Three Guys, Twelve Songs http://www.3guys12songs.com/ The Blog for the Podcast, "Three Guys, Twelve Songs" en Copyright 2008 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:58:32 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss David Byrne interview with Thom Yorke. Yes you read that right. No I'm not drunk! this awesome article in Wired which is a conversation between David Byrne and Thom Yorke about "In Rainbows" and the nature of music and the industry... My only complaint is that the article is too short. I could read this for days. There are some really great thoughts in there, some of which we've alluded to in previous 3Guys shows. I love both Byrne and Yorke, so this is mana for me, but anyone interested in alternative music delivery, or digital rights, etc, should check this out.]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/david_byrne_interview_with_tho.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/david_byrne_interview_with_tho.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:58:32 -0800 Zeppelin on YouTube Good Times, Bad Times (show opener with intro video clip) Part of In My Time of Dying and all of the FIRST EVER live performance of For Your Life - Very good sound quality Kashmir - also good sound A bit of Trampled Underfoot - Sound is muffled Stairway to Fucking Heaven - Sounds beautiful Rock And Roll - Yes, it was a rock standard long before it sold Cadillacs Whole Lotta Love - Video sucks because the camera is so far back, but the sound is amazing. It sounds like 1979 almost Since I've been loving you. Very tinny sound, but worth a listen Some of Nobody's Fault But Mine - muffled sound again, but there's some Plant Harmonica, and the classic riffs are intact The best of a bad lot of Black Dog recordings No Quarter - Sounds pretty freakin' sweet, as Peter Griffin might say An INCREDIBLE rendition of Dazed and Confused. This person was close to the stage Part of Ramble On. Nice! The Song Remains The Same. Quiet, but not bad for all that. Part of Misty Mountain Hop. Okay, I should get back to work. ]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/zeppelin_on_youtube.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/zeppelin_on_youtube.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:55:34 -0800 Breaking Jordy's Post Streak reunion concert that they performed last night in London as a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, the man who originally signed them to Atlantic Records in 1968. From the Billboard article: 'There is rampant speculation Zeppelin will play additional shows in the New Year, but so far, the principals are staying mum. "Let's just do the O2 and we'll see what happens from there," Page told Reuters in a recent interview. "I haven't got a crystal ball here and nor have you."' Please please please, for the love of all that's holy, tour. Write a new album. Please, oh please.]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/breaking_jordys_post_streak.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/breaking_jordys_post_streak.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:28:39 -0800 The (not) Cursed Episode 43 is not up yet (/Obvious) awesome story on Radiohead – and, really, the state of music distribution – these days. It’s on the New York Times’ page, so you may need to register, but you won’t need to pay anymore! What fascinated me most (other than general Radiohead cool stuff) came when the band (and managers) discredited the results that ComScore had reported as fact – the results indicating that the average price paid was $2.26 and that more people took the downloads for free rather than pay anything at all. Radiohead didn’t announce their numbers – as one manager, Chris Hufford, put it, “It’s our linen. We don’t want to wash it in public” – but NYTimes took ComScore’s data and extrapolated a little bit:
Factoring in free downloads, ComScore said the average price per download was $2.26. But it did not specify a total number of downloads, saying only that a “significant percentage” of the 1.2 million people who visited the Radiohead Web site, inrainbows.com, in October downloaded the album. Under a typical recording contract, a band receives royalties of about 15 percent of an album’s wholesale price after expenses are recovered. Without middlemen, and with zero material costs for a download, $2.26 per album would work out to Radiohead’s advantage — not to mention the worldwide publicity.
