Spotify: The new/old musical counter-revolution

I got two packages in the mail - a vinyl record and a compact disc. All on the day that Australian music lovers would point their fingers and laugh at my stubborn luddism. Hadn't I heard? Spotify had finally launched Down Under! I could now stream any song I wanted from a pool of over sixteen million tracks filled by virtually all the major labels and independents wanting to fill their own cups with a totally "new" musical model.

As many pundits would have you believe the Spotify "revolution" isn't one at all - it's not the Red Army storming the Winter Palace and declaring peace, bread and land for the people; it's like the bound and gagged family Romanov inexplicably sprouting laser turrets from their heads seeing the ghosts of Cossacks rising from their graves to mercilessly hound Trotsky and his troops back toward the Ukraine. Spotify is a musical counter-revolution aiming to quash the orgiastic "free" producer/consumer-led music rebellion once and for all.

It’s so deliciously evil it beats life back into Monty Burns’ desiccated heart and has him whistling Dixie and calling Mater. (Ahoy-hoy?) Here’s why.

The digital arms race
Ever since the dawn of recorded music, the industry at large has had its eye on one prize. That is, controlling the content, the media and the distribution of both.[1] When gramophone records first appeared it wasn’t uncommon to have the music on vinyl sold in shops that had totally vertical integration (ownership from top to bottom from producer of the content to the point of purchase by the consumer. Case and point: HMV or “His Master’s Voice.”) The Compact Disc was a shift toward higher-fidelity media and lower overall manufacturing costs per unit.

The CD was jointly developed by Sony and Philips in the late-70s, the format gaining acceptance among consumers in the late-80s when an economy of scale was established. Sony and Philips jointly paid for the research & development, marketing and manufacturing of both the Compact Discs and the machines that would play them. Then they could license the technology to other companies. It’s a no brainer – Sony and Philips were (and still are, to some extent!) multinational music labels with vast back catalogues and new talent ready to be pressed to polymer which proves almost pilfer-proof (until the late 1990s, as we all know.)

But what to do! The medium of playback and distribution went spectacularly rogue after a stylized cat roamed around harvesting the innards of beige boxes through squeaky telephone wires in the yawning sunrise of 2000 AD. The pirates, once thought guerillas with nothing better to do than trade tapes around and occasionally burn a CD for a few bucks a pop were now legion, moving torrents (oh I love this water analogy) of (almost!) intangible data across networks without proper authorization from their intellectual property holders. The content was there, like it had been since Tin Pan Alley and even centuries before. But the stranglehold on media and distribution methods had slipped the grasp of the industry virtually overnight. It felt like no amount of speech impeded Danes with expensive lawyers could ever halt their revolutionary advance.

Commodification ala mode and a cup of tea
So what now? Do the record companies under the aegis of RIAA and their cronies hunt down the pirates and strong-arm them back toward their sanctioned tripartite model of music consumption or do they spend more money than they’re prepared to on R&D to create a new medium and a new distribution method? The iTunes model seemed “revolutionary” at the time – you know, telling people to pay for something they could get illegally for free – lest the counter-revolutionary martinets bound in and lay down the(ir) law. “Our content was never yours to begin with and now we’re keeping it,” they bellowed. And lo, Spotify and its ilk emerged.

They own the content. That's a given. The clever rub lies thus: remove the medium and utilize a well known distribution network that has existed in its present broadband form for about fifteen years. They seek to change the concept or perception of content ownership back to an near pre-technological state much like in the age of travelling band shows of yore. Yes, you may hear the music but you can no longer hold it in your hands.

By removing the physical or even the illusion of physicality (files on a hard drive), the medium and the distribution is in a state of simultaneous allness and nothingness; it’s always “on” yet you can never “have” the music. It's "your" song when you choose it - like out of a jukebox - but once the last note decays, so is your claim over it (not that you really had one in the first place). You can “search” the (not your) collection but it’s never “yours” – they’re the gatekeepers and you pay for them to lower the drawbridge. Once inside their opaque vaults, they're able track your playing habits to sell you more of what you already want. Then you're their billboard as they publish every guilty play of Pat Benatar to your friends on Facebook. It’s like the IKEA of promotion – IKEA keep their prices low because they outsource the construction of the product to you. Now Spotify have got you to do their marketing for them, too.

If budding content producers are paid a pitiful commission, more so the better in the eyes of the industry. By melding (or abnegating) the medium, they’ve lowered the price of music and also its value. If Spotify spends the same amount of money paying for the rights to the new Gotye record (quelle horreur) and the entire back catalogue of Darkthrone, per se, then what is the differential of worth between the two? There is none. The only savvy trick the labels can pull is restricting the “supply” of Gotye (or someone just as horrible and popular) but that would distort the market and their profit margins (in this new medium-lite model). Make everything on offer the same (pre-paid) price per click, throw in some ads and the money rolls in regardless. Not much for those who wish to furnish Spotify with music, but big payoffs for those who control mammoth oceans - not paper cups full - of content.

But what really fucking burns my potatoes is that Spotify is the closest thing we have to the real pop music experience. Richard Meltzer in his inquiry/parody of the Aesthetics of Rock posited that rock and pop music is the act of making the mundane interesting and exciting. Shit, if you can make money off it, more so the better.

