Hi Bob,

Regarding Myspace….

My music partner and I ditched Snocrap a long time ago and went with the free music model as a way to use MySpace for good and not evil.

We like to go to shows around L.A. and give away our CDs to people coming out of the venue. A week before the show, we’ll send out personalized MySpace messages to fans of the band that is playing, letting them know to look for us after the show if they like our songs and want some free music. We’ll also send out bulletins to our existing fans about the show. We’ll give away hundreds of CDs in a night without any effort at all (crazy how many people like free stuff), and we always have people coming up saying they saw our messages on Myspace and thanking us for the free album. Some of them will eventually come out to OUR shows when we play.

We’ve given away thousands of our CDs since launching our project last summer, and we hope to give away 10,000 of our new one this year, along with free downloads for every song.  All for the sake of getting people excited about going to shows and finding new music.
 
A label guy recently suggested to us that this approach is a mistake and urged us to remove the downloads from our Myspace page because “our music is worth more than that”. But in our view, our music isn’t worth anything at all if people don’t hear it.
 
-Casey from Drop Dead Genius

Feelin’ Alright

Actually, I’m not.  I’ve got this sinus infection that won’t quit.  But you can’t stay home forever, so I met Jane for lunch at the Century City Shopping Center.

Houston’s

Funny how this restaurant sustains, when so many fall by the wayside.

Jane told me about MySpace.  You see she’s jumped from the record company world to the Internet.  If only labels had done so years ago, instead of fighting new technology.

I don’t have a MySpace page.  Life is too short to cavort with fake friends.  But I do have an account, so I can delve into the pages of acts sent to me.  Music is the backbone of MySpace, it’s what makes it special.  The Snocap deal?  Irrelevant.  Bands are better off giving away the music, and sale by track is economic death and not the future.  But to have your music hosted for free…  And at this point, every act that ever existed seems to have a MySpace page, where you can go and listen to their music.  This is good.

As for the site itself, why does it have to be so clunky in an era of broadband smoothness?

The numbers keep growing, but who are the people JUST signing up?  Did it take them that long to get the memo?

Jane says social networking is just the backbone, that the future is content.  And as she told me, excitedly, the way no one who works at a label now does, about placing content on the Canadian homepage, even I got excited.  For there’s a pulse, and an opportunity.  And they’ve got this program where they give bucks to charities, is it every week, or every month?  Yup, some kids organized some skate to save something and they got 10k.  That’ll keep your site sticky.

I heard a big muckety-muck tell me all about MySpace, and it was more boring than high school math.  There was a zeal in Jane’s eye when she told the story that made one think that sure, MySpace has problems, but they’re trying to survive, despite the Murdoch connection, they’re trying to ride the Net bucking bronco.

Geox

When we passed this shop I asked Jane, "Does Geox make ANY fashionable shoes?"

She said no.

But I’m intrigued.  Hell, aren’t you?

How does the air come out without water getting in?  I’m a fan of Nike Air, walking on a cushion, that appeals to me.

I studied the shoes in the window after Jane took off.  But I didn’t go inside.  I didn’t want to be sold.  Funny how salespeople won’t leave you alone, but if you need one, you can’t find one.

Palm

Yes, there’s a Palm STORE in the Century City mall.  And it’s reminiscent of nothing so much as that old Scotch Tape store skit on SNL back in the day.  Is there really a need?  How many products ARE there?  Customers aren’t being satiated at the phone company stores?

Apple

Has replaced the record store.  Yes, there’s a buzz inside Apple’s retail establishments, a low level hum, like there used to be in the old indie record shops.  You’re never going to get this in Best Buy or Wal-Mart.  Didn’t the labels realize this?  It’s not always about getting your product in more places, it’s important what those places ARE!

There wasn’t a single soul messing with Apple TV, the just shipped product that every tech writer known to man reviewed last week.  I fucked with it.  It’s very cool.  Operation is completely intuitive, and when you see the album covers from your iTunes library or the iTunes Store large on screen, it’ll take you aback.

Is Apple TV a failed product, like the Cube, or another AirPort Express?

Yes, the AirPort Express is a wonderful item, allowing you to throw your tunes to your stereo, but most people don’t know it exists.  Seems like Apple TV is the same for now.  Then again, maybe Apple TV is the iPod, only purchased by early adopters at first, and eventually a mainstream product that everybody wants.  If only the movie studios would loosen up and allow their products to be distributed legitimately online.

We used to pooh-pooh home theater.  But now there’s home theater in a box for a few hundred dollars and hi-def sets for under a grand.  The future eventually comes.  Will Apple rule it?  They’re trying, but as of now, the hoi polloi just haven’t gotten the message.

