posted by david on Tue 17 Apr 2007 @ 11:16 PM

I bumped into a well known Australian comedian the other day who asked why I'd stopped updating gstring. I don't know which surprised me more, the fact that anyone read it or the fact that he read it. So for those looking for something interesting to read about music, check out this fascinating article about a world famous classical musician trying his hand at busking.

posted by david on Thu 10 Jun 2004 @ 10:41 PM

Bruce Springsteen has always shied away from siding with any one political party, preferring instead to champion particular causes close to his heart. As The Dixie Chicks saw when they denounced the current US president, you can turn away a lot of fans if you take an extreme stance (left, right or otherwise). Back in the 80s, Reagan famously misappropriated "Born in the USA" as if it was some celebration of the US, a mistake which frustrated Springsteen no end. Even then he couldn't bring himself to speak explicitly about his political views and merely asked that people pay closer attention to the song. Now as the global political climate looks decidedly wonky Springsteen has made his boldest political statement yet: he's soundly endorsed a recent speech by Al Gore by reprinting it on his official site. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. In Australia, a similarly respected musician has also wandered into politics in a big way, with Peter Garrett (formerly of Midnight Oil) joining the Labor Party and being offered a safe seat so that he can enter Parliament. Just as with Springsteen, many long time fans are astonished by the bold move into mainstream political debate. It'll be interesting to see how things play out.

posted by david on Sun 6 Jul 2003 @ 12:30 PM | read or post comments (1)

A&R people often get a mention in the liner notes of an album but it's never very clear on what exactly they do. Even knowing that A&R means "Artist and Repertoire" doesn't really clear it up. This article has a go at explaining the job, discussing the responsibilities of an A&R with Festival/Mushroom Records. I found her thoughts on acts requiring charisma in addition to talent interesting.

posted by david on Tue 25 Feb 2003 @ 12:03 AM

I like to make a habit of not commenting on music awards shows but there was something about the Grammys this year that had me utterly fascinated: the Melb Channel 7 delayed broadcast (plugged as "llive" by the obnoxious American voiceover guy) had the audio out of sync with the video. I wasn't paying much attention to the show but I had it on in the lounge while I was wandering about doing other things, listening out for anything interesting. When Coldplay came on to perform I thought I would sit down to watch that much at least. It was then that I noticed the video was slightly ahead of the audio, not by much but just enough to make it seem odd that the drummer was hitting his cymbals well before they made any sound. Then I noticed Chris Martin's piano playing didn't work either... and well, what a mess. When Springsteen came stomping onto stage, it was horrible watching his exaggerated guitar riffs striking well before the sound. Does no one at Channel 7 watch what they're putting to air? I'd imagine it would have been fairly easy to fix if someone had noticed it. What a cock up.

posted by david on Fri 6 Dec 2002 @ 10:41 PM

Shania Twain is exactly the kind of performer that I swore I would never mention in a weblog for 'discerning music nuts', but her latest album employs a gimmick that I find fascinating and kinda repulsive. I was a little astonished that Glenn McDonald over at The War Against Silence would give a Shania album time of day until his review explained how purchasers of her 'Up' album got two discs for the price of one. Seeking to please both her pop and country fans, one disc (coloured red) consists of pop songs and the other (coloured green) consists of country songs. The interesting thing is that both discs contain the same songs in the same sequencing, with one deploying mixes that emphasise steel guitars over synthesisers and vice versa. On one level I find it amusing and proof that her music has so little integrity that it doesn't matter if you fed one of her songs through a sausage mincer, you'd still wind up with the same crap. On another level, I find it offensive to these who invest their hearts and souls into music, where she instead has invested in a highly paid record producer to twiddle some knobs to make it sound cute (yes, I know Robert 'Mutt' Lange is her husband - he's still an overpaid knob twiddler). And then, just to make things really silly: only the US version has the country disc. Outside the US, you still get two discs, but the green disc consists of "Eastern" mixes instead. This whole thing strikes me as marketing gone mad. Head on over to Shania's website and click on the "Up!" button if you don't believe me, you can sample the pop/country versions side-by-side.

