Is the connection between music and artwork disappearing? | The 405

Is the connection between music and artwork disappearing?

by Stuart Fowkes, 11 February 2013

Ever since the first iPod offered a mighty ’1,000 songs in your pocket’ back in 2001, the hand-wringing over the irrelevance or impending demise of album artwork has been going on.

But with the potential loss of HMV, the last mainstream provider of physical records in the UK, from the high street, and has the death knell finally sounded for the physical product, and what does all this mean for album artwork? While we’re all busy absorbing music on the go through our phones, has the special connection between music and artwork disappeared at last?

Stuart Fowkes talked to record labels, bands, designers and record shops to get some answers.

More via Is the connection between music and artwork disappearing? | The 405.

The top 10 music list: good or evil?

Though I’ve done them in the past and I’m flattered—and honored—that I get asked by some serious folks to contribute, the reasoning for doing the ubiquitoius ‘Top 10′ rundown has become increasingly elusive (and I get increasingly slower…). No answers here of course, just as there probably aren’t any in a purely subjective list that can only address a tiny fraction of the artists who keep the planet from spinning off its axis. Food for thought? Maybe. Excuse? Hopefully…Gratitude to all the tomatoes, always.

Is highlighting the best recordings a genuine opportunity? Or is it an exercise in narcissism? Is it about some inherent human need for control and order?

These are questions I ask myself every fall as the requests come in: magazines and online sites looking for jazz journalists and bloggers to file top 10 lists of their favourite CDs of the year. This year, I decided to poll some luminaries in the jazz industry, as well as a marketing expert, to see how they view the annual “listmas.”

Duke Ellington said it best: “You rate tomatoes; you don’t rate artists.”

More at The top 10 music list: good or evil? CBC Music – Free Streaming Radio, Videos, Songs, Concerts & Playlists.

Record Reviews: Who Needs ‘Em? | Rock’s Backpages Writers’ Blogs

Record Reviews: Who Needs ‘Em?

Author: Ira Robbins 24 Dec 2012 © Ira Robbins

23 December 2012

PART ONE

I could be wrong, but – adding together a decade of Trouser Press magazine, five Trouser Press Record Guides and a whole lot of freelance writing — I may have reviewed as many albums as any American rock critic this side of Bob Christgau. From adroit to inept, I’ve offered my full faith and credit to a small percentage of them, attacked some (with the fierce indignation generally reserved for orphan-robbers, World Series goats and career criminals), and juggled the rest. I suppose I’ve shared a few valuable insights, but no doubt just as often I’ve come up empty, papering over ambivalence with utilitarian description.

How often was I right? Even if we can stipulate that there is a “right,” it’s hard to say, since the inconstancy of life synchs unreliably with value judgments that have been frozen in time. What was on the money in 1978 may seem horribly naïve in 1988 and condescending by 2008. Plus, a critic continues to hear and learn long after committing an appraisal to print, and that both alters the context and expands culture’s possibilities. When it comes to records which no longer live clearly in my memory, even going back for a refresher listen promises only a slim chance of summoning up enough sense of who I was and what I knew at the time to extrapolate what I was feeling when I wrote what I did…

More via Record Reviews: Who Needs ‘Em? | Rock’s Backpages Writers’ Blogs.

First Look Left And Then Look Right And Now Look Straight Ahead/SOB 9/17/12 podcast

First Look Left And Then Look Right And Now Look Straight Ahead/SOB 9/17/12 podcast at radio4all.net

I Put My Hand On Your Shoulder ≈ Group 1850 ≈ Agemo’s Trip to Mother Earth ≈ Psuedonym Records ≈ 1968

*_*

Batpoem ≈ The Liverpool Scene ≈ Amazing Adventures of The Liverpool Scene ≈ RCA ≈ 1969

War Sucks ≈ Red Crayola ≈ The Parable of Arable Land ≈ International Artists ≈ 1967

Fire Engine ≈ The 13th Floor Elevators ≈ The Psychadelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators ≈ Fuel ≈ 1966

Crimson Witch ≈ The Moving Sidewalks ≈ Flash ≈ Akarma ≈ 1968

*_*

Manic Depression/Sunshine of Your Love/Little Wing ≈ The Jimi Hendrix Experience ≈ Winterland | Album 5 ≈ Experience Hendrix/Legacy ≈ 2011

