Carlos Santana is one of my musical heros. He’s also a board member and part owner of premium spirits brand, Tequila Casa Noble.
I don’t drink a lot of tequila, and I can’t say that I have ever tried Casa Noble, but now that I know Carlos’ role in the company, I will give the product a sip or two. Yes, it’s that easy to get me to sample the product. We’ll see about cost, taste, availability and all the rest.
I have to say, I love that Carlos reveals himself in the video, but the construction of the piece isn’t beautifully rendered, as it needs to be. Premium brands need to go all out on their production values, or doubt creeps in.
Speaking of Carlos and doubt creeping in, did you hear he’s doing a two-year “residency” at House of Blues in Las Vegas? I may find myself attending some of these shows, but I can’t help reflecting on how this is an unfamiliar time in rock and roll. For one, ticket prices to live shows are freaking outrageous.
Grateful Dead’s bass player, Phil Lesh, is also about to embark on a residency program at his own venue, Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif. His opening ten-night run is just about sold out, although it looks like there are a couple $300 VIP tickets and $150 general admission tickets remaining. It’s enough to lead a psychedelic rock fan to drink.
Have you heard New Multitudes, a super group made of Americana torchbearers: Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Will Johnson (Centro-matic), Anders Parker (Varnaline), and Jim James (My Morning Jacket)?
The group’s new record is an intimate interpretation of Woody Guthrie’s previously unrecorded lyrics.
Parker, who I had the honor of interviewing in Sept. 2008, described his own and the band’s process in the Burlington Free Press:
It’s a distinct and singular honor to be involved in this project. Visiting the archives would’ve been enough. But setting Woody’s words to music has been a fundamentally life-altering experience. His words and music and the life he led are an inspiration, and the vibrancy of his being still resonates and shines. He’s a beacon.
New Multitudes cut some amazing tracks on this record. Parker writes about how natural it all was. You can hear it on “Old L.A.” and other tracks. The music sounds free and easy. It also sounds timeless, like the Eagles could have recorded the song in the 1970s or perhaps, Dawes today.
Of course, Billy Bragg and Wilco made two albums of unrecorded Woodie Guthrie songs in 1998 and 2000 respectively, and both Mermaid Avenue editions are stellar works at the very top of many an audiophile’s pile.
How many more albums will be pulled from the Guthrie slush pile? As many as humanly possible, I hope. When I posted the Burlington Free Press article on Facebook, my friend Kate replied, “Woody was the musical poet for the unions. We need to sing his songs again — for the good of men, women, children and our Mother Earth.”
Sounds to me like the Dog is filling the void, rather than being the void, but it’s clearly all good.
In other recently released album news, The Black Keys are back at it with El Camino, which debuted last December. I like this fuller Black Keys sound that the new band lineup affords.
Next up in the new record category is Galactic with Carnivale Electricos, which goes on sale wherever fine jams are sold this coming Tuesday.
We were seated in the top row of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Wednesday night for Wilco, but that didn’t stop us from getting a good taste of opening act White Denim’s 1970s-drenched rock and roll stew.
The band from Austin, Texas has been kicking it old school since 2006. I don’t mean to limit the band’s range with that statement. The 1970s was an expansive time in rock music, and White Denim is a band busy stretching the limits of what they can do with their dub, psychedelic, prog rock, blues, punk, jazz and soul influences.
Let’s listen:
Last May, White Denim released their fourth studio album D on Downtown Records. Like me, you can listen to it now on Spotify.
The band, which reminds me of Portland-based Blitzen Trapper, also makes their music available on SoundCloud.
If you’d like to read about Wilco’s performance, Willamette Week, The Oregonian’s Ryan White and the band itself, have the beat covered. Although none of those sources mention the state of affairs in rock and roll today. That’s work best left to the blogger.
It cost $110, including fees, for two tickets to Wilco with White Denim on the bill. The Schnitz closed down their alcohol sales by the fourth song of Wilco’s long set for reasons I do not comprehend. Also, the hall itself needs to be outfitted for sound. There was just one hanging stack of speakers above the stage, and that’s not sufficient for the two thousand of people in the balcony.
Two weeks ago in Boston, author and speaker David Meerman Scott came off the stage at DMA2011 to hand me a copy of the book he co-authored with Brian Halligan of HubSpot.
Interestingly, there’s now another book due to be released about the band’s keen understanding of marketing, which gives me reason to pause. Because marketing wasn’t on the minds of Garcia, Lesh and company. Delivering an exceptional musical experience (product) was the thing that mattered most to Grateful Dead.
My AdPulp colleague, Dan Goldgeier, reviewed the book when it came out last year. Now, having just read the book myself, I’ll share a few thoughts.
