Dust – Spotify

Dust – YouTube

The irony is I discovered this on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist.

Do you worship at the altar of guitar gods? Do you like nothing more than to stand in front of the mirror playing air guitar as geniuses wail? Do you like to drive with the top down or the window open, with your hair blown back as picking emanates from the car stereo?

Then you’re gonna love “Dust.”

The Rough Trade LP built Lucinda Williams’s reputation, deservedly so. But at this point the hype has exceeded my interest. All the press stories on her new album…bounced right off of me.

That’s what the old school focuses on, press. And record reviews. But the truth is your goal is to get people to hear your music, that’s your only goal. And print won’t do it, it’ll only make those already addicted aware, and if you’re relying on print to reach these people I feel sorry for you. You want the e-mail address of each one of your fans, you want to keep in constant contact with them via Facebook, Twitter, whichever social media platform you prefer.

As for the rest of us… We stumble upon your tunes. If you’re already a known name we’re immune to the ravings of our friends, who’ve overburdened us with accolades already. We’re always open to greatness, it’s just a matter of matching the desire with the artwork.

You know it when you hear it.

And I knew it when I heard “Dust.”

It swings, from the opening notes, the call and response of the two guitarists, you’re immediately hooked, you find yourself nodding your head, even though this is the first time you’ve ever heard it.

We live in a world where the “hits” get all the attention, the toppermost of the poppermost on the radio. And some of those tracks are great confections, but if you make music just a bit outside the format you get no airplay, people are unaware of you, but that does not mean they don’t hunger for what you’re offering.

I’ve got no idea what Bill Frisell looks like, nor Greg Leisz either. But I can hear the years of practice, the honing of their chops, and their interplay is reminiscent of Duane and Derek on that double album so long ago. A lot slower, with even more soul. I’m sure Eric would love to participate.

Actually, Greg Leisz played in Clapton’s band, got to give Slowhand credit.

But Eric hasn’t riveted me this way recently.

“Dust” is otherworldly, hypnotic, you can hear the Americana roots, but the track is not burdened by that moniker. It’s just music. Made by people who put sound first, as opposed to revenue.

And there ain’t gonna be much revenue if Lucinda continues to march forward with one hand behind her back.

Yes, I laud her publicity campaign, however meaningless. But keeping her album off Spotify? Why? When you can stream on YouTube, steal from Russia… Why are musicians so ignorant, I understand they’re financially challenged, but anybody who knows anything about today’s music business knows that availability is key, you’ve got to make it easy, if you put money first you’re demonstrating short term thinking, there’s plenty of dough for those who connect.

I immediately wanted to hear more.

I could find only one more track from the album “The Ghosts of Highway 20” on Spotify. I certainly wasn’t going to buy a CD, where would I play it? As for iTunes… If you employ the abomination known as Apple Music you will never buy from the iTunes Store ever again, they changed all the artwork I meticulously culled for years, the interface sucks and I find it even harder to find my files and hear them. I’m sold on streaming. But it’s not only me, even Kanye said he was done with the CD.

But not Lucinda Williams, listening in the echo chamber of the bitching musicians who think Spotify is the enemy, not knowing it eradicated piracy and that most of the payment stories are flawed, from uninformed nobodies nattering on about that which they do not know.

Sure, I’d love it if everybody paid for streaming music.

But we’re in the midst of an evolution, we’re switching from free to payment, and if you think that occurs overnight you probably know no one still using a flip-phone, all these years after the smartphone.

Worse, Lucinda’s new album isn’t even listed in the discography on her own damn website. Huh? This is the downside of doing it yourself, things slip through the cracks.

Like this track. Released in advance of the album, as if anybody wants to salivate for months over the new music of someone who’s been around for decades. Funny how the youngsters drop it all right now, unannounced, and the oldsters are still building awareness.

Screw awareness, give me LISTENING!

And I won’t say that every track I hear on Discover Weekly floats my boat. But every week there are one or two, that make me happy, that titillate my soul.

