Once upon a time live albums were de rigueur, part of the cycle, a way to cash in on fans and those who want to hear all the greatest hits in one place at one time.

But then the internet destroyed album sales and you were able to see endless performances on YouTube and live albums disappeared.

But Eric Church did not get the memo. He decided to make one anyway.

And it’s astoundingly good.

BEFORE SHE DOES

And I believe that Jesus is comin’ back
Before she does

I didn’t get this the first time through. I heard Eric plow through a lot of right wing stuff that turns northerners off, complaining about gas prices and professing faith in the Bible and then…

This.

And it’s HILARIOUS!

They always say it’s guys who leave, but that ain’t so, and when left behind guys have such a hard time getting over it. They want them to come back, they believe they’re gonna come back, but they don’t.

So what you’ve got here is a guy who’s pissed who’s telling his story and not only is it endearing, it’s the anthem for all those sitting on a barstool contemplating their choices and the way the world works.

It rocks hard, you get it immediately.

That’s right, Eric Church reaches out and grabs you right from the get-go, and that’s what we need in this modern world of endless incoming, delivery and deliverance.

HOW ‘BOUT YOU

I like my country rockin’
How ’bout you

And there you have it, the essence of this album. It rocks so hard it’ll twist your preconceived notion of country music.

This is the best live rock album of this decade (not that there are that many, see above), but if you ever held a beer in your hand as you thrust your other arm in the air in time to the music, if you love Skynyrd, if you think the music should be so loud it crowds out all other noise, THIS IS THE ALBUM FOR YOU!

Really, you’ll be stunned, the twinkling leads, the heavy pounding, this is everything you remember and still love, but brand new with truthful, insightful lyrics. Who could ask for more? Which is why you’ll get hooked and won’t be able to stop playing this LP.

DRINK IN MY HAND

Cliched, obvious, but it swings!

Yes, another drinking anthem in support of the working man, but it’s not condescending, it works.

I’M GETTIN’ STONED

So heavy, you’d think it was a Metallica track. Really, throw out your preconceived notions of country music. The bass pounds, it excludes all other thoughts from your brain…isn’t that what you want from hard rock?

CREEPIN’

I defy anyone ever into southern rock to not become immediately hooked by this track.

COUNTRY MUSIC JESUS

It swings, it’s a religious experience, it’ll make you a believer.

We need a second comin’ worse than bad
Some long-haired hippie prophet
Preachin’ from the book of Johnny Cash
A sheep among the wolves there standin’ tall
We need a country music Jesus
To come and save us all

The guitars stutter, the track locks on, but it’s the message that’s so clear.

Forget the religious reference, the truth is music used to be made by hippies, who put the tunes and lifestyle before money, and as a result we all clamored ’round.

Could happen again.

But if it does, it’ll come out of Nashville, out of country. Because pop is bankrupt.

Eric Church co-wrote these songs, they’re from his heart, they resonate, he might not be Jesus, but he’s looking, and I know you are too.

HOMEBOY

This track deserves a blog unto itself.

You were too bad for a little square town
With your hip-hop hat and your pants on the ground

We all know these people, playacting, trying to be someone they’re not, rebelling against nothing so much as themselves, believing if they emulate those on television their lives will work when the truth is they’re their own worst enemies, they can’t get out of their own way, if only they could own who they are they might have a chance.

Get comfortable in your own skin, it’s the only way out.

SMOKE A LITTLE SMOKE

The label said no, Eric said yes.

That’s right, country music fans smoke dope and he who speaks truth wins. The single might not have gone number one, but it had an impact. And, once again, by speaking truth, Eric wins.

SPRINGSTEEN

The big hit single wherein Eric breaks down in the middle and not only sings “Born To Run,” but tells the story of going to his first concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte.

And there you have it. We’re rooted to the story, it rings true because of this one reference to an actual place. This is post-rock, when all the buildings have sponsors and everybody’s sold out and we’ve got no one to believe in anymore.