I like how the authors identify present-day companies doing the things that the band helped to pioneer, like cultivating community and treating one’s best customers like the VIPs that they are. But I don’t like how there’s an unspoken thought that the managers of today’s companies somehow picked up their best practices from the band. There’s no need to imply a connection in these case studies and I believe the book would be better if this non-link was made more clear.
The book also makes no mention of Grateful Dead’s anti-corporate stance. It was this outsider position that drove a lot of the band’s innovation and do-it-yourself work ethic. Grateful Dead was a successful enterprise not because they knew how to bring their music and lifestyle to market. The band’s music spread from college town to college town and well beyond because the music and the concert experience in particular was extraordinary. This point too often gets glossed over in “How To” books. Scott and Halligan attempt to illustrate how a company today can achieve “viral marketing” success by following in the band’s footsteps. I see the connective fiber and understand why the authors want to help others see it too, but unless you or your company is undertaking the kind of exploratory problem solving that led to 27-minute long “Dark Star” jams, you’re unlikely to experience the same kind of results.
If you’re genuinely interested in the factors that made Grateful Dead hum, explore their decision to live together at 710 Ashbury Street and practice eight plus hours a day. Look into the man that Jerry Garcia was and realize how few musicians are endowed with his relentless dedication to craft. Grapple with the band’s insistence on consensus. Also, admit that LSD had a major role in shaping both the music and the scene. Scott and Halligan mention several times in the book that it’s a marijuana-fueled party, and it is, but that’s far from the whole story. LSD opens minds and frees people to express themselves in ways they’ve never experienced before. Once that happens, people are converted – not just to the band and its music – but to a new way of thinking. When you combine LSD and the band’s hard work and extraordinary talents, the result is magic.
We are right to want to explore the magic and right to keep it alive and growing today, but let’s not get confused when we listen to the music play. A band of this caliber, or a company with a category-defying product or service, hardly needs marketing. When a thing, or a series of performances truly is great, people develop a deep passion for it and actively seek ways to share “their find” with friends. So, if you want to market like Grateful Dead, do it, but don’t expect the magic to happen without a product or service–and an active catalyst–that consistently blows peoples’ minds.
I do appreciate the authors’ willingness to jump into this pond, because there are legitimate themes to explore here. But when the words “Grateful Dead” are attached to something like a business book, the book really has to rock.
We’ve been listening to Okkervil River since 2007, when The Stage Names came out.
Last night at Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon we go to see the band perform in a beautiful outdoor setting. AgesandAges opened the bill, followed by Okkervil River and The Decemberists.
Okkervil River’s founding members became friends at Kimball Union Academy, a prep school in Meriden, New Hampshire, and after parting ways for college moved to Austin, Texas to live together and start a band.
The band takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya, which is another clue as to their intelligence and where they’re coming from.
Okkervil River’s new album, I Am Very Far, was released on May 10, 2011. This is how NPR describes the record:
It’s a bold departure from how the group has operated so far. Sheff’s vocals are creaky, but his lyrics are dazzling; his arrangements are sloppy, but his hooks are indelible. The band’s trademark has always been the union of those elements into a beautiful mess. I Am Very Far reverses that formula: The storytelling is knotty, cryptic and David Lynch-like in its ominous weirdness, while the music is so severe and precise as to be terrifying at times.
In other words, it’s not a pop album. Rather, it’s a unique work from a band that finds a way to sound unlike every other band playing today — a fact for which they must be praised.
Of course, last night’s headliner, The Decemberists, are also totally unique. Darby and I call their style, “Sea Shanty music.”
Interestingly, this strange form has caught on, making The Decemberists a mainstream act, at least where record sales, touring schedules, radio airplay and critical acclaim are concerned. In fact, there was evidence of this last light, as only two in ten fans noticeably belonged to the hipster tribe.
I’ve been playing with free streaming music service, Spotify, for a few weeks now (ever since the Stockholm-based service launched in the U.S). I now wonder if there’s a reason to buy music ever again.
Spotify does not have every track one might desire in its library of 15 million tracks, but I’ve been able to locate 90% of what I’m looking for — mostly albums I don’t own from artists that I know I like. When I find the albums I want, I merely drag them over to the left-hand sidebar to create a new playlist. Then the album is always there for me when I open Spotify, without paying a thing for it.
See you later, iTunes.
Cupertino’s got to be hating this. Spotify’s user interface (UI) even looks like iTunes’.
According to Los Angeles Times, Warner Music chief executive, Edgar Bronfman Jr., is one music exec not hating Spotify (note: Warner, three other major record labels and an independent label own a little over 17% of Spotify).
He predicted that Spotify, which is currently paying more money for music royalties than it makes in subscriptions and advertising, would be profitable if it can continue to induce its free users to spring for the premium service.