Spotify is accessible on a desktop computer which you more than likely stare into each day to earn those dollars to pay for, well, Spotify. For the fraction of a second your consciousness wanders toward the sublime tongue of rock and pop in all its tinned ferocity on your shitty laptop speakers, the music industry suits have not only breathed a sigh of relief, their tar-stained cackles can be heard from a blue million miles...

Like I said, it’s pure evil fucking genius.



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1: Jones, S. Rock Formation: Music, Technology and Mass Communication, Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA, 1992 p. 185.

Review: Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve (The Big Issue)

A review of doom-death-prog 'supergroup' Barren Earth's latest sprawling opus, The Devil's Resolve. Read the review and as well as intriguing and fascinating stories in The Big Issue #404, available from vendors across the country. Only $5 and all proceeds help the homeless and unemployed.

Live Review: Slipknot w/ Trivium at Rod Laver Arena (Metal as Fuck)

I felt a certain sickly dripping on the end of my nose on Thursday night. Grey blanketed the skies above. I’d seen about three shows in as many days, slumber in short supply while working a day job to pay the bills. Worst of all, my fucking (handsome, charming and ever so intelligent) editor sent me to review Trivium and god damn Slipknot of all of the bands on the Soundwave tour, scowling in the knowledge that my beloved Paradise Lost was playing their sideshow a mere five minute walk down the road.

Bollocks.

Find out if I actually enjoyed myself or not at Metal as Fuck.

Live Review: Devin Townsend Project and Meshuggah w/ dredg at the Forum Theatre (Metal as Fuck)

Devin Townsend and his project played unforgettably at the Forum Theatre on that Thursday night. Meshuggah and dredg on the other hand...well...funny you mention them... 
 
Stuck in horrendous Melbourne traffic, I missed dredg much to my annoyance. Having been a fan of their Catch Without Arms record, I was relishing the opportunity to see them in an intimate club setting prior to my Soundwave adventure due in a couple of days. Alas, I was just pipped by the line which had snaked its way back behind the dingy alleyway of the Forum Theatre, much in contrast to the classical opulence of its facade and interior (Read more about the decor of the Forum here, if you’re into that sort of thing.) One newbie approached me and asked, “Is this the line for Devin Townsend?” How did the legion of metalheads not give it away? It was either that, or his name emblazoned above the door?

Find out why I forgot all about Meshuggah during their own show at Metal as Fuck.

Interview: Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost (the AU Review)

Nick Holmes, the stalwart gothic metal pioneer is a right ‘gobby’ bloke (for someone who's boring after three pints of lager, as described in his own self-deprecating Twitter bio) – it’s a requisite for the job as singer in the morose doom metal outfit Paradise Lost. In the early 1990s in Yorkshire, Paradise Lost seemingly channeled the lament of long-haired youth who were witnessing their metal greats blundering about aimlessly as grunge invaded the popular consciousness. In comparison, grunge’s flirtation with despondency was piecemeal in comparison to the UK doom scene’s dyed-in-the-wool, consummate romance with bleakness and sorrow.

Read the complete interview at the AU Review.

Podcast: The "Lost" Devin Townsend Interview

The long lost interview has finally been found! Conducted in Feburary 2012 for Metal As Fuck, it was once thought perished in the rusty innards of a fried HDD, this interview with the incredible Devin Townsend turned up in the most unlikeliest of places much to my surprise and delight. So here's my gift to you - a rare, earnest insight into the always entertaining and thought-provoking mind of Heavy Devy!

Listen to it in full on SoundCloud.

Review: Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu (TheVine)

In the most unlikeliest pairing since Phil Collins and Bone Thugs N’ Harmony (or, perhaps, Orson Welles and Manowar?), Velvet Underground stalwart Lou Reed teams up with the biggest riff factory known to mankind, Metallica. Metalheads and old rockers alike waited with baited breath for the first samples to appear online and both were roundly disgusted at what they heard (it takes a lot to disgust a metalhead, especially these days). Now that the monstrosity is here, requiring two discs to soundly contain all of Reed’s bewildering homespun ramblings and Metallica’s laborious, repetitive riffs  — both of which announce themselves from the outset in opener 'Brandenburg Gate' — one quickly discovers stapling together rock legends does not a great record guarantee.

Read more at TheVine online.

Collaborative Essay Project: Leticia's Contributions

In this post I present the work of my collaborator Leticia Supple on the critical examinations of rock journalism essay project. Leticia was the founder of MetalAsFuck.net and is a blogger, copywriter, editor and music journalist that resides in Adelaide, Australia.

The essays of Leticia Supple
The State of Play: balancing critical rock journalism with demands for content
Using the Force… or not. The place of publicity in contemporary music criticism
Studies in Criticism… or books versus trade

Remember to keep up with all our essays using the essay project tag here.

Interview: The Man With the Mighty Axe – Marcus Siepen: Gamer, geek and Blind Guardian rhythm guitarist (Metal As Fuck)

He’s got connections in Blizzard Entertainment. He’s been playing rhythm guitar for 25 years and wouldn't have it any other way. He’s Marcus Siepen, and he’s the riffwraith for German power metal gods, Blind Guardian. Read on - and don't get too jealous, gamers.

Read the rest at Metal As Fuck.

Live Review: The Beards at Northcote Social Club (the AU Review)

The Northcote Social Club looks like a place that your grandmother frequented in the 70s when men's top lips were bristling with mustaches and beer could be bought for under a dollar. Textured floral wallpaper, shag carpeting and red velvet curtains greet you walking into the band room. I was half expecting to see a seniors bingo game in progress. Despite the antiquated decor, the beer prices had their origins very much in the present. But what of the bands accompanying The Beards on their 100 Beard Tour of Australia? Beards are pretty 70s, right?



