From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V8 #156 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Saturday, September 27 2003 Volume 08 : Number 156 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: Well, This Is An Interesting Development... ["Keith Stansell" ] Alloy: Kenna [hubcity@exit109.com] Re: Alloy: Kenna ["Andrea Allen" ] Re: Alloy: Kenna ["Keith Stansell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 09:34:04 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Well, This Is An Interesting Development... I don't know if they are communicating, but I would say there are some differences. For one, unless you hack their method of delivery and figure out a way to download and keep that album, they pretty much control the delivery and availability of the album. Perhaps after you've listened to it a while and got hooked, they may decide, ok, we're pulling the link to the album, click hear to buy the cd. My guess is they are hoping to stop the people who download illegal MP3's in order to sample the album to see if they like it, but then find they can't justify buying it since they already downloaded it. This way, you can sample the album, but still will need to buy it if you want to take it in the car or portable player with you. It's a crazy business, but I'd have to say, I might be inclined to buy an album if I could sample it legally first. I have bought a lot of CD's based on the listening stations at Borders and such that let you listen to a whole CD if you want. Those 30 second clips on Amazon just don't do it for getting a feel for the album. I guess also, a lot of artists fall under the RIAA if they want to or not. I have a feeling the RIAA have the labels interests at stake more than the individual artists. Personally, I'm not a supporter of people swapping files P to P (yes, guilty of downloading the odd only on LP track or two in the past), but never made my collection of over 4000 MP3 tracks (from my own collection or 400+ cd's) available to the public via P to P. I also am not a fan of the RIAA suits against the listeners. I think a lot of families will be ruined by it, because their kid installed Kazza on the pc. I think the fines are excessive and the P to P client applications are very much guilty of misleading the users of their systems into opening up their entire music collection to the outside world by using the default install options. As much as we hate them, it is a bad thing when the big labels start loosing money on the big acts because it provides less incentive for them to find and promote the smaller acts that may not have mainstream audiences. I think if today's music industry (and especially today's MTV radio) were transported back to the early 80's, none of us would have heard of Thomas Dolby. Speaking of the smaller up and coming artist, I saw Fisherspooner the other night and opening was a guy called Kenna. Very catchy and also moody synth pop. I bought his album a few months back after hearing his first video on MTV2's 120 minutes show a couple of years ago. Due to some confusion at the record label on how to promote and categorize the album, it wasn't released until this year. I met him out front after the show. He was pleased to see I bought his t-shirt actually was familiar with his music before the show. Nice guy, got a personalized autograph thanking me for my patience in waiting two years for the album. Go to his web site http://www.kennaonline.com and give him a sample - I think you'll like his music. - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sean Carolan" To: Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 7:26 PM Subject: Alloy: Well, This Is An Interesting Development... > > Folks, > > I thought this was interesting, given that simmering under many of the > discussions here on Alloy, there's the issue of downloading music for free. > On the one hand, there's 60 million people that swap files on one P2P > service or another, which seems like a pretty good audience, and on the > other, there's the fact that they mostly all tend to download the same damn > thing, not to mention the likelihood that swappers never buy. And, of > course, the anti-ripping directive on 40 (conspicuously missing from the > Submarines remix disc) and the please-don't-share-this release of the Fever > Pitch odds'n'ends MP3 - thanks, Thomas! - are certainly indicators that > digital sharing is part of the playing field we're working with today. > > Then something like this happens: I get an e-mail from one of the PR > companies that occasionally spam me, saying they'd like me to put up a link > that lets people hear the entire new Seal album. (And, since I rather like > Seal, I put up the link. It's at the top of the center column at > www.altrok.com.) I'm listening to it now - it's embedded within a Flash > player, and the interface pretty much lets you skip forward or back and, > yes, hear the whole album. It's not heavily compressed, either - it's > difficult for me, even with headphones on, to figure out which compression > scheme they're using. (I'm usually pretty good at that.) > > So, while this seems like a big market test, I've gotta ask: are the people > in charge of this communicating in any way with the people at the RIAA in > charge of suing the 12-year-olds? > > -HubCity ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 18:28:07 GMT From: hubcity@exit109.com Subject: Alloy: Kenna > Speaking of the smaller up and coming artist, I saw Fisherspooner the other > night and opening was a guy called Kenna. Very catchy and also moody synth > pop. I bought his album a few months back after hearing his first video on > MTV2's 120 minutes show a couple of years ago. Due to some confusion at the > record label on how to promote and categorize the album, it wasn't released > until this year. > > Go to his web site http://www.kennaonline.com and give him a sample - I > think you'll like his music. > Keith, I agree that the record's difficult to categorize - kinda like whaddaya do with a synth-pop record that features George Clinton, hm? - but I also agree it's quite good. I do a show at a local college station (and am willing to do it at others, 'cause I produce it on CD, plug, plug) and threw Kenna into the rotation. It's not just hard to categorize because of his background (Ethiopian by way of Virginia, I believe) but also because of the production (by one-half of the Neptunes). Incidentally, former 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield is now at Columbia Records, and is credited as the A&R guy who signed him. So, yah, recommended. As for Fischerspooner, I rather like their cover of Wire's "The 15th"... And now here's something I wanna recommend: anyone heard about a band from Holland called "Seedling"? I really love their latest album, "Let's Play Boys & Girls"... - -HubCity ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 17:39:59 -0500 From: "Andrea Allen" Subject: Re: Alloy: Kenna I love Kenna. His album makes me feel so sad though... don't know why. The music's amazing, maybe too much so. I am not as big a fan of Fischerspooner. If you like Kenna and also music that isn't necessarily in English, check out the Pakistani band Junoon. They have a similar sound, I think... they kind of sound like Kenna meets Man`, but in Urdu. It's not as bizarre as it sounds, really. Their website (www.junoon.com) has some loops of their newest songs. The singing is fairly different than you're used to but I dig the music. Andrea. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 17:10:43 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Kenna I'm not that big of a fan of Fischerspooner myself and didn't plan on going until I saw Kenna was on the bill - I let him know that. I do have the Fischerspooner CD/DVD combo. I think I kind of expected a bit more from the show based on what I saw on the DVD. Perhaps is was the slick productions on the DVD, but I expected it to be a bit more theatrical. There was some humor in the show and they didn't take themselves too seriously - mocking the lip synching and such (Todd Fischer starts drinking a beer in the middle of "singing" one of the songs - vocals continue). Kenna was great live. He had a 3 peice band with him - a drummer and two guys with keyboards. Kenna didn't play anything, just sang and sort-of danced around the stage. I asked him if he had any plans on going on a tour on his own, he said no plans right now. I also asked him when the next album would be out - January, it wouldn't take as long this time. Speaking of live shows - just noticed Death Cab for Cutie are playing at my local Gothic Theater here on Saturday - based on suggestions here, I'll have to go check them out. I'm going to see another one of my new favorites - Grandaddy play on Oct 13th. So, what concert reviews do other Alloys have to share ? What's else is good that might be coming my way? - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrea Allen" To: Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 4:39 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Kenna > > I love Kenna. His album makes me feel so sad though... don't know why. > The music's amazing, maybe too much so. I am not as big a fan of > Fischerspooner. > > If you like Kenna and also music that isn't necessarily in English, > check out the Pakistani band Junoon. They have a similar sound, I > think... they kind of sound like Kenna meets Man`, but in Urdu. It's > not as bizarre as it sounds, really. Their website (www.junoon.com) > has some loops of their newest songs. The singing is fairly different > than you're used to but I dig the music. > > Andrea. ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V8 #156 ***************************