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.

For a long time thse of us in bands in NYC laughed at our Los Angeles counterparts for having to pay to play in bars and clubs. Well, it’s time to stop laughing. Pay-to-play is alive and well, and thriving, in NYC and in the surrounding suburbs. Despite what people are saying about NYC there are plenty of places to play, and it seems like there is a new bar or club opening every week that has live entertainment. Even 3 new high-capacity venues, the Blender Theatre, Terminal 5 and Highline Ballroom opened in the last year. There are so many places now that the clubs and bars are stacking bands 6 or more per night, and charging them $100 or more to play, which guarentees them $600 before they even open the doors. And yes, like, L.A., these are places where you have to buy tickets from the club in order to play, which is something you used to only have to do to get on a bill with a famous band at a big venue.

But now pay-to-play in NYC has a new face in the form of “minimum draw.” Sure, almost all venues have had a minimum draw requirement, but that minumum used to be about 10 people. Now because NYC is so saturated with bands that have relocated here to “make it”, and the audiences are smaller and smaller, the minimum draw requirements in many places have gone as high as 40 people, with the bands typically getting only 1-2 bucks a head. Sure, some places are more generous, going as high as $5, but the catch is that some places pay starting from person 41 that’s a $400 pay-to-play fee! Per band! That’s a lot of money, but only if the bands can draw that many people. And right now in NYC, there are very few bands that are able to draw enough to cross the payment threshold.

How are the clubs and bars getting away with it? And why are we paying to play instead of being paid to entertain?

There are 2 reasons. First, like I said earlier, NYC has reached its saturation point with bands. NYC, like Los Angeles has been a place where people go to ive out their dreams to be a star. But, since so many bands have “made it” out of Brooklyn the past few years (Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs!, Vampire Weekend, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, We Are Scientists, etc…) bands from all over the world — each one either sounding more derivative and boring than the next, or trying to be as “clever” and “artistic” as possible — are moving as close to Brooklyn as they can so they can be the next Brooklyn band to be discovered. Look at the entertainment ads in the Village Voice. On a Monday or Tuesday night in Manhattan you can find close to 100 bands playing. Add Brooklyn and Queens, you get close to 200. On a Friday or Saturday more than 200 bands between the 3 boroughs. With all this competition bands are undercutting each other, to get the gig. Which, of course is the real reason there is no music scene in NYC anymore. But that’s a subject for another time.

The second reason is astounding. The clubs and “promoters” say that it its to make sure the bands promote the show, making sure that bands can bring a crowd, protecting themselves if there is poor turnout or slow sales. So, not only are we the entertainers (sorry… artists. I don’t want to offend the folks from Brooklyn or the singer-songwriters) paying them to play on their stage, we pay them to be their promoters (saving them money on posters and fliers and advertising that we pay for), and to find people to drink their cocktails. All this and we only to get $1-2 a head?

As result of this oh-so-clever thinking, the quality of bands performing in NYC has gone down the tubes. It used to be that you had to audition to play places like CBGBs (closed), Arlene’s Grocery, the Continental (now a cocktail lounge); you didn’t have to have to have a following to play, you had to be talented and creative and they would groom you and put you in front of an audience, and let you build a following. Now, anyone can play anywhere (including Arlene’s Grocery) as long as they have a few bucks and can bring a bunch of friends to drink beers. In my opinion this lack of talent is one of the biggest contributors to the lack of people going to shows, and death of the NYC music scene.

What can we do about this? Probably not a lot as long as there are bands that are willing to play for free, the bars and clubs are going to keep on getting away with this. We could go on strike. We could band together (I hate that cliche, but it fits), stage a walkout for even just one night, and boycott playing in clubs and bars that do this. Maybe all of them, just to prove a point. Imagine, a Friday or Saturday night in New York City (including Brooklyn and Queens) with not a single band playing. The day the music died in NYC. Maybe even a national band walkout day. Hmmm… interesting idea. Something to think about.

