My Window To The World…

I am a drummer, and Terry Bozzio (whom I had the great pleasure of studying with) is definitely one of my favourite drummers. He is in my Top 3, alongside Joey Baron and Tony Williams (RIP).

While checking some Bozzio-related stuff on the internet, I came across his Wikipedia page – and found out that he played on the latest album by KORN!?!? “What the “/”=/”/=”*ç/”%?”, I thought.

One of the tracks was available on Korn’s MySpace Page. I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised with the result.

Terry Bozzio’s very, very, very own and totally unique style had a huge impact on the track. Oftentimes I feel his playing is way too much right into-your-face, not leaving enough space for the other instruments. Not on the KORN track I heard, I must say.

Terry Bozzio was supposed to tour with the band, but has now decided against this plan. No-one will be able to reproduce what he played. Technically, Bozzio is in a league of his own.

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

Technorati Tags: KORN, Terry Bozzio, Joey Baron, Tony Williams, Drums

I am starting an experiment today: I will post my favourite tune of the day – every day. At least for a while…

Up first is “Bill Gates Must Die” by John Vanderslice. (Click the song title to be taken to John’s Free MP3s Download page.)

Being an Apple Macintosh fan, and someone who has a good laugh at all the people still ignorant enough to be using (and even defending!) Micro$oft’s Windows, the title does of course make me chuckle.

But: the song is very catchy and quite cool.

Give it a listen.

BTW: John Vanderslice is also on MySpace. Add him!

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

Technorati Tags: John Vanderslice, Bill Gates, Bill Gates Must Die

You have possibly noticed that I have been pretty excited about Last.FM.

If you have been using it, you will understand. If you are into music but haven’t been using it, then you should join in on the Last.FM fun asap.

The good old record shops – where you know the salesman and know that you can trust his taste – are unfortunately almost extinct. In the country where I grew up, a once great shop had to eventually start selling crap just to survive – now 95 % of its inventory belongs to said category. In the place where I now live, your CD needs will only be satisfied if you are into the worst of the worst Top 40 and “Hip Hop” stuff. To not even mention the mighty vinyl…

Vinyl… good ol’ vinyl… I do miss the days of making proper compilation tapes (cassette tapes, that is) for mates and for girlfriends. There was something magic to it. You had to actually sit down and fully concentrate on the task at hand – or start all over if you made a mistake. Well, you had to start all over if you are a perfectionist like yours truly… I remember impressing girls with many a compilation I had put together for them. Cassette tape players are out of fashion, and it has become more and more difficult to impress them. Ha ha…

Nowadays, you put together a playlist in your iTunes. Since you’re already at it and it will most likely be listened to on a computer anyways, you might as well make use of the 700 MB on the CD-R, so you put eight, nine, or even ten hours (depending on your encoding rate) of music onto the CD. While arranging the playlist, you keep checking your MySpace, reply to some emails, accept an invitation for a chat with a friend – to finally rip the CD in the background while indulging in more online madness.

What does that have to do with Last.FM? I will go into that in my next post. I will outline for you how Last.FM works and how you can use it to your advantage.

Stay tuned. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to not miss the follow-up(s).

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Record Shops, Vinyl, Compilation Tapes, Online Radio, Personal Radio, Personalized Radio, Personalized Radio Station, Online Music, MySpace

A few days ago, The New York Times featured a great article: “Sex, Drugs & Updating Your Blog”. It will not be available for free for too long, so go check it out now!

Instead of trying to find the real cause for dramatically decreasing CD sales, the record companies have been moaning about people illegaly downloading music in MP3 format, about those “criminals” ruining their business, etc. etc. etc. Have they ever considered that possibly they have been releasing too much rubbish and that their customers are getting disillusioned with the corporate music bullshit?

The record companies have been taking advantage of the record/CD-buying public for too long. When CDs first hit the market, promises were made that once the format was established, prices would be reduced drastically. Has this happened? Not really, yours truly thinks.

Well, they simply got too used to making big money ($$$), paying outrageous sums to their big name artists, splashing out on new, oftentimes untalented, bands, dropping them the second expected sales were not met (at times even before the record came out!), screwing talented bands with ridiculous contracts, totally losing interest in developing and helping promising artists.

Luckily, their system is failing. Record companies are middlemen that soon will no longer be needed. The internet has truly revolutionized the music business. Now, any artist can record and sell their own material online. Consumers usually pay less per track/album than they would in a shop, while the musician(s) still make more money than they would have, had they been backed by a record company.

Merlin Mann has recently interviewed two individuals who have been using the internet very successfully to build their careers: John Vanderslice, and Jonathan Coulton.

You can watch the videos on Merlin Mann’s The Merlin Show:

John Vanderslice Part 1 (of 3)

John Vanderslice Part 2 (of 3)

John Vanderslice Part 3 (of 3)

Jonathan Coulton Part 1 (of 2)

Jonathan Coulton Part 2 (of 2)

I will in the future definitely write more about the music industry and also Last.FM.

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

Addendum 20 May 2007: Good and interesting article (German language only) in this weekend’s edition of Das Magazin.

Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Jonathan Coulton, John Vanderslice, MP3 Download, Online Radio, Personalized Radio, Artist Promotion, Label Promotion

After first signing up with Last.FM, I gave the Last.FM Player a try. Results were not that satisfying.

Not too long ago, I have started playing around with it again, and have been very pleasantly surprised. Last.FM have obviously put a lot more work into the algorithm behind it.

Being, amongst other styles, into 20th century classical music, as well as some “avantgarde” (what an awful term!), and nerdy metal, the best results I have had so far were by choosing “Similar Artists To: Edgard Varèse”. Some other classical stuff was generated, but also a couple of metal bands, and as a positive surprise one of the latest works, Moonchild, by John Zorn, whose music I adore.

A new discovery, even though I had heard the name before, was Glen Branca. Definitely someone whose CD(s) I will buy.

Just now listening to “Similar Artists To: Giacinto Scelsi”. Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen and the likes: very enjoyable.

I will soon write about promoting your music on Last.FM. Stay tuned, subscribe to the RSS Feed.

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Last.FM Player, Online Radio, Personal Radio, Personalized Radio, Personalized Radio Station, Edgard Varèse, John Zorn, John Zorn Moonchild, Glen Branca, Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, Online Music, Music Download, MP3 Download, Free Music, Free Music Download, Band Promotion, Artist Promotion, Music Promotion, Label Promotion, New Music

My good friend – and occasional partner in music crime – from way back, Roland Blum, has been writing and recording his very own take on classical, pop and rock music for almost two decades.

I have recently been giving him a helping hand to get the recordings out of his studio and into the ears of music lovers.

The reactions on Roland Blum’s MySpace have been very positive, which does not surprise me at all. He has put his heart and soul into his tunes.

Not too long ago, yours truly opened an account on Last.FM for him, where several of his tracks are now available for free download. From Roland Blum’s Artist Page, of course.

For his take on pop/rock, check out Roland Blum’s “EP”.

If you are into ambient/chillout, check out Roland Blum’s “Indie Ambient EP”.

And/or if you are into contemporary classical/minimal stuff, check out Roland Blum’s “Sabantey” (the “missing” tracks will be available shortly in the Apple iTunes Store).

His music has recently been featured on the following podcasts:

Green Dragon (UK) (Episode 9 May 2007)

X-Pat Radio (USA) (Episode 11 May 2007)

My Pocket Player (Poland) (Episode 14 May 2007)

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

Technorati Tags: Roland Blum, Roland Blum Music, Last.FM, Online Radio, Online Music, Music Download, Podsafe Music Network, MP3 Download, Free Music, Free Music Download, MySpace, Pop Music, Rock Music, Indie Music, Alternative Music, Minimal, Ambient, Chill Out Music, Chillout Music, Ibiza Music, Buddha Bar, Cafe Del Mar, Contemporary Classical Music, Guitar

Live at the Werchter Festival in Belgium. A looooooong time ago.

Robert Smith himself posted today on The Cure’s website that they will probably be playing in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore (July and August), then possibly head to Australia.

Anyone who knows me also knows that I do not only hate, but detest the current drummer (don’t even want to write his name; he’s been with them since 1994), because he is useless. So talentless, in fact, he should almost receive an award for it.

If I am in Asia come July/August, I might however make an exception, since I have never seen them as a four-piece, never without keyboards – and the one thing to look forward to is seeing Porl Thompson back on guitar. He is one of the most-underrated guitar players.

Robert: why don’t you save on some travel expenses and get me to do your Asia shows with you? Willing to do it for free. You won’t regret it. Remember: a competent drummer makes any band sound better.

My favourite The Cure albums:

Pornography
Disintegration
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Seventeen Seconds
Faith

All of them – plus tons more – available from Amazon.com.

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

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Technorati Tags: The Cure, The Cure Live, Robert Smith, Porl Thompson, Music, The Cure Asia Tour

Way back in 1988 at Eastbourne School of English (UK), my great teacher Iain McAdam Clark introduced me to Mancunian band The Fall. I used to run around in various The Cure t-shirts, so he was sure I knew The Fall – but I didn’t. (Lucky Iain had seen The Cure live when they were the supporting act for The Fall!)

Anyways. Read today that a collection of short stories that are based on The Fall’s song titles is soon going to be published. Mark E. Smith, the legend, the inspiration. He deserves this “tribute”.

To this day, I adore The Fall and their music.

I am the carry bag man…
Wrong place, right time…

The following The Fall albums are the ones I can recommend:

The Frenz Experiment
I Am Kurious Oranj
Extricate

Available from Amazon.com.

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

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Technorati Tags: The Fall, Mark E. Smith, Music, Literature, The Cure

Came across British music magazine “The Word”.

The editors do a podcast that I find absolutely hilarious.

Two (sometimes three) of them sit together and discuss some of the artists/features that are in the current issue of Word magazine, and it is very obvious that they are enjoying themselves tremendously.

They all have been in the music press scene for quite some time, know the likes of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger personally, and therefore have some really hilarious anecdotes to share.

Highly recommended!

© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.

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Technorati Tags: Music, Podcast, The Word Magazine, Music Magazine