1. Dave Matthews Band “Away From The World”

Sales this week: 265,961
Debut

It sounds like what once was. Before Dave took a detour, trying to become a hitmaker, when hits still mattered. And I do like “Everyday,” but I prefer Dave’s darker material, made from the left of center as opposed to the heart of the mainstream.

I really like “Mercy.” We can debate whether it’s a hit, but that would be missing the point, that would be believing in radio and the hit parade, both of which are fading in the rearview mirror, especially for Dave’s fans.

Credit Steve Lillywhite. Back from banishment and into the fold. He created this sound, he was the one who captured it on wax, and stunningly, he’s brought Dave back to the place he once was.

Listen to “Mercy“

Especially the instrumental ending. Great to see a band not worrying about the constraints, rather stretching out with all their ability.

And not only is “Away From The World” on Spotify, there’s a special collection of Spotify live albums, recreating all of Dave’s studio albums with pre-released live tracks. Some people realize the future is coming down the rails, others live in the past. If you’re not on Spotify, you’re just being ripped off on YouTube, where fans are placing your music and listening to it without you getting paid for these bootleg postings. And the audience has been trained to go to YouTube by a recalcitrant music business, so busy holding on to the past, afraid of the future, that it took too long to authorize Spotify and let YouTube take hold.

As for the decline from “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King”‘s debut of 424,000, don’t blame it on the music. Blame it on the aging audience. But blame it more on the death of the paradigm. Albums are a relic of a past generation. The audience has given up on them, it’s the performers who are holding on to them, not the listeners.

But having put out new music, give Dave credit for playing it! I got an e-mail from the Hollywood Bowl show saying he played the entire new album, this reader was pissed.

But this is the way it used to be. When concert tickets were cheap. When acts weren’t afraid of their audience. You’d buy the album to be prepared to go to the show. Granted, Dave only released this a day before the Bowl appearance, but the point remains… Don’t put out new music unless you’re willing to play it.

2. Little Big Town “Tornado”

Sales this week: 112,758
Debut

The power of a hit single.

I love this band. “The Road To Here” is one of my favorite albums of this century. Unfortunately, after a series of misfires, they’re no longer working with Wayne Kirkpatrick, whose influence hooked me. I applaud their success, but prefer the earlier sound.

3. Bob Dylan “Tempest”

Sales this week: 109,545

Mission accomplished. Tons of press reaches old line customers, rendering a sales total that seems high today, but has little impact in the world at large.

I’d rather see the number of plays on Spotify than sales for a record like this. How many people bought it and listened to it again and again?

Usually, with press hypes…not many.

4. Avett Brothers “Carpenter”

Sales this week: 97,847
Debut

The little engine that maybe could. This is quite a good number for a band most people have still never heard of. They’re earning their rep on the road. If they keep doing it, they’ll get bigger. How big?

6. ZZ Top “La Futura”

Sales this week: 30,795
Debut

The problem with an album like this is reaching the target audience. Not an erudite self-conscious bunch reading the newspaper, but those wrapped up in their blue collar lives, drinking their beer.

Used to be you turned on the radio and found out what was new. Now the target audience is listening to talk radio.

So this album will or will not have legs based on the road.

7. Imagine Dragons “Night Visions”

Sales this week: 29,464
Percentage change: -65
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 112,774

Another Interscope special. A good record with a good track, but what’s the staying power? These bands come and go, no one expects them to be credible, no one expects them to develop. This is what the modern major record business has wrought. Music with sheen but little longevity.

8. Matchbox Twenty “North”

Sales this week: 27,800
Percentage change: -71
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 123,034

A surprisingly good album.

The only problem is that Matchbox Twenty broke via Top Forty hits, which tend to undercut credibility. Therefore, there are few fans of the band. Mostly, they like the hits. But if you ever liked this sound, you’ll be satisfied. Rob Thomas still has his talent, Matt Serletic is back from his failed attempt to be a record executive and the only thing wrong with this album is the times… Kinda like that old Brian Wilson song, “North” wasn’t made for these times, rather the pre-Internet era where brand names were everything and everything else was irrelevant.

10. Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra “Theatre Is Evil”

Sales this week: 23,754

The naysayers won. Amanda’s paying her horn and string section. Mission accomplished. Huh?

You could read Matt Taibbi’s expose on Bain (http://bit.ly/Rm9dea), but that would take too much time, you’d rather bitch about an artist who is never going to go mainstream who understands the niches and the modern world better than you ever will. Amanda Palmer is running a cult. The only nexus with the mainstream is this chart and the attendant publicity/kerfuffle. It doesn’t matter what the music sounds like, because you’re never gonna listen to it. It’s for fans only.

What Amanda Palmer did was motivate her fans.

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with paying her pickup string/horn section, but I’d have felt better if she hadn’t changed her mind. Because when you’re going against the grain, you’ve got to be strong. You see things differently from everybody else. You don’t want to be cowed, you want to give the middle finger. Once you’ve started capitulating, they’ve won.

That’s one thing you’ve got to love about Led Zeppelin. They played by their own rules.

Amanda Palmer’s only crime was being successful. Being the Kickstarter queen.

Let this be a lesson to the rest of you. Being the progenitor, breaking the mold, having success opens you up to boatloads of criticism, especially in the Internet era.

Amanda Palmer was looking for an amateur string/horn section. With imperfections and mistakes. She wanted rough edges and charm in an era where everybody’s afraid to go off script, where they play to hard drive. She didn’t want classically trained players, but those who were in the high school band, who were fans.

She had it right.

11. Maroon 5 “Overexposed”

Sales this week: 22,024
Percentage change: -25
Weeks on: 12
Cume: 583,766

What a fitting title. They live and die by the hit. Didn’t used to be this way. But now even Bono is desperate, working with RedOne and…

If you’re not willing to take a different path, you’re not gonna last. Our culture doesn’t celebrate conformity, just the opposite. But everyone is too afraid to be outside the mainstream public eye so they play by the rules. Once upon a time, musicians threw the rule book out. Ha!

12. Adele “21”

Sales this week: 21,100
Percentage change: -1
Weeks on: 82
Cume: 9,801,881

The twenty first century has been a period of deconstruction. The model has broken down. There’s a mainstream smaller than ever before and a million niches. You want to know how you stand out? Via great music. Adele herself was not at the center of the hype. She led with her music. Let this be a lesson to you.

17. The Lumineers

Sales this week: 17,660
Percentage change: -3
Weeks on: 24
Cume: 295,206

They’re on Dualtone!

This is a giant sea change. It’s now not only Mumford & Sons, the giant crack in the music business is being filled by traditionalists, who can play and sing. In other words, the Lumineers will be around longer than Bieber, maybe even longer than Gaga. Because it’s not about the hype, the penumbra, just the music.

25. Frank Ocean “Channel Orange”

Sales this week: 14,105
Percentage change: +1
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 309,290

I refuse to be manipulated. If only he spoke of his love of a man a few months before or after his album was released.

The press loves to champion something. This year it’s been Frank Ocean. And I’m not saying he’s not deserving, I’m just saying there’s a backlash. The Lumineers snuck up on us, leading with their music. We were pounded over the head with Frank Ocean.

32. Cat Power “Sun”

Sales this week: 10,578
Percentage change: -54
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 33,828

There was a story in every publication known to man. A scorched earth publicity campaign that knew no bounds. And the target audience still reads traditional media, ergo these sales.

I’m sure the people at the label are high-fiving each other as I write this. Deservedly so.

But today you win on the road, where Chan Marshall has an iffy track record.

I’ve got no investment in her winning or losing. But based on the hype, you’d believe she’s a superstar, with writers, mostly male, fawning over her like she’s Brigitte Bardot reincarnated as the Beatles.

She’s not.

57. Ed Sheeran “+”

Sales this week: 6,319
Percentage change: -13
Weeks on: 14
Cume: 143,473

The most downloaded act in the U.K. (http://bit.ly/RWIsTp), a hopeless also-ran in the U.S.

You know there’s something wrong with our system when an act as charismatic as Sheeran stalls.