And you wonder why people believe in Eric Church…

Because he’s doing it his way and he’s speaking truth.

But the revelation here is how hard this album rocks, how you get it the very first time through, how it’s totally in the pocket.

PLAY IT!!

P.S. Some might think the audience is mixed up too high, but when they sing along it adds energy, makes you feel like you’re there, and that’s a good thing…and it makes you want to go see Eric Church live. This album may not be the best financial exercise, but it’s marketing genius, it makes fans instantly!

Rhinofy-Caught in the Act:Live

ONE DIRECTION

Biggest band in the world, even though you might have never heard their music.

Proving that not only does cute which appeals to pre-teens rule, so does social media.

One Direction is the first global social media act. It lives online. They care not a whit if you like them. The music is important, but it’s the glue that holds the enterprise together, not the sole thing. Hell, they’ve barely had any hits!

Sure, they might have gotten a boost from a TV show, but that doesn’t explain selling out stadia in far-flung territories.

Welcome to the new world.

SPOTIFY

Kills piracy dead.

That was Daniel Ek’s mission.

Turns out he was right.

Piracy sank from 20% by under 30’s to 4%.

“Music Piracy Has Been ‘Virtually Eliminated’ In Norway”

Turns out people don’t want free music as much as convenience!

This is the same mantra Steve Jobs rode to success. Keep it simple stupid, and make it easy to use and people will pay a fortune for well-designed products. Remember the people who said the iPod would fail because it was too expensive? That the iPhone was doomed?

Well, the iPod helped make Apple the world’s most valuable company.

And the iPhone just exceeded Android’s market share in America:

“Apple iOS leads US OS share for the first time since Q4 2012”

Furthermore, Apple reaps almost all the profits in smartphone sales.

Proving, once again, hardware is important but software is king. That’s right, Samsung, yesterday’s news, sank by not owning its own software. He who writes the songs wins. (Which is why reality TV stars rarely succeed, they don’t write their own songs.)

THE WHOLE ENCHILADA

Even Steely Dan goes on the road.

If you can make it just writing, or writing and recording, more power to you. We’ve just about hit bottom, recording revenues are going up.

But if you want to get excited, watch Daniel Glass in this PBS clip,

“Can the music industry survive the streaming revolution?”
He starts at 6:41.

Daniel talks about the power of Spotify, getting on their playlist and the jump in listeners.

Isn’t this what you want?

And as a result ticket sales went through the roof.

The game remains the same. It’s about exposure, and then leveraging that exposure for revenue. If you’re good, and you get on a top list…the world’s your oyster, you can make more money in music than ever before. There are more revenue streams, you’re not just limited to recordings and low-priced tickets.

Ignore what comes before in this clip. Rosanne Cash carping about payments, never mind Aloe Blacc and the guy in Black 47. Do not confuse Pandora with Spotify, a whole different service that pays a different rate.

As far as PBS goes, it’s so busy giving both sides it echoes the vaccination debate. There aren’t always two sides to every issue, but the press believes it must air both to look fair, muddying the water.

The truth is it doesn’t matter what PBS says. It doesn’t matter what the “New Yorker” says.

The music business is run by consumers. You amass them and they rain down revenue. Anybody who gets in the way of this gravy train is doing it to their detriment.

Having said all this, the truth is fewer acts are going to make more money.

Sorry if you’re in the niche. You have the ability to reach people, but the truth is you don’t, they’re overwhelmed with incoming and they don’t care.

So there you have the modern music business. Burgeoning for the top acts while everybody below keeps bitching and saying it’s bad.

You’ve got to do everything to win today. Just like a household can’t survive on a single income.

Why is it everything can change but the music business?

Then again, everybody hates change, including musicians.

RECORD OF THE YEAR

Other than “Shake It Off” and maybe “All About That Bass,” most people haven’t heard the nominees.

That’s right, just because you live for music, that does not mean everybody else does.

Music is so incomprehensible, so many mediocre acts are looking for attention, that most people ignore it.

