Archive for April, 2011

Music Alliance Pact – April 2011

Friday, April 15th, 2011

I usually try to keep a lid on any new artist I choose for MAP exposure until the 15th of the month. However, SEBASTIAN DANGERFIELD’S new EP sounds so overwhelmingly rousing and accomplished that in the past few weeks I found it impossible to either stop myself enthusing about the band on blog posts, The Goss, Facebook and Twitter or offering sneak previews of their tunes on the Lovebox and Subcity Radio.

Today, though, you can help yourself to a free download of the raucous You Played Your Part, Singer! which will hopefully prove why they’re worth making such a fuss about. There’s an entertaining video to go with it too, not to mention the 35 songs that The Pop Cop’s Music Alliance Pact counterparts have selected this month.

To download all 36 songs in one file click here

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Sebastian Dangerfield – You Played Your Part, Singer!
Sebastian Dangerfield are a four-piece from Edinburgh who are little-known even in their home city. But that shouldn’t be the case for much longer if the band continue to show such an accomplished grasp of Americana-tinged folk-rock amplified with a healthy dose of scuzzy-pop zest and various stringed instruments. The wonderfully-named You Played Your Part, Singer! is taken from their new EP, The Sound Of The Old Machines, which you can find on Bandcamp.

April 22, Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh

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What I learned at Wide Days

Monday, April 11th, 2011

“The last time I stood on this stage I was completely naked”

I didn’t really know what to expect at WIDE DAYS – the annual music seminar and showcase event now in its second year in Edinburgh – but as opening gambits to the audience go, chief host Olaf Furniss’ declaration/ admission/ revelation/ boast set a refreshingly informal tone for a full day of entertainment and intrigue.

There was also a constant flow of creative swearing that appeared to be contagious, with “fucks” and “shits” seeping into the public conversations of otherwise impeccably-mannered speakers.

Wide Days is a spin-off of the Born To Be Wide music events run in the capital by Furniss and Derick Mackinnon. I half-thought the audience might be made up primarily of industry figures trying desperately to convince/reassure themselves as much as each other that they’re not on a sinking ship. In reality, most of those in attendance seemed to fall into the ‘unsigned Scottish musician’ bracket and there were plenty of guests with the experience, ideas and know-how to put them on the right track, if not make things happen for them.

There were seminars and workshops throughout the day at Teviot Row House and plenty of interesting insights came out of them, so here are some things I learned:

DIGITAL DIY VS RECORD LABELS
Stewart Henderson, of Chemikal Underground, provided a constant supply of straight-talking soundbites, which won’t come as a surprise to those who have read the label’s policy on refusing to give feedback on demos they don’t like, which he repeated: “If you’re shite, you’re shite – surely you don’t need us to confirm it for you.”
On offering advice: “A lot of people ask, ‘How do I start up a record label?’ I haven’t got a fuckin’ clue!”
On the internet: “The idea that the internet is a force for good is bullshit. It’s a riot, it’s hell, it has taken away the filter.”
On recruitment policy: “The artists we tend to sign come through nepotistic channels, like friends of friends.”
On Twitter: “An endless, voracious appetite for trivial shite, 24/7″ (although Henderson later said that Aidan Moffat’s decision to join Twitter a few months ago had “helped” the singer)
Henderson also revealed that Chemikal Underground had to ask recent signings FOUND to stop selling albums via Bandcamp, calling the practice “counter-productive for us as a label”.

David Balfour, of digital distributors Finetunes, shared similar sentiments about the difficulty of quality control in the modern age: “The beauty and the curse of the internet is that anybody can release music.”

Song, By Toad blogger and label owner Matthew Young cautioned new bands against the temptation of letting others take a cut of their income to do things they can do themselves: “Hold on to everything. Publishing, booking, everything.” He also said that “experience and name recognition” were the most important factors when it came to choosing a record label.

MAKING TOURING PAY
RockNess co-founder and tour promoter Robert Hicks warned that all bands should expect to lose money on their first tour of the Highlands, but can reap huge rewards on subsequent visits. Hicks highlighted the importance of affordable merchandise, saying that Rachel Sermanni, whom he manages, typically makes four times her appearance fee by selling CDs for £3 at gigs. He also said that “the best way to sell records is touring”.

Keren McKean emphasised the benefits of band/brand partnerships, claiming Snow Patrol, whom she used to manage, got paid £200,000 to play one show because of a commercial tie-in.

McKean said getting a booking agent was “the holy grail” for musicians. However, Jason Edwards, who works for renowned booking agency 13 Artists, was refreshingly honest when asked if bands can ‘make it’ without someone like him: “Totally. If I can do it for an artist, an artist can do it themselves. Promoters are more open to talking to bands than booking agents.”

Edwards also spoke of how the role of agents has grown in a rapidly-changing industry: “We’re finding artists before the labels do. We’re doing what A&R used to do.” He also cited blogs as one of his main sources for discovering new talent.

