Has anybody listened to the music?

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, this is the biggest controversy in the music business, is Velvet Sundown a fake band whose music is created by AI?

I won’t drag you through the litany of stories but I will say that at this point it appears so. Now that the media is on the “band”‘s trail there have been denials and obfuscation. And tweeting from an account that is not the band’s own.

So the story is very sexy. After all, isn’t AI the devil?

But if you listen to the music, it’s the antithesis of what the major labels are selling, it’s even different from conventional Active Rock, it sounds like nothing so much as seventies and eighties rock and roll, which major purveyors have decided no longer has mainstream appeal, even though it dominates the country charts.

But country has twangy vocals and banal, inoffensive lyrics, no self-respecting air guitar player is going to cotton to today’s country.

But Velvet Sundown?

There is nothing original about these songs, NOTHING in genre, but in terms of song construction, this is new stuff, and although it is not tearing up the streaming charts it does have a presence, people are listening to the Velvet Sundown, or are they?

Certainly no one writing about the band seems to be, they’re caught up in the discussion of AI. But if you pull up the music you will not want to immediately turn it off, it’s not like nails on a chalkboard, the singer can…actually sing, which is more than I can say for many acts plying the boards today. And the band can play. Right now I’m listening to an instrumental and I won’t say the playing is in the league of Jeff Beck, but it is catchy:

“Interlude”: https://open.spotify.com/track/5nKHziy9tcaFzLEuowQ9KX?si=77daa7ff02a1493e

So how was this music created? Obviously by scraping the greatest hits of all time. If you’re looking for something that pushes the envelope, Velvet Sundown is not it. But if you’re looking for something to tap your toe to, to put you in a mood, Velvet Sundown does the job, certainly better than any TV vocal competition.

I’m all for AI companies paying for use of original recordings. The courts are deciding whether they can scrape the music for free. Last week’s Anthropic decision said that if books are purchased, they can utilize them to train their models, if not… So, basically, that’s the same thing. They’ve got to pay. But expect more clarifying decisions to come. And certainly, if you’re making new Beatles or Beach Boys or whomever tracks you’ve got to pay a fee, but if you’re creating Velvet Sundown?

Yes, we are competing against the robots, but don’t be scared. You can beat them, you’ve just got to be original, which is too tough for many in this me-too world. Otherwise, the public is going to vote with their ears. As for me, I don’t need to hear Velvet Sundown, but I’d rather listen to their numbers than so much of the paint-by-numbers Spotify Top 50.

Now if you actually take the time to listen to this stuff, which most bloviators won’t, many of you will blow back. I’ll hear from the musicians, who’ve spent years honing their skills. And the hip-hop and punk fans will puke all over their keyboards. But this sound used to DOMINATE the airwaves, give credit to the creators of Velvet Sundown for delving into an untapped market, which is what all innovators/disrupters/those who want to make bread do.

Why is everybody such a Luddite? Why is everybody so afraid of the future? AI is here, it’s a tool. As for restricting it, the Chinese are not going to, so we probably shouldn’t.

And AI doesn’t create willy-nilly, you have to prompt it.

Listen to Velvet Sundown’s “Dust and Silence,” let it play, see what you think.

Or check out their previous album, “Floating on Echoes,” whose “Dust on the Wind has 562,897 streams…or does it?

And everybody does not know.

If everybody in the U.S. watched Sunday night’s John Oliver show, the Big Beautiful Bill would be dead on arrival.

But almost no one does.

In case you’re not a viewer of this HBO institution, once or twice a season John Oliver pulls a stunt. Recently, he offered to rebrand and market a minor league baseball team. Sunday they announced the winner. And the team took a camera into the dugout to get the players’ reactions. NO ONE WATCHES JOHN OLIVER, ONLY ONE PERSON HAD EVEN HEARD OF HIM, AND EVEN HE WASN’T SURE HE KNEW WHO HE WAS!

Now let’s get this straight. John Oliver has a show on HBO every Sunday night, which can be pulled up on demand.

