Portia Sabin: I think labels are caught in a cultural bind: No one really wants to know what a label does; it’s like the sausage factory. Even long-established bands have a hard time talking about what labels do.
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Mac McCaughan: I don’t know. I think that bands are into labels because bands — at least most [...]
When I first heard Solange’s cover of “Stillness is the Move,” I immediately, for whatever reason, jumped in my mind to the following commercial treatment. I imagine it playing in movie theaters as part of the previews.
We open in a tightly-packed recording studio–perhaps a camera tracking in through the door, with the words “Dirty Projectors” [...]
“But with Rob Schnapf behind the controls, Isolation Drills sounds like the real rock album GBV have always wanted to make; Pollard’s hooky-but-rollicking melodies pay audible tribute to his great love for mid-’70s rock throughout, while Doug Gillard and Nate Farley’s guitars finally crunch as much as they chime, making the band’s rock moves as [...]
“Daily Swarm: You’ve been making your own music while simultaneously helping other people with their records. What motivated you to want to help people with their careers while yours was in progress?
Steve Albini: Nobody ever thought of it as a career when I first got into a band. Nobody had any commercial aspirations. I was [...]
Another gem from swell long-term pal o’ the Packs Rob Kalmbach (full-size) (earlier), who’s been on a roll lately. He also shot this. Hire him!
That’s me, tiny under the glowing white screen, giving a guest lecture on The Future Of The Record Industry for Mark Deuze’s “Media Life” course. I only mention this for two reasons: 1) This was easily the largest lecture I’ve ever done (roughly 300 kids, sprawling a bit beyond the edges of this pic), and [...]
1. “It’s a rise and fall story of a once, very incredibly healthy, great, rich, throwing its weight and money around kind of industry, that is no longer quite as grand.”
Um, guys: the creators of The Wire are apparently planning to get all All the Kings Men on Steve Knopper’s fantastic book Appetite for Self-Destruction. (Spinner)
2. [...]
But it’s not like EPMD or anyone directly inspired by them is going to break Clear Channel rotation today. The deals are going to those who have already scored cross-over dance hits (from electremo sensations Drake and Kid Cudi), to teen dance-acts (Soulja Boy, the Jerkin’ kids) to neo hip-house artists (LMFAO and Far East [...]
“In retrospect, one of the last meeting points outside of ILM or whatever for a like-minded community of music crits. Everyone I know who does this read that site regularly, though most of them probably did not finish the posts about Lady Gaga.”
Zach Baron, in a back-and-forth with Rob Harvilla yesterday, in honor of the [...]
“Just the other day, I was working out at the gym and the song “One” by U2 came on the sound system. I am not a diehard U2 fan, and yet the song in that context triggered a deep, ineffable pleasure. Hearing a good song that everyone knows in a public setting recharges the spirit [...]