“The kinds of levels that Spotify is currently achieving in Europe is also extremely encouraging,” Bronfman said. “If that keeps up, they will be a very profitable business themselves.”
Presently, 1.6 million mostly European users pay for Spotify’s premium service, which lets them use the service on mobile devices and home audio systems such as Sonos. The free stream is ad supported.
Subscriptions run $9.99-a-month in the U.S., or about $120 a year. I used to spend $120 in a month with the iTunes store, but all that ended when I changed my iTunes store ID in the fall of 2008, an unfortunate step that rendered all the songs I purchased from Apple unplayable on all my Apple devices. No, I’m not joking.
But back to Spotify, I have to say it’s a great music discovery engine, as well. I’m currently listening to YACHT, for instance — something I might not do if I had to pay for the privilege. Should YACHT or the other bands I’m discovering on Spotify become new favorites, I’ll eventually pay to seem them live, and I’ll no doubt end up writing about them and/or telling friends about them.
By the way, this is the service MySpace could have launched but didn’t. It’s also much more intuitive than Last.fm, Blip.fm, HypeMachine and a host of other start-ups that have tried to advance in this space. If I want a random playlist based on past preferences, there’s Pandora. Other than that, I’m looking for music on Spotify.
On Tuesday, Dawes’ new album Nothing Is Wrong was released by ATO Records.
The L.A. folk-rock quartet recorded the disc at producer Jonathan Wilson’s Echo Park studio late last year in between touring commitments. Jackson Browne appears on the record and band leader, Taylor Goldsmith, says the band was aiming for an “American rock & roll” sound inspired by artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Bob Seger.
I really like the first song on the record, “Time Spent In Los Angeles.” In an interview with Street Date Radio, Goldsmith is asked if there intentionally a California vibe to this album?
Goldsmith: It’s not an intentional thing, I just write about what I feel like I have a good concept of and everybody feels like they have a close relationship with the world that they come from…It’s not like I’m trying to represent California, I’m more just trying to represent me and I happen to be in California when I’m not on the road. “Times Spent in Los Angeles” (and this goes for anyone from anywhere, I just happened to use the town LA), but when there are a hundred people in the room and two of them are from LA, I believe that they can kind of pick each other out. I think that the environment that we all come from dictates who we are and I feel like there is a complicated quality to someone from LA. It is half cynical and half just devastatingly realistic and I have a complicated relationship with it. I think that exists anywhere and I love that.
Darby and I saw Dawes last year at this time, when they opened for Josh Ritter at The Wonder Ballroom. This is a band that’s making progress and I expect their new album to be well received by skinny jeans-wearing hipsters and old folk rockers, alike.
My cousin Joshua Cain Daugherty came to town last week with Wammo vs. Forsyth, an offshoot of the Austin-based band, Asylum Street Spankers. It’s fun to see Joshua in action as a rock and roll tour manager. For such a laid back dude, he gets the musicians where they need to be, when they need to be there.
Before the show, Joshua was hyping Guy Forsyth a bit, saying what a pro he is and how he practices a lot and has great stage presence. I wondered if I would see the craftsmanship on stage at The Alberta Rose, and I did. Forsyth, it turns out is a gentleman and a songster. He reminds me of an old-time kind of guy that rides the rails and tells the tales.
I decided to purchase The Chicago Transit Authority from Amazon the other day and the 1969 release from this hugely popular band is definitely worth the every penny. You might even call the double album a masterpiece of jazz fusion and rock.
Released in April 1969, the album (sometimes informally referred to simply as “CTA”) proved to be an immediate hit, reaching #17 in the US and #9 in the UK. While critical reaction was also strong, the album initially failed to produce any hit singles, and the group was seen as an album-oriented collective until their producer James Guercio later shortened some of the tracks for radio.
While clicking around these tubes to learn more about the band’s origins, I found fragments of a documentary that features Chicago in their native studio setting, the 4000 acre Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado, which was purchased by Guercio for $1 million in 1971.
According to a page on Invicta Records’ website, Chicago filmed a network television special there, “Chicago: High in the Rockies” in 1973, the year Caribou Ranch opened. A second TV special “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch,” was broadcast in 1974.
Elton John’s 1974 album Caribou was recorded at, and named after, the studio. Other artists who made records at Caribou Ranch include Earth Wind & Fire, The Beach Boys, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Joe Walsh, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Carole King, Waylon Jennings, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, America, Chick Corea, Deep Purple and the list goes on. Chicago recorded a total of five studio albums in Nederland: Chicago VI, Chicago VII, Chicago VIII, Chicago X, and Chicago XI.
My research also revealed that Guercio founded Country Music Television and is a major landowner in Colorado and Montana. He also has his hand in cattle ranching, as well as energy and mineral investments. He has also amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of Gen. George Custer’s papers.
