Just when we’re convinced the legal system does not work…

I’ve been following the Tour de France ever since Greg LeMond emerged triumphant. This was not supposed to happen. Americans were always also-rans.

But it turned out LeMond was a genetic freak. That’s what it takes to win in basketball as well as bike racing, if you’re playing by the rules. Despite the success of Muggsy Bogues, you cannot compete in the NBA if you’re of average height. And Muggsy didn’t make it on sheer pluck alone, he could jump! I’m surprised no short person has sued the NBA, claiming they’ve been locked out of a career. That’s the American way, suing to success.

But suits take money. And winning is rarely everything. Because oftentimes you can’t collect.

But ever since O.J. it’s been common knowledge that the government’s lawyers are amateurs compared to the high-priced attorneys available on the outside. Hell, I winced watching that trial, because no one on the government’s side realized trials are theatre. It’s not only about the facts, but how you present those facts, whether you weave a coherent story. It’s like being able to write a hit song but being unable to perform it. You’d better not book a gig. But the government has been booking gigs forever…and losing. Except for Rudy Giuliani and Eliot Spitzer. That’s how they built their names and careers. By doing the impossible. Fighting power and winning. And we know their names because their success was so rare. Everybody else working for the home team is if not an incompetent also-ran, someone not quite good enough.

But they nailed Lance Armstrong. Not the government, they couldn’t even lock up Roger Clemens. They’re all show, and no go. And they gave up on Armstrong too. But the non-profit, non-governmental USADA

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

got Lance, when no one else could.

He doped. There’s no question of that. I could recite the evidence, but if you still believe he’s innocent, you probably believe lowering taxes on the rich will balance the budget and a woman can prevent pregnancy by squinting and squeezing her legs.

But what Lance did not do was admit it. No one admits their mistakes anymore. Everybody’s got to be perfect, all the time.

Hell, I knew Lance was guilty before he even started to race. Because I went to college with bike racers, back in the seventies. World class cross-country ski racers, every summer they went to Europe to compete in bicycle races. Were they planning to graduate and go pro? Of course not. Because all the winners were on dope!

You’ve got to be on dope to win.

That’s what Lance should have said. In a crooked, illegal game, I played and won. He was king of the dopers! Instead, he keeps saying he’s innocent like a kid in a locked house protesting over an empty plate that he didn’t eat the cookies. We could have a turning point in the national discussion if only Lance would come clean, be a force for good. But Lance is all about image, like a bad “rock star” whose hits were written by committee and produced by Dr. Luke… They’re afraid the facade will crumble.

And do you know despite wearing a yellow wristband, essentially none of the money donated to Livestrong goes to cancer research?

It’s Not About The Lab Rats

That’s not their mission. They’re about awareness… Are people truly clueless when it comes to cancer? And if the word needs to be spread, shouldn’t Lance be forthright and honest? No, he employs subterfuge, the same way he won the Tour de France, he wants you to believe one thing while he does another.

As for the Samsung Galaxy products… If you don’t think they’re a rip-off of Apple gear, you’re truly blind.

And this is about everything musicians rail about. Copyrights. Only in this case, it’s called patents. Can someone steal with impunity?

Then again, patents don’t last forever.

But can you ride the back of someone else’s hard work and innovation to riches? Can someone copy your CD at no cost? If you don’t think so, then you must come down on the side of Apple in this lawsuit, however much you hate the Cupertino company.

And in this case, it was the best against the best. And the judge was a hoot, she’d take no gruff, she didn’t lose control of her courtroom. Hell upon seeing Apple’s witness list, she asked the company’s barristers if they were smoking crack!

And I don’t want to get into a lengthy discussion of whether patent protection should exist, I’ll just say there were rules. And Samsung broke them, just like Lance Armstrong.

And if the rules are bad, you lobby to change them.

But Lance is not part of the solution, he’s truly part of the problem.

So what did we learn here?

1. Innovate or die. That’s how Lance won all those trophies, by employing cutting edge doping technologies. And that’s how Apple escaped the doldrums. If you’re in a creative business, sleep with one eye open, never rest on your laurels, you’re only as good as what you did today.

2. Hire the best legal help you can. Oftentimes, that’s more important to success than whether you’re innocent or guilty. Hell, look how long it took to get Lance!

3. Like in the westerns of yore, the bad guys win for a while, but lose in the long run. Choose your path. Brief success or long term struggle. Hell, Apple’s been around in excess of thirty years. It took the company this long to get into this fight. As for Lance Armstrong, he worked long and hard for an athlete, but most athletes peak and are done way before they’re forty, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Kinda like those kid stars who end up robbing 7-11’s, or those wearing blinders who believe retirement will never come and don’t prepare for it.

