They’re playing STADIUMS?

I’ve seen this band. Earthy, roots-based, completely different from what’s in the Spotify Top 50.

And it’s not like there’s any buzz. They haven’t had a radio hit in YEARS!

Welcome to the 2022 music business, which now resembles the movie business William Goldman wrote about…NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING!

For years we’re subjected to articles about the brilliance of Merck Mercuriadis and his Hipgnosis song empire. A masterstroke, perfect timing, and then the FT prints a takedown so severe that anybody paying attention is now aware the company has been unable to purchase new songs for a year! We keep reading that publishing is burgeoning, but…

It really all comes down to numbers. The investment versus the stock price. It’s all financial. That’s why everybody invested in it! Hipgnosis is not like the entertainment vanity investments of the past, rolling the dice in the hopes of making money but fully aware the odds are long…no, people expected a good, steady return from Hipgnosis.

When interest rates were low. And despite the ups and downs of the present stock market, having crashed just today, there are much better places to put your money than song publishing, unless you’re looking for a steady return for the long haul. Then again, no one can predict the lifespan of a song, however everybody on the inside does know that avenues of revenue keep increasing.

As for the charts?

Completely skewed by physical product. The biggest act of the year, of the past twenty months, is Morgan Wallen, but you see no “Vanity Fair” spread, he’s still toxic to the media intelligentsia, but the fans love him!

So back to the Lumineers…

They haven’t had a hit since 2012, their very first one, “Ho Hey,” nearly a novelty song that one would think would live and then die like the engine on a Blue Origin rocket.

Sure, there’s some success on Rock radio, but that’s like being big in Peoria… Who the hell knows? I mean who are the Luddites listening to rock radio? They’ve got no Sirius, they’ve got no Bluetooth, they really want to endure the formatted playlist and endless commercials?

Oh, that’s another thing I’ll tell you, everybody is number one somewhere. I know, because they e-mail me. Like I’m #1 in the banjo played in the bathroom category of advance orders on Amazon. Chart numbers have become ever more worthless.

Except for the Spotify Top 50, the true definition of what is listened to most in America. However, you don’t see the Lumineers featured therein, nothing like them, what is going on!

I mean the dinosaurs can sell tickets. And the WSJ told us that young acts can sell big venues, but they’re talking phenomena, like Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, most people can’t even name the two key members of the Lumineers, they’ve got no idea there are two key members, they’ve got no idea how many people are in the band!

But the promoter is Louis Messina.

Who believes in…

Work.

Who knows what keeps this septuagenarian going, it can’t be money, then again, everybody can use more money. And it’s not like there’s a public chart where he shines. Almost none of America knows who he is. But Louie has vision. He works with a small number of acts, and builds them up to huge numbers.

Of course there was George Strait, never mind all those decades back in Texas at Pace, but really the eye-opener was Kenny Chesney. This country bumpkin is selling out stadiums in the north?

And Taylor Swift would not be as big as she is without Louie.

And then Louie picked up Ed Sheeran after he opened for Swift. Louie told me about talking to Ed in the bus, closing him, in that folksy way he has with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Louie doesn’t push, he just lays it out there and you feel the magnetism, you’ve got to join forces.

And then there was Eric Church and…

It’s a juggernaut I tell you. BUT THE LUMINEERS?

Every other act Louie has worked with in the past decade or so had a slew of hits, but not the Lumineers.

Who are managed by Bernie Cahill. A man with a law degree and a friendly yet upscale demeanor. But my point here is he’s not known as a force of nature who burns up the phone lines, who instills fear, who trades favors to help build his act. This is not David Geffen, this is not old school. The Lumineers are more akin to Dave Matthews than a usual suspect.

And Coran Capshaw build the DMB into a monolith. But let’s not forget there were those VH1 hits…

And it’s not like the two Lumineers are poster boy youngsters. One is 39 and the other is 36. When the major labels specialize in promoting those just crossing the line of puberty. There’s no flash…THERE’S NOT EVEN ANY PAN!

Not that I knew the Lumineers were selling out stadiums until I read the latest “Pollstar,” which is thicker than the magazine has been in years.

You see everybody who’s ever worked with the Lumineers had to buy an ad, to ensure that they’d work with them again in the future!

