Big Head Todd and the Monsters are joining the “give it away and see what comes back to you” tribe at just the right time. With a new album out and a 60-date tour underway, the band is making All the Love You Need available for free on their website for those who join their mailing list.
Big Head Todd is also supplying radio stations like KBCO in Boulder and KGSR in Austin with the record. According to Billboard, the strategy involves customizing CD artwork with a participating station’s call letters along with the imprint of a corporate sponsor and distributing it via direct mail, using each station’s listener database. The band plans to distribute half a million CDs via this channel.
The endgame is to distribute the CD to hundreds of thousands of existing and potentially new fans in the hope that many of them will support the live show. “I am not sure yet how it will all really shake out for us; we probably won’t really know for a year or so,” Big Head Todd manager Bill Rusch said. “It will either have been a brilliant idea or a major blunder. It just seems like a natural next step for us, and we feel we are in a position where this will provide a strategic advantage.”
“I’ve always rejoiced at the crumbling of the old empire,” Todd Park Mohr told the Denver Post. “Digital music diversified the music that is being created, and it also makes a level playing field for artists. Culture is a lot more interesting when there are a lot of little things going on instead of a couple big things happening, and that’s why this is the Wild West—it’s so fun to be listening to music right now.”
There’s a treasure trove of live material on this site. William Tonks is here, Vic Chestnutt, Acetate (yet another Dave Schools’ side-project), Deerhunter (from Atlanta), King of Prussia, The Tom Collins, Hayride and more are all represented. It’s quite the find for any fan of Athens, GA-generated music.
I let my Last.fm subscription lapse for a few months, but picked it back up the other day. Now I see they’re directing me to videos I might want to see and offering up the embed code in case you too would like to view them. Smart.
The video above is Okkervil River from their European tour in late 2006, when they had a day off in the area surrounding the walled city of San Elpidio a Mare, Italy.
“What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.” -David Byrne in Wired
Leftover Salmon returned to Boulder last night and the hometown crowd was there to greet the reunited slamgrass kings in style. Mayor McCheese was in the house. New Orleans’ live painter, Frenchy, threw bright paints on the night’s canvas. Friends greeted friends in the boogie zone and the place had such a nice aroma about it.
Jeff Sipe is back in the band on drums, which was nice to see. Salmon past and Salmon present were on display. Banjo player, Noam Pikelny, who joined the band after Mark Vann’s passing, had a stunning lead in the first set, after which Vince bowed down to him, as if to say, “We thank you young man, for holding down your position like a true champion and keeping the music alive.” Bill McKay brought some soul and blues to the party and Drew generally had command of his instruments and the crowd throughout.
Corn!
Vince deserves a paragraph of his own. He’s the master clown, and so humble.
On Monday night in London, Led Zeppelin made a triumphant return to the stage for the first time in 27 years.
The Washington Post has an interesting first person account of the scene by Erik Huey.
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones stride onstage, joined by Jason Bonham, son of their original drummer, John Bonham, whose death in 1980 caused the band’s breakup. As they pick up their instruments, I’m consumed by one overwhelming sentiment: Can they pull it off? Can a trio of 59-to-63-year-old men recapture the raw thunder and sexually charged intensity of their youth?
For that matter, can we?
I’m an attorney now, staring down the barrel of 40. But think of the person you were decades ago — adolescent, unshackled by cynicism and Weltschmerz, full of youthful abandon and an unblinking belief in the sheer possibility of things.
From all accounts (a quick Google search away) the band delivered, and the fans who were lucky enough to pay outrageous sums to be inside the O2 arena were more than satisfied.
I just signed up for iLike, a Last.fm-like social music service that works in conjunction with iTunes.
One thing I noticed is they have a great offer for artists. Instead of jumping all over the interweb to manage one’s soc nets, iLike makes it easy to update from one interface.
All soc net users need this functionality, not just bands. Maybe iLike will extend this offer to all users at some point.
Paste Magazine likes The National’s 2007 effort, Boxer, a lot. In fact, it’s their album of the year. I have to admit, I don’t have it and I know next to nothing about the band. So, let’s push on through the Atlanta-based music mag’s top ten (they actually rate their 50 best).
At number 10 is Shepherd’s Dog by Iron & Wine
No. 9) Cease to Begin by Band of Horses
No. 8) We’re Dead Before the Ship Even Sank by Modest Mouse
No. 7) Sky Blue Sky by Wilco
No. 6) Kala by M.I.A.
No. 5) The Reminder by Feist
No. 4) Icky Thump by The White Stripes
No. 3) Magic by Bruce Springsteen
No. 2) Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
No. 1) Boxer by The National
Number seven is the disc that gets played over and over in this household. It’s also nice to see The Boss rank so high. And when you consider Iron & Wine, Band of Horses, Modest Mouse and The White Stripes are on this list, it becomes a celebration of songcraft.
Some of the albums in Paste’s picks 11-50, I would have put in the top ten instead. Namely, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon and Cassadaga by Bright Eyes.
It was a good year for new music. Some other albums I’d push to the top of any pile are Dirt Farmer by Levon Helm, Handshake Smiles by Arthur Yoria, From the Corner to the Block by Galactic, The Stage Names by Okkervil River and La Cucaracha by Ween.
