blogs and the internet | Everything's Swirling

Corporate rock sucks #15: Kristin Hersh and sustainability

Posted on August 30th, 2007 by Andy

Kristin Hersh has posted her Thoughts On Sustainability to her blog and it makes reassuring reading…the future of an industry where the labels don’t control the artist may be a little way off but seeing someone of the profile of Kristin seriously considering a business model that involves “relying on listeners, treating music as a cooperative” gives me hope that ultimately the listener (fan!) and the artist will find ways of doing business without the corporations sucking the life (and the money) out of music.

To that end, I think I need to engage in a grassroots kind of capitalism, choosing principles over profits, values over image, ideals over marketing. I have to create a permeable membrