ARTIST TO WATCH: Ed Sheeran
Does this guy look like the next global star? He could well be ...
I can be forgiven for being a bit late to the party when it comes to singing Ed Sheeran’s praises, but that’s only because I’m not particularly plugged into U.K. pop trends. But I’ll be damned if Sheeran’s blend of pop, hip-hop and blues isn’t something that’s quickly winning a battle with my headphones, and it’s success he’s earned by fighting the hard way — touring, touring, touring, then writing his own songs to make those touring dates pay off. Bob Lefsetz just wrote a glowing recommendation today, which is how I stumbled onto “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You,” which sounded a bit too much like a cross between David Ford’s “State of the Union” and any Jason Mraz track. But I dug deeper, and the more I heard of Sheeran, the more hooked I became.
His first single, “The A Team,” defies all genre predictions, building on a light folk melody of guitar and vocals, painting a beautiful lyrical picture of a woman’s life wrecked by desperation and drugs, as she clings to her daydreams which seem to waste away by the minute. It’s a pop song for people who think they hate pop songs, people who are so jaded they think anything “pop” has to be synonymous with “facile.”
Then there’s also “Lego House” (starring Harry Potter’s own Rupert Grint) which speaks of “pick[ing] up the pieces and build[ing] a lego house … if things go wrong I can knock it down.” It’s a fitting metaphor for building a relationship, which requires a willingness to fail in order to build things back even stronger than before. “I’ll do it all for you in time,” he sings. “I think I love you better now.” It’s a beautiful pop melody anchored by tremors of piano meted against staccato hip-hop percussion and Sheeran’s powerful vocals. Knowing that he’s a product of his own hard work, not the brainchild of a heartless, mindless corporate groupthink mentality makes the music all the more resonant.
The coup de grace is the solo arrangement of “Wayfaring Stranger,” recorded for his “One Take EP” … built on a series of loops and layers, everything here is recorded on the spot, and the raw emotion of the session pours through every second of the recording. If you can listen to this and not want to hear more from this artist on the rise, you’ve got no musical soul. I’m not sure that Sheeran will be the biggest star in the U.S. by April, as Lefsetz surmises … I’ve been burned way too many times trying to predict which artists will successfully make the cross-Atlantic trip intact (to be honest, I never thought Adele would even catch on with our fickle-minded pop tastes.) But I can say with certainty he deserves to reach a wider audience here in the States.
It only takes one listen, and you’ll spend the rest of the day diving back in for more.
Pete Townshend: “Apple is a Digital Vampire”
Pete Townshend thinks Apple needs to get into the A&R business.
Pete Townshend tells the BBC that he feels Apple is a digital vampire, bleeding artists dry as the company destroys copyright as we know it. He then attacked music fans he accuses of “stealing” music online, saying we might as well steal his son’s bike while we’re at it. He really goes off the deep end, however, arguing that Apple, a software and technology company, somehow needs to get into A&R, by “employing 20 talent scouts from the dying record business” to guide new acts and provide marketing support to the best ones.
Let me say this: Pete Townshend is out of his depth for several reasons.
1. Apple does not inherently owe anyone in the music industry anything, for having innovated in ways the dying record industry failed.
2. Digital music is not going anywhere. Selling music online doesn’t stop record company A&R folks from going out and finding new talent and then giving them room to develop. But wait!
3. A&R doesn’t exist anymore in the way Townshend envisions it. The days of giving bands years to find their artistic way are dead and gone. You either have yourself a big-assed hit right now or you find your way to the door and walk through. And if you can’t match that hit double or nothing, you can go just as easily.
4. We’re supposed to force a tech innovator to go back to what DOESN’T work in order to prop up an industry built on ideas which are mired in the past? Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Bob Lefsetz does a good job taking apart the idea that bands will benefit by being signed by these so-called “Industry Experts” in his column from yesterday. The true inefficiency in the music industry is in the artists themselves … who’s going to stand up and fight for good music if the bands aren’t willing to work, expecting some big benefactor from on high to step down and hand them a career from the top of the music industry mountain? If Townshend wants to step off his high horse and do something productive, let HIM be the A&R man. Let HIM sign a few artists he believes in and then put his money where his mouth is! Teach these kids what it means to work your ass off for years before you get a big break … how to tour like mad, work music like a job until maybe, just maybe, some success comes around.
Or he can sit around and blame Apple. And blame the music fans who put him in the perfectly comfortable situation he’s in right now where he can mouth off and call us all virtual bike thieves.