posted by david on Mon 23 Sep 2002 @ 11:05 PM

The folks over at Slashdot pointed out this interesting story about the business arrangements of the Rolling Stones. There's some interesting reading there but I guess some purists would find it appalling to read about the commercial beast that has been spawned from one of the most influential of all rock'n'roll bands. Unfortunately the article doesn't disclose the details of who gets what amongst the key members of the band. I recall reading that U2 split it equally five ways (their manager is the 5th "member"). I think Queen did a similar thing because with four songwriters they found themselves bickering over the writer of a single A-side getting the same as the writer of the B-side. With bands like Pink Floyd, well, I can guess that Roger Waters did better than the others. :-)

posted by david on Tue 18 Jun 2002 @ 11:31 AM

It seems that musical ability may be hereditary, according to this BBC article It seems a bunch of neurologists have done a study which showed that musicians " had 130% more grey matter in the part of the brain that makes sense of music compared with people who were not musical". Like many of these studies some are suggesting that the reason for this may be that people who play a lot of music have developed the area of the brain in question and it's not a hereditary thing at all. All I can say to the musicians out there is: don't let this go to your head. Oops, sorry... :-)

posted by david on Sun 7 Apr 2002 @ 10:20 AM

You may not have noticed but gstring has just undergone a big behind-the-scenes change. After almost two years of manually maintaining all of the code for the site, I have finally made the plunge into using a software package known as Movable Type to manage it. What does this mean for you? The key thing is that you can now comment on anything that's posted here. If I say something particularly outrageous, you can now tell me where to go. The other thing is that I'll be allowing other people to post stories here so that the site isn't quite as Dave-centric as it has been up to now. I know my tastes aren't as adventurous as perhaps they should be so hopefully the addition of other posters will at least balance my rantings. As before, even if you're not one of the official posters you're still welcome to point out interesting stories you find around the net and if we use it, we'll make sure you're properly credited. If you notice anything amiss, just holler, teething problems aren't completely unexpected.

posted by david on Thu 28 Feb 2002 @ 03:30 PM

I thought I'd seen all of the quirky musical websites out there by now but then Cos quietly drew my attention to Art of the Mix. I haven't explored it in detail just yet but it appears to be a place where music nuts can post the track listings, liner notes etc of mix tapes/CDs they've created for themselves, friends, strangers or whoever. Normally I would smirk at sites devoted to such an odd activity but in this case I would only do so with a certain amount of guilt as I must admit to having spent hours compiling and sequencing a number of compilations myself. Why do we do it? I'd suggest reading/watching High Fidelity for one explanation...

posted by david on Fri 11 Jan 2002 @ 04:21 PM

I've been pondering my "best of '01" list for a few weeks now and when I looked back at what I'd purchased this year, it almost seemed pointless because I hadn't bought that much stuff, new or otherwise. So this list is just an excuse to plug the albums from my little batch that I think everyone should make some time for. If you want to send me your list, I'll happily collect them here.

Other lists: Cos's list - Glenn McDonald

see the rest...

posted by david on Mon 10 Dec 2001 @ 11:52 PM

As a music writer, Shaun Carney is always interesting reading because he's not a music writer (he's a political journalist for The Age; he wrote the Peter Costello bio published this year). At the close of what has been a strange year, he's written a piece that seems to articulate bewilderment at the current state of pop music. He finds some comfort in the simplicity of the new Bob Dylan and while I don't necessarily share his love of that album, I suspect he's not the only one who's been clinging to familiar things this year.

posted by david on Tue 25 Sep 2001 @ 08:27 PM

This article over at The Age discusses the phenomenon which just won't quit: actors trying their hand at music. It doesn't say much of real substance, although it does mention the Billy Bob Thornton country album, which I noticed has received a decent review in the latest Mojo magazine. It's a pity this piece doesn't address the question of whether having Kylie appear at the ARIA awards would help or cheapen the significance of the event. Here's a random bit of trivia for you: did you know that Chris Isaak plays a SWAT team commander in "The Silence of the Lambs"? Well, now you do.

posted by david on Mon 16 Jul 2001 @ 08:39 PM | read or post comments (2)

To me, good journalism is not about telling a story but telling the story. In that respect, so much of the journalism about Eminem has covered the story of the controversy but not really delved into the heart of the matter. Is he homophobic? Is he racist? Is he sexist? Sure, you can quote lines here and there but is that the truth of the matter? What about taking it in context, not one verse of a song or an entire song but at least over an entire album? Jon Casimir at the Sydney Morning Herald has written a refreshingly insightful piece that dissects the art (yes, I'm going to call it art) and attempts to place the controversy in some sort of context. We need more music journalism like this instead of the gushing nonsense that "journalist" Mike Gee regularly coughs up. For the record I haven't heard the album (I'm not fan of rap) but I've been fascinated by the controversy to the extent that I tracked down the album lyrics in an attempt to educate myself of the facts.