4. Don’t put your faith in the government or institutions, but in yourself. That’s what all successful entrepreneurs have, a belief that they’re right and the rules are meant to be bent. Now this is complicated:

a. Companies lobby for less regulation because they want to continue to rape and pillage and prosper. They don’t care about the hoi polloi. If you restrict them, they don’t go out of business, they just have a slightly harder time making tons of money. It’s the government that looks out for the people. So when you’re pro-corporation, you’re against yourself, unless you’re running or high up in said corporation.

b. That’s the problem with sports. The bending of the rules. The reason we’re fascinated with sports is because we believe it’s the last bastion of honesty, a place where we can see all the angles, a fair fight. That’s why we root out dopers. We don’t really care who wins, it’s just that we need faith in the system.

c. But my main point is if you think there’s always somebody smarter than you, who knows better and more and is looking out for you…you’re sorely mistaken. If you’ve been aggrieved, you’ve got to look for your own solutions.

5. The press is not as powerful as you think. There was a whole book written about Lance doping, years ago, but it was never translated from the French, the media building Lance Armstrong up was reluctant to tear him down. And these same reporters were so beholden to the Apple god, so star-struck and at the same time angry that technology is undermining their business, that they could never get the story straight. It’s a big problem with reporters, they get the facts but miss the story. Winners understand the underpinnings, the strategy… Not only is government one step behind, but the media too.

It’s hard to believe we’re in a brand new era when the Supreme Court hands Bush II the Presidency and Justice Roberts employs fallacious logic to uphold Obamacare, but maybe the tide is turning. Maybe the real America is on a comeback.

And the real America is not solely blood and guts and combat, but playing within the boundaries, the rules, and owning your actions. Hell, if you didn’t do anything illegal Mitt Romney, release your tax returns. If you employed offshore accounts, let’s put them in evidence, let’s have a national discussion. And speaking of discussion, even the left wing patron saint Paul Krugman believes Medicare spending must be addressed, but nobody on the left will even entertain a discussion.

But ain’t that America. Where we’ve got no faith in the institutions and we argue all day long, accomplishing little.

If you had faith in Lance Armstrong, you were duped. Plain and simple. Which is why people are still defending him, they don’t want to have to upend their beliefs, rewrite history.

It turns out we can only have faith in Apple. Which is purely in search of excellence and puts forth a scorched earth policy defending itself. Apple is the hero in the westerns and John Lennon and all the icons that have withstood the test of time.

Because Steve Jobs did not worry about being liked. Because he fought 24/7 for what he thought was right, despite everybody else saying he was wrong.

I’m not sure where we go from here, but for one day, there’s justice in the world.

P.S. I realize having faith in Apple contradicts #4 above, but that’s the point. Our heroes have failed us so many times that we’ve become enamored of a corporation. Hell, Apple products are better than any hit record of the past decade. More innovation, more surprises and seamless quality. We used to have these elements in individuals. We need them to return.

“Among The Leaves”
Sun Kil Moon

I couldn’t take one more play of “Touch Of Grey.” That’s what they were spinning on the Spectrum, SiriusXM’s Gen X adult alternative. Aren’t some tracks too burned out to EVER play?

So I pushed the button for the baby boomer alternative station, the Loft, and heard this.

And it’s exquisite.

I didn’t think I liked Sun Kil Moon. Not that much. And I forgot it was the guy from the Red House Painters, who were close, but no cigar. But if they made more music like this I’d tell everybody to stop watching TV, going to the movies, reading books, and to just turn on their radio.

Then again, they don’t play this kind of stuff on terrestrial radio. Not on Top Forty, the only place with critical mass. And tracks like “Among The Leaves” deserve critical mass…because of the FEEL!

You hear the sound and you’re immediately relaxed and transported, floating above your life, watching omnisciently as you go about your business.

And then there’s the string part, the viola. How did they come up with this? It’s like your mother putting you to bed, reading you a story, kissing you on the forehead. Hearing it you feel everything’s all right in the world. I imagine Mark Kozelek hearing it in his head before he built the record. Or his friend, the player, saying “I’ve got a perfect part for this!” It makes the track.

It doesn’t matter what the lyrics are. It’s about the sound.

The intro is kind of like “All I Need” off Air’s “Moon Safari.”

And I’m thinking maybe it’s the atmosphere. Clouds rolling into Santa Monica, ending the brutal heat wave. Myself in such a good, relaxed mood.