Blister on the Moon ≈ Taste ≈ Taste ≈ Polydor ≈ 1971

*_*

Dharma For One ≈ Jethro Tull ≈ This Was ≈ Chrysalis ≈ 1968

Born to Be Free ≈ Bram Stoker ≈ Heavy Rock Spectacular ≈ Akarma ≈ 1972

The Sheriff ≈ Emerson Lake & Palmer ≈ Trilogy ≈ Atlantic ≈ 1971

Raconteur Troubadour ≈ Gentle Giant ≈ Octopus ≈ Columbia ≈ 1973

*_*

Where the Crows Go ≈ Stone Breath ≈ The Snow-White Ghost-White Stag ≈ Deep Water Acres ≈ 2012

Corn Rigs/Gently Johnny ≈ Us & Them ≈ Summerisle: An EP of Songs from The Wicker Man ≈ Fruits de Mer ≈ 2011

Fourth Person Singular ≈ Anvil Salute ≈ Black Bear Rug ≈ Deep Water Acres ≈ 2012

*_*

Ymaelodi Â’r Ymylon ≈ Super Furry Animals ≈ Mwng ≈ Flydaddy, Inc. ≈ 2000

Innerspace ≈ The Apples in Stereo ≈ Fun Trick Noisemaker ≈ spinART ≈ 1995

Sunshine Everyday ≈ Swell ≈ The Lost Album ≈ Psychospecific ≈ 2007

Sunny Day Child ≈ Imogene ≈ Imogene ≈ Intrepid Sound Recordings ≈ 2005

Strawberry Ann ≈ Mr. Gloria’s Head ≈ Darling’s Out of Cocktail ≈ Alive Natural Sound ≈ 1996

*_*

Hail Hail ≈ Pretty Lightning ≈ There Are Witches In The Woods ≈ Fonal Records ≈ 2012

*_*

Thank You Music ≈ Kramer ≈ The Guilt Trip ≈ Shimmy Disc ≈ 1992

WRIR ’12 Fund Drive

Support YOUR independent radio…WRIR is yours, whether you call RVA home or not.

If you value independent media and voices, anywhere, then this is your chance to not only be counted, but to make your voice count by adding it the many that already rightfully see WRIR as a Richmond institution and leader in community radio. Musicheads, if you’ve tuned into one show and been turned on by one song, then you know full well the value of that that…and where it can lead. We don’t let you go down the rabbit hole alone; we’re right there with you. But we can’t do it alone…and we certainly don’t want to.

There are various levels to choose from when making your donation—your statement—but ‘pay what you want’ works just as well. It works for many of the insanely talented artists that I’ve had the pleasure to spin, get to know and call friends, and the pay-off as well as the return is just as gratifying.

And crucial.

Please, make a donation and make a statement. If you don’t, who will? You are who matters most, you are who makes the difference.

WRIR 97.3 FM ’12 Fund Drive

No, I don’t want to finance your Kickstarter album | Death and Taxes

I’ll preface this repost by saying I have forked over cash, but to artists that already have something in the ether that I found interesting and wanted more of (…you know, the part about ’ me, me, me…’). I say go for it, drum up your funds, for whatever cause or project you deem worthy. No one can fault you for that, and sincerely, best of luck.

Just don’t be surprised when no one cares or shares your interest. 

I think what this touches on more than just ‘middling music’ is the rampant sense of sickening entitlement that runs amok. From people wanting—and fully expecting—others to fork over their hard-earned, and learned, services and resources for essentially no benefit in return, to the latest ‘trend’ in the news about how job prospects for graduates, high school and college, are grim and that, surprise, many graduate in debt…I don’t know about you, but I didn’t land a top-paying gig right out of the system. I’m still waiting. In fact, I don’t know any one who has. I got a shit job, got another shit job that was less shitty, then another, then a good job where the shit had a whole different stink.

Angry young man to bitter old bastard? Welcome to the machine…

No, I don’t want to finance your Kickstarter album

By DJ Pangburn 21 hours ago

Nothing is more arrogant and desperate than asking for recording and touring money on Kickstarter. Let’s get that out of the way straight off. Head over to Kickstarter’s Music project section and it’s just an apocalyptic onslaught of beggary, delusion, self-importance, neo-feudalistic people states (the investors their vassals), bad hair, worse photos, beards, blank stares, flannels, postures… me, me, me. Fuck off.

You might say, “Well, what’s it to you, Pangburn? You don’t have to invest.” Indeed, I do not and I shall not!

And if I invest at all it will be because I, in some sado-masochistic way, want myself and others to feel the pain of exceptionally terrible or middling music. The goal being that Kickstarter’s music projects will reach such a critical mass of blandness and shite that investment dollars will simply dry up. That the money tree will suddenly vanish and the music trolls will retreat into their mountain lairs.

via No, I don’t want to finance your Kickstarter album | Death and Taxes.

