Used to be you practiced in your parents’ garage, got gigs and eventually recorded. The recording was the icing on the cake.

Now it’s reversed.

Now you record first, and you may never ever play a gig.

First and foremost because there’s nowhere to play.

Second, no one wants to pay.

Third, no one wants to hear you be lousy.

So today, if you want to make it, buy a Pro Tools rig and not only figure out how it works, spend endless hours perfecting your recordings (after taking endless hours to write your songs!)

This is the opposite of everything you’ve been told to do. Not only did you have to establish a live base, supposed professionals said they could hear through a demo, it didn’t need to be perfect. Now if the recording isn’t close to perfect, forget it.

I know this is confounding, with all the money now on the road as opposed to in records, but that’s only for the well-established. If you’re just breaking in, it’s about recordings. As for live gigs, most of today’s breakthrough acts don’t play that much anyway. The Beatles did 1,000 gigs before most people heard of them, today most acts don’t even do 1,000 gigs in their career!

Of course there are exceptions, like the Alabama Shakes.

But the exceptions don’t make the rules.

Make your recordings. Pass them around amongst your friends. See if they catch fire. If they don’t, go home and make more.

As for spamming so called “filters” with your MP3s, it’s a waste of time. Filters want to see virality. They want to hear about your music from multiple uninvested (i.e. not related, not your mother or brother) sources. They want to feel the buzz.

Of course, it’s so easy to record that you’re now competing against millions. So whereas you used to be able to be a mediocre cover band and be known throughout your town, now you have to be truly exceptional or no one notices. You’ve got to cut the latest “Call Me Maybe” or close.

Anybody who tells you to build a rep on the road is clueless as to how hard, almost impossible it is.

Major labels want insurance. They want hit songs and a live base and a huge fan club. Do you know how many acts can slip through that sieve? A handful.

But you can beat the system.

By creating one great track.

That’s all Carly Rae Jepsen had.

That’s all PSY had.

And sure, they paid their dues, these were not their first tracks. So don’t expect your first tracks to break through either. Hell, Carly Rae Jepsen is 27 and PSY is gonna be 35 at the end of the month!

RULES OF THE ROAD

1. Get the new gear, don’t deplore it. Not only every plug-in, but every music service. If you’re not exploring the future, you’re going to be left behind.

If you don’t have an iPhone or Android, if your computer doesn’t use the latest operating system, if you don’t have a tablet, you’re out of touch, you’re going to be marginalized.

2. Look for the truth in that which you disagree with. It’s easy to reject conflicting opinions, but you’re stronger if you extract what works from that which does not.

3. Listen to the music you hate. And listen more than once. You might find something you like. You might still find you hate it. But determine why. Those giving knee-jerk opinions are ignored.

4. Know that everybody can never win, any change begets victors and losers. Digital killed CD manufacturing. The iPod killed the Walkman. If you’re protecting what once was, you’ll find yourself in the graveyard. This does not mean companies should jettison the past too early, but they should always have one foot in the future, and know when to jump to the other side.

5. Knowledge is power. We live in the information age. Data is at your fingertips. Uninformed opinions are laughable. Like pundits saying who’s going to win the election when geeks like Nate Silver know who’s going to win, based on the data. Everything you need to know is online. Spend the time finding it out before you go to the bar or a conference and start bloviating.

6. We live in a singles world. If you listen to the outcries demanding an album you’re no different from Karl Rove protesting that Romney won. He who cracks the singles market on a regular basis will win in the future. No one’s got time. Stay in their mind constantly and give them what they need, which isn’t always what they want.

7. Artists are leaders. Use your power to make change. Only artists can get good tickets in the hands of fans. One could call it a responsibility, but he who leads, who takes a stand, is placed at the center of the future, and will reap rewards for his or her behavior.

8. Corporations rarely change. They usually just protect their turf. Change comes from individuals.

Don’t think you can enter the corporation and make change. If you really believe in something different, you’ve got to do it yourself.

9. Tomorrow’s music business is not being built by the usual suspects, but those who are nimble, who utilize the new tools to create something that fits the modern market. You’re the future, not Doug Morris.

CHANGING YOUR MIND

“More so than any person I ever met in my life, he had the ability to change his mind, much more so than anyone I’ve ever met. He could be so sold on a certain direction and in a nanosecond (Cook snaps his fingers) have a completely different view. (Laughs.) I thought in the early days, ‘Wow, this is strange.’ Then I realized how much of a gift it was. So many people, particularly, I think, CEOs and top executives, they get so planted in their old ideas, and they refuse or don’t have the courage to admit that they’re now wrong. Maybe the most underappreciated thing about Steve was that he had the courage to change his mind. And you know – it’s a talent. It’s a talent. So, anyway.”

Tim Cook on Steve Jobs

I was against Napster before I was for it.

And if I was a politician, that statement would doom my career right there. We live in an era of teams, playing gotcha, whilst the winners refuse to participate, create their own league and search for excellence, changing on a whim. Ever heard of “pivoting”? That’s the buzz term in Silicon Valley. That’s when you’ve got something and you take the kernel and turn it into something else. Kind of like a heavy metal band becoming a boy band, or vice versa. And I’m not talking about expedience here, I’m talking about extricating what does work from what doesn’t and creating something wholly new, that can be successful and game-changing.