The success of music-based technology, and Apple’s success in particular, proves that you can do things on your own, taking full control of your artistic destiny by bypassing the gatekeepers and putting your music out on your own terms. It’s music democracy … no one’s going to hand it to you, you’ve got to earn it. And if your music isn’t good enough, you’ll sink to the bottom.
Don’t blame that on Apple. And don’t blame that on music fans. Blame that on a fundamental unwillingness to adapt and rebuild.
We’re never going to save the music industry by rebuilding the failed system.
Fitz and the Tantrums announce new tour dates
Fresh off their huge and elaborate mention in one of Bob Lefsetz’s most recent Lefsetz Letters, Fitz and the Tantrums have announced a handful of new tour dates, for which fan-specific early ticketing is now on! If you haven’t heard the band — and by all means, you should get out there and HEAR THIS BAND! — what better time than now is there to go out and catch a great live band doing what they do best? Anyone can record something well in a studio and make it sound good. But it takes a unique group of artists to go out night after night and make their music come alive, staying fresh and original all the way.
To order tickets, visit the band’s ticketing site and register with your email address, and you’ll get a password to order tickets free of the whole Ticketmaster surcharge game. The following shows are available as of this posting:
April 10: 20th Century Theatre (Cincinnati OH)
April 11: The Orange Peel (Asheville NC)
April 12: Music Farm (Charleston SC)
April 14: The Loft (Atlanta GA)
April 17: Soul Kitchen (Mobile AL)
April 18: House of Blues Houston (Houston TX)
April 19: La Zona Rosa (Austin TX)
April 20: House of Blues Dallas (Dallas TX)
April 22: Santa Fe Brewing Company (Santa Fe NM)
April 24: Club Congress (Tucson AZ)
And for those of you out of the loop still, here’s a great reason to check the band out, courtesy of our friends at YouTube:
And if you want some background on the band’s hard-working ethic, you can read their response to Lefsetz’s letter. It’s an interesting read!
When Self Promotion Goes Awry
It’s got to suck when you go out and try to promote your music using social media, and someone you admire (who also happens to be using social media) decides to publicly call you out for daring to send your music to him.
That’s what happened to Eric Victorino, lead singer for San Francisco’s The Limousines, who had the chutzpah to send his video by link to Bob Lefsetz, influential music critic who has been known as something of a Yoda among industry executives.
Ouch! Not quite sure the snarky reply was necessary, Bob ...
But this time Yoda bit back, and the resulting exchange was revealing. Clearly Lefsetz doesn’t believe a song deserves to be hyped unless someone a few degrees away from the artist does the hyping. Obviously he is sure to get thousands of emails and tweets a day from Joe Schmoes trying to promote music that simply isn’t good enough. That’s fine. But he probably also gets thousands of emails a day from public relations folks promoting music from Joe Schmoes that simply isn’t good enough.
And you know what? I doubt that he responds as rudely and publicly as he did with this kid when he gets one of their tweets or emails.
Bob Lefsetz -- Credit: Creative Commons.
Regardless of where you stand on hype, if you’re in the music business and you put your name out there as a guru, you’re going to get people wanting to have you hear their music. And if you don’t like it, the responsible thing is just to delete it and move on.
Eric Victorino didn’t do anything wrong. He got a tweet from Lefsetz asking if “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster The People is a hit. He responded that it was, and so was his song (which incidentally has two times the views as the song Lefsetz hyped). When he later wrote to Lefsetz asking what he was supposed to do, as a do-it-yourself band without a promotor to hype for him, he was told rudely (and again publicly) that his fans should do the hyping for him if he’s really any good.
What a load of crap.
The Limousines -- Credit: http://www.metronomereview.com
In the world of music marketing there’s a lot of luck involved in everything, but more than that there’s the money. Money buys hits, and money can also buy fans. If a band pays for a good enough marketing arm, chances are they’re going to get played on the radio, or their music’s going to be mentioned enough on Twitter and Facebook that guys like Bob Lefsetz will notice and chime in with their “is this a hit?” queries. If you’re working on your own from the bottom, you do what you have to do to make sure people hear your music. If that means Bob Lefsetz gets a few too many emails or tweets a day, that’s a hazard of the business.
Hell, I write a blog maybe 2,000 people a month read, and I get all kinds of daily emails from record labels and PR firms trying to get me to write about their bands. Some are good, and I’m glad to know about them. Others suck, and I’m still glad enough about the good that I’m willing to just delete the bad and move on.