Read the rest at the AU Review.

Push-Button Professionalism: The origin and evolution of the role of professional music critics

If you write on the internet, you’re blogging. There’s an indissoluble link between the two terms – if you have an opinion and have the means to publish on the internet, you are elevated into the “blogosphere” of online opinion. One can blog on virtually any subject they wish, including rock music. These bloggers offer music criticism with lighting fast rapidity and in some cases, keener cultural and intellectual insight compared with academically trained, and establishment-oriented “professionals.” Is there much truth to the charge of popular music academic Don McLeese when he asks:

"[C]ritical writing about pop music has grown steadily more irrelevant. . . . Pinning the entire rap on the Internet allows music critics to dodge some painful but necessary questions. How should journalists illuminate the zeitgeist at a moment when the dominant culture narrative is that there is no dominant cultural narrative? Do critics have any special license to serve as pop music’s cultural interlocutors when anyone with an Internet connection can attempt to do the same thing? In other words: if anyone can make pop music and anyone can be a pop-music critic, do we really need professional critics to tell us what it all means?"[1]

If we can curate to our own exacting tastes, access music from a variety of sources and similarly the criticism – how can one delineate between “cultural interlocutor,” loud-mouth blogger or publicist shill? How did we end up at this (non-)critical juncture in the first place?

Music criticism and journalism lends meaning to the subculture or “communities of consumers” as they may be viewed and as an extension of itself. The bands characterizing themselves as artists address their fans through the “interlocutor” or interpreter of critic and rock journalist. However, the force of community building is at tension with the forces of commodification as rock journalism derives its revenue through label advertising in order to sell their own cultural product. Labels seek to reach their markets through magazines. Then we must determine the initial impulse for music writers to start writing about this subject as well.

Charlie Gillett of the underground magazine Rock File wrote in 1972 that “records are the reason most of the journalists are [writers], which is often as frustrating to them as it is to the readers who have to plough through their copy. Records are bait and currency for the rock 'n' roll journalist; he gets ‘review copies,’ free from the record companies, keeps those he likes, and sells or trades off what he doesn't want.” But in 2011 a “music critic” (as defined as someone who actively writes about music with some degree of critical positioning) can download an album, perhaps before its release date and write a review with as much import as a piece written by a critic that works within the traditional structures of the industry and is recognized by others in the subculture as such.

Of course, back in the 1960s and 70s the media ecology of the music marketplace was firmly in the grasp of the music industry. Record labels and their holding companies controlled the means of reproduction (vinyl records, 8-tracks etc.) and how these products were manufactured and sold. Similarly, music magazines controlled the sphere of criticism and music news reporting. In the time of Gillett, Roxon and Bangs, music critics were handed records by publicists or editors and encouraged, “bribed” or ordered to write about what they heard or were charged with finding new sounds or emerging trends in music-centric subcultures. In some cases, these journalists almost uncritically championed styles they favored.

On the whole, critics were charged to communicate to other readers using their cultivated disposition – perceived or otherwise - if what they heard was culturally significant or aesthetically creative; it was their job to appraise whether the music in question was enjoyable, to determine to what extent and why. A reader would have to buy, physically pick up or subscribe to a magazine or street press, read the review and decide whether to purchase the album or single based on the resulting content. In terms of criticism, there was a literal and cultural distance from the work being appraised and the work itself; the record and the magazine existed in two parallel and distinct mediums as opposed to non-critical music-as-content mediums such as radio or television.

Radio ever since its invention and mass adoption, likewise with television in the 1980s, has exposed cultures and subcultures to budding trends in pop and rock music. The content of radio primarily is music (or arguably the commercials that bookend the songs), not music criticism. Once a song was played, the listener was at the mercy of the DJ to spin it again (until the 1980s, when home taping became prevalent although this phenomenon was not as wide-spread as record labels would have us imagine.) Almost all music in rotation at commercial or even community access radio stations was almost always readily available for purchase in record stores or in other outlets. The institution of the radio station serves to actively publicize music (or rather, the records) as a commercial product for retail sale by presenting it as the content itself. When media critic Robert McChesney posited that “there’s no non-commercial part of MTV” in the mid-90s he could easily have applied the same assertion to commercial radio of the 50s onwards (especially in the face of cash-for-airplay scandals known as “payola.”) In the age of media convergence, new media and portable, digital formats such as endlessly duplicable CD or mp3, the once prevailing view of music as a controlled, commercial product becomes problematic. Thus the role and usefulness of the “privileged interlocutor” is thrown into question.

In the twilight of the last century, the file-sharing service Napster along with scores of others forced a usually reactionary music industry to transition towards the portable and online era. Musicians and labels discovered to their dismay they could not merely legislate or litigate the control of their products back to them and how they were covered or evaluated in publications. The age of monetizing the content by controlling the technology was at a close. The advance promo “bait” as a currency to entice music journalists to write favorable copy – or any copy at all – lost all worth virtually overnight.

