On Being A Music Blogger

The last few weeks in the life of VLM haven’t been particularly easy ones. Seems like everything I write that has any kind of substance to it gets cut down by some RIAA prick citing DMCA. Look, I know that under the law, operating a blog like this is kind of illegal. From the outset I’ve never disputed that. I firmly believe that the rules are unfair and in desperate need of change, but that’s the way it is right now. My dad linked me this article from the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, and it more or less sums up my attitudes. The RIAA is trying to grab an entire beach’s worth of sand with its bare hands, and for the most part it’s all slipping through their fingers. And yet somehow in the last few weeks VLM keeps getting snatched up.

Some things to know about VLM and my web traffic: Based on the numbers I receive, Viva La Mainstream averages somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000 readers a week. That stat is a bit wonky, since its hard to differentiate between people who come and read the blog and people who come to the blog while searching for some mp3 or image or something. On the Hype Machine this blog is way, way down on the list of hottest blogs. A vast majority of the time, by the time a story or leak appears on VLM, it’s been up at 20 other, more popular sites for several hours.

So, now I pose a largely rhetorical question; why is VLM perpetually taking the fall for posting mp3s? The logical answer (which I’ve discussed previously) is that someone at some record label has noted the blog as a spot to watch for potential DMCA violations. This doesn’t bother me so much. What bothers is me is the fact that this person/group, along with the RIAA as a whole, has shown a complete and utter lack of balls when it comes to this situation. They go crying to Blogger, who then go and tell me about it. And Blogger’s counter-complaint methods are so troublesome that trying to claim fair use or whatever is hardly worth the effort it’d take.
Now, I offer up a challenge to whoever’s got me in their crosshairs. Next time you see something objectionable that you want removed, before you go crying to Blogger, come to me. Leave a comment. Shoot me an email. Tell me that you’re taking issue with something and you’d like me to adjust my behavior. This is beneficial to both of us; you’ll get what you want, as I will take down any offending material when prompted to, and I get to keep the text of my entries intact (posting the Snow Patrol review three times in as many days was nothing short of irritating). I along with my fellow bloggers are actually agreeable people. If you treat us with some respect, we’re likely to do the same for you.

I’m well aware of the fact that the RIAA won’t do shit in response to that challenge. But I’m putting it out there anyway just in case someone with a brain and a pair of balls reads and is willing to treat me like a human being with something worthwhile to say, rather than a would-be scumbag criminal.

Thanks for reading to a frustrated blogger's ranting for a few minutes. Back a little later to keep this little game going.

==TJ==

Exploring the Other Side of the Rainbow: A Brief Profile of Radiohead

Music blog A Reminder astutely acknowledged that today marks the one-year anniversary of the biggest fuck-you moment any record label has ever had to endure; October 10th, 2007 was the day Radiohead released In Rainbows to the web, allowing fans and curious observers alike to name their own price. It was a brilliantly innovative thing to do, and it turned the internet upside down for about two weeks and got every music-based website to drop whatever else it might have been covering to pour on the praise every time Thom Yorke so much as covered his mouth when he coughed.

Radiohead - Reckoner [iTunes]

Those who've stuck with ¡Viva La Mainstream! for a while know that my first impression of In Rainbows was not a very good one. I thought it was the same pretentious, gratuitously artsy music I started this blog to rail against. After a couple listens and some encouragement from friends, I grew to truly enjoy In Rainbows and jumped on the Radiohead bandwagon after hearing their back catalog.

Myself and fellow music geeks Justin and Peter were discussing Radiohead's merits the other night, and Justin brought up something that just sort of sums up what can sometimes frustrate me about the band, and yet also always draws me in further; unlike other alt-rock bands which place emphasis on the lead singer and his presence, Thom Yorke treats his vocals as though they were another instrument in the band. You could listen to a Radiohead song and ingnore or flat out replace the lyrics with nonsense syllables, and you'd still have some damned good music. That's the fantastic part about it. What's frustrating is that Yorke's lyrics are so fucking great that the fact that they tend to be imcomprehensible when listening (unless you're listening while looking at the lyrics, a lesson I learned when I bought In Rainbows on CD) becomes a negative thing.