Seems Bob Lefsetz could take a lesson from that.
And in the end, the song wasn’t that bad! In fact, it was catchy enough I’d be interested to hear the rest of the band’s album, something that never would have crossed my mind if a kid from California hadn’t decided to “hype his shit” to Bob Lefsetz. Somehow I think he’d really hate knowing he’d played a part in that.
Here’s the video — enjoy!
Esperanza Spaulding is Best New Artist? Please.
Why not just give it to the Be Sharps? Oh wait ...
The Grammy nominations for “Best New Artist” are:
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence & The Machine
Mumford & Sons
Esperanza Spaulding
And the winner is … who the fuck is Esperanza Spaulding?
Okay, seriously. I know the Grammys don’t mean jack these days, and NARAS wouldn’t be itself if they didn’t screw up at least one big award. But I think Bob Lefsetz summed it up with one line: “This is what eviscerates the credibility of NARAS. Is it a mainstream clusterfuck or an insider circle jerk?”
Indeed.
You change the rules to make sure Drake can still be nominated. You add in Florence + The Machine and Mumford & Sons — and Mumford has actually sold more than 750,000 copies of their debut, despite supposedly not having amarketable sound.
Then you nominate “Leave it to Bieber” to keep the teen set interested, and the best they can think of is to give the award to a jazz bassist and singer who has sold maybe 5,000 copies of her albums if she’s lucky. Oh, wait, it’s a Herbie Hancock sized conspiracy to help her have next week’s #1 album when thousands of drooling TV viewing morons rush out to buy what the Grammys’ told them insiders really are listening to.
Puhleeeze … It’s Jethro Tull in the metal category all over again. I’ll let Homer Simpson lead us out:
ALBUM REVIEW: Todd Alsup – “Todd Alsup”
Todd Alsup
Year of the Album — #001
Todd Alsup – “Todd Alsup”
MajorWho (2011) – Independent
———————————————————————————————————–
Similar Albums: Regie Hamm – “American Dreams” (Universal, 2003)
Jon McLaughlin – “Indiana” (Island, 2007)
Hanson – “Shout It Out” (3CG, 2010)
———————————————————————————————————-
There’s something really infectious about Todd Alsup’s music. Infectious enough that, despite not having a major label deal or any real push behind his music, he was able to draw high praise from blogger Bob Lefsetz and from Sirius / XM’s Larry Flick (who called Todd “a true contender!”) I’ve been following his music since he first released his debut, Facts and Figures, so it’s great to see a deserving artist actually getting the industry respect he’s been worthy of for years.
But the fact remains, his new self-titled album will be released on May 24th with Alsup still bubbling under the radar, and it would be a shame if most people aren’t going to get the chance to hear it. Songwriter Regie Hamm, who became famous years later for writing one of the many American Idol “winner’s songs,” produced one of the better pop albums of 2003, following a concept of traversing as many genres as it had songs, tying the subjects to life in modern-day America. In that vein, Todd Alsup also loves genre-hopping, and the album’s all the better for it. There’s something for everyone here, yet the album manages to remain cohesive due to his willingness to stick with his tried and true signature sound (which hearkens back to the soul of Stevie Wonder while adding the modern touches of Michael Bublé, Harry Connick, Jr., and (surprisingly) Shout It Out-era Hanson (horns abound, thank God!)
The album’s full of winning tracks. “Getting Gone” may be the most single-ready, with its addictive chorus brimming with alliteration and introspection: “She’s got a talent that’s unparalleled. She’s mastered moving on; she’s gotten good at getting gone.” We’ve all been in the situation he’s describing, being the one who picks up the pieces from someone we’ve loved who seems to be oblivious to anyone outside the self. The upbeat piano, drums and bass combo blends perfectly with Alsup’s strong vocals and the lifting background voices which help tie it all together.
“How I’m Made” is anthemic, and it’s easy to tell how it’s become a finalist in a major songwriting competition recently. The song would be one Michael Bublé or Jamie Cullum would kill to perform, as Alsup outlines his many faults, arguing that he can’t change how he’s been made … though his biggest fault is his inability to prevent his heart from being broken. “But my biggest fault is that I always give my heart too soon; I fell in love with you and I began to plan the honeymoon. And now look at me! I’m broken-hearted, I let myself get played … and you’d think that by now that I’ve have learned to protect myself from getting burned. Maybe one of these days I’ll finally make the grade!” It’s a song of honest introspection, but he’s not dwelling on what he cannot change. He’s claiming it as a badge of honor. I can picture this one becoming something Chris Colfer’s character could pull off nicely on Glee if given the chance – and boy wouldn’t that raise Alsup’s profile?
