I’m Just Your Average Homeboy!
In just five months, YouTube has gone from beta testing to part of the national zeitgeist. The website is a place where anyone with a home video can post it online and create an endlessly entertaining diversion for bored office workers–who’ve been watching 40 million clips a day.
(credit: CNN.com)
I read this piece earlier in the week, which was a fantastic stroke of luck, as I was thinking all week about the viral video phenomenon. Sites like YouTube.com are a great launching pad for many unknown artists, as it is free to register and post videos of your shows.
For years now, sites like GorillaMask.net have been popping up all over the Internet, featuring videos of people getting hit in the genitals, slapped with a fish, funny stuff like that. Google Video debuted a few months ago, and while it appears to be a much tamer community than YouTube due to a stricter set of restrictions, at any given time, typing in the word “boobs,” “ass,” or “sex,” will bring up a wide array of entertaining, or lame, video clips. Some are two kids fighting in a crowded mall, shot from a camera phone; others feature middle-aged white men that are convinced of their rap prowess.
I wish Mike Eagle would get some video up, especially in lieu of this week’s Letters from FreakLoud, but I digress.
The system that both sites have in place could really prove to be a blessing for undiscovered musicians and established acts. We live in the digital age, and while the record labels appear to be against not only the proliferation of person-to-person media swapping, they also don’t like copywritten material popping up for people to view, free of charge. They send angry letters, and force the sites to remove those links, which, I feel is a really bad idea.
Now, don’t get me wrong, companies like the WWE and NBC have a right to ask for the files to be removed. The pay a lot of money to produce the product, and in order to protect any interest they might have in such a service for themselves down the line, but they truly are missing out on a golden opportunity. Instead of turning people away in droves, they could embrace this new format and it would allow their shows and products to reach new artists. If you miss this week’s Saturday Night Live wouldn’t it be great to just surf onto one of these sites and find the episode? Since there is no replay of the show, at least not for many months, it could be a great way to reach out and embrace new fans, to connect with a new audience.
When Saturday Night Live’s “Lazy Sunday” rap skit was featured on YouTube the night after it was LIVE on air, it brought in over 1 million hits in a matter of hours. Not days, HOURS! Seeing that the show hasn’t been getting great reviews or ratings since the late 70s, you would think that SNL and NBC would figure out a way to market this sketch, other than putting it out on a $15-20 DVD that would go on sale in 6-8 months. They basically threatened to sue everyone that was hosting it, which was their right, but I don’t think it was very intelligent business.
This featured skit could have saved SNL last season, and while it brought about a minor spike in ratings that subsequently waned, NBC had the opportunity to reach out to the new consumer market: the digital one.
Record labels might be suing the pants off of anyone that could be sharing music at any given time (which, for the record, is douche-baggery at its finest. These guys are all paying hundreds of million dollars of fines in payola scams, but I can’t send an MP3 to Widro?) but they understand that the business model they have been working with is archaic. Come on, since the emergence of the LP as the format of choice; tapes and CDs, even vinyl, music sales have slowly decreased year after year. The old formats just aren’t important to people, they don’t care about the artwork as much as people might think, and while a good percentage of the population might still care, some people just want to check out new stuff.
The number of P2P sites and programs is up because while it might seem like an easy “problem” to contain, it really isn’t. Yeah, you can shut down a site here and server there, but the technology is spreading and advancing at a breakneck pace. I remember my friend downloading the first edition of Napster in college, and how much stuff we could find on there at the time, and this was only in 2000! Type the word “torrent” into any search engine and you will get back a list of over 10,000 sites that are currently hosting such files. Six years have come and gone, and yet the RIAA thinks that they should prosecute the people downloading the material when the true criminals are the people who think that every record label needed its own service and that people will pay 7 times what it takes to produce the individual album. They act as though music collecting is a privilege, ignoring that the consumer is the one that has lined their pockets with hard earned money. With iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music and the multiple other “legal” digital music services out there right now, at any given time there are 400,000 people downloading music, which, for the record, is way more than the number of people that could occupy EVERY record store in the world at the same time.
YouTube, obviously, has become a haven for people like myself that want to discover new bands. All you need is a friend with a camera and the cables necessary to upload the files to a PC or Mac and its instant stardom…sort of. If the band is on MySpace the site offers musicians a way to instantly interact with potential fans. Shoot someone an email and a friend request, they can instantly check your band out and decide whether or not they like you enough to add you as a “friend.”
