Swimming With The Current

I noticed a friend posted on social media about releasing new music. He alerted his friends about a new single being available soon where folks purchase or steal music. He meant stream, but he decided to leave it.

I get that. Artists aren’t being paid properly for the music they produce and supply to the masses for streaming consumption. As someone that thought the original Napster was the equivalent of robbing a bank, I totally get that. It costs money to produce music if you want studio quality.

The streaming music industry is woefully behind when it comes to paying the artists. I have sympathy for those artists… No one hires a painter only to pay them a small fraction for their work.

But I feel there is a catch-22 as big as the Hoover Dam with streaming… Live original music is dying a slow death. And I admit that I just don’t really care about going to live shows anymore. I will list my reasons.

1. The start times are too late for my old mandom ass. I simply don’t abide by the same schedule as I did 10 years ago.
2. It can be a hassle. Parking for most venues are limited and rare to find on the cheap (free). If I were to go to the Ramkat in Winston, that would be a major pain in my ass. That’s exactly why I only went to 3 shows at the Ziggy’s in downtown WS.
3. I have gotten older and fatter. Standing on concrete for 4 hours just isn’t for me anymore. And I certainly do not want to pay more for the VIP treatment to just place my ass on a chair from time to time.
4. Ticket prices have gotten a little out of hand in my opinion. Local artists are a little different, but 1, 2, and 3.
5. Most of the shows that I want to attend are at least 30 to 45 minutes or more away. That also pertains to the number 1 reason. I no longer want to drive home in the wee hours of the morning.

Do I miss going to live shows?

Yes. That’s the short of it.

The big ol’ Hoover Dam… Streaming.

Streaming is a simple way for others to find out about an artist’s music. We pay $15 a month to Spotify for their family plan. Instead of paying from $10 to $15 or more per new CD or digital download, I gladly throw my money at Spotify. I’m not risking my money for a purchase of one CD/DL when I can stream it for the same price or just a little more. PLUS, I’ll have access to hundreds of thousands of other releases by the same number of artists at NO RISK. For me, that’s the perfect situation. Sure, I have a handful of artists that I will gladly spend my money on for a hard CD copy of their latest release. But over the decades of acquiring music, I’m running out of room to house them. So, streaming really cuts down on that. And my wife definitely appreciates that even though she wants to get my vinyl collection back out and running for listening pleasure. Personally, I don’t get the whole vinyl thing being hip again. Sure, I miss the crackles and pops of the vinyl but I have fully embraced the ease of the MP3 player and now streaming. And the ability to switch to just about ANY artist is amazing to me.

The kids today don’t seem to be interested in seeing live music unless it’s a huge artist they’re listening to on streaming services. I’ve seen and heard about the dismal turnouts for club shows. There are just too many distractions for our attention these days. TV is showing signs of a death rattle. Radio is on life support. And streaming is now king. We want what we want when we want it. I will make no apologies for embracing that same philosophy. And besides, with Spotify I’m listening to what I WANT. I choose. Radio is the LAST thing that I want to listen to simply because they refuse to offer anything new or different. They just keep pushing the same ol’ same ol’.

But let’s get back to the “stealing” aspect that pertains to the Hoover Dam catch-22…

An artist wants to be heard. Artists want people at their shows. But people won’t attend shows unless they’re familiar with the music… And don’t get me started on that. I despise hearing “When is it going to play something that I know?” question when friends are sitting around visiting with us. I mean, how do they find out about new music?? Seriously, did you just know “Wagon Wheel” the first time that you heard it??

But that seems to be the herd mentality when it comes to original artists out there making music. Personally, I want to hear what the artist is bringing to the table with their own experiences and the pictures they paint with words and music. I will ALWAYS want to know and learn about new music.

Everyone isn’t like that. So, for the local artists that feel that they’re not getting paid for their work when it comes to streaming… I get it. I totally do. I do think the trade-off comes with the ability of discovering their music through streaming. And maybe, just maybe, those new listeners will show up to the gigs of the local artists. Buy some merch, purchase a couple of adult beverages, and maybe even talk to the local artist.

I urge everyone that streams music to give your local artists some room on your playlists. And if possible, promote their music on social media to spread the word. Spotify has an easy way of doing just that with Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I know that Spotify creates a little sample of the music to try right there in the Facebook news feed.