There’s no place for him in mainstream America. He doesn’t fit the radio format.

But he kills live.

He needs to go on the road and do a hundred dates in the U.S. His label has to know that this is a long term project, but Ed will break through, if he and they persevere.

58. John Mayer “Born And Raised”

Sales this week: 6,124
Percentage change: -51
Weeks on: 17
Cume: 484,531

Pretty good for a guy who couldn’t go on the road.

His challenge is to maintain his career without hits. Mayer knows this. We’ll see how it all works out.

60. Alanis Morissette “Havoc And Bright Lights”

Sales this week: 6,033
Percentage change: -45
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 49,884

Nobody cares.

This is not Bonnie Raitt going independent after a slew of successes, this is someone barely lovable continuing to slog on after only one glorified success, well, and a great single, “Uninvited.”

61. Melissa Etheridge “4th Street Feeling”

Sales this week: 6,001
Percentage change: -61
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 21,548

Ditto.

Are you a celebrity or a musician?

Used to be Melissa was the latter. A lesbian with an edge who could truly rock. Now she’s all warm and fuzzy and it’s icky.

____________________________________
____________________________________

Forget sales. Go for mindshare. Don’t worry about placating radio programmers, try infecting fans.

Nobody knows anything anymore, even though everybody will tell you they do, whether they be old-schoolers or wet behind the ears techno-nerds. You’re truly on your own. You can try to be like everybody else, or just be yourself. The latter is the road less travelled, and much harder. Not everyone is Amanda Palmer, not everyone can social promote themselves 24/7. But that does not mean you can’t have an audience.

That’s the goal today. An audience. That hopefully is growing.

I’ll leave the size desired to you.

But know if you’re shooting for world domination, you’re doing it wrong. No one can achieve that anymore. Despite the profiles of Bieber and Gaga, there are huge swaths of the public who are clueless and ignoring them. And you can’t say they’re really missing out.

The press keeps telling us we’re missing out. The same press that says the iPhone 5 is boring and a disappointment, despite monolithic sales.

You make your own decisions, your own path now.

Good luck!

It’s the best show on television.
Who cares about a show with a twisted concept featuring a sitcom star on a second-rate cable network?

Not many. Only the TV aficionados. Who beat the drum for “Breaking Bad” to the point that now, in its final season, there’s mania. People enduring weekend marathons just to catch up. Kind of like we used to discover the hit album and then buy all the catalog. When there was a catalog.

Old school is throw a lot of money at it and see if it sticks. If you don’t think that’s how the major labels work, you’re still wearing your love beads. That’s the American Way, find a deep pocket to rocket you to the moon. The only problem is no one’s paying attention, and oftentimes you don’t have it all figured out at the beginning. You don’t know who you are, what the show is, you’ve got to play in the sandbox a while to figure it out.

This is also the opposite of today’s major music world. Failure is not allowed. Which is why they’ve got all the new artists cowriting with the usual suspects and utilizing the same famous producers. Which is why all the music sounds the same and people bitch. Well, the people who remember when music was about testing limits as opposed to hitching one’s star to a corporation.

So you’ve got the companies on the wrong track. And the audience disappointed. What about the acts?

Did you see that Dylan quote, about Neil Young?

I’d like to say David Carr’s article is worth reading, it’s not. But this nugget proves the point:

“‘An artist like Neil always has the upper hand,’ he says. ‘It’s the pop world that has to make adjustments. All the conventions of the pop world are only temporary and carry no weight. It’s basically two different things that have nothing to do with each other.'”

Neil Young Comes Clean

Wow, clarity. Unlike Dylan’s obfuscation in the latest issue of “Rolling Stone.”

And you might be sitting there at home saying Neil Young started off with hits, and no one cared about Dylan until he scored the famous covers. I could debate the past with you, there are great lessons there, but the point is we’re living in the future, and a lot of the old rules don’t apply.

There is no mainstream you can latch on to other than the Top Forty sinkhole. Radio specializes in safe. You expect it to break you through?