Likewise, the “underground” publications such as street-press or fanzines, revered for their authenticity due to their autonomy and limited production in comparison to the “mainstream” could no longer maintain this physical distance from Rolling Stone or NME once these blog-zines were only one click away. In terms of music criticism, the dimension between “insider” or “interpreter” and “consumer” or “fan” collapsed. Industry publicists, fans, musicians, technicians and professional journalists could all don the persona of music critic with a few simple clicks of a mouse. We don’t even have to read reviews; websites such as Last.fm, MySpace and ReverbNation allow us to hear music on demand and allows consumers to individually decide whether to purchase (or illegally download) the content for themselves. So do we need professionals to tell us what it all means?

In Australia, there are many fanzines and blogs that have risen from the grassroots to later be co-opted by the music industry to propel mutual success. FasterLouder.com.au, Beat Magazine, KillYourStereo, MetalForge.com, MetalAsFuck.net, Mess+Noise, Collapse Board, the AU Review and various others are examples of fan-established and maintained blogs or street press that have risen to prominence significantly due to gaining artist access via official channels. Sites and street press such as these are privy to the sphere of cultural production (to be discussed in detail in another essay) in terms of providing the basis for content creation for these sites. For record label, it’s arguably the last vestige of content control they retain.

In the origins of pop music criticism, when pop was to be considered “art” by academia and eventually the mainstream (radio, television, newspapers and other widely consumed cultural products intended for a mass audience) it was pushed by students and university graduates occupying positions of influence in the media or academia. Alternatively, publications such as the aforementioned Rolling Stone, Creem or Melody Maker (after it went “progressive”) were created to lead the charge for pop music and its adherents as an artistically authentic subculture and not merely as pleasure-driven kids seeking vacuous entertainment. Pop music critic authenticity was conferred upon writers by writing for publications that others considered to be representative of the subculture it was reflecting or shaping. In the internet age, the “professionals” are not chosen by the public, but the labels.

The labels offer the interviews, the advance copies, the free concert tickets to writers they believe carry this authenticity or popularity and are able to act as “cultural interlocutors.” “Amateur” music critics that garner a significant amount of traffic or attention do not tend to stay “amateur” for long. Labels on the prowl for more avenues to publicize their content will seek to co-opt these writers or journalists into their cultural production “sphere” or circuit. Whether the writer publishes his own blog or is employed by conglomerates such as News Limited or Fairfax Media, the task that falls on the writer to “explore meaning” in pop music is granted by the fact labels allow the writer to test these boundaries through controlling who gains access to these artists and who does not.

There is no question there are shills, “hacks” and other fan-writers who write nothing but borderline hagiography when afforded an opportunity to meet or talk to their favorite artist. Others pride themselves on acting as “haters,” harshly critiquing almost everything that they hear. Despite either method (or even striking a moderate balance of coverage) that guarantees the initial access, once inside the label-content circuit, one’s inclusion is not assured indefinitely. If new, more popular writers emerge and the writer in question does not deliver a return on investment (writing negative copy in a publication with declining readership, for example) they eventually are excluded from the circuit. At this juncture, it becomes apparent who is granted "privileged interlocutorship."

It would be naïve to assume that the most popular music writers are considered the “best” writers; its essentially a subjective position. In the view of the music industry, these critics and writers are given more access for the greatest return on investment. Even though music is stolen with more haste than it is bought, the intrinsic task of the privileged music critic is the same; to promote records through the discussion of it in mass media publications. But do we need them?

To answer simply, the co-opted critic may not be as insightful, incisive or knowledgeable about their chosen critic as one who is not. The “special licence” is conferred upon writer from without, by the source of the content being written about; not inversely as it did in the post-1968 moment until around 1986 and new media trends and transmission methods were integrated into our media culture. A critic that actively resists co-option may enjoy heightened authenticity through maintaining a critical distance from the industry cultural production circuit, much like those in the underground zine culture of the 70s and 80s. By rejecting the compromising “lures” of privileged interlocutorship may work in their favor in terms of shaping the musical zeitgeist in certain subcultures (such as punk and hardcore music for example.) This sounds like a romanticized authenticity rooted in the do-it-yourself punk philosophy, but ultimately the writer with the “all access pass” carries more authenticity as a music critic and journalist than the writer without one.

The simple, undeniable fact remains: the writer with the most reach is given that privilege and writes to sustain it; and that license is very much granted at the discretion of the labels and publicists. We don’t need these “privileged” writers, no; but in terms of getting the story and advancing the narrative of music criticism, we do seem to want them. The critics that elevate their craft into an art as much as the music they write about are the ones that deserve the privilege; but unfortunately may not always get it. As long as the participants of a subculture yearn for an authentic story behind artists and their products conveyed from the mouths of the artists themselves - critically or not - the “privilege” is there for the taking and increasingly, exists for our continued consumption.

This essay is an early draft in a series of critical examinations of music criticism and journalism. The project is being co-written by Leticia Supple, blogger and founder of MetalAsFuck.net. Read her first essay here.


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[1]: McLeese, D. 'Straddling the Cultural Chasm: The Great Divide between Music Criticism and Popular Consumption' in Popular Music and Society (Vol. 33, No. 4. 2010) p. 436.

Interview: Lexxi Foxxx of Steel Panther (The AU Review)

Forming in the late 80s but never finding success until the release of their debut “Feel the Steel” due to infighting, substance abuse and “fucking the other band member’s bitches” (the biggest problem, apparently) Steel Panther are itching to bring metal back and generally just itching, due to their many wild and wanton flings with women worldwide. The glam metal superstars direct from the famous Sunset Strip in LA are finally finding their way to Australia, playing at the Soundwave Revolution alongside their heroes Van Halen and Alice Cooper. The fast-talking, mirror-gazing and wise-cracking bassist Lexxi Foxxx (the extra “x” stands for “sex”) passionately explains their “metal” mission, uncovers parts of their murky history as well as their plans after finally “driving” down under.

