mruff mruff


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In 1972 The Rolling Stones' produced a documentary called CockSucker Blues during their American tour. Due to the very explicit footage (groupie-orgies and intense use of all sorts of drugs) the band decided to censor the film. Many bootlegs were released into the wild until finally someone uploaded the entire thing on YouTube.

Sex and drugs aren't the only reasons this movie was considered inappropriate and misplaced at the time.

In 1969 The Stones were also followed by a camera crew as they engaged on a big American tour which culminated in a blood bath at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in California. Members of The Hells Angels were hired as security, many of whom preferred to be payed in beer, and they caused havoc during the supervision of the event. The end toll was many injured and four dead. One of the altercations was lead by Meredith Hunter, a black man who got stabbed 5 times by one of the Hell's for drawing a revolver near the stage. The Stones interrupted their concert a couple times due to the the apparent violence emanating from the audience but decided to finish their set, worried that the palpable tension would escalate into a riot. It is reported that Keith Richards got fed up and attempted to leave the stage only to be confronted by Hell's Angel Sonny Barger who pointed a gun at his side and told him to "Keep on Fuckin' playing". The Altamont Festival turns out to be a very symbolic event viewed by many as the end of the sixties' hippy era. (WoodStock was held only four months before).

The Stones waited until 1972 to return to the States for their second big american tour, with high hopes of making up for the 1969 fiasco, and it's in this context that CockSucker Blues takes place. The controversial content was considered too inappropriate to be released to the public as The Stones wanted to consolidate a better image of themselves.

Thanks to YouTube we can finally see the documentary, that shows the backstage debaucheries and maelstrom of what is probably the most famed tour of the The Rolling Stones.

I compiled all nine parts in a WorldTV channel, which should display them in the right order:

http://worldtv.com/cocksucker_blues

The individual segments are here: part1, part2, part3, part4, part5, part6, part7, part8, part9.

Enjoy.

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And yet some more news on Oasis! While Noel was recuperating from his fall last week at the Toronto show, the band kept active promoting their new album.  They hired buskers to perform some songs in various locations of New York last Friday since they had to cancel a show due to Noel's injuries.  The event was a collaborative effort with New York's city officials and Warner Music, the band's label.

Much like the idea of leaking music sheets, Oasis didn't come up with busking as a means of promoting an album or an event either, but have put it to good use.

Sony BMG hired buskers to sing Johnny Cash songs In  the London metro stations to promote the release of the artist's greatest hits album 'Ring of Fire: the Legend of Johnny Cash' in 2005, and re-enacted the marketing scheme a year later with the movie 'Walk The Line'. They also used buskers for a Eurythmics's greatest hits release in 2006.

Another example is Working Title Films, that employed 25 buskers to wear 'Love Actually t-shirts' and sing 'All We Need Is Love' for the release of the movie 'Love Actually' (I hadn't heard of the movie either, but you get the idea :)

From a business point of view, buskers are usually highly skilled artists that entertain people day in and day out, so to use them as a promotional vector is a clever move. Their ability to attract attention is key to having an audience focus on something real, something that they will remember. A month ago we posted a youtube video of a street musicians named Terry Prince who sold 15,000 CDs in a little over a year playing only part-time. He probably wouldn't have sold as much records going down the traditional route of playing clubs, and that has something to do with the intimacy he creates with his audience. The more intimate the interaction between the artist and his public, the more feedback he is gonna get. Musicians playing house concerts feel the same way and most agree that the public's response in terms of validation and generosity is increased in an intimate ambiance.

The Scottish band Travis drew a crowd of hundreds of amazed shoppers when they busked in 2004 to raise awareness of Shelter Scotland and raise money for The Big Issue, both charity funds for the homeless. They were also just about to release a greatest-hits collection at the time but I don't like to think is was purely promotional, it's a good idea to correlate both events.

Whether it be to promote your next show or just to get out in the sun and play, busking probably won't be a waste of your time. I stumbled across a list of famous musicians who have been known for playing the streets. Pretty cool anecdotes.

mruff.

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MixMatchMusic is a newcomer in the web-based music collaboration scene. This site has many interesting and innovative features compared to others and I'm pretty curious to know how musicians will react to the services it offers.
A part from a sequencer and networking capabilities, MMM (MixMatchMusic for short) brings forth three key elements you don't find in other sites:

1. A media library where you search for tracks using tags.
2. A marketplace where bands can sell their remixed tracks.
3. And a widget you can embed in social networking sites and blogs.

The media library is pretty neat. MMM is a place to meet artists, but their search engine also helps you look for tracks to add to your mixes. This is a good idea but the community will have to grow before you actually get a chances of finding a track with the same tempo and harmony as yours.

You can sell the songs you mixed with tracks of people you've never met, nor probably ever even communicated with. Songs are sold for $1 and an automatic compensation system distributes 85 cents to the contributors.

