Crazy intro to the instruments of a rock band

25 Monday Nov 2013

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I came across a series of YouTube videos that give the history of different instruments used in a rock band (well perhaps except for the accordion), we are assuming that the series is yet to do the treatment for the synth. Each video is between 5 and 10 minutes long. Each video is opened with the cheesiest music ever. But then things get better, a lot better. Each video has the band with the instrument featured up front, with someone who has to stand like a complete plank whilst MTV like facts are layed onto the board hung over their shoulders.

The band then play the instruments, changing as necessary playing snippets of great music to illustrate evolution of the way the instrument is used, and it great fun to try name the snippets used. But if you’re not sure the pieces are credited if you look carefully near the bottom left of the screen.

Part 1 – Guitar:

Part 2 – Drums:

Part 3 – Accordian:

Part 4 – Bass:

Part 5

UK Supermarket CD sales

18 Sunday Aug 2013

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CDs, Music, sales, supermarket

A few years back the UK major supermarkets took on the high street music retailers such as HMV and Virgin (who became Zavvi and then went under).

At the time I wasn’t overly concerned as I felt HMV and co had been over priced when it came to the charts – and harming the music business. A premium on back catalogue or obscure titles is the price of the store taking the risk of holding something they may not be able to sell and ok by me. So some pricing competition on the top 20 charts couldn’t hurt.

The outcome was a lot of belly aching about how supermarkets would destroy the high street rather than taking the battle to the super markets. As it turns out that skirmish was nothing to the growth of the net and Amazon particularly.

Back to today; having just been into a reasonably sized Tesco to get some shopping I was up for some instant CD gratification in the form of Daft Punk’s latest opus (official UK charts put it at no 23 UK Charts). But not a hint of it, with a couple of exceptions the store reflected nothing of the biggest selling names, the shelves are stuffed with compilations.

So who wins, well the music business aren’t selling more albums feeding and inspiring artists which will produce material for the future compilations. This means buying drops in turn the supermarkets actually losing out.

As for me, I shall start avoiding the supermarkets – instant gratification will come from the indie stores or dare I say it HMV – a name I used to consider the enemy of sensible pricing and good taste.

Buying CDs with MP3 downloads

22 Wednesday May 2013

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MP3 CD

Over the last few years it has become a common thing for artists (or more precisely record labels on behalf of artists) to offer the advance purchase of CDs with the offer of download of the album in an electronic format (MP3 or FLAC typically).

I have to admit I’ve plumped for the additional cost of this option a couple of time recently, falling for e impatient view that the CD will take time in the post and the download on release date will allow me to hear the album at the 1st opportunity.

But present purchases have just shown me to be a bit of a mug, as the CD has arrived a day or two before the official release date, allowing me to rip the album for myself and loading it onto a USB stick so I can hear it in the car 1st thing Monday morning on my way to work.

So, what is the point of the additional premium? The CD arrives early, it is faster for me to rip the CD myself (in fact modern Blu Ray drives can spin the CD so fast that it takes longer to login to a website for the download than the rip process).

So why not allow advance order purchases to download the MP3 version immediately? The risk of leak – well better to allow the MP3 to be downloaded rather than ripped as it means you can trace the leak by ‘water marking’ the download to a transaction. It can’t be the chat scoring because you can count e physical media (unless the real value is for the record company to count such purchases as 2 copies of the album in the sales stats).

I think going forward I’m going to stick to just physical plus personal ripping.

Record stores against the odds

17 Sunday Jun 2012

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http://www.pandamoniumrecords.com/ record store

The Word has two little columns about vinyl record stores battling against the odds.

The fist is a new store that have combined food with vinyl in Brighton called Pie and Vinyl. With improving vinyl sales there is hope for them to buck the trend of record stores.

The second story is about the famous Pandemonium Records in Manchester where the owner famously won’t sell the record to you if it’s his last copy. Sadly the store needs help – it’s in a basement which is now suffering from chronic damp and the landlord wants the store gone. If you can help then please contact them.