But who put this all together?

You see it’s not the information in “Pollstar” which is so interesting, it’s the COMMITMENT! That’s what the movers and shakers look for, they want to know the act and its team are committed to breaking the artist and keeping them on top, they want to believe that the light is on somewhere, and it’s not at a Motel 6.

Then again, paying your dues, starting out at the bottom.

There’s an article by Roy Trakin talking about a TikTok connection on “Ophelia,” which made it all the way up to #66 when it was released back in 2016. Although it did go to #5 Rock, and I do remember hearing it on SiriusXM’s Spectrum, but…

But, “Ophelia” now has 800 million streams on Spotify. Maybe TikTok did help, it does have a more active user base than any terrestrial radio station.

And it’s not only “Ophelia,” the Lumineers have seven triple digit million tracks on Spotify. Not that anybody ever talks about them.

Isn’t that today’s law, stay in the game? God, I did hear the Lumineers mentioned once in the past month, but before that…IT WAS EONS!

What is going on?

IT’S A SEVENTIES STORY!

The act’s career arc is disconnected from the usual suspect outlets, it’s not about radio or TV, it’s about the band and its bond with its fans, who keep increasing in number.

But it’s really about the music. A type of music that gets almost no ink, no kudos… The only rock we hear about is the Foo Fighters, other than the legends, and the Foos are paint-by-number not for the ages but maybe the best in a very shallow pool.

How can we live in a hip-hop nation if the Lumineers are selling out stadiums?

Well hold your horses here, it was only two stadiums. One in their hometown of Denver but the other was in Chicago, James Bay was on the bill in the Windy City, but he’s not going to bring all those fans to Wrigley Field.

It was the Lumineers.

All the rules have been broken, there are no rules.

Except for one…

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!

And if you want to last, almost definitely you’re going to start small and grow. And you’ve got to play so many gigs that you learn how to put on a show, that’s more than a rote recitation of the record. And you’ve got to have a well-oiled machine behind you, not only Louie and Bernie but the band’s agent, Joe Atamian.

This is the opposite of everything we read about. Where it’s got to happen fast. And if you have a brain and it doesn’t, you give up and go to graduate school. Hell, play music and you could miss your entire twenties, maybe thirties, and never be able to catch up with those who were once your peers. It’s a walk into the wilderness.

We read all about social media marketing plans. All this stuff they say is necessary, how you have to promote yourself, but the Lumineers don’t do this.

And it doesn’t matter if you don’t like the Lumineers’ music, this is about those who do! We no longer live in a monoculture. Those who you like and those who you don’t like can live side by side in today’s world and their audiences may never intersect, or maybe they will.

Then again, those who go to see the Lumineers expect the show to be live, not on hard drive. They’re not looking for choreography, they are looking for energy, they’re looking for the music to set them free, to take them away from this crazy world we live in. And that’s harder to do than it appears. Because to truly succeed you’ve got to go against the grain in a me-too society.

Something is happening here. I just wanted to hip you to it.

“Blackstone-backed song rights machine suffers growing pains – Rapid expansion of Hipgnosis Songs Fund stalls as higher interest rates start to bite”: https://on.ft.com/3qCxqrg

“Look Out Boomers: The Next Generation of Arena Stars Is Coming – While the Stones and Springsteen show few signs of slowing down, newer and younger artists are selling out massive venues.”: https://on.wsj.com/3eOlS1f

Trailer: https://bit.ly/3U3ZQrH

The cast: https://bit.ly/3U2srh4

You’ve got to watch “Edge of the Earth” on HBO. It’s produced by Teton Gravity Research, which made its bones in the ski world, but that was a reason I was going to skip it, I mean I’ve seen so many of their productions.

But nothing like this.

There are four episodes. It’s not a huge commitment. And to be honest, I haven’t even seen the fourth one, about surfing, I keep up on the water sport, I read that Kai Lenny story in the “New Yorker”: 

“Kai Lenny Surfs the Unsurfable – The big wave surfer tackles some of the most fearsome swells on the planet. On the surface, it looks like he’s just having fun”: https://bit.ly/3BcdfoO

The article is written by William Finnegan, who wrote 2015’s “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life”: https://amzn.to/3xhHUjz This is a cult book, albeit a large cult, the printed word equivalent of “Endless Summer,” and if you’ve ever been in the water you’ll dig it.

