MUSIC FROM THE DIRT...

Unless you live in a hut in the woods, you’ve probably heard about this LCD Soundsystem ticketing debacle. Though I guess it’s unlikely you have Internet in the woods, so you probably couldn’t see this post anyways. Bad example. Either way, LCD sold out their final show at MSG in minutes. Crazy right? Not altogether out of the question with scalping sites like stubhub and the like out there now. Turns out those scalpers scooped up a majority of the tickets for that show. LCDs frontman wrote an open letter on their site:

http://lcdsoundsystem.com/main/archives/647

I’ve been late getting tickets to shows and have used these sites as a last resort in the past. Never again. It’s happened most recently with Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, with Blues and Lasers opening. Would’ve been top show of 2011… buys tickets have been up around 100 bucks for the last two and a half months, and the show is still a few weeks away. At least a band I’ve followed for a long time is finally blowing up; it’s about time.

Just sucks to be left by the wayside through no fault of the band.

Fuck you, scalpers.

So I’m here nearing the end of my day. Waiting for an e-mail from guy-i’ve-never-seen-but-is-somewhere-in-this-building so I can finish up and drive home.I woke up late, so I drove in to work.

Technology being what it is, my mini-magic-music-box failed to charge last night. Purchased music for the first time in eons last night, loaded it all onto the mmmb… and it failed to charge. Why I didn’t bring the cds I had just purchased with me to the car, I don’t know. Starting the car up brought on the realization that I had left them, just sitting on my coffee table, wanting to be part of the laser light show about to start inside the cd deck. They knew what they were missing. I did not. I still don’t, actually, since I haven’t listened to them.

Either way, I had a few options on this frigid morning. The Who by Numbers, Sister Hazel, or Phish Live at MSG, NYE 1995.

In dove Phish. A mediocre, keys-heavy mix, its not the best. Give me the trey-chunk, bass heavy, thick, syrupy Phish. This ain’t it.

That got me thinking… they record every show. They offer every show through [Live Phish]. Yes, there is, in fact, an app for that. Phish may be a unique case given the fan base, their history, blah blah blah. I bet they pay next to nothing to sell those recordings - recording straight from the soundboard, hosting a file, posting it somewhere, and boom. A new, live, double, or in some cases triple, album can be produced a couple times a WEEK!

There is something to be said for this kind of thing. People want to have a record of what they experienced. My generation takes millions of pictures, which in some, way, shape, or form will float around indefinitely. People want it.

The whole instant-live idea took off at shows, with people wanting to have the recording to remember a good time, a fun, live set. Why don’t more bands offer this? Gov’t Mule does something very similar… a few others most people would probably lump into the jam-band genre…

I look for shows I’ve been to on livearchive.org for months after I go. If I could grab a recording of shows I go to relatively soon after, I’d drop a helluva lot more cash of music… and in this case, the vast majority of it goes straight to the artist.

At least I think thats how it works.

So I’ve been reading Keith Richards’ autobiography, Life, and I gotta say, damn. The fact the dude is still alive is unbelievable. Cliche to say that, yea, but goddammit can the guy tell a fucking great story (with a little help from James Fox). 

Let me preface this by saying I was never a Stones guy. Never. Like everyone else, I know their signature tunes, maybe a couple random tracks here and there. I got down to Wild Horses more than I’d care to admit. But hell, I never got to the best stuff. I didn’t know anything about them.

I’d venture to say that a lot of people know jackshit about them.

Getting the whole rundown of their formation and what they wanted to do and where it all came from was completely out of left field. 

And now… its all coming on in a huge rush. Pouring over albums I knew were epics but only because someone told me so. Yea, I knew Howlin Wolf, Muddy, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Little Walter, Willie Dixon… I could name drop all fuckin’ day.

I never stopped to think they had anything to do with the Stones. 

What an idiot I was.

And so it begins.

1,887,934 music blogs are started every day. This, as you may have guessed, is #1,887,935. A repository, a simple conduit for what I think about on my commute. Read, don’t read… do your thang. You know how sometimes things just materialize from the ether? Well, its gotta be generated first, right? Simple physics. Or something like that. 

Just doing my part.