FREEFORM OR DEATH, a documentary about WFMU

FREEFORM OR DEATH follows Ken Freedman, the manager and leader of the world’s oldest freeform radio station, WFMU, and his fight to keep the station afloat through an economic collapse, in a dying industry, with an increasingly Internet-addicted audience. At 51 years old, Ken’s whole life is strapped to a station that faces crumbling infrastructure, encroaching institutional forces, and internal generational conflicts. Will his 25-year effort to keep WFMU alive be enough?

FREEFORM OR DEATH, a documentary about WFMU by Tim K Smith — Kickstarter.

What Seems To Be The Trouble, Soldier?…You Look A Little Bit Worried :: SOB podcast 12/09/2011

Johnny Kwango ≈ The Bevis Frond ≈ The Leaving of London ≈ The Bevis Frond ≈ 2011
Reanimation ≈ The Bevis Frond ≈ The Leaving of London ≈ The Bevis Frond ≈ 2011
Complicated Mind ≈ The Luck of Eden Hall ≈ The Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 ≈ The Luck of Eden Hall ≈ 2011
Ottoman Girl ≈ The Luck of Eden Hall ≈ The Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 ≈ The Luck of Eden Hall ≈ 2011
Satisfied Rainbows ≈ The Vertigo Swirl ≈ Swirl 3 ≈ Rubberstamp Records ≈ 2011
*_*
Sleepy Jan ≈ The Pubert Brown Fridge Occurrence ≈ Once & Future ≈ Laughing Outlaw ≈ 2004
Care of Cell 44 ≈ The Flaming Gnomes ≈ Care of Cell 44 ≈ The Flaming Gnomes ≈ 2011
King of the Underground ≈ The Red Plastic Buddha ≈ All Out Revolution ≈ Space Cat Records ≈ 2011
I’m a Little Rocket Ship ≈ Cracker ≈ The Golden Age ≈ Virgin Records ≈ 1996
*_*
Braindome ≈ Ufomammut ≈ Snailking ≈ The Music Cartel ≈ 2004
Wolf on Anareta ≈ U.S. Christmas ≈ Run Thick in the Night ≈ Neurot Recordings ≈ 2010
Master of the Universe ≈ U.S. Christmas ≈ Hawkwind Triad ≈ Neurot Recordings ≈ 2010
*_*
Supergiant pt 1 ≈ Hellbender ≈ Cosmolux ≈ Hellbender ≈ 2011
III ≈ Elder ≈ Dead Roots Stirring ≈ Headspin Productions ≈ 2011
*_*
Window Shopping ≈ Tracker ≈ How I Became an Alien ≈ Sulatron ≈ 2009
Smell of the Summer ≈ Gustnado ≈ Hallucination Boulevard ≈ Gustando ≈ 2011
Echo ≈ Ocean Towers ≈ Chapter 1 ≈ Ocean Towers ≈ 2011
Take a Look ≈ Stone In ≈ The Drop and the Sea ≈ Stone In ≈ 2011
*_*
White Raven, Black Sun ≈ Hypatia Lake ≈ Ouroboros ≈ Hypatia Lake ≈ 2011
A Plea to the Queen ≈ Hypatia Lake ≈ Ouroboros ≈ Hypatia Lake ≈ 2011
Smokin’ Pot Makes Me Not Want to Kill Myself ≈ Stardeath and White Dwarfs ≈ The Birth ≈ Warner Brothers ≈ 2009
The Castle by the Sea ≈ Cranium Pie ≈ The Geometry of Thistles ≈ Cranium Pie ≈ 2011
*_*
Anubis ≈ Nik Turner’s Sphynx ≈ Xitintoday ≈ Primary Artist ≈ 1978
Interferon ≈ Zero Gravity ≈ Space Box-1970 & Beyond ≈ Cleopatra ≈ 1996
The Battle (part 1) ≈ Space Bandits ≈ The Mighty Chuggernaut ≈ Space Bandits ≈ 2010
*_*
Trajectory of Loose Ends ≈ Obstacles ≈ Oscillate ≈ Obstacles ≈ 2011
Death Star Narcolepsy ≈ Seven That Spells ≈ Future Retro Spasm ≈ Beta-Lactam Ring Records ≈ 2010
*_*
Electric Universe ≈ My Brother the Wind ≈ Twilight in the Crystal Cabinet ≈ Transubstans ≈ 2010

Bro…

Do “The Eyeball”