On the royalty thing I'm pretty skeptic. Not a bad idea to introduce a feature helping artists make some money, but I don't see people buying the remixed tunes. I don't think MMM's aim is to become a music-store either. The idea is to have bands connect with their fans by giving away or selling tracks for remix purposes, kind of like what Radiohead did with "Nuke" from In Rainbows. Following that model, bands can publish the mixes in the Remix Wizard widget where votes are cast on the best versions. The viral part is that this widget is embeddable on many social sites and blogs (I'll be uploading some ideas on GigDoggy's MySpace. Woof!).

Competition has been tough this past year for these collaboration sites. We see them poppin' out of nowhere! MixMatchMusic has a nice twist to it so maybe it's worth a shot to try it out.

Why house concerts?

Playing bars, pubs and clubs isn't the only way to host a live show. You don't always have to cope with the usual business aspects of booking a gig in some rut negotiating with a ill-tempered club owner paying you peanuts (Ok that was kind of extreme, but you get my drift). There are alternatives, and one of them is performing a concert in the comfort of somebody's home (or your own by that matter).

There are very interesting advantages to trying this out:

• You usually get to plan it how you want.
• Most house venues demand donations ranging from $5 to $20. In many cases the people hosting the show leave %100 of all proceeds to the musicians. Let's do some quick math: $15 donation/entrance fee with 40 people attending will net you an easy $600 for the night, merchandise not included.
• The people hosting these shows are PASSIONATE about music, so most will leave you all the earnings, plus throw in a free cooked meal and possibly a place to stay for the night.
• These concerts engage the artist and their audience in a level of intimacy that's incomparable with a traditional venue. This can lead to healthier fan relationships and of course (sorry to always lay down the cash concerns) better merchandise sales.

A couple of websites so you get the idea:

This one site called Concerts In Your Home is a resource/community for artists and hosts. Hosts can search more than 500 artists on the site, and artists can search detailed profiles of more than 200 house concert presenters in the US, Canada, UK, even Australia and New Zealand. Most performers play blues, folk and acoustic styles, so nothing too extreme. Anyways most places don't have a PA so musicians prepare acoustic sets.

In the same vein we also have HouseConcerts.com. Here the model is a bit different as this site proposes a listing of people who offer their homes to host shows.

There is also houseconcertsyork.co.uk who conduct these events around York, UK.

Besides 'Concerts In Your Home', most sites are pretty local and isolated, but by surfing through the web you'll find tons of them. The house concert movement is definitely stirring.

A couple of quotes so you get an even better idea:

I'll leave you to some quotes I gathered talking with some house-concert-aspiring-ministrels:

And to conclude, here is an extract of 'The Complete Guide To House Concerts' Kevin Kelly (author of the renowned '1000 True Fans' manifesto) promotes on his website:

Apparently there is a booming market for these shows, so if your set can be performed acoustically it seems pretty worth while to give them a shot.

We'll be posting other quotes on this subject shortly, so stay mruffed.

Bands using YouTube to promote their live videos might be interested in using a free tool called Youtube Insight, which gives them detailed statistics for the videos they upload. With this service, you can see who is viewing your material, where they are located, and when they log on to see it. You can also figure out how long it takes your videos to reach their popularity cap, and what happens to video views as their popularity peaks. All in all, it allows bands to see where their music-exporting efforts are yielding results, and to target their audience more effectively.

To access the tool, go to the right hand column of the video list in the ‘My Videos’ section of your profile and click on the ‘About This Video’ link. This will take you to a graph measuring the number of views and the popularity of your content. You'll also  see a  map showing you the regions where your content is most popular. (See image below)

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In the same vein we have DashGo, a web based service that allows content producers to distribute their content across music stores and social media sites from a single dashboard. In addition, Dashgo comes with a series of analytics tools that users can use to get detailed info on how the public is reacting to their content on the different platforms. Users can then adapt their distribution according to where they sell best.

If you are serious about your online sales and distribution outlets, stats and analytics tools can be helpful; you might be surprised to know that your band's got a small community in Finland, or that some New Zealand chap linked back to your website from his blog - you could then proceed to contact these people and start some pro-active networking in those areas. And unless they're plummeting, stats are fun to look at. StatCounter is a extremely cool free statistics tool that tracks a great deal of your web activity. We use it on our blog in addition to the wordpress.com stats. You can use this type of information in many ways and be creative about it.
Of course your music is where you creativity should shine the most (remember the Please Buy My Record: The Futility Of Flogging Music article posted right before - Don't let these tools take over !)

MRUFFFF !