Yes, Kozelek does not have a classically pretty voice. It’s like your girl or boyfriend singing to you, almost amateurish, but that adds to the intimacy.

And “Among The Leaves” is nothing if not intimate. You just want to get closer, you’ve just got to get closer, you’ve just got to hear it again.

“Lilywhite”
Cat Stevens

“Tea For The Tillerman” was the hit. But “Mona Bone Jakon” contained that song from “Harold and Maude,” “Trouble.”

Trouble
Oh trouble set me free

If you’ve got enough talent you don’t need the beats, none of the penumbra, voice and guitar are enough. If the song is good enough. And “Trouble” is. One of the most perfect song placements in a movie EVER!

Life is about trouble. The rich have money but no amount of cash can keep you on an even emotional plane, can prevent someone from hitting your car, breaking up with you.

Oh, this is so wistful and so real, unforgettable.

And there’s a little more on this track than just Cat and his axe, but you can imagine him sitting on your couch singing it to you.

And be sure to listen to the covers, by the troubled Kristin Hersh and Elliott Smith, even Bruce Robison and Eddie Vedder:

Eddie Vedder – Trouble (Los Angeles ’98) HD

All faithful. No rearrangement is necessary. Sometimes you can’t improve upon perfection. This is the song that many know but plenty don’t. They need to.

And the opening cut on “Mona Bone Jakon” is “Lady D’Arbanville.” When I heard this originally, I didn’t know she truly existed, I figured she was an ancient queen, already dead if she ever walked the earth. Years later, Patti appeared in American movies. And however beautiful she was, she didn’t live up to the song. Cat Stevens idealized her. Ain’t that love.

I thought of all this as “Lilywhite” played.

“Tea For The Tillerman” was the breakthrough, but it was just a tad slick, made for everyone, whereas “Mona Bone Jakon” seemed to be made just for you, the listener.

“Summer Breeze”
Seals & Crofts

That GUITAR! Its sting makes the track, it’s equivalent to the viola in “Among The Leaves.”

This was a hit during Thanksgiving vacation. I remember driving through Westport, Connecticut with my corduroy fall jacket on, hearing this cut. Ain’t that amazing, how you can remember exactly where you were when you heard a track, even though you’ve heard it a zillion times.

On one hand, “Summer Breeze” is similar to the Tradewinds’ “New York’s A Lonely Town,” reminiscent of a better time, that you want to return to. But “Summer Breeze” is more than that. There’s the sense of anticipation in the intro, the joy, this was the apotheosis of a band that was on Warner Brothers and therefore had credibility whereas from a distance, you might think they were no different from England Dan & John Ford Coley and the rest of the AM fodder.

The opening cut on this album was good too, “Hummingbird.” And although I never owned this album, I heard it, it was everywhere, it was a hit. Especially in the dorm room next door, where the inhabitants were Bahais.

There was a last hurrah, on the next album, with the overplayed “Diamond Girl” and the maudlin but better “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)”…then again, it just feels this way, because two albums later they had a hit with “I’ll Play For You” and in ’76 “Get Closer” reached #6, and I liked that one, but by this time we’d realized Seals & Crofts were just too soft and mainstream, loved by wimpy girls everywhere, we avoided them.

Then again, how can you argue with the wisdom of this?

Darling if you want me to be closer to you, get closer to me

That’s how love is. It takes two.

I also want to give credit to the producer of “Summer Breeze,” Louie Shelton, who’s been almost completely forgotten, even though it’s his magic that makes the track, yes, “Summer Breeze” is a good song, but it’s a phenomenal RECORD!

And be sure to listen to the covers by the Isley Brothers, Jason Mraz and Type O Negative…

“Dance With Me”
Orleans

Some songs just sneak up on you.

It’s not the riff, like in “Satisfaction,” something instant and irresistible.

And it’s not the histrionic vocals, the melisma of Mariah Carey and her followers.

And it’s not the exotic changes of everyone from Yes to David Bowie…

Sometimes it’s the sum of all those parts.

You can take “Dance With Me” seriously, contemplate the lyrics, but really “Dance With Me” is all about feel… You hear it and you feel thrilled just to be alive.

And we’ll never hear Larry Hoppen sing it ever again.

And we’ll never hear Brad Delp sing “More Than A Feeling” either.

Thank god we’ve got these records.

Spotify link

Previous Rhinofy playlists

Someone just emailed me about an act. Entitled _____ _______.

This woman raved, as fans are wont to do.

I pulled up the album on Spotify. In fifteen seconds I was done.