As I’ve said, there’s something for everyone here: the disco-groove of “The Only Thing” manages to sound authentic without becoming cloying (and according to Alsup’s latest press release, is destined to be his first big official single release, complete with a video, if fans can help raise funds via a Kickstarter project). I could see the song playing in a disco mix with classics of the genre without sounding out of place. “The Way It Goes” pulls off straightforward soul with aplomb, managing to make a really downbeat message (“that’s just the way it goes”) without losing its groove. And “I Feel” sounds like it could have been a missing track from Maroon 5’s latest album, with Alsup truly sounding like he’s unstoppable and on top of the world.
Put it all together and you’ve got an infectious party album which manages to be both modern and a throwback to an era when album pop was more than just a collection of auto-tuned singles. It’s the first independent album of 2011 I can fully and wholeheartedly put my critical support behind, and for fans of great pop music you’re not going to go wrong buying this album. Trust me, it’s a keeper. And Todd Alsup’s bound to be a household name if he can just continue to build the momentum he’s taken into the new year.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Review Updated: 02/24/2010 — now includes new release date
information as well as a link to the Kickstarter campaign to help produce a
music video for “The Only Thing”
Find out more at Todd’s website: http://www.toddalsup.com
Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ gear stolen; Internet mobilized!
If this doesn’t warm your heart a great deal toward what good can happen when bands treat their fans like humans and then get the same in return from their fans in time of crisis, I don’t know what will. As posted in today’s “mailbag” followup from Bob Lefsetz’s “Lefsetz Letter”:
Figured this story was right up your alley. On September 11, Drivin N Cryin (www.DrivinNCryin.com) had their trailer containing all their stage and production gear stolen from a hotel parking lot in Macon, GA after a show the night before. In this their 25th year as a band, some jackass(es) decided they would steal the tools of a workingman’s band. These guys don’t sit around their homes waiting for mailbox money. They make their livings on the road. Everything had been done by the books: trailer backed up against a wall so the doors could not be opened, hitched and locked to the van, parked in a well lit area, etc. (Not that it mattered – La Quinta doesn’t have parking lot security cameras! And when a thief really wants something, he’s going to get it.) Within minutes of discovering the loss and notifying the police, we posted this announcement on FB (which also feeds our Twitter):
drivin’ n’ cryin’ PLEASE READ!! ATTENTION MACON, GA!! We had our trailer, with all the gear, stolen last night from the La Quinta motel at X-169 in Macon, GA. Please contact Ken Green at 404-309-3057 with ANY information. And PLEASE repost this message!!
September 11 at 12:12pmView all 29 comments: http://www.facebook.com/drivinncryin?v=wall&story_fbid=129729463741328
Kevin Harkins: this is so sad, Macon had gotten entirely to bad
September 11 at 4:08pmDavid Lions: give us tag number and description mite help us find it better
September 12 at 12:46amWithin 30 minutes of this posting, both the Allman Bros and Drive By Truckers camps reposted and reached out to us offering any and all support; DNC fans reposted and requested additional information that they could use to help us locate the trailer and gear; Fox, NBC and CBS affiliates (radio and TV) in Atlanta and Macon contacted us to tell the story and help in the search. All this because of Facebook and Twitter! As you can imagine, there were a hundred issues that required immediate attention – police, insurance, gear lists, etc. But through FB, the fans offered suggestions, tips, leads – anything to help fill in the gaps while we were organizing ourselves for a more coordinated effort:
Clinton Ryan: check with gass stations around where it was parked they might have video of the thieves you may need to contact a privite investigator to get the info
September 11 at 3:05pmThey posted pix of our trailer and gear on other blog sites, made copies of the gear list (that we posted on FB: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=5912085821&topic=15178) and hit the streets visiting pawn shops and music stores from Macon to Valdosta to Chattanooga to Birmingham with this list in hand, spreading the word both online and in person. Note the timeline here – the first posting by us was at 12:12pm with updates every 30 minutes or so. The stolen gear listed was posted at 1:15pm. Fans were all over it all day, with thousands of repostings of our updates! By 6pm, we had located 3 items that had been sold to a music store in Atlanta:
drivin’ n’ cryin’ WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP! We recovered 3 items in an Atlanta pawn shop this afternoon, but nothing else since. PLEASE fwd this stolen equipment list (link below) to all your local pawn shops, music stores, friends in bands, rehearsal spaces – anyone you can think of in a 200 mile radius of Macon, GA that might come acro…
See More
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=5912085821&topic=15178
September 11 at 7:18pmview all 32 comments: http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=5912085821&share_id=157949417554762&comments=1#s157949417554762
AND!!… we had a photocopy of the suspect’s driver’s license (courtesy of the store owner) that we promptly posted on our website with links to it through FB/Twitter: http://www.drivinncryin.com/thief/. Now, because of the time lag between filing the police report and entering the stolen gear list into the national database, the music store owner had unwittingly purchased the 3 items (2 custom amps and a guitar). Otherwise, he might have been able to identify them as stolen. BUT!!… because he later saw our FB posting (he’s a DNC fan!), he called me saying “Hey, I think I purchased some of your gear an hour and a half ago. Come get it.”