Read the rest of this irreverently funny interview at the AU Review.

Thesis Diary #3: Is that a lot?

Okay, I must be borderline insane for thinking I could complete my thesis in a semester - I just figured 18,000w is a normal workload - how could I possibly fuck it up?

But this (long) weekend, I added about 3,000w to my total bringing it up to a sizable 6,142w as of writing. I proved to myself that it can be done. My first chapter is quickly becoming one long ass definition about rock music, rock subcultures and what constitutes rock journalism and criticism. I am no sociology student, and it shows. (NO, political science is not applied sociology!) I remember I did cultural studies once in my undergrad years and failed the unit because I stopped showing up. I failed that entire semester, if I recall... (Please don't tell Tony I failed that entire semester.)

Luckily for me, there's one really cool dude that is the leading authority on this sort of stuff. I'm an even luckier son of a bitch because he's written about a billion articles and books on the subject. I have about 70 footnoted references and his name appears in about half of them. Enter, Simon Frith.

My research has yielded some surprises insofar that I just never though rock and roll music was taken this seriously by academia - little did I know that there exists entire journals on the subject such as The Journal of Popular Culture and Popular Music and Society. At this stage, I'm just scratching the surface in terms of covering the transition of rock music from just teenage unserious "pop" into scholarly and meritorious "art" (like a book by my boy Frith over there!) that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. Interestingly enough, if there's entire schools dedicated to popular culture and cinema studies (did you know that Cahiers du Cinema and Rolling Stone started publication in the same year? Of course, only complete wankers like me would give a shit about that.) but almost none dedicated to pop and rock music. I mean, it could be set up! Just think of the tenure! THE TENURE!

But my thesis isn't a huge nostalgia trip back in time to a place where I think Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire is better than anything my modern day wannabes can come up with (but can it?) - it's to demonstrate that rock journalism in Australia as independent, "rock authentic" journalism is "dead, buried and cremated" (to borrow a trite phrase) and it's mostly the journalists that are carrying the shovels.

I can't say that I have a subscription to NME, Kerrang! or jMag, but I insist that my writing is good enough to be inserted into those publications with a cheque headed my way as compensation. But then again, how would I know?

Of all the working music journalists I personally know (which is including but not limited to those I've only acquainted myself on social networking sites) I've not met one that gets paid enough to live comfortably and I've only met one or two who get paid at all. If your mantra is "I'll never sell out" then you'll never "buy in" either; as my research continues its becoming bleakly apparent this game is owned and won by those who are willing shill for swill.

My plan is to get into uni as much as I can over the next couple of weeks. I plan to hit the half way mark during that time. Wish me luck!

Thesis Diary #2: Social media will ruin your life

It's almost true. Social media has opened my world up to so many wonderful and fortunate things. I'd never be writing for as many great websites and publications if it wasn't for social media. I'd never have met my last two girlfriends (one was an ex-fiance, believe it or not) if it wasn't for social media. I've met a lot of people on social media in person and it's enhanced my life in so many ways.

But it'll absolutely fucking murder you in your sleep. There's nothing that kills productivity quicker than ego-stroking at the lightning pace of 140 characters in under a second. I know about this, because I really am that egotistical. I'm not even ashamed of being egotistical. How egotistical is that? Fuck all the haters - self-indulgence feels good, so I do it! Though for the remainder of my entire life, I'm limiting myself to using it for no more than an hour or so a day.

Last week as I sat down to write, I thought to myself "Fuck it, I'll lurk Twitter for a little bit." I had two fucking screens going - one focused on bullshit the other on nothing in particular. My screen space was being twice as efficient at being as inefficient as possible. So I told my computer to go fuck itself and sat down to read some source material. One book I found quite enlightening if not self-absorbed is The Rebel Sell: How the counter-culture became the consumer culture and it basically pillories hipsters for being completely retarded - soon irony will be for the masses and they'll tear up their Pixies posters in audible, annoying rebellion.

How does this relate to rock journalism? Well, I'll figure that out later. It's what my tutor has suggested for me to do. So I'm doing it.

Thesis Diary #1: Rock n' roll journalism in Australia

It seemed like rock and roll journalism in Australia used to be a hell of a lot of fun once upon a time. Considering our small population, everyone in the "scene" knew one another at least by word of mouth and probably saw and met them at one point. My supervisor, Dr. Tony Moore could write letters to radio DJs and have it read and mocked openly on air - now I couldn't even get my tweet professing an unhealthy obsession with Belinda Carlisle flashed up during a 80s revival night on Channel V. I sincerely doubt I could call up Richard Kingsmill on Triple J and ask "what the fuck is this shit, dude..." although I'd very much like to. I pay his salary, god damn it!

Luckily, I've found that there's a wealth of scholarly material on rock journalism in Australia and rock music in general. Archives are out there to be trawled through and I fear that I'll be spending more time acting rock historian than intrepid thesis writer and lose the plot entirely. "Have you heard of Ram magazine?" Tony asks sincerely, forgetting that he's about 20 years my senior. "You should read that. It was heaps into heavy metal." I'm sure he doesn't know who the Katatonia refers to on my t-shirt. Even so, he was once refered to as the "suede crusader" who flew the flag for rock music when the industry was embracing any band that owned a Fairlight CMI and had crates of hairspray on backorder - so he knows a metalhead when he sees one. Or a punk rocker, indie kid or whatever you choose.