And if it weren’t for that playlist I probably never would have heard “Dust,” and my life would be poorer for it. And it intrigues me, I want to hear the rest of the album, but if you think I’m gonna pay for it sight unseen you’re living in the last century.

So let this be a warning, stop being your own worst enemy. Either get with the program, embrace the future, or be left behind.

If only someone under thirty was helping Lucinda Williams out. If only people under thirty could hear this. They’d be stunned at the musicality, at the ability of oldsters to create something new out of thin air.

Listen to “Dust.” It’ll set your mind adrift. It’ll give you hope. It’ll make you believe that music is fine, even if the business is still screwed up.

P.S. I own no stock in Spotify, I receive no remuneration from the company. But I’ve got to applaud an enterprise that cut down piracy and put all the world’s music in one place for one low price. As for its free tier… You can’t be much of a music fan if you employ it. You can’t pick what you want to hear on your mobile device, and we live in a mobile world of instant access. We just want to know what to listen to. And it turns out that Spotify’s algorithm is better than Apple’s hand curation, the same way Amazon’s recommendation algorithms are better than the human recommenders the company used to employ. That’s right, more books were sold by algorithmic recommendation than by human recommendation. Amazon fired all the humans. But we need humans to create art, to play music, and “Dust” demonstrates so much humanity, if only Lucinda and Tom would employ the new means of getting the word out.

Ray LaMontagne – Part Two – In My Own Way – YouTube

Ray LaMontagne – Part Two – In My Own Way – Spotify

HAVE YOU HEARD THIS???

I’ve got no time for Ray LaMontagne, late to the party with his dirgey music appealing to softies who weren’t there the first time around…

And then his last album was such a detour, he alienated those wimps who adored him.

And now comes this.

A cross between Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues, reminiscent of nothing so much as an acid trip, your mind will be blown when you listen to LaMontagne’s new album, it seems completely disconnected from what’s going on today, where you write a hit, peppered with more hooks than a ten year old can fathom, and then spread the word like Kanye such that no one can avoid it.

I didn’t even know LaMontagne had a new record. But my buddy Thomas Meyer of Sonos told me I had to check it out, which seemed kind of weird, since Meyer’s a notorious Phishhead, and nothing could be further from LaMontagne.

I pulled it up, to check it out, and to tell you the truth I thought I had the wrong record, this didn’t remind me whatsoever of LaMontagne’s previous work and it seemed something done by a denizen of the symphony as opposed to someone from Maine.

Maybe your experience was different from mine. Maybe you didn’t go to college in the middle of nowhere, with no television, no radio except for the college station, nothing to fill the blank spaces, you had to entertain yourself, you were disconnected from society, almost hermetically sealed. It set your mind adrift, I didn’t think I ever wanted to be that lonely ever again.

But listening to “Part Two -In My Own Way,” I’m reminded of who I once was, what I once did, it’s a window on a world I remember and now realize I don’t want to forget, it’s a part of me.

Let me reconstruct this. When I went to college music was not only the most important art form, it ruled the world, it glued us together, it was both the fuel and the penumbra, it was all-encompassing, bands had something to say, their chart success was secondary, we were always in search of excellence, an aural trip that took us to somewhere we could not foresee.

Musicians were our heroes, our leaders, we looked up to them, they made enough money, they didn’t have to do anything for the buck, we supported them.

And we found out about them on the radio, back before that became a bastardized medium beholden to advertisers that cared not a whit about the audience.

And then there was “Rolling Stone,” the rest of the music magazines, they were religious texts we combed like today’s born agains peruse the Bible, only every two weeks there was a new screed to be analyzed, music was not set in stone, it was EVOLVING!

But that’s not the case today, we haven’t had a revolution in eons, the twenty first century is all pop all the time…

And then comes this.