Another interesting schism as I continue listening: the band is constantly irritated by the fact that their music becomes what Thom Yorke calls "fridge buzz", which is to say ambient sound that just becomes background noise. And yet Radiohead's music is so atmospheric and lends itself to letting listeners' minds wander and just enter the world the band creates with their sound that there's a certain inevitability to the "fridge buzz" effect. I think the fact that the music has the potential to inspire me to drift into another place and time like that is a great thing. It shows a connection with the music that goes beyond just singing along to the words or something equally superficial.

Also, Radiohead albums aren't something you can listen to once and claim to have really heard. Not by a long shot. There are so many layers of meaning and substance that one listen carries with it so little that of course the average music listener (read: me this time a year ago) won't see the appeal. Peter pointed out that thematically Radiohead is brilliant; note that the beginning and ending of OK Computer are both about a car crash.

Radiohead - Airbag
Radiohead - The Tourist
OK Computer on iTunes

Again, showing that Radiohead are significantly more intelligent than so many of their contemporaries. I'm not certain I'd say their better musicians; I think that title gets tossed out too freely just becuase the band does things musically that others don't immediately think of. That's not good musicianship necessarily; that's innovation. And Radiohead has enough of that to spare.

Another interesting schism as I continue listening: the band is constantly irritated by the fact that their music becomes what Thom Yorke calls "fridge buzz", which is to say ambient sound that just becomes background noise. And yet Radiohead's music is so atmospheric and lends itself to letting listeners' minds wander and just enter the world the band creates with their sound that there's a certain inevitability to the "fridge buzz" effect. I think the fact that the music has the potential to inspire me to drift into another place and time like that is a great thing. It shows a connection with the music that goes beyond just singing along to the words or something equally superficial.

I'm trying to decide if it was fate or a clever accident that I listened to OK Computer while at work last night and came up with the idea to blog about them on the anniversary of In Rainbows. I'm not even sure if it's worth trying to explain away, so I'm just going to accept the way it was and offer one final thought. I like every single Radiohead album; even Pablo Honey. To those who claim the first two albums "aren't really Radiohead", I offer the following counterargument. Pablo Honey and The Bends needed to happen in order for the band to get to a point where they could write OK Computer and the subsequent albums. Radiohead's evolution has been a very natural one, and you can indeed sense the change in sound coming; without the early stages of that shift on The Bends, I don't think an album as great or influential as OK Computer could have existed. Metallica's James Hetfield recently said that the much-maligned St. Anger needed to happen before the far superior Death Magnetic could take shape. Same idea applies here. Sometimes you need to get the cliche and less inspired out of the way before you can do something extraordinary.

Radiohead - Anyone Can Play Guitar [iTunes]

That's all I've got.

Get all of Radiohead's albums and then some on iTunes

==TJ==

Searching...

[TJ's Note: I know, it's been a minute since anything new has popped up here. Getting a job (or something resembling one) means that suddenly the balance of free time shifts, hence the brief disappearance. I promise to have some new stuff later tonight/tomorrow, but until then I'm gonna post here a piece I just wrote over at JamsBio. I don't remember if I ever linked to them before, but nonetheless, I have now, and below is the true meat of this entry]

This is less about a single song and more about an album, and as the title would suggest, the search for said album. With the advent of iPods and digital music stores where nearly every song and album one would want is available with a few keystrokes, the act of actually going out and looking for music has become sadly antiquated. This story is about the meeting of past and present, and the joy of holding the fruits of a long search for that one special album.

I first heard the song "Hey Jealousy" in January of this year, when a colleague of mine at school gave me several hundred songs, among them some tracks by the Gin Blossoms. It might have been because I was going through a breakup at the time, or perhaps because I was in a period where I was drawn to 90s music, but I latched onto the song almost immediately, playing it several times in a single day, hardly ever daring to unconsciously press the skip button on it. But for some time that was the extent of my relationship with the Gin Blossoms; like so many of their fans now 'I just like that one song...'.

It wasn't till I was reviewing a deluxe edition of another album and briefly referenced the special edition of the Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience that I would consider it again. A fellow blogger left me a comment, saying that I had it all wrong, and this special edition of New Miserable Experience was a great recording worthy of every possible listen, and if I were to truly appreciate the band I needed to hear this collection. And so my search began.

