free music

Bob Dylan Attacks Music Industry

2009-03-06T00:12:00.000-08:00

Bob Dylan has hit out at the “hypocritical” music industry, saying he prefers the literary and art worlds.
Speaking to The Times, the legendary singer-songwriter said: "The music world's a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know that the book people are a whole lot saner.“And the art world? From the small steps I've taken in it, I'd say, yeah, the people are honest, upfront and deliver what they say."Basically, they are who they say they are. They don't pretend. And having been in the music world most of my life I can tell you it's not that way. Let's just say it's less dignified." Source: festivalwise.com

American Idol's Lucky 13

2009-03-05T23:48:00.000-08:00

Ryan Seacrest described tonight as a "very special episode of American Idol," but he didn't mean that in a sappy Lifetime Network or Afterschool Special sort of way, or like that one disturbing "very special episode" of Diff'rent Strokes with Dudley and the creepy old man in the basement.

There were some sappy moments, and some creepy moments, however, in this...the all-important, very special Wild Card Episode in which the judges "wrested back a little control" (Ryan's somewhat foreboding words) and handpicked three more reinstated contestants to round out the final top 12. Kudos to Simon Cowell for being honest and saying the judges wouldn't be basing their decisions solely on who sang best, but would also look at this as a "casting" opportunity and therefore make sure to add some interesting "personalities" to the mix. That was fine with me...just as long as Tatiana Del Toro wasn't one of those personalities.

Tatiana would sing later, of course, but performing first was Jesse Langseth. Yeah, that's right--get this chick out of the way right off the bat. Just get it over with. That's not to say Jesse's a bad singer--she's inherited some of her brother Jonny Lang's talent, and she was better this week belting out "Tell Me Something Good" than she was last week doing "Bette Davis Eyes." But Jesse is just not top 12 material, just not "very special" enough. Not even pulling a Haley Scarnato/Jeanine Vailes and flashing a generous length of leg helped her cause tonight, even though her pins did look pretty sexy peeking out of her leather micro-mini. I agreed with Kara DioGuardi that Jesse had a certain seasoned "swagger" to her tonight, but I was still surprised that the judges even elected to bring Jesse back in the first place, over more obvious standout contestants like Ju'Not Joyner and Felicia Barton. And it didn't surprise me when Simon revealed that Jesse had been a total "last-minute" addition to the wild card round--an afterthought, really. Next!

Singing second was piano man Matt Giraud, who blew it big time when his Coldplay cover left everyone--judges and voters alike--cold last week This time he went back to what he does best, white-boy soul, with the song choice of the Jackson 5's "Who's Loving You." This was a wise move. As Simon put it, Matt was a "billion times better than last week." He was definitely more in his element and looking very Timberlake-ish in his cool-cat fedora hat, and Kara and Paula Abdul subsequently welcomed back the "bluesy Matt" with open arms. Simon wasn't such a fan of Matt's hat, or the rest of his outfit for that matter, and he even said he saw "bits of Taylor Hicks coming through" in Matt's performance (huh?), but I thought Matt's star turn was enough to inspire viewers to start a whole new Soul Patrol in his honor.

My girl Megan Joy Corkrey--whose elimination was the one I was most personally disappointed by this season--hit the stage next, singing KT Tunstall's "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree," a bluesy folk-rocker that Katharine McPhee famously sang when she went up against Taylor Hicks in season 5. Back then, Kat sang the tune while sitting on her knees onstage, and I think maybe Megan should have done the same. Look, I totally heart Megan, but the girl does NOT know what to do with herself onstage. She dances like a spaz! Right now it's kind of cute, but that shtick will get old fast if she doesn't figure out other moves besides swishing her hips awkwardly from side to side and swinging her arms like a chimp. But that being said, I liked her funny little version of this song. It fit her personality, as Paula put it, and Simon said it best and echoed my sentiments when he said: "I've always liked you, and I still like you; I think you're terrific." Megan just needs choreography lessons, that's all--not enough to stifle her endearing quirkiness entirely, and not enough to turn her into some Britney/PCD clone, but just enough to keep her from hopping from one foot to the other like she has to go to the bathroom. Then she'll be the total "package artist," as Kara once said.

Loudmouth Von Smith sang fourth, taking on "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word." The ballad started with the lyrics, "What do I have to do to make you love me?" (My answer: Just shut up, Von. I'd love that!) Then he sang, "What do I have to do to be heard?" (Um, I hear you, Von. A deaf person could hear you.) But you know what? He held back--wisely, in my opinion--and kept it relatively mellow, and he didn't bother me as much as he used to. I appreciated this, but oddly the judges did not. Paula told him he was overthinking and being too technical, and "not letting the true essence of Von Smith come out." (What, is Von manufacturing a perfume now or something?) Simon told Von he was "beginning to become a bit boring" and grumpily dubbed him "Mr. Serious." But you know, there was nothing serious about that stupid fauxhawk that Von was wearing. Even Sanjaya wouldn't rock that hairdo!

