Mike Shea of Alternative Press

About That Record Store Day Thing

2009-04-19T20:55:00.007-04:00

This past Saturday was National Record Store Day across the nation.

I'm sure you heard what the point was of it all; Go to your local indie record store and buy something.

Anything.

A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

Show your financial support and help keep their doors open.

Before they go the way of the:

Yet, if you read up on what industry "experts" are saying all over the web, maybe...just MAYBE...this is supposed to happen.

Maybe the record stores are meant to go away.

It's evolution.

One thing begats another thing which begats another that which begats another this.

This is how industry upgrades itself.

The Industrial Revolution screwed the farmers. Automation screwed the workers. Mass consumption screwed Main Street. Technology screwed customer service.

In the past 15 years we went from being helped like:

To:

So we all went online.

Well, most of us did.

The rest of us, kept traditions strong by still shelling out $16 for a CD, or $25 for some limited-edition vinyl at our local indie shop.

I understand why, too.

You see, for some strange reason, it just doesn't bother me shelling out $16 for a CD at:

Even though it DOES bother me doing the same at:

Not sure why it does.

It just does.

Like, I'd have no problem dropping $16 for music from indie rocker Eric Nicolau:

But, no way in hell would i drop $16 for another meandering piece of work from:

Maybe it's like the Twitter friend the other night who said they had no problem stealing music from Britney Spears because, well, "she deserved it," he said.

But to steal music from Manchester Orchestra? "Hell, no! I went out and bought their CD."

So does it come down to how businesses or artists portray themselves in the end?

Produce disposable music and you'll be disposed of rather quickly(?)

(Act like a whore, people will treat you like one= same idea.)

Be a bitch/asshole to us with customer service and we'll treat you back as such(?)

And maybe that's why we treat the indie stores that are left with respect?

They've earned it?

They treated us right and we are now returning the favor.

By having a national saving-of-our-musical-heritage day.

I dunno.

I'm not sure if indie record stores are supposed to go the way of:

Maybe, there will be a resurgence just like what happened when cable TV came out and attendance at movie theaters went in the toilet for a little while. That generation's industry "experts" said, at the time, that consumers wouldn't want to step foot in a movie theater ever again now that they could sit at home and watch films in the privacy of their own pajamas.

Sure, maybe the Technology Revolution of Netflix and Pay-Per-View are quickly killing:

But I have a very big feeling that, in a way, by us continuing to support indie record stores (who've never stopped supporting us), all we're really doing is quickly killing:

And providing a much brighter musical future for:

To The Commenters

2009-03-15T19:27:00.009-04:00

Who the hell are you, anyway?

Are you that big of a douche-bag in everyday life?

I'm just not sure where you get off saying such horrible shit about a musician that you either:

a) met once for a minute after a show

b) never met but your friend's friend did for a minute after a show

c) never met and don't know anyone who has, even for a minute after a show

d) your ex hooked up with them for more than a minute after a show and you're still pissed off about it three years later

We've all seen it happen over and over again.

Someone makes a general post about hearing a band's new record and wanting everyone's thoughts.

Within three responses, some commenter starts the crap: "These guys are assholes. The lead singer should kill himself. Music would be better."

Or something very close to that.

Do you have any idea what your words are doing to that band's morale?

Or maybe that lead singer's self-confidence?

You ever been around an artist of any type for more than five minutes?

Artists are different creatures, man.

They're highly-emotional, sensitive as hell and very in-tune to the world's vibes around them.

Like one of those characters on HEROES, they soak in the world around them and transpose it all back into a piece of art for us regular folk to enjoy.

Sometimes we don't. Sure.

But should it be up to us to tear them apart? As people?

Is that your role in life?

To be such a dick to musicians, to make them feel like such horrible failures in life, that they stop wanting to create art and just crawl into a hole back in their hometown and work at a retail store the rest of their life?

Would that make you happy?

Would you have accomplished your goal this year/month/week?

Because you spouted off some horrible accusations, most of them completely untrue, or, at the very least, blown out of proportion, it causes some band to break up? Or feel like they're shit?

Or some lead singer that you're pissed off at for whatever stupid reason is maybe now thinking to take just a few more of those pills he has to take to not be so depressed all the fucking time?

Because they read what is written online about their band.

And they see that you think they're better off dead than alive.

And you think you're so clever.

That you're so superior.

Because you shit out some bad-assed opinion about an artist then signed off and went back to your video game.

Feeling like you've just owned the world for that post online.

Because when I read your posts online and I see how bitter you are and how much of a jerk you are.

I develop the opinion that you're the one that's the failure.

That you're the one that's the dick.

That you're the one with the shitty career and whose friends can barely tolerate your conceited know-it-all attitude about everything in life.