But it gets better, the show is subsequently posted on YouTube, where you can watch it for free, and still “Last Week Tonight” has minimal impact.

You should watch last night’s episode here:

You’ll find it impossible to poke holes in what it says, because unlike the bloviators on social media who shoot from the hip, “Last Week Tonight” is meticulously fact-checked, for fear it will get sued. Warner Bros. Discovery has got deep pockets, and the Trump administration has sued many media companies.

The arguments are very convincing, the truth is self-evident, but it doesn’t make a difference, BECAUSE ALMOST NO ONE HAS SEEN IT!

It’s not like John Oliver and “Last Week Tonight” are unknown quantities, the show has won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series EIGHT TIMES STRAIGHT! But still, it’s just a drop in the bucket of the endless miasma we call the modern world of information.

Now in the old days, there were only three networks, all of which reached tens of millions of people and if something was said, it penetrated the entire public. Forget that the news was more accurate back then, because of the Fairness Doctrine and the fear of lawsuits, everybody started from the same point, with the same facts, that ship sailed decades ago with Fox News and it’s far worse today.

But this is not solely about politics, this is much broader, this is about all news, especially entertainment!

If John Oliver can’t reach the majority of Americans, nowhere close, what are the odds that your little ditty in the Spotify Top 50 has nationwide penetration? NIL! But the record companies and the media keep telling us these streaming hits are ubiquitous, when nothing could be further from the truth.

As for appearances on radio and TV… Talk about narrowcasting.

John Oliver exists in his own world. He’s got no casual viewers, you either buy into his show or you don’t, there’s a plethora of alternatives, no one watches a show they don’t want to anymore and no one listens to a record they don’t want to anymore. But the machine keeps operating like they do!

Never mind not every person loves every record. That’s what we learned with cable and then streaming TV. Those network shows with astronomical ratings? Once people had options, they stopped watching those shows, their ratings cratered, their ratings were only high because viewers had no other choices.

Look at how much content Netflix makes. What are major labels doing? Putting out fewer records in fewer genres. They’re not throwing anything against the wall, they are not interested in niches, they’re interested in broad, and there is an appeal for that but the niches added up far exceed what the theoretically broad does.

As for ones and twos… This is how an industry gets disrupted. A business is crude and generates little income, then it grows and kills you. This is why the major labels buying all the indie distributors is so scary, they want to eliminate this possibility of competition, this is why IMPALA is agitating to stop Universal’s acquisition of Downtown, but even this purchase is unknown by many, because of the John Oliver problem.

But if you are selling, if you are marketing, just know that your product/message reaches a small sliver of people, don’t delude yourself otherwise. If your economics depend upon reaching everybody, give up, the economics must work with small numbers. You’ve got to readjust your vision, but despite saying how hip they are, the major labels as well as the movie studios are still executing on the same paradigm they employed in the pre-internet era, badly. If it weren’t for their catalogs/libraries, they’d be out of business.

I mean if a show on HBO every Sunday night can’t even reach most people, what are the odds your product/message will?

We’re never going back to the old days, this is the world we now live in. Endless niches. But no one in entertainment or politics or media is willing to admit this. They’re all playing by the old rules, because it’s too scary to operate in this new world. But the public is already living in this new world, and it must be catered to if you want success.

Netflix makes shows for everyone.

Universal, Sony and Warner make records for very few.

Think about that, they’re ceding so much of the market whilst telling us they dominate, which is patently untrue. Never mind all the people who would become customers if they were just catered to.

Once again, everybody is not going to like everything, and in every field today there are zillions of options, so you’d better give them to people, or else the joke is on you.

The people want change.

That’s been the story of the past three decades, rapid upheaval, great leaps forward with some getting ahead and some left behind and those on the left want to deny it as much as those on the right want to rewrite the history of the sixties.

So now we’ve got overanalysis of Mamdani’s victory. The Democratic party and the media are deep in the weeds, meanwhile the right is salivating, believing the left…has moved too far left. But they are wrong. The left finally have a candidate who looks like them, thinks like them and acts like them.

