Behind the Kit

Rock and roll is dead.

Hey, Lenny Kravitz said it, not me what… 10 years ago?

But can we accept that it may actually be coming true?

True in the sense of the glamour, the fame and the excessive fortune -that rockers may not be ‘gods’ any more. They are no longer entitled to super stardom multi mansion privileged living because of a few good songs.

Everybody is freaking out about the declining record, cd or whatever sales as music becomes ubiquitous as water. So what if sales are declining? What does it actually mean?

Well it means one thing- 10 million people are not going to go out and by the same record like they did in 1983. 10 million people may go out and buy 10 million records but there is now more of a chance it will be 10 million different records. The consequence? One guy is not going to get filthy crazy out of control rich. And create Neverland. [continue reading…]

If  you drummers need to present a solid case to your band members (and this really is for band members -hired gigs are a totally different story which I’ll visit later) that you deserve a slice of that publishing pie, ya’ll be needing some good arguments. Like the following.

Band Harmony.

This is a good bit o’ wisdom for you non-drummer band members and band leaders as well -perhaps even more so.

Go get yourself a really nasty case of the flu, chicken pox or whatever, park on the couch, and watch a weekend marathon of VH1’s ‘Behind the Music’. Besides drugs and women, guess what the usual suspect is behind many or most of those ‘band conflicts’ and ‘creative differences’?

Yep, Publishing.

Like in the episode on ‘Twisted Sister’ (dude, I was really sick…and I swear I did watch all of them one weekend) one of the non-Dee Snider sisters said, “Yeah…when the rest of us were finally making enough money to buy our first condo or whatever, Dee was already buying his third house. Needless to say, we were all a bit jealous and pissed at how that was going down…”

R.E.M. decided early on to split everything equally. I remember an article where one of them said, “We knew if we didn’t do it that way, there would be problems. There is no way there wouldn’t be if one of us has a hit and shows up in his new Corvette to rehearsal when everyone else is driving their beaters.”

We all know the vast majority of bands do not make boatloads of cash. But when they do, if it ain’t getting divvied up equally or pretty close to it, there will be problems. Big problems. [continue reading…]

The local beach newspaper ‘for sale’ ads are a never-ending source of entertainment.

I came across this ‘ for sale’ ad —

These crazy five dollar and below advertisements always amaze me (and sadly enough, there is never a shortage of them).  Especially when the prefix is a 944 number which is, for the most part, a semi-well to do beach community that doesn’t really have a low income section.  So when I see something like this I get hit with a multitude of questions, and if I didn’t think this person might really be hurting — either financially or even worse — I would be tempted to call and ask one or more of the following questions —

“Dude, are you really hurting that bad that you need to take the time to sell one ankle weight in the paper for five bucks?”

“Are you joking?”

“So, how come only one ankle weight… where is the other one?”

“Do you happen to have a red one… I don’t really like blue…”

“Will you take two bucks?  Okay 2.50?”

“How am I supposed to get a good workout with only one ankle weight? You’ve got to cut me a break on that point alone bro…”

“Describe to me exactly how sticky that Velcro really is.”

“May I just…send you five bucks to throw the thing away?”

“Okay, sounds awesome… but I am a one-hour drive away.  Can you meet me half way?  Like, at an REI store or something?”

Wild.

I do hope Obama’s ‘stimulus’ program will help this poor guy (or gal)…

When things are clear-cut and the roles of the songwriter/publisher/performer are clearly defined, the songwriting credit and consequently the songwriting royalties go rightly to the writer and the publisher. Where things start to get fuzzy is when there is a collective effort in the production of the music- and I use the word ‘production’ for a reason.

In a band format (collective effort) there is a multi pronged strategy and effort in getting a song from point A to point B. And the A’s and the B’s can be a few different things, but traditionally the ‘A’ is the rehearsal/idea room, and the ‘B’ is the record buying consumer. Nowadays, that is a rapidly shifting paradigm as the goal is less about a single consumer owning an object (cd etc.) and more about the consumer becoming a true fan that comes to the show and buys a shirt, tells their friends, frequents the website and becomes part of a ‘tribe’ if you will. But to a large degree that is still the goal –to get people in to the music (whether they buy it or not). In addition to the fan or consumer, if there is a company or agency or film studio that would like to use the song, again, that is where some big money starts rolling in…for the ‘songwriter’.

But yet again this is where some ambiguity comes and the reason I use the term ‘music production’ –how does the music get produced, and how does it get into the hands (or ears) of the fan/buyer/agency/studio? What is the process in getting the music or song from an idea or jam into a singular cohesive piece that makes somebody shake dat booty? [continue reading…]

Oh my goodness gracious. This is amazing.

Obviously it’s great because of the ‘remix’ content and all that. But there is one simple thing that really does set it apart.

It just sounds good.

This Israeli guy knows music. You can be a video editing-mixing genius but if you do not know music –this will not happen.