So the past few days have been about asking questions in an academic way and not to draw any conclusions from them. It's encouraging to have a supervisor that's into the subject as much as me ("I wish I did something like this for my honor's thesis," Tony says almost every time we meet) and so far, things are looking up. Today I didn't even feel to get out of bed - now I want to rock out with my theories out.

From the Archive: Parkway Drive - Winston McCall Interview

Originally appeared in Buzz Magazine, December 2008.

Kicking back in his native Byron Bay on the tail end of a massive international tour, Winston McCall, lead vocalist of the immensely popular Parkway Drive pauses for reflection. How does a hardcore/metalcore band such as theirs react to writing and record a chart-topping album? (Horizons managed to debut at #6 on the ARIA Album charts.)

“It’s been pretty good. It’s been better than we ever could have hoped.” Having that said, it wasn’t completely out of left field.

“When Killing the Smile came out it got such a good reception it was better than anything we could have hoped to have achieved with that. We were put in the position where we thought nothing could ever do better than it.”

Horizons wasn’t destined for any sort of greatness – Winston describes it as the “backup” album to merely ride on the coattails of Killing.

“Funnily enough, Horizons seems to have gone really well; the songs we play live seem to go down just as well if not better than the old songs, I like the songs more and kids seem to be stoked on it.”

Being as popular as a metalcore album could ever have dreamed to have been, was this the signal for a headlong drive into the mainstream, albeit the fringes thereof? According to Winston, underground core lovers need not be frightened by the neon lights and MTV cameras just yet.

“I don’t think so. Simply because you still don’t hear any of it played on the radio and [metalcore isn’t] definitely breaking any kind of mainstream barrier in terms of acceptance, you never see film clips or anything like that, it never has any support like that…you could hear it on Triple J or on independent radio stations. The volume of kids listening to it is testament to how big the actual following is. Other than that, it’s still definitely under the radar from the mainstream.”

Parkway Drive have built themselves from the ground up, playing in Europe to mere handfuls of people all the way up to headlining shows.

“When we went to Europe, it was like starting up again, as if you were a brand new band,” he recalls. “We’d be playing in the smallest venues you’ve ever seen without stages and holes in the roof, but now we’ve got thousands of kids rocking up and it’s just ridiculous.”

Has Winston ever considered playing something else for the band?

“No,” he insists, “I’m so, so bad. I cannot play an instrument.”

Even despite being revered for his vocals, Winston doesn’t think they’re anything praiseworthy.

“I can’t sing either. I found that I could scream at kids and I lost my voice like hell when I first started out but it was the first thing I could actually do that gave me an outlet for the passion that I had. I wanted to start a band but I had no ability to do it because I couldn’t play anything, I guess that was the only thing left for me to do. (laughs) I still can’t play anything for shit.”

He did, however, try to learn the harmonica, but to no avail. How would it fit into the Parkway Drive sound?

“Well, I don’t think it would. But it seems pretty simple. I’m finding that it’s more complicated than it looks. I find myself going ‘hee’, ‘haww’ over and over again and I’m like,‘shit, how do you actually play this thing?’”

Metalcore has long been considered the orphaned lovechild of heavy metal and hardcore music, which many fans on either side relish in deriding instead of accepting.

“Europe has the most unified scene when it comes to that. But when you go to the States, it’s broken down even beyond that. You’ll go to a show and kids won’t come out unless it’s a specific genre of music,” he reveals.

“There’ll only be a handful of bands that fit their criteria and will actually go out of their way to support. To me, I don’t really care what the label is. If it’s heavy and there’s a punk ethic, I’ll call it punk. If hardcore kids like I’ll call it hardcore and if metal kids like something I’ll call it metal. To me, the music being played is a lot more important than the label being placed on it. I don’t think pigeonholing a band will make it sound any different or any better. I don’t think that’s going to change, though.”

Parkway Drive recently re-mixed and re-mastered their first album, Killing with a Smile after only two years of recording it. Why would a band resort to re-mastering after only two years? Winston explains that it wasn’t a business decision, but as a thank you to their new fans that couldn’t find their earlier work.

“Well, our first album went out of print, so kids couldn’t find it. So we got our first album and all of our other out of print stuff before Killing and whacked it all together and put it on one release. We tried to make it available to kids if they wanted it. It wasn’t so much of a marketing ploy, it was doing something that kids asked of us, I guess.”

And Parkway Drive are always accommodating to their fans.

“We try to hang out with as many kids as we can after shows and stuff and we try to make kids as happy as they can. For example, I signed some guy’s nuts in New Mexico.”

You read right. He signed a fan’s nutsack.

“He got them out and they were swollen, and I signed them. I even took a photo with him afterwards. It was crazy.” All part of the Parkway Drive service.

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© Tom Valcanis / Crushtor Media Services, All Rights Reserved. Posted with permission.

Anti-Flag - Pat Thetic Interview

Had a pleasant conversation with Pat Thetic of Anti-Flag - Be sure to read Buzz Magazine next month for more Anti-Flag news!

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Anger. Violence. Revolution. All adjectives that could invariably be applied to punk rock legends Anti-Flag. Not words that can describe their reasonably chipper and easy-going drummer, Pat Thetic, however.

