So first things first. Download this mix from DJ Tanner if you haven't already. I posted it like a year ago and only three people got it. Which is shameful. So get it. LINK-> Now. It will be done by the time you finish reading this post. Maybe.
Also, I went to Domy books yesterday for a Monofonus reading by Karen Davidson. Super swell store (more on that soon) and a funny reading as well. Also, I ran into Adam from Austinist who I hadn't seen in awhile. He told me about his new column he's doing called Pastiche. Ch-Ch-Check it.
Alright. these sort of posts from me are going to go on LINK>>> hunting magic from now on.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
bottom feeder: Creature Show, Follow That Bird, Everything in Heaven, Domy Recap, Pastiche....
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
bottom feeder: dear red river venues
this isn't the top thing that i want to talk to y'all about by any means. but it needs to be addressed and it is a relatively simple topic.
put the f'n prices for your shows on your website. god knows i don't want to transmit socially about your shows or add them to my ical, whatever the fuck that is. i want to know how much they cost. because that determines how much i can drink. or rather how much i should drink before i come to your show and spend my days wages on a $10 cover and $3.50+ bottles of lonestar.
also, i read in citizine that mohawk is spending assloads of *urban developer* money expanding their capacity. i understand that y'all are into *big$$$*, being esquire's #1 bar in america, and the sweet moneybag gems of indierock. i get it. it's a business. and austin is the *live music capital of the world* whoo. so post your ticket prices or pay me off to shut my mouth (i'll delete this post if you give me a ticket to monotonix, i swear).
chippendale demonstrates some of the urban conflict"[City council's Live Music Task Force's proposed marketing] campaign benefiting the local live music industry would entail hiring a public relation firms (who would "create" the message) and then require up to $1,000,000 in payments for purchases of advertising space (pay outs to billboard companies, printers, television and radio stations, newspapers and magazines, and internet marketing professionals) to make the campaign truly pierce the public's consciousness."
Because evidently, as Katherine Gregor wrote..."The supply of musicians eager for gigs far exceeds the number of venues that reliably pack a paying house; as a result, bands play for free or at a net loss."
So the solution is ... give more money to the bloated near-music businesses that make money off of lowering standards and inflating the marketing machine. good job y'all. good job. while you are throwing money around, why not throw rancho some? we could use it to replace the goddamned broken bathroom door.
also, monotonix would be more fun at club1808. just saying. (and hey, i'll work for y'all pro-bono ... or for beer. let's say for beer.). Read More......
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
bottom feeder: dear pitchfork
There was a time when I thought we were close, and it seemed that we might make it. I was still young and the world seemed so big and open to me. Napster and Soulseek got me listening to all kinds of stuff I had never heard of, and sometimes I would just get way too overwhelmed by the choices. When I felt lost though, you were there for me.
I checked in with you between classes and homework to get tips on records that you thought were cool. You were like a collective of the record store clerks, older siblings, and "in the know" people that, well, I didn't know. Sure, you facilitated a bit of completely unfounded music snobbishness, a wash of subcultural elitism, and some really mixed up notions of objectively "good" music. BUT between you, Stylus, Dusted, and TinyMixTapes*, my friends and I learned about the Microphones, TV on the Radio, the Unicorns, Fela, Lightning Bolt (!), Deerhoof, and all those other bands that filled my headphones a few years ago. And your Top 100 features for the 70s, 80s, and 90s blew my mind. Sure, I didn't like all of the records or even the idea of a Top 100, but I mean, the highlights of my father's record collection didn't go too far beyond Neil Young's Zama, some Trinidad steel pan albums, and that Devo album with "Girl U Want" (all of which I dig ... except that the Devo album really isn't so hot for a Devo album).
Something happened over the past few years though, and, Pitchfork, I don't know whether it is you or me, but we need to talk. Somewhere along the way we just out of touch. Maybe it's something about those American Apparel ads or something about the return of cocaine. Maybe it's gentrification. Maybe it's that I'm not so young and naive anymore, I don't know. And in a lot of ways, I really don't care at this point. But I wanted to say something about it because you were special to me until it just sort of "cooled" off, y'know? Our interactions just seem a little absent now. Like, you aren't even really there anymore.
I think the thing is that I met these other people. They make music here in Austin or they stop in town here and we set them up with shows. They make awesome music and they are humble and smart and funny and they don't spend all their time setting up ads or synthesizing some sort of indie culture taste regime. They make their own stuff rather than just talking about other people making things. And beyond that, they support their friends and help one another put shows together and have a good time. And they don't just jump from band to band to be hip with it.
But you don't cover them. Or if you do, it's only after a bunch of other people did and you get a free promo and a few recommendations. You don't even seem to know or care anything about what is going on with the good music in my life now. Yes, maybe that's a little egocentric, but the fact of the matter is most of the music that you recommend doesn't seem all that spectacular to me anymore. I almost wonder if you, Insound, and a lot (but definitely not all) of these other "supporters" of the independent music scene are behind this weird urban hipster showiness thing AND with the disappearance of good partying. You just seem so passive. You just sit there with your American Apparel ads and your indie music festivals and make me think of our belovedly bohemian Miller's talk about the Grange, a rural farmhouse where "there is a remarkable neighborliness, but no community spirit."
Now, when I was younger and all this internet mediation was still exploding, I thought our abstracted anonymity thing could work out. I mean, who says we have to know each other to have fun, right? It was hot, but the party just isn't as fun anymore. Maybe you are going through a bad transition stage like when early crazy MTV transformed into lame establishment MTV. Maybe people aren't putting in the same kind of creative freaky honest effort anymore and it's just business and maybe it's time to move out of the city and get away from this shit for awhile. I just don't like being around what has become of us.
And I know that I have changed over the past few years too. I am less naive about how the rock music game works for sure. I just wanted you to know that I miss what we had.
If you want to talk, I'm all ears.
Sincerely,
Tall Reed
P.S. No disrespect to the Flaming Lips, but I never really thought The Soft Bulletin deserved that 10.0. Just had to come clean about that one.
*TMT, please go back to your old design. Or get a new one like it. This webcomic style thing with the red and blue has been killing me for the past two years. I swear I would check you guys daily and maybe still be writing for you if the appearance of the site didn't make me want to rip out my eyes and mail them to Stan Lee. Somebody had to say it, and besides, I always thought your content was way better than Pitchfork's anyway.
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