Friday, January 30, 2004

Concerts

It is a ticket buying day today.

I bought tickets for quite a few shows today.
- Supagroup plays tomorrow night
- Dweezil Zappa and Lisa Loeb at the end of February
- Primus in March
- Yes in April. They sold direct through their web site and I was able to get 3rd row center for Philips Arena which is the big indoor Atlanta venue.

and I'm waiting for The Darkness tickets to go on sale in a couple of weeks.

CNN.com - Carter slams Georgia's 'evolution' proposal - Jan. 30, 2004

You go Top Jimmy!

CNN.com - Carter slams Georgia's 'evolution' proposal - Jan. 30, 2004

AIC

Looks like this will be one to get in March.

BILLBOARD: "familiar songs such as 'Them Bones,' 'Rooster,' 'No Excuses,' 'Heaven Beside You,' 'Would?' and 'I Stay Away,' the set sports two contributions to the 1993 'Last Action Hero"

CNN.com - Georgia considers banning 'evolution' - Jan. 30, 2004

And in the same breath people ask why Georgia has some of the lowest test scores? Being a recent transplant to Atlanta with a daughter in middle school the removal of the word evolution from school textbooks is completely absurd and ignorant on the part of the state's school superintendent.

CNN.com - Georgia considers banning 'evolution' - Jan. 30, 2004

In The Studio

Last night we began the recording process for our demos in earnest. I had no idea how long and boring getting a drum sound could be. After three hours of hitting quarter notes on toms we were able to start recording.

Performance wise I was quite pleased. Rejected, a crowd favorite, I laid my track down first take. Execution was great but the tempo was a little fast. We are looking at slowing down my part and then dubbing in the rest of the band. If I need to I'll recut the part but doubt I'll get a cleaner performance.

Too Far and Lonely One were good but could be better. Good for a live performance but not for a studio recording. Considering we used no click for this first batch all turned out fairly well. I'll tackle working with a click track in the studio next time.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

OutKast Keeps A Lock On No. 1

BILLBOARD: "OutKast Keeps A Lock On No. 1 "

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

words from a sage friend.... take the high road

Monday, January 26, 2004

LGWH

The Last Great Watering Hole show Saturday night went well. For our official debut it couldn't have gone much better. In addition to the band debut my new set of DW Drums made their debut as well.

We played two 1 hour sets with a short break. Went on around 11:45 and finished up around 2:15. Songs were well received and we made some new friends along the way.

The next several weeks we will spend in the studio and plan to have a decent demo created within 4 weeks.

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Friday, January 23, 2004

"Be the network"

Mark my words, this will be quite relevant in years to come for me.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Furl - Your web page filing cabinet

Interesting Furl - Your web page filing cabinet

USATODAY.com - Warner Music faces $250M in cuts

This happens to support my theory that LA Reid will not end up at Warner. Unfortunately this is bad news for the industry and for many of the artists. Ultimately the fact that expenses are out of control are rarely the artists fault. And ultimately if the artist is your source of revenue, reducing that work force by definition forces the parent company to reduce support staff, which all non artists are.

I also find it funny that the article mentions Norah Jones as the target artist labels try to keep, considering she isn't even on a Warner label.

USATODAY.com - Warner Music faces $250M in cuts: "selling artists such as Norah Jones. That would require restructuring the contracts of some lower sellers or dropping them completely. Warner Music International currently has a roster of more than 800 artists performing in 25 languages in 70 countries."

It's official: AT&T Wireless is for sale | CNET News.com

It's official: AT&T Wireless is for sale | CNET News.com

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Band Update

Just found out we will be hitting the stage around 11pm on Saturday. We are in the process of learning some new tunes so we can have close to two hours of material. The good news is we added 4 songs to our set during rehearsal tonight. It is so nice to work with a group of musicians that are so seamless to play with. Tonight was also the first time I took my drum set to rehearsal. We have a practice kit in the rehearsal space I had been using. It was nice to play on my drums. And this weekend will be the first time I play that set in public.
Email me if you want to come out this weekend. ytsanyd at earthlink.net. Just change the at to an @ sign.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

:::::::THE THRILLS:::::::

The Thrills did an instore at Tower Records in Atlanta yesterday. Took the family and we enjoyed their brief set and picked up their cd. If you haven't heard them then check out their site. Very poppy, folky, with a little hint of country. Think Beach Boys, Neil Young (Harvest era), Gram Parsons all tied into one.