The reason I mention MySpace Music is simple: it’s a genius idea. The best part about it is the fact that you are joining a LEGAL community in which the built in fanbase is in the tens of millions. You could send hundreds of friend requests a day and be inundated with messages and comments the likes of which you could never garner with their depth and reach. It’s the type of service that artists have long been searching for. Every day is a new day to meet new people and make fans out of them. That’s why the labels are all creating profiles for every artist they have. If you know how to use the site, it can actually make being an independent artist quite profitable. This affords musicians the chance to make the music they want without corporate restrictions. If you have enough people in a town or state that are a friend of the band through these sites, when you roll through that town on your next “mini tour,” you won’t have as many empty rooms to play to. Ask any musician who they’d rather play for: 50 people who came to see the headliner and have no idea who they are or those people and 10 more that actually know the words to your songs, even without an LP in stores. My guess is that 10 times out of 10 they’ll say the latter.
I have already heard stories from bands about fans flying from New Orleans and California for shows in tiny venues here in New York City. They know what the band is up to as they develop a connection with the artists they love. They get to interact with the singers and guitarists. They shoot emails back and worth with the drummer. It’s not about asking just for an autograph these days; the connection is deeper than that.
And that’s what these music moguls are missing.
The connection.
Sites like these are making it possible for an artist to get out there and meet their fans and give them the ability to feel like part of the show. Members of the street teams to be the only people who knew the manager or drum tech on a first name basis. They were the only ones who knew where the band was staying and partying after the show. Back in those simpler times (which may or may not be the case, as with age, we all tend to gloss over the murky truth of those times anyway) they were just happy to get the free or discount tickets. Now everyone knows that such-and-such is the manager of Band XYZ; he’s right there in the Band’s top 8.
Shoot him an email, Doug. See if the band wants us to throw together a meet-and-greet at Applebee’s after the show?
Connections help any business man; he might get a better job or help it might help him close the big deal. Today, more than ever, the DYI artist is building similar relationships with fans on their own. They want you to know that they do appreciate your support and love. They want you to know where to go to see the next show. They want to see your lighters in the air. Bands want to know you love them, so stroke their egos a bit.
If some band from Topeka, Kansas drops you a message and wants to see what you think of their music, take a good listen. Tell them what you think.
We live in digital world now, baby. The man isn’t keeping us down any more!
—————————————————————-
.:.Columns from the Week that Was!.:.
Sunday: Saturday Swindle Sheet!
Tuesday: Totally True Tune Tales
Wednesday: Letters From Freakloud
Thursday: More Reasons Why Being Deaf Sucks/Rocks
Friday: The New Classics
Cheap Heat returns as Daniels reports from inside Widro’s Palace…the aptly named Luxurious Widro Complex. I watched the Mets replay later that night, but it wasn’t the same. Find out what our fearless leader does during a PPV. Trust me, if you ever get the text message…try the salsa.
McFarlane Gets Lost. Figures GOD, PK, reported that Lost will, in fact, be heading for the peg hooks of your local hobby store. This makes me even more sad that Spawn’s creator hasn’t snatched up 24 for the same treatment. Who doesn’t want a Tony Almeida figure? A one-handed Chase? Imagine Season Two Jack with a Hacksaw and a severed head!
The 50 Club: 12 Angry Men– McCullar and his peeps check out an American classic. Do they agree that it’s one of the greatest films of all-time? Does it join Raging Bull, Vertigo, and Chinatown in IP Movie’s 50 Club? And, for that matter, what about The Bridge on the River Kwai? Check ’em out!
—————————————————————-
Ssquared’s Music Pulse Hook-Up!
Murder by Death – Brother
Murder by Death is the first REPEAT Music Video Plug!
The most email I have ever received over a column poured in two weeks ago when I plugged the Indiana quartet. Glad to see there is so much MbD love out there. I mentioned last time that I was a really big fan of not only their sound, but of them as people. The reason for this was pretty simple, as when I first started here at Inside Pulse, lead singer Adam Turla actually wrote me to let me know he appreciated what I had said and answered some questions.
hey this is adam from murder by death- thanks for the review- you said some very nice stuff and it was very well written, especially for a first write-up. since you posed these questions in the interview and i happen to
be sitting on my ass at a computer, here are my answers…
1) Do you listen to a LOT of Bright Eyes?
actually, not to sound like an asshole but of the few bright eyes songs I have heard, i find them completely unlistenable. i’ve only recently heard his stuff and granted, i havent heard entire albums but i can’t even
make it through a song. kinda funny huh? but hey music is strange like that.
2) Why so much piano?
we simply had a pianist in the band- when we started playing it was me (guitar and vocals) piano, and violin- then by the time we started playing shows it was the full band of guitar vocals, drums, cello, piano, and bass.
3) Why a concept album?
i take fiction and poetry writing, as well as religion as my majors in college so i thought it would be fun to bring a fictional element to an album- we also love movies and tried to make the album play like a movie-the
new album which we have just started writing is also a concept album.
thanks again- adam
So, the man not only READ the review, but took 3 hypothetical questions and answered them for me. In his defense, I love his voice on the new album, and I have gained a new appreciation for its sound. The Bright Eyes reference was more about the depth of the lyrics, which he addressed in the third answer. He was working on writing, so it makes sense for Who Will Survive… to have such an epic feel to it.