Lock the door
Draw the shades

Not only turn off your TV, but your smartphone, disconnect yourself. Maybe because you believe you’re not a winner and you just want to remove yourself from the hysteria, looking for your inner truth.

Close my eyes
I’m miles away
I’ll spend the day in my own way

I yearn to spend the day in my own way. Like I did back in college. When there were no anchors, no obligations, when life was about possibility, when no one was in my business, when there was no central square of social media filling me with empty calories as I was judged.

And when I listen to this Ray LaMontagne album, “Ouroboros,” I’m brought there.

Produced by Jim James, it seems to have been cut with absolutely no thought as to what’s happening, current society, commerciality…just like it was way back when.

To the point where you listen and are positively shocked, you can’t wait to tell someone about it, about someone outside the system, not playing the game, not bitching, but just doing what he wants.

I haven’t been this moved by such a dreamy sound since Air’s “Moon Safari.”

But this is different, it’s not electronic. And it doesn’t have the edge of Pink Floyd. And it’s rarely energetic like the Moody Blues…

How did this guy come up with this? What inspired him? How did he decide to let go of not only the precepts, but his audience? How did he decide to follow his muse into the wilderness, not caring if we cared?

This is the genuine article. This is truth. This is what you’ll be playing home alone, when you want company, when you want to set your mind free.

This is what you’ll be playing on the cross-country drive.

This is what you’ll be playing at the dinner party… And at some point someone will raise their head, interrupt the conversation and say…WHAT IS THIS?

I’m not exactly sure, but it feels so good.

Come join me in the aural bath.

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. You’re human, not an automaton chasing the buck. Life is about feeling, about emotion, about setting your mind free.

“Ouroboros” does this.

CHECK IT OUT!

He thought he was going to beat it.

And that was the essence of Chip Hooper, his optimism, his determination, his perseverance. He saw what he wanted and he reached out and got it.

Almost always.

I first met him on a soundstage, at A&M Records, back in 1990, he was the agent for the band the Blessing, who were making a video.

My old friend Robert Tauro had picked Chip over competitors in L.A., like CAA, despite Hooper residing in Monterey. Chip closed him.

And he closed me. Chip had a way of being friendly and intimate without being pushy or overdramatic. He was the kind of guy who felt like a friend from the moment you met him, and whenever you connected, no matter how long the break, you felt the same kinship, you were important, you mattered, you shared a bond.

Which is a rare thing in show business where everybody is defined by their job and their power and as soon as they lose it, they’re history, it’s like they don’t exist.

And although the Blessing failed, Chip insisted I come see his new signing Phish, at the Variety Arts Center in downtown L.A., on April 15, 1992, weeks after my dad died, a week before my birthday. The energy was palpable, I knew they were gonna blow up just as Chip said, and they did.

And then Chip became the jam band king. He represented the Dave Matthews Band. Suddenly, Chip was the big earner at Monterey Peninsula Artists, which represented blue chips like Aerosmith and Bonnie Raitt, but this guy from the midwest had a sense for what was coming, he always had a sense for what was coming.

Kind of like EDM. Chip made the deal for AM Only. Snatched them away from competitors. Because when you got Chip in a room…you felt the humanity, you could not sign with anybody else.

To the point where you told others they had to be with him. I told Ron Fierstein that Shawn Colvin had to sign with Chip and she did, and Ron became a fan of Chip’s photography.

I’d say that’s what most people don’t know, but most people do, Chip was a world class photographer.

And a world class father.

You were hearing about the exploits of his son Max on the hardwood from the time the kid entered his teens. Chip was agenting his son.

And proud of his daughter Valerie too, especially when she got into Duke.

But you rarely saw Chip in the headlines, because the truth is you get those when you employ a publicity agent, when you need the accolades to survive. Chip loved his status and his power, but didn’t need to brag, he was satisfied that those in the know knew, and they did, that’s how he wound up winning Agent of the Year at the Pollstar Awards eight times, more than any other.

And I know we always say good thing about people when they pass. And maybe you don’t know Chip.

