I was stealing music last night, and a trader, probably a Scot, had the entire Silencers album "A Night Of Electric Silence".

Why do I think he’s a Scot? Because he also had Simple Minds’ "Live In The City Of Light".

Or maybe he’s just a fan of Scottish bands. SO AM I! Felt so great to hear those classic Simple Minds songs again. Actually, what I liked most was the version of "Let There Be Love" from a bootleg, recorded somewhere in the USA. How MAJESTIC! You DO know that "Don’t You (Forget About Me)" was not written by the band, right? And if you delve deeply into their catalog, you’ll be rewarded. Start with "Let There Be Love", but if you want some ENERGY, try "Stand By Love"…

You know my heart beats rhythm and my dreams still take me higher
I’ve traveled ’round the world but they can’t cure my desire
The city looks pretty tonight
Hold on now let’s go till morning

You know how you’re at the gig and you’re so infused with the music that you feel completely alive and you feel like everybody in the room is your brother and the night is full of POSSIBILITIES? That’s what "Stand By Love" sounds like…

Give me one good reason why you don’t come play with fire
‘Cause when the earth starts moving you know I’m no liar

That’s what music does to you. Turns you into your best self.

And I’ve got that official double live album around the house somewhere, but it’s ECLIPSED by this bootleg. As for the Silencers live album…that’s unavailable in the U.S. at ANY price.

Funny how your favorites are not those on the radio. The bands on the radio are for everybody. You can get their material in one listen. It’s for those not paying attention, those who don’t NEED the music. Whereas the records we hold near and dear speak to us, reveal themselves over time. We would no sooner part with them than disown one of our children. We need them. We grow old with them. They might not change, but we get new insight every time we listen to them. This is how I feel about the Silencers. Especially their first two albums, "A Letter From St. Paul" and "A Blues For Buddha". You can check out what I had to say about them in my Rhinocast:

The Silencers

And I get e-mail from Jimme O’Neill now and again. He’s still at it. Living in France, where they got his music. He never gave up. That’s a musician, not those pretty boys you see on TV.

And thinking about the Silencers, I decided to see if there were any YouTube clips. And checking out the listings, I came across a video for "Wild Mountain Thyme":

The Silencers – Wild Mountain Thyme

I have not been myself since Nashville. Or maybe myself too much. I crashed. All that excitement, all that interaction. And now I’m back to my own little life. I wonder…should I just stay on the road forever? Watching this Silencers video last night I got the desire to go Scotland. Look at that SCENERY!

And it’s that scenery that got me to see "Into The Wild" this afternoon.

You see I’m living in bizarredom. I woke up this morning, and the light was akin to the end of the world, after the nuclear holocaust. All muted and golden. As if we were in a halfway house on our way to heaven. Or maybe hell. It was creepy.

There were too many ash particles in the air to go hiking. So I decided to ride the crisis out at the movies. The new Landmark, in Westwood:

Landmark in Westwood

You see that picture in the lower center? With the orange couches? I sat right behind them, in that love seat…

Sean Penn takes himself way too seriously. The only humor in this 140 minute flick was encapsulated in the few minutes when Vince Vaughn was on screen. Do people really live their lives with this few laughs, with this few smiles? Was Chris McCandless really this humorless?

I doubt it. I think this is Sean Penn’s version of Chris’ story. Which is not akin to the real version. The real one was more similar to Sean’s life. Someone trying to play a role, to turn himself INTO something. We live in a lonely world. We want to feel a part of something. We want to be the star of our own movie.

And the moral of THIS flick…that we need people. I think that’s a message for Sean too. Since he’s removed himself from the rest of us so much by being such a smug pugilist. Hey SEAN! You’re just the scion of low-level Hollywood royalty. Uneducated at that. Why don’t you enjoy the ride a bit? Then we wouldn’t need to constantly attack you. For taking yourself so seriously.