Singing next was Jasmine Murray, who seriously messed up a couple weeks ago when she tried to take the judges' advice to sound "pop" and "commercial" by warbling Sara Bareilles's "Love Song"--a song that absolutely no one loved. This week she flipped it and decided to sing possibly the most boring and overexposed ballad ever, Christina Aguilera's "Reflection" (WHY???), an anthem that Randy Jackson pointed out was a bit too big for her. But she ultimately pulled it off and proved she has a wider vocal range than previously assumed (Kara in particular expressed shock over this), and while Simon once again griped that it was a performance by a "young girl trying to sound grown up," he did say it might be enough to get Jas back in the game. Good for her.

Savvy web-marketer Ricky Braddy (the guy was already selling "Braddy Bunch" T-shirts online, before he'd even made the top 36) went next, singing "Superstition." And it seemed like maybe his luck was about to turn around. His uptempo performance was much more loose, fluid, and overall memorable than the Leon Russell ballad he capably but stiffly crooned two weeks ago. It was certainly a lady-pleasing performance, since Paula told him he'd "nailed it" and Kara exclaimed, "You can sing your butt off!" Meanwhile, Randy thought Ricky was "self-indulgent" and oversang, and Simon thought the performance was "clumsy" and "karaoke." Being a lady myself, I agreed with Paula and Kara in this case.

Next was the contestant clearly brought back just for dramatic effect, the aforementioned and afore-hated Tatiana Del Toro. Ugh. Now, some commenters on this blog have pointed out my supposed hypocrisy in praising dramatic troublemakers like Nathaniel Marshall and Norman Gentle while simultaneously blasting Tatiana for, well, being a dramatic troublemaker. It DOES seem hypocritical, huh? So, point taken. But the bottom line is, I do not LIKE Tatiana. Nathaniel and Norman seemed like nice (read: sane) guys, and they made me laugh. I liked them. Tatiana just scared me. Her freakouts freaked me out, instead of entertaining me. I hope that explanation makes sense. Hey, I like what I like! And I never, ever liked Tatiana. Sorry.

So out came Tatiana, singing Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You." Sound familiar? It should! She sang it two weeks ago, when she first competed in the top 36, and she also sang it during Hollywood Week! What a copout! Simon called her on this, telling her that her decision to revisit this song was "rubbish." I must grudgingly admit that she didn't sound rubbish, though. Yes, Tatiana sounded pretty good. But she should sound good by now--she's had plenty of chances to perfect this song, performing it as many times as she has!

What didn't sound so good was all her incessant babbling tonight. Her pre-performance interview piece was a 30-second hot-messy outpouring of sobby emotion, and then after her song she started screaming at Paula Abdul like that pink-clad, brace-faced, suicidal season 5 stalker, Paula Goodspeed. "I love you so much!!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!" she howled, refusing to let Ryan get on with it or let the judges serve up their critiques, and thus severely cutting into the remaining screen time for the final singer tonight, Anoop Desai.

Tatiana--perhaps encouraged by Simon's advice to Jorge Nunez last night to be proud of his Puerto Rican accent--had also mysteriously and suddenly adopted a thick accent herself. This was almost as odd as the subdued Stepford Wife fembot persona she took on the last time she was on the show, in a (failed) attempt to prove to the judges and voters that she's not batshiz crazy.

"You've got me all confused," Paula said--and hey, when PAULA ABDUL is saying she finds someone weird and confusing, that's serious. Kara pretty much accused Tatiana of having a multiple personality disorder, too: "It's 'The Many Adventures Of Tatiana'!

Well, I still don't like any of Tatiana's personalities--sorry, again.

Finally some P.A. got out the hook and dragged Tatiana off the stage, and last to sing tonight was Anoop. Amusingly--considering that the song sung before him was a Whitney Houston number--Anoop chose to sing Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative." Wow, that was unexpected. For the first time, I saw real heartthrob potential in Anoop. He had a whole lotta swagger, he worked the crowd like a pro, and the ladies loved him--including Kara (who said his performance made her want to dance), Paula (who praised his "nasty" stage moves)...and me!

And so, the judges pow-wowed (although I suspect their decision had already been made, and this was just a suspense-creating formality), and after the commercial break they returned with their verdict. The first to go through was Jasmine Murray, a decision I tentatively applauded. I haven't been 100 percent happy with all of Jasmine's performances, and I can't imagine her winning this show in the end, but I still think the girl has potential.

Ricky, Von, and Jesse didn't get through (although Simon sadly psyched poor Jesse out when he told her she "almost made it" and she misheard him), but then Megan and Tatiana were called up to the stage together...

Oh no! The ultimate battle of good versus evil!

As it turned out, goodness prevailed, and Megan was the one who got through. YAY! But she wasn't even able to enjoy her victory, because she was too busy comforting a positively hysterical Tatiana, who was bawling like her entire family has just perished in a fiery plane crash or something. Megan was quickly shooed offstage as if she was the loser here, while Tatiana remained onstage to be consoled by an overcompensating Paula. It was really unfair. Tatiana's gotten more screen time than she deserved already. Couldn't she just let Megan have her moment? For once?