But he was a force. He was a power. He did it through charm as opposed to intimidation, but he won.

Chip told me he’d tell me what he had if I promised not to Google it.

I didn’t.

Others did, they told me it was a death sentence.

But Chip did not believe this. He went to Germany for a special treatment that worked! He was convinced he was gonna be here a long time.

But then he had his stroke.

You can’t beat the Big C. Oh, you can try, but it’ll get you in the end. Not every time, but most times.

And those of us left behind can’t fathom it. How someone so vibrant is laid low and ultimately taken from us. We’re sad, we’re creeped out, and we’re reminded it could be us.

And it most definitely could be. The Grim Reaper is funny that way. He plucks the best and the brightest instead of the deserving. There seems to be no rhyme or reason.

And 53 is way too early to go. But Chip packed a lot in and had an impact on so many, not only helping their careers but their personal lives too.

In the long run none of us will be remembered.

In the short run it’s those you’ve come in contact with who you’ve been good to, who you’ve helped, who’ll remember you.

And those who came in contact with Chip Hooper will never forget him.

And those that were exposed to Phish and Dave Matthews and so many other acts might not know that without Chip Hooper, they might have never heard of them.

So I don’t know what to tell you to do. This death thing is confounding. I wish I’d seen Chip recently, I wonder what else I could have done.

But I do know that Chip did everything. He was there for people.

And if you want to honor his memory you’ll pursue the target, despite the competition, you’ll do good for others, and you’ll know that life can be snatched from this earth at any time, and possessions are not people, and achievements are not experiences, and life is about the living.

Live yours to the fullest.

Television makes stars.

Didn’t we learn this during the MTV era, when suddenly Duran Duran came out of nowhere and started selling prodigious amounts of product? Some consider “Off The Wall” to be superior to “Thriller,” but the latter far outsold it, because of the videos, because of the airplay, it became a phenomenon, and although it was Michael himself who came up with the moniker “The King of Pop,” he was certainly the most famous and successful musician in the world at that time.

Politics is show business for ugly people. And these ugly people, usually better educated with greater powers of reasoning than the faces on TV, believe they rule.

But they don’t, not in the consciousness of America. The political class has disconnected from the populace, Washington, D.C. is in a bubble, the average person is clueless as to Congress, maybe not even knowing the name of their own representatives, but they’re aware of Donald Trump, because he’s on TV.

Furthermore, despite being deep into his sixties, Trump understands the modern star paradigm, which is to keep yourself in the news day after day, to create story. Funny how Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump are smarter than all the marketers in Hollywood, yet they’re excoriated for it. But not by the public, the people they’re appealing to adore them.

And you know television… You beam into people’s homes and they think they know you, even if this is far from the truth.

And sure, some of the people on TV have become wealthy, but those with the money, like the Koch Brothers, like every billionaire in America, believe that cash is king.

But that is untrue.

Personality is king. Identity is king. We adhere to those we know, and if you’re an unknown you’re kept at a distance. We are family in America, it’s a tribal country, and Donald Trump has a huge tribe.

And he’s educated and worldly and somewhat intelligent. This is not a nincompoop who hasn’t be around the block who’ll ultimately kill his chances with an inane comment betraying his lack of sophistication. That’s Ben Carson, who might have gone to Yale, but when he started pontificating on the pyramids…he lost us.

And in today’s world you don’t admit your mistakes. If caught in a lie you might ultimately laugh about it, but then you move on. This is another place where Hollywood has it wrong. If you’re going to rehab for an offense, doing a mea culpa, you’ve already lost. Does Kanye apologize? No, he keeps doubling down. The public is sick of wimps. They want someone to take a stand.

And Donald Trump has.

It’s irrelevant if what he’s spewing is rational or doable. Most people know that D.C. is gridlocked, no one individual can have that big an impact. So, they figure why not give this guy a chance, he’s not one of the usual suspects.