So, with a healthy amount of iTunes credit saved for a rainy day, I did the new traditional thing to do and went to buy the two discs digitally. But alas, iTunes didn't have the rights to the whole collection, and thus marked the item as a "Partial Album". Not only would buying the album via iTunes mean I was missing the full collection, but it would also cost significantly more than I had to spare. So if I was going to have this album, I would need to work a bit harder. And of course none of the traditional big-box stores had the album. That would make the story too easy. No I would certainly need to dig deeper than that. Searches of my local used record shop came up empty, save for the old original release of the album. But no, the mission before me was quite clear; I needed to hear the Deluxe Edition.

My next step was to the seedier parts of the world; Amazon's used CD store and the dreaded eBay. Dealers on Amazon wanted a staggering 60 bucks to part with their copies (I didn't know this at the time, but the Deluxe Edition had been out of print for a number of years). I was flabbergasted, but it made clear just how valuable my quarry was. eBay was a bit more forgiving, but the item was more difficult to find. I spent two weeks searching under every binary rock, in every HTML-driven hole, often trying to contact buyers listing the item, only to find a glitch on the site meant I'd be looking at the wrong item. Finally I thought I found my prize, shelled out 15 bucks to bypass the auction, and waited patiently...only to find that I had been inadvertently gipped; again, a glitch meant that I paid 15 bucks for a single disc worth a quarter of that. I shipped the item back and never did get the refund promised (Buyer beware the username AkratzertHe paid me back after all. Sorry!). Several weeks passed and I had all but abandoned my hunt, knowing that it would probably be some time before success would come, and that my efforts were better spent elsewhere.

Until another few weeks passed, nearly two months after the search began, when a casual search yielded a used copy at a non-offensive price (with my bank account balance in freefall, it would have been difficult to find any price reasonable, let alone a bargain). Without hesitation my mouse pointer dove on the purchase button, claiming the mythical disc lest some other collector try to snatch it away or the item magically fade away. Within a week I came home and found a package sitting at my desk. Upon tearing the package opened, I found my two month long hunt at an end. Both discs were there and playable, the only damage some wear and tear on the packaging.

Normally this is the part in the story where I realize that I was not as impressed as I would have hoped, and the moral would be that sometimes the greatest joy is in the hunt. Not so. Everything I had heard and read was right. On the first listen I was drawn into every song, every note and every lyric. The search was just the beginning. Now came the part where the same attachment that came with one song, came with the whole package. If there's a lesson to be taken away, it is that sometimes music is best appreciated when it is not simply laid down at one's feet.

Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy [iTunes]

==TJ==

Kelly Clarkson Demos Leak; Chaos Ensues

Last week Luis at PMA got his hands on what were allegedly some demo tracks from the in-progress Kelly Clarkson album (not being written by Clarkson, sadly; looks like Clive Davis won out). 4 tracks, the origin of which is anywhere from being in Clarkson's personal collection to semi-official releases, found their way into Luis's hands and subsequently onto PMA, starting a full-blown comment war between the blog, the hardcore "crazy Clarkson" fans, and everyone else who felt like typing something out. The site ultimately took them down, but not before a militant commenter uploaded them himself and passed out the link.

I'm rather torn on this story. My respect for record labels is in a constant decline, so if these belong to the record label and got leaked, tough shit on them. The conspiracy theorist in me tends to believe that record labels intentionally leak some of this stuff because they know that the bloggers are right about it generating (usually) positive hype. So that explains why I generally don't have much issue picking up on leaks, especially if i know I'll be buying the music upon its release.

But many sites (including PMA and Billboard) are reporting that these demos were snagged from Clarkson herself, the work of some hacker. That's a whole new ballgame. Now we ARE looking at a story where someone stole directly from an artist; not from a multimillion dollar label that claims to be looking out for said artist. That's not much different from someone taking a saved blog post from my hard drive and claiming it as their own. For that reason, I'm NOT posting the Clarkson demos. I will admit to having them on my hard drive, mostly out of sheer curiosity. I also plan to delete them upon hearing them. Turns out that Aben Eubanks, a friend and colleague of Clarkson has asked for their removal, but the label itself has said nothing. Given the war that went on over My December, I can't say I'm surprised.