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Craigslist is probably the most respected classified ad site out there for the moment. Many people just use it to find jobs, find soul mates, sell stuff or find a puppy. But Craigslist is so much more then just the ads themselves, it's all about connecting people and finding opportunites. Or at least that's how it can be used. Here's a little story for ya. Dashiell Driscoll is the artist behind Audiobytes for Autobots. For those of you who don't know him, do check him out because sooner or later he's probably going to be part of the big leagues. He mostly edits mix tapes with songs for different hip hip and RnB artists and came out with his first album 'Prime Cuts' that you can download here (torrent). This is his craigslist story in his own words:

"You really can get anything on craigslist- even an opening slot for a sold out Friday night show on the Sunset Strip. I saw an ad that requested opening acts for some vague event, sent a link and a demo their way and was flabbergasted (only appropriate word) when I got a prompt response asking if I was available to open for Dead Prez. I never thought that browsing craigslist looking for any available gigs would land my 20 year old self on stage at the Key Club in front of a sold out show opening up for one of my favorite duos. It truly is a brave new world".

And no, this wasn't only a one time thing:

"For further proof that craigslist is the greatest thing ever, I've secured my second major show by responding to an ad 2 weeks from today, I'll be opening up for Rza (of the Wu-Tang Clan) at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood, California. After I got the Dead Prez gig from a Sean Healy craigslist post, I made sure to constantly check for any new ones they might make. I did not hesitate to send a prompt response when I saw that they were looking for Rza openers and was delighted to find out that the 9 pm time slot was still available. This is an amazing opportunity to open for a real musical legend and I owe it all to Craig Newmark".

I browse through Craigslit on a daily basis and have also encountered numerous opportunities. Ok, I'm not opening for a major international artist yet but still, opportunity is good, it drives the passion, and Craigslist offers a lots of it. Use it to promote your shows and post your gigs. Post ads to find a street team, an opening band, a PA system. Or just use it to drive traffic to your website. Anything you need you should post, just to spread to word.

Mruff to that YO!

(and kudos to Audiobots)

..Ever recorded a guitar riff that you really liked but just couldn't find the proper vocal melody to make it come to life? This is part of my daily frustrations as a songwriter, and vocals are far from being the only ones responsible. The better question is: ever recorded anything that hasn't reached completion due to lack of motivation or inspiration? I'm guessing the answer is yes if you have a recording setup and use it. Usually these incomplete musical extracts are left behind and stored in an amazingly disorganized bottomless pit of sub folders somewhere in one of your many hundred-something-giga hard-drives. In other words, they usually get lost and forgotten. You can always fall upon them one day browsing through your data and give them another shot, but chances are you won't. What I recommend for these type of ideas is either hook-up whatever instrument you got on the spot and start playing experimental free-jazz to loosen up some ideas, or just upload your tracks to a remix and collaboration site like CCMixster.

Remix and musical collaboration websites are becoming extremely popular nowadays and CCmixtster is a well respected one. Very simple concept: upload your tracks for others to remix and arrange them. You can upload an a cappela track indicating the key and tempo in which you're singing and have someone produce the instrumentals. You can upload that guitar track we were talking about and have a singer give it a try. Basically these sites makes it easy to get your music in the hands of others for the purpose of collaborating and sharing talents.

I would recommend checking out these sites as well:

• IndabaMusic: Incredible website for songwriters. Very professional approach to the musical collaboration process encompassing a dynamic social network. Create a session and invite people from the community to join and upload their ideas.
• Kompoz: Great website for music collabs. Simple interface, strong social architecture, this is definitely a place to start off.
• Wemix: Mainly focused on hip-hop artists for the creation of mix-tapes, WeMix was founded by Ludacris. The site has some powerful tools for remixing audio and video but lacks flexibility for its collaboration purposes. It has more to do with playing around with their audio/video editor then networking. Then again it's  pretty fun, and it's currently generating a lot of interest. Plus they just singed some deals to turn your phone into a microphone. Users will be able to upload their recordings directly to the site (if I got it right).
• Jamglue: Very interesting site with an integrated audio sequencer. You upload tracks and mix. You can also open other sessions and remix those.  Their simple interface makes it easy to get started in no time.
• Remix.nin: Nine in Nails remix site. Trent gives out some of his tracks so we can fool around with them. BradSucks is an indie artist who started doing this with his own music and got massive recognition from it. Great idea, all bands should do this!

This new approach to creating music goes far beyond just needing extra inspiration for your songs. It's more about finding the right people to work with and creating real interaction with musicians from around the globe. You can see it as a supply and demand type of relationship. Whether you'll need a tabla player, a swing drum beat, a guitar-hero style tapping technique for a tune, all these websites will make it a hell of a lot easier to come by. Heck, you planning on playing a show in a town and need an extra guitarist to fill up some songs, find one in your target location ahead of time and send him your tracks. This could be a great way to diversify your style and have him bring his friends to your show. Unlimited possibilities are coming our way so let us embrace them in the name of the doggy.

Mruff, miaou, roar.

..This is part 1 of a Q&A we had with a band called Los Dos Bros. Very cool guys who play very cool music. They've been around the block quite a few times and have paved a unique path to their current musical careers. Check it out and check them out (links at bottom of the post):

They are the Los Dos Bros:

www.thelosdosbros.com
www.myspace.com/thelosdosbros
www.sonicbids.com/thelosdosbros