jet

Thought I might do a 4-monthly check in on this. Any idea of a timeframe?

The lack of any friendly way to access info that exists on the site (whether that be a search or more structured / sorted lists) is a fairly major detraction from ever coming here. How does an end user know whether there's any stuff on this site about, I dunno, Bilge Festival or JPSE or The Scavengers or Foetus?

Hey, I'm one of the administrators on obscure, just thought I should point out the byline of the site is "dance music in New Zealand" and basically that's its remit too.

That Ventura ep.27 business is possibly the strangest thing I've seen on the internet. Had me laughing out loud (sincerely, not just lolololololing) aplenty.

Latest addition to both "boring Kranky-related things" and "New Zealand" is Roy Montgomery. :)

Always a pleasure. :p

I see B.L.I.N.G. has chucked a song up there too.

Scored some pretty decent freebies so far, albeit nothing very famous. It's mainly stuff I don't like enough to have bought in the past, but am happy to get for when I want to chuck on that one song I liked. So far got the entirety of Roots Manuva's catalogue, heaps of Ghostly International electro/techno/IDM/whatever 12"s, clicking ambient AWESOMENESS from Klimek and Antiguo Automata Mexicano (good free EP by them on filtro.co.mx), boring Kranky-related things like Pan American, Stars of the Lid, etc... Not a bad haul for an electronica nerd.

New owner of EMI or NME or the Press?

Totally relate to this:

''all i ever seem ot be reading is how many albums a group sold, or where they are touring, or this deal or that deal. noone even fucking talks about songs anymore
just industry, figures, returns, income, opening doors, paving the way, apra cheques, bank ads, grants grants grants, nzoa
nzmic, rianz, apra, winz, helen helen helen, sucking the life and value out of music as magical realm.''

Superb.

Although, I do reckon ''In Rainbows'' is excellent, only good album those guys have done in ... a decade? Maybe because I like who they're ripping off, this time, though? About the false "we're not capitalist" thing, their manager went on record saying the MP3 download thing was done in the hopes of increasing CD sales, the theory being the album is SO amazing people will want to go out and get it as soon as they hear the 128kbps MP3 version... Hm.

If you can stomach more of this meta, not-about-the-music, stuff, I've got a link to a fairly interesting article, [http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists], from the [http://www.audiofoundation.org.nz/ Audio Foundation] mailing list. Alongside the text there're lots of audio bites with people like Eno, the head of Merge records (who released Arcade Fire's second album), Radiohead's managers, etc.

The Nightwatchman? Super super earnest "fight the power, Mr Liberal!" stuff?

http://www.nightwatchmanmusic.com/

Surprised to see you can buy the US release of Horsepower as MP3s for US$5. More surprised to see it listed under Electronic / Ambience, but never mind...

http://amiestreet.com/thephoenixfoundation#album-3270

Crazy shop model, Amie St... seems to be doing alright.

Heard Shihad's Home Again the other day and thought it sounded a lot like Buffalo Tom, particularly Mr Toogood sounds a lot like their (main) singer... Bill something-owicz?

// 12. Teenage Riot – Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation – SST – 1988

Got a huge book on German contemporary artist Gerhard Richter (lucky I mentioned he was German, would never have picked it..) out of the library last month and in the midst of being blown away by every goddamn print in there stumbled upon the cover of Daydream Nation. Weirdness.

// whatever happened to the Fields of the Nephilim?

Nothing they didn't deserve, is probably the answer.

What was the vid with them wielding chainsaws? Dawnrazor, I guess? I remember that being pretty awesome / hilarious / thrilling as a teen. People who see goth as something serious kind of miss the point, don't they?

That is so damn odd... Tuesday night in Palmy for their only NZ gig? Would've thought they'd get a decent enough crowd in Auckland, but...?

Probably spent about $6000-7000 on gear at the most, if I don't include upgrading my PC, which I'm inclined to do, since I use it for lots of things beyond music anyway. Working at home I've never spent any money on recordings. The one time I worked in a studio the band I was with had a grant.

Generally get paid bugger all for gigs, maybe up to $150, but often just a bar tab or whatever. Have been flown across the Tasman on a couple of occasions, which was definitely the biggest "payment" I ever received. OTOH since I "perform" solo I pocket all of the gig fee.

I usually haven't been paid or fee or even advanced royalties to licence tracks to compilations, but from time to time got a couple of hundred from those

Remix work is also usually for nothing upfront - Kiwi indie labels have usually presented me with the very odd arrangement (internationally speaking) of getting co-writer credits instead, which means recouping some costs that way and they're not out of pocket. TV One using a remix I officially co-wrote for their summer campaign sting once certainly gave the old royalty payments a big boost, but generally don't get all that much from APRA since most of my airplay is on the b.nets, with whom they have some weird gentlemanly agreements. Still, all up royalties have probably come to about $4000 over ... think I signed up in 2000? So over 7 years. Got $100 or so last round.

Profits from album sales have been largely non-existent, but then I haven't worn the cost of any of their production, promotion, etc. so sweet as... I'm fully grateful to those people who've released me. Times may be changing a bit in terms of what can be done without a label, but if you factor in the unpaid slog of promo stuff etc. unprofessional label people still deserve a lot more props than they get.

Got paid $300 in late 90s to write about 15 minutes of music for a Fringe Festival play. Initial figure was $500, of course the play made no money, of course they didn't pay me the full amount. Everyone I know who works in theatre in NZ has a similar story. That said, I just got paid $1000 to write about 20 seconds of music for a video game in the most recent Te Papa exhibition. It was very very easy work, probably comes out about $300 an hour or so, but still get the impression that's not "the going rate".

In the end I guess I've probably covered all my costs, but don't think I've really made anything. If I wanted to think about some kind of hourly rate for time invested or even extrapolating an annual wage I'd have come out with less than being on the dole, I reckon. That said, I write mellow instrumental electronic music that's not super-glossy and "musical" (small audience to start with, fewer opportunities for radio exposure, etc.), I've seldom gigged outside Wellington (low exposure that way) and I don't like the idea of my music being in ads (only real opportunity to make $$ in my "market"). Lastly, the foreign artists and trends I hollowly ape (haha, that good old Kiwi false modesty) aren't the cool ones. So from the perspective of people like the Robbsta in this thread, who seems like an absolute alien to me, I suppose I'm safely a hobbiest. The thing is, I spent 3 days away from my computer just now and had to carry a little notebook to write down music ideas cos I couldn't stop the itch to make stuff... I guess that's not always the case, but I never think of a hobby as being something you can get this obsessed with.

"Sorry" for "all" the "scare quotes".

Same man behind Gutter Black... monster snares all round.

Saw Lionel Ritchie's All Night Long yesterday and despite its subject matter (all night party!), most of the people getting down in the vid were more than a little terrifying. Lionel was about as half-assed as I'd be, just vaguely jiggling to the beat and that's it. Don't tell me it's supposed to be understated!

My syndicate at Raroa Normal Intermediate watched Mannequin on video in 1987. Another time we watched some of Bladerunner, which I think the teachers had got cos they thought it'd be like Star Wars... they switched it off halfway through, but that impossible camera zooming scene was stamped in my mind forever... Not to mention the opening credits and Vangelis's only really good moment. Next time the teachers decided to just play us videos we watched FX with Bryan Brown and I think Brian Dennehy... whoa.