S.A. Sebastian: A View From The Bottom

I totally forgot that the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards was on tonight, so I missed the “live” broadcast and caught up with the replay, but only half the show. The only reason to watch the show, if you have to have to watch it all, is for the performances; who really cares about who wins? It always seems like a setup - especially with Britney Spears winning Best Pop Video, Best Female Video and Video of the Year. So screw all that and on to the performances.

I missed Jonas Brothers and Katy Perry, and I really don’t feel like watching the clips, not interested,  so on to Pink…  I kinda dig Pink. She’s pop. She’s rock. She’s pierced and tattooed. She sounds like Pat Benetar. What’s not to like? How about that she had to perform on some lame “movie set” surrounded by an audience that looked like paid extras? C’mon MTV, couldn’t find any real fans to put in the audience? But, Pink sang her ass off and put on a rock show. She also put on a little extra show with her shirt coming open many times revealing her tape-covered nipples. Some good planning on someone’s part.

T.I. also “performed” the song “Whatever You Like” on the “movie set.” I put performed in quotes because all he really did was walk around, lip synching, leading a girl around. The song, also very lame. He lists all the expensive things he’s gonna give his girl to make her his. Boring.

Christina Aguilera is a super-talented singer, with a voice from hell! So, I was extremely shocked that she wouldn’t perform her song live. She came out kinda dressed like Catwoman and writhed around stage with a bunch of guys in suits with briefcases. I’m not sure what any of it meant, but it was a typical performance by a pop singer; lots of running around, lots of dancers on stage following her around and lifting her up. Boring!

Paramore performed a set that was almost kick-ass, live from the Viper Room. The band was full of energy and doing the typical pop-punk jumping around thing, while lead singer Haley Williams whipped out moves from the Britney Spears and Michael Jackson playbook. So not the band that spent the last 4 years coming up on the Warped Tour. This was a band that looked like they were made by the same people that created Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana. Also, Haley’s voice sounded disturbingly like Rush’s Geddy Lee - not good. For the most part the crowd seemed genuine, but the out of nowhere a bunch of screaming maniacs came running in to surround the band. Another setup by the folks at MTV. More paid extras? I really think so. This band is HUGE right now, so I don’t really see the need. Sell out.

I missed LL Cool J, Lil Wayne and the Ting-Tings - and really don’t care to hear what these SXSW hype machines sound like.

Kid Rock came out to a luke warm reception, announcing that there would be no dancing and no lip synching. He put on a commendable performance, and I never knew he could really sing! The band was tight and on the money, but the cameras were hardly on them, so you would really never know they were there. It was too bad that the cameras weren’t on the band more often, we got to see that the audience really wasn’t into Kid. They were all on their feet for the pop and rap acts, all jumping around, but for Kid they were all seated. The camera did catch a glimpse of a couple people dancing to Kid, but I think that was maybe 5 people, tops. At the end of his song he received polite applause on the order of golf claps. Kid Rock died in front of that audience. Where were all the paid extras when he needed them?

The show was closed out by a performance by everyone favorite asshole, Kanye West, debuting a brand new song called, “Love Lockdown.” I can only describe the song as nothing more or less than lame. It was a 4 minute loop with maybe 4 lines of lyrics repeated over and over for 4 minutes. Maybe the drum line in the back was a little interesting, but only because they were shrouded in darkness, wearing headlights. That looked kinda cool, maybe. But I’m still not convinced.

I missed Rhianna’s performance of “Disturbia,” so I went over to MTV.com to watch it. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered, but Rhianna has been showing an interesting dark side, and this was reflected in her performance. Her stage show was a homage to the post-apocalyptic music videos of the 80s that were like Road Warrior - think videos by Krokus, Ratt, KISS, even Cher. I loved videos like that when I was growing up, especially with all the cyber-freak girls, so I kinda liked this one. I hadn’t heard “Disturbia” before and thought it was quite good, especially with the hard rock band backing her. No doubt the girl can sing, and unlike most of the other performers, I am convinced she even sang live. Her voice had that edgy, out-of-breath quality that goes along with jumping around that others didn’t have. 

I really would have watched all the performances, but there is no “more,” or “next”button on the live performance clips page to view the 17 clips, only the 8 on the first page. So to recap, I saw a lot of singers dancing but not singing, Pink’s nipple, Geddy Lee, Thunderdome, Kid rock’s death, and Kanye punking us again. I so look forward to next year’s show.

According to a new study which takes the stand against performance royalties, being examined by congress, says that the more radio play a song gets the greater the album sales.