NOT JUST SXSW
GoNorth festival director Shaun Arnold claimed that, for some bands, it was more beneficial for their UK interests that they be seen to be playing SXSW than it was for actually making inroads into the US market.

Allan McGowan, consultant for the International Live Music Conference, told how he forcibly sent one band into the audience immediately after a showcase event to approach anyone they didn’t know and ask them who they worked for: “It’s a business audience. It’s a fucking job – it doesn’t start and finish with playing.”

MUSIC IN FILMS
Caroline Gorman, whose employers Rage Music produce music for films, TV, advertisements and radio, set jaws dropping when she revealed that a musician could expect to get paid £30,000 if their song appeared on a 30-second advert for a US department store.

Composer Malcolm Lindsay also supplied some eye-catching figures, saying that music placed on a prime-time TV documentary would be worth £3,000-£10,000 to the songwriter, with a drama paying out £5,000-£10,000. He also told an amusing anecdote of how, before going to the pub, he and a friend would call up a radio show to request each other’s songs in the knowledge that the royalties they’d eventually earn from the airplay would pay for their entire night out.

Members of the panel also emphasised the importance of having instrumental versions of recorded tracks.

MUSIC MAKING MONEY
Scott Cohen, who manages several bands including The Raveonettes, delivered a fascinating presentation in which he tried to dispel some widely-held beliefs about the state of the music industry.

He justified his controversial assertion that “piracy isn’t a problem at all” by rolling out figures that show sales of recorded music are higher than ever. Those stats combined sales of albums (which have nosedived) and individual songs (which have soared), and Cohen insisted the music industry needs to get its head around the fact that the way consumers consume music has changed. He also claimed that – in the context of the history of recorded music - the idea of compiling songs into albums was “just a blip”.

In attempting to show how money can still be made from selling music, Cohen cited the business model of an album priced at £9.99, £24.99, £49.99 and £99.99 – each option being bundled with increasingly exclusive but expensive goodies. He said that even though artists have far less “super fans” than casual fans, the amount of money this minority group will shell out on limited edition products makes them disproportionately significant to the artist’s income. “Rewarding your best fans works,” was Cohen’s message.

—–

After the seminars, there were half-a-dozen showcase gigs spread over three venues throughout the city (the most impressive was at Cabaret Voltaire with Withered Hand, who had a full band in tow, and Rachel Sermanni), which provided the ideal opportunity for meets and greets among Wide Days attendees, so here’s what I learned then:

We Were Promised Jetpacks have set up a side-project called Hairy Area, with the collective including Endor frontman David McGinty, members of Sebastian Dangerfield and Lady North, while Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison has also discussed getting involved. They are set to make their live debut at Stereo in Glasgow on May 14, although they haven’t recording anything yet.

Finally, here are two songs by two friendly bands who handed me demo CDs:

PAWS – Salem

Supermarionation – The Ashes Of Love

I’d like to give an embarrassing Radio 1-style shoutout to all the nice folk I met or hung out with at Wide Days, especially Lloyd Meredith, Breda Doherty, Olaf Furniss, Derek Mackinnon, Stu Lewis, Steve Tonge, Matthew Young, Alex Smith, Murray Easton, Vic Galloway, Jim Gellatly, Sharon Stephen, Jamie Gilmour, wee Sharon, Phil Taylor, Rob Howell, Dan Willson and Rachel Sermanni. And a big thanks to Jenny Soep for letting me use one of her amazing iPad drawings on this post.

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Record Store Day: A love story

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

On the infrequent occasion I end up acquiring a new CD these days, the first thing I do is convert the tracks into mp3s. The second thing I do is find a new home for the CD.

However, there are a dozen or so physical products that I could never bring myself to part with, one of which is a handwritten CD-R that Scott Hutchison posted to me in 2007 containing rough demos of three songs called The Modern Leper, Head Rolls Off and Old Old Fashioned, all of which ended up being re-recorded for The Midnight Organ Fight. There was also a biscuit in the original envelope which was delicious.

When I hunted out the CD to photograph it for this article, the magic of owning a piece of music memorabilia that is rare or unique suddenly hit me, especially one created by a Scottish band whose ability to inspire is one the reasons I started this music blog in the first place and why only an absurdly jealous individual could begrudge Frightened Rabbit their sweatily-earned rise in popularity.

The forthcoming FatCat cassette release of demos from Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad to coincide with the fourth annual Record Store Day on April 16 – and the love and attention that clearly went into putting it together – serves as a fitting reminder of how precious physical music products can be.

The fact you probably don’t have the means of playing it in its intended format isn’t the point. Each of the tapes comes with a download code so, if you do buy it, in all likelihood you’re going to listen to the songs on your PC or iPod and file away the original for safekeeping. And in four years’ time maybe you’ll come across it again and just be glad it’s there.