“Hi,” he greets me cheerily. “How are you today?” I reply that I’m very well. Cool and calm, Pat tells me where he is. “I’m sitting on my back porch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I just got home from Sweden yesterday. I slept all day and now I’m ready to chat.” At this point, I was fired up for a great conversation too.

The People or the Gun, the title of Anti-Flag’s ninth studio record will, as Pat says, “rock your ass off.” Recording in their home state of Pennsylvania was a figurative and literal return to their beginnings, as Pat explains.

“Well, we hadn’t recorded in Pittsburgh for a long time,” he continues. “We set up a studio in our practice room and it was good because we haven’t recorded that way since the first four or five records that we’ve done without a producer; just us and some rented recording equipment. There wasn’t any other band in the house or a warehouse…it was very refreshing having the four of us writing music and recording music dirtily and aggressively and just making it happen.”

“I think we captured something really special on this record that we haven’t been capturing on some of the other records.”

As a punk band, they are one of the few bands that steadfastly rock out against the establishment, consistently speaking out against injustice, misuse of power and highlighting, sometimes controversially, issues they feel go unaddressed by others – they even pledged to donate a portion of the record sales of The People or the Gun to Amnesty International, the human rights advocacy group. With the U.S. Presidential Election looming and a world economy in turmoil, the band resolved to, as Pat tells us, to “record quickly.”

“There was a lot going on in our world and we wanted to comment on it. The world was sort of collapsing and we wanted to say something about it.

“We bring up issues in our music and we want people to be aware of them; but it doesn’t necessarily mean people are going to stay angry about them. I want people to think about these issues. I want there to be other points of view [besides the mainstream media] and that’s why we create this music; so we can have another point of view – another set of ideas that are being thrown out there when people are hearing about militarism and the government bailing out bankers.”

Anti-Flag’s activism is built on the same straightforward premise; that giving people ideas about what is happening around them through music can bring change to the world, although their first goal is simply to “be a rock band” as Pat breaks it down for us.

“If you’re not doing something creative or interesting musically, no-one’s going to care. Now that we’re a rock band, what can we do that’s more interesting than just play rock shows. How can [Anti-Flag] get our ideas into the world where we feel these ideas aren’t present? Our activism and being a rock band isn’t a separate thing.

"I mean, for example when we went to Canada this year – a lot of kids in Canada don’t have coats. The kids that come to our rock shows have extra coats. Then let’s try to get the kids who have extra coats to give them to the kids who don’t have any. Then it’s not a rock show, it’s a rock show that’s building a community and building something better than just a rock show; that’s sort of how the process goes.”

Pat says they had a lot of challenges with being signed to a major label before moving on to independent punk label SideOneDummy which also includes Flogging Molly and the Casualties on their roster. However the switch was more to do with the perception others had more than their desire to shy away from the mainstream music industry.

“Being signed to a major label made us more resilient and even angrier,” Pat explains to us simply. “If we had mainstream success from the outside, it would probably be detrimental.”

“If you gave the four of us as an entity a bullhorn that big? You wouldn’t be able to get us to go to sleep because we’d be trying to figure out ways to push people’s buttons and make them uncomfortable. It would just make us unsuccessful again and put us back into the world we know.”

Jokingly, I liken their hypothetical situation to that of the late author and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson when asked what the first thing he would do if he was elected President – “Resign!”

Pat laughs it off. “Yeah, sort of like that. But we wouldn’t intentionally resign. Through our actions, we would make ourselves resign…because we’d have to. (laughs)”

Anti-Flag are eager to return to Australian shores, but it just a matter of finding time in their busy schedule.

“We have a tour schedule set up until January 2010,” Pat laments with a strain in his voice, “It would probably be soon after that. It would be the spring of … ‘Ten.’ What are we going to call that? 2010.”

I tell Pat he could call it the ‘Tour in Ten.’

“That’s a great name for it! ‘Tour in Ten!’ (laughs) “Now when we call it that you can point at us and say, ‘That was my idea! Damn them, damn them to hell!’”

Joking aside, Pat and the band can’t wait to return.

“We love to play Australia. We love the Australian people and playing shows there are always a lot of fun. It’s definitely on our list to get there soon.”

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© Tom Valcanis / Crushtor Media Services, All Rights Reserved. Posted with permission.

Trivium - Corey Beaulieu Interview

An interview with my good friend (well, I have met him a few times - does that count?) Corey Beaulieu, guitarist for global metal giants Trivium. Be sure to read Buzz Magazine for more Trivium news this month!!!

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Floridian metallers Trivium have a hectic tour schedule. As of publication, they would have already embarked on a trek through Canada with Slipknot then hopping over to Japan before touching down in Australia. Although the norm for places such as the United States and Europe, Trivium’s headlining tour comes with two other overseas bands, namely Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn and thrash metal neophytes Black Tide – a band with an average age of only seventeen. Talking with Corey Beaulieu, guitarist for the heavy metal hegemons, insists that he won’t do anything to corrupt their innocent minds while in Australia; he’s already done it for them.

“Well, we had them open a few shows for us back home a couple of years ago”, Corey reflects. “That was their first kind of mini-tour; we popped their ‘tour cherry’ in a way.

“We’ve seen them at various music awards but we haven’t toured with them since then, so they’ve come a long way since we played with them. It’ll be fun to play with them again. They’re Florida boys so it’ll be like ‘Florida reunites in Australia.’”