Which brings me right back to where I started. At a movie that wasn’t good enough to recommend. But there’s a performance contained therein deserving of an Oscar. Hal Holbrook’s. As a discharged military loner. You know excellence when you see it. And I saw it.

Just like you know it when you hear it.

And nothing Eddie Vedder composed for this film stopped me in my tracks, made me think this guy is as legendary as he acts. Hell, he and Sean deserve each other. But at least Eddie can laugh a LITTLE!

Still, out in Slab City, deep into the movie, Emile Hirsch and Kristen Stewart get up on a makeshift stage and start playing "Angel From Montgomery" and the whole movie suddenly makes sense.

I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were thunder and lightning was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

There’s more honesty in these lines than there was in this whole damn movie. That’s the power of music. That’s what has us burning the candle. That’s why we care. Because these troubadours, laying down their sound, we believe in them. We NEED TO! We need to feel someone has insight, that someone can help us make sense of this crazy world we inhabit.

That’s the music that got us baby boomers addicted. Sure, we loved the train-wreck of MTV, but those acts that laid their souls upon the wax… Those are the ones we cared about. Those are the ones we still care about.

Sure, the superstars of yore can play stadiums. But we went to see a whole bunch more we still care about in clubs, and theatres. Because they didn’t just represent a good time, they represented LIFE!

"Into The Wild" talks about the pain of family. We’ve all experienced it. But in this movie, you can’t FEEL IT!

And the scenery is oftentimes beautiful, but too often we’re not awed. Or the effect is compromised by the bogus filmic effects.

Having said all that, this movie isn’t bad, it just wasn’t GOOD ENOUGH!

I don’t want my three hours back. I just want something that delivers. Too much of what’s out there doesn’t deliver.

Hate to tell you, but Led Zeppelin at the O2 Arena won’t deliver. It’ll be sans all the danger, all the importance the band held back in the seventies, when it still counted. You may want to go to impress your buddies, but you’ll get more soul-fulfillment listening to Robert’s duets album with Alison Krauss. Because, you see, just like you, Robert kept on living. He didn’t get a facelift. Didn’t record dance numbers. He kept lifting the rug, seeing what was underneath.

Dinosaurs can still do this. But too often they don’t. Because it’s not what the audience wants. The audience wants to relive its youth, as its hair grays and its body thickens. The audience wants to look back. And the music’s greatness, its importance, was based on looking forward, leading us.

But now we’re led by Live Nation. It’s not about the acts, but the institutions. But we’re still the same, we might have changed on the outside, but we’re still desirous of that hit, that surprise, that insight right around the bend. We still want to drop the needle and be taken away. The song doesn’t have to be new, sometimes it’s just a different interpretation. But we want something added, we don’t want rote. Just like Chris McCandless didn’t want rote.

Chris McCandless wanted to believe there was something more. Than the moneygoround. He didn’t want to be burdened by the past. He was just another kid graduating from college. I’d say no different from you or me, but today’s college graduates are not the same. They want the cushy job, they want the accoutrements, they’re not interested in finding themselves. Maybe that’s why their music is so vapid. Maybe that’s why those coming up behind them look to classic rock.

I recommend "Into The Wild". The BOOK! Because Jon Krakauer is a fabulous writer. Check out his story in "Eiger Dreams" about soloing in Alaska if you doubt me. Sean Penn is a brilliant actor, but a second-rate director. I wish a true auteur had helmed this film. But the story lives on, in the book. Just like our history lives on, in these records.

I was stealing music last night, and a trader, probably a Scot, had the entire Silencers album "A Night Of Electric Silence".

Why do I think he’s a Scot? Because he also had Simple Minds’ "Live In The City Of Light".