Or maybe you tried to be a musician and you never got it going anywhere and you're now just jealous as fuck.

Because these artists are actually doing something that you would die yourself to be doing.

To be in their shoes.

And to have people actually...like you.

But, instead, you rule a message board.

For three posts of hate.

Even though you insist that you love music.

But, for some fucked up reason, dude.

The way you "love" music...

It's pretty apparent that...

Instead of liking bands here:

You prefer them here:

While a lot of musicians I know, would prefer to see you like...here:

No, dude, YOU'RE the asshole in all of this.

Why Is It?

2009-03-08T22:15:00.004-04:00

When more and more musicians are living like this:

And the top music industry executives live like this:

Music fans go and steal music thinking they're robbing the:

But instead are actually hurting the:

Because, believe it or not, the majority of musicians don't live like:

Or:

And, instead, live like:

Because, most of them, don't see much:

From:

Who should be developing the next model for the music industry to operate in like:

But instead think more like:

When they could give us things that are useful to music fans along the lines of:

But instead tend to come up with things similar to:

So until they can figure out what the hell they're going to do, if you really want to support your favorite band, take your:

Go to their:

Or their:

Or, even to your local:

And help them so they don't have to live like:

Seriously...

Everything is so messed up.

Why Is It?

10 For Music Journo Students

2009-03-01T21:38:00.008-05:00

Several times a week I get an email to my myspace from a high school student asking the $10,000,000 question: "So, how do I make a career as a music journalist? What courses should I take in college? How should I get my start? How can I have your job?"

After about the 25th time, I get a little worn out of typing the same answers so I'm going to lay it on the line right here to make it easier for myself as well as maybe point some of you in the right direction.

1) RIGHT NOW- FORGET IT: Things suck out there in the journalism world as far as jobs go, regardless if they're in print or on the web. Everyone's getting laid off or there's enough financial cut-backs going on at media companies in general so that no one's being hired and everyone's taking on the work of those that got laid off (without extra pay.) My best advice right now is to get into college and stay there for as long as you can until this Depression-Lite is over (most likely by summer of 2010, at this point.)

2) TEACH YOURSELF THE HISTORY OF MUSIC: Seriously, I still teach myself something new every week when it comes to music history. It doesn't matter if it's about a particular year in classic rock history or trying to go back and catch up on some underground band of note from 2002 that I overlooked because I was too focused on being a business owner. Plus, I watch what the AP editors are listening to these days. Thankfully, they like a lot of good stuff and each of them have their own tastes so I can be exposed to a wide variety of new bands. There's also that little saying that history repeats itself and it applies to music history as well. (Side note- I have clean laundry on the floor that I've been folding and Thiago just made a new bed out of it...ugh.)

If you want a basic primer that's a bit nerdy but very, very informative try THE RISE AND FALL OF POPULAR MUSIC by Donald Clarke. It'll take you from Minstrel times up thru Motown and you'll see how the music industry has always been full of scum-bags and how music trends came and went and why.

3) YES- TAKE AS MANY JOURNALISM & WRITING COURSES AS POSSIBLE: It's that simple. If you send in articles that read like how you text your friend in Biology class, you'll never score an assignment. It's that simple.

4) EXPERIENCE COUNTS MORE THAN A COLLEGE DEGREE: There, I said it. BUT, as noted above, because the economy is so sucky, the safest place for you right now is in school. BUT, it doesn't mean you shouldn't get some freelancing experience in (notice the word "FREE" in there because that's what your pay is going to be worth for your work.) There are plenty of music websites and magazines out there that will take a look at your work and consider starting you out as a music reviewer (that's always where newbies are thrown right off the bat.) BUT, your style is going to matter as well as your knowledge. If you write crappy, you'll get a crappy response from an editor via email saying "Thanks, but, no thanks.."- if an email response at all. Study someone's writing that you admire, figure out what your "voice" is (sarcastic? analytical?) and work on keeping your reviews BRIEF. Short, punchy record reviews are what's sought after these days so try and get all of your points across in 100 words or less.

To be honest, nearly every time I finish an interview for the AP PODCAST, I am stunned that, at the conclusion when John has stopped recording, the musician looks at me and says something along the lines of, "Wow, I was amazed at how much you knew about me. Most journalists have no idea what they're talking about and know nothing about my band."

That's when I start scratching my head.

All I'm doing is what my journalism teacher in high school taught me to do.

Research, Research, Research!

BUT, as I noted above, since the job market is in the toilet, go to school, in the meantime, and freelance on the side.

