MasterDave

The 'art' of music is so funny.

At some point bands are going to finally give up on the album being the release vehicle for their music, and go to the idea that if someone's willing to pay 3-4 times as much to see a concert than they are your precious compact disc worth of music... you really shouldn't worry about what happens on your plastic piece of obsolete technology.

Radiohead kinda did a whole tour based on demoing new material that ended up being In Rainbows. Word from that, is that they were kinda stoked having people show up at concerts halfway through the tour knowing all the lyrics to the songs that weren't even done.

The album is dead. Long live the concert. Live the concert, give your fans the best you can give in that show. Spending 2 years and 100,000 bucks on a shiny album people are going to just download off the internet for free anyway doesn't make a lot of sense if you're going to put on a shit show at the same time.

on Kings Of Leon Think You're Ruining Their Concerts at August 19, 2008 7:40 PM
Score = -6

I was at the SF show too, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you were going to see Liz Phair expecting to hear a perfect voice (or worse, someone using AutoTune to sound like a perfect voice) and a polished professional rock band show, then you were going with unreasonable expectations for someone putting on a performance of a pretty raw and crappy sounding album. Her entire "deal" was that the lyrics were amazingly honest and blunt and something that 15 years ago you weren't hearing from really anyone at all. Sure, things have evolved and now it's not really much of a big deal to have the concepts of a very strong woman just laying it all out there, but it sure as fuck was in 1993.

And ultimately, that's what you were paying to see. It didn't try to be anything greater than what it was originally. Her voice still sucks, her musical talent still isn't really that talented and she didn't pick a band of slick musicians to tour with her, she just had some guys that knew the songs and could play with her. If you expected something else, you just weren't too informed.

on Liz Phair Unveils New Song, Leaves Critics Unimpressed At Chicago Guyville Show at June 27, 2008 1:44 AM
Score = 0

Dear Web Sheriff,

You're currently ruining music on the internet. I know you're just getting paid to do it, and that because of draconian copyright laws that are preventing the music industry from "moving on" past their failed business model and into something that can generate positive results, you're only extending the problem. You're not helping.

You can make allusions to child pornography, violence or any other number of entirely unrelated crimes that you may or may not be able to have any effect on, but the fact remains that these things don't fall in line with a positive outcome. There is nobody who is better off by your tactics, regardless of how polite they are.

On behalf of music fans on the entire internet, I'd like to respectfully ask you to have your CEO or board reconsider your desire to work with the Music and Movie cartels. You're shacking up with the enemy when you do business with them, regardless of how well they pay. There's very little good that can come out of your involvement with them, no matter how many mp3's you take down and how many websites or blogs you happen to take down.

Polite language aside in the creepy blog posts, you're not helping anyone. You're making people hate you in return. For the most part, people consider you to be a corrupt cop who's working for the mafia all things considered, since the organizations you represent are little more than thugs as far as the internet goes. Nobody likes it.

Have some morals. Stop doing business with the RIAA and the record labels. Stick to the stuff that really matters to people. Music and busting people for posting it on their blogs in small amounts, does not matter to the vast vast vast majority of the entire world. Upholding it, no matter how "right" it may be under the letter of the very well lobbied congress, it's just not a good thing to do.

on Web Sheriff To MP3 Bloggers: Happy Easter, Thanks For Plugging The Raconteurs at March 24, 2008 8:29 PM
Score = 8