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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Reinventing the music business: Fan donations pay for new Jill Sobule album
From: chicagotribune.com
Originally posted: March 18, 2009
Veteran singer-songwriter Jill Sobule got fed up with business as usual three years ago, and on a new song she pinpoints the moment.
“I'm here at a meeting,” she sings in a voice perched between exasperation and resignation. “Trying to impress someone at a dying record company.”
She describes the jaded talent scout, the air of condescension thick in the room, the sense of creeping frustration. Then comes the I’m-not-gonna-take-it-anymore payoff line: “I got nothing to prove!”
Sobule did more than just write a song about her dissatisfaction, however. She did something about it.
Despite what a few burned-out executives may have been telling her, Sobule knew she wasn’t through. She has written some of the wittiest songs of the last 15 years, including the 1995 hit “I Kissed a Girl” (which sounds a good deal different – and quite a bit better --- than the recent Katy Perry song). She has released a half-dozen acclaimed albums and toured the world. For her trouble, she’s been dropped from two labels and worked for two more imprints that went out of business. Sobule’s quirky, sarcastic and seasoned --- a bad fit for an industry thriving on easily packaged divas.
So what next? Sobule was in her mid-40s in 2006 and in no hurry to sign up for another dispiriting trip on the record-label merry-go-round when she decided to go directly to her fans. She set up the jillsnextrecord.com Web site and solicited donations for her next album. In less than two months enough donations poured in to match her goal of $75,000. Then Sobule went to work, hiring Don Was as a producer and a handful of session musicians to piece together “California Songs,” an album she will release on her own Pinko Records label April 14.
“It’s kind of scary,” Sobule says. “It’s one of those things I was never quite sure if it was ever gonna work, and so far it has. The initial fear is that it would just be my mother and some cousins donating, and it could’ve been humiliating.”
As musicians seek alternative ways to deliver recorded music as the music industry suffers through its worst downturn in a century, attention has focused on innovators such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, who have released music directly to their fans on their own Web sites. But there are a bevy of lower-profile artists who are making similarly innovative moves out of even greater necessity. Even as the Internet affords artists an unprecedented opportunity to communicate directly with their fans, they must figure out how to make their music heard amid a cacophony of viral voices.
“I didn’t have a publicist, I didn’t have a label, but I’d built up a small but loyal fan base over the years,” Sobule says. “I’m really accessible. I get an email from a fan, I email them back. I’m still at the point in my career where it’s possible to do that. It’s not like some generic site where people invest in a band they don’t know. It was something personal for these people. They knew they were contributing to a real person who was going to put the money to good use.”
The songs on “California Years” dissect the surrealism of her new surroundings in Los Angeles, where she moved two years ago after decades in New York. They range from the bossa nova-flavored “Mexican Pharmacy,” about how Hollywood types score cut-rate drugs over-the-counter just across the California border, to a haunting meditation on a long-ago country star who fled the music industry, “Where is Bobbie Gentry?” Sobule could’ve faded away into obscurity like Gentry as well, but instead she produced an album that ranks with her best work, a winning mix of poignance and sarcasm.
She brought the same pluck, fortitude and wry humor to her self-marketing campaign. She created numerous tiers for contributions, and offered incentives depending on the size of the donation: $10 bought a free digital download of the album, $200 earned free admission to any Sobule show this year, $500 insured that any donor would be mentioned in a song at the end of the album, and $5,000 booked a Sobule concert in the host’s living room.
Great idea, right? But Sobule advises any artist intent on following her footsteps that the time investment is substantial.
“I haven’t written a song in a month and a half,” she says. “I’m too busy doing my social networking. I feel like a little kid doing her dad’s job -- I have my cubicle with a computer, and go to work there every morning.”
Sobule could’ve made the album at home for a cut-rate price, but decided to go for a bigger budget and a professional recording studio. “I wanted to show the labels that I could do what they’re supposed to be doing at a fraction of the cost, and do it better,” she says. “I spent a couple of weeks in a studio in Los Angeles where Joni Mitchell and the Carpenters and Poison --- let’s not forget Poison – recorded. I wanted to make an album that could’ve come from a big-label artist, and at the same time was totally grassroots.”
The contributions even allowed for a small budget to promote the album. Sobule will release a guerilla-style YouTube video of her teaching the songs to guitar-shredder friends such as Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and the MC5’s Wayne Kramer.
“If you have ideas on how to promote this album, I’m open,” she says with a laugh. “Really, I have no idea what I’m doing. But I’m responsible for my decisions. I can’t say the album wasn’t as good because the label didn’t do something. I have no excuses. It’s scary, but it’s completely liberating.”
greg@gregkot.com
Jill Sobule and comedian Julia Sweeney (ex-“Saturday Night Live”) will team up for a night of songs, stories and jokes, March 27 at the Lakeshore Theatre, 3175 N. Broadway, $25; ticketweb.com.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Shelton Hank Williams III
hank3.com
From the Facebook fan page "Hank III"
Williams spent much of his early career playing drums in punk rock bands.
