors is now available to pre-order! Five tracks of dynamic and fervent hardcore, available on a single-sided 12” vinyl. That is thought-out, intelligent music and with the introduction of a new vocalist, Harry Fanshawe, brings fresh ideas and lyrical creativity that perfectly complements their brand of technical hardcore.
Debtors was recorded by Lewis Johns at The Ranch Production House and since it last appeared online has been re-mastered for vinyl by Alan Douches (Converge, Brand New, Dillinger Escape Plan). Available on black or translucent green (limited to 100 copies), with printed inners/lyrics and incredible artwork from Jamie McDonald. As well as an instant download of the full EP, all pre-orders include an exclusive, digital-only bonus track featuring guest vocals from Alex Pennie (Goodtime Boys).
Debtors is released February 6th.
(via thelonghauluk)