And the first story is a skiing one. Featuring Jeremy Jones and company in Alaska. This is very cool, primarily because I’ve been there, it’s so forbidding. And snowboarder Jeremy Jones is doing god’s work, he’s had his own climate change lobbying group, Protect Our Winters, for years: https://protectourwinters.org

But it’s the second episode that will have your eyes truly bugging out. Kayaking a never before navigated stretch of river in the Ecuadorian jungle. You truly start to get scared.

But not quite as scared as you will be watching that woman solo climb that peak in Kyrgyzstan. I mean the falling rock alone!

And wanting more of this, I decided to check out “Edge of the Unknown” on NatGeo, which I pay for via my Spectrum subscription.

Good luck getting my Roku to see it. I got in on my iPhone, but that screen’s too small, and once you’re in on your iPhone you can’t keep setting up the Roku… I gave up, end of story.

But in an outdoor mood, I switched to Outside TV, which I get via my “Ski” subscription. Long story, you pay extra for more articles and then they dropped all the physical issues but one and it’s a giant rip-off but you can watch Warren Miller movies, and I like the old ones, so I put in about a half hour, but then I was getting bummed, feeling so old, so I decided to go to Netflix, to check out what was going on.

I do this on a regular basis, on all the services, to check out their interfaces, to see what they’re promoting, and I was scrolling down and I saw…

“Indian Matchmaking.”

I knew there was a buzz on the first season, and having a second season means people watched it, and I doubted Felice wanted to view it, and since she was out of the house I dove in.

I was immediately hooked.

This is not the show you think it is. Arranged marriages. Rather, it’s the story of single Indians whose parents think they’re too old not to be married so they hire a matchmaker and…

What you’ve got to know is nobody is poor in this story. A small percentage are in India itself, most are in America, their parents have immigrated and…

There’s an hilarious story of a guy in Nashik, a few hours from Mumbai. NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE THERE!

But who’d want to live with this guy anyway. He loves chickens, all he talks about is chickens. His family makes equipment for farms. He’s got an American MBA, but no wife.

That’s another thing about the cast, you get the impression they all did what their parents told them to do. They’re not liberal arts majors, they’re not artists, they’re all professionals, in search of the big bucks. and other than the cardiologist, THEY’VE GOT NO SELF-KNOWLEDGE!

Let’s start with Nadia. She’s a babe. But emotionally stunted. An adolescent. The funny thing is they’ve all hired Auntie Seema, the matchmaker, who flies in from Mumbai, which everybody keeps calling “Bombay,” which flummoxed me, to get them a partner. So they haven’t figured out the relationship game and Nadia’s hooked up with the perfect guy, but she blows him off because he wasn’t physical enough with her. But then he says she told him from the start to go slow, to stay away!

Yes, the odds of any of these people hooking up…

And then Nadia goes for someone totally inappropriate, years younger, Auntie says no and…watch to see what happens.

And then there’s Viral, an only child in North Carolina. Who keeps telling us how successful she is. Flies all over the country for work, owns her own home, has no debt, and wants someone…

Exactly like her.

Now anybody who has ever been in a relationship knows that you don’t want someone exactly like yourself, it never works, but Viral is delusional. She lists so many criteria!

And then Auntie comes back with the matches’ “biodata,” a glorified Wikipedia page on each potential date. Viral’s complaint? She googled the guy and he didn’t look exactly like he did in his biodata photo. PICKY!

Oh, they’re all so picky, except for the aforementioned cardiologist, Arshneel, in Cleveland. He’s up for anything.

First date?

A woman in the Bay Area who works in finance. But she’s never ever been on a date with an Indian before, and Arshneel wears a turban, how is that going to work out?

And then Auntie hooks him up with this dentist in Chi-town and… She’s only been in America for a decade, so despite being cute and alive, will she blend in with his friends?

Shital is a babe. 38. With no prospects for marriage.

Like everybody else on this show, she wants it all. And, once again, no one could fit all her criteria.

