This is a new blog. I already have a blog! What am I doing?!
This blog was meant to be more for articles and new art more than personal updates, but now that is all I feel like posting here. So. Fresh start. I will keep it updated with articles and new art, but I will also throw in personal updates. Such as this one.
Once again, it is a Friday night and I am at home with my boyfriend instead of out being odd with the other crazy kids in my age group. This is good. Going out is not on my 'things that I do like' list. We live in North West England and we have a kitten named Shadow. He works in IT and I am an artist who is also looking for a normal people job. I also write articles! Usually unpaid ones! Thrilling stuff.
Today has been particulatrly good. I got a copy of Zoe Boekbinder's new EP 'Over The Top'. It has 5 songs on it:
Crush, which I have loved since I heard it in a YouTube video of her and her sister (Zoe and her sister Kim used to be a band called Vermillion Lies) playing it live. I bought the EP for this song, in all honesty. The version on 'Over The Top' is different but really, reeeeally good. Single Ladies, which is, as you can probably guess, a cover of the Beyonce song. But made cool. Poker Face, Lady Gaga cover, clearly. Also made cool.
Break You Nice is a song by Electrosexual, Scream club, Mz Sunday Luv and, of course, Zoe. It wasn't what I expected to hear at all, but after a few listens, I fell in love. Lastly Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey, according to the notes on the CD, is performed by Zoe's grandfather Bobbie Boekbinder (circa 1954) and is terrific.
Anyway, clearly Zoe is awesome. I hope you already knew that from her fine work with Kim Boekbinder as 'Vermillion Lies' and her solo album 'Artichoke Perfume' (which is utterly sublime...also I don't think I've ever used the word 'sublime' before).
On a related note, Kim Boekbinder is releasing her album 'The Impossible Girl' in 4 parts (1 a month). The first two are out now and amazing. Particularly the song 'Stalker' which you can listen to (along with the rest of part 2 and if you follow the links, part 1) HERE. You should also click where it says 'video'. The videos for 'Open/Avocado' and 'Impossible Girl #2' are amazing and I admit that I didn't know the one for 'Sex, Drugs & Nuclear Physics' didn't exist, but that is an excellent song, so the video probably is too. Watch, watch, watch.
What else?
This will probably mark me out as a loser, but I don't care. If you like something, you should own it, so here we go. My Chemical Romance's new song can now be listened to on the internet. My 13 year old self is ABSOLUTELY DYING, YOU GUYS. The song is called 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)'.
Seriously. In real life. On the bright side, I think that the song (also the trailer for the album which exists but I can't be bothered to look for and post it) show that they're not taking themselves seriously and fuck it, neither should you. It's catchy! The I like about this band is that they're a bunch of geeky guys who aren't cool! They're a group of freaks who made some decent music, got famous, got their hands on some money and did something with costumes and stuff that most of their fans didn't even like (The Black Parade) because it was what they wanted to do. I don't like them as much as I used to, but I do like that aspect of them. So much.
Now I'm going to go do other stuff. You should absolutely look at my flickr.
Over the next few days I am going to be posting a few other things, such as Monster Girl's interview with me and a review of the project I did last year. They shall be placed here for safekeeping. Why would I want to lose stuff like that?
Audrey.
Friday 24 September 2010
Monday 20 September 2010
An article I wrote for RawMg.
I avoided showing this to friends after it was posted as I know too many people who are furiously anti-record labels. However, in the comfort of my own blog, I do not care. So here it is. Little things I have gathered from stories about social networking sites, musicians and record labels. This was posted up on RawMg (link to article at the bottom of the post) and is my second piece of actually-published-in-real-life writing.
'Unless you have been in hiding on Mars, you will probably have heard someone talk about 'the death of the record industry'. People aren't buying CDs as much as they used to,
practically anything you could possibly want can be found on some dark corner of the Internet for free and plenty of people have taken the path of rising through the ranks of social networking sites such as MySpace using only their computers in lieu of 'proper' recording equipment. So are record labels necessary?
Once upon a time, yes. Without one, you were unlikely to gain the success or promotion required to hit the big time and make real money (though there is the large chance that you wouldn't make a great deal of money anyway). Nowadays...it depends on who you ask. Bands like 'Millionaires', 3 American girls who accidentally started their band by posting a song created on Garageband on their MySpace page have earned a lot of success in the US and overseas gained a fanbase without a record label have had their songs used in various TV shows, they have released EPs with Decaydance and the label they are now signed to, B-Unique Records (which itself is a division of Atlantic records) along with their self released first EP, 'Bling Bling Bling!', so it would seem that they have seen success with and without.
Lily Allen is another example of a MySpace musician who gained a following through the site, got signed to a record label and is now a very popular artist with 2 hit albums under her belt. Kate Nash was discovered and signed when Lily Allen put one of her songs in her MySpace 'Top 8', and so it goes on.