Forty years ago, if someone gave me an album I’d play it all the way through, multiple times, waiting for it to reveal itself. Records were scarce. They required a good sum of money to produce, to both record and manufacture. If someone had navigated that gauntlet, I’d pay attention. And I had very few options. On my shelf weren’t 18 million tracks. I was always foraging for something new. And starving at the same time. It’d be like a hungry kid turning down a Happy Meal. It’d never happen. Hell, a hungry adult wouldn’t turn down a Happy Meal. But if right next to McDonald’s was Spago and In-N-Out and everything was cheap, McDonald’s might go out of business.

Food ain’t cheap, but music is. I’m oversatiated. I’ve got the history of recorded music at my fingertips. And for me to spend time listening to your track, when I can listen to the Beatles and the Stones and Radiohead and Joni Mitchell, it’s got to be damn good.

Ergo the blockbuster mentality. You blame the studios, the record labels, but they’re not at fault. It’s the customer. Who’s got very little time and wants only the best. Which is oftentimes what their friends want.

Now let me be clear. There’s a concomitant niche village on the other side. Where everything is handmade. Just like there are people who only eat raw food and others who won’t wear leather. But it’s not the mainstream. Occasionally, something will cross to the other side. But very rarely. You can put in 10,000 hours, play on the road for twenty years and still not become mainstream. Hell, it’s harder than it’s ever been, ever since the advent of recorded music.

So, if you’re happy being niche, fine. But if you want to be more, know that it’s nigh near impossible.

Look at videogames. Once upon a time it was a burgeoning industry. Now it’s only about the hits, the franchises. People want to play World of Warcraft, because that’s where all their friends are.

_____ _______ ain’t bad. And in the decades of yore, that was good enough. Now you’ve got to be spectacular or we instantly move on. We’re not interested in good.

Think of how many marketing messages you get in a day. It’s not only me that’s inundated with salesmanship. And I’m sophisticated. Do you really not think I know it’s you hyping your own album? Telling me it’s one of the best of the year? Or that you’re the agent of the act you say has recorded an LP that’s phenomenal from start to finish? Everyone’s sophisticated now, because of the plethora of bullshit they’ve been exposed to.

That’s one of the reasons why there’s only one Google, one Amazon and one Apple. You don’t need a second site/company when one is so good. It’s not like we can shop at Korvette’s or drive ten miles to the indie store. It’s not like Google doesn’t have enough links, Amazon doesn’t have enough SKUs, it’s not like people are bitching their iPads don’t do enough and are breaking down.

This is the world you’re living in.

It’s easier than ever to make music, and it’s easier than ever to be ignored.

It’s harder to fly on people’s radar screens and stay there.

And this has got nothing to do with piracy, nothing to do with short attention spans, nothing to do with money, it’s got to do with technology and culture. Technology that makes recording cheap and distribution easy, culture that is a smorgasbord of options, even though you can only partake of one at one time.

If I listen to your record, I can’t listen to another. I can’t watch television. I can’t talk on the telephone. Hell, even phone calls used to be scarce. Every house had one handset, and there was no call waiting. You were thrilled if someone called and you were lucky if no one else was home telling you to get off the line. Now, even ten year olds have their own handsets, and they don’t want to talk on them, they’d rather text, because they don’t want to waste any time, texting’s more efficient.

And if a ten year old is worried about efficiency, if it’s built into his life, what about the adolescents and adults? Sure, there’s a long tail, your grandma will buy your album on iTunes, but no one else will. We now live in a nation where winners take all. There’s not only been consolidation in industry, but in music too. You’ve got the illusion of power. But that’s all it is. Truly, your odds of reaching mass public consciousness are close to nil. You’re better off playing the lottery.

So stay in college. Earn a professional degree. Buy insurance.

Or else live in the land of hopes and dreams which we all pay lip service to but laugh at behind your back.

Artists are supposed to lead, not follow. How come they’re still making albums?

Did you see that Rihanna topped the British charts last week after selling 9,578 copies of her album “Talk That Talk”? This in a country of 60 million! It was the lowest sales number in history!

Let’s blame it on the public. Let’s blame it on the retailers. Let’s blame it on the record companies. When do the artists start blaming themselves?

People only want the hits.

Now this is not true of everybody. Are there still people purchasing the long player and spinning it ad infinitum, learning every lyric? Of course! Just like there are still people buying CDs, purchasing vinyl and composing letters on a typewriter. The album is the sideshow.

And so is vinyl. It’s a trend so small, without the mainstream press none of us would even be aware of it. Of course vinyl sounds better, but it’s inconvenient! Just like landlines sound better than cell phones. But you don’t see people forgoing calls outside the home, hell, they’re canceling their landlines, using mobiles in their abode!

While you were busy in the studio, concocting your long player, figuring out the running order, designing the cover, divining the perfect release date, you were functioning in a bubble. That’s not how anybody listens anymore.

You want to know how they listen?

They pull up your track on YouTube. Whether in an authorized version on Vevo or a bootlegged take posted straight to YouTube. And they instantly decide whether they like it or not. And if they don’t, they forget about you. Just that fast. It’s like they’re carrying your album straight to the dumper. As if you walked into McDonald’s, sniffed and left and they threw all the food out and closed the doors. As for listening to all twelve of your tracks, are you nuts! Don’t tell me people have a short attention span, hell, they’re marathoning “Breaking Bad” as I write this. They just don’t have time for what is not exceptionally great, and if you can tell me ten albums from the last two years that are good from beginning to end, I’m all ears.

Listening has changed. It used to be entertainment options were limited. You bought little and played that which you owned. And it’s not only music, newspapers are competing with blogs, TV is competing with YouTube, everything’s changing, are you?

You’ve got to step up your game. You’ve got to focus on excellence.

Assuming you want to break out of the wannabe ghetto.

Just like in the U.S., where the middle class is evaporating, in art there are winners and losers, rich and poor, which side are you on? It’s okay if you want to be a journeyman, eking out a living. Hell, maybe you’re making a few bucks, but don’t expect to become any bigger than you are. Not unless you make an undeniable track.

And that track no longer has to be Top Forty beat-driven fodder. That’s what “Somebody That I Used To Know” taught us. That the world is not controlled by gatekeepers. You can’t make it if you really try, but if you try and try, and create something undeniable, you can.

And the public is going to discover it on YouTube! Radio comes last. Hell, radio’s been last ever since the advent of MTV. It’s a coalition of followers, detached from humanity, losing power every day.

So…

1. If you’re a wannabe, feel free woodshedding, put online as much as you want, no one’s paying attention anyway. You’re just hoping to get lucky. Chances are, you never will. But this woodshedding and the online response allows you to explore and possibly find your niche.

2. If you’ve already made it, there are two tiers of material, throwaway and highly-hyped. Don’t put a full court press behind anything that is not truly stellar. Everything else is a glimpse of your methods. Kind of like a rapper’s mix tape.

3. If there is an album, it’s an after the fact event. A collection of what’s already been exposed. Kind of like the NOW series, except it’s all been done by you.

4. Labels are focused on revenues, not careers. They want the album to live because of its high price and the attendant marketing that drives people to buy it. They’re sticking to this paradigm the way a five year old continues to suck on a pacifier. It’s a no-win situation, but they don’t want to let go.

5. It’s a singles world.

6. It’s a streaming world. Don’t focus on Spotify or MOG, you’re too stupid to understand where we’re going, hell, you’re living in the past. Those services are ahead of the game, you’re behind. Just look at that Nielsen report that said the number one listening outlet for teens was YouTube. YouTube is streaming. Just like Jessica Seinfeld mixed vegetables in cookies, YouTube has been selling you streaming and you’re too ignorant to know it. YouTube is an on demand item. It’s pull technology. Feed it. You do this by creating something people want to pull. And that requires either train-wreck novelty or quality. And you can marshal your troops to go there, but this doesn’t work more than once if the music isn’t good. As for mainstream press… Asking the newspaper to drive people to YouTube is like asking NBC to tell people to cut the cord and watch online video. It’s like telling a right wing religious zealot to have an abortion. It’s a disconnect. Expecting old media to change is to believe Coleco is going to rise from the ashes and return triumphant.

7. The cycle has shortened. Your public can handle new music every other month.

8. It’s about the performance. It’s about live. Not because the ticket prices are high and you can make dough there, but because it’s the one place where the audience can expect something new, different and alive. If you’re playing to hard drive, repeating your record, you’re missing an opportunity. What an audience likes most is a special show. A different set list. A special guest. This is the essence of the Grateful Dead’s career. Every show was a unique event. And just like in the heyday of the Dead, great shows live on, with recordings. They embellish your career, they don’t kill it. They make people want to go to the show and have their own magic moments.

9. All bets are off. Your music doesn’t have to sound like anybody else’s. It’s just like the seventies, when Warner/Reprise ruled. We want unique. As media conglomerates merge, the public is running away. That’s what the Web is all about. Feed the people, not the machine.

 

“Rihanna tops UK album with lowest weekly sales since 1994”

“Nielsen: More Teens Now Listen To Music Through YouTube Than Any Other Source”