I have a playlist with artists that make music from North Carolina that I call “Homegrown NC Goodness”. From bluegrass to hard rock to country. There’s something for everyone. Try it if you’re so inclined. You can lift the songs that you like and put them into your own playlists.

The landscape of the music industry has changed over the last 20 years. I used to work for Capitol Records and that joint shut down before the 1990s were in the record books. The labels saw the writing on the wall, but stuck with the same ol’ same ol’ until it was too late. The flood gates are open and the current has become too strong to shut them. Streaming has created a “wild blue yonder” of possibilities for discovery. So, there’s the catch-22. Artists are driven to create. Creating music takes money. But if there’s no Horton to hear the Whos then what is it all worth?

Hopefully, the streaming music industry will find a suitable solution for everyone. The artists, the labels, and the listeners.

Eugeology: Eugene's List of Hard Rock Albums and Possible Gems Part 1 - Mother Love Bone 'Apple'

Jon Lowder asked me about making him a list of my top 50 hard rock albums. If I remember correctly, it seems that Jon is a closet hard rocker and hard rock is my favorite genre of music. Jon believes that he may have missed out on a few things and he’s willing to be “turned on” to some artists and albums that he’s never heard.

I’ve spent months and months agonizing over my list. I scratched out and erased over and over. I’ve pulled things out just to file them back into my collection a couple of days later. I took this list very seriously.

I didn’t want it to be a generic list because I wanted to feature some artists that were drastically overlooked during their “time”. I even had an issue about which album to open up the listening party with Jon Lowder and Tim Beeman.

Now please keep in mind that the list is random. I just couldn’t rank them because they all mean something and because they’re on my list should be some sort of validation as to how good they are. I’m just as big of a music snob as I am a television snob. You will not find Poison or Bon Jovi on my list.

I think it’ll be fun to read about the different perspectives from Jon and Tim. I’m curious if we’ll find common ground or if I know that we’ll be discussing them with our conflicting points of view over beers.

Jon, I don’t know about. Tim?

Oh yeah, we’re DEFINITELY going to butt opinionated heads. I got a kick out of his opinions on each album that he reviewed while covering Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time.

So whattya say we get to it?

We’re calling it “Eugeology: Eugene’s List of Hard Rock Albums and Possible Gems”.

Up first (in no particular order) is Mother Love Bone’s ‘Apple’ that was released in 1990.

I remember it coming out when the weather was warm. I spent many days driving around the Triad with the windows rolled down and ‘Apple’ cranked up. It was a great album for that kind of activity.

I knew grunge music was here to stay after hearing Soundgarden’s ‘Louder Than Love’. I could hear the nails pounding on the coffin of what people liked to call “hair metal” (a term that I don’t care for). I had a couple of friends telling me to check out Mother Love Bone. I kept reading about them in the music magazines. They were on my radar. Somehow, I ended up with a promo CD of ‘Apple’ a week before it was released.

“Grunge” from that album didn’t really hit me over the head. Sure, it was a fairly new subgenre of hard rock but ‘Apple’ didn’t sound “grungy”. I heard a lot of influence from Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. I was hearing a long forgotten wah-wah pedal being used. ‘Apple’ is 70s hard rock with occasional inane lyrics mixed in with stellar musings. I also got the feeling of playfulness at times. Andrew Wood could have been the next Robert Plant. You could hear “rock god” front man oozing from his vocals.

I certainly didn’t get that from Soundgarden. Soundgarden were loud and abrasive with very little fun allowed.

‘Apple’ kicks ass. Then there are moments of beautiful balladry. Mother Love Bone was touted as “the next big thing” but that all quickly faded when lead vocalist Andrew Wood died.

For those that do not know, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, now of Pearl Jam, were members of Mother Love Bone. The Seattle grungers came together for a one-off as Temple of the Dog. The self-titled album was a tribute to Andrew Wood.

In a sense, Mother Love Bone lives on as Pearl Jam. And in my opinion, it’s a lame Mother Love Bone. I remember my girlfriend at the time was excited to play Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ for me. She had it in her grubby little hands days before its release. She dug some Mother Love Bone and we were both looking forward to hearing Pearl Jam.