Finally Tatiana's 15 minutes of fame were up, and the last spot in the top 12 came down to Anoop and Matt. Wow, what a close race. Both had done so well tonight, and both were so appealing in their own soul-pop way. But I was still pulling for Anoop. When the judges announced that the last winning wild card was instead going to Matt, I was seriously crestfallen. "No!!!!!!" I howled.

But then the judges threw a curveball and announced that this season they'd decided to expand the finals to a lucky 13...and Anoop was in too! I howled again. "Yes!!!!"

Sure, I was being as overdramatic and multiple-personality-stricken as Tatiana herself, but I couldn't help it. What exciting news: All three of my picks had made it, plus another guy, Matt, who also totally deserved a shot. Sure, this news didn't make me as happy as I would have been if the wild cards had included Nathaniel Marshall, Norman Gentle, Ju'Not Joyner, or Jackie Tohn, but overall I was pleased with how things went down tonight. The judges may not have picked my favorite eight to compete in the wild card round, but of those eight, they did select the best four.

And so next week is when things are going to get really interesting. Ryan Seacrest ended tonight's episode by saying that none other than Kanye West would be on the show next week. Did I hear that right? Really? Details, please! Is Kanye going to be a mentor? That would be funny because a) Kanye can NOT sing, so his mentorship would only be helpful if the theme was Auto-Tunes Night; b) this live show would probably end up being broadcast at midnight, because Kanye would show up at least three hours late; and c) Kanye's such a jerk he'd alienate most of the contestants, so that the one finalist who didn't quit and walk off the set in a huff would end up winning American Idol by default.

My guess is Kanye is just performing next week, but I do hope he IS mentoring, because you know that guy's more drama-queenish than a hundred Tatiana Del Toros put together!

So tune in next week when the lucky 13 and (hopefully?) Kanye sing for their lives. Until then...Seacrest out!

January Q&A now online, featuring Shane Nelken of The Awkward Stage

2009-02-03T18:08:00.002-08:00

The latest installment of the Fingertips Q&A is now online, this one featuring Shane Nelken, front man for The Awkward Stage. While previous Q&As have prompted some thoughtful ramblings on the state of the music industry, Nelken will have none of that. He doesn't ramble; he goes straight for the punchline. Once I convinced myself he wasn't making fun of my questions, I realized how funny his answers were. Although he probably was making fun of my questions. Check it out for yourself on the main site. And that's the MegaSaurAss himself, second from the left in the picture.

Free musics (lovely lo-fi-ish Americana with a hint of gospel about it)

2009-02-03T18:08:00.001-08:00

For better or worse, we live in expansive musical times. Back in the 20th century, which some of you may remember, a band would work hard (or, maybe, not so hard) at being successful, and usually not succeed. That much hasn't changed. Sometimes, when a band was very successful, one of the members might form an offshoot, a so-called ," for a variety of reasons, but the starting point was that the original band had gained some traction, was relatively well-known. A side project would often arise, in fact, as a way of giving less involved members of an established band a chance to be leader. Today, side projects sprout like dandelions in the indie music meadow. Bands with little or no widespread recognition routinely spawn side projects, sometimes more than one.
I am not judging this, just pointing out the change. People seem genuinely to have more music coming out of them than hours in the day, and obviously more ways than ever to record and distribute it. And if there had been some small-minded, last-century-oriented part of my brain that did want to judge this phenomenon, it has been silenced once and for all by Mazes, a side project of the worthy but not very well-known Chicago band the 1900s (previously featured on Fingertips, by the way). Edward Anderson and Caroline Donovan from that band have joined up with Charles D'Autremont to form the trio Mazes, and the result here is a gorgeous bit of sturdy, sort-of-lo-fi Americana tinged unexpectedly with gospelly overtones. "I Have Laid in the Darkness of Doubt" floats along with a backwoods sort of poise, picked and strummed and percussed on top of what surely sounds like a chorus of crickets, in no hurry to go anywhere, without even a chorus to distract us. Every time I listen I'm surprised how quickly it's over.
This is one of 11 songs on Mazes' self-titled debut CD, scheduled for a March release on . MP3 via the

Free musics (brisk, noir-ish, and dadaesque)