So you’ve got to be on a mission. Of personal exploration and greatness. You can’t expect immediate success. You probably don’t deserve it. But when you find your way, deep in your career, when others have already given up and gone back to graduate school, then maybe you have a chance.

Not that everybody makes it. For every “Breaking Bad” there’s a score of disappointments on the side of the road. But isn’t it funny that the success is the most genre-bending. Mixing cancer, meth and school is akin to mashing up enough elements to catch the public’s ear like Devo did. You want to succeed? Be different!

But at least Devo had KROQ.

You’ve got nothing.

You want to go viral.

But rule one of virality is the public decides. And you never know exactly what will go wide. Try to calculate and you’ll ensure a failure. This is not MTV, airing only a handful of videos and if you make it through the filter you’re on your way to the bank. This is the wild west where you’re competing with zillions of new videos a day.

And it’s not about a million views. Most truly viral videos are one of a kind. It’s about growth. If your audience is not growing, you’re doing it wrong. You’re never going to make it.

So think before you make music. Know that it’s the recordings and shows more than the publicity. Realize that if you have lasting success, it will probably come long after you’ve been at loose ends and were on the verge of giving up.

Didn’t he know there was a camera there?

Forget the content of Mitt Romney’s remarks. What troubles me is he’s so out of the loop, technologically and socially, that he didn’t realize that anything you say outside of the privacy of your own bathroom, alone, in the dark, is no longer private, and will surface, if anybody truly cares what you have to say. Hell, did you read Xeni Jardin’s post on the Amanda Palmer kerfuffle today? Wherein she exhumes Steve Albini quotes…

“To put Steve Albini’s comments in context, this is the same man whose project ‘Run N**ger Run’ (redaction mine) released a track ‘Pray I Don’t Kill You F**got,’ and was quoted in Spin as saying he wanted to call Big Black’s second EP ‘Hey N**ger.’ He also once used the phrase ‘I don’t give two splats of an old negro junkie’s vomit’ and ‘The future belongs to the analog loyalists. Fuck digital.’ Doesn’t mean he’s wrong on the merits of his arguments, but Albini periodically makes provocative or offensive comments to provoke a response.”

Apparently there is some drama involving Amanda Palmer and the payment of backup musicians

Mm… I know this has got nothing to do with Mr. Albini’s point about whether backup musicians should be paid, but it certainly undercuts his character. And that’s all you’ve got these days, character and credibility.

Which is why Mitt Romney is enduring so much derision for refusing to make public his tax returns. What exactly is he hiding? In a Facebook/Twitter world where what someone had for lunch is now public knowledge.

Privacy is passe. Not completely. Teenagers realize drunken pics can hinder job prospects and therefore remove or refuse to post them. But then we’ve got a guy running for President who doesn’t know this?

That’s the disconnect we’re enduring in today’s society. Between the corporate titans and the great unwashed. The people with the money who believe they’ve got all the power and the citizens who might be close to broke but have technology at their fingertips, who can spread notice not only of their meager doings, but the faux pas of public figures.

I’m thinking we’re heading for a revolution, an Arab Spring. With so few with so much and so many with so little, the income gap is staggering and stultifying. You want to know why music sucks? Because you just can’t make enough money making it, all the bright people are in technology, or banking.

And despite protestations that the public is ignorant, that people have got no idea how the world works, never mind private equity, this is wrong, they do know how the world works. Especially today’s online/connected world.

And Mitt Romney does not. So many politicians do not. Even giant media corporations do not. They’re stunned when trolls and naysayers invade their domain. But that’s today’s game, where we may not be economically equal, but we’ve all got an equal voice.

Romney may have shot himself in the foot, but you should take a lesson from his behavior, all you wannabe public figures, especially musicians. It’s now hard to be duplicitous and get away with it. To be in bed with the Fortune 500 and your fans at the same time. If they’re beating up on Amanda Palmer for not paying volunteer musicians, just think if your profile was even higher!

You’ve got to be true to yourself.

That’s today’s game. Honesty is the best policy. And that happens when you play/get in the game. And you must.

Forget the celebrities apologizing constantly. Those are nitwits about to lose traction. The reason the Kardashians work is because we have contempt for them. Today it’s all about having a backbone, standing for something, standing up for it.

