Black Eyes & Neckties recently signed to the William Morris Agency over in the UK and we couldn’t be happier. Their first trip over there will be happening in May and tour will be based around them playing the infamous Dot to Dot Festival . If anyone has friends over there, let us know. We’d love to invite them to the shows and maybe they’d even want to be super generous and offer a place to rest our weary bones. Here’s what we have confirmed so far - more to come!Technorati Tags: bent, black eyes & neckties, tour, uk
At a time when some of the big music sites are raising their prices, one new venture is offering to give its music library away for nothing?on the theory that free tunes will actually increase sales by introducing people to music they wouldn't otherwise have known about.Technorati Tags: free, indie, music, online, downloads
WFMU, an independent radio station in New York City with audiences online and on terrestrial radio, launched the Free Music Archives today. The database consists of individual tracks that users can download for free and listen to on portable devices, or as music for audio or video productions and other miscellaneous uses, like podcasts (via ReadWriteWeb).
Based on a quick scan, the database mostly consists of tracks from unsigned artists or those on small, independent labels. And therein lies the big challenge for WFMU: While giving away music may provide much-needed attention to the new acts, it's unlikely to drive a material amount of sales, as these acts still won't have the marketing and promotion muscle that signed acts do. We were not able to reach WFMU to find out if any larger acts are included in the service.
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WFMU has partnered with fellow indie music champions KEXP, dublab, KBOO, ISSUE Project Room and CASH Music to choose those tracks they feel represents the best new music available today. The move follows on the heels of yesterday's announcement that Universal Music Group and YouTube formed their own partnership called Vevo?that one is a for-profit venture, though.
Oh tiny independent record store, now you have even more competition. The good people at Apple have apparently decided that it isn't enough that independent artists seem to get a pretty decent share of the normal iTunes Store homepage, so they've gone and created this "Indie Spotlight" feature, which only features independent artists. The feature is currently only in its soft launch phase, so there's a possibility that we're going to get some new features out of this, but currently there's a list of indie podcasts, indie artist playlists, and not much else.Technorati Tags: indie music, itunes, store, record store,
The homepage prominently features Vetiver, bloghouse/New York Times golden boy Wavves, Neko Case, Fever Ray, Lemonade, Cut Copy, and Animal Collective. The artist playlists include Bon Iver, Hercules and Love Affair, Diplo, Switch and Digitalism. What does this all mean, since it's not like these are things that aren't avaiable through the normal iTunes store? Well, it could mean that the people at iTunes are genuine lovers of independent music who just wanted to show some love for "the most innovative aspects of music... coming out on indie labels all over the world," like it says on the page of the store dedicated to Wavves. It could also mean that Apple has got a bunch of cool dads sitting around in the office, who've recently become aware of the money to be made in marketing independent artists to an increasingly "hip" demographic of music consumers, and the importance of looking cool.
Whatever the reason, if this results in independent artists and labels getting a little more cash funneled their way, or the Indie Spotlight feature being used to break new artists, then Apple deserves a pat on the back.
You have your indie rock, you have your experimental. You have your indie-experimental. How about alternative? The Alternative Nation? What does it mean? It’s all so confusing.Technorati Tags: indie, music, genres
Labels in music are silly, yet they’ve always functioned as a way to help record companies sell their product … back when they sold product. If you took the term “indie” at face value, every band in Chico would be considered indie.
“Indie rock appears to be a very subjective term,” says Nolan Ford of this year’s CAMMIE-nominated The Secret Stolen. “It doesn’t really define what the music sounds like as much as it is concerned with classifying bands by their promotional philosophies.” Fair enough. TSS does it DIY, while putting out some serious rock ’n’ roll—the kind you’d hear if you crossed Melt-Banana and George Thorogood.
Experimental is much more simple to define, although what exactly does one have to do to be considered experimental? Maybe play a double-neck mandolin with your toes? Let’s just be happy there are bands in Chico pushing the boundaries of sound (as we box them into an easily identifiable category). This year’s nominees are eclectic. And the voting was so close that the category has grown by two bands.
First-time nominee Dr. Yes! is one man and an arsenal of gadgetry. Sometimes he brings a band along for the ride (called The Soulgazers). It’s krautrock meets disco meets psychedelic. Categorize that.
Maybe experimental means your band has no vocals—like jazz, you have only the notes telling you what you’re supposed to feel. As is the case with Red Giant and La Fin du Monde—two bands, sans vocals, that tip-toe and stomp over a number of styles including jazz and metal. They’ve made a lot of friends without saying a single word.