2009-02-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

First come the blurred piano chords and crazed cello bleats. Next we hear the speaking voice of hard-bitten, semi-anarchic American novelist Dan Fante delivering the hard-bitten, semi-anarchic lyrics that he wrote for this song by the Italian band Hollowblue (however that collaboration came about). The words make sense yet the sentences don't ("Drag your laundry down First Avenue"? "Spend some time with your drugstore mind"?), but with his voiceover-announcer-from-hell intonation, he sells it to you anyway. "I've got a pair of socks I like better than you"--well, okay, sure, if you say so, Dan. (And he does, twice.)
Turns out the jittery, slippery, loopy opening section is over before you can quite absorb it; at 0:27, the band fully takes over, the lyrics now reintroduced over a brisk, noir-ish Continental beat, sung in heavily accented English by the engaging front man Gianluca Maria Sorace. While Sorace's breezy earnestness and reedy tenor brings Fante's nutty non-narrative to a more grounded and inclusive place, in my mind it's cellist Ellie Young who provides the heart of this likable dadaesque melodrama. First we heard those wild, horn-like blurts accompanying Fante. She returns at 0:48 with strong, gypsy-ish bowing and then uses a muscular 25-second solo in the center of the song (1:40) to make a strong argument for the cello as a rock instrument, and it's less maybe about the solo itself than how great the song sounds when Sorace returns in full force afterward.
"First Avenue" is the lead track from Hollowblue's CD Stars Are Crashing (In My Backyard), which was released in Europe last year on Midfinger Records, an Italian label. MP3 via the band's site.

Free musics (cryptic, powerful, uniquely instrumented dirge)

2009-02-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

What may seem like a throwaway, the twiddly gathering of odd-ish creaks and whistles we hear in this song's opening 25 seconds or so, is in retrospect an intriguing hint of the powerful agglomeration of sound that Perkins and his idiosyncratically-named band pump out as this one ramps up. Among the instruments the group plays are upright bass, saxophone, pump organ, harmonica, harmonium, trombone, banjo, and clarinet. (This is not your father's rock band.) I advise turning up the volume so as best to hear the deep and mighty sonic breaths that propel this cryptic dirge forward. Perkins sings with an offhanded, cumulatively heart-rending ache; a startling phrase or two comes to the surface ("Black is the color of a strangled rainbow," for one); but the song's meaning lies more in the convincing churn of the the musical and lyrical momentum than in precise denotation. (In other words: I don't know what he's actually saying.)
Perkins was featured on Fingertips around the time of his 2007 solo debut CD; check out that review for the executive summary of his sad backstory. He's been playing, with long-time friends, as Elvis Perkins in Dearland at least since then. The band's self-titled debut CD is due out on XL Recordings in March. MP3 via the Beggars Group web site.

Free musics New Commentary online

2009-02-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

At long last, the Fingertips Commentary has reemerged. The topic is nothing less than the free and legal MP3 itself, something so obvious to write about that I haven't, previously, written about it. I will post the whole essay here on the blog in two parts, beginning Wednesday. For the eager, curious, or bored, you can see the on the main Fingertips site.

Free musics from Jessie Kilguss (singer/songwriter combines spacious sound with clarity of expression)

2009-02-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

What I like right away here is the clarity in Kilguss's voice. The overall mood--upbeat, spacious, minor-key, with a piano pulse--has a familiar, Sarah McLachlan-like sheen to it (and nothing, it should be noted, remotely Americana, the genre, about it). But Kilguss does not milk the drama with any extra vocal ache or wooshiness. This makes an immediate difference, to me. Music of this general sort does not usually come with a restrained singer. (Maybe her previous career as an actress keeps her from having to get all melodramatic vocally.) Kilguss has a pretty tone--prettiness is the first thing to go when histrionics set in--and she doesn't even lose it in her upper register, which is where many pop sopranos get all airy and blowy. At the same time, she doesn't have one of those "hey listen to my pretty voice" kind of voices either. Restraint, again, is the key.
The other principal thing I like about "Americana" is the left turn the song takes at the chorus. First we get a brief hit of string-like synthesizers, as the piano either disappears or is overwhelmed, and the word "Americana" sung anthemically, but then, hey--check out that unexpected chord shift (1:08) as she sings the word a second time over accompaniment that lags engagingly behind the beat. One more unforeseen chord awaits us at 1:20, and by now it's apparent that this elusive-sounding chorus is driven by neither melody nor lyrics but by a surging, almost orchestral musical flow. The lyrics alone on paper do not begin to suggest the music, which is not a disconnect but a testament to the songwriter's musical imagination.
You'll find "Americana" on Nocturnal Drifter, Kilguss's second album, which she self-released earlier this month.

Free musics from Little Joy (delightful, islandy world pop with a wondrous melody)

2009-02-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

A delight from beginning to end, "No One's Better Sake" rolls along with a shuffling, organ-infused island beat and a casual sensibility that belies how beautifully this little song is put together. What we have here is that rare pop composition that is constructed around a full 16-measure melody--listen and you'll see how the entire verse is an unfolding melody (from 0:18 all the way to 0:54), even as the song's gentle, world-pop sway implies a simpler melodic framework. The chorus does its magic in eight measures, as the organ comes back to the fore and the song's lone, exquisitely placed minor chord just melts the heart there at around 1:04. (At least, it feels like the only minor chord; I could be wrong about that.)
Singer/guitarist Rodrigo Amarante has an endearing, laid-back vocal style that gives the lyrics the quality of a developing conversation; he often sings as if he's just then deciding what to say. At the same time, Amarante's
processed vocals call to mind the Strokes distinctive vocal sound, which may be no accident: the trio Little Joy is a side project for the Strokes' drummer, Fabrizio Moretti (the third member is singer and multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro). Amarante, it should be noted, is far more well-known in his home country, Brazil, than Moretti is in the U.S.; he gained fame as a member and eventual leader of the Brazilian band Los Hermanos, which is currently on hiatus.
"No One's Better Sake" is a song from Little Joy's self-titled debut album, which was released in November on Rough Trade Records, to not a whole lot of fanfare. The band took its name from their favorite bar in Echo Park, the section of LA where they lived while recording the album. MP3 once again via the web site, which has had a great run of offerings lately.