Unlike the lifers in D.C. Who are confused as to whether they’re selling experience or popularity. This is the vortex Hillary finds herself in. Instead of just listing her CV, putting her accomplishments on LinkedIn, she’s trying to be touchy-feely, she’s trying to triangulate, and that’s so nineties. Today you bite back. We can take it. It’s only those inured to the old game who are offended.

As for the rest of the media… Do you really expect struggling outlets which are all about subterfuge and linkbait and advertorial to stand for truth, justice and the American Way? They’re not Superman, they too are enthralled by money and fame, which is why Judith Miller helped lead us into the Iraq war. The public trusted the “Times,” little did people know that Miller was not on their side.

And I know it’s a head-scratcher, on so many levels Trump is not on the little guy’s side. But compared to the establishment, compared to Mitt Romney, compared to Antonin Scalia, compared to elected officials, never mind lobbyists, he’s a paragon of purity.

Come on, Scalia takes a free trip to shoot birds with Bohemians on the property of someone who got a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court? You expect the public to trust the congresspeople who keep lauding him?

And most of America tuned Romney out when they found out he transported his dog on the roof of his car. You can’t harm a pet, can’t put one in jeopardy, and expect to maintain the public’s trust.

Furthermore, it’s not just about Trump, once again it’s about television. Pollster John Dick found out that voters prefer Mark Cuban to Donald Trump, check it out:

What if Mark Cuban Ran Against Donald Trump for President?

But Cuban’s not running.

Not that he’s ruled it out in the future.

And if you’re waiting for a return to normalcy, you’re probably anticipating a return of respect for lawyers, which plummeted in the aftermath of Watergate and has never recovered.

It’s about constant messaging. And a dollop of truth. And they haven’t had that spirit in the GOP for oh so long. Trying to get the poor to vote against their interests by trumpeting moral causes… But the truth is everybody has a gay relative. And most people like government sponsored health care. And cutting taxes on the rich hasn’t helped them one bit. The GOP needs a new message.

And Donald Trump is laughing all the way to the bank. Arguably his brand has increased in value more than he’s spent on his campaign.

You shouldn’t be surprised. Entertainers have been heroes for decades.

But that was back when income inequality wasn’t rampant and people believed their elected officials represented them.

The joke is on us.

We liked the Trump story.

The media liked selling it to us, for the ratings, for the advertising.

Sure, he’s got unfavorables. Then again, everybody wanting to be liked has faded in the rearview mirror, today it’s about displaying your edges and consolidating your adherents, this is what the Democrats can’t understand about the Tea Party.

I don’t know if Trump will win the nomination. It’s a crazy year where data statisticians have been wrong time and again. Because despite the computerization of our society it comes down to people.

And media/technology.

Who could predict Rubio would turn into a robot, quashing his chances?

Not someone living in the past, who doesn’t realize we live for train-wreck YouTube videos. Best to be yourself and fly off the cuff as opposed to appearing inhuman as you play a game we deplore.

Does Romney really expect the public to jettison Trump after nearly a year’s worth of wall to wall coverage?

Then he’s probably expecting Kanye to fade too. A man who has made one outrageous comment after another, but is still in the public eye.

And both take their message straight to the public. Actually, they play both sides, they manipulate the media too.

How long did it take Trump’s competitors to tweet?

Furthermore, the Donald had already accumulated followers. His competitors may have been laying pipe in politics, but he’d been collecting followers for years, and it’s these followers who’ve put him in the position he’s in.

Who knows if he says what he believes.

What we do know is Donald Trump realizes politics is a game. And right now he’s playing it better than any of the established players. Because he realizes the rules have changed, whereas they keep wanting to go back to the past, like a record company insisting people buy CDs and artists complaining about streaming.

You deal with the hand that’s dealt you.

Past may be prologue, but tech has taught us every few years an unseen product comes along and wipes the slate clean.

Bob Dylan had it right all along…

He not busy being born is busy dying.