“There is a direct correlation between the number of ’spins’ (plays on free, local radio) and the sales of albums or singles,” the report concluded. “It is this promotion - free advertising - that drives record sales and represents just one of the many ways local radio provides value to artists and contributes to their financial and commercial success.”

The study analysed airplay and sales for “17 artists covering all genres and varying levels of success such as Velvet Revolver, U2, Rascal Flatts, Linkin Park, Green Day, Bruce Springsteen, The White Stripes, Taylor Swift and Josh Groban,” and come up with the conclusion that playing songs on the radio encourages people go out buy the records they are on, increasing album sales. Can you say, “Duh!”? Really? Playing songs on the radio leads to increased album sales? Who would have thought!

This is the latest weapon the National Association of Broadcasters is using against the RIAA, and recording artists, to prevent having to pay out performance royalties, and it makes sense. If people don’t know you exist - hear your music - they won’t know to buy your album. So, in a sense, yes, this is free advertising for the album. Conversely, you could infer that the songs sell the advertising for the radio station.

Radio is in the business of selling advertising. Why would they give away free advertising if they need to sell advertising? Look at the list of bands includied in the study; some pretty big bands in there. Those are some really popular bands that keep people tuned into the radio. And the more people tuned into the radio station, the more a radio station can charge for the advertsing. If they were playing bands like mine, and the bands I work for, they would have less listeners and have to charge less for advertising. This would continue until they were forced to change format or go out of business. So, who needs who in this case?

I think it is time we the artists, the RIAA, and the NAB, start looking at radio as we do television. The movies, sitcoms, game shows, reality show and other programming are various forms of content that networks buy or lease, for broadcast in order to sell advertising. The more successful a program is the more they can charge for advertising. The least successful programming, and failures, are canceled because they cannot charge more for advertising around them.

Technically radio works the same way, except they don’t buy or lease their programming. (Well, with the exception of talk show hosts like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Imus, Rush Limbaugh and others. It’s perfectly OK to pay for them to pay for that content.) But why shouldn’t radio work the same way and pay for the content that is broadcast? If radio were to follow the television model they would be buying or leasing each song for x amount of time with the option to cancel if a certain ratings target, ad revenue target wasn’t reached.

The performance royalty is a cheaper alternative to this. The station pays a blanket royalty fee, at the rate set by the Copyright Royalty Board, for all programming, rather than on an a la carte basis. As content providers, I think if we position the arguement this way we stand a chance getting the performance royalty. Otherwise, we could try something daring and NOT grant radio stations a license to play our music. But, to work this would have to have serious buy-in by the bands cited in that NAB study -  Velvet Revolver, U2, Rascal Flatts, Linkin Park, Green Day, Bruce Springsteen, The White Stripes, Taylor Swift and Josh Groban. Sure, if enough of us independent bands did this we could shut down many college stations and small, local broadcasters, which would encourage change, but it is the conglomerates like Clear Channel and Evergreen that really need to feel the pain before things change. They are leading the charge on behalf of these smaller stations.

OK… again. Why is this news? I understand that this might be part of the hype machine, but is it really news that Slash is “itching to start new new Velvet Revolver album?” I’m sure everyone is itching to start their next album… well maybe not people like Britney Spears who are more interested in partying than creating music. Now THAT would be news… “Britney Spears itching to record new album.”  You ‘d never expect that one coming.

The Grammy nominations are in (and yes I’m late getting to this, but I’m a busy man!) and man, another disappointing year! The list of nominees in the big categories is just as lame and boring as ever. Here’s the one’s we’ll see on TV.

Record Of The Year: Irreplaceable (Beyoncé), The Pretender (Foo Fighters), Umbrella (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z), What Goes Around…Comes Around (Justin Timberlake), Rehab (Amy Winehouse)

Album Of The Year: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Foo Fighters), These Days (Vince Gill), River: The Joni Letters (Herbie Hancock), Graduation (Kanye West), Back To Black (Amy Winehouse)

Song Of The Year: Before He Cheats (Carrie Underwood), Hey There Delilah (Plain White T’s), Like A Star (Corinne Bailey Rae), Rehab (Amy Winehouse), Umbrella (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z)

Best New Artist: Feist, Ledisi, Paramore, Taylor Swift, Amy Winehouse

Mostly crap! To be fair, it is really hard to come up with the list of nominees. The list of recordings members have to wade through is huge! In the first round, where we pick who we want to nominate, there is sometimes over 600 albums to go through in rock alone! How the Hell do you whittle that huge list down to only 5? I tried to listen to everyone on the Best Rock Performance Duo or Group list but got through 50 bands before they all melted into one big band. So, I honestly think that most people don’t vote until the final round, and those who do vote early vote for 1) themselves, 2) their friends and 3) whatever is popular on the radio at the time. This year I didn’t vote in any category. But if I did, I tell you I wouldn’t have voted for Beyoncé, Foo Fighters and Rihanna.