Something big happened this week. Lars made peace with Sean Parker. It was good for both. Metallica’s image still suffers from its anti-Napster crusade of yesteryear and Spotify is laboring under the illusion that it is ripping off artists. Now let’s not forget that Metallica is doing this deal because they now own all of their masters. But having said that, Lars admitted he was wrong, that he didn’t know enough, didn’t do enough research back then.

Whew! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Even better about Lars. Because unlike so many in our nation, in the music sphere, he not only admitted he was wrong, but that he could learn something!

And you can learn something too. That Spotify pays 70% of revenue in royalties and it or its “equal” competitor, whether it be Apple or Rdio or whomever, will be good for artists and the business, not bad.

But this breakthrough will depend upon artists joining up, and lobbying for the success of streaming services, instead of sitting on the sidelines uneducated, too afraid to play.

But this is not about streaming so much as a way of life. Do you make a snap judgment and stick to it or do you investigate, changing your mind constantly until you decide what you’re going to do? And if it doesn’t work, are you willing to tweak it, to change it into something else?

Kind of like all the people e-mailing me that they haven’t made it yet, that they haven’t broken through. Maybe the onus is on them, not the public or the media, maybe they need to morph into something different. If you’re not willing to look at yourself, question absolutely everything, you’re going to have a very short tenure in the entertainment business, if you’ve got one at all.

So learn all you can. And question not only authority, but yourself. If you’re inured to the present, you’ll get left in the past. CDs are dying and vinyl is never coming back. New computers don’t have disk drives and if you think the future of hi-fi is vinyl disks, you’re probably driving a Rambler. The future of hi-fi is digital.

Change happens constantly. Once upon a time we were thrilled to be able to make wireless phone calls. Now if our handsets don’t send e-mail and texts and surf the web at high speed we laugh. And it’s great for consumers. But if you’re a player, you must adjust your thinking, you must get yourself in tune with this culture…where everything is up for grabs, where you’re willing to change to not only stay afloat, but get ahead.

This is hysterical! They’re trying to SHAME scalpers into doing the right thing!

While they’re at it, why don’t they tell heroin addicts they’re despicable parasites and file-traders they’re ruining music. The effort would be just as successful.

One thing you’ve got to know about politicians…they’re CLUELESS!

Obama wins the election by employing young ‘uns who can slice and dice data and Charles Schumer, a tool of the bankers who are both underwriting this concert and overpaying to attend it, is shocked, positively SHOCKED at the inequity!

Let’s start at the beginning. Madison Square Garden is a small hall in America’s biggest market. Staples Center has thousands more seats. Stuff sells out at MSG that doesn’t do a full house anywhere else. Who in their right mind didn’t know this would be a scalper’s field day?

This is Christmas, Thanksgiving and your personal birthday wrapped into one. This is the kind of event resellers DREAM about! This is like trying to fight Al Qaeda by telling them they’re doing bad things. Huh? Today you fight with technology. You don’t go to the media and tell people who don’t care and are not paying attention to stop.

Utterly ridiculous.

And do these same politicians ever look themselves in the eye and ask these questions when the scalpers lobby them to ban paperless? Yup, all those grannies bought 12/12/12 tickets for their families, who can’t attend, because of soccer games, and now they’re forced to get rid of these ducats on StubHub. Please let the eBay company help them out, otherwise they’d be stuck with these tickets and lose money. Thank god there’s a resale market!

If this fiasco isn’t the number one advertisement for paperless ticketing I don’t know what is. But blame the music industry. They like it the way it is. This is how they make a profit. On ticketing fees and scalping your own tickets and…

If we bring in paperless these heritage acts, and it’s almost all oldsters on the bill, would have to forfeit seven figures. Yup, these icons of creativity are all about the bucks now. They don’t want to leave any money on the table.

So be like the Stones. Overcharge, to try to eliminate the scalping. Then scalp your own tickets too! Ha!

Either sell the tickets at their fair market value or go to paperless. It’s an either or situation. Otherwise you’ve got third parties profiting while the government kicks and screams in ignorance.

“Benefit’s Producers Condemn Scalpers”

1. “Mandocello”

We might as well start at the beginning. With the debut. Which got little traction and I must admit I did not buy first. Produced by Jack Douglas, it’s got a different feel from the Tom Werman stuff. It’s more raucous, earthier. And to the degree anybody still references it it’s because of the opening cut, “ELO Kiddies,” which Cheap Trick has continued to play. But if you sit down and play the whole album, which we used to do, you discover this quiet, hypnotic gem.

Once upon a time music wasn’t for everybody, just for you. It was your escape. You put on a record and you felt the only people who understood you were the band. “Mandocello” sounds like this. It’s not made for the radio, but your bedroom, on headphones, squeezing out all the b.s. of the world. With “Mandocello” playing, your life works.