The meet and greet after the set was a bit disappointing. Either these guys don't like people, were extremely tired, or just don't know how to smile. Very impersonal. So don't expect much if you meet them, however the music is a bit refreshing although mellower than what I typically listen to.
:::::::THE THRILLS:::::::

The Superlatives

This evening I worked with Mike Voss, guitarist / singer, on setting up the demo studio. I picked up a set of drum mics last night so we set those up for recording today. Over the next several months you'll see this blog talk about the beginnings of a band.

Now that we have our first paying gig coming up we discussed the money situation a bit. The good news is I'm not in it for the money, but as the band gets money I'd like to see that money go into a band fund that we can use for things like studio time, supplies, costs related to a show, etc... If this does take off and we start making a good bit of money then we can revisit distribution of profits, yeah right!

I dropped our first performance down to cd yesterday. As expected the first few songs are pretty rough, but by the end of the set we played fairly well. Mike has the master tape of the second gig and I'll drop that down to cd later this week.

Come out this Saturday to the Last Great Watering Hole. We will likely be playing two one hour sets. One early and one late. We hope to have 13-15 songs worked up.

Email me for more info david@jedi.net

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Wired News: Rock Stars: Don't Rip Us Off, Man

Interesting now that I'm in a band how my perception of music piracy will change. I've always been an advocate of not downloading commercially available material. My gray areas still include out of print material. Personally I think those should be fair game, however I understand the value of limited edition runs and fan club type releases and am not sure how those should be handled.

Live music on the other hand I strongly believe is fair game. And if I have my band's approval I'll seed our live material through forums like http://etree.org/ and http://www.furthurnet.com/.

Wired News: Rock Stars: Don't Rip Us Off, Man

Friday, January 16, 2004

The Superlatives

My band The Superlatives played our second show last night. It was another open mic set at LGWH. We had a an appreciative crowd and people even danced. We were only prepared to play 8 songs but they told us to keep going. 12 songs later we played everything we knew as a band and called it a night.

Just got word that our first "official gig" will be Saturday January 24th. They talked to us after the show and wanted to book us. Things are off to a good start.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Bid4Assets Spins Record Label in Online Auction

Who wants to buy the Beastie's label with me. Bid4Assets Spins Record Label in Online Auction

BILLBOARD

OutKast finally falls from #1. BILLBOARD

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Yahoo! News - Robinson to Front New Band?

So is the missing Gunner none other than Gilby Clarke? I surely hope the lineup of a year back isn't using GnR as a stepping stone. People have said KISS have often turned into a tribute band but GnR was clearly that on last years ill fated tour.

Maybe former KISS tribute member, Eric Singer, can confirm Gilby's involcement with the Stone Crowes.


Yahoo! News - Robinson to Front New Band?

Arista President 'L.A.' Reid Exits

So where would someone like LA Reid head. Clearly he is one of the most powerful execs in the industry. It seems a bit absurd that Arista removed him considering this is probably one Arista's best years ever with the success of OutKast's current album and singles.

The Universal Family of labels could use someone like Reid. But Reid's forte is R&B. Something that Universal is much larger than, and I doubt Reid would take a non label head position. However between Interscope and Def Jam Reid could probably beef up the R&B roster quite a bit. Not to mention he signed Avril Lavigne. Bringing in some new young talent would be good for Interscope.

I don't see him heading to Sony. With the Arista shakeup that rules out moving to another BMG / RCA position. And I don't see him moving to the Warner family. If I was a betting man I would say he lands at Interscope or under the Universal Family. The wildcard is Virgin. I wouldn't could on it but I wouldn't rule it out.

60% - Interscope
30% - Universal family (not Interscope)
10% - Virgin

ABCNEWS.com : Arista President 'L.A.' Reid Exits

Macworld UK - Microsoft slams HP's iTunes move

This has got to be one of the funniest stories to come out of Microsoft in some time. The killer quote "Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and music player stuff."

Parting thought... how many times have you had the choice to purchase an Intel machine without Windows.

Macworld UK - Microsoft slams HP's iTunes move

Monday, January 12, 2004

The Superlatives the band I recently joined are set to play our second show this Thursday at The Last Great Watering Hole. We'll be adding some new songs to the set and hope to see people out there. Our official "coming out" probably won't be for another 6-8 weeks and will likely be a Saturday night gig at the Watering Hole. They were very supportive of our first gig and we look forward to many shows there over the next several months.

Thursday, January 08, 2004

bobschneidermusic.com

One of the best band websites I've ever seen. Some incredible Flash information on the site. In addition Bob Schneider has done a great job participating and adding content to the site. The commentary on the cds he's recorded and the pictures through the years were great to listen to.

