Today’s Track
"Intimate Secretary"
The Raconteurs
The Raconteurs did not get glowing reviews. Oh, many were positive, but not ECSTATIC! So, I didn’t pay much attention.
I don’t get the White Stripes. Or maybe it’s that I’m sick of seeing them in their outfits. And what’s wrong with having a bass player? And although the sound is good, the MATERIAL is not up to snuff.
And neither is this. Don’t track this down expecting to be blown away. But if you’re cruising slow down the avenue, you’ll get hooked.
I’m driving from here to there, it’s not important, listening to Sirius’ Left of Center, and a groove catches me. I wasn’t putting a disc into my computer drive for evaluation, I wasn’t checking the readout to see who was playing, there was just a sound coming out of the radio.
Now the Raconteurs are not hidden away. It’s not like they’re underground. But they’re a step from the mainstream. It’s like they’re hidden in plain sight.
YOU might think they’re a big deal. But that’s because you’re an insider, or a big fan. To the casual music consumer, or one not enamored of this type of music, the Raconteurs are part of the endless hype parade, written about by those critics who take the music too seriously, who lost our trust eons ago. Both those in the newspaper and the magazines. I mean have you read one of these rags recently? They review SO many records that you don’t pay attention. Especially since the last time you dipped your toes in, laid down your money or dedicated your time, you asked yourself WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? And swore off music consumption. The same way you swore off movies after a dozen opened every Friday, most were gone without impact, and those you did see sucked.
Maybe if there were one theatre, that ONLY played the good stuff…Â Then, they might win back your trust.
But the movie theatre plays the crap for weeks, under contract. And the art house, if it changes flicks, it’s such a tiny scene, it’s like Alternative radio, or Active Rock, or TOP FORTY!
The niches have been split up so tinily, that most have tuned out.
I don’t like listening to Alternative, because too much seems just jangly and…let’s say twentysomethings who are pissed they missed the classic rock era and are protesting by making this noisy music with rudimentary instrumentation and plain vocals. And Active Rock, I wouldn’t visit a desert island without "Back In Black", I like Lynch/Pilson, but too many of these records are too out there…
That’s my PERCEPTION!
And that’s the perception of the public. They’ve just tuned it all out. So they’re not EXPOSED TO NEW MUSIC!
Oh, they mix them up on Jack. But that’s like living with your high school girlfriend forever.
MTV used to have it right, mixing it up in the late eighties, before the "Real World," before the boy bands.
In other words, where are you supposed to HEAR this stuff?
We’ve let the audience down. We’re so inside, we’re so busy selling our stuff to the distributors that are there, that we don’t question that distribution method. Not only PHYSICAL distribution, but EXHIBITION!
Doesn’t matter how good a record is, if no one hears it, it can’t sell.
Most people haven’t heard "Dreamgirls". Or "Daughtry". They’re FAR from ubiquitous. We insiders like to FEEL that they’re ubiquitous, but ubiquity left the planet at the turn of the century at the latest. And some ubiquity must come back. Hell, we don’t HAVE a "Desperate Housewives" or "24". Oh, we’ve got "American Idol", but that’s like parading Kong as a representative of humanity.
In other words, if people HEARD some of the new stuff, they’d like it. And, if they heard it again and again, they’d probably become fans.
Just a note on another act…
I received this e-mail:
I manage "The Section Quartet" among other bands. They made it on to the Coachella bill last year ’06 as the main stage opener. They’re a string quartet cover band and they played string covers of other Coachella acts that followed that weekend (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand, Tool, etc. and other past acts like Radiohead, Muse, etc). Interesting stuff…check ’em out (links below) and they’re not that bad to look at either. They just got a deal with David Novik over at Decca and are recording an album with Linda Perry and Jon Brion producing. They’re also studio monsters, providing string tracks/arrangements for many of the latest releases…
You know I’d rather listen to strings than much of what passes for alternative. So I checked this out. And as soon as they hit the riff in this video, I CRACKED UP!
So the Section Quartet plays Coachella AND STILL NOBODY KNOWS! That was my point about Coachella last year. Not that the music is bad, but that the festival is just not as mainstream as the promoters and attendees believe. It’s not like Woodstock, where every act that appeared suddenly got traction.
Oh, save me the bile. I don’t have a problem with you going and having a good time. I’m just pointing out the PROBLEMS! If only acts broke at Coachella and could tour nationally, theatres rather than clubs. Could build their audiences outside radio. If only Coachella were a SPRINGBOARD! But Coachella is a niche. It’s for the people who attend. So something can be great there, meaningful, just not Madonna hyping her tour, and it’s like a tree falling in the forest, er…sand blowing in the desert?
Go to: The Section Quartet. Listen to some of the audio clips. Try "London Calling". Or "Dazed and Confused".
Now if this act were on Simon Cowell’s label, they’d be stars. You see if you want to make it, you have to image, you have to promote, you have to market. And this can turn people off, and not many acts can survive/live up to the hype, but if you’ve got a novelty act, if you’ve got a HIGH CONCEPT ACT, like this, especially featuring attractive people, you’ve got a hook, you can break through the clutter, you can MAKE IT! This is the kind of shit Cowell did with Il Divo!!
They don’t need originals. The instrumentation, the concept is enough to carry them. An album of well-produced covers could break the Section Quartet. Hell, I’d go to see them. Real strings? Not the phony ones that come out of synthesizers? Like what Paul Buckmaster does? Hell yeah!
CD sales
CD sales are down 14.7% from the corresponding week last year. And THAT was a shit week. Who cares if Daughtry outsold "Dreamgirls". Isn’t that like caring which kiddie soccer team won on Saturday afternoon? Isn’t that MISSING THE POINT?
The SoundScan numbers have become a sideshow. Like the movie grosses. Oh, we cared for a while, but no longer. Just give us something good, that we can sink our teeth into. Oh, people are buying "Dreamgirls" as a souvenir, but a Supremes-like number burning up the airwaves, played at the Super Bowl? Oh no, we’re getting the ancient Prince at the Super Bowl, because nobody new CAN HOLD AN AUDIENCE!
E-Mail Of The Day
Phil Evans:
Here’s something scary. My 12 year old daughter has never bought, nor asked for a CD. She has never put one of mine in the car CD player.
Where is she finding her new music? Movie and TV soundtracks – then she listens to them either in real time on the Internet or downloads them – but often it’s in real time. She has no need to own any physical representation of the music.