posted by david on Tue 22 May 2001 @ 08:52 PM

Robert Hilburn is one of those oft-quoted American music critics and someone on a Emmylou Harris mailing list pointed out this article where he discusses the future of music as a career in light of the whole mp3 phenomenon. Will new talents be able to sustain a long term career when young people are using the net to isolate the stuff they want and discard the rest? Personally I don't think the attention span of the general public has changed: music is something that people take to heart so buying an album is partly a financial decision but primarily an emotional decision. Maybe record companies are running a little scared in the quest to make a fast buck but that's a sign of their attempt to predict and commoditise the ebb and flow of the industry, not the music fan. Part of the reason mp3 technology is popular is because it allows music listeners to bypass the random whims of record companies and go directly to what particularly interests them. Did free radio kill album sales? Did cheap singles kill album sales? Did MTV kill album sales? Or do they all just serve to help establish long term fan loyalty? Is the mp3 generation really any different? Just because someone discovers an artist by downloading a song for free doesn't mean they won't be willing to go out and purchase their future releases. Quite the opposite I'd say.

posted by david on Wed 16 May 2001 @ 08:57 PM

There's an interesting piece over at the Sydney Morning Herald which talks about a Sydney radio station and a pay TV music channel showing some courage in their playlists and offering a mix of different styles of music. Whilst the competition for advertising dollars has made radio stations rely heavily on sanitised "market research" these two are bucking the trend by increasing their audiences by offering rather diverse music mixes. It doesn't surprise me that much that they would succeed, Rage has been doing that for years while watching many other music programs come and go.

posted by david on Tue 20 Feb 2001 @ 10:15 PM

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not ashamed of admitting to liking some supposedly dubious acts (eg. Roxette, Fleetwood Mac). But given the chance, I think I could probably attempt to make some sort of defence of them, not on high and might musical grounds but simply on the "they're very good at what they do" level. One act who I'm willing to defend at times is Elton John, a very capable musician who churned out some interesting stuff in the 70s (eg. "Funeral For A Friend"), some classic pop songs in the 80s ("I'm Still Standing") and some forgettable mush in the 90s (eg. the Lion King stuff). I believe that if he were confined to a studio for a month with a piano, a strong producer and a pile of decent lyrics to work from (does Taupin count?) Elton could still produce some interesting music. Unfortunately, I don't know whether he'd be prepared to take that sort of risk but it seems that there's at least one other out there willing to give him a break.

posted by david on Thu 4 Jan 2001 @ 10:27 PM

I'm back after a Xmas break and it's time to do the "best of the year" thing. I haven't finished my list yet but the US Rolling Stone critics certainly have, as has that embarrassing music journo Mike Gee. And if you like the whole awards night thing, the Grammy nominations have been announced (there's hope in the Contemporary Folk category).

posted by david on Fri 17 Nov 2000 @ 07:12 PM | read or post comments (1)

While it's a touch too early for the "best of the year" lists, it seems Rolling Stone and MTV have got together to assemble the "100 Greatest Pop Songs" list. Of course, lists like this are always open to debate but I guess that's the whole point isn't it? I think it would be much more interesting if they assembled a "100 Greatest Pop Songs That Never Charted" list.

posted by david on Sun 12 Nov 2000 @ 07:13 PM

The Sydney Morning Herald has a lengthy piece discussing just what is happening with the pop music scene in the UK. Proclaiming the death of pop seems a bit overboard when bands like Travis have still managed to sell a big pile of albums. I tend to believe that the market will always tend to self-correct: something different becomes successful, the record companies rush out similar stuff to cash in on the "trend", the market gets saturated with junk and then the public moves on again. This developing backlash looks like a healthy thing to me.

posted by david on Thu 2 Nov 2000 @ 07:15 PM

Buried away in a corner of the web is Glenn McDonald, one of the most idiosyncratic and best music reviewers around. His weekly "column" titled The War Against Silence rambles on and off-topic but it's always refreshing to hear someone talking this passionately about music (Rolling Stone used to write lengthy and detailed reviews but apparently that ain't hip anymore). With column #300 he's decided it's time he introduced himself by explaining how the column started and how it is prepared each week. Remarkably, he writes it in one 8-10 hour sitting each Wednesday evening. My favourite issue is #128, only partly because I'm a Del Amitri fan. His rant about Chaosball is still pretty classic.

