Cerebellum Blues

• Buddy Miller, one of the greatest harmony singers of all time.

2012-02-09T05:25:11Z

I love harmony. Simon and Garfunkle, CSNY, The Eagles. All good, but none can hold a candle to The Beatles, the greatest harmony singers of all time, for all time, till the end of time. But up there with The Beatles I have to put Buddy Miller, a GREAT lead singer, one of the greatest in my book, and an equally great harmony singer. Buddy does the hard stuff, like Lennon, like Paul Simon (and you thought Art did the great harmony, right?). Because in harmony, what singers typically do is sing higher than the lead singer. You hear that all the time, ask someone to harmonize with you and they will look for notes above what you’re singing. But the most interesting notes — and the hardest to sing — are the ones below. Listen to Buddy Miller with Emmylou Harris and try to pick out his melody. No easy task. Now add his ability to follow her lead so effortlessly you’re barely aware that he’s doing it. Sure, they’ve rehearsed, but Emmylou is not going to sing a note-for-note version of her rehearsal performance. She’s going to follow her heart in the moment. And Buddy Miller does the same. I get chills every time I listen to these two sing this song. Hope you do, too.

• Is this one of the greatest combinations of song and cinema ever?

2012-02-05T03:41:14Z

The other day I joined Taxi, a service that helps songwriters and bands get their music heard by the right people. That night, I got home and already Taxi was sending me emails about opportunities. One caught my eye. It asked for a haunting song for a film placement and at first I was excited but after reading a little further my excitement faded. No love songs implored the email. But still, I was curious, so I clicked on the link in the email to the kind of song being sought. I was expecting a treacly bit of piano puss, but instead I was taken to a commercial for a video game called Gears of War. I love video games so I clicked play. I was transported. Whoever did the art direction for Gears of War is a Talent, but equally inspired was the choice to combine Gears of War footage with a song called Mad World. It was a hit back in 1982 for Tears for Fears but I missed it because I hated bands like Tears for Fears (no guitars, no glory). The song was a hit again in 2001, when it was covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules and used in Donnie Darko but I missed that, too. No reason, really, just missed it. I missed it again when it was used to launch Gears of War in 2006. But the other night I did not miss it. I sat transfixed in front of my laptop, the song transcending the small, cheap tin box speakers playing it and the video doing the same for the ugly YouTube container that could not contain it. Again and again I hit Play. The next day I downloaded the song from Apple. Then I read about it on Wikipedia. Then I looked up the lyrics. Then I learned it on the guitar. Imagine that: the chords were Em, G, D, A for the verses and Em, A, for the choruses. So simple yet so much more. I went on a mad search for more videos, found the official one for the release of the Andrews/Jules version, checked out Tears for Fears’ version, then found the clip I’ve posted above. Maybe I’m mentally ill, it can’t be healthy to like something like this, but I do. So, is it one of the greatest combinations of song and cinema ever? For me, right now, yes.

Unreal (pun intended).

• You get an idea for a song. But is it any good?

2012-02-04T17:58:31Z

On evenings when moisture is mostly in the water and not in the air and the sun is at the right angle, I could look outside the kitchen or living room window and snap the above photo. But I don’t. Because while this scene is common, in that it happens on so many evenings, it is also rare in that I so often fail to see it, or if I do see it, I am too busy to grab the camera and the tripod and do the scene justice with proper equipment.

Ideas for good songs are similar. They, too, happen every day, but mostly I miss them.

Of course, unlike a sunset, song ideas cannot simply be captured and remembered forever in under a second, regardless of any equipment on-hand, so even if I do notice them, they still, mostly, slip away. Further, song ideas can’t be immediately sized up and judged, at least not by me. I have to notice them, capture them, cage them and then observe them for a little while before I can decide if they’re worth further effort. And this is the hardest part. I mean, songs are so subjective and it is so hard to tell what’s good and what’s not. It’s like that scene Basquiat in which Warhol (played by Bowie) looks at a piece of his art and says, “I can’t even tell what’s good anymore.” And then I want to be brutally honest but how do I that if I don’t know what’s true?