A Free and Legal MP3 Manifesto

2009-02-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

So: let every album have one free and legal MP3. Other songs must be purchased; the album, if desired, must be purchased as well. If this were the industry standard, if every album had one free and legal MP3, the industry would be in better shape, and the path for future growth clearer.

Here are five reasons why:

1) Free and legal MP3s do not equal lost revenue.

Let's begin by shredding once and for all the fantasy that every free and legal MP3 downloaded equals money the record companies aren't receiving. That's a patently false, self-serving assumption.

To begin with, when you offer a free and legal MP3, you invite many many experimenters, people who grab it because it's free but would never have bought it if it weren't free--who often would have no idea it even existed if it weren't free. There's no lost revenue in that at all. This would be like saying it was lost revenue every time someone heard a song on the radio but didn't go out and buy it.

Okay, and then what? Well, they listen and decide if they like it. If they don't, then these people would not have bought the song anyway. Again: this is not lost revenue.

If the downloader likes the song, then we get to the all-important fork in the road: he or she can then buy another song from the album (or maybe even the whole thing), or still not buy anything further. In the first case, you've created revenue, so, okay, phew. But then there's that troubling second case to deal with, and this is probably one that has the labels fretting: "You mean they downloaded the song for free, they liked it, and they still aren't giving us any money?"

Well, yeah, maybe. But it is shortsighted to see this as simply lost revenue. What you generate here instead are two important things: customer goodwill (hey! they keep giving me a free song! and they're sometimes really good!) and technologically effective promotion. Look: this "free song" will pop up in the listener's iPod, will make it onto playlists, will generate awareness of the artist in question. Over time, there's still significant sales potential, especially in this day of fostering community between artists and listeners. Record companies must begin to understand the promotional value of this exposure, which leads us to point number two:

2) Free and legal MP3s are the single most valuable way to promote artists to music fans in a post-radio age.

Let's return to the plight of our magnanimous Nonesuch friend (see yesterday's post). So, yay, he protected every single song on a worthwhile but off-the-beaten-path album. I have to wonder: are copies of the Sam Phillips album therefore flying off the shelf? Do people think, "Well, crap, since I can't have any free songs I better buy the whole album?" Not in 2009 they don't think this.

The easiest and most effective way to promote an album, especially an album that is not in any case destined for million-seller (or even 100,000-seller) status, is by making a free and legal MP3 readily available. Give people a song to have, to listen to in the context of their preferred music-listening environment. Let it spread around the internet, friend to friend, blog to blog.

I find it ironic that record labels that are squeamish about letting loose free and legal MP3s had no problem for decades handing out free physical copies of their records to radio stations. Oh, well, one might say, that's an entirely different thing. There were huge audiences at stake. Giving a free record to a big-city radio station could result in millions of dollars of sales.

True enough, at the very top end of the music market, commercially speaking. But these same record labels also had no trouble shipping copies of many albums destined for obscurity (where's the return on that?), and no trouble shipping albums to some pretty tiny radio stations, including all those college stations with audiences that number in the dozens at any given time.

Truth be told, radio has pretty much disintegrated for the majority of recording artists. Hardly anyone gets on the radio. (Sam Phillips certainly doesn't get on the radio, outside of a coterie of "adult alternative" stations.) And it doesn't matter because nowadays, people's computers and people's iPods are, effectively, their radios. That's where they listen to music, both old and new. And the only way record companies can get on these "stations" is--how?

You got it: by giving people a free and legal MP3 to download and play--to, essentially, "program" on their own personal station. Because, yes, in order to listen on computers or MP3 players most easily and comfortably you have to give people the song, not expect them to sit there trapped in their browser listening to a stream, or trapped on a particular web site where music is free if you watch the ads, and not sitting in front of a screen watching a video. (Am I the only one left who realizes that a video is not a song? Just curious.)

And guess what? Delivering a free and legal MP3 to all of them costs a lot less than printing CDs and shipping them out for free to hundreds of radio stations around the country. Never mind lost revenue, what about all the expense involved with that entrenched promotional technique for all those years? To the extent that it "paid off" when a handful of records hit the big-time, fine--that was then. For the music industry to move forward in the 21st century, it has to relinquish that pray-for-a-blockbuster mentality, and the marketing techniques that went along with it.