posted by david on Tue 24 Oct 2000 @ 07:42 PM

There's a certain irony in George Michael's latest outburst where he criticises the British music industry for ignoring real talent in the quest for big sales. Blind freddy can see that he's implying he's one of those with real talent (cough!). Isn't this the guy who hangs out with Geri Halliwell? George, you may have a good point, but coming from you it looks more than a little stupid.

posted by david on Sun 1 Oct 2000 @ 08:13 PM

By all reports, the Sydney Olympic Games went off very, very smoothly. The opening ceremony was suitably theatrical, the music was conservatively chosen and then the following sporting events allowed the TV commentators to unleash all of their favourite cliches on the unsuspecting public. And tonight I've caught glimpses of the closing ceremony and quite frankly, I'm still reeling. My surprise at seeing Midnight Oil on stage was quickly eclipsed by the astonishing sight of their clothing, clearly displaying the word "sorry". And then I was further amazed by their choice of song: the lyrically pointed "Beds Are Burning". I don't think anyone expected them to be able to sing "it belongs to them/let's give it back" at an event like this. And if all that wasn't enough, the following act was Yothu Yindi singing "Treaty" with it's simple refrain "treaty yeah, treaty now". So, what did John Howard think of all that? I can't imagine him being a happy chappy. update: I've finally found a piece that gives some background on the Oils and those shirts, complete with a picture of Peter wearing one. The Sydney Morning Herald has another piece in a similar vein plus another discussing the political reaction.

posted by david on Mon 25 Sep 2000 @ 08:20 PM

Teen bands are best ignored by serious music lovers. It's an easy statement to make and when you think about bands like New Kids on the Block it's even easier to believe. But what happens when that immature bundle of youthful optimism tries to grow up? Do the cynics relent if the band demonstrate some real talent? And does the audience follow them beyond their teens? The oddest thing about the second Hanson album "This Time Around" was a rash of generally positive reviews from the critics (one described Taylor as "a remarkably good soul singer"). I even saw someone on the Del Amitri mailing list describing it as one of the albums of the year (and was promptly dismissed by the masses - who admitted they hadn't heard the album). The Age has an interesting piece describing how their "grown up" album fared in the post-Hanson world. It seems that if you start out as a teen band you won't be able to achieve any real sort of credibility until perhaps album #3 or #4 - if you can last that long. Whatever happens to Hanson from here, I'll admit that I wouldn't be caught dead buying their first album but I'm now rather curious about their second effort.

posted by david on Sat 23 Sep 2000 @ 07:24 PM

The new ABC managing director Jonathan Shier has been a busy little boy running around doing his best to stuff up what he's been trusted with and his latest bit of re-structuring has seen the Classic FM and Triple J radio networks stuck in the same senior management box. Bernard Zuel, one of the Sydney Morning Herald's music writers has written a rant thingy explaining why he thinks these latest changes won't affect JJJ much - he says JJJ was lost to the suits some time ago.

posted by david on Mon 4 Sep 2000 @ 08:41 PM

I was flipping through the racks at a secondhand store on the weekend and came across what is one of the more bizarre tribute albums I've seen: Elaine Paige's "The Queen Album". It was released back in 1988 and features Elaine singing such timeless classics as "Radio Ga Ga", "It's a Kind Of Magic" and yes, even "Bohemian Rhapsody". No, I don't know what they were thinking. Is this the most absurd tribute album ever?

posted by david on Mon 21 Aug 2000 @ 03:23 AM

The film "High Fidelity" opened in Australia this weekend so I wasted no time in getting myself along to a session. It didn't disappoint. Nick Hornby's excellent book (on which the film is based) wittily dissects the lunacy of the average record collector and it was a treat to see this lunacy brought to life on the big screen by folks like John Cusack, Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tim Robbins. It's fresh, funny, smart and remarkably faithful to the book. I highly recommend it to both music nuts and ordinary folk. :-)

posted by david on Fri 18 Aug 2000 @ 03:24 AM

According to this BBC article, music website IUMA (Internet Underground Music Archive) has not only offered cash prizes for parents naming their child Iuma, they already have a "winner". Anyone heard the one about David Bowie's son Zowie? When he get old enough he thought his name was so stupid he changed it to Duncan. I think there's a lesson in that.