Mikey Wild, R.I.P.

The story of the Mayor of South Street, Part I (9:05):



Part II (10:00):



Part III (9:09):



Fuck the American healthcare system that failed to get him the cancer medicine and treatments that he couldn't afford.

Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You" in ASL

Real Christmas spirit from the Kinks

In recognition of Christmas, my continued underemployment, and the Senate's ratification of the START treaty, video from a Kinks performance for West German television:



Give my daddy a job 'cause he needs one
He's got lots of mouths to feed --
But if you've got one I'll have a machine gun
So I can scare all the kids down the street

Making money while giving the music itself away for free

As an IP attorney, I've been trying to counsel my musician clients that they need to give their music away for free -- their copyright be damned, because it's simply unenforceable at this point -- and make money off of value-added merch instead. Today, I came across another arrow for my quiver of arguments:

Best Buy (BBY) said it will cut back on shelf space for DVDs and CDs this holiday season.

The entertainment software market has been in decline for years, and so has the space Best Buy has allocated for compact discs and digital video discs. The space for CDs and DVDs is going to get even smaller this fall.

"We’ll have another store reset before the holidays, which will include an increase in the space for higher-growth and, in the aggregate, higher-margin categories, like Best Buy Mobile, e-readers and gaming, with a heavy emphasis on new gaming platforms and pre-owned game titles," Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday. "This will be enabled by our reorganization of the DVD and CD sections. The CD section in particular will shrink in space allotment."

Musicians: burn your CDs and try to sell them, but just accept into your heart that your music will be ripped and exchanged without your license and played on iPods around the world. There's nothing that you can do to prevent it. Lawsuits are expensive to prosecute, and the offenders are, as we lawyers like to say, judgment-proof. So use illegal downloads and sharing to your advantage: allow it to happen, with your blessing even, and see it as cutting out the label's middleman. You weren't going to make money until your fourth record (if then), and the big-box stores that aren't closing are staying open by doing things like very specifically not selling music CDs any more.

It's hard for musicians -- perhaps especially the geezers and the ones closer to my age -- to give up the dream of seeing dozens of their cellophane-wrapped jewel-cased CDs, set out in sharp rows in a record store. Employee pick of the week! Billboard Hot 100! And when was the last time they gave a Grammy to an album that wasn't distributed by a major label? (How about "never.")

Well, too bad, so sad. The world moves on. What, as a musician, do you want? Now, of course you want millions of dollars, or at least you'd like to be able to quit your day job. (Note that the only two musicians I've ever known to quit their day jobs and make music full-time ended up with scurvy. No lie. Scurvy.) But a good second-best is to simply have your music heard by the largest number of people possible, and to have them pay you what they can, when they can.

Option 1: Value-added merch, Nina Paley-style. Signed CDs, limited-edition posters, special-event t-shirts. Or think outside the box, and offer things like "The band will make you dinner for 8 for $400!" or "Attend 5 hours of our next recording session for $300!"

Option 2: tongodeon, a long-time Internet acquaintance of mine, pointed out the other day that there's a relatively new scheme going on nowadays: the idea of "pledging" for new music. That is, pay your favorite artist some small amount of money so that you will be the first on your block to get their newest recording or the final mastering of their new record:

PledgeMusic offers you the opportunity to fund your favourite band or solo artist's new album. In effect, you as the fan become the record label the band or solo artist is recording for. You help fund their record and if they don't reach their pledge target you won't get charged a cent.

In exchange for your early involvement, you will get the music the moment the recording and mastering is finished. Additionally, if you wish to contribute a little bit more, PledgeMusic artists also offer you a range of incentives, ranging from signed merchandise to special events with the band members and in some cases personal involvement in the release process. These are specified by the artist and vary for each project.

PledgeMusic takes an administration fee, and some percentage goes to charity. I like this idea, because, if the consumer's goal is to be the first to get a new record, it incentivizes paying for music rather than getting it for free, which presumably one has to wait for. And it also includes options for value-added merch, which I think is a solid, proven way for bands to quickly and cheaply raise some cash.

And both options cut out the predatory middleman labels by funneling money directly from consumers to producers. I mean, what are labels for? Or rather, were? Pressing vinyl records, the industrial equipment for which an artist wouldn't have, and shipping records to stores, the logistics of which an artist would not be in the business of. And payola. With digital recording, the Internet, and bulk CD repro services that cost about a buck per CD, labels aren't needed. Right now artists can almost literally seize the means of production -- if one can't seize electrons, one can at least seize a sharpie for autographing CDs -- and kick the record company pig-dogs to the curb.

Music tonight: Super Devils! Tomorrow: Shady Grove Arden Music Fest

Tonight:



Rockabilly by the Super Devils at Tritone, 1508 South Street, 9:00, $6.

Tomorrow:


Hie thee down to Delaware (or "Smellaware" or simply "the Illadel") for the Shady Grove Arden Music Fest tomorrow, Saturday 12 June 2010, at the Arden Gild Hall. For a mere $20, you'll enjoy 8 hours of 5 local bands, including headliners The Joe Trainor Trio, New Sweden, The Knobs, Kombu Combo, and Caterpillar. Intermission grooves by DJ Zip.

Buy tickets in advance and save $2!