Give people one song, make it easy to download and use anywhere they want. That's how you get your records played on these individual "radio stations." They usually have just one listener each, but there are millions of them across the country.

3) One free and legal MP3 per album makes for easier and less confrontational policing.

For starters, if there is automatically going to be one free and legal MP3 from every album, right away you'll have fewer bloggers posting illegally distributed tracks. I'm guessing many will be happy to stick with the legal one, particularly if approached reasonably; right now, for far too many albums, and for pretty much every major-label album, they don't even have this choice.

Second, when labels set about policing things online, they can use an approach which is kinder and gentler and thus much more likely to move future music-sharing behavior in a more legally-oriented direction. "The track you have been sharing is not legally available for free online distribution," the email can state. "However, were you aware that the song 'Free and Legal,' from the same album, is in fact available for free online distribution? Here's the link."

Or whatever. The point is, with one sanctioned free and legal song from every album, the record industry will finally be closer to being on the same page as 21st-century music fans. Record labels will effectively be entering their world rather than creating phony and pointless and old-fashioned barricades.

This strikes me as a more important issue than anyone seems to bother to realize. Thanks in large part to its well-known campaign to sue people who were illegally downloading their songs, the major record companies spent the better part of the current decade in open conflict with their own customers and potential customers. As a believer from the outset in free and legal MP3s, I obviously have no sympathy for those who have chosen to download a lot of music illegally, but I also have no patience for record companies who choose only to see that behavior as reprehensible rather than try to understand the context and work to find a middle ground.

After all, the record companies, from the outset, could have combatted illegal downloading with this idea: "Hey! Do legal free downloading instead!" But they chose instead to see this as a war and to see their customers and potential customers as enemies. Not real smart in the long run.

I would also, by the way, have no sympathy with bloggers who, in a world in which there is a free and legal MP3 available from each album, would continue to post songs that are not freely and legally distributed. Bloggers are perfectly entitled to tell the world what songs they like; they are not entitled to decide on their own what songs to make available for public consumption. This is a freedom that many presumed to take from the outset, but this freedom continues to have no basis in fairness or legality.

4) If you have to give away one good song this means you must, in theory, put out albums with more than one good song on them.

Needless to say, this would be another excellent outreach strategy for a bedraggled industry.

Although I can offer no direct evidence of this theory, I am pretty sure that there exists in the music industry an additional resistance to free and legal MP3s that has to do with the suspicion that if a music listener gets one good song for free, they won't buy the rest of the album. (After all, why else would Mr. Nonesuch be so resistant to releasing one Sam Phillips song?) To the extent that this is true, I'd say that music listeners have been well-trained over the years by their experience with albums that have only one good song on them in the first place.

As long as giving away one good free and legal MP3 from an album is the equivalent of giving away the store, as it were--because it is in fact the only good song--then, yes, this is a legitimate concern. There is one pretty straightforward solution to this, however: make sure the albums you're releasing are actually good. The days of fooling people into buying a whole album based on hearing one good song really have to be over if the Free and Legal MP3 Manifesto is to be effective. Surely we don't need so many albums anyway, as fewer people appear to be interested in buying them in the first place.

Note that this does not mean there will be no more albums. Can we finally agree to put an end to this black-and-white, all-or-nothing, sound-bite-oriented world view? If albums are going through a less-popular phase this hardly warrants the idea that no one wants to record them or listen to them henceforth and forevermore.

5) The music industry herein has a newborn opportunity to affirm the value of what it is selling.

Okay, so stick with me here, because I know that lots of people still think that handing out free digital music undermines the idea that music has value. To begin with, songs have become mere files, and files are eminently and endlessly copyable and distributable; add to that free distribution and where's the value? Where's the possibility that people will pay for it?

And the record companies themselves have gotten so spun around and bamboozled by the fledgling century's digital realities that here they are, after years of complaining that giving away free music compromises the idea that music has value, lining up to experiment with the idea of giving unlimited access to music on streaming sites via a minor or bundled fee--something, ideally, that the end user won't even notice or realize he or she is paying.

Talk about devaluing music! Treating music as a utility, like electricity or water, inherently devalues the artistry and effort of any individual artist, the subjective worth of any given song. But the industry seriously considers this idea now because, well, it's desperate, like an addict whose supply has pretty much run out. It'll try anything to get its mojo back.

Returning to the spirit of the Inaugural Address, I'd like to suggest that the industry seek not the pipedream fix but seek instead the true opportunity in this long-standing crisis brought on by digital distribution. What that opportunity may be is nothing less than the full embrace of what it has to offer us.

I mean, think of it: here are companies selling one of humankind's most profound creations: song! Often grouped into album! And for decades upon decades now, these same companies have largely sought to treat their products as just that--mere products. (Or, in true industry parlance, the singular: "product.") But these aren't screwdrivers and frozen pizzas that are being sold. This is music. The word itself has magic in it. When something is music to your ears, it's wonderful, delightful, perfect. When you have to face the music, you're dealing with something significant, serious, not to be ignored.