We live in a multiracial world. Which was established by MTV, the dominant cultural outlet which put people of color into homes around the globe and made rappers icons. But we’ve got old people who want to deny this. They believe in the old tropes. They’re stunned that Black men voted for Trump. Just because they were Democrats before? Can’t they see that times change?

Like this endless excoriation of smartphones and social media. Sounds like nothing so much as our parents calling the television the idiot box, imploring us to turn it off and go outside.

Forget that no one goes outside anymore, inside being too exciting, but the idiot box is no longer such, it’s where the best visual entertainment lives. But you’ve still got the oldsters talking about the movies, which have been dying. What next, bringing back the iPod?

If you’re a young person… Your parents want to dress like you, act like you, but it’s all exterior, they didn’t get the memo, they’re not in the flow. They don’t go to school and get hip to trends, they’re out of the loop. But you can’t tell them so.

Meanwhile, we heard from the Democrats over and over again to send them money so they could advertise Kamala on TV. Who exactly is watching TV, with commercials no less, the ancient set in their beliefs who vote in greater proportions anyway? AOC told the party back in 2022 to stop advertising on TV and to give her all the money so she could reach the public online, which is how she won. What did they say in return? STFU! They’ve been running from AOC since she got elected. But one thing is for sure, when you watch and listen to AOC…you see a young, educated person who is unfiltered, who doesn’t hesitate before she speaks, fearful of alienating some donor or special interest group.

The younger generation has tuned out of politics. And when they get a toehold, they get squeezed out. Look at David Hogg, saying he was going to primary old people. THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE! These old farts didn’t grow up digitally native and are clueless as to what is really going on in these United States, time to turn the page.

Oh, don’t talk to me about Mamdani’s platform… It’ simple, he was speaking to the issues that resonate with the youth. How in the hell are you going to live in New York City if you’re not rich? All we hear about is the Met Gala, the entitled. As for the Met Gala, Anna Wintour is stepping down from “Vogue” and almost all of the Condé Nast titles have folded. You know what is keeping the company alive? ITS INVESTMENT IN REDDIT! Which oldsters never use. I have never had a single person over sixty tell me they saw something on Reddit.

Oh, don’t tell  me you’re on the service. If you do, you’re part of the problem. Everybody nitpicking, wanting acknowledgement that they’re different. If you are doing this you’re as narcissistic as the titans running this country. You’re not interested in the common good, you’re interested in personal aggrandizement.

As for Mamdani and the Jews… What we’ve learned is this is no longer a litmus test. Which is what we learned a decade ago with Trump, as in you can be divorced and use profanity and the public shrugs. People want that which reflects their reality, which the Democrats have had a hard time putting forth.

You can dig deep into Mamdani’s success and come up with some cockamamie theories, but you’d be missing the point. The point is this guy is young and fresh and representative of the culture he comes from. The boomers are afraid of Muslims, not the average youngster on the street. And I’ve got an issue regarding some things he said about Israel, but I’m not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Everything with the Democrats is a purity test, you’ve got to agree with everything or you’re excommunicated. Trans kids must be able to play in women’s sports. Kamala lost because of racism. Men can have babies… Where is common sense? Got to give Gavin Newsom credit, he’s tuned into the new reality and has pivoted on a dime. He complained about meetings starting with the announcement of everybody’s pronouns. Talk about giving the opposition ammunition.

But I don’t want to make this about 2028 or 2026. That’s what the chattering classes do, plug the new reality into an old form. The issue isn’t elections in the future, it’s about authoritarianism today. How are we going to fight it? Well, elected officials have done almost nothing, it all comes down to the people.

Karen Bass did not tell the public to protest against ICE in downtown L.A., rather people reached their boiling point and took action. And this works both ways. Hell, the Republicans were going to sell public land in the west and then their constituents went wild, REPUBLICAN CONSTITUENTS! At least they listened to the public and pivoted, the Democratic elite don’t listen and don’t pivot.

As for Andrew Cuomo… He has the experience, but… He didn’t lose because of the sex scandal, he lost because he’s 67 years old and ran a campaign no different from the ones run by his father back in the last century.