5) YOU CAN'T SAVE THE WORLD (AND THEY DON'T WANT YOUR HELP, EITHER): Every so often, some egotistical, loud-mouthed, f**ktard comes along and thinks they're going to be the next Lester Bangs and save the world from bad music. They think it's their duty, no, OBLIGATION, to tear apart every band they personally don't think meets some high criteria of quality that they've set up in their little head. Usually, only about four bands ever do, too. So the poor artists, well, they get unnecessarily insulted and torn to pieces, usually without a good enough reason. As Jason Pettigrew says about those newbies out there that are just discovering that, yes, Dave Navarro was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, "It's all new to you." And I would add to that, "And just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's not good to someone else." Get over yourself.

Be fair and be reasonable. If you truly love music, you would do that.

6) FIGURE OUT WHY YOU WANT TO WRITE ABOUT MUSIC: If you got the idea to become a music journalist from the movie below...

...become a music photographer instead.

Musicians are always a lot friendlier to photographers than they are to journalists.

7) DON'T BETRAY YOUR SOURCES: The hardest thing for me to learn as a journalist was to know when to shut up. Being a newshound, my blood starts racing once I am told something that would be a great scoop and I want nothing more than to race to the computer and get something up on our website. In the past, several relationships with some musicians were hurt because I let slip out into the public confidential stuff the musician wanted kept quiet. It was just my journalism streak getting the best of me. Today, I know when to shut up and the more I shut up when a musician tells me something "off the record", the more they come back later on and give me a scoop on something I CAN print. Building trust is vitally important with your sources and that's one of the first things you'll learn as a journalism student. You can't treat your sources like how we treat rumors on music website message boards, gang.

8) YOU'RE NOT PERFECT: Look, one of the biggest things that will get under an editor's skin is if you start throwing attitude about how your submission is perfect the way you originally wrote it before the editor ran their red pen all over it. Every media outlet has a style they're looking to have all of their content run in. Maybe they're wanting more facts or quotes added. Maybe less of you running on forever in first person blabbage like, "Then, I went to the studio and then I did..." or "I saw his deep, brown eyes looking off intensely..." I admit, I still have problems in this area so I understand where you're coming from. You get this vision in your head of how it should flow and how the atmosphere for the piece is all laid out perfectly from beginning to end. Except, it's 1,200 words over what was asked for and your editor wants to cut out the entire portion where you went thru the singer's closet and he rambled on forever as he showed you his high school yearbooks.

Why do you think I ran the "unedited" version of the Craig Owens cover story that I did on our website???

I still got my way in the end. :-)

But, you, dear freelancer, won't be able to.

So, learn to accept editing.

9) SHOULD YOU FIND A NICHE?: This is a hard one for me to answer. Music journalists that are flexible and knowledgeable about pretty much any type of music get a lot of work, no doubt. But, they're never really THAT good, in my mind. They kind of know a lot about a lot but never enough about enough. I know, at AP, we have a number of our top freelancers who are just experts in a particular genre or an era of underground music. Or, maybe, they know everything that needs to be known about My Chem or Fugazi. These freelancers become our Go-To people fairly often. The same could be said for music photographers. Charles Peterson became the photographer of the Grunge era as he was based in Seattle when all of that went down. Today, his work is still used for archival pieces in just about any publication of note when they haul out their Grunge retrospectives. It was Peterson's shot of Cobain that graced our Memorial issue back in 1994 and we were the first national magazine to hit the stands after his suicide thanks to our relationship with Peterson and a quick turnaround from him with a photo for our cover.

10) STAY ON TOP OF NEW TECHNOLOGY TRENDS: I don't care what it is-if it's the new trend in social networking, iPhone apps or blogging- know how to do it. The more you know, the more useful you'll be to editors as print and the internet continue to merge over the next few years (probably faster now because of the thorough weeding the economic collapse is causing to happen to media companies).

Also, as sort of a "Part B" to this one: Understand that the more you know in this new technology area, the more of a "threat" you'll be to the older editors you may end up working for that don't have a firm grasp of all of this new stuff. It's all a natural cycle of events that occurs whenever there's a new shift in the way things are done, so don't let it bother you too much. Just realize that going in and don't rub it in their faces. You can learn a lot from the old guard so show them some respect and listen to what they have to say.

If you think I've missed anything, let me know, definitely.

Cuz, I'm still learning, too.

Would You Pay To Read This?

2009-02-15T21:34:00.007-05:00

There's a lot of talk within the journalism profession these days about how to get people to pay for content on the internet when almost all of it can be accessed for free.

Newspaper companies across the nation are quickly going broke as they sink financial resources into quality journalism and photography for their websites praying that they can sell enough advertising banners on their websites to pay for it all.

The problem is that they can't.

And with the economy dragging everyone down like a spider-web weighted with a rock, marketers have cut their marketing budgets, making the newspapers' bottom line look even more in the red than it was before.