I know that many many musicians have been waiting, without hope or encouragement, for record companies to understand the inherently special nature of their offerings, waiting for the suits and the bean counters to take into account the personal, aesthetic, subjective, and artistic aspects of their so-called products, not just in terms of projecting sales but in terms of how they do business from the ground up.

And now: here's their chance. Not by forcing value upon us (e.g. suing from an aggrieved position) but by proactively asserting that their products do indeed have value. Invaluable value.

And they can do this, paradoxically, by first offering us a gift. Never mind the promotional merit (which, as discussed, is real and significant)--how about simply seeing the mandatory free and legal MP3 each album must offer, according to the Free and Legal MP3 Manifesto, as just that?: a gift. The record companies and artists will give this gift to music fans, now, because the technology has long since arrived to make it possible, because it's a valiant way to break into our fragmented, overconnected lives, because they so value what they produce that they want, first, to share it with us.

Because: when they hand out a yummy free sample of something earthy and organic at Whole Foods, do you think, "Well, gee, this must be worthless if they're willing to give it away?" Or, "Hey, this must be pretty good or they wouldn't be giving out tastes?"

The music industry has completely blown it so far, but here at the outset of what clearly is a brand new day I'm thinking maybe it's not too late. And we, the music fans, can assume our responsibility in the matter as well. We can receive this gift with newfound appreciation. And with our appreciation we can likewise offer our hard-earned dollars when we hear something that moves us, that lifts our spirits, that assures us that it was created out of hope and inspiration and artistry.

And yeah I know not every piece of music is created in this manner. And I know this whole issue is complicated by convoluted circumstances and thorny issues. But I have a dream. And now I have a Manifesto. Change, as we have seen, may begin with just such things.

free musics (spellbinding voice, upbeat but subtle song)

2009-02-03T17:59:00.000-08:00

The mighty is back with a soon-to-be-released album and an initial song that took a while to sneak up on me, as it were. To be sure, her voice is as spellbinding as ever, with that rich lower register, that clarion upper register. And this one does have an immediate, breezy-jangly appeal. I just wasn't sure about the song itself. I kept hearing the chorus, with its simple-sounding, repetitive core, and was too distracted to listen to what was actually going on.
The words were the first to penetrate. Over what may sound like a throwaway melodic line, she sings "I'm a man-man-man, man-man-maneater/But still you're suprised-prised-prised when I eat you." It turns out this is a bouncy, casual, humorous-seeming way of nailing a painful and complicated interpersonal tendency among us humans that would take me a full paragraph to explicate (I don't have the room; I'll leave it to you to ponder.) And then, the music: the way the second series of repetitions, on "surprised," lag at half-rate, and behind the beat, helps deliver the complex, wistful payoff far better than the words alone would. Eventually, too, I noticed she has two different melodies for the two verses, which feels curious and elusive. You keep needing to go back and listen again. Don't miss, also, that rueful seven-note run on the guitar before the second verse starts (beginning at 0:56), a C-sharp scale that comes up one note short, leaving us on the most unresolved C note possible (in this difficult scale it's considered a B-sharp, to be precise). She uses this same pattern for the song's cryptic coda, as she sings: "It will end again in bullets fired," which strikes me as an allusion to Chekhov's famous
So there's a little more here than meets the eye. And, "People Got a Lotta Nerve" comes with a nifty promotional gimmick to boot. For every blog that posts this song, Case and her record label, Anti, will donate $5 to the Best Friends Animal Society. Today is in fact the last day the promotion is in effect, so I'm in under the wire. Phew. The new CD, Middle Cyclone, is due out in early March. (There's a nice video on the making of the album, worth watching, ) MP3 via Spinner.

Free and legal MP3 from Blue Horns (thorny guitars, yelpy vocals, loose/tight sound)

2009-02-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

With its thorny guitars and yelpy vocals, "Shotgun Wedding" brings the early work of the late great New Zealand band Split Enz rather immediately to mind, but that's only because I'm old and remember them. It's probably an accident. (They didn't really do the thorny guitar thing, anyway. Thorny keyboards, thorny strings, maybe. Yelpy vocals, definitely.) Perhaps less of an accident is the way the band's clearly voiced dual guitar sound recalls another '70s band, Television, although this is jumpier and poppier than what Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were doing. These guys are like Television's kid brother, just wanting to have a bit of actual fun. (Television was cool and great but not much fun.)
"Shotgun Wedding"'s charm, to me, has to do with its commanding spirit of loose tightness (or is it tight looseness?)--an aural sense and sensibility that characterizes a lot of great rock'n'roll through the years. You want it to sound spontaneous and alive, but you also want everything just so. There's nothing muddy or muddled here; the two guitars play cleverly together, and you can always hear what each one is doing if you stop to listen. The song rollicks to a spiky, shuffly beat, singer Brian Park (he also plays one of the guitars) unleashes his warbly falsetto with exquisite precision (check out the note he hits at 0:52, which pretty much sold me on the song), the guitars take a break from their prickly, tick-tock dueting to give us a little "Heat Wave"-y swing (1:19), and the whole thing wraps in 2:40.
Blue Horns is a quartet from Portland, Oregon. "Shotgun Wedding" is the lead track on the band's self-titled debut album, which was self-released at the end of last year.