And then there’s Vinesh in Miami. He’s a nice guy. His family is constantly cracking jokes, which bugs Auntie, but turns me on, I’d feel right at home, and…

He’s set up with a nurse from L.A. and…

Sure, there’s rejection and heartbreak, but there is some connection. And the most reasonable people are punted and…

The number one criterion is that the date get along with their intended’s family. Usually, that’s the first meeting, you’re thrown directly into the fire. But…

The Indians have something right here, getting along with the family is very important. Siblings talk about in-laws who will take them to appointments and… It’s much more than looks.

But everybody wants that too.

And then, interspersed throughout the series, you see people who’ve been married for a long time who got hitched via arranged marriages. Sometimes they only saw their spouse-to-be for five or fifteen minutes. AND THEY’RE ALL SO HAPPY! Maybe this is a selected group, but…

I forgot to mention Aparna!

Not a guy alive would want to be involved with this woman. Never mind no one being good enough for her.

Her friends are more broad-minded, especially Sophie…

Aparna grew up with Sophie in Houston. Sophie is Korean-American, but she moved to India and…she’s uber-into astrology.

They all are, it’s a key factor in determining compatibility!

And the face reader! I used to think I could judge a book by its cover, I found him fascinating.

And the one wedding was such a to-do, you’ve got to see it.

But really you’ve got to watch “Indian Matchmaking” to see the delusional yuppies who want to get married but really don’t. Auntie keeps telling them they can’t have 100%, that 60-70% is great, but they keep saying they’re entitled to have it all!

And no one is backing down, they defy Auntie all the time.

This ain’t a fake show, like the “Bachelorette,” rather it’s the story of America with an Indian twist. We work hard to lift ourselves up, and we emerge above and find out we’re alone, and too many people think they can find a spouse just like they got an “A” in the course. Like relationships are school.

Then again, they have so much to learn.

God, you know if you’re a candidate for this show, if you’re into GOT and “Lord of the Rings”…chances are this won’t be your cup of tea.

But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, it’s only about people. We’re all the same, looking for the same stuff. And it’s so interesting to watch other people fumble trying to figure it out.

I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON!

https://amzn.to/3xiW8AK

How much do you know about rap?

Unlike in the pre-internet era, it’s easy to ignore great swaths of music today. Many are hip-hop haters. Therefore they know nothing about the scene, never mind Atlanta and Lil Baby, but if they read this book…

Now there might be some people who read “Rap Capital” and know everything Joe Coscarelli is talking about, but there aren’t that many and I’m not sure they’re going to read this book anyway. You see “Rap Capital” is not a gossipy tell-all, rather it’s an in-depth analysis of the history of the Atlanta rap scene up until today. And more.

It starts off with an explanation of Atlanta. How there are different areas, all with their own names.

And then it tells you about the lives of Black people in Atlanta.

It’s not inner city a la metropoli like NYC, it’s not high-rise,  it’s more like L.A., as in single family dwellings. And some of them are where drugs are sold, these are called “trap” houses, i.e. “trap” music.

Atlanta is the epicenter of Black culture in America. Not that you’d know this if you don’t listen to hip-hop. Even if you follow politics, you’re thinking about all the white areas surrounding Hot Lanta. But this book is not about elections, it’s about cultural influence, and when it comes to hip-hop, it’s NYC, L.A. and Atlanta, and one can say that Hot Lanta leads.

So what is it like growing up in Atlanta?

Good chance you were raised without a father.

Good chance are you were involved in street crime from a young age. It’s not easy to fly straight. All the influences, and the need for MONEY! If you want money, you need to find your own way.

As for the traditional way… One of the rappers in the book talks about how many college graduates end up back in the hood with minimum wage jobs. You see it ain’t so easy to get out. So you make do with what you’ve got.

“Rap Capital” is the best explanation of street culture I’ve ever read. As in why do all these young Black men end up dealing drugs, end up being involved in crime. BECAUSE THERE’S VERY LITTLE OPPORTUNITY!

And the amount of money you can make…

I can’t get over the story of the dealer turned rapper showing up with 300k cash for his first video. You can make a ton of dough dealing, but you can also get caught and go to jail, and you can also get killed. Many do.