Or maybe he’s just a fan of Scottish bands. SO AM I! Felt so great to hear those classic Simple Minds songs again. Actually, what I liked most was the version of "Let There Be Love" from a bootleg, recorded somewhere in the USA. How MAJESTIC! You DO know that "Don’t You (Forget About Me)" was not written by the band, right? And if you delve deeply into their catalog, you’ll be rewarded. Start with "Let There Be Love", but if you want some ENERGY, try "Stand By Love"…

You know my heart beats rhythm and my dreams still take me higher
I’ve traveled ’round the world but they can’t cure my desire
The city looks pretty tonight
Hold on now let’s go till morning

You know how you’re at the gig and you’re so infused with the music that you feel completely alive and you feel like everybody in the room is your brother and the night is full of POSSIBILITIES? That’s what "Stand By Love" sounds like…

Give me one good reason why you don’t come play with fire
‘Cause when the earth starts moving you know I’m no liar

That’s what music does to you. Turns you into your best self.

And I’ve got that official double live album around the house somewhere, but it’s ECLIPSED by this bootleg. As for the Silencers live album…that’s unavailable in the U.S. at ANY price.

Funny how your favorites are not those on the radio. The bands on the radio are for everybody. You can get their material in one listen. It’s for those not paying attention, those who don’t NEED the music. Whereas the records we hold near and dear speak to us, reveal themselves over time. We would no sooner part with them than disown one of our children. We need them. We grow old with them. They might not change, but we get new insight every time we listen to them. This is how I feel about the Silencers. Especially their first two albums, "A Letter From St. Paul" and "A Blues For Buddha". You can check out what I had to say about them in my Rhinocast:

Bob Lefsetz talks about The Silencers

And I get e-mail from Jimme O’Neill now and again. He’s still at it. Living in France, where they got his music. He never gave up. That’s a musician, not those pretty boys you see on TV.

And thinking about the Silencers, I decided to see if there were any YouTube clips. And checking out the listings, I came across a video for "Wild Mountain Thyme":

The Silencers – Wild Mountain Thyme

I have not been myself since Nashville. Or maybe myself too much. I crashed. All that excitement, all that interaction. And now I’m back to my own little life. I wonder…should I just stay on the road forever? Watching this Silencers video last night I got the desire to go Scotland. Look at that SCENERY!

And it’s that scenery that got me to see "Into The Wild" this afternoon.

You see I’m living in bizarredom. I woke up this morning, and the light was akin to the end of the world, after the nuclear holocaust. All muted and golden. As if we were in a halfway house on our way to heaven. Or maybe hell. It was creepy.

There were too many ash particles in the air to go hiking. So I decided to ride the crisis out at the movies. The new Landmark, in Westwood:

Landmark in Westwood

You see that picture in the lower center? With the orange couches? I sat right behind them, in that love seat…

Sean Penn takes himself way too seriously. The only humor in this 140 minute flick was encapsulated in the few minutes when Vince Vaughn was on screen. Do people really live their lives with this few laughs, with this few smiles? Was Chris McCandless really this humorless?

I doubt it. I think this is Sean Penn’s version of Chris’ story. Which is not akin to the real version. The real one was more similar to Sean’s life. Someone trying to play a role, to turn himself INTO something. We live in a lonely world. We want to feel a part of something. We want to be the star of our own movie.

And the moral of THIS flick…that we need people. I think that’s a message for Sean too. Since he’s removed himself from the rest of us so much by being such a smug pugilist. Hey SEAN! You’re just the scion of low-level Hollywood royalty. Uneducated at that. Why don’t you enjoy the ride a bit? Then we wouldn’t need to constantly attack you. For taking yourself so seriously.

Which brings me right back to where I started. At a movie that wasn’t good enough to recommend. But there’s a performance contained therein deserving of an Oscar. Hal Holbrook’s. As a discharged military loner. You know excellence when you see it. And I saw it.

Just like you know it when you hear it.

And nothing Eddie Vedder composed for this film stopped me in my tracks, made me think this guy is as legendary as he acts. Hell, he and Sean deserve each other. But at least Eddie can laugh a LITTLE!

Still, out in Slab City, deep into the movie, Emile Hirsch and Kristen Stewart get up on a makeshift stage and start playing "Angel From Montgomery" and the whole movie suddenly makes sense.