In 1996, mounting child support payments led Williams to capitalize on his family name and sign a contract with Nashville, Tennessee music industry giant Curb Records. Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts was issued shortly thereafter, which spliced together recordings to make it seem that three generations of Williams men were singing alongside one another. Upon first meeting Hank III, Minnie Pearl, a friend of Hank Williams Sr., reportedly said "Lord, honey, you're a ghost," as she was astonished by his striking resemblance to his grandfather.
Williams' first solo album, Risin' Outlaw, was released in September 1999 to respectable sales and strong reviews. While his name (and his uncanny vocal and physical resemblances to his grandfather) could have guaranteed Williams a thriving country audience, he had little patience for the often predictable Nashville sound, nor for even the minimal constraints on behavior his promoters required. His opinions on this subject are well summed up in the songs "Trashville" and "Dick in Dixie" Lovesick, Broke and Driftin' was released in 2002.
Known for his relentless touring, Williams' live shows typically follow a "Jekyll and Hyde" format of a country set followed by a hellbilly set, and then an Assjack set. He plays country and hellbilly with his "Damn Band" and produces a very different sound with Assjack, which is a punk rock band. The lineup for Assjack includes the addition of supplemental vocalist, Gary Lindsey, bassist JoeBuck switching from upright to electric bass, and the departure of his fiddle and slide guitar players. In the past, The Damn Band/Assjack also featured fiddle-player extraordinaire Michael "Fiddleboy" McCanless, who would play both sets, adding traditional violin for country set of the concert before plugging his instrument into an amplifier and distortion unit for later sets. Another former band member was guitarist Duane Denison, previously with The Jesus Lizard, who left The Damn Band and Assjack in January 2001 and later that year formed Tomahawk.
Williams had a great deal of trouble with Curb Records. He expressed dissatisfaction with his debut, and reportedly the label was unwilling to release his appropriately named This Ain't Country LP, nor allow him to issue it on another record label. In response, Williams began selling t-shirts stating "Fuck Curb." Also during this era, Williams played bass guitar in Superjoint Ritual, a now defunct band led by with former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo. Joe Fazzio, former drummer for Superjoint Ritual, has toured with Hank III as well as contributing to his album Lovesick, Broke and Driftin'.
In late 2004, Thrown Out of the Bar was slated for release, but Curb opted not to issue it. Williams and label executive Mike Curb would be in and out of court for the next year before a judge ruled in favor of Williams in the spring of 2005, demanding that Curb release the album. Shortly thereafter, Williams and Curb came to terms, and Williams dropped his "Fuck Curb" campaign. Bar was reworked into Straight to Hell, released on Curb’s rock imprint, Bruc, which featured a cover of "Pills I Took," originally by Those Poor Bastards.
Battles with Wal-Mart had delayed the release of Straight To Hell, which was released on February 28, 2006 as a two-disc set in two formats: a censored version (for Wal-Mart), and an uncensored version, which was the first major-label Country album to bear a parental advisory warning. One of the songs, Pills I Took, was written by a little known Wisconsin group called Those Poor Bastards who originally released the song on their 2004 CD "Country Bullshit".
Currently, Hank III is touring in support of Straight To Hell, and has been overheard claiming that a rock record, presumably under the moniker of Assjack, will finally see the light of day in less than a year, followed by a new country album. He has also played drums for Arson Anthem, formed with Anselmo and Mike Williams from EYEHATEGOD.
As Stated in a Youtube interview, Hank is currently working on a new album, for now Hank calls it "Damn Right & Rebel Proud" and has some of the same type of songs on it as "Straight to Hell".
www.zo2.com
From www.zo2.com/bioz.html:
Talk is cheap – especially in rock ‘n roll! All that matters are the music and the performances. Melding the funk and swagger of the 70s with modern arrangements, harmonies and lyrics, ZO2 is single-handedly infusing the rock world with the energy and excitement it has so long been missing.
In stores now, ZO2’s “Ain’t It Beautiful” on Riker Hill Records was instantly praised in Metal Edge Magazine and includes songs such as the politically explosive “Isolate”, the satirically charged “If You See Kay” and the emotive “Comin’ Home”. The Brooklyn-based trio is tireless in their support of the release as they bring their personal brand of high-energy rock n’ roll to enthusiastic audiences across the country. Radio is proving just as supportive spinning “Isolate” at stations across the county. Additionally, ZO2 has been featured on syndicated radio shows including “The Tourbus” and Eddie Trunk’s show.
And the band is coming to homes everywhere on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 when ZO2’s “Z Rock” premieres on IFC (Independent Film Channel). Touted as “based on a (kinda) true story”, the 10-episode season features guest stars such as rockers Dave Navarro, John Popper and Sebastian Bach along with notable comedians including Dave Attell, Gilbert Gottfried and Greg Giraldo. Joan Rivers appears in a recurring role and Lynne Koplitz, Jay Oakerson and VH1’s Allison Becker are series regulars.