MTV rescued the music business from the doldrums because it chose very few songs and promoted them heavily, it was action central.

Today there’s no MTV.

And never forget, MTV eclipsed radio, which was broken. Top Forty ended up playing the songs that MTV promoted. And as a result Top Forty experienced a renaissance, eclipsing classic rock.

But many acts were excluded.

We need this order from chaos today.

Why does Neil Young get a pass?

I don’t care that no one in the mainstream other than David Pogue has criticized Pono, I’m more worried about the rest of the stories. As Tony Wilson once told me, after screwing up the football scores for a news broadcast, the boss said no one cared about that, but it cast a shadow on the rest of the news, if the broadcast couldn’t get it right about something so simple, would people believe they could get it right about the important stuff?

Did you read that article in the “New York Times” wherein Harvey Weinstein bullied the PR person for his Broadway musical, “Finding Neverland,” into resigning? At first you wonder why this is news, and then you read it and you’re horrified. Weinstein is pissed that his flack can’t get guaranteed covers. He himself lined up “Vogue,” how about the rest of the magazines?

Make me puke.

But that’s the news industry today. Few stand alone. They want to sidle up to the rich and famous who believe they’re so much better than us. Kind of like the rich westsiders who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Of course they’re right, they went to Ivy League schools, they’re rich! And they’re perpetuating their breed, if they don’t get felled by disease, using their money, power and influence to get ahead while the poor line up for shots and take whatever is given to them.

Kind of like Ken Ehrlich getting a star on the Walk of Fame and an attendant glowing article in today’s “Los Angeles Times.” I’m cool with Ken, but is this news? What next, a star for the guy who casts the Oscar statuettes? Where’s Ken’s fame? And where in the article is the blowback about his power, how Neil Portnow kowtows to him and every Grammy-worthy act is afraid of him.

Nowhere to be seen.

So I’m waiting for the big boys to say Pono sucks.

David Pogue just did, and his opinion went viral, if you didn’t get it you need new friends, he declared that “The Emperor Has No Clothes.”

Not only did Pogue say you couldn’t hear the difference, but that hi-def tracks were overpriced, the store was incomprehensible and the hardware was a failure, hell, it doesn’t even have a lock button, never mind fit into your pocket.

Isn’t that what Steve Jobs promoted back in 2001? A thousand songs in your pocket? And now Neil Young is jetting us back to the past?

But Mr. Young is untouchable. He gets endless press for his new, unlistenable records that don’t sell. And he gets a pass for entering a sphere he knows nothing about.

That’s right, Neil Young knows something about sound, but he knows nothing about hardware, nothing about tech. Which is why anybody with a brain knew this project was doomed from the start. I said so.

But I was inundated by e-mail from his fans calling me a hater.

That’s how far we’ve come, you can’t say a negative thing about anybody with a profile because you’re gonna offend their tribe. Which is how Chris Christie comes out against mandatory vaccinations. Pander much Chris?

Why does everybody believe they can do everything?

You might as well put your teenage science project on Kickstarter saying you’re gonna deliver the new smartphone, as if Apple and Android don’t exist and everybody working there is an uneducated, inexperienced idiot. That’s right, Jony Ive knows nothing about design.

And the Center For Disease Control knows nothing about vaccinations. It’s all just a plot to pull the wool over your eyes.

If only the government could do this, if only it could truly prevent leaks. But you’d rather subscribe to the rantings of an inexperienced Luddite than believe the truth. What did Jack Nicholson say in that movie, YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH?

No one can handle the truth anymore.

No one wants to hear that the internet has created a two class system in music, winners and losers. That the middle class has been eviscerated. It’s got nothing to do with Spotify and everything to do with access to the best instantly.

No one even wants to say a negative thing about Taylor Swift, for fear she’ll write a song about them, even more that she won’t invite them to her house and cook them dinner and make small talk, as if Taylor Swift is their friend. Hell, she doesn’t care about them, she just wants to sell.