Every business, every walk of life has to be reoriented towards the young. They’ve been disillusioned, but they were motivated to come out to give the finger to the man in this primary.

All corporations… I’m not in favor or mandatory retirement ages, but can we get rid of the dead wood and get new perspectives? Look at entertainment… The major labels are run by the old and out of touch. The movie studios too. They’ve adapted poorly to the modern era. The labels keep reducing headcount while they’re categorically unable to break an act. The studios are flummoxed that we’d rather stay at home and watch streaming TV than pay too much to see an overpriced piece of dreck in a theatre. The studios are like the purveyors of vinyl, believing it’s truly coming back and will dominate. The percentage of music consumption that vinyl represents is TINY! Nearly infinitesimal! But every story tells us how it’s burgeoning and everybody is into it when in truth most of the younger generation buys discs as souvenirs, they barely listen to them. If vinyl was such a big thing the stereo/audio business would be burgeoning, but it’s not!

I won’t say everything you read in the paper is wrong, but they play a game established long ago. When all the action happens quickly online. It’s hard to win in the modern era if you’re out of touch. But the oldsters refuse to change, it’s anathema.

Is Mamdani ready to run New York? Almost no one has been able to do it, so I’m not confident, but we’re ready for a fresh take, even if he has to learn on the job.

This is not Trump. Trump was about people sick and tired of the status quo. That’s a factor in the Mamdani victory, but the real story is his AGE! People want government by people who look like them act/like them and have the same background/influences.

Change can happen in an instant.

It just did.

Expect more.

Start with the youth and what they’re into. And stop criticizing, just learn.

As I always say…my inbox is full of old people hating on TikTok, and in response I continually ask one simple question, ARE YOU ON IT? And to a person, they always say no.

And that’s all you have to know.

Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/13JONCNdFs29FCFylgC0ou?si=3f0f2b8c90ab4577

1

The first Split Enz album I bought was their very first, “Mental Notes.” I found it in the promo bin at Rhino Records in Westwood. I’d heard of the band, but I ultimately didn’t like it.

But that was the nature of promo records. They cost half or two-thirds the price and you took a risk, you never knew what might be good. I remember purchasing a promo of Alan Parsons’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination,” loving it and buying more copies for more people. That’s an album that’s been lost to the sands of time, but the first side is incredible, the best work Alan Parsons ever did. He brought Arthur Brown back from the dead, and “The Tell-Tale Heart” was not the equal of “Fire,” but it was pretty damn good. And looking at the track listing I now know I have to mention every cut on that first side, except for the brief opening instrumental, “A Dream Within a Dream.”

Parsons himself and Leonard Whiting share vocals on “The Raven.” NEVERMORE! They don’t make records like this anymore, they take money and time and most people have neither. These were professional productions, not something you could replicate in your bedroom, even to this day.

“The Raven” built and built, but “The Cask of Amontillado” was softer and less intense. And featured John Miles as the vocalist. I ended up buying two of his albums as a result, can’t say they were great and now Miles is dead. He had a moment in the U.K., but never meant anything in the U.S.

But the most accessible cut on “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” is “(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather,” which closes the first side and also features Miles as vocalist. It was a perfect fit for the AOR radio of the day but was not played because the album came out on the completely lame 20th Century Records, which didn’t have the muscle to squeeze it on to the airwaves. Then again, the previous year the label had a hit with Ambrosia’s “Holdin’ On to Yesterday,” but that track was undeniable, you only had to hear it once. You should check out Ambrosia’s debut, it was much more edgy and innovative than the ultimate Warner Brothers records that have been placed in the soft rock bin.

But I paid full price for “True Colours,” Split Enz’s A&M breakthrough, the album in which Neil Finn emerged from the shadow of his older brother Tim and made a dent on the American airwaves with “I Got You.” I won’t say you only had to hear it once, but that’s close. And KROQ played it, that’s how I got turned on to the record, before the Pasadena outlet became the Roq of the 80s and the playlist was tightened dramatically and it was new wave 24/7. Before that KROQ was the last free format rock station in Los Angeles. KMET and KLOS were playing the meat and potatoes hits, KROQ was playing stuff that was not tied to the past yet was oftentimes better than the more famous stuff, like Split Enz.