Add to the newspapers' problem a little thing called Google.

Google likes to make everything accessible to everyone and doesn't play favorites when it comes to how it organizes its search engine results for something newsy like say, "Buffalo plane crash."

You type those words into Google search and the first result was a link to the China News, then the London Free Press, then several from Yahoo's news aggregator and THEN, at fifth place in line, the Los Angeles Times.

Google is the internet's great democratizer. Just because the New York Times may be the Old Gray Lady of journalism doesn't mean she's going to get in the front row.

So, when you think about it, Google plays fair. But that's not what the traditional newspapers have been used to for over a hundred years.

Not only are they taking a blow to their bottom line on the web, but now, the web, which is essentially "Google", let's face it, is deflating their egos at the same time (and making a crap load of money at it.)

And they're starting to get pissed.

Now they have an idea to start charging website visitors iTunes-like micropayments to view news articles (thus, the focus of a recent TIME Magazine cover story, seen above.)

Up until recently, there's been a number of venture capital-backed companies that have tried to get this idea off the ground but to no avail.

But now, internet financial processing software has come far enough where it could possibly work and make the pay-for-read experience for us consumers relatively easy to experience.

The idea would be to have you sign up on the newspaper or magazine's website with your credit/debit card information and as you moved around the web site and saw something you wanted to read, you would click on a "Purchase" button and the 99cent payment (called micropayments) would automatically be deducted from your account, just as it is on ITunes, Amazon or Snocap.

It sounds like it would work, right?

The problem, as with music, is that the majority of the public are used to getting this content for free so how are we going to train them to start paying for it (again?)

In all honesty, I'm really not too sure.

One theory is that if you just go and lock up all of your web content behind such a payment system, you may lose 50% of your regular website traffic, but the other 50% that would begin to pay for your content, piece-by-piece, would more than make up in revenue what you lost in advertising dollars because your web traffic declined.

It could work but it's risky and a lot of major companies don't like taking risks.

Like the American auto industry.

What's the rule in business?

If you don't risk, you die.

But, let's say that they could get us to start paying for articles and photographs and charts and such, what would it mean then for financially-successful, news-linking sites like the Drudge Report, Huffington Post and tons of blogs all over the internet?

They could get crushed.

Because they couldn't just link to a free article anymore. Nor, could they just copy and paste articles onto their own websites.

Or could they?

If newspapers and magazines try and lock up their content behind micropayments, wouldn't it just encourage people to "steal" the content and post if on their websites for free?

Would there have to be an RIAA for journalism organized to go after these pirate sites?

To sue them and take them to court for copyright-infringement?

Well, we know how well that has worked...

I dunno, you tell me what you think.

Is journalism worth paying for?

Or are old, romantic ideas of the career of a journalist gone forever?

Not Your Dad's Radio Anymore

2009-02-08T21:16:00.004-05:00

There used to be a time when FM radio mattered to taking your band to the next level.

Your band could only get so big without having the major radio networks from coast-to-coast pushing your hits down the throats of listeners day in and out.

Lots of radio people were paid off to play music that never would have seen the light of day otherwise.

Alan Freed and Dick Clark got busted in the late 1950's for payola. Freed was a drunk with a big mouth and wasn't liked so they threw the book at him. Clark was squeaky clean because of American Bandstand and knew how to smooth feathers like a slick politician so he got off the hook essentially.

One died forgotten, the other ended up being our New Year's host in Times Square.

But when Shawn Fanning starting pushing for illegal downloading of music , the entire music industry collapsed, slowly but surely, dragging the concert industry and radio industry down with it. (There's a new book by Steve Knopper that goes into detail about this entire disaster- it's a must read if you're in a band or want to get into the music business.)

There have been a lot of mistakes that the music industry has made over the past 8 years when dealing with the downloading issue but the largest one currently messing their future up is in radioland.

FM radio doesn't matter anymore.

There i said it.

FM radio's power to break a band and make them huge was essentially killed by MySpace and YouTube.

We have moved from a society that wants things fed to us, to one that wants to seek them out.

When radio limited their playlists to only hits and eliminated local disc jockeys to save money and pay shareholders that never should have invested in the "arts" in the first place, they signed their death certificates.

Then satellite radio came along.

XM and Sirius Radio.

Both had their positives no doubt.

But all they've ended up becoming are the 8-track era of radio.

A transition.

Not because they suck at what they do or because of the recent merger.

Not even because their stock is practically junk at .13 cents a share.

It's because portable web radio is going to wipe it all out.

Yes, the Pandora model will ultimately be known as killing commercial radio in its current state.

It'll be the MySpace to Clear Channel's radio network.