When I was at UCSD working on my degree in new media, the instructors would bring in all kinds of stuff with huge theoretical baggage hanging on it. “This is a recombinant intersection of the cultural intentions of deconstructive paradigms seeking to expose the ‘the gaze’ of gender neutral restrictions imposed by theocratic…blah, blah, blah…”

Problem is, is it often just sounded/looked/acted like total crapified retardation. I mean, I get what your going for (kinda) but do you not see/hear/feel/understand at the end of the road -it just doesn’t work? I understand it got you your Phd but c’mon…

This Kutiman guy gets it.

It’s just gotta sound good dude.

And sound/looks/feels good it does. Awesome.

So yesterday I went to get my truck detailed. As in 200 bucks detailed. Not that I am into that kind of thing -I’m just doing it to sell it. Really I am.

So I took it to one of those huge hand car wash things with like, 50 guys running around everywhere with rags looking really busy. And one gruff looking guy who appears to be running the whole lot. And of course that was the guy I had to deal with.  Late 40’s -50’s something guy who woke up on the wrong side of miserable that morning. And probably every morning as would I if I were 40-50 something work at the car wash. Ouch.

So this guy was not a happy camper but I had to deal with him. Plus, they did a good job before when my truck was so painfully crusty inside I thought it would implode if I sneezed too loud.

It was later in the day and I do not believe I had my afternoon coffee so I was a tad mellower than normal.  Not in a hurry mode. It was the ‘I want it done right and I am finally getting it done and selling this heap mode’ so I was in a mellowish kind of good mood.

But not ‘the guy’ -he was not in a good mood. Ever -I don’t think.
[continue reading…]

I love logic.  I thrive on arguments (in the classic Greek logic sense) that are precise, consistent and valid.  I have a low tolerance for ideas or arguments that are weak or fallacious. (Unfortunately our ‘modern’ world is dominated by invalid and simplistic reasoning -“No blood for oil!” “War is not the answer!!”.)

But when it comes to the following video, my dependence on logic is shaken. Don’t get me wrong, I love abstract, creative thinking as much as logical thinking (of course they are not mutually exclusive). Oftentimes it pays to dash logic to the rocks and sift through the shards of random patterns for new ideas.

But my logical mind would beat me back in a fierce way from doing something so simple- yet so obviously affecting and powerful- as giving Penn Jillette a Gideon’s bible.

Yes that’s the Atheist/Skeptic Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller. Co host of the HBO show “Penn and Teller: Bullsh*t!” The show where they dedicated at least one episode  to accusing the Bible of being bullsh*t.

So…just simply give this guy a bible?

How about a challenge to a debate? Or  how about I give him a finely crafted impenetrable argument that completely refutes his accusations that the Bible and Christianity are nothing but Bullsh*t?

But a smile, hand shake, kind words and a Bible? (And a little Gideon’s one at that…)

Well some guy did just that. And you can see in the video it really had an effect on him.

This video forces me to ask -what good am I not doing, what good am I refusing to do because to me, it just doesn’t make sense -it’s illogical?

At what point does the logical thing to do simply breakdown and give way to a deeper and more effective -more affecting- truth and reality?

As much as I love logic, I thank God there are people in the world that are not as constrained by it as I can be.

I used to work with a guy that grew up in the 70’s when Led Zeppelin were the reigning kings of rock. (One could argue that they still are…has anyone really ever surpassed them?).

He said when Zeppelin was coming out with a new record he and his buddies would be giddy with excitement, counting down the days until the release. One of the neighborhood kids would be the first to get the cash, buy the record, and then have everyone over to crack open the egg the Gods of Rock had laid for the groveling masses.

He told me their initial reaction was usually, “What the hell is this !?!?”

At first they wouldn’t get it. Or at least get all of it.

I can picture the clan getting “Houses of the Holy” dying with anticipation at what they would offer after the masterpiece of IV with the bone crushing powerhouses of “Black Dog” and “Four Sticks” and even “Stairway…” before it became a ‘Wayne’s World’ joke. [continue reading…]

If you are a drummer and you play in a band, you’re screwed.

Kidding. Well, kind of. It’s more like this- if there is one person that gets screwed first or gets screwed the most, it usually is the drummer. Not that the drummer doesn’t deserve it much of the time though. I can say that because I am a drummer of course.

Here’s how the drummer gets screwed the most. It’s on a little thing called ‘publishing’.

What’s publishing? If you don’t know you’re screwed already. OK I’m being dramatic but you need to know, otherwise, you will get the short end of the stick and I’m not talking the drumstick.

Here is a lesson on publishing in a nutshell; a very small nutshell. To get a bigger nutshell you really really must read Donald Passman’s book. He breaks it down quite nicely and it’s a must read for any and every musician. Oh, and drummers too. I say that because many drummers are not musicians -they could be, but they’re not. Hence the reason they sometimes deserve to get screwed, but I digress. [continue reading…]