But they have gotten the message about Macs.  The darndest people are now buying Macs.  Credit the Intel chip inside.  Why not purchase a machine that can run both Windows and OS X?  Especially if you’re hooked on the iPod.  And people buy these Intel-based Macs and…suddenly they don’t find themselves using Windows anymore.

Still, except for Apple TV, I didn’t see or learn about anything new in the store.  Funny how shopping can be done more easily online, and they ship right to your door.  Credit Westfield for reconfiguring the Century City mall, but I almost never visit, and after today I’m not eager to go and hang out.  There’s no need.

Clothing

Is the goal in life to STOP wearing a suit?

While waiting for our table at Houston’s, I was alongside a twentysomething in a suit, who met another twentysomething in a suit.  Whereas everybody over the age of forty five was dressed down, casual.  Has the game lost its luster?  Hell, the techie/genius at Apple was wearing shorts.  And, if he went indie, he could probably make as much as his dressed up contemporary, there’s a need for tech-knowledgeable people, not only fixing people’s home networks, but creating sites like MySpace.  Now it seems you sell out temporarily until you can find a way to jettison your corporate gig, the bullshit, and be the real you, dressing like the real you.

Kow Kow (Calqulator?)

On "Brave New World", it’s just "Kow Kow", on the boxed set, it’s "Kow Kow Calqulator"

I did a podcast on "Brave New World".

Maybe if it had a better cover, the album would be seen as a classic.  But now, people seem to think the classic Steve Miller era is the one containing "Fly Like An Eagle", "Jet Airliner" and "Rockin’ Me".  I love those ditties, that burned up the chart.  But the truly classic Steve Miller period is the first!

He cut more songs than "Living In The U.S.A." and "The Joker".  Be sure to get "Sailor", with "Quicksilver Girl".  But my favorite is the third album, "Brave New World".

You drop the needle, you hear the explosion and then…

We’re traveling fast from a dream of the past to the brave new world

And that it was.  Steve’s mellifluous voice with a jaunty groove.  This was FANTASTIC!  How did I discover it?  From Paul Volberding, the music fan in the basement of the fraternity house on the University of Chicago campus.

And I love the second song, "Celebration Day", which follows the initial cut and sounds like something off of a homemade McCartney album, but it’s not my favorite song on the album.  That’s "Kow Kow".

There’s a blues lick that hooks you, and then, like a pebble dropping in a placid lake, there’s a keyboard and a bass and you’re enraptured.

What comes thereafter sounds like a picnic by this same lake.  Absent the bullshit of real life, the hype, the oppressive Top Forty radio.  Steve Miller was as important a part of the San Francisco scene as the Airplane and the Dead, listening to this you get it.  And when the song accelerates and gets heavy, after the dreamy "Turn on your love light break", you just want to ride away with the record.

Of course "Brave New World" contains "Space Cowboy", one of the great stoner tracks of all time, but it’s not the best track on side two.  I prefer "My Dark Hour", with the uncredited McCartney vocal.  But the track that IS better than the classic is the opener, "Seasons"…

This is the record that sold me on XM.  I heard it the very first day I had a radio in my car, on Deep Tracks.  What kind of service plays "Seasons"?  One that I have to subscribe to!

I postulate that many Steve Miller fans have never heard "Seasons".  And, if they had, if the music community was exposed to it, he’d garner newfound respect.

Stunningly, "Brave New World" sounds as fresh today as it did back in ’69, when it came out.  And few records do.  And it’s just as fulfilling a listen.

To hear more, go to Rhinocast -The Lefsetz Letter: Steve Miller Band and listen/download the podcast.  Or go to the iTunes Music Store and search on either "Rhino" or "Lefsetz" and subscribe.
 

Cryin’ To Be Heard

After I exited the parking structure, when the satellite could see the sky once again, I heard this on the Loft.

Oh, thereafter I heard a mediocre Arcade Fire track and a very good Death Cab cut on Ethel, but this Traffic song truly resonated.

Steve Winwood gets all the credit, but Dave Mason was in Traffic for a while too.  And it’s his presence that makes their second album the band’s best.

Forever "Cryin’ To Be Heard" was my favorite cut off the album.  It replaced my first favorite, the opener, "You Can All Join In".  But now, somehow, I like "Forty Thousand Headmen" best.  Remembering Steve play it during the "John Barleycorn" tour at the Fillmore, when he hesitated, just before singing the line about having to stop and reload, gives me shivers.

You won’t hear any of these three cuts on terrestrial radio.  And you won’t find any deep cuts like this on the FM band either.  And therefore, the big labels don’t sell stuff like this anymore, a shame.