It’s now not only your music, but your complete identity.

This is how the labels got in a bind. Now even the lowliest wannabe knows the major label business model is theft…from its own acts. The labels think they can win the war by doubling down, saying they’re entitled to their big profits, that they know best. If you think that works in the connected world, you’re as stupid as Samsung, which took out NEWSPAPER ads saying their Galaxy S III was better than the iPhone 5 and then were excoriated online by truth-telling Apple fans. (http://bit.ly/ORZeyb)

Kids don’t read the newspapers. That’s old school. You want to reach everybody, you do it online.

And everybody’s got a laptop and a cell phone. Soon everybody will have a smartphone. Hell, the hi-def video camera is built in and Mitt Romney believes he can get away with saying heinous, divisive things at a public meeting? How ignorant is he?

It’s over.

That’s what the entertainment business does best, pile on. Rather than innovate, it imitates. If one western works, they do ten. Ditto with boy bands and singing shows.

What’s interesting is “The Voice” and “X Factor” piled on a dying platform. Yup, it’s not about ratings, but the underlying construct. In other words, it doesn’t matter how many albums you sell, but whether people listen to the music. A hit band with a lousy record is already on the oldies circuit, it just doesn’t know it yet.

And speaking of knowing it, don’t Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj? Aren’t they both smart enough to avoid climbing on to a sinking ship? Top-heavy with stars, but sans any competing talent?

Yup, what we’ve learned is you can scour America, promise instant exposure, and there’s still very little talent. Certainly obvious talent. Let this be a lesson to you wannabes. It’s not that you haven’t gotten your chance, it’s that you’re just not good enough. As for those who will break through, they’ll be radically different, just like cop shows supplanted westerns and eventually we got nighttime soaps and police procedurals. The spoils go to he who comes up with the next big thing, not the person who does a great imitation of what once was. So you’ve got the range of Mariah Carey and can melisma with the best of them… Even Mariah, the progenitor, has trouble denting the chart these days!

Yes, if you want to make it, think different. Hell, remember when Apple was a pooh-poohed also-ran? Told to liquidate by Michael Dell? Who’s laughing now?

People have seen the movie. There’s nothing left behind the curtain. Which is why “X Factor” ratings were so terrible. Isn’t it funny that when it all comes down at the end the big winner from “Idol” will be Ryan Seacrest and not Simon Cowell?

Ryan realized it was not about him. That he could be replaced. So he diversified. It’s not his radio gig that keeps him current, but his TV production duties. You may think it’s trash, but “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” is a ratings juggernaut and couldn’t be more different from “Idol” whereas “X Factor” is essentially a clone, requiring you to split the differences between the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync to separate it from the original.

Now that “X Factor” is fading, not only in the U.S., but the U.K., what does Simon Cowell do? He’s a one trick pony. And that pony ain’t so hot. It’s not like he’s Richard Russell, bringing to market Adele and the cavalcade of innovators at XL, Simon’s about lowest common denominator crap, and that’s harder to sell than ever. And what can he be other than a judge, a panelist on late night TV? He’s barely different from Robin Leach, now relegated to doing commercials after once giving us a peek into the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

You wanted the “Idol” paradigm to die? It did, it quit making stars, it was a flawed concept. But it was always better TV than music, peppered with drama and antagonism. But we learned by putting J. Lo and Tyler on “Idol” that musicians make lousy judges and if you won’t go negative, you’ve got lousy TV.

As for “The Voice”… It’s a gimmick. A train-wreck that was successful before they closed the door on the concept.

I just don’t get all the musician/celebrities joining up.

Britney? We all want to see if she melts down. Once. Not for an entire TV season. As for Demi Lovato… Asking us to care is like being interested in Miley Cyrus’s acting career… Huh?

You get in early and you get out quick. That’s the key to success in the entertainment business.

But these “stars” never got that memo. They’re dumb. Which is why music is a second class citizen, peopled by idiots who think exposure trumps credibility, that money is more important than music.

You’re a musician. Sing!