Tell me if you hear something here.

I got this e-mail from a guy down under.  Here, I’ll reproduce it.

Dear Mr Lefsetz,

I am writing to you from Melbourne, Australia and wanted to say how inspiring your letters are.  Sometimes I feel like it’s a lost cause, trying to keep hope for rock and roll alive, and I’ve made it hard for myself by choosing to push the music I love rather than regurgitate what the local A and R sycophants a getting a boner over this week.

That’s why we formed our own label to put out our music the way we want to.  The band’s called "Cinematic" and I was wondering if I could send you a free copy of the new album?  I don’t actually expect you to do anything with it, other than hopefully listen to it for interest’s sake.  I guess I just wanted you to know that the problems music lovers face are global, but your message is being heard.  And from what you’ve said, I think you might dig our stuff.  It’s just breaking on college radio in the US at the moment.

Anyway, thanks for your time, and I’m looking forward to the next episode in the Lefsetz letters.

Cheers,

Adam Friedman
WiseMonkeyRecords / Cinematic
22 Hope Street South Yarra
Victoria Australia 3141
Tel: (03) 9866-8864
Fax: (03) 9866-1697
Mobile: 0411-122-888
Email: adam@wisemonkeyrecords.com
www.cinematicmusic.com

What the fuck do I want with a CD?  Especially of an indie band from halfway around the world?

So I told him to send me an MP3.  He did.

One great thing about MacMail is you can listen to the file right in the e-mail message.  You don’t have to download it, save it, import it into iTunes or pull up QuickTime.  It’s much easier.  Although you do have to wait for the file to come down from the server.

Now, you’ve got to know, the stuff people send you always sucks.  Stunningly, these people THINK it’s good.  Especially if they’re businesspeople involved.  They get angry if you don’t love it just like them.  Makes you almost not want to listen.  But one little guy in Australia?  I’ll play one of his MP3s.  Especially since it’s almost no effort in MacMail.

Malcolm Gladwell posits in "Blink" that an expert knows.  Can interpret authenticity and quality in an instant.  Can divine greatness without having to think about it.

I’m an expert.

And if I don’t immediately want to take something off, if it intrigues me, resonates, I know it’s real.

I was really kind of stunned.  This track "Alone" this Adam Friedman sent was GOOD!

Oh, save me the hate mail.  If you’re into rap.  If you’re into punk.  If you believe music should be edgy you won’t like it.  But, if you were into album rock in the seventies, you’ll hear something here.

"Alone" is not a hit.  But it almost fits in a Charlie album.  Or the first Ambrosia album, the one on 20th Century, the GOOD ONE!

So I went to the site Adam linked to hear more.  And it ALL was good.  I downloaded every MP3.  Listened all afternoon.

And what did I decide?

I’d do the vocals a bit differently.  At times the music is too schmaltzy.  But other times, there’s an otherworldly feeling, which is an element of so much great music…like it inhabits a parallel universe, one where hunger, war and politicians don’t exist, where it’s only about experience, tactile and aural.

I can’t imagine a major label signing something like this today.  Because I didn’t hear a hit.  And a major only wants something with a hit.  A hit is immediate, it’s straight to the heart, it WAKES YOU UP!  But what if you don’t want to pay close attention, what if you want the music to accompany you, what does THAT sound like.

Kind of like the music of Cinematic.

Try "Alone".  And "How I Get Over You".  "This Is News".  "Love That Never Dies".  "Don’t Know If You Know".

There’s something about the changes.  Reminds me of the early Genesis, when they made great music, before they had hits.  Maybe even that Toto album I love, "Fahrenheit", the one with Joseph Williams as the singer.

If you consider yourself hip.  If you need to know the name of the latest cutting edge band, if your music has to have an element of turn-off to be a turn-on, you won’t like this, it will make you puke.  But, if you lived through the seventies, you may not love it, and I don’t either, but I think you’ll definitely find something here.  And it’s THIS that’s exciting.  That some guy is following his own muse, creating MUSIC, not a marketing sensation.

Music available at:

Broadjam

Mac users: Hold down the Control key when you click on Download to save to disk (chose "Download Linked File").

Of course, you can just stream within the site.  Or go to cinematicmusic.com and stream there.