Baby’s Callin’ Me Home

Yes, this was on one of those early Steve Miller albums too.  And that’s where I eventually found myself.  Thinking I wanted to write about the podcast, but thinking how being out had stimulated me.

Hi Bob!

I’m a regular reader of your email blogs & a music enthusiast who is not involved in the industry.

Here’s my curiosity (or pet peeve) which you might be able to expand upon:

Why does it take so damn long for a finished CD to go on sale? Listening to the radio via Internet these days, you will hear about Wilco’s new album which will be available on May 15th. That’s over 6 weeks away yet the album has already been distributed to the "industry" and the music pundits that you hear regularly on the NPR music shows have already been listening to it for a couple of weeks and are busy discussing it like a 10th grade high school student analyzing a scene from "Hamlet." The same goes for the last Lucinda Williams album which was being played on the radio about 2 months before it went on sale.

So what’s the deal? I can understand if there were physical constraints in manufacturing things and then distributing them to stores around the globe. But we live in the days of the digital download, high speed CD manufacturing, and Fed Ex. Nothing needs to take as long as it once did. Would love to get the real dope on why this archaic distribution method still rules the day and why we need to wait so damn long for music that is already in the can.

Jeffrey Zoldan
Discount Office Furniture
132 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Credibility: the quality of being trusted and believed in

New Oxford American Dictionary (via Apple OS X Tiger)

CREDIBLE

Oprah

She features it on her show, people buy it.  Not only James Blunt, but that inane "Secret" book.  Maybe because she struggles with her weight, or she swore off tabloid issues long before everybody else, or maybe because some truth slips in now and again, which she doesn’t apologize for, Oprah could be the most trusted public figure in America.

Tom Hanks

Still credible, but fading.

Eddie Vedder

I still remember that expose in "Rolling Stone", wherein they revealed him to be the star of his high school’s plays, one of the most popular kids on campus, undercutting his image as a pathetic loner.  But that didn’t seem to stick.  Pearl Jam took on TicketMaster, they don’t play the game, people still believe in the band, and their frontman.

Rick Rubin

Work with a has-been, it will do wonders for you.  It looked like Russell Simmons emerged from the Def Jam breakup with most of the credibility, but by working with has-beens like Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, Rick Rubin showed he was a fan of music, not just money, and people respect him.  They also respect his track record, and the fact that he’s not an endless hype machine.

Timbaland

Because he makes all the music.  But if he does any more boastful press, and makes his own record, he’s gonna lose people’s trust.

Jimmy Iovine

Despite Clive Davis getting most of the press, the hoi polloi respect Jimmy.  Because Jimmy never wears a suit, and is always seen as supporting the artist.

Google

Simple interface, you get the right answer immediately…what’s not to love?

Steve Jobs

Mostly because he creates insanely great products, but also because he seems to do whatever the fuck he wants, and that’s the ESSENCE of credibility, marching to the beat of your own drummer.

Vinyl

It’s retro, it’s old school, and it sounds better.

The Club

Not the one you dance in, but the one you hear live music in.  People want to be close, they want to FEEL the tunes.

Guitars

You can complain about drum machines, and bad synth programming, but no one ever bitches that there’s guitar.

Writing Your Own Material

You don’t need to do this to sell records, but you do need to do it to have credibility.  And credibility leads to longevity.

Hip-Hop

It’s become a cartoon.  Which is sad, because it used to be the true voice of the street.  Then again, the same thing happened to rock and roll.

Craig Ferguson

Yup, the doofus who ran Drew Carey’s department store.  There’s a buzz on this guy far eclipsing that on Conan.  People think he’s funny, and at the core, honest.  His refusal to beat up on a down and out Britney Spears cemented his position as one of us in the minds of his audience.  And it’s about owning an audience, and making fans feel like you could all hang together and have a drink, even if you don’t want to.

The Sopranos

Ratings are irrelevant.  It’s not about numbers, but acknowledgement.  The press says it’s the best TV drama ever.  The word has spread to the point where the public believes it.  Then again, who wouldn’t resonate with the honest depiction of family life against a Mob background.

iTunes

Not the store, the software.  Let’s say they wipe the DRM from the tracks…  People will STILL buy from the iTunes Music Store, because no other jukebox software performs as well, never mind synchs with the iPod.

Ian MacKaye

Either you know him or you don’t.  And that’s just the point.  He never jammed his name and music down your throat.

SoundScan

The numbers are extrapolated, but they’re seen as dead accurate not only by the business, but the public.

George Michael

Yes, the pot busts, never mind the sexual peccadilloes, have done wonders for his image.  If he’d only make some good music, the public would welcome him back with open arms.