Die that is.

As for going to jail… It seems everybody has! You read about these rappers being in and out of jail, “Rap Capital” will give you an understanding of the landscape. It’s not like you’re an instant star, you’ve got to SURVIVE first!

And the interesting thing is so many of the rappers are crossover artists, from the street to the studio. Yes, drug dealers who have no interest in recording step up to the mic because the entrepreneurs behind the scene believe they have good tales to tell. Read “Rap Capital” and you’ll see hip-hop as primarily a storytelling medium.

Not that there aren’t some stupid lyrics. Then again, most of the acts have very brief careers. And you can be a star in Atlanta only, via mixtapes. You either know all the hits, or you’re oblivious. It’s a culture.

Reading “Rap Capital” you can see why rock is dead. Rock used to be somewhat similar, as in there was a scene, which bubbled up from the streets. Sure, everybody wanted to have their say and get rich, but you didn’t start at the top but the bottom, you had to impress your peers first. And believe me, no one is hanging on the words of the latest rock act these days.

Rap is the way out.

And its stories appeal to not only the Black community, but the white.

And there’s an unbelievable amount of money to be made. Lil Yachty made double digit millions in eighteen months. You see recordings are only the beginning, the jumping off point. Sure, it’s great if you can gain notice and make money from streaming, but the real cash is in public appearances, and sponsorships and… If it can be monetized, they’re interested. The credibility comes from escaping the streets. Ripping off the establishment is the goal, whereas rock became the establishment!

And you’ve got to work unbelievably hard, around the clock.

And they’re recording ad infinitum. It’s not like they’ve got ten tracks demoed and they go into the studio with a producer. They carry around hard drives, see a studio and go in and rap for a few hours and the end product might never see the light of day. They’re honing their chops, unlike so many on the white side of the business.

And the real star is Coach K. Who I first heard about from Steve Barnett, when he ran Capitol. He hipped me to his power. You align with a power player…

And you don’t always succeed.

Lil Reek gets a deal with Republic, releases a single that doesn’t make it and is dropped and goes back to the streets, and it’s hard to ignore the streets, there’s so much money to be made. AND RESPECT!

And like I said, there is history. The gang that ran Detroit and Miami infiltrates Atlanta. How many people are in the Atlanta police gang department? SIX! That ultimately changes and the gang is busted but before that there is a string of strip clubs where records are broken and…

This is a foreign world.

But it’s impacting the entire world.

Read “Rap Capital as anthropology. Irrelevant of the acts and how successful they end up being.

You’re making your own way. Your goal is to find a way to be rich without being on the street.

And don’t get the idea that these rappers are fungible, the story is the successful ones are uber intelligent.

And unlike rock, rap understands the street. When to flood the marketplace with product and when to hold back.

Coscarelli spent four years reporting this story and you feel like you’re embedded in Hot Lanta when you read it. You can feel the streets. You get an idea of how the tracks are made and what makes them successful.

As for the mansions and automobiles… THEY’RE MAKING THAT MUCH MONEY!

Can you make as much money as a professional athlete does?

Probably not, then again the athletes are investing in hip-hop. It’s all intertwined. Like I said, it’s cultural.

As for the major labels… They come last. They skim the cream. And they’re not always necessary. Deals are made when they’re financially right. This is a street phenomenon. And if you’re successful, you end up with your own label.

It’s fast cars and fast money and if you’ve always been scared of the inner city, of Black people, of rap, you should check this out. You’ll know so much more when you do.

The reporting is exhaustive. But only by going to the micro level can you fathom people’s hopes and dreams and their experiences. What it’s like to grow up poor and want more, with the white man wanting to keep you in jail, at least on probation, when the only way you can make bank is to be on the streets…

In truth, not everybody will finish this book. Because it is so detailed. But if you do, you’ll be one step ahead of everybody else. You’ll know what is truly going on. Maybe even more than those who profess to be hip-hop experts.

You’ll be dining out on the book for a week. Telling all the incredible stories to your friends.

Atlanta is hiding in plain sight, still most people don’t see it. But if you read “Rap Capital,” you will.

New day, new time, new channel!

Tune in tomorrow, Saturday September 10th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.