Yes, Congress, the RIAA, the major radio network owners and the label-created and backed new media royalty collector SoundExchange have lobbied hard to make sure that the rates per song/per stream to play music on your own web radio station are so prohibitively high that only major companies could afford them, effectively wiping out independent web radio operators.

Even Pandora is still rumored to be closing shop due to the increased royalty payments that they've been stuck with despite their popularity as one of the top applications for the iPhone.

Regardless of the doom, in late December the following press release ended up in my email box:

Blaupunkt and miRoamer Unveil Internet Radio for the Car

By Eliot Van Buskirk December 31, 2008 2:55:06 PMCategories: Audio, Automotive, CES 2009
Blaupunkt and miRoamer will announce a partnership at CES that will put internet radio into car dashboards for the first time. Blaupunkt prototypes pictured here show the technology in action.

"miRoamer's development with Blaupunkt is the first seamless Internet radio solution," said miRoamer founder and CEO George Parthimos. "With the simple push of a button, users can access AM/FM stations or Internet radio's thousands of music, entertainment, news and talk stations from around the world, all from the same car stereo."

Here's what the little gizmo looks like:

So, give this little gadget idea a few years and our cars will come with web radio capability effectively wiping out FM radio's stranglehold on making music known once and for all.

How, how can that happen when I just pointed out above that royalty payments above are cost-prohibitive for anyone but the same large FM corporations to be able to afford?

Because I think the music industry is starting to wake up and realize that they have to start thinking creatively when it comes to working with the "underground", per se, and start to embrace them instead of suing them and over-charging them all the time into non-existence.

This is what I think the music industry should do:

1) Remember what the hell the word "promotion" meant.

"Promotion" in the label radio department meant "pay off Music Director 'A' in Buffalo to play the new Good Charlotte single." The same word in the publicity and A&R department meant to spread the band's name, image and music around to enough people to help them grow their audience and, hopefully, make everyone involved (including the artist, remember them?) to make some money. So, remember, having an entity want to "promote" your band doesn't mean they should have to pay for that right, necessarily. If you need to get paid for every single thing your artists do to promote themselves now in order to be able to pay your CEO's $20 million dollar a year salary, maybe tell the CEO to go work at a bank. They're making nice money now from the Feds, aren't they?

2) Get real about web royalty payments. Do you want only a few companies to determine the fate of your artists' careers? Do you only want the top 5 or 7 companies in the country to control who gets played on the web? It doesn't matter if it's Clear Channel or AOL- why should they be the only ones to be able to play music?

Why don't you ask your artists what they would prefer? The majority of artists don't think like Metallica, believe me.

Remember, college radio broke R.E.M., Nirvana and Soundgarden. Embracing the underground again actually helps your company because, more often than not, they'll know what artists are going to be big a long time before anyone at your label does. So embrace independent web radio and work to lower the royalty payments to realistic numbers. Oh, and don't whine about having to charge high pricing so you can pay the artists the money they deserve to sustain their careers. Most of these artists aren't getting paid squat from you after the initial advance as you're recouping all of those costs and expenses you refuse to disclose in any sensible accounting form unless the band sues you to get an adequate audit of said costs and expenses.

3) Go talk to some of the M.I.T. geniuses about building an platform that would allow independent web radio operators to have their radio stations set up on a model like the Virgin Mobile system- a pay-as-you-go model. Web radio operators would go to a music hub site, go through the music library (like disc jockeys used to do before their air shifts were planned out by some paid-off consultant in Chicago), click on the music they wanted to play and next to each song would be a blanket price per stream. Something reasonable, remember? The point is to expose music to people not hide it behind lawyers.

Each song would be tagged with a marker so that the number of times it was streamed on the web site by a listener could be tracked and counted and the fees for having that song played per listener could be calculated. The web radio operator's account with this music hub would be hooked into their paypal account and they could also set it up so that if they only wanted to spend so much money on music streams at one time, they could create a cap on their account so that only so many listeners could be allowed to be tuned into that station at one time. Kind of like not being able to get into a full chat room. Essentially, it's like the way we buy advertising on Facebook.

I know it's in rough form and all of the parties involved will say it's not fair in one way or another and shouldn't even be tried but I really believe that the number of people in the music industry that understand what needs to be done are starting to out-number the number of people that still don't.

It's like this- the old guard are Bush thinking the best way to deal with "enemies" is to push them around and threaten. The new guard are like Obama, you sit down with them and find ways to work together to meet one's objectives and create "peace" for all.

So, I ask the music industry power-brokers that listen too much to their attorneys and not enough to their publicity departments that...

Are you ready to make "peace" with the underground (again)?