Anyway, if you missed it, this past Tuesday, In Bocca Al Lupo hit stores. This is MbD’s third full-length LP, and shows a great deal of maturity and growth. If you want to check it out, head here.
The band was in Manhattan this Tuesday for two shows. One was that night at the Knitting Factory, but during the late afternoon they celebrated the record’s release at the Virgin Store in Union Square. I couldn’t go, but there is a video of an acoustic version of “Brother” from that performance.
The same song TWICE in one column?
Madness.
—————————————————————-
.::.Forward Progress with Jon Sevastra.::.
In an interview with Billboard, industrial metal granddaddy and famed frontman of Ministry, Al Jourgensen, announced that he will be making a bee line for the studio after his current tour to finish his anti-Bush trilogy of albums. The forthcoming album The Last Sucker will follow up 2004’s Houses of the Mole and this year’s Rio Grande Blood. The bomb dropped with the announcement that Jourgensen will hang up his snake-bitten cowboy hat and focus all of his energy into his new record label 13th Planet Records. With his remarkable history at WaxTrax Records, we should only expect some brilliant new blood via the new label.
In the June 2006 issue of Revolver Magazine, former Pantera and Damageplan skinsman, Vinnie Paul Abbott, calls out Phil Anselmo about all of the hard times and ill-intentioned words thrown around in the years preceding, and following, guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott’s murder. In one of the most in-depth interviews since his brother Dime’s murder, Vinnie shares his last memories with his brother, clears the air about the still boiling bad blood between himself and Anselmo, talks about his new label “Big Vin Records” and the first release of Rebel Meets Rebel featuring himself, Dime, Rex Brown and David Allen Coe.
Mmmm, soapbox. I’m a little torn. As a strong advocate for the advancement of metal and all its nuances, I’m thrilled with mainstreaming of metal on VH1. They’re on a teaching kick lately with shows like Rock Honors, Supergroup, and the plethora of metal specials airing now. Bottom line, this is great exposure for metal. Exposure leads to new blood. New blood keeps people hooked.
But VH1? Am I the only one who feels a little slighted by the fact that VH1 is the first major outlet to jump on this bandwagon. FUSE is trying but only really catching the already digestible pop metal, set aside their half hour Uranium program. MTV is, and has been, a lost cause. I guess we should all just take that grain of salt, put it on our popcorn, kick back in front of the tube and get what we can. I can only hope that this popularizing of metal doesn’t put the true roots of a live and fan based genre up on a pedestal out of reach for those of us who were raised in the real metal culture. Times they are a changin’.
This is Jon Sevastra reporting from the metal underground for SITASS news.
—————————————————————-
brought to you by Brooklyn Industries
.:. I Predict a Riot…I Predict a Riot!.:.
Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson was nearly killed in a hit-and-run accident Sunday when crossing the street in downtown Leeds, England. The band reports that Wilson is “the luckiest man alive, because he is still alive” and credits the frontman’s survival to his air-defying and knee-bending trademark stage jumps. “The jump meant he was flipped over the top of the car, hitting the windscreen, rather than getting trapped under it.” Wilson’s injuries were minor: a broken toe and bruising. Police are still investigating into whether the accident was related to drunk or just reckless driving. The Kaiser Chiefs’ scheduled June shows will go on as planned with Wilson at the helm.
(credit: RollingStone.com)
.:.J Lo Has Moves?.:.
After canceling a number of worldwide spring performances earlier this month for undisclosed reasons, Jennifer Lopez has confirmed her own MTV reality show, Moves. The program will follow six professional dancers trying to make it big in the entertainment business with Lopez — the singer turned actress is also executive-producing the eight-episode run, making appearances throughout the series. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Moves is scheduled to air in the fourth quarter.
No word from Kevin Smith of Clerks fame, as to why one of his best friend’s ex ‘s is using a WIDELY acknowledged nickname of his for the title of her newest endeavor. Jason Mewes was the only person I could reach for comment on such short notice, replying “Snoogans!”
You heard it here first: Snoogans!
Had he said “Snootch to the Nootch” I would have laughed more, but we can’t get picky with our celeb interviews here at Inside Pulse.
.:.Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game.:.
Jayceon Taylor, a.k.a. The Game a.k.a. Fitty’s Bitch,” was arrested in California last week, on charges of “on charges of possessing a deadly weapon after being pulled over by police for a traffic violation.”
While searching the MC’s whip, officers came across a set of brass knuckles and promptly took him into custody. His court date is set for next month, and he was released on $20,000 bail. This is the second brush with the law this year for the Game. In April, an arrest warrant was issued after he missed a March court date for his involvement in a mall riot in North Carolina in which he was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
(credit: RollingStone.com)
.:. Babyshambles Lose Record Deal.:.