A week or 2 ago I went to an IK Multimedia demo of Stomp I/O at Guitar Center in NYC, featuring TM Stevens and his band Shaka Zulu, with Mike Carrasquillo. TM and his guitar player Mike were playing through the Stomp I/O, and sounded awesome. After the demo TM let me and Mike use his bass to play with the system. The product is basically a pedal board controller for the IK Multimedia line of Amplitube plug-ins crossed with a USB 2 Audio Interface. You can use the pedal board to control the suite of plug-ins, and even mix and match between plug-in sets, “without looking at the computer.” This thing is GTR on crack. And, just like GTR, you need to have the computer if you want to use it in a live setting.

The Stomp I/O sells for about $800 and comes with all the plug-ins, which is an excellent deal. But add the computer - they recommend a Mac Mini - for an additional $500 and you’ll have a crazy live rig. Although I am deeply entrenched in the world of DAWs and digital recording on computers, I really have no desire to bring a delicate item like a Mac Mini to gigs, especially on tour. Hell, I’m not Thomas Dolby or Howard Jones. I mainly play with heavy metal and industrial bands! I do have to replace my ART Nightbass since it is on it’s way out, but this may not be the solution. I’ll be checking out the Boss GT-10 and the GT-10B when it comes out.

Anyway, after GC started to kick everyone out, TM came over and congratulated Mike on some good bass playing, and points to me and said, “but he gots da funk!” and that he was “gonna have to call the po-po” (whatever that means). So, I gots da funk. Look out Boosty!

Psychobilly/horror-rock band the HorrorPops rolled into New York City to play the Blender Theater at Grammery last night with the Cute Lepers and the Pink Spiders opening up. I have been a big fan of the Horror Pops since they were still a band from Denmark and it was impossible to find their first album in the States. So, I had high expectations for this show: and the trio did not disappoint.

Surprisingly, the crowd was pretty diverse, filled with rockers, punks, Goths, jocks and “normals,” in addition to the rockabilly crew that is the typical fan of bands like the HorrorPops. I was completely surprised at the huge turnout for this band that I discovered on the Internet 4 years ago - I still envisioned them as a pretty small band. They hit the stage promptly at 10pm, lead by Patricia and her trademark white bass with skulls, red diamonds and jesters, and tore through songs from all 3 of their albums, Bring It On!, Hell Yeah! and the newest one, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill. They were also joined by 2 “corpse brides” who had choreographed dance routines to every song. For just over an hour it was a HorrorPops sing-a-long (even the jocks and normals) to songs like, “Trapped,” “Girl In A Cage,” “Kool Flattop,” “Freaks in Uniform,” “Hit’n’ Run,” “Julia,” “Drama Queen,” “Miss Take,” “Where They Wander,” “Baby Lou Tattoo,” “Heading For The Disco,” Copenhagen Refugee,” “Private Hall of Shame,” and the most requested “Walk Like A Zombie.” On their albums they sound like a mix of the Stray Cats, the Misfits, the Cramps and Madness, but in concert they sounded purely pyschobilly. During “Kool Flattop” the band mocked the obligatory stadium rock drum, guitar and bass solos with drummer Neidermeier playing the sampler’s demo track and then playing a few standard rock beats, followed by guitar player Nekroman grabbing the upright bass and seemingly jumping around the fretboard randomly picking notes and sliding around the neck and licking the strings. The “solos” were finished up with Jessica taking back the bass and making lots of slapping noises before returning to the song. An excellent, fun set!

The opening bands were very good, as well, making for an excellent concert overall. The Cute Lepers played a short set of 70s influenced pop-punk that was totally not like any of the Warped Tour bands. It was nice to hear a new punk band with pop influences that aren’t emo! I mean, I like emo as much as the next guy, (well actually, more. People my age HATE emo.) but enough whinin, already. The band looking like the were extras in the TV show Square Pegs, added a nice touch by having 2 female background singers, looking like they were also out of the 80s in slinky black dresses with bright pink earrings.

The Pink Spiders, looking very much like the Ramones, started out their set playing some catchy 80s influence pop-punk, but quickly devolved into the Warped Tour emo sound. They didn’t play anything memorable, but they played well and were very tight. One thing, though, the Lepers and the Spiders were screwed over by the 4, yes four “sound men” who apparently didn’t know that you need to hear the guitars in a rock show. During the Lepers’ set only the vocals and drums were in the PA, and during the Spider’s set the lead guitar wasn’t in the PA. There were 4 guys at the sound board just hanging around bullshitting, and not doing sound, making the 2 openers sound horrible.