The Easy Way Out

2008-11-17T18:59:00.010-05:00

Regardless of what anyone says, Alternative Press Magazine, STILL hasn't sold out.

IF we HAD sold out, we would have turned into one of the above-pictured magazines.

Jonas Brothers, HSM3, Miley and so on.

The above magazines are created by people that have sold out.

Whenever a new movie sensation or teen-bop band breaks out and sells millions of something, a small group of sweat-house publishing companies rush to their desktop computers ordering a cadre of meagerly-paid editors who know nothing of the market they're writing about (or for) to copy and paste 32 pages of press releases and interviews, all stolen from the internet, and rush-release them to the printer and then to the newsstand.

The result?

Cash cows created primarily to live off of an already-passing trend.

All to just make a fast buck.

Then they'll do it again whenever the next craze hits.

If AP had sold out, we would be doing things like that.

Repeatedly.

Every single month.

Kind of like when Circus Magazine used to throw Ozzy on the cover every single issue somehow.

Either his photo or his name. Or even a hint of Ozzy.

(There's a band name- Hint of Ozzy.)

I've always been happy that we didn't make a lot of cover decisions just to make a quick buck.

Yes, when we were really bad for cash to pay our printer back in the mid-90's, we went to the Insane Clown Posse well one too many times, I admit.

ICP fans are NUTS. They will buy ANYTHING with ICP on it, in it or even with a scent of ICP.

(There's an ICP cover band name- A Scent of ICP.)

But we had to. It was for our survival.

(Read the AP HISTORY section on our website. It's all explained there.)

Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that anymore.

When artists get more than one AP cover in their career, it's because they deserve it.

Reader demand cause our covers to happen.

Iconic status within the scene cause our covers to happen.

Comeback-records from heaven cause covers to happen.

But, why don't we put only unknown bands on the cover every month?

To be honest, not enough people will buy the magazine to keep the doors open.

And there isn't a publication, television network, website or book company that would debate me about this.

So, we try and play it down the middle.

A little known and a little new.

We're kind of like that deejay at the club; we have to play not only the cool new imports but also the standards.

If you only play new stuff, people won't dance because they don't know it.

So you throw in some of the stuff they know to get them onto the dance floor and then you throw in the new stuff when they're sweating it all around like whirling-dervishes.

Before you know it, you've hooked them on the new stuff.

And AP readers generally like it this way, we've been told.

Only three cover stars this year had been on the cover of AP before, which kind of says a lot.

Fall Out Boy, Panic and Underoath- all icons within the scene.

(I didn't include Mr. Green and Mr. Owens because their covers were for solo projects and not their regular band gigs.)

All three bands fought hard for their covers too.

Ask Pete to tell you the story sometime (or watch his video on our website.)

Overall, I have to say, I've been really happy with our cover choices for 2008.

Against Me to Paramore. How much wider of a view could you get?

And 2009 is already shaping up nice for us too. (Oh, and AP TOUR 09!)

But, maybe we could have just done what those publishers did above in that photo I took at my local Giant Eagle.

Just stuck our finger in the air and seen which way the winds were blowing.

And go with whatever that was.

Or, we could do what Rolling Stone does every time they're desperate to sell a lot of magazines fast for some reason.

Throw Justin Timberlake in a wet t-shirt on the cover.**

Now, that's selling out.

(**I keep this cover pinned to my office wall to remind me what NOT to do with AP.)

Thank You

2008-11-05T21:34:00.007-05:00

I've been home all day with a massive cold since I attended a day-long rally on Sunday for, now, President-Elect Obama here in Cleveland. That day started off great- no clouds in the sky and just a bit chilly but by the time we got done waiting four hours in line and getting up to the stage area, it had turned cold and half-way thru Obama's speech, it started to rain.

But, you know, it was worth it.

I've seen him give more moving speeches on tv and you could tell he was tired and worn out but to see him in person was truly amazing. It's just really nice to have a leader you can actually look up to again and respect to do the right thing.

He's also much shorter in person, btw. Springsteen, who played before Obama took the stage, is short enough, but Obama maybe was a few inches taller if that.

Anyway...

So, last night, already dying from this cold, I sat on my couch and watched the results come in while friend after friend AIM'd or texted me for results or to supply on-going commentary. No doubt this little ritual was being repeated by millions all across the world.

No longer do we wait to discuss our thoughts around the water cooler, per se, it's all done immediately and by the time we get into work the next day and approach said water cooler, we're already on to whatever news broke five minutes ago.

My friend Eric was on the train heading home after work texting me for updates on states that were called. Brad from Chiodos was in a hotel in Seattle AIM'ng me about how great things looked. My other friend, Patti, was holed up in her apartment with her boyfriend James, both political wonks like me, nerding out with me while we sent each other links to the updated Virginia Secretary of State vote results page and analyzing a number of counties to see how much of the vote was still out.