Wikipedia

Now accepted as the gold standard, even though it’s not always accurate.

Mini

Is it the car, or the way it’s sold?  It’s built like shit, but fun to drive.  And when you buy one, you’re now a member of the club.  They say TV advertising is king.  Bah, humbug.  There’s more innovation in the selling of Minis than ANYTHING on Top Forty radio.

Ceine Dion

Seems incredible, I know.  But even the most dyed-in-the-wool rockers who’ve seen her Vegas show have testified.  She did it her way.  She got off the road, she sees her kid every day, that’s positively rock and roll.

Tool

They’re playing to the core, fuck everybody else.

NOT CREDIBLE

Starbucks

Sure, get a bunch of Paul McCartney CDs in the stores and a few will move based on impulse, but not because people believe the disc has got the Starbucks imprimatur, and that it’s good.  Starbucks sold too much crap under its name.  You might get positioning, but there’s no positive endorsement.

Scottt Weiland

Do enough drugs, and people stop paying attention.  The DeLeo brothers have more credibility than Scott.  And while I’m at it, Velvet Revolver has no credibility, and neither does Audioslave (maybe that’s why they broke up!)  No credibility and you get no longevity.

Justin Timberlake

Even Janet Jackson has more credibility.  At least she didn’t lie and apologize for the Super Bowl boobie fracas.  Sure, Justin never had much cred when he was a boy band star, but now he’s a guy who’s constantly playing the game.  Sure, people might like his music, but they don’t believe in HIM!

RIAA

Oh, people hate the organization for suing its customers.  But it’s got no credibility because it doesn’t own up to how you get music today.  Trying to sue people back to the nineties is not a way to get them to see your point and believe in you.

Yahoo

Is it a directory, a search engine, a..?

Lose your focus, lose your momentum on the Web, and you can never regain it.

Dell

It’s a box.  Hardware in an era when software triumphs.

Jay-Z

I know, I know, it’s a badge of honor for underclass blacks to sell out.  But at what point is it too much?  Jay-Z seems to have crossed that threshold.  And that’s one of the reasons his new album stiffed.  Maybe if he’d gone on Oprah…

TicketMaster

You know how people were so mad about the price of CDs that they didn’t care about stealing music?  There’s even MORE hatred of TicketMaster.  If there were any other way to get tickets, the public would stick it to TM.  TM needs some image rehabilitation.

The CD

Only seen as a means to rip, in an era where you can download.

Headset Mics

Even Garth Brooks, the progenitor, couldn’t pull it off.

The Rolling Stones

Perception is it’s only about the money.  And if people didn’t think Keith could die any minute, that this really COULD be the last tour, they wouldn’t go.

Heroin

Once Artie Lange picks up the habit, you know it’s passe.  Road musicians is one thing, but COMEDIANS?

Mel Karmazin

Oh, the Street is rooting for him, but no one believes he’s trustworthy, they’ve just made money on him before and hope to do so again.

Q, BlackJack and the Rest of the Me-Too Smart Phones

Smart phones are Treos or BlackBerries.  And maybe iPhones.
BlackBerries do e-mail best.  Treos are the best PDAs.  iPhones are in a league by themselves.  Why buy a lame competitor when you can purchase the real thing?

MTV & Rolling Stone

Two passe brands running on fumes.  They will never be able to compete online, because no one BELIEVES in them!

American Idol

But it’s not SUPPOSED to be credible.  People watch it because it’s a vapid train-wreck, with one honest conductor, Simon Cowell.

Paris Hilton

But she’s not selling credibility.  She’s an accident on the side of the freeway.  One staged by immigrants perpetuating insurance fraud.  Yes, she knows EXACTLY what she’s doing, and she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

The Next Big Thing From England

That’s a different marketplace.  Where there’s national radio and a hunger for the new and different.  Here, nobody’s paying attention.  And when the hype begins, we laugh.  Get the feeling that Amy Winehouse is the new Arctic Monkeys?

SNL

At least the news used to be funny.  Now with Tina Fey gone, even THAT’S bad.

Howard Stringer

How many jobs has it taken for his geniality to be revealed as a cover-up?  Sony lost its credibility when it entered the film business, and Sir Howard has not been able to bring the luster back.

Lexus

Best built car in the world, with no cachet.

Madonna

She used to want to press our buttons, now she just wants to stay famous.  Creepy.

Top Forty Radio

Not since the heyday of Cousin Brucie has Top Forty had credibility.  The jive deejays, the tight playlists, they don’t fit with today’s times.  If only they had a dash of Oprah…