I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were thunder and lightning was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

There’s more honesty in these lines than there was in this whole damn movie. That’s the power of music. That’s what has us burning the candle. That’s why we care. Because these troubadours, laying down their sound, we believe in them. We NEED TO! We need to feel someone has insight, that someone can help us make sense of this crazy world we inhabit.

That’s the music that got us baby boomers addicted. Sure, we loved the train-wreck of MTV, but those acts that laid their souls upon the wax… Those are the ones we cared about. Those are the ones we still care about.

Sure, the superstars of yore can play stadiums. But we went to see a whole bunch more we still care about in clubs, and theatres. Because they didn’t just represent a good time, they represented LIFE!

"Into The Wild" talks about the pain of family. We’ve all experienced it. But in this movie, you can’t FEEL IT!

And the scenery is oftentimes beautiful, but too often we’re not awed. Or the effect is compromised by the bogus filmic effects.

Having said all that, this movie isn’t bad, it just wasn’t GOOD ENOUGH!

I don’t want my three hours back. I just want something that delivers. Too much of what’s out there doesn’t deliver.

Hate to tell you, but Led Zeppelin at the O2 Arena won’t deliver. It’ll be sans all the danger, all the importance the band held back in the seventies, when it still counted. You may want to go to impress your buddies, but you’ll get more soul-fulfillment listening to Robert’s duets album with Alison Krauss. Because, you see, just like you, Robert kept on living. He didn’t get a facelift. Didn’t record dance numbers. He kept lifting the rug, seeing what was underneath.

Dinosaurs can still do this. But too often they don’t. Because it’s not what the audience wants. The audience wants to relive its youth, as its hair grays and its body thickens. The audience wants to look back. And the music’s greatness, its importance, was based on looking forward, leading us.

But now we’re led by Live Nation. It’s not about the acts, but the institutions. But we’re still the same, we might have changed on the outside, but we’re still desirous of that hit, that surprise, that insight right around the bend. We still want to drop the needle and be taken away. The song doesn’t have to be new, sometimes it’s just a different interpretation. But we want something added, we don’t want rote. Just like Chris McCandless didn’t want rote.

Chris McCandless wanted to believe there was something more. Than the moneygoround. He didn’t want to be burdened by the past. He was just another kid graduating from college. I’d say no different from you or me, but today’s college graduates are not the same. They want the cushy job, they want the accoutrements, they’re not interested in finding themselves. Maybe that’s why their music is so vapid. Maybe that’s why those coming up behind them look to classic rock.

I recommend "Into The Wild". The BOOK! Because Jon Krakauer is a fabulous writer. Check out his story in "Eiger Dreams" about soloing in Alaska if you doubt me. Sean Penn is a brilliant actor, but a second-rate director. I wish a true auteur had helmed this film. But the story lives on, in the book. Just like our history lives on, in these records.

I’m not sure the Live Nation/Madonna deal is all that revolutionary. Seems positively nineties if you ask me. She went with the company that would pay her the biggest ADVANCE!

That’s how this business got fucked up. When the distrusting attorneys and managers no longer counted on royalties, and just negotiated a gigantic advance. And it’s no different in the touring business. Just ask Rapino, who failed to break the agents’ stranglehold. We want our money and we want it NOW!

Are you willing to leave money on the table?

If not, you’re not a member of the new team, but just a money-grubbing player on the old one.

Think about the Eagles deal… Let’s say Warner Brothers had bought 3 million discs one way, would Irving Azoff have made a deal with THEM? Better yet, if they guaranteed twenty million in advertising, whatever they could convince Irving was equivalent to the Wal-Mart hype? Let’s say they gave back ownership of the old masters, would Irving make THAT deal? You bet your sweet ass baby.

But at least Irving kept the Eagles from burning out the marketplace. They take the better part of a decade to return to most cities. Whereas when his partner Howard Kaufman is done with Aerosmith, NO ONE will want to see the band. Kind of like Fleetwood Mac, which played the same damn markets three times on their last tour.

But Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac wanted the money.

So, if you’re a new band, and you want money, up front, hire one of the usual suspects and go out ‘a hunting. But, get all you can, because unlike these dinosaurs who made their bones back in the seventies, you’re gonna have a very short run. Because whoever puts up that dough is gonna whore the hell out of you, because HE WANTS HIS MONEY BACK!

Is anybody willing to leave money on the table?

How about the acts. Funnily enough, most don’t. They’re sick of starving. And if you truly are, you’ll make almost any deal. Ergo, the history of rip-off contracts.

But they need to count on their managers for advice. The managers are on THEIR team, aren’t they?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?? The managers only eat when the band does. So, if the act’s off the road, the manager’s living on savings. Same deal with the agent. So what do the manager and agent SAY? TAKE THE MONEY! Go on tour, make that endorsement deal, IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR CAREER! But how often is it? Not as frequently as the manager and agent say it is. Most times, it’s about the money. But they don’t care, BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT THEIR ONLY CLIENT! Now, more than ever, the big time acts are managed by the usual suspects, with careers longer than the acts they represent. Their loyalty isn’t to the players, but themselves. Hell, they’re gonna OUTLAST THE PLAYERS! As for the agents, loyalty in a business where the acts switch teams on a regular basis? No way. Show me an agent who’s willing to let their act stay home and I’ll show you someone who’s about to be fired by his boss.

So you can make a lot of money with your own operation these days, but the money’s not guaranteed. Do you think the attorney is going to tell you to go it alone WHEN HE’S ON A PERCENTAGE?

It’s not only the record labels who are ensconced in the old world. It’s the entire music business infrastructure. Don’t blame the labels for forsaking artist development, the lawyers, managers and agents JUST AREN’T INTERESTED IN IT! Artist development is how long it takes to go from the red to the black. If that’s a month, GOOD JOB! Whatever it takes to hit critical mass.

The above is not the Radiohead model. The difference in the Radiohead model is the fans perceive the band is beholden to THEM! How did Radiohead do this? BY LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE! It’s not about the money they made selling downloads at a consumer-determined price, it’s how cool it made the band look. When you made your offer, you didn’t feel ripped off. Whereas you feel ripped off every time you buy a CD and go to a show for most of the other major acts.

If you want to have a long career, you’ve got to think of your audience first. And that’s the fan, not the label or the promoter. What’s going to enhance your relationship with the FAN! Good music at a fair price. Same deal with concert tickets.

Look at the Dave Matthews Band. The tickets never hit $100. Usually are half of that. And, if you join the fan club, you WILL get a good ticket, because the band controls half the house. Money is being left on the table here for sure, but it comes back because the DMB can sell out arenas or their equivalent year after year WITHOUT A HIT RECORD!

Can you say no?

If you can’t say no, you’re gonna have a brief career.

I don’t care if the scalpers get a ton of tickets. If you go out for a cheap price, the fans LIKE IT! Sure, it’s best to come up with a scheme for getting the tickets in their hands, but if they have to pay a fortune to a scalper, or have to forgo attendance, THEY DON’T BLAME YOU! Actually, you look even better. Because you’re so hot THEY CAN’T GET A TICKET!

Music? Music’s free. If you don’t know this, you’re not in this business. So, don’t charge more than the fan is willing to pay! Whether it be by Radiohead’s tip jar model, or building the album into the price of the ticket or just GIVING THE MUSIC AWAY! The public expects everything to be available for next to nothing, so don’t insult him by trying to put up walls preventing him from what he knows is available!

There’s very little career management anymore. Very little strategizing. Everybody’s on the take, and their advice is tainted.

The new generation will not run the business this way, will not sell out to the highest bidder. The same way Facebook won’t sell its operation. Go with the man, and not only do you lose your cool, you lose control, you get caught up in layers of management that fuck up your brand. Like GeoCities. Never heard of it? Yahoo paid a fortune and metaphorically killed it.