I don’t hate all of them. Far from it. Amy Winehouse released an excellent album, thanks to producer Mark Ronson. Paramore was pretty cool pop-punk, Corinne Baily Rae isn’t my thing, but she writes some good songs and Carrie Underwood can sing her ass off. My vote goes to Winehouse for both Record and Album of the Year, Corinne Bailey Rae for Song of the Year and Paramore for Best New Artist. I’ve already commented on what junk Kanye West produced, my comments on the others and why they are crap, are for another time. Let’s look at the good, stuff: the rock categories!

Rock this year, dispite Daughtry and Nickelback being on the list, and the Beatles covers, things are looking interesting. It’s a big mix of the old and the new, where it’s usually a big mix of the old and what’s on the radio. And the nominees in rock are…

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance: Timebomb (Beck), Only Mama Knows (Paul McCartney), Our Country (John Mellencamp), Radio Nowhere (Bruce Springsteen), Come On (Lucinda Williams)

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: It’s Not Over (Daughtry) Working Class Hero (Green Day), If Everyone Cared (Nickelback), Instant Karma (U2), Icky Thump (The White Stripes)

Best Hard Rock Performance: Sweet Sacrifice (Evanescence), The Pretender (Foo Fighters), I Don’t Wanna Stop (Ozzy Osbourne), Sick, Sick, Sick (Queens Of The Stone Age), The Pot (Tool)

Best Metal Performance: Nothing Left (As I Lay Dying), Never Ending Hill (King Diamond), Aesthetics Of Hate (Machine Head), Redemption (Shadows Fall), Final Six (Slayer)

Best Rock Song: Come On (Lucinda Williams), Icky Thump (The White Stripes), It’s Not Over (Daughtry), The Pretender (Foo Fighters), Radio Nowhere (Bruce Springsteen)

Best Rock Album: Daughtry (Daughtry), Revival (John Fogerty), Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Foo Fighters), Magic (Bruce Springsteen), Sky Blue Sky (Wilco)

Best Alternative Music Album: Alright, Still… (Lily Allen), Neon Bible (Arcade Fire), Volta (Bjork), Wincing The Night Away (The Shins), Icky Thump (The White Stripes)

I can’t really make a call in many of these categories because I honestly don’t care about buying the McCartney, Springsteen, Daughtry, Nickelback, Queens of the Stone Age, Evanescence, Ozzy, White Stripes and Beck albums. I was never a fan of McCartney and Springsteen, and Daughtry, Nickelback, QotSA and Evanescence all had terribly lame and boring releases. The White Stripes… if you read me regularly, you know how I feel about those assholes. Still, even though I don’t like all these, you have to admit, overall things are real interesting, and maybe looking up for rock.

My absolute favorite on this list this year, hands down, has to be Lilly Allen. Alright, Still… is my favorite album of the year, and in my opinion has the best songwriting, with some absolutely clever lyrics.

Just last night I asked the question, will the end of Bauhaus mean a new beginning for Love and Rockets? It seems, that Love and Rockets will be playing a Joe Strummer tribute concert at the Key Club in Los Angeles on Saturday, December 22!

The line-up for the event is huge:

Love And Rockets
La Plebe
Zander Schloss & The Wilderness Years
    Featuring:
    Zander Schloss - Vocals, 12 string, Bazooki
    Jonny Polonsky - Guitar
    Dix Denney (The Weirdos) - Electric Guitar
    Tim Aaron (Lisa Marie Presley) - Electric Guitar
    Martyn Lenoble - Bass, Upright Bass
    Victor Indrizzo - Drums
    Emilliano Alameda - Congas/Latin Percussion
    Kieran Mulroney (Low And Sweet Orchestra) - Violin
    Dermot Mulroney (Low And Sweet Orchestra) - Cello, Dobro

    And The Harmony Brothers:
    Gus Seyffert, Charlie Wadhams & Mike Green

    With Special Guest:
    Flea - Trumpet

Three Bad Jacks
David J
Hellride (featuring Mike Watt, Steven Perkins & Peter Distefano)
The Devildolls Rock ‘n’ Roll Street Gang