I may or may not post my opinions of the demos after I hear them. That's to come later this week. Just thought this was a story that needed to be posted.

4 New Kelly Clarkson Demos [PMA]
To Do List: Talk About Kelly Clarkson... [PMA]
Clarkson Hopes Fans 'Like' Leaked Demos [Billboard]

==TJ==

Why iTunes Has Been (And Will Be) So Successful

An article in Rolling Stone#1035 (the one with Kanye and 50 Cent on the cover) talks about the rise of iTunes as one of the largest music-sellers in the country. With over 3 billion songs sold, its the largest digital music outlet, and accounts for 10% of all music sold in America, behind only Best Buy and Wal-Mart. But the story points out that the record labels aren't too fond of some of Apple's habits; for years the major labels have clamored for a change in the pricing models (the labels want $2.50 for recent and popular songs, and less than $.99 for older tracks) and a break from the $.99 per song, $9.99 an album setup that has made iTunes so successful over the last 4 years. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has met the labels' demands with a glorified "Go Fuck Yourself". As a result, NBC-Universal has cut off ties to Apple, with Universal Music holding the right to pull its music at any time, and NBC opting not to renew its contract to have its hit shows available for download. Representatives for the major labels have compared iTunes business habits to those of Wal-Mart.

Here's where I take issue; iTunes is different from Wal-Mart in that iTunes actually gives a crap about the people working for it, and the people buying their products. When I buy music or TV shows from iTunes, I know I'm getting high quality, yet still inexpensive merchandise that I actually want. Yes, iTunes may not be so friendly to the record labels, but take a look around; not many people are friendly toward the major labels these days. It's this fact that helped fuel illegal downloading, and in turn spawned iTunes. The record labels have no one to blame but themselves for this situation.

And a message to Universal Music Group; who the hell are you to try to strongarm iTunes into upping its prices? The reason you had to turn to iTunes is because people stopped buying your CDs. You don't exactly have room to try to force your pricing habits when those habits have proven to fail. You want to try to launch your own downloading service? Go ahead, good luck with that. I'll stick with the people who actually pay attention to what I want.

==TJ==

Burning On, Just Like A Match You Strike To Incinerate...

The right combination of location, people, and emotion can alter the meaning of a song, and the effect that song has on the listener; for example, anyone who was there the first time Nirvana played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live would have a different reaction to it than the person who randomly hears it come across the radio. And then there are the lovers who hear "their song" and remember fond memories. And for some a song can just bring back memories of being with friends, having no cares in the world, and just enjoying life. You wouldn't expect My Chemical Romance to bring about such enjoyable thoughts, but again, with the right people in the right place, it can happen.

Rewind to several summers ago, while I was still in my high school years. I'm with my friend Kevin, in his room, wasting time like usual. Also like usual, we were talking about music. There was a time when Kevin and I could hang out for hours on end and all we'd talk about was what music we were into that week, what we were eager to hear, and what we wish would just go away. The conversation turns to My Chemical Romance, who at this point were just beginning their ascent to stardom, with "Helena" rising the video charts. I had just picked up Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, while Kevin has been raving about it for a few weeks now. As soon as I bring up the topic, Kevin leaps up and puts the album into his stereo (whose volume is generally cranked up to 9 or 10). As "Helena" comes blasting through the speakers, Kevin and I are suddenly rock stars. Kevin does the best/worst air guitar he can, while he tosses me an empty Snapple bottle as I leap up from the imaginary drum kit in front of his bed and assume the role of a wannabe Gerard Way. The track (and us) barrels through two verses and choruses before we hit the bridge, a small breather before the final push to the end of the song. On the final line in the bridge (Will we meet again/When both our cars collide?) do our best 80s-rockstar jump in the air and finish out the track in a manner worthy of an unintentionally funny YouTube video.