By the time Ohio was called, she had popped her bottle of celebratory champagne she had stored away for this now-possible big moment (cuz if you knew your electoral college nerd points last night, as soon as Ohio and Virginia called, it was over.)

The rest of the night was just historical and it didn't even sink in until today while sitting around at home trying to recoup (had to miss Academy Is tonight...blah!!!) Watching videos on-line from other newscasts last night when the election was called for Obama just kept making me break down in tears.

I know I've said in the past that when the White House goes to the Democrats, it's always a bad four to eight years for punk rock (who you gonna complain about in your lyrics??) Yet, I'll gladly live thru some bad music for what you guys did for the world yesterday.

And when I say "you guys", I mean everyone 18-29, 66% of you to be exact, more of you since the election of 1976, who voted for Barack Obama yesterday.

The Election of 2008 was the year that young America took control of the country. Campaign friends of mine early on told me how the people working within the Obama campaign were under 30 years old and tech-savvy to no end whereas the Clinton people were old school politico types from DC.

Obama realizes that the world, and our nation, has changed and, as the Greatest Generation of World War 2 survivors die off, will change even faster (all of the anti-gay marriage measures being passed now will, undoubtedly, be reversed within the next decade- give it time).

Young America gets it.

Spike Lee said yesterday that there was now going to be two periods in America: BB and BA (Before Barack and After Barack.)

After Barack would represent color blindness, equality, understanding and respecting one another and that's where I think Young Americans play a major role.

The problem the McCain campaign had in its philosophy, and the Republican Party for that matter, is that they still thought it was 1958. There always has to be some group to hate, to pick on and to demean. That's not what Young America is about and that's why the GOP lost this election.

Readers of AP are a lot more understanding, more open-minded, more accepting than their parents, I can pretty much guarantee.

And I can also guarantee that their technical prowess will advance the world in ways unimagined as they get older and into positions of power. Author Don Tapscott was on NPR the other day promoting his new book, "Grown Up Digital: How The Net Generation Is Changing The World" and he spoke of how scientists are beginning to realize that because of today's youth essentially being born with a computer in their hand from day one practically, that it's going to change the way that they use their brain and that it will actually change the way the human brain functions and handles tasks and problem solving.

They will change the world we live in for the better in ways no other generation before them could (or would for that matter.)

And I'm way too excited to see what you guys end up doing.

So, in the replies to this post, give me a hint- what do you think Young America should do to help make this world a better place?

Thank You, Young America.

On Being A Musician

2008-08-12T23:25:00.003-04:00

there seem to be two types of new musicians that hit me up- whether via myspace or in person:

1) the type that wants me to hear their demos

2) the type that wants me to tell them how to make it as a musician

the question is this: what is "it"?

yeah, it sounds like a Clinton deposition ("what IS the meaning of IT?")

so i'm going to say this to everyone so i may not have to repeat it again in a crowded club during the third opening act's set and blow out my voice

just keep doing it yourself for as long as it makes sense

i know, i know..."DIY" is such a thrown around, often-used, often-abused term...but it's true, true, true

if you're a musician in a new band- unsigned especially- you have to get a couple of things to shine thru those rose-tinted "we're gonna sell a million records and be as big as Zeppelin" glasses you've been wearing pretty fast:

1) it's no longer about how many records you sell. it's about how much money you make at selling the ones you do sell

soundscans and that entire generation of determining a band's worthiness to live by a sales figure is out the door (and not soon enough.) who cares if you sell 70,000 units on a record label if you'll never see a penny for any of it past that initial advance you got? what the hell is the point? (which goes to a future post i'll make- you may not even need a record label anymore either. set your own label up and keep everything in-house or hire independent contractors to do your marketing and publicity. how is this possible to even consider? because retailers are becoming less and less useful to you as a band. more later on that..)

but- back to my point- if you sell 30,000 records on your own, directly to your fans, and you can quit your day job and have some money in the bank for the upcoming tour, fixing the van or for the next studio time- isn't that the point?

because it sure is now.

there's no one in the industry to impress anymore. it's not about showing how big you are. it's about showing how smart you are.

and- why turn over your work to someone else to own and that you'll only end up fighting with forever to get the rights back to, and, at the same time, end up being indentured to financially just as long?