Recent Reading in the world of music

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

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music book reading Lomax recording

Been quiet for a while, but thought it is time I shared a bit on what I’ve been reading recently. Firstly the fascinating but rather scholarly biography of Alan Lomax – The Man Who Recorded the World: A Biography of Alan Lomax. If you’ve not come across Alan Lomax and his father John Lomax, their contribution to music was the work to captured music initially in the US, but Alan also worked in Europe for a while. Their story starts out in the 1920s and 30s. Alan’s influence on music perhaps isn’t as widley appreciated, as more recent figures such as Berry Gordy, Jerry Wexler and so on. But actually it is astonishing, from the ‘discovery’ of Lead Belly; to breaking Jelly Roll Morton, setting Muddy Waters onto the road to blues fame; to introducing Dylan to early folk music.

The book itself is a substantial volume, and at times feels very scholarly in nature – but then Alan approached his subject in a manner that was scholarly. It does however make the reading a bit dry at times, but ultimately very rewarding. If you want to seriously understand some musicc history you can’t go wrong with this book.

In brilliant contrast is Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music – this is a great read, with Greg Milner’s writing and passion for his subject carrying you along – so much so you’d think you’re being carried along by a good thriller if you didn’t know better. The book is a lot less scholarly (but not light on fact) and focuses on key points and events in the evolution in the recording of music from the early days of Edison upto the digital age. Like Alan Lomax its amazing how one or two individuals can have such tremendous influence. Given the Lomax’s impact they also make a passing appearance in this book. But their contribution only covers a dozen or so pages rather than the 600+ of the biography.

What does it mean to be a Singer Songwriter?

15 Thursday Sep 2011

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I was pondering what is the difference might between a singer/songwriter and a group. Obviously in the former the recording contract is in an individual’s name and for the egos a name up in lights and perhaps a different award category to groupd (yes another month or so and we’ll be thinking about Album of the year etc). But is that it?

You may jump up and, you fool its obvious, the song writing credits, but then very few groups collectively write lyrics; nine times out of ten the singer is also the lyrist – sensible really he has got to get his mouth around the words. Not convinced, lets look at some example – U2 – Bono; Coldplay – Chris Martin; Radiohead – Thom York. Yes some groups have multiple contributors lyrically, but they’re in the minority.

So is it the music? This stands a bit better to closer scrutiny but not by much, many singer/songwriters have had the same musicians working with them for years and contributing to the music composition process, for example Tom McRae and Jamie Cullum. At the other end you have bands where one on individual has been the common factor, and often extremely strong in their vision that the music is heavily based on their input, for example The Fall (Mark E Smith is the only common factor on all albums) and Yes (Chris Squire is the only common thread).

So next time you’re tempted to pigeon hole someone as a singer/songwriter think about it.

Jac Holzman’s Elektra records

29 Monday Aug 2011

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Elektra book

I’ve finally finishers reading the weighty volume on Jac Holzman’s and Elektra records. Elektra as you probably know was probably one of the most influential indie labels thought brought us the likes of The Doors. But as a label it had more humble beginnings with a lot of Folk and dare I say world music (long before we called it that).

Reading of the book is a little slow to start with – probably because I’m not so familiar with early New York folk (pre Dylan) and trying to place things into the context of what I do know. But as things move on the book becomes more and more engrossing. It is amazing to see what Elektra and Jac achieved putting the artist and music before all else (rather the than manufactured X Factor world).

having finished one substantial music book, I’ve jumped straight in with another – The Man Who Recorded The World, A Biography of Alan Lomax. Unlike Elektra, I only know the smallest amount about Lomax, namely his contribution to music history for recording original African American music. I’ve not read all the book yet, but it’s a very engaging start. If you want to know more about the author and the book then go to http://www.johnszwed.com/about-the-book

Mixed in with this is the reading technical books such as parts of Thomas Erl’s SOA Book series, and some light reading with the like of Iain M Bank’s Surface Detail.