Babyshambles — fronted by Kate Moss’ now infamous ex-boyfriend Pete Doherty — no longer have a record deal. Although the band released its debut album in America just this year, it appears Babyshambles have been dropped from their label. While representatives from Rough Trade Records maintain the relationship came to a “natural end,” a recent incident in which Doherty allegedly squirted a syringe of his own blood at an MTV camera crew might have been a factor in the decision.
(credit: RollingStone.com)
Talk about going from bad to worse. This guy can’t seem to keep out of the papers in the UK, and now he gets released from the only record deal he could get by SQUIRTING HIS BLOOD at a camera crew. That’s really smart, Pete.
You are a known intravenous drug user. You do tons of coke and have talked in the press before about your penchant for unprotected sex. You draw a syringe full of your own blood and spray it at people? That’s just crazy. Someone, anyone, needs to step in and save this guy. Get him committed to a serious psychiatric treatment facility and leave him there. If he sneaks out, don’t chase him with cameras, don’t interview him, just pretend you don’t see him and let his life fall apart away from the prying eyes of the media. If no one acts like we need to hear about this guy, he might get the picture about his situation and quit being a tool.
It’s either that or he dies and we lament about “what could have been.”
.:. Shot Through the Arm, and You’re to Blame.:.
Beanie Sigel, the popular rapper who has been shadowed by his violent past, was wounded by gunfire during an attempted robbery May 25th.
The rapper was shot one or two times in the upper right arm shortly after 8 a.m., police said. He was hospitalized and is in good condition.
According to police, the apparent hold-up was attempted by five males traveling in two cars,. It was not clear where the shooting took place.
Sigel, born Dwight Grant, was released from federal prison in August after serving a year on a gun charge and was acquitted of attempted murder the following month. He was also briefly jailed in November for failure to pay child support.
(credit: Billboard.com)
Riiiiiiight. Just when I thought the new State Property was going to go off without a hitch, Beanie goes and gets shot.
Well all know there is a reason that this happened.
If you continue to run around with a gaggle of thugs and act like a total douche, real thugs will show up and try and jack your pretty diamond bracelets.
Funny, a guy can sit in jail for a year, locked up 21 hours a day, and yet the minute he gets out, he goes right back into the waiting arms of the crowd that got him busted in the first place.
He didn’t die.
Maybe he will turn his life around this time?
—————————————————————-
Check out the Archive or you can just click the individual reviews below:
Mitch Willer – Sylvia Sidney…I Love Her Still!
The Like – Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking
The Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way
Lansing-Dreiden – The Dividing Island
Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
—————————————————————-
Welcome to the Jungle! We’ve got pleated khakis!
Designer Tommy Hilfiger decided it was time someone did something about Axl Rose’s decade long promise of a new Guns N’ Roses album: He kicked his ass.
Evidently, Tommy Hilfiger’s step-son used to be married to the woman with whom Rose is currently linked. I don’t think that Hilfiger approves, as while at the Plumm night club here in New York for actress Rosario Dawson’s birthday bash, he decided to do a little bashing of his own: Axl.
Actually, he slapped him a few times, called him some names, and got himself and Lenny Kravitz thrown out. Kravitz didn’t have anything to do with the fracas, he just happened to be the darkest person in the room, and we all know how Hilfiger feels about blacks.Granted, the blows that landed were glancing, but it appears that Rose has matured a great deal since the glory days of GNR, as the Axl of old wouldn’t have taken that 15 years ago.
Rose, as it was reported in the May 20th edition of the NY Post, Times, and Daily News, had moved the fashion mogul’s beverages, which sent Hilfiger into a “foamy-mouthed rage.” Kid Rock was there and sided with Axl, saying that Hilfiger was upset that he was moved to make room for ” rock stars.”
Showing the kind of Grace that NO ONE thought he possessed, Rose merely shrugged the incident off, even poking fun later during his special acoustic set. He dedicated the song “You’re Crazy” to “my good friend Tommy Hilfiger.”
Regardless of how you feels about Axl Rose and his Chinese Democracy promises, this story is damned funny.
(credit: NYPost.com but it was EVERYWHERE)
—————————————————————–
It appears that Fernandez and I have set up quite the nice little system here. I get all the weird holiday weekends (i.e. Mother’s Day, Memorial Day) and he gets to write wrestling tournaments.
Hey, I won the damn thing, so I can say what I want to about it. I beat KDP, the Bootleg and Gloomchen on my way to the title. Yeah, it was a screwjob finish in the end, but I got 3 seconds of pure bliss with my buddy Summer!
Jeff is a good dude.
Go gentle on him next weekend.
I will see you guys in two weeks. Tons of reviews from me next week, so be on the lookout.
Keep it real!
Ssquared
Ssquared @ MySpace