2) merch is your game, man. don't blow it.

there's a standard rule of thumb in business when you're dealing with customers, and, in your case, your fans: your best customers are your current ones and the second best customers are the ones you recently lost (figuring they'll be the easiest to get to come back and try you out again.)

your fans are dedicated to you. they love you. they get what you're about and they want to own everything you create. some of them are going to be asses and download all of your music for free and not buy much at all. i don't think those people are real fans. they're just lazy. kinda like those friends that come over to your party and don't bring anything. they're just moochers. so don't work for them- work for the ones that own two of your shirts, the ones that bought your pins, all of your stickers, and will buy the limited-edition CD jewel-cased packaging you did when you reissued your first few EPs together as one album. these fans will keep you out of debt, gang, so treat them like gold.

figure out how to treat them like gold.

and 3) digital-only releases are the way to go. keep the hard-cased CDs around for special-packaging. if you really want to create an actual CD to hand out, make it special or keep it cheap. you got two ways to go on that. if you're just trying to get your name out at first- then either go digital-download card or a cheap CD package. past that, once you get a fan-base of a decent size built up, then start creating limited-edition CD packages for your real fans and sell them at your merch booth, but still release your stuff, on your own, digitally, for the world to discover.

past all of that- it's all about knowing how to market yourself on the internet and guerilla-marketing on the street.

it's the wild west right now in the music business so there are no bad ideas.

no one knows what the fuck they're doing and that's the fun part.

i've got more thoughts and i'll share them in future postings, def.

thiago's look at me pissed off because i haven't played with him tonight. he's got his rope in his mouth and he's whining...

typical boy.

-mike

On Craig Owens

2008-07-21T17:46:00.007-04:00

This is a really painful first blog to write, actually. I wish it could have been about some of the other dozen topics I had been kicking around the past week in my head but today kinda changed all of that.

At about 12:05pm today, I got an IM from photographer and close friend of Craig Owens', Nicole Rork, letting me know about a posting Craig had made to his website 18 minutes earlier where he admitted that he had tried to overdose yesterday afternoon (Sunday, July 20) at his home in Michigan. He went on to say in the post that he had been to the ER during that afternoon, was released and was planning to admit himself into a "mental clinic", as he described it, but that he was okay and that everything was going to be fine.

It was so strange because I just had received in the mail from Amazon.com a copy of the Chiodos Bros.' The Heartless Control Everything and was opening the box the moment Nicole IM'd me with the news of Craig. Just weird.

I then made a flurry of phone calls to his publicist, manager and Chiodos band mates, confirming the story and learning that Craig was already back home and resting with his family.

AP has a cover story with Craig coming out in a few weeks (I wrote it) and in it he describes how hard it has been for him to get used to the constant criticism a band receives as they get bigger. He's just a super-sensitive guy: in one sense, he cares immensely about you but in the other, he really does get hurt by many of the flippant negative comments posted on message boards. He's been struggling with this for quite some time and it's only gotten worse as the pressure has increased on he and the band to take it to the next level.

When I went up to his place to do the interview for the story, it was the first time I had gotten to spend more than a few hours with him and I really began to see that other side of him that not a lot of people have seen regularly: He's always full of ideas, his talents and heart are huge, and he can read anyone like a book, instantly caring about them. He loves horror movies, basketball and reads a crap load of books. The guy is just a decent person.

But he's had his struggles and now has a growing support group of friends and industry people that are surrounding him with help, love and advice; telling him to ignore the critics and believe in himself thoroughly- not just when it comes to his career (which is in full-motion currently.)

Chiodos performed an absolutely-killer set at the Detroit Warped tour last Friday (7/18/08), he has plans for more Cinematic Sunrise dates and a solo gig in Pontiac, Michigan on July 26th, and his record label is repackaging Bone Palace Ballet with a DVD and four new Chiodos songs for a holiday release. He has plenty of things to look forward to over the next few months.

When I was speaking with his management and band mates, they had asked me if we would not run this story about his suicide attempt as they had talked to Craig and he had decided to delete the post to his website. They just felt that this was more of a private matter and that he needed to deal with this with his family and not in the public eye at this point as it would have caused even more pressure on him and given him more questions to answer. So, I obliged and didn't run it today out of respect for Craig, despite his original posting of the news to his website for less than an hour.

Despite what you may think, this give-and-take between artists and press happens all the time. If you work with them in their time of need, they learn to trust you and the relationship you have with them just becomes more solid. It's that "off the record" trust that comes with being a journalist. I've been doing this for 23 years and it wouldn't have been the first time we had been asked for some privacy on a matter with an artist.

Later this afternoon, absolutepunk.net ran the story anyway with a link to the original cache from his website of his journal posting of the story. By 13 pages into the news post on absolutepunk, there were comments from posters saying he was a failure at killing himself, unsubstantiated rumor-spreading of Craig punching girls and further slagging on his band and he, personally.

I dunno, sometimes doing the right thing is just better and I know I'll be able to live with myself about not running it when I could have.

I hope you're well, Craig.