An interesting point to think about. As I mentioned, the article is absolutely worth reading in its entirety. We're at the beginning of a real shift in both the distribution of music as well as the relationship between musicians and listeners (I'm deliberately not calling them "consumers" or "customers"). Times are interesting!]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/the_not_cursed_episode_43_is_n.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/the_not_cursed_episode_43_is_n.html Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:50:10 -0800 The Curse is OVER Episode 43 has been recorded. I hope to have it done before the end of the weekend -- I've got a lot on my plate right now I'm afraid. http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/the_curse_is_over.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/the_curse_is_over.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:46:21 -0800 It’s the first week in December and that means more lists!! reported that music rag Harp dropped their top 50 of the year with Okkervil River’s “Stage Names” at the top spot. No complaints there, as that album is so intense it really demands multiple listening sessions just to take in the scope of the thing. Their list hews closer to my tastes a bit, and many in their top 10 would find places in my top 10 as well. The top 50 list from Uncut on the other hand… This list reads to me like the editors were looking at what everyone else was doing and decided to just do the opposite to spite people. LCD Soundsystem checks in at number one – which is the same as Stylus’s early list. But from there they go all over the map: Arctic Monkey’s at the two-spot? I like the Arctic Monkeys, but I can think of a hell of a lot better albums this year. Same goes for Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” which sounds like the self-described rehab album it is, certainly not the fifth best album of the year. And I truly loved The Hold Steady’s “Boys and Girls In America” – a fact I mentioned earlier since I found that album from a 2006 best-of list – and that’s exactly it: the album was released October 3, 2006. What part of Best of 2007 did the folks at Uncut miss?? Seriously?! Even for the sake of disagreeing I still love this list time of year. LCD Soundsystem completely missed my radar, and now I’m going to go check it out. Hopefully we’ll have a new podcast for y’all by the end of the week. We’ll see. Wait, did I just invoke the curse? Shit. ]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/its_the_first_week_in_december.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/12/its_the_first_week_in_december.html Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:18:28 -0800 The Curse of Episode 43 do schedule a date, the minute it enters our brain we'll go ahead and transcode it into heiroglyphics and then speak to each other only in that unpronounceable dialect so that the very utterance of an actual calendar date won't offend the gods and bring down the Curse Of Episode 43 once again. Oh, we'll beat you, you pesky curse. And your little dog, Toto, too. Beat you to a goddamn pulp, we will! Until that time, I have the benefit of inflicting Vanessa Carlton on Mark and Owen. Muahahaha.]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/the_curse_of_episode_43.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/the_curse_of_episode_43.html Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:21:39 -0800 Ep 43 soon, and That Time Of Year that was released this year?!" Yeah, yeah it was. Also, because inevitably there are things that completely evade my radar that I get clued into at this time of year – The Hold Steady were a band that I found because they were on a Best Of list, and I’m deeply greatful for the discovery. The recently-moribund Stylus magazine jumped the gun and released their top 50 list as they closed their doors on Halloween. Today StereoGum printed the upcoming top 100 list from Paste magazine . Where Stylus put The National’s “Boxer” up at number 5, Paste put that disc at the number one spot. No argument here on that call, but I’ve got a few issues with the concept of a top 100 list. First and foremost, how many honest releases were there this year that didn’t make the list? Seriously, there are so many artists and albums on that list that you really have to wonder what’s left out. Looking at what is on a list that large makes you wonder how arbitrary the ranking process was. An equally large beef with both lists is their omission of Bishop Allen’s “The Broken String.” This certainly goes to the core of many people’s complaints about top X lists of the year – what criteria is used for inclusion for judging. For example, the Bishop Allen album does contain a number of tracks previously “released” last year during their one-EP-a-month project. Although not new songs, they get completely new treatments on “The Broken String,” so is that album out of contention for 2007 because of a technicality? Obviously I like the album (it easily makes my list), but really I want to know how Paste could put something like The Frames “The Cost” up at 51 and miss Bishop Allen completely – I don’t mean too much disrespect to The Frames, but they’re really a poor-man’s Shins, and that album had one overly sappy (though I loved it) track worth listening to, the rest of the disc absolutely paled. Well, the year is not over yet, and all the ballots have not been cast. Here’s the link for NPR’s All Song’s Considered top list – please note both Bishop Allen and Vampire Weekend are on the ballot (though a three song Vampire Weekend EP? And those three songs are going to be on their XL release next year also… huh). …And, for the record (no pun intended), Mark and Owen, The Dirty Projectors are left off of both lists.]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/ep_43_soon_and_that_time_of_ye.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/ep_43_soon_and_that_time_of_ye.