New music reviews

Speaking about the whole recording process reminds me to point out that one of the legends of indy music industry is now on the BBC.

Don Letts the man, the legend behind some classic music projects is now on the BBC’s 6 Music on Friday night/Saturday morning. His show is called Culture Clash. The music selection is ok and hopefully he’ll start mixing in some more stories from his past experiences along with his music selections.

The show is available via the BBC’s listen again feature so you can listen to it whenever you want.

One thing that came out of the whole SXSW experience are the differences that you’ll notice when you look for a recording studio. I’m not just talking about the hourly rates.

There are plenty of studios that you can choose from when you are looking to record something. With the advent of more computer based recording plenty of smaller studios have appeared all over the place.

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I forgot to mention this somewhat funny story regarding my friends trip down to SXSW in Austin, Texas. As everyone knows the music industry invades Austin during March for the South by South West music conference.

All the industry folks are looking at every act for the next big indy hit while they get drunk on beer that costs twice as much as it did one week earlier in Austin.

So my friends are down working the event and hell they need to find an Austin recording studio and they need to find it quick. Apparently they took some record exec for his drunken word and they needed to crank out some more demo tracks while they were in town.

Problem was they of course had maxed out all the old credit cards so they needed to find something that was affordable and that had the usual range of equipment (Pro Tools HD etc). I was able to track down the folks at 5amstudios which is located near Austin SoCo arts area so its was right near all the SXSW action.

I’m not sure why the folks at the studio showed any mercy since ever Austin recording studio is pretty busy during the festival. Anyways my friends showed up and they were expecting this record exec type to show up. So they waited and waited and waited at the studio. Well the guy never shows. The folks at the studio were cool with the whole screw up but of course everyone on my side looked like a dork. Unfortunately it turns out this record guy just treats the whole festival as a wild, drunked bender. My friends finally tracked him down and while he remembered that he was supposed to show he was so drunk that he slept through the scheduled meeting time. Note to anyone don’t worry to much about the music while you are in Austin, its the drinking and smoshing that will get the deals done.

Ok I have to admit I missed the boat on this one. Totally missed the boat. Didn’t even know it was in the harbour.

I needed a new cell phone. No big deal. I was checking out the different models and I asked the sales person about music downloads and how many songs I could save on the cellphone. I thought I was being pretty smart with my request and I think the guy spotted a weakness. He says no problem, hey look at the 3GP videos that I have on my cell phone. I have this total noob look on my face and he can tell right away that I didn’t know what the hell was going on. So now besides tunes you have to worry about how many videos you can fit onto your cell phone.

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One interesting thing regarding the whole internet revolution and music is that every band now has a website. While the band websites at Myspace are useful for promotion they are somewhat limited.

If any band wants to make make money online they need to create their own website. The design of Myspace is really all about the owners of Myspace making money. Sure the bands receive some promotion which should lead to more income downstream. But by combining a Myspace website with another site any band can go after two different targets.

A good bank website would obviously contain band bios and touring information. To make some cash the sale of cd and clothing can easily be included. You could even link your site to an Ebay store that would make the transaction easy.

Another way for a band to generate some cash is to make money blogging. While that might seem to be the first choice for many acts the benefit would be that it would be very easy to update the site. Even when the band is out touring it would only take a few minutes everyday for someone in the band to write quick post. Stuck at the airport or in customs at the border? Blog time. The fans will love it. The website simply has to contain some Adsense or Adbrite so you can generate a few extra dollars. People will likely click on the ads if they are displaying the right type of ads. The ads should be highly targeted so the click through rate should be quite good.

Just finished listening to one of the BBC other fine shows replay shows. The Sean Rowley show is archived and you can listen again. He’s listed under Radio London.

One thing about Sean is that he’s not afraid to play some new acts mixed in with some older ones.

He’s played some new acts that were recorded at home studios. I really can not believe the quality that some of the songs considering they were likely recorded in some super small UK home music studio.

Since almost everyone has a decent computer since the prices have dropped most music fans are not far away from starting their own home recording studio. Really with a decent computer you just need to add a few things. Obviously one thing would be a decent sound card. There are so many available you should check out all the different ones by looking at some sound card reviews that you find online. You need to make sure that you find the right sound card for your machine.