If you don't know who Bob Schneider is goto the site and check it out. He's done everything from jazz to rock to funk to singer/songwriter music through the years. You will undoubtedly find something you'll like.
bobschneidermusic.com

Linksys New DVD Player With Wireless-G Media Link Plays DVDs, Digital Videos, Photos and Music on Home TVs and Stereos

A good many of these types of devices are coming to market. When will a low cost device, such as this, support open source software. I want to be able to play AAC files that are linked from iTunes on my iMac.
Linksys New DVD Player With Wireless-G Media Link Plays DVDs, Digital Videos, Photos and Music on Home TVs and Stereos

FOXNews.com - Politics - Bush to Announce New Missions to Moon, Mars

We'll have to wait and see if this is true. Sending humans to Mars seems a bit unrealistic within the next 10-20 years given the fact that 2/3rds of all missions sent to Mars have failed. If Bush does make this commitment and announement this will be just about the most significant thing he would be remembered for, much like Kennedy with the race to the Moon.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Bush to Announce New Missions to Moon, Mars

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

RollingStone.com: News: Live Discs a Hit With Fans

Ok this is a bit huge for me and I can't believe I missed it when it was originally published in November. Approximately 18 months ago I started working on a conceptual business plan that could tap into this type of market. I think a handful of bands could have a huge draw for this type of concept, but risk definitely exists related to this type concept. Do any others have opinions on this type of concept?

RollingStone.com: News: Live Discs a Hit With Fans: "began with Pearl Jam's pioneering series of seventy-two CDs that documented every show from their 2000 tour. String Cheese Incident and other jam bands followed. Then last year, through startup the Music.com, the Who jumped on the idea and wound up grossing $1.2 million on live CDs from their 2002 tour. Early this "

It isn't often I get emails like this but thought this was worth sharing.

>My neighbor is looking for a good home for their cat. He said it's
>really lovable and friendly, but his wife said the cat makes her
>nervous when it stares at her. I'd take it in but I already have a
>pet.

Monday, January 05, 2004

Problem with spam blocking or with amazon

Today I received an email from my dad asking if I had received the gift certificate he had sent me from amazon. After looking through old emails I quickly determined I hadn't. I started thinking and realized that my spam blocking software probably kicked it out and didn't flag it for me to read.

Not a big deal. My dad resent the certificate then I found out why it was blocked. Amazon had obliterated the from address and had placed a cryptic subject in place that it was rightfully blocked by my spam blocker. Here is a plea to those companies that sell online gift certificates to let the original purchaser place their REAL email address as the from. If that was the case then this would never have been a problem.

The same plea goes out to all e-card providers out on the net.

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Sunday, January 04, 2004

Invasion of the Red Planet

After a couple of nasa failures and tragedies it is great to see success with the landing of Spirit on Mars. Lets hope the mission is a success and Opportunity does just as well in 3 weeks.
CNN.com - New Mars visitor takes pics, then a nap - Jan. 4, 2004

Friday, January 02, 2004

Here comes the man

Not a manly title but its been a big day for me nonetheless. Today I finally did some things around the house that previously I didn't think I could do. Now with my power drill and a lot of patience I was able to install a light kit on my ceiling fan. And to think I was ready to call a handyman. Hear is to a new phase of being handy around the house. Tim Allen look out!

But that isn't all. I also bought a bar-b-q pit and through some steaks and vegetables on the grill. Not the best meal in the world but not bad considering I had never grilled before. Let's just say I know now which parts of the grill get real hot. But my wife likes her steak well done anyway so it worked out. Now one of the pieces of bread didn't fare as well.

And last but not least for Christmas I received a MrBeer kit. I've done the prep and my first batch of home brew is a work in progress. In approximately 11 more days I'll be drinking my first batch of home brew. Cheers!

Tivo's 30 Second Skip Easter Egg

Surely you know about the Tivo 30 second commercial skip...BigMarv's How I Did That | Tivo's 30 Second Skip Easter Egg

The Dave Blog

So I've been using this tool a few days no and I must say the blogger team did a great job. I tried using Radio User Land but the posting became a bit of a pain considering I work on 3-4 computers regularly.

So you may ask what hooked me? As simple as it is, the reason is the little Blog button in the google toolbar did it for me. So google added a great feature to a toolbar and the blogger team had the tools simple enough so I could easily host on my home server.

As for radio userland. I won't be renewing my subscription, but I do miss the news aggregator portion. Perhaps I can find a third party tool that will help me out. Not that anyone reads my blog yet, but if you do maybe you can recommend something. Email me! david@The Dave Blog

Who would have thought Rush would have been embrawled with controversy. Wishing the best to Alex Zivojinovich! CNN.com - Rush guitarist in New Year's Eve fight with deputies - Jan. 2, 2004

(C) 2003- 2008 ytsanyd | http://www.thedaveblog.com/ | david@jedi.net