free music and legal mp3

2009-02-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

A master of atmosphere, Marissa Nadler can maintain her delicate, otherworldly vibe even when she adds percussion and electric guitar to her spidery sound, and even when the music chugs along at a toe-tapping pace. A lot of the aura has to do with that spooky voice of hers, encased in reverb, and the words that voice is singing--weird words, full of romance, escape, and sorrow (the titular metaphor appears to be referring to death itself). The echoey, keening lap steel that hovers in the background heightens the familiar strangeness of it all.
Nadler may be adding band-like instrumentation to her sound, but it's hardly a standard sort of rock band she's got going here. Listen, first, to the drumming, which moves forward with an idiosyncratic blending of rims and toms, and a most judicious use of cymbals--what you hear in the intro from about :06 onward is what propels the entire song; it's a subtly peculiar sound, seeming at once mechanical and homespun. Then check out the aforementioned lap steel guitar, which howls and sings with uncanny luminosity, mixing in and around an electric guitar and also Nadler's own backing vocal tracks, often stressing notes that set it apart from the melody and harmony and yet join everything mysteriously together. Beautiful, compelling music we have here.
Fingertips regulars may recall Nadler from the oddly gorgeous 2007 song which ended that year among the free and legal MP3s here. "River of Dirt" is from her forthcoming (and fourth) CD, Little Hells, which is slated for release next month on . MP3 via Kemado.

free music Thomas Godoj - Plan A! [Album]

2009-02-03T01:52:00.001-08:00

Thomas Godoj is a Polish-German rock-pop singer and songwriter. He is known most notably for winning the fifth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of Pop Idol.

Plan A! is a debut album by Thomas Godoj. It was peaked #1 in German. The lead single from this album is "Love Is You" which was peaked #1 in German.

Tracklisting

01. Love Is You
02. Not The Only One
03. Autopilot
04. Too Young To Grow Old
05. I Don't Feel The Same
06. Plan A!
07. Let It Be
08. It's Beautiful
09. Summer Breeze
10. The Morning Sun
11. Helden Gesucht
12. When The Tears Are Falling
13. BrandNew Start

free musicf Martin Stosch - 7teen [Album]

2009-02-03T01:51:00.001-08:00

Martin Stosch is a German singer and the runner-up of the fourth season of the television show Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), the German version of Pop Idol. Martin was born in July 30, 1990 in Landshut. His parents are Bernhard Stosch and Elisabeth Stosch and he has two sisters, Sandra and Vanessa. Before the fourth season of DSDS he was to be on a school band, as very good guitarist. Today lives in Postau a small township in Lower Bavaria.

7teen is a debut album by Martin Stosch.

Tracklisting

01. Zeit Meines Lebens
02. Geh Nicht Einfach Weg!
03. Warum Hast Du Mich Sitzengelassen?
04. Du Bist Nicht Bei Mir
05. Old Enough To Know
06. Verruckt
07. Horizont
08. Wir Waren Freunde
09. Die Zeit Heilt Alle Wunder
10. Albtraum
11. I Can Reach Heaven From Here
12. Geh Nicht Einfach Weg! [Brit Version]
13. Zeit Meines Lebens [Global Beat Version]
14. Geh Nicht Einfach Weg! [Unplugged Version]

free music Highway To House - Episode 006

2009-02-03T01:50:00.001-08:00

Its time for the sixth instalment of DJ Copernicus' ever popular monthly podcast. Start the weekend with this hour long deep house mix guaranteed to soothe your soul. There will be a new episode every month featuring many of the wide ranging sub-genres of house so be sure to subscribe so as not to miss a thing.

free music Future Technology Episode 008

2009-02-03T01:49:00.001-08:00

Back with his first podcast of the year, Hikari No Sato presents Episode 008 of Future Technology by taking things right back to where it started - minimal house. Taking in tracks from many new labels currently expanding the scene, FT008 is the perfect mix for chilling on a lazy afternoon or to wind down your latest big night out.

music Find us on Twitter!

2009-02-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

It was going to happen... The huge popularity of the micro-blogging service has caught up with us and now you can now follow Best of House to stay up to date with exclusive news on our plans. For example, right now 'Bestofhouse is arranging interviews with some big names! ;)'

We won't be showing our status on the blog in future, so subscribe to our new Twitter feed at twitter.com/bestofhouse for exclusive insider info.

House Music News Weekly

2009-02-03T01:42:00.000-08:00

Its Monday 2nd February, and that means it's time for your weekly dose of house music news. This dedicated show is the first of its kind and delivers 'the latest house music news in less time than it takes to eat your breakfast' every Monday morning. Subscribe to the feed and never feel left out again!