From Philadelphia, the Arden Gild Hall is easily reached via I-495 (don't take I-95 -- "you can't get there from here"), at 2126 The Highway, Arden DE 19810. Buzz me if you'd like to carpool.

Music night at the Green Line Café

Our next entry in "How to stalk Glomarization, Esq." this weekend: The Dill Pickles are coming out of hibernation tonight.

Amanda Palmer on why Lady Gaga is great

Attention, Brendan! Amanda Palmer explains it all for you: Lady Gaga is one of the canniest and best pop music entertainers out there, in a tradition that Madonna trailblazed in the early 1980s.

Tonight at the Tractor Tavern, Seattle: Hoots and Hellmouth

"Home for Supper":



Sound ranges from hard-rocking blues to bluesy ballads to Kansas-City-blues informed jamming. They're a delight to see in person, school night or not, and the show should be cheep.

Will someone please teach me harmonica?

On a lighter note, literally, I want to learn how to play the harmonica. I found one among my boxes of stuff several months ago, though I can't remember where I got it from. Was it my ex-husband's? My grand-dad's? And how come I can't get that opening riff from "The Ghost of Tom Joad" to come out of it? Granted, I haven't really played an instrument for about 20 years. But I can pick out a lot of "In 'n' Out of Grace" by the time the song is over, so long as I'm using a guitar that's reasonably in tune and my fingernails aren't too long.

Engraved on the harmonica is the brand name Hohner and "MARINE BAND" and a "C" over on one side. From 2 minutes of googling I think that means it's a diatonic Hohner Marine Band harmonica in C major.

I don't have a case for it. How should I be storing it and caring for it?

Tonight: the last Dill Pickles show of the summer at Fergie's

Old-time and bluegrass music all night long tonight at Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom Street in Center City Philadelphia.

No cover!

At least 3 bands! The Dill Pickles, the Ganesha Ramblers (from Trenton), and the Scrapple Creek Runners (from fabulous Newark, Delaware).

Then a possible surprise appearance by the Keystone Mountain Boys, and then the Dill Pickles again until last call.

Bring your earplugs and your cider jugs for free music from 6:00 to close!

Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at Triumph Brewery's upstairs bar, where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!

Triumph Brewery is at 117 Chestnut Street in Old City. It's conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (5, 12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (9, 25, 38, 40, 44, 47, 57, 61).

This week's topic: I'll do Brendan one better and present Billy Bragg's version of "Which Side Are You On":



"Come for the beer, stay for the check"

"Handbags and Gladrags" epiphany

I never really got why women of a certain age would swoon over Rod Stewart, because by the 1980s his voice was really trashed, and I couldn't tolerate anything after "Young Turks," and "Maggie May" was played way too much on the classic album rock radio station I listened to.

But I recently heard "Handbags and Gladrags" (starts at 4:30) on the radio for the first time in years and years, and now I get it.

Also I'm generally a sucker for blue-eyed soul.

Tonight: Dill Pickles old-time music at Fergie's in Center City

"Party like it's 1929" happy hour at Fergie's Pub -- see you there.

Tonite: The Dill Pickles at Fergie's, then Dawson Street Pub

Do you have anything better to do tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 than to go to Fergie's (1214 Sansom Street, Phila 19107) and then to the Dawson Street Pub in Manayunk (100 Dawson Street, Phila 19127) and listen to old-time fiddle music?

NO, YOU DO NOT.

The Dill Pickles play upstairs at Fergie's, starting at 6:00. Then it's on to the Dawson Street Pub, starting at 10:00 and going on until everybody's kicked out. Tip yer bartenders and party like it's 1929.

Tonight at Fergie's: the Dill Pickles

For the best in old-timey fiddle tunes and jug band stomps, head to Fergie's tonight, Friday 26 June 2009, 6:00 to 8:00, to see The Dill Pickles! Fergie's is at 1214 Sansom Street in Philadelphia.

Free! No cover! Buy [me lots of] beer and tip the bartenders!

Today! Free! at the Spruce Hill May Fair!

The Dill Pickles, "everyone's favorite old-timey pals," play fiddle tunes at the Spruce Hill May Fair at 2:00 p.m.

The May Fair is a free annual neighborhood festival in Clark Park, at 43rd and Baltimore in West Philly. Take any of the Green Line trolleys (except for the 10) to get there from Center City.

As for the Dill Pickles, they're:

. . . two Narbs and a carpetbagger [and one of 'em blogs], playing fiddle tunes and jug band stomps better suited to the Great Depression than our Shiny New World of the Fut. . . Oh wait? You say it feels like Black Thursday all over again? Well then we’ll fit right in. And so will you: we’re gonna party like it’s 1929 (except now the booze is legal).

Today's to-do list

- Get up at the crack of ass in the morning

- Take daughter to school

- Use up the last of this academic year's free copying services at the school library to prepare incorporation papers for a 501(c)(3) educational organization related to promoting local filmmaking

- Desperately attempt to find a date for tonight's show down the street

- Put "finish writing last papers for law school" on another day's to-do list

- Pick up daughter from school

- Feed daughter, make daughter bathe, put daughter to bed; greet babysitter, show babysitter dinner, the DVD player, and the liquor cabinet

- Go out to the show down the street