Sigh...

• Some thoughts on SOPA and PIPA.

2012-01-20T19:01:26Z

This week saw a successful protest launched against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) and it now seems unlikely that either will pass. I suppose this is a good thing, as I believe that no law is better than a bad law, but...

I’m always stunned at the hostility shown toward content ownership. I suppose it’s a bit like the military, in that people are often against the institution but not against the soldiers. It’s a good technique as it dehumanizes the enemy (you direct your anger toward an organization vs the foot soldiers within it). But people seem willing to go a bit deeper in the content debate and call out individuals and call them greedy and evil. Why, just because some content creators would like to have the choice to protect what they’ve created?

In my opinion, copyright and patent laws are a good idea. Right now, copyright is a bit screwed up as owners can retain ownership for overly long (basically infinite) periods of time. I’d say cap it at 20 years and be done with it. Patents are already handled this way and the system seems to work well (look at all the innovation coming out of the US).

The problem lies with enforcement. How the hell do you define and allow a reasonable amount of sharing, while preventing wide-scale theft? I honestly don’t know, but the answer is not to place all the responsibility on publishers. Also, I don’t think you want a law that is smudgy; you want crystal clear rules that allow very, very little interpretation. Honestly, it seems like a job for some elegant code, but I guess no one either has or wants to write it.

As for all this “no flies on me” blather from the likes of Google and Facebook, it does not hold a lot of water for me. These companies want it both ways: they want to totally protect what they deem to be most valuable to them while promoting the idea that everything should be shared. Yes, Google pays royalties for YouTube, but you and I both know they’re getting a very, very good deal by not having to either pay ALL royalties due or police their service. Seriously, try to explain to a cop that you didn’t know you were speeding. Chances are he’ll just get mad. And what about the file lockers like Megaupload, recently shut down, that host illegal content but are never told No by Google when they want to sell ads?

Bottom line: something needs to be done. SOPA and PIPA were not good ideas for two reasons: 1) they did not seek to update copyright law and 2) their methods of enforcement would have made a lot of money for lawyers but not content holders. It’s a tough problem: how do you allow a reasonably free flow of information without ripping off the people who create the information? I don’t have the answer. But all those so-smart-they-glow-Googlers should be able to figure it out. Sadly, they’re too busy blowing all their money on unprofitable ego exercises (quick, name one Google product besides Adwords and its relations that make money).

Harumph.

• My album is done. Now what?

2012-01-19T03:26:27Z

Several days ago, I came home from work to a stack of boxes piled high in front of my door. My 1000 CDs had arrived from OasisCD. I was not elated. I simply sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I would have to carry them all up the stairs. There was no blog post.

It was not supposed to be this way.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m over the moon about having made my first album, it’s just that the whole process has been so fraught with errors of my own making and a slow but steady awakening to the realities of the music business today, that my joy, at this point, is pretty much counterbalanced by my sense of hopelessness.

I do not know what to do next. Obviously, I will release the album and I know my goal: to be heard. I don’t really care about making any money. Yet. I just want to know that this music that holds my heart and soul will hold more than just a few people’s attention. If only for the time it takes them to “needle hop” the album, to give it a chance. But how?

This is pathetic, really. I’ve been in advertising for 20 years, I’ve written campaigns that have run globally, I’ve come up with ideas that have changed the way companies think about what they do, I have debated with the CEOs of billion dollar corporations, but I do not know how to get the word out about my album.

Bob Lefsetz crows about the new musical landscape in which only great catches on. The days of mediocre ruling the roost are over. Not sure this is true, but I do agree that great music spreads. People share it. So if I can get my music into the hands of influential people (tastemakers famous and unknown) AND they like it, I should gain a bit of traction. Again, though, how?

Facebook? Twitter? Maybe. Jango, I guess. But is there a better way? A way I have not heard of? If anyone out there has ideas, please let me know. I’m plotting my release plan now, so I am ALL ears. Thank you in advance for any thinking you do on this!