As the story grew online, traditional media became more involved. Macon and Atlanta TV affiliates ran follow up stories and interviews, helping to keep the story alive. The following day (now Sunday, September 12), the AP contacted us, taking the story national. I had calls from L.A. to New Brunswick, Canada from people offering support, gear, trailers, tips, etc. I got calls from Georgia Case offering to manufacture and donate new road cases to Drivin N Cryin because they love the band; emails and call from fans asking where they can donate funds to replenish the gear; backline companies like Avatar and Crossover offering free gear loaners to get us through the next few weeks of gigs; Guitar Center called to let us know that they issued a notice to all their stores in the SE, posting the stolen gear list and asking their employees to be watchful. This is just a small sampling of the generous outpouring of love and support shown to us within the first 36 hours of this crisis. Again, all this because we were able to be proactive through social networking and engage our fans/friends.
I know this abbreviated version of the story leaves more questions than answers offered (just ask, I’ll answer) and I wish I could tell you that it ends happily. (Though I suppose it does, in a way.) Beyond the initial 3 items recovered that first day, we have yet to locate any more gear or the trailer. We were able to identify a timeline and travel line of the suspects (they visited multiple locations in Atlanta, trying to sell the gear) but the police have had no luck in finding the suspects. Yet.
While it doesn’t hurt that we gained 1000 new FB fans and had tens of thousands of hits to our website during this crisis, the bright side is that we have the opportunity to turn this spotlight from us and shine it on something worthy of greater attention. To that end, we’re working in conjunction with the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the City of Macon and Deep Blue Interactive to raise funds for NARAS’s MusiCares Foundation and local law enforcement by holding a benefit concert in Macon, GA on October 14. I hope you’ll spread this story, Bob. There’s a lot to be learned here. Our online network is worth SO much more than postings of tour dates and sales pitches. They are REAL people who REALLY care. When we needed them, they stood up to be counted. We love them like family.
Feel free to use my name and contact info.
Best Regards,
Ken Green
Manager, Drivin N Cryin
That’s definitely got me in a good mood this afternoon. Working musicians put up with so much shit in their day to day lives, it amazes me both that some dirtbag would actually STEAL THEIR GEAR, but even more that the band had the presence of mind to turn to their fans and ask for help. And when given a chance, as I’m sure most of you would, the fans stepped up and did the best they could to help the band get their gear back.
Makes you almost start having faith in internet humanity 
And now, check out the band that got this all going. First, a video of drivin’ n’ cryin’ playing Letterman back in 1991:
and a song from their latest album, “What Ever Happened To The Great American Bubble Factory?”
Let’s be blunt: “James, you’re quitting music? No one cares.”
Today James Blunt comes out of nowhere to let the world know he’s retiring from music, needing to “have time to himself” despite his actions generally speaking for themselves: no album since 2010, no touring since 2011. I can’t help but think of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” where she sings:
Message to James Blunt — no one’s waiting for your new album. As Bob Lefsetz outlines in his email column today, in the modern music industry you either release new material or you die. This ties into rules 3 and 4 as he relays it: “Make new music” and “keep improving your music.” If you need space, we’re perfectly happy to remember the beautiful relationship while it lasted. But let’s be blunt: We’ve moved on.
Share this:
Like this:
October 22, 2012 | Categories: Commentary, Music, Music News | Tags: Bob Lefsetz, commentary, James Blunt, music, retiring, Taylor Swift, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together | 1 Comment »