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Labels: music

Yo La Tengo rocked Town Hall last Tuesday night.

Am and I saw them at the Showbox earlier this year on their tour for I Am Not Afraid Of You, And I Will Beat Your Ass. They rocked their more loud electric stuff for the club, but on Tuesday they got to bring out more of their mid-range and quieter fair.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in other than an evening with my favorite alt rockers in one of the most intimate settings one could wish for. We got great seats in the old church-style sweeping wooden benches of the Hall even though I was late showing up (stupid Bellevue busses! Thanks to the driver of the 550 who didn't dally in the shiny new bus tunnels downtown)

Things kicked off with one of my favs: "Big Day Coming" the lead song from 1993's Painful - the year I really started getting into them. They didn't have a set list but instead played on a whim, chatting with the audience whilst tuning between songs, even taking requests from the audience. Ira solicited questions from the audience, saying they were their to "correct any misconceptions" about their 20-some year musical career. The result was a nice interactive conversation with audience between some of my favorite Yo La Tengo tunes of the last score years, like "Tom Courteney".

Labels: music

As you might have heard, independent rockers Radiohead released their new album In Rainbows lately. I've never been a super huge Radiohead fan but I'm diggin' on this album. It's holding up to multiple listenings and you can't beat the price.

Radiohead allows you to name your price for the downloaded album on their site. So if you are total cheapskate - or maybe just radiohead curious - and want to pay a $1, well go right ahead. Warning though, I was charged a transaction fee of about $0.45 and likely you will be too. Also be aware that many credit card companies don't actually allow charges of $0.01 (because criminals use that amount to test stolen cards).

I decided to pay $7 for the 10-song album, well under the 99 cent per song pricing found on iTunes, and less than half what I'd play for a CD. The mp3's are coded at 160 kbps which isn't the best but honestly isn't bad at all. Amazon charges 89 to 99 cents for DRM free tracks at a slightly better quality.

I suppose you've already read about this scheme in the New York Times, heard about it on Morning Edition, or Marketplace, or elsewhere.

What I didn't know, was the idea was not entirely novel. The Freakanomics blog (I recommend picking up the book at your library) at the New York Times informed me that an artist in Seattle has adopted the 'pay what you will' method for some time.

Labels: music

One down forty nine to go.* A few weeks ago Am & I saw the Flaming Lips rock the Paramount. It was a great show made better by virtue of the venue. I always like going to the Paramount because it has such a personality and personal feel to the shows there. Honestly I was a bit worried what it would be like to see a rock show in the balcony, but we had great seats in the center lower section near the loge. Not that we sat at all during the show. And the slope made viewing much better I think than the flat floor below us.

Highlights included a shout along to the Yeah Yeah Yeah song -- now with 20% more political rant! -- and a somber but conscious-raising moment of playing Taps. Two tons of confetti shot in the air, several dozen bouncing giant 4 foot ballons, a dozen santas & alienettes with flashlights, and four ringing ears hours later we were quite satisfied with the show. I recommend going if the Lips are playing in your area.

WTF am I talkin' 'bout? Check out these great photos right from the floor, courtesy of serious Lips fan lizberry81.

If you are going to be in the Oklahoma City area in a couple weeks then you should join the freak out parade of 1000 skeletons planned by the Lips. Don't think I didn't look to a flight. Alas $350 a ticket is just too much for us right now. Who knows when the price might go down? Farecast does! (Farecast can do things like forecast when to it's best to buy tickets from Seattle to Hawaii, for example). Now if they only made skeleton parades more regular.

* In 2002 Q magazine (who?) rated The Flaming Lips as one of the fifty rock acts to see before you die. Actually my countdown is at more like 46 since I've also seen Dylan, Young, and the late RL Burnside, as well as the Lips, though I despair I shall never see Pink Floyd or Fairport Convention. And Guns n' Roses? I mean really?

Labels: music

Listening Post, Wired magazine's music blog has a post about the unfairness of royalty-free HD radio broadcasts vs the new net radio fees. Despite broadcasting a far clearer and consistent signal and the potential for more perfect copies of songs, HD radio is not forced to pay any royalties to the artists they play. That's because it has been long ago accepted that playing an artist's music over terrestrial radio is a form of marketing or advertising the artists album. You hear the song, you buy the single.

That's not the case for net radio, which supporters of the DMCA say must pay fees because the potential for "near perfect copies" (in other words piracy) and which will have its rates raised on July15, including requiring a retroactive payment on all songs played in the past year. Does this $ go to artists? Yes and No. I have read that if you stream independent artists not represented by the RIAA or cannot be found, then net broadcasters still have to pay but evidently the collection agency gets to keep the money for themselves.

I've been listening to net broadcaster for at least 7 years now and I've seen it grow from a few streams of esoteric stuff to corporate giants get in on the game. I've spent many a late night coding to the sounds of SomaFM (I once did a sleepless 38 hour start to finish ecommerce coding job with the help of Groove Salad, and didn't hear one repeated song!) When I was spinning tunes at WFHB on the Radio Gnome Showgram and Subsonic Workshop, I was listening to artists on internet radio streams all around the world in order to seek out new music for the shows. For me internet radio streams serve the same purpose as terrestrial radio and serve to increase listener choice and the breadth of artistic expression. And wonderful innovations like Pandora are just now showing up (even the threat of the fee increase has caused Pandora to limit its service to US visitors.)

Small net broadcasters like SomaFM and many others claim the rates are so high that they will simply have to stop broadcasting. Even NPR is leading the way to get these fees revoked. If Peter Sagal is lock n' loading then isn't it time you too joined the fray?

If you are already ready to act, you can contact your Senator or Rep to ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act. (Seattle and Bloomington Reps are already on board!)

• Seattle WA constituents instructions
  
• Bloomington IN constituents instructions
  
• Other constituents instructions
  

Labels: music