musings

saturday’s aussie day gig down the southern highlands went well enough, it was a nice change getting out of town for a show. wrapped up my sunday sessions, from now on I’ll be doing the first sunday of each month at the baldy with the band. I’ve been hosting the sundays for two years solid now, and I’d like to reclaim the odd weekend now & again. funnily, several people misread or misconstrued my weekly gig guide announcement and took it to read that I was either 1) no longer playing at the pub; b) moving out of town or 3) giving up music altogether. guess it just goes to show that people scan rather than digest in this info overload society.

we’re still making the final decisions on which tracks to include on the compilation, which is finally in production, despite my misgivings a few posts ago. it’ll be called simply “footsteps”, as the original working title, “the downunder years” didn’t make sense as I’m still living in the antipodes. the artwork is finished, sans last-minute track changes, and that’ll be dependent upon any mastering problems with some of the earlier recordings. so we’re aiming for an april 5th release.

anyone remember when mtv actually played music videos? this belgian website has three whole hours of classic stuff from 1983. I’d forgotten how much of a crush I’d had on martha and nina. and how much of a tool mark goodman was (and presumably, still is).

underneath the window that I’m currently typing this in is a smaller window labelled: “Tags (separate multiple tags with commas: cats, pet food, dogs)”. guess the blogosphere caters specifically for hungry animals.

does anyone have josh rouse’s home address? I wanna go find him and punch him in the nose for that horrendous aberration entitled “hollywood bass player” that has been infesting my otherwise much-loved net radio station. the rest of what I’ve heard from his latest seems pretty good, so where this 70’s throwback comes from, beats me with a satin jumpsuit. it’s also a blatant ripoff of maxine nightengale’s “get right back where we started from”, which gives it a higher score on the putrid meter.

what made it worse was that it followed martin sexton’s killer tune, “happy”, from his latest, “seeds”. my other faves of the month: jesca hoop’s enemy (the rest of the album’s pretty good too, but this track is a stunner) and jose gonzales’ cover of massive attack’s “teardrops“.

sans label, she’s raising money to record her next album. it’s a cute idea, I’ve seen a few established artists work this successfully. check it out here.

pattie boyd’s collection of photos, many for sale here.

… or possibly the decade.

it seems that the bush administration has had a bill passed thru the democrat-dominated cabinet which contains a provision that exonerates bush and his entire administration in case charges of war crimes charges are ever brought in relation to the treatment of detainees at guantanamo bay.

video is here. un-freakin’ believable.

…. and watch this video.

thru using my friend, the delete key (henceforth known as ‘mfdk’, which is at least as interesting as that fashion label ‘fcuk’) , I have:

got a better mortgage by staying put;
saved $$ on post-penis enlargement surgery;
bought my meds from my local accredited pharmacist;
kept using my old trusty non-rolex watch;
increased my sexual potency without the help of viagra;
made sure that a nice nigerian family held onto their $54 million, held safely in a swiss account;
ensured that a sweet romanian gal would find the man of her dreams, not in sydney, but perhaps in her own village;
and turfed silly friday jokes that we’ve all seen over and over (you know who you are….).

my friend, the delete key.

if only it worked on life’s mistakes……

the music biz is a funny place. and I don’t mean funny-haha. I’ve just re-read wired’s profile on universal’s ceo, doug morris, a guy that I’ve always respected as being a ‘good’ record exec with an ear for music (sadly lacking these days). but the article restates what so many of us observers and/or participants already knew - the major labels haven’t a clue as to how to proceed in this glorious new digital age, which has already been foistered upon us for well over a decade.

here’s a salient quote from a recent article, I can’t find the link but have the text (it was emailed), if you’re interested in reading the rest of the article, email me and I’ll forward it:

Many musicians have understood that all they need to make a (very good) living is to have 10,000 fans. 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music.

of course, the indie gravytrain assumes that the artist has something of a) a fanbase, 2) the wherewithall to record and tour, and c)is actually good enough that people would want to hear/see them.

a brief perusal of myspace’s music search facility will deliver thousands of unheard of “artists”. 990 of each thousand will be either unlistenable or woefully amateur. the signal-to-noise ratio is growing so high that it’s becoming all but impossible to find anything of any lasting quality by one’s own exploration.

so, the most powerful marketing tool is word-of-mouth. as it always has been.

what I’m pondering is, after promising this anthology, collection, compilation, whatever - of my older releases for so long, does anyone out there really want to hear it, let alone buy it? perhaps I should save the couple of grand I’d spend on mastering, artwork and cd manufacture and simply place all the tracks as free downloads.

the reality is, even though I’ve been fortunate to have played in bands with and shared stages with some amazing musicians, including some of my personal heroes, I’m still, for all practical purposes, a largely unknown obscure singer-songwriter whose recording career ground to a halt in the late 90’s.

I’m writing a fair bit, well, when I can get the time, between houseguests, kids, ‘day work’ and local gigs. I’ll have enough for a relatively good album soon enough. but again, do I bother going to the time and expense of releasing it, in the traditional sense? or just “get it out there”, in whatever manner available. and move on to the next one?

back to the notepad, as it were…..

if ‘07 disappeared like bathwater without a plug, then the holiday season came and went faster than a hummingbird’s wing cycle. I’m still not sure what I did (or didn’t do), and we’re already into the second week of the new year.

my kids are still here, though I’ll run them back upcountry tomorrow, most likely. rich from the spiders has lobbed back into the spare room and gwyn flies in for his sydney shows tomorrow, it’s been a while since I’ve had an empty house to relax and contemplate in.

I’m changing the formate for the sundays, gonna drop the sunday sessions for now. it’s been two years of me playing host, p.a. operator, traffic controller and bartab keeper, and I fear I’m wearing out some. I’ll do the 1st sunday of each month, but with a band format. chris mearns and steve gunning will handle the rhythm section, and jake should be around for most of the dates.

this week sees a few graphics jobs, a day with my accountant sorting out taxes & books, working up setlists for the band and hopefully making some decisions about what tracks will go on this so-called anthology.

up & coming for ‘08 - overseeing the re-release of the hillbilly moon album, including the unreleased tracks; finishing the blues pirates album; working with rich & crew on the upcoming figtree renaissance project; and hopefully beginning recording my new album with the band.

with any luck, ‘08 should see me spending more time with my own music, instead of everyone else’s, and possibly even another sea-change (or tree-change). I’ve been in this same house for two years, which is usually my limit before I get restless and move on. it’s just my nature, I suppose.

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