Don’t marvel at the endless deals MySpace has made with every corporation that will pony up bucks. Those are business stories. Meanwhile, Facebook has eclipsed the Fox site in the U.K.

You wonder why the music industry is in the shitter? There’s no MANAGEMENT! The usual suspects’ idea of innovation is getting their money from SOMEONE ELSE!

Ultimately you’ve got to get the money from the fan. Think of him first, and you’ll be all right. It might be a struggle, you might not be able to buy your Bentley in two years, but just maybe, you can play music for the rest of your life. And your lawyer, agent and manager can send not only their children, but their GRANDCHILDREN to college on their commissions. But the way these old wave players are operating today, the coffers will be empty in a very few years, after a brief period of high on the hog living.

MTV? The major labels? They didn’t invest in their futures, that’s why they’re fucked today. Are you gonna take all the bread up front now or invest in YOUR future? The choice is yours.

I thought Starbucks was supposed to be a whole new paradigm, a whole new way to expose and sell music. An alternative to the big box retailers that don’t give a shit about discs. But that was before Joni Mitchell’s album tanked and their new artist series didn’t have any impact. Now they’re just like everybody else in the music business. DESPERATE!

How about EMI. Selling Spice Girls CDs exclusively at Victoria’s Secret. Yup, come buy the CD and learn how to be a ‘ho! Bring your ten year old in and teach her how to trade on her sexuality. God, are the seventies dead. Adolescents back then used to look up to Gloria Steinem, an educated woman who just happened to be pretty. Now they admire Victoria Beckham, who not only isn’t as good-looking, has baseball-sized tits bolted on to her chest and eats so little she can’t say something intelligent because she’s not able to cogitate. And EMI is no different from today’s kids, they did this deal for the CASH! Victoria’s Secret purchased the albums ONE WAY! You can’t leave that money on the table, even though there isn’t a Victoria’s Secret in every neighborhood. Fuck the fan. That’s the music business mantra.

Now let me get this straight. If you bought "Memory Almost Full" the FIRST time around, you’re not a fan? If you bought it the week it came out because you love McCartney, you’re a less desirable customer than the geek who waits half a year to buy the more desirable product? Or is this like the iPhone, early adopters get fucked! Shouldn’t Starbucks refund $3 to everyone who bought the first version, to quiet the uproar?

There is no uproar. Because the record industry already fought that war and lost. The labels were armed with overpriced CDs with only one good track. And then, if you didn’t buy them, they threatened to sue you. The bonus material on "Memory Almost Full"… Why NOT steal it? You almost feel ENTITLED to steal it. The same way a woman who catches her husband in bed with another woman is entitled to throw his clothes on the street and key his truck. Drive people insane and there’s no LIMIT to what they’ll do.

Really, we knew Sony couldn’t be trusted. But STARBUCKS? The operation with thousands of little mom & pop shops run by nice twentysomethings happy with their good jobs? Oops, corporate-owned stores employing adults for little money? They’ve got such a friendly face, why are they fucking me in the ass?

Not that it’s Starbucks’ fault. Or is it? Who is responsible for releasing the same damn album with three bonus tracks and a live DVD for Christmas? How blatant. If the material was that fucking good, would they release it after the first of the year? Doesn’t McCartney see this pisses off fans? Or maybe Starbucks really is behind this. They want some of their MONEY BACK!

This is the kind of shenanigan that got this industry in the pickle it finds itself today. Sell the DVD as a standalone item. Give an EP with the bonus tracks free to everybody who shows up at Starbucks with the original album. (People probably buying a latte in the process.) Allow them to log on to iTunes and get this bonus material free. The technology’s there, customers were allowed to upgrade their EMI tracks to iTunes Plus.

That would be a story. How Starbucks broke the mold, respected the customer. But no, the company treats coffee with more respect than music. Everybody disrespects music. And you wonder why the consumer wants it for free.