What's coming through?

...seeing as I finally got my Myspace site up for my band!

www.Myspace.com/Martinkitcherband

Every song was of course, written especially for you, had I ever met you!

a few on Myspace or gone to ground to develop themselves...sorry, but don't you get it? We are being told to be everything to all people; organise gigs, record, produce, organise a label, register with the PRS, collect your own royalties, get songs placed, distribute, blah, blah, blah...

So, not unreasonably, some of us are just getting on with the job. Posting up the music in the hope of getting a record deal is really a complete waste of time.

What I find so great about the tipsheet is news of new acts starting to break under their own steam, exchanging and offering ideas, helping each other with positive advice/help and generally working towards re-building an industry that has been systematically wrecked by excess, incompetence, lack of imagination and a total disregard for development of talent from the grass roots.

..what an amazing creative thing, this board has become.
We are no longer just doing self promotion, but swapping MP3`s over e-mail to finish and re-mix tracks.
The projects are becoming quite endless.
I certainly did not expect this two years back when I started posting, I assumed it was just basic chat.

I'm a VERY tough critic and unfortunately for them, everyone gets compared to McCartney, Elton, The Kinks, The Stones and others I have grown up with... so I'm a tough judge.

But I must say. One band out of the UK I'm really loving is Orson.

I think they're quite popular overseas - not here, really. But I've always thought the Brits put out better music than we ever did.

The other is an American genius named Willie Wisely. I've befriended him and helped him get on some TV shows and in magazines (Playboy) because I'm a huge fan.

Check him out at www.evocativepop.com

Who else? Don't know. Randy Newman finally wrote some new songs for an album he's been threatening to come out with for years now - I'll hear the demos shortly. One is about the current state of world affairs and the other is a straight love song.

I also liked Paul Simon's fairly-recent album - more of a grower - took a few times but I quite enjoy it.

But unfortunately, that's about it for me.

Jeff

I would love to say I have a favourite album of this year, but sadly I don`t, so I am with you on this Jeff.
My favourite record from this year is Tom Jones with Chicane.
I search and search for new stuff and rarely find it, however, this frustration has made me more creative due to lack of ear candy.
The Paul Simon album for me, sadly sounded exactly as I thought it would, this I believe is a problem with established artists we have known and loved for years giving us another chapter. If Morrisey made an album with Brian Eno, you could predict the sound of that too. Having ranted that, I have just answered my own meanderings, Morrisey`s is actually my album of the year, but only the first half of it.

Check out Jarvis Cocker's contoversial new tune
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...mp;friendID=90237943

a lot of the good bands aren`t in the places where you usely find them like leeds, Manchester or London, you find them in towns no one has herd of, there is alot of great bands in my area who have had to leave there home town to try and get signed a few people like some members of Blackwire and Dartz and bands that do desersve to be signed like 15 minute society who can`t always travel to the big citys are missing out

whereas the millions of deaf Hollywood A&R people had ignored them for 8 years though they had a No1 smash hit, No Tomorrow, in every set.
If there's a talented star in Anchorage I can hear them, spot them, discover them, sign them and break them without ever leaving my Bayswater mansion!

Re: Paul Simon

I did find it a bit meandering upon the first few listens - a bit amelodic (is that a word?).

But I dug it eventually and liked how it created a mood instead of two and a half minute catchy pop gems. Don't get me wrong: I prefer that, but I still like the Simon album for what it is.

Kinda like "Chaos and Creation" by McCartney. Took a few spins but then I LOVED it. Don't know if it was popular on this board, but "Friends to Go" is an AMAZING little pop song by Paul. Wow. And the album is quite lovely - still listen to it.

But I forgot to mention this album:

Ray Davies' "Other People's Lives" - LOVE it!

It really gets going after track 4, but it's a wonderful album - "Over My Head" is such a great song.

Jeff

i think you have a good point there the Artic monkeys got populaity via the internet so where only seeing the begining and there a few labels that are purely internet based now. I just hope your right and that a few decent bands can shine though on the net and get the attenion they deserve.

thanks to the internet there are lot of rubbish acts 'getting through'/being hyped, whose 'people' seem to think myspace plays and internet free/legal/giving it away downloads actually equals popularity rather than curiosity...

...largely due to internet hyping, the gig we did last night was heaving, so you have to look at the positives, and you can`t please everyone with all types of music. There is a genuine knock off from cyberspace to the whole live scene and not just record companies. And to bring the subject neatly back round to Orson, I can honestly say that three years ago, people of teenage years and in their early twenties were not coming to gigs from bands of my age group.
Hype is a good thing, but the act still has to deliver.