However, some have seen a very dark side to the record industry. Just ask Amanda Palmer who literally (and very publicly, at that) begged Roadrunner Records to drop her. Palmer's band 'The Dresden Dolls' released two albums with Roadrunner and had seen plenty of underground and some mainstream popularity when they went 'on hiatus' in 2008. Still tied to a contract, she released her first solo album 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer' with them. It was promoted by the label very little and Amanda claims to barely have seen a cent from the album itself, instead making most of her money from various pre-order packages and different merchandise, most notably a book featuring pictures of her 'dead' in various places with stories by author Neil Gaiman to go along with them. Once liberated from her label and after posting a celebratory blog, Amanda has released an EP of Radiohead covers played on the ukulele, which is available from 52p but can be purchased at any amount above that -depending on how generous the buyer is feeling- and more merchandise packages to go with it.
Similarly, Radiohead released their 2007 album 'In Rainbows' after ending their contract with EMI. A digital version of the album could be bought for any amount at all, though a physical copy could be bought for a set price and was found to be very profitable.
With the downfall of MySpace and the uprise of websites like Bandcamp, which allows users to upload their music and give it away for free or sell downloads, it is little wonder that more and more musicians are coming out and making money on their own terms. Other social networks like Twitter and Facebook allow people to connect with friends and strangers alike to spread the word about their latest creation. The Internet is a place for artists to thrive alone and getting signed has become less of a concern for many of them and many of them are happy with their growing fanbases.
All that said, record labels aren't quite dead. Lots of talented people are still getting signed and making the money and the music required to stay on top in spite of the fact that the sales of CDs have gone down and digital sales have gone up and people are downloading like crazy and fame may be a harder goal to reach without publicists, managers, producers and everyone else working for a label backing them.
Are record labels necessary? It depends on your goals. But 'the death of the record industry' hasn't quite occurred yet.'
'Unless you have been in hiding on Mars, you will probably have heard someone talk about 'the death of the record industry'. People aren't buying CDs as much as they used to,
practically anything you could possibly want can be found on some dark corner of the Internet for free and plenty of people have taken the path of rising through the ranks of social networking sites such as MySpace using only their computers in lieu of 'proper' recording equipment. So are record labels necessary?
Once upon a time, yes. Without one, you were unlikely to gain the success or promotion required to hit the big time and make real money (though there is the large chance that you wouldn't make a great deal of money anyway). Nowadays...it depends on who you ask. Bands like 'Millionaires', 3 American girls who accidentally started their band by posting a song created on Garageband on their MySpace page have earned a lot of success in the US and overseas gained a fanbase without a record label have had their songs used in various TV shows, they have released EPs with Decaydance and the label they are now signed to, B-Unique Records (which itself is a division of Atlantic records) along with their self released first EP, 'Bling Bling Bling!', so it would seem that they have seen success with and without.
Lily Allen is another example of a MySpace musician who gained a following through the site, got signed to a record label and is now a very popular artist with 2 hit albums under her belt. Kate Nash was discovered and signed when Lily Allen put one of her songs in her MySpace 'Top 8', and so it goes on.
However, some have seen a very dark side to the record industry. Just ask Amanda Palmer who literally (and very publicly, at that) begged Roadrunner Records to drop her. Palmer's band 'The Dresden Dolls' released two albums with Roadrunner and had seen plenty of underground and some mainstream popularity when they went 'on hiatus' in 2008. Still tied to a contract, she released her first solo album 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer' with them. It was promoted by the label very little and Amanda claims to barely have seen a cent from the album itself, instead making most of her money from various pre-order packages and different merchandise, most notably a book featuring pictures of her 'dead' in various places with stories by author Neil Gaiman to go along with them. Once liberated from her label and after posting a celebratory blog, Amanda has released an EP of Radiohead covers played on the ukulele, which is available from 52p but can be purchased at any amount above that -depending on how generous the buyer is feeling- and more merchandise packages to go with it.
Similarly, Radiohead released their 2007 album 'In Rainbows' after ending their contract with EMI. A digital version of the album could be bought for any amount at all, though a physical copy could be bought for a set price and was found to be very profitable.
With the downfall of MySpace and the uprise of websites like Bandcamp, which allows users to upload their music and give it away for free or sell downloads, it is little wonder that more and more musicians are coming out and making money on their own terms. Other social networks like Twitter and Facebook allow people to connect with friends and strangers alike to spread the word about their latest creation. The Internet is a place for artists to thrive alone and getting signed has become less of a concern for many of them and many of them are happy with their growing fanbases.
All that said, record labels aren't quite dead. Lots of talented people are still getting signed and making the money and the music required to stay on top in spite of the fact that the sales of CDs have gone down and digital sales have gone up and people are downloading like crazy and fame may be a harder goal to reach without publicists, managers, producers and everyone else working for a label backing them.
Are record labels necessary? It depends on your goals. But 'the death of the record industry' hasn't quite occurred yet.'
By Audrey Bishop
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