Besides finding the right card you likely need to learn some more tricks. Its no use struggling along learning the ropes. Thousands of music fans have already tried to set up their own home recording studio.

By searching online you can find plenty of resources but try to avoid the manufacturers websites, they are designed to sell first and help second. A better place to look for some help would be a home recording forum where you could ask other people how they set up their systems. If you ask the right questions you’ll be able to avoid problems that will save you time and money.

For fans of the old BBC Radio One show the Blue Room early Monday morning was a weird one.

You had Rob da Bank doing his regular slot on Radio One.

But the other half of the old Blue Room Show Chris Coco was doing a special two hour show on Radio Two. It was a special Radio Two chill out special.

Both shows are available through the BBC’s listen again feature so you can compare the two shows. The two shows will take up four hours of time (2 each) so make sure you have some free time available.

Ok the Arcade Fire album is good. Might not say really, really good but you should pick it up.

One thing to avoid is the Arcade Fire myspace site if you don’t like spam. Their myspace has one song from the new album plus three older ones. But their comments section is one big f&*^ing joke. I’ve never seen so much spam in one place. Somebody has got to nuke those comments.

Whole crap. Its so not crap. It good. Its awesome.

Look for new Soulsavers with Mark Lanegan coming out in March. The album is called It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s The Way You Land. I’ve heard the first single Revival. It might just break big, like huge. If Arcade Fire and Coldplay fans grab onto this one it’ll be huge.

I didn’t hear the rest of the album but if its anything close to the single Revival the album will break big in certain markets. Good luck to Soulsavers and I hope your record company PR people know what they are doing because you guys have delivered the goods with this one. With the right promo shows plus interviews Soulsaver will be making bank this summer. Start watching for news about the album It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s The Way You Land in the music press.

I got some major heat from some Arcade Fire fans/friends once they saw my post.

Don’t I read all the press. All the music magazines love Arcade Fire? Didn’t I check out all the music magazines best of awards? How could I go against all the positive press being published everywhere?

Well if you take a close look its not all the music magazines are loving the new song. I’ve seen some reviews about the older stuff over at Spin, Blender and New Music Express, NME. But not all magazines are loving the new tune. Case in point is the great Rolling Stone. They like myself agree that the new song is lacking. Ok all the fans are loving the song which is obvious by the comment on the Rolling Stone magazine website. Keep reading →

Well we’ve covered Monsieur Gilles Peterson show in the past but its time again.

His Wednesday night/Thursday show this week is most excellent. So you missed it no big deal. I’m listening to it right now with the BBC websites play it again function.

Go go to bbc.co.uk (I have the UK version of the website selected as my default). Scroll down the page and you’ll see Radio - Listen to shows you’ve missed. Click that option. The BBC radio player appears. Select Radio One and find the Gilles Peterson show on the list. Careful there is lots of crap on that list you don’t want to hit the wrong show.

Click on the link and you’ll hear this weeks two hour long show. Some nice funky tunes to help you work away at the computer. Much respect to Monsieur Peterson - again.

Looking for the new Arcade Fire song. Well one of the new tunes from the new Arcade Fire album was played on the BBC this past weekend.

The new Arcade Fire album is called Neon Bible and its due to be released this spring. I’ve read that it will be out in April. The album was recorded in the bands home town of Montreal, Canada along with some tracks in Budapest, New York and London.

Well back to the new Arcade Fire song in question. The song Intervention was played on Rob Da Banks show last Sunday. With the BBC sites play it again function its easy to hear the song again. Log onto BBC.co.uk, radio, radio 1 than look for Rob Da banks show information. About 15 minutes into the two long show is the new tune.

Well I’m sure all the Arcade Fire fans will be loving the new tune. The problem is that their album Funeral was so good they have a tough act to follow. The tune is good but its obvious that the band is really trying to deliver the goods with the new album. The song has plenty of production value but its seems to be lacking that Arcade Fire energy that was on the first album. Hopefully the rest of the album will deliver some more Arcade Fire energy.