Neither of us realized it at that point, but we caught lightning in a bottle during those 3 minutes. In various forms with various songs with various people, I've tried to recreate that experience, return to that feeling of raw energy flowing through the room, but it never came out quite the same. The closest I've come was in the radio station this past spring, rocking out to Sum 41's "Fat Lip" for passersby to see and gaze at in confused amazement. Perhaps it's for the better that it's never been perfectly recreated; some things are best when they are unique. It just makes me wonder if artists realize what they're doing when they do it. Did Bob Dylan intend for "Like A Rolling Stone" to become an entire generation's mantra? Did Led Zeppelin know that "Stairway to Heaven" would become one of the most played songs on the radio 30 years later? Probably not. But it does show how circumstance can alter the course of a song's meaning.

My Chemical Romance - Helena

==TJ==

About Viva La Mainstream

About 8 months ago I was patrolling through some music blogs and realized something; they were all talking about the same things; "Bright Eyes this!", "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah that!", "If it's on the radio, it sucks!"...you get the idea. It's all very elitist, pretentious, and kinda condescending to the Daughtry's and Fall Out Boy's of the world. Why is it that the bands who write catchy hook after catchy hook and get rewarded for it get relegated to being called talentless corporate drones? It didn't make sense to me, and it was a pain in the ass to see these people generalize the people who support these bands (people like me)as lemmings with no free thought or brain cells. I'm a fan of the bands like Linkin Park and Green Day and, yes, even Nickelback, and I happen to think I'm a pretty educated listener.

So out of frustration with the way things were, and as a tiny little "Fuck You" to those pretentious indie kids, Viva La Mainstream was born, which is a really glorified way of saying I started this blog. I wanted to be the voice that reminded people that just because a band's in the mainstream doesn't mean that they don't deserve the same praise. A lofty goal? Yes. A bit prententious? Maybe. But it's what I want this to be, and that's not changing.

I have ideas for what VLM will become, some more realistic than others. I'm well aware that I've got a short list of readers, and I want to try to reach out. In the next few weeks VLM will launch its radio broadcast at radio.arcadia.edu. Most of it will tie in with the website, and vice versa. If you're reading this because you were linked here from the Facebook group, and you have ideas on what you want to see happen, by all means let me know. I've got my ideas, but I want this to hear what other people say, 'cause I know you guys aren't lemmings either.

So that's my mission statement, I guess. Starting tomorrow you'll get the regularly scheduled music commentary, etc.

==TJ==

Let's Waste Time, Chasing Cars

I know I've found a good song when I can remember where I was the first time I heard the song and can also remember (with little to no exaggeration) when and where I was when I heard it every time afterward. "Chasing Cars" happens to be one of those rare tracks.

The first time I heard this song it was on the radio in my friend Eric's car. I didn't recognize the song, and the lyrics had a sort of charming innocence about them. I went home and downloaded the song onto my computer. For the next several weeks it became a staple of every playlist I made for any purpose. It was a very simple song and at the time I didn't connect it to any one person, it was just a nice rock song.

That summer I went away to college and as I sat with some new friends, one of them, a girl named Gina that would eventually become my girlfriend, heard the song through my headphones and yelped "I love that song!", much in the same way I did (in my mind, anyway) every time the song came up through the grace of iTunes shuffle function. Many days later, as she and I lay in her room, not saying or doing anything, I turned to her and said "This is just like that song, 'Chasing Cars". She agreed, and for a time, it became "our song", complete with references in Livejournal entries, AIM profiles, and the like. Lest you think I'm doing this just to reminisce about a girl, I remind you this is about the music and the story doesn't end there.

A month or so later I was in a car with some classmates and guy named Pete I never got to know better, and this song came on. I expressed my desire, and Pete scoffed, commenting on the mind-numbing simplicity of its guitar line. Right as he was, I was appalled. I eventaully came to concede that its simplicity was just a part of its masterpiece, and that even Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" had its detractors. I thought nothing more of it till just now.

At the time of this writing I now own 4 different versions of this song, putting it in rare company. As much of an acoustic junkie that I am, the original studio version remains my favorite. It has the perfect blend of guitar, drums, and Gary Lightbody's half-mournful voice. Whether history remembers this song as a classic remains to be seen, but for one summer, it made its mark on me.

==TJ==