We used to have a critical society. The only people poking holes in theories were not nobodies online. And the funny thing about the haters is they focus more on the nobodies, the stars are untouchable, because if the stars have feet of clay they’ve got nothing to believe in.

So football is safe, global warming doesn’t exist and Neil Young can’t be wrong.

But he is.

Even a four year old knows twenty plus bucks for an album is too much. Hell, you can buy a Ferrari FXX for two million dollars, it’s great, but do you want to lay down for it?

I don’t think so.

So in one fell swoop, David Pogue killed Pono. It doesn’t even matter whether he’s right, his story dominated the news cycle.

Proving once again that the viral story trumps the media message every day. That’s the power of the people, rarely used, except for inanities, cat videos and specious scientific theories.

Mr. Pogue made a mistake leaving the “New York Times.” Yahoo is so disorganized it’s a hoot that it started out with the mission to make the web comprehensible.

And conventional wisdom is reviewing is dead, no one has any power.

But every other mainstream outlet could have bought a Pono and done an A/B test. But they didn’t because they were too busy sucking up to movie stars and non-celebrities like Ken Ehrlich, desiring to be a member of the club.

Meanwhile, I’m stuck here in the middle with you. Looking for truth in a world that doesn’t want any.

But it does…

Read Pogue’s review from start to finish, it’s devastating:

Neil Young’s PonoPlayer: The Emperor Has No Clothes

 

“‘Finding Neverland’ Publicist Resigns After Dispute”

I had a car accident.

An unlicensed driver in an unregistered truck took a wide turn and slammed into me.

Oh, I’m okay, just in shock.

Well, maybe there’s some soft tissue damage. I can feel it a bit in my neck and shoulder, but nothing life-threatening. And you get as old as I am and you gain perspective. I mean it could be much worse.

But it was illegal to have a car accident in my family. Have a fender-bender and my dad would remind you every time you got behind the wheel. As for the one time he rear-ended someone, it was undiscussable.

And I’m thinking how I’m not in the greatest mood to begin with, and I’ve got to go downtown to do this TV show. How L.A. is that?

The perp wanted to make some phone calls. And then I asked myself how long I had to stay here before I could move on. Is having an accident something de rigueur? Normally I’d let it ruin my whole day. Go home and sulk. Feel inadequate. Worry about all the effort yet to come, getting an estimate, a rental car, a repair… But in this case I had an obligation.

And accidents today are so much different from before, at least when it comes to the exchange of information. Today you don’t write it down, you shoot a picture. It’s so much easier. But the hassle still remains.

But, as Elvis Costello so famously sang, accidents will happen. It’s the nature of life.

And the show must go on.

I’ve never been in this situation before.

That’s right, I hold myself to an impossible standard. I should never have a car wreck. And haven’t for nearly twenty five years. I see it as some kind of moral failing. I think there’s going to be some price to pay down the line. And although I’m very good at running the repair gauntlet, the truth is I’m too good, my OCD kicks into gear, I have anxiety about getting it exactly right.

But all of a sudden that was irrelevant. I couldn’t go home and call my insurance company. I’d made a commitment, AXS was depending on me.

And my car is fully drivable. It’s got a hole in the bumper, but I could still hit the freeway. And traffic was not bad until just shy of downtown. And all things considered, I was barely late.

So I flopped down into the makeup chair and was confronted by Mark McGrath.

What do I know about Mr. McGrath? That he’s the front man of Sugar Ray which got a little bit more than fifteen minutes? That he graduated from SC? That he’s got a side career hosting television shows? That he’s a “Jeopardy” rock trivia champion?

And stunningly, Mark in real life looks just like his photos. His teeth are perfect, his hair is coiffed, and he’s talking like he knows me.

I love when people know me.

That’s what drives me wild, when people don’t, even though they’ve met me.

Turns out Mark watched last year’s tape. And when I interrupted his spiel to tell him I’d just had an accident he was so concerned, giving insight and support, that I felt like he was on my team. And I feel this so rarely in life.