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:49:27 -0800 What an exciting time to be a music fan! Seriously, it’s an incredibly transformative time in the music industry and right now I think we’re witnessing a very important point – I hesitate to call it a tipping point, but it’s without a doubt quite a watershed point for the industry. Numbers on Radiohead’s experiment came out, and depending on who’s spinning it either it was an abject failure or a good start – here’s a link to the BBC article on the results ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7082627.stm ). It comes down to “only” 38% paid anything for the album and of those, the average price was about six bucks. I fall into the “good start” camp because Radiohead had the balls to really put itself out there and people are listening – well literally, certainly, but figuratively as well. Two Wall Street analyst firms took the Industry to task for their declining numbers and old-world mentality. In this article (sorry for the long url: http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9812275-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 ) they mention that both Madonna and Trent Reznor are looking to follow Radiohead’s example, at least in spirit. Reznor, for his part, is presently testing the waters with slam poet Saul William’s new release, “The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of NiggyTardust!” which is available online only for either free (for low bitrate) or five bucks for your choice of 320 or lossless. Here’s a link to an interview with Reznor and Williams which really outlines a lot of the debate on the subject: http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN0434171920071104 . Make no mistake, however, things aren’t changing overnight – but they are changing. The above article on the Radiohead results point out that Radiohead established a loyal fanbase on the back of its previous record label – and the same can be said for both Reznor and Madonna – and they can afford to absorb the cost of experimenting in a way that up and coming artists can’t. But that’s a fairly poor argument because in the last 30-40 years the path to success in the music business couldn’t be more nebulous – it used to be you gig it out in clubs, get signed to a major label, and, voila, success! Particularly with the consolidation of the record labels as well as the radio stations, it’s become even more difficult to break into major labels, much less get a real chance with them. So with someone like Saul Williams, what the hell, go for it – the alternative is don’t try anything. Nothing ventured, nothing lost. To conclude, the article above about Wall Street’s take on the record industry is really the fiscal indicator that times, they are indeed a changin’; Richard Greenfield of Pali Research writes that "No matter how many people the RIAA sues, no matter how many times music executives point to the growth of digital music, we believe an increasing majority of worldwide consumers simply view recorded music as free.” That this statement is coming from a major financial assessment group speaks volumes. That article ends by again quoting Greenfield writing that the industry is “not ready to endorse such a move at this point" and points out that "Even if it was, the...transition will be incredibly painful." No doubt, but the inevitable is well on its way. http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/what_an_exciting_time_to_be_a.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/what_an_exciting_time_to_be_a.html Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:43:46 -0800 Show 42 in progress... right... now! Yes, we're back, believe it or not! Back and revved up with a whole new approach and a whole new zest for this podcast thang! YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EARS! Hallou! http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/show_42_in_progress_right_now.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/11/show_42_in_progress_right_now.html Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:51:28 -0800 A Boss version of Arcade Fire's "Keep The Car Running." It's my fav track off Neon Bible, an album full of great tracks. And in the linked blogpost the person refers to it as the best Springsteen song not written by Springsteen. But there's nothing wrong in the live cover of it with members of the Arcade Fire. Follow the link: http://www.stereogum.com/archives/video/bruce-springsteen-covers-arcade-fire-joined-by-win.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/a_boss_version_of_arcade_fires.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/a_boss_version_of_arcade_fires.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:52:16 -0800 Episode 41 Now Available Check it out! We're back, through iTunes or whatever app you use to pick up the RSS feed. So have at it! http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/episode_41_now_available.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/episode_41_now_available.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:00:17 -0800 New Show, Ep 41, is ready! ...but not posted... Episode 41 is ready, but not uploaded yet. The problem is that our hosting service has lost their DNS servers, it appears. Hopefully they'll be back on-line by morning and I can upload then. For now, you'll have to get by in life just knowing that the show is done and post-produced and ready to go, once our hosting site pulls their heads from their asses. :) -Mark http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/new_show_ep_41_is_ready_but_no.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/new_show_ep_41_is_ready_but_no.html Announcements Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:43:46 -0800 Gettin' back in the saddle! Hattiesburg, MS, it'll be kinda like old times! Hopefully the hotel wireless connection will do us proud. In the meantime, if you ever happen to get to this part of the world, do yourself a fucking favor and go here. It is so far the best BBQ I have ever hand in my entire life. I don't know if I can order ribs anywhere else again.]]> http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/gettin_back_in_the_saddle.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/10/gettin_back_in_the_saddle.html Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:32:07 -0800 ...Two Weeks Later.... No, still no 3G12S to speak of. One thing you have to say about us here is that when the Shit hits the fan, it's no ordinary, rodent poop. Oh no, it's like serious elephant poop. And a little fan. So things are still being unburried. That said, if all goes well we WILL have a show for you next week. That's the plan, anyway. Stay tuned! Oh, and Owen mentioned Episode 5 of Mousse and Sqrrrl -- Episode 6 is out, and Episode seven should be out before the end of the weekend. http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/09/two_weeks_later.html http://www.3guys12songs.com/2007/09/two_weeks_later.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:08:28 -0800