I was so underwhelmed that I left her house shortly after she started blasting it. She loved it. I was a bit crushed. I didn’t care for Vedder even though I enjoyed most of the Temple of the Dog album. It’s his voice. It’s his politics. It’s his pretentiousness. It’s his breathing. I just don’t care for Vedder.

Mother Love Bone’s ‘Apple’ stands on its own and apart from the grunge scene that was emerging from Seattle. The album holds only a few real comparisons to anything from Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, or Soundgarden.

If you’ve never heard it go look for it now on YouTube. Someone posted the whole darn thing.

Standouts – “Stardog Champion”, “Holy Roller”, “Come Bite The Apple”, and “Capricorn Sister”

U2 'Achtung Baby'

Do you like music?

Just about everyone will answer “yes” to that question, but they’re lying through their teeth.

The truth is this… People say they like music, but that doesn’t mean that they like to discover new or different music. Some folks have blinders over their ears and they’re fine moving through life that way.

I prefer to be adventurous. I love music. I love just about every genre with the only exceptions being reggae (and the related ilk), most of what passes for “country” music these days, hardcore rap, and screamo metal.

I purchased an Ion Tailgater late last year. The maiden voyage for my new toy was the trip Tim Beeman and I made to visit Brian Attridge in Richmond. We took it to the last Redskins game of the season where they were WHOOPED by the Cowboys.

The Ion Tailgater worked beautifully. The Redskins… Well, that’s a different story.

Chigs and I like to sit out by The Cabin in the backyard, drink some alcohol, and enjoy some tunes with it. It doesn’t come with a remote control and that’s my only complaint. But it sure makes for good background tunes while we have some verbal intercourse by the fire pit.

We’ve been experimenting with using it for radio remotes for 600 WSJS. And with the built in radio, it works again, beautifully. It’s lightweight and it can get LOUD.

If you’re thinking about such a piece of equipment, I highly recommend the Ion Tailgater.

So with all that out of way, lets get back to the subject that I opened with…

Chigs took it with her on a bluegrass trip to Galax, Virginia. They were staying in a cabin complex near Cana and I thought it would be cool for them to take it with them.

You can Bluetooth connect with the Tailgater or plug a tablet or MP3 player into it. I knew they would enjoy a piece of equipment to play some music on. It’s versatile and I sent all the necessary wires they would need with it.

When I arrived for my part of the weekend, everyone was enjoying tunes from their phones. I was totally cool with it. Everyone was having a good time and I didn’t mind someone else choosing the tunes. I was good with the conversation and drinking aspect of the evening. I was able to kick back and leave everything back in North Carolina. Someone else was handling the playlist and I was totally cool with it even though they were using my toy.

Why?

Because I know that my tastes are very eclectic and I also know that people that claim to love music have no patience or tolerance to hear something they don’t know. They only love music that they know.

So I steered clear of even attempting a playlist takeover. Three minutes of something foreign to these self-proclaimed “music lovers” only gets you an earful of What the hell is this?? Why don’t you play something we know??

Instead of dealing with the “music lovers”, I just don’t bother. But someone insisted that I play something from my MP3 player through my Tailgater that they’ve been enjoying all weekend.

I didn’t have a playlist ready to go on my MP3 player, so I thought I’d wing it.

I was put on the spot and my mind was blank concerning the 4,800 songs in my hand. So I scrambled through the artists and found Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers ‘Southern Accents’ album.

I thought I’d be safe with just about anything with ol’ TP and the H breakers.

I wanted something more upbeat than the played out “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and I went with one that I thought everyone would be familiar with… “It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me”.

I was more wrong than a left turn on a red light.

Before the five minute song was halfway over, the self-proclaimed “music lovers” were complaining. So before the second song, I unplugged my Gretchen II (my Zune) and handed the reigns back over to my friend with the current, hip playlist on his phone.

I wasn’t even given time to establish a decent mix for my self-proclaimed “music loving” friends. They turned on me like Warner Brothers television turned on The General Lee.

The bottom line is this… People generally don’t want to hear something new no matter what they say.

And you should never ask a TRUE music lover to handle a playlist with friends and family. They will disappoint you with something that you may like, but don’t want to take the time to listen.

For me, it’s crazy. How do these “music lovers” find new music to enjoy if they don’t listen to anything new?

I just don’t know.