The Importance of dream hampton's QueenS video
This article dissects and lays bear exactly how I feel about this video. Thank you Sara Bivigou for your eloquence!
yes.
ONE MORE YEAR: Should we support musicians?
This is the question posed and ignorantly responded to by self-proclaimed music expert, Michael Mann in his article, “Boo hoo, broke bands, quit asking for charity” for Vancouver’s Georgia Straight, April 11th:
Stop trying to get me to fund your fucking album with a Kickstarter campaign. Same…
New video for THEESatisfaction’s single “QueenS” directed by dream hampton. If you don’t know her about her writing or her filmmaking, you can find out more here. You can hear Dream talk about women and hip hop at the Manifest 2011 conference in the following videos.
new jam… Game, Blouses
HIT SO HARD (dir: P. David Ebersole)
Cast: Patty Schemel, Courtney Love Cobain, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur, Roddy Bottum, Nina Gordon, Kate Schellenbach, Gina Schock, Debbi Peterson, Sarah Vowell
Plot: As the acclaimed drummer of Courtney Love’s seminal rock band Hole, Patty Schemel was right in the middle of all of it. The openly gay woman who always felt “different” never dreamed she would be part of a multi-platinum selling band, touring with legends, or on the cover of Rolling Stone. Or that, thanks to drug addiction, she could lose it all. HIT SO HARD tells the story of Patty’s rise to fame (and nearly fatal fall from it), with no punches pulled… and it’s one hell of a story.
Azealia Banks signs to Lady Gaga's management
She’s already signed to Interscope like Lady Gaga, but I didn’t see her taking on the same management.
Azealia Banks has also signed with Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, the man once said to make 95 percent of Gaga’s business decisions yet only influence 5 percent of her creative choices.
I’m surprised she’d even go with a manager AT ALL considering her previous ordeal with XL Recordings (the label dropped her some months ago).
“As soon as I started putting out tracks I was getting attention. Diplo kept talking about me, and that’s when XL hit me up. They flew me out to London, and the original idea was to have me work with [label founder] Richard Russell, and I got signed to this development deal. Richard was cool, but as soon as I didn’t want to use his beats, it got real sour. He wound up calling me ‘amateur’ and shit, and the XL interns started talking shit about me. It just got real fucking funny. I was like, ‘I didn’t come here for a date. I came here to cut some fucking records.’ I got turned off on the music industry and disappeared for a bit. I went into a bit of a depression.”
Oh well, as long as she’s still the one calling the shots. Hopefully, she won’t turn into this cute little Foucault meme:
Andrea Mary Marshall, Vague Cover: Grace Jones
Give Diane Cluck Money And She Will Write Many Many Songs
Well lookie here: it has finally come to this. This is the way musicians are funding themselves now - sign of the times. My manager thinks this way of self-funding isn’t “classy” enough for her liking. Then again, she’s French and they have major class-issues when it comes to a musician’s visibility and public image. Diane Cluck is American and she’s a truly independent artist and she doesn’t care about the way her status as a musician is presented. She cares about making music and making it better and more frequently because she’s a musician.
What fascinates me most about People are working even harder and while they’re probably acquiring less financial gain, they *are* gaining a wider set of skills. Writing a song per week is no small feat. I really hope this project gets the funding it needs to get going. Maybe getting grants from your fans is the most humble and satisfying way to get your musical project where you want it to be. Maybe that humility is what makes you a better musician and songwriter in the first place.
The (blue collar) Black Keys vs. (upper crust) Indie rockers
Even though it made us talk about Nickelback again, recent comments made by the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney gave us something to think about with regards to class and the music we listen to and also class in relation to the music that is produced and publicized. Interesting article from the avclub.
So what now, Lana del Rey?
The internet exploded with spiteful commentary on Lana del Rey’s less-than-polished SNL performance this past weekend. Honestly, I don’t think it was her singing that was that bad as the general singing level for best selling artists has been sub par for quite some time. However, her stage presence is what shocked me most. From last year’s performance on Jools Holland:
to this past weekend on SNL:
There’s just no evolution in her stage presence. She’s still pretty awkward which makes it difficult for her to be as generous as you wish she could be. She lacks the spark, the zing, the thing that leaves you glued to the screen when you see old footage of Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Deborah Harry and Stevie Nicks of yore or the Lykke Li, Azealia Banks and Tune-Yards of today. And I’m not sure you can buy charisma. I’m convinced you can go places with money in this industry but the one thing you can’t fake is energy, and in both these separate performances, she seems washed out before she’s even started.
I’m not a big fan or anything, but I still want her to do well. As much as she’s part of a large marketing plot, she remains a talented songwriter. Not many chart toppers can boast the same. I wonder what her next move is. I hope it is wise and that it will soften this massive massive blow. Still, in an era where artists signed to major labels are, at all times, backed and sheltered by a team of 15 strategist (I’m lookin’ at you Lady Gaga), where was her team? And how did they manage to let this happen? Why are they so poorly nursing their investments at a time when the music industry has little left to invest in?
Sign of the times?