Now “True Colours” was not a commercial smash, but more of a cult item. And one of the marketing hooks was that the vinyl itself was etched into a pattern via laser. It really was. If you just tilted the album at an angle you could see it… Otherwise it looked like the record has been mishandled by someone who didn’t respect the music, with scratches.

And “True Colours” is the best work Split Enz ever did. It’s two tracks on the second side that seal the deal, Neil Finn’s “Missing Person” and Tim Finn’s ethereal “Poor Boy.” I saw the band at the Whisky, back when bands played their initial gigs there, even if their albums were on the radio, seemingly everybody started there, I saw not only Split Enz but Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson…all before they broke wide, although the latter two broke much wider than the Enz.

So now with the momentum of “True Colours” under their belt, Split Enz released the follow-up “Waiata” to a good amount of press, there was eager anticipation, but expectations were not quite met. This was still the hodgepodge of Tim and Neil tracks, ultimately Neil had to break away and form the trio Crowded House to truly break through to mass success. However, there are a couple of great song on “Waiata,” both Neil Finn’s.

2

Now the album started out with “Hard Act to Follow,” a typically raucous Tim Finn number. It was good, but fast and chaotic, reinforcing the band’s reputation as whirling dervishes, exhibiting sped-up intensity live and on record. “History Never Repeats” was also relatively speedy, but it was not edgy, and Neil’s vocal is more mellifluous.

“History never repeats

I tell myself before I go to sleep”

This song started going through my head while watching the Hitler documentary, thinking how we’re doomed to repeat the past, thinking today everything is different when usually it is not, people don’t change, despite all the technological advances.

But “History Never Repeats” is personal, it’s about a girl.

“There was a girl I used to know

She dealt my love a savage blow

I was so young, too blind to see

But anyway that’s history”

Now, more than ever, we’re used to bombast. Men are considered to be loud and untrustworthy. And there are certainly some like that, but there are many who are introspective and sensitive and they bought records like this and resonated.

It’s hard to get over a breakup, especially when it wasn’t your choice, and it’s never mutual, no matter what anybody tells you. So you lie with your head on the pillow in the dark, unable to fall asleep, running scenarios through your head, both past and future, hoping that what’s coming down the pike is different, and better, and that the problem is not you.

“Deep in the night it’s all so clear

I lie awake with great ideas

Lurking about in no-man’s land

I think at last I understand”

I’m not saying you don’t get insights alone in the dark, but taking action is quite another thing.

“You say I always play the fool

I can’t go on if that’s the rule

Better to jump than hesitate

I need a change and I can’t wait”

It’s all about jumping, doing, and I know it’s a cliché, but that’s the hardest part and most people can’t do it, they can’t take a risk, they sit on the sideline waiting for something to happen to them, and sometimes something does, but usually not, and you’ve got no choice in the matter.

But you try to stay optimistic, after all, history doesn’t repeat, right?

The singer keeps trying to convince himself in this tear of a number, so fast and energetic that it amps you up and squeezes out your doubts.

But, unfortunately, although attitude helps, history definitely repeats.

3

But my mind only focused on “History Never Repeats for a short while, then it switched to “One Step Ahead,” the best song on “Waiata.”

I’m going to get into the lyrics, but really “One Step Ahead” is all about feel. Like the tracks from “Tales of Mystery and Imagination,” “One Step Ahead” exists in its own universe, so many of our favorite tracks back then did. That’s one of the reasons we admired the musicians so, how did they come up with this stuff that fed ourselves back to us while at the same time pushing past limits and teaching us lessons? “One Step Ahead” could never be a hit on the Top Forty, but it’s better than almost all of them. The record creates a private universe that you are privy to. You’re peering into Neil Finn’s brain as well as his relationship. But what puts the track over the top is the changes, when it goes up from the first verse to the second there’s a layer of intensity as well as gravitas added.