TRACKLISTING
Side A (Frightened Rabbit)
- Be Less Rude
- I Feel Better
- Snake
- Keep Yourself Warm
- The Greys
Side B (The Twilight Sad)
- 2d
- 3iv
- 2c
- Ravishing Rick Rude (cover of Be Less Rude)

This is what Scott Hutchison had to say about the demos: “We recorded them all in my bedroom at the time; I think the address was 42 Woodlands Drive, top floor left, in Glasgow. We had one shit microphone and a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder, and we did our very best with those 2 pieces of equipment (plus a crap drumkit, Telecaster, Yamaha PSS 270 keyboard and a small 12W Park combo – no effects pedals). I think the limited means forced us to make simple, succinct songs that would have an impact, given that we couldn’t rely on fancy recording techniques. It’s always worth remembering this when you are layering the 175th track of sound on a big shiny album. Maybe 171 of those tracks are utterly pointless.”

Frightened Rabbit – The Modern Leper (demo)

Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off (demo)

Frightened Rabbit – Old Old Fashioned (demo)

To mark Record Store Day, several independent music shops across Scotland are hosting free live music on Saturday, April 16. Here’s a round-up which will be updated with specific times as they become available:

EDINBURGH
Avalanche Records
Frightened Rabbit (1pm), Gordon McIntyre of Ballboy (2.30pm), Penguins Kill Polar Bears (5pm) plus Jenny Soep exhibition; The Last Battle (3pm) play at neighbouring music store Red Dog
(In addition, Avalanche host Broken Records (3pm) on April 17, Aberfeldy (2pm) on April 23 and Glasvegas meet ‘n’ greet on April 24; Red Dog will host Donna Maciocia (4pm) on April 17)
Coda
The Paul McKenna Band, Iain McLaughlin, Sharon King, Southern Tenant Folk Union and Corran Raa
Underground Solu’shn
DJ sets from FOUND, Fudge Fingas, Nasty P, Eclair Fifi, The Blessings, DJ G-Mac, EH1 and Spectrum

GLASGOW
Monorail
Iain Shaw (2pm), Frightened Rabbit (5pm), Palms (7pm) and The Membranes (9pm)
Love Music (today named Scotland’s best indie store in a public poll carried out by Indie Record Shop)
For Abel (1pm), The Hollows (1.30pm), Mr Kil (2pm), Aaron Wright (2.30pm), Stephen Flavahan (2.45pm), Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers (3pm), The Zips (3.30pm), Admiral Fallow (4pm), Pearl And The Puppets (4.30pm), Clamjamfrie (5pm)
Rubadub
Koreless plus DJ sets from The Blessings, Edit/Select and Instra:Mental

ABERDEEN
One Up
Craig John Davidson (2pm), Seas, Starry (3pm) and Indian Red Lopez (4pm)

DUNDEE
Groucho’s
Courtney Stuart (1pm) and The Twist (2pm)

STIRLING
Europa Music
Bad Boogaloo (12.30pm), Andrew Huggan (1pm), The Media Whores (1.30pm), Adam D Donaldson (2pm), The Sundancer (2.30pm), Craig Hughes (3pm), Debrasco (3.30pm) and Cry And The Blocks (4pm)

As well as the Frightened Rabbit/Twilight Sad split cassette, several exclusive products featuring Scottish artists will be released on Record Store Day:

Franz Ferdinand – Covers EP (Domino) on 12″ vinyl featuring cover versions of songs from the band’s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand album
TRACKLISTING
Side A
- Debbie Harry & Franz Ferdinand – Live Alone
- Stephen Merritt – Dream Again
Side B
- LCD Soundsystem – Live Alone
- ESG – What She Came For
- Peaches – Turn It On

Alex Kapranos told The Pop Cop: “I’m pretty chuffed that all these people got involved – they’ve all had a big impact on the way I listen to and enjoy music myself and have done great versions of the songs.”

The View – I Need That Record single (1967) on 7″ vinyl, cover of The Tweeds, official Record Store Day anthem
I Need That Record by The View

James Yorkston – It’s Lovely To Be Heard: The Talking Diaries Of A Scottish Gent (Domino) on 10″ vinyl contains excerpts from his book It’s Lovely To Be Here with music from Jon Hopkins & King Creosote amongst others

Edwyn Collins – In Your Eyes single (Heavenly) on 7″ vinyl b/w To Die For plus four-track Love EP mp3 download

Lone Pigeon – 28 Secret Tracks album (Domino) on 12″ vinyl

St Deluxe – After The Fire single (Dream Machine) on 10″ vinyl

Other Scottish independent music shops participating in Record Store Day not already mentioned above are:

DUMFRIES – Barnstorm Records
GREENOCK – Rhythmic
HAWICK – Spences Music Shop
INVERNESS – Imperial Music
KIRKWALL – Grooves Records
PAISLEY – Apollo Music