ZO2’s talent and charisma has been opening doors for them since the beginning. Their debut independent release, “Tuesdays & Thursdays” won the band surprising attention. Within weeks of its release, ZO2 was on the main stage opening for Kiss and Poison on their entire 40 city national, VH1 sponsored “Rock the Nation” tour and the toughest audiences in the world embraced them with standing ovations every night. The tour and CD also garnered attention from Hit Parader as ZO2 was the only unsigned band to be included in the magazine’s “Year in Metal” issue.
Featuring brothers Paulie Z (vocals, guitar) and David Z (vocals, bass) and Joey Cassata (drums, vocals), the members’ individual past musical achievements are noteworthy: David as the bassist for the enormously successful Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Joey in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Blue Man Group and Paulie as a featured vocalist on many of Howard Stern’s infamous song parodies. Paulie created NYC’s popular ZO2’s Rock Asylum featuring local and national rock artists each month proving that rock n’ roll is alive and prospering and the rock community is still thriving, hungry and begging for more.
And what does ZO2 mean? Clearly, it’s the formula for rock ‘n roll.
From www.zo2.com/bioz.html:
Talk is cheap – especially in rock ‘n roll! All that matters are the music and the performances. Melding the funk and swagger of the 70s with modern arrangements, harmonies and lyrics, ZO2 is single-handedly infusing the rock world with the energy and excitement it has so long been missing.
In stores now, ZO2’s “Ain’t It Beautiful” on Riker Hill Records was instantly praised in Metal Edge Magazine and includes songs such as the politically explosive “Isolate”, the satirically charged “If You See Kay” and the emotive “Comin’ Home”. The Brooklyn-based trio is tireless in their support of the release as they bring their personal brand of high-energy rock n’ roll to enthusiastic audiences across the country. Radio is proving just as supportive spinning “Isolate” at stations across the county. Additionally, ZO2 has been featured on syndicated radio shows including “The Tourbus” and Eddie Trunk’s show.
And the band is coming to homes everywhere on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 when ZO2’s “Z Rock” premieres on IFC (Independent Film Channel). Touted as “based on a (kinda) true story”, the 10-episode season features guest stars such as rockers Dave Navarro, John Popper and Sebastian Bach along with notable comedians including Dave Attell, Gilbert Gottfried and Greg Giraldo. Joan Rivers appears in a recurring role and Lynne Koplitz, Jay Oakerson and VH1’s Allison Becker are series regulars.
ZO2’s talent and charisma has been opening doors for them since the beginning. Their debut independent release, “Tuesdays & Thursdays” won the band surprising attention. Within weeks of its release, ZO2 was on the main stage opening for Kiss and Poison on their entire 40 city national, VH1 sponsored “Rock the Nation” tour and the toughest audiences in the world embraced them with standing ovations every night. The tour and CD also garnered attention from Hit Parader as ZO2 was the only unsigned band to be included in the magazine’s “Year in Metal” issue.
Featuring brothers Paulie Z (vocals, guitar) and David Z (vocals, bass) and Joey Cassata (drums, vocals), the members’ individual past musical achievements are noteworthy: David as the bassist for the enormously successful Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Joey in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Blue Man Group and Paulie as a featured vocalist on many of Howard Stern’s infamous song parodies. Paulie created NYC’s popular ZO2’s Rock Asylum featuring local and national rock artists each month proving that rock n’ roll is alive and prospering and the rock community is still thriving, hungry and begging for more.
And what does ZO2 mean? Clearly, it’s the formula for rock ‘n roll.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
Las Vegas, NV (March 3, 2009) – Panasonic introduced the DMC-GH1, the newest member of the company’s LUMIX G Micro System – a new digital interchangeable lens camera system that delivers professional-level features and performance in a compact and easy-to-use camera body. Featuring advanced video photography functions, such as the ability to record High Definition (HD) AVCHD 1080p/24p video, the new LUMIX GH1 comes with a newly developed long-zoom interchangeable lens – the LUMIX G VARIO HD 14-140mm/F4.0-5.8 ASPH./MEGA O.I.S. specifically designed to support HD movie recording and features a silent motor and continuous auto focusing (AF) capability; two features which distinguish the LUMIX GH1 from DSLRs that offer HD video recording capabilities.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Panasonic premieres ZS3 / TZ7 with AVCHD lite video
Panasonic has announced the release of the DMC-ZS3 the first camera to record AVCHD lite HD videos. The ZS3 is also packed with some impressive video and audio features such as 48kHz sample rate and Dolby Digital Stereo Creator for high quality audio, a Wind Cut function and Intelligent Auto mode for video recording. This 10MP camera (10MP output from a 12MP sensor) also comes along with a 3 inch hi-resolution LCD, 12x optical zoom (25-300mm equiv), Optical Image Stabilizer, and Advanced Face Recognition.
see full post via dpreview.com
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