Despite a legion of vehement armchair-bound, Facebook toting detractors, Trivium have won over many metalheads in Australia with their latest record, Shogun, finishing with a peak ranking of #4 on the ARIA album charts; a feat that many metal bands could only dream of accomplishing. Corey says that he’s “really excited” by all the press and fan reaction to such a stellar result and their first ever Australian headlining tour.

“We’re really pumped to do a headlining tour for the record for the first time and Australia is one of the places where we’ve never done this sort of stuff before, so our fans haven’t seen the full, super-long Trivium set so its going to be fun to be able to do that because we’ve got a really killer set going too. Hopefully everyone has a chance to make it out to the show.”

Even though the set may be lengthy, Corey insists that fans may never get to hear the “sheer volume of material” in their vaults as Trivium’s well of inspiration seldom runs dry. Corey believes that the state of the music industry is changing and Trivium needs to lead the charge.

“Instead of recording 12 songs per record, we could easily go in and record something like 20 songs and then put out the record,” Corey muses. “Every three months or something or throughout the tour cycle we could put out a new song online. We could constantly feed people with new music, keep people involved.”

“We might write a record with a bunch of songs that don’t typically fit the tone of the [album]; we could put out a song that’s a little different from the record – you know, just to put out music that’s cool. We don’t [necessarily] have to put it on a record.”

“With the industry sort of suffering, you have to have a fresh approach on music and keeping people’s attention spans up.”

Will Corey weep for the decline of the humble compact disc? As a fan, yes. As a guitarist in a constantly touring metal band, seemingly not, as he revealed to me.

“When I was a kid I fuckin’ loved going down to the record store and buying new music – you know saying ‘that has a cool album cover, I’m going to buy it.’ But now out of the necessity of what I do and my traveling around, I started using iTunes. I got hooked on it; its just so easy, I click a button and I buy an album that I want. Sometimes some of the stuff I want to buy, record stores won’t even have because shelf space is declining. People can’t get the record they want unless they special order it or some shit.”

iTunes may have killed the CD star, but Beaulieu thinks that artists will get their just reward if they choose the digital route.

“It doesn’t cost a lot – well, any money to put a record up on iTunes. There are a lot of benefits to it but what you miss is the actual, physical product. But truth be told, the CD is kind of dying out. People just aren’t buying music any more and its hurting the whole business.”

Even though music is essentially being stolen via the internet, Corey doesn’t believe that Trivium will have to make their music “louder” as people move away from listening to music on their stereos with powerful speakers to iPods with the now ubiquitous tiny white earphones.

“Well, I’ve got the little earbuds that came with my iPhone, and they sound fuckin’ killer for their size.” He says, surprisingly.

“The technology that goes into what you’re listening to and to keep it at a really high quality is really advanced. It depends on what you’ve got. If you’re listening to a record via shitty equipment it’s still going to sound shitty no matter how good the production of the album was. I don’t think we should ‘dumb down’ or change ourselves sonically during recording to match what people are listening to us through.

“People should want to listen to music on high quality sound systems. It’ll just kick ass more.”

Those with the cash to splash on high-end sound kit should take note of the guitar tone on Shogun; the production into creating such an inimitable sound was meticulous to say the least.

“The reason it sounds so different is because there’s just so many angles of sound going into it,” Corey explains. “our producer [Nick Rasculinecz, also currently producing the new Alice in Chains album] knew a lot of old school tricks and would mix and match between ProTools and stuff used before then.”

“We might have been sitting there going ‘what the hell is he doing?’ when he was setting up an old studio trick from back in the day instead of using a plug-in tool or something like that. He’d actually go out and do something in the room to create the sound we wanted. He brought some different approaches to the record that we had never seen before.”

Was the band happy with the result?

“Oh yeah. We would never have been able to get some of the sounds we got without someone with the kind of experience he had. It was a lot of fun seeing him do some of the stuff he did.”
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© Tom Valcanis / Crushtor Media Services, All Rights Reserved. Posted with permission.

Dept. of Music Acquisition and Detection

I supplicate before the internet and demand a reply: why was I not informed of Electric Six earlier?

(Thanks to Liz for that one.)

you can't ignore my techno

The Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008

The tentative list for Harm.us - the full write up will be posted after Christmas.

Honorable Mentions:
Mercenary – Architect of Lies (Gold Award)
Cynic – Traced In Air (Silver Award)
Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God (Bronze Award)
Evergrey – Torn
Enslaved - Vertebrae
Neaera – Armamentarium
Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom
Opeth – Watershed
Motorhead – Motorizer
Ayreon - 01011001

The Top 10
1. Gojira – The Way of All Flesh
2. Machinae Supremacy - Overworld
3. Eluveitie - Slania
4. Scar Symmetry – Holographic Universe
5. Daylight Dies – Lost to the Living
6. Martriden – The Unsettling Dark
7. Edguy – Tinnitus Sanctus
8. Arsis – We Are the Nightmare
9. Seventh Wonder – Mercy Falls
10. In Flames – A Sense of Purpose

Disappointments:
Children of Bodom – Blooddrunk
Into Eternity – The Incurable Tragedy
Satyricon - The Age of Nero

Independent Release of 2008:
Zero Degrees Freedom – The Calm… Before the Silence
Runner Up: Storm the Castle! – The History of Doomed Expeditions, Vol. 1

And, as is customary for me, I have ordered The Way of All Flesh on Vinyl for taking out #1!