And the set-up is Mark’s gonna host, DJ Skee and me are gonna predict, and John Dick, a pollster with Civic Science, is gonna tell us what the people said.

And normally I’m champing at the bit. This is my opportunity to demonstrate my brilliance and my ability to wing it. I don’t need no stinking cue cards, I can make it up on the fly, I can make you laugh, I can entertain you.

But I’m wondering if that neck pain is significant. I’m thinking about calling my insurance company. And the truth is, I’m still in shock.

But I’m fascinated by Mark McGrath.

You see not only is he attractive and famous, he’s charismatic and quick and so much fun to be around.

That’s what they don’t tell you, A&R guys want to sign stars. Anybody can sing. Some can write. But can you dazzle the press, can you make people fall in love with you? Then Jason Flom is interested.

And after discussing my accident, I start asking Mark questions. I’m fascinated by people, who they are, what makes them tick, are they warm, are they engaging, are they open?

And the truth is we live in such a narcissistic society that if you express any interest in an individual, they usually open up, they’re thrilled someone cares.

So Mark lives in Studio City with his twins.

I can talk twins, I’m in love with one.

But his are fraternal, a boy and a girl, they arrived via IVF.

Wow! If Mark’s gonna tell me this…

Turns out he woke up in the Hollywood Hills at forty, looked at the empty pillow beside him, and realized he didn’t want to do this anymore. That’s right, you think a life of screwing and excess is fulfilling. But then you wake up and it’s not.

And the truth is he had a sixteen year relationship, with a girl he met on the Sunset Strip at the advent of his career. He asked her…do you want to do this for real?

He’d sowed his wild oats.

But so had she, she was a model.

And she said yes.

And then the show began.

I like John Dick. But the truth is data won’t tell you everything. Even if you’re relying on your best predictors. Because if you’re predicting Grammy winners you’ve got to take into account the makeup of the Academy, who votes.

Who does vote?

I certainly don’t, even though Mark thought I did.

And he doesn’t either, even though he’s had hit records.

Skee said it was people in the industry. I said if you can’t get nominated for a Grammy, you didn’t make a record, that’s how many categories there are. Mark said he didn’t even know anybody who was an Academy member.

And I say all this to indicate that it’s very hard to predict who’s gonna win, unless its obvious.

Everyone agreed that Sam Smith would win Best New Artist.

After that?

Do you pick the one you like, the one with the most traction/visibility/airplay, or the one you think the Grammy voters will like?

I don’t really care. Doesn’t really make a difference. Unless Sam Smith sweeps, and he just might do it, everything will be forgotten nearly immediately.

And I’d love to tell you I was killing it, but I was off-kilter. And still fascinated by Mark.

He does 100 gigs a year.

How many are privates?

About half. After all, Sugar Ray is a good time party band.

And Mark’s telling me about his summer shed tour, with acts from his era, and I’m thinking how he’s working for a living, but it’s all based on those hits, all that MTV exposure, it pays dividends, forever!

And its so much different today. No one has that kind of ubiquity. Taylor Swift may be a star, but Mark McGrath was in our face for years.

Not that he has a record deal, that was gone in 2006. But he doesn’t care. There’s no money in records and no action either. He’s going into the studio tomorrow to cut an EP. He figures he’ll sell 10,000. If a label was involved, he joked he might sell 12,000.

That’s right, Mark’s irreverent and fast on his feet and the banter is both thrilling and fun and you realize this is what made him successful. He may not have been the most talented, but he was sharp and engaging and had a megawatt personality.

You remember personality, don’t you? When it was subservient to the music, before stars could be famous for nothing?

As a matter of fact, Kim Kardashian doesn’t have much of a personality. It’s all skin deep.

And I’m not saying if I hung with Mark McGrath for a week, never mind a night, it might not be overbearing. But I got it, I realized why he was a star. I wanted to hang more.

Except I had to go home and call my insurance company.

“Mark McGrath Hosts AXS TV’s 2nd Annual ‘GRAMMY PREDICTION SPECIAL'”