“One step ahead of you

Stay in motion, keep an open mind

Love is a race won by two

Your emotion, my solitude”

He’s afraid to slow down, to stop, he’s got a further destination in his mind’s eye, things are pretty good now, but what lies over the horizon?

And then there’s that modulation up and…

“If I stop, I could lose my head

So I’m losing you instead

Either way I’m confused

You slow me down, what can I do

There’s one particular way I have to choose”

People have no idea of the drive, the commitment it takes to be successful, not a single hit here or there, but a career. Not famous for nothing, not an influencer, but an artist. Your art has to come first and those surrounding you can’t understand your drive, your state of mind.

“One step ahead of you

Always someone makes it hard to move

She says ‘Boy I want you to stay’

But I save it all for another day

He understands where she’s at, he’s calm, he knows what’s going on, but, the song modulates up again and…

“If I stop I could lose my head

But I’m ready for romance

Either way I’m confused

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do

I can only stay one step ahead of you”

It’s not like he wants to be alone, he wants romance, to what degree he desires intimacy is unclear, but we know he likes what he’s got but he’s afraid if he slows down it will hurt him in his pursuit of his personal destination and as good as this is, is there something better in the future?

And then the song quiets down, almost becomes downbeat, certainly introspective, with a section of “Da, da, da, da.” This is his personal contemplation of the future, he’s flummoxed, he’s afraid to give it all up for what’s behind curtain number three, and there may not be a curtain at all!

And then this denouement is trashed, thrown aside, and the intense emotionality is back.

“Stop, I confess sometimes

I don’t know where I’m going

Part of me stays with you”

The future is obscure, this is not like working for the man, being a doctor or a lawyer, you’re making it up as you go, by the seat of your pants, and there are no guarantees, but if you stop now you’ll regret it forever.

“I’m slowing down, what can I do

It’s hard to stay one step ahead of you”

The more he talks, the more he tells his story, the less he can stay separate, ahead of her, he’s becoming enmeshed and he knows this will make it harder to stay one step ahead and move on. There’s so much good where he is, but the future calls out.

“One step ahead of you

Time is running out, catching up with you”

She’s not going to be open forever, it’s now or never.

“One step ahead of you

When I hold you close can I really lose”

That’s the question, is this as good as it’s going to get? And even if there’s something potentially better out there, this is real and feels good and maybe it’s not worth the risk.

And then there’s the closer.

“One step ahead

Only one step ahead

She’s one step ahead of you”

This is a record, this is oblique, songs are open to interpretation, but I think Neil is singing about a future woman, who is one step ahead of him, he’s in control of the situation now, but in the future will the roles be reversed and will he not be able to catch up with her?

This is not a simple ditty. Nor is it belabored. Sure, “One Step Ahead” has elements of heaviness, but there are no flashing lights imploring you to pay attention, rather it’s some guy who’s in a band from New Zealand telling his story, honestly, and it’s the combination of words, vocal and music that draws you in. There’s magic in this track, and it’s always one step away, Neil is not only one step ahead of the woman, but he’s one step ahead of you, our greatest artists always were and still are, they’re looking inside and to the future, just like the singer in this song, and all we know is we’re all-in, we’re not jumping from this ship, no matter how leaky the boat might get, we need more. And we get it two LPs later with “Message to My Girl”:

“I don’t want to say ‘I love you’

That would give away too much

It’s hip to be detached and precious”

That’s the image of men in society, be wary, they’re hard to tie down, hard to get to commit, they might kick you to the curb.

But as good as it is, as honest as he is, as into it as he is, as unencumbered by inhibition he is, the roles are now reversed, he’s the one bucking up, trying to rationalize his position, saying he won’t get wrapped up in her tomb, but the reality is…

“No, I don’t care, I don’t care why you’ve gone now”

But he does. He can’t forget her. She haunts his dreams. This is his message to the girl he hopes is listening but has moved on and is probably not.

It hurts.