The riff hooks you. But it’s really a compilation of sounds, including Robin Zander’s voice. But the piece de resistance is the magical change at 3:09. It’s like you’ve driven through the neighborhood picking up all your friends and now you’re cruising. Or better yet, you’re riding with your beloved. Only she doesn’t know you’re in love with her, even though you think about her all the time, fantasize about just being near her, never mind touching her.

Furthermore, most people are completely unaware Concrete Blonde covered “Mandocello,” faithfully, on their 1994 album of loose ends entitled “Still In Hollywood.” Yup, that’s the way it used to be, even the stars were fans, they knew not only the hits, but the album cuts.

2. “So Good To See You”

And then came “In Color,” the band’s breakthrough. Word started to spread, you heard about it and purchased it and it became your favorite new album, everywhere you went you talked about it, you wanted to share the joy.

“So Good To See You” was the closer. Instead of fading out this was an unexpected encore that FORCED you to drop the needle and hear the whole album again.

How did they get it so right? With enough edge but also Beach Boys harmonies and exquisite changes. By this time bands could vamp over the same chord for the entire verse, whereas “So Good To See You” twists and turns like a roller coaster.

Once upon a time, a band had to have a great singer. You couldn’t fix it in the studio. Someone with power, and in Robin Zander Cheap Trick had someone who could do both rough and smooth, he could both prance and entrance.

“So Good To See You” is a tour de force. From an era when album tracks weren’t filler, but the main course.

3. “Come On, Come On”

Sure, it was on “Budokan,” but the polish of the studio take…it’s like someone from the seventies was jetted back to the sixties with everything he now knew but was forced to record in the earlier style. It sounds both dated and current at the same time!

And the chorus has you moving your jaw, singing along with the sweetness with bite.

4. “Clock Strikes Ten”

This was on “Budokan” too, but the best part of the studio version is Zander’s vocal, which has got the guttural roughness of early rock and roll, quite a contrast to the sweetness evidenced in songs like “So Good To See You.”

“Clock Strikes Ten” is a romp. Under three minutes, you’re instantly energized, dancing around the room, burning off all your everyday frustration.

5. “Oh Caroline”

Okay, now I’ve mentioned four of the five songs on side two of “In Color,” and “Southern Girls” is probably better than all of them. Yes, “In Color” is a classic. “Oh Caroline” has got the darkness of an English record translated through a midwest sensibility, it sounds like dancing in front of your TV during “Shindig” or “Shivaree” felt like.

6. “Takin’ Me Back”

Sure, “Surrender” had hilarious lyrics, it was a good ditty, but this was always my favorite cut on “Heaven Tonight,” the second side opener with the monster riff. You couldn’t help but CRANK IT!

This is like an AC/DC monolith, if the Aussie band ever featured any melody. It’s veritable wall of sound that single-handedly makes you feel life is worth living.

The elements are spectacular. From the oo’s to the break to the whirling synth “Takin’ Me Back” is truly a slice of heaven. It keeps going on, keeps twisting and turning, getting louder and softer, it never lets you down, it always surprises you. I never hear anybody talk about it, but “Takin’ Me Back” is my absolute favorite Cheap Trick track. It’s everything I love about rock and roll.

7. “Tonight It’s You”

So after parting ways with Tom Werman, and experimenting with everybody from George Martin to Roy Thomas Baker to Todd Rundgren, all huge hitmakers in their own right, Cheap Trick went back to the well, to their original producer, Jack Douglas.

If “Tonight It’s You” had only come out half a decade earlier, it would have been a radio staple. Oh, the track got some traction, even video play, but it was not a hit and is nearly completely forgotten. But “Tonight It’s You” is one of those rare tracks that keeps building and building to a towering height that you don’t believe can be maintained. Kind of like “White Punks On Dope,” it demands more and more energy, more and more focus, and then leaves you high and dry at the mountaintop, stunned.

First it’s the sound of the guitars, the picking in one speaker and the distorted echo emphasis in the other. It’s like the cavalry’s appearing on the horizon.

And then Robin Zander starts telling a story. He’s part of the mix. And then…

So stop what you’re doin’
Start on something new

It’s like a choirboy has risen above the troops, a sweetness you thought was impossible in this context.

And then the song swings down…

I don’t know why you mean that much to me
You don’t know what it feels like lovin’ you
We all know a change is good for you
That’s all right, gotta do what you gotta do
Anyway

Wow, where did all this anger come from? Who’s this three dimensional singer who can go from smooth to intense so fast, who can evidence all the emotions of real life?

And then this angry pissed off person sings…

All I want is a place in your heart to fall into
All I need is someone to love
And tonight it’s you, tonight it’s you

He’s gone from pissed off to cunning enticement just that fast.

And then we’re back to that spacy intro dynamic once again. Whew! It’s like reading a book and suddenly finding yourself back at the beginning. Wiser, with another chance.

Then there’s a spooky interlude!

Come to my world
Come away with me

Huh? It’s like they stopped the action and the lead broke character and spoke directly to the audience. It’s unnerving…and so right.

And then finally, after four minutes, they settle into the groove, endlessly repeating, imploring you, and you can’t resist, because…

TONIGHT IT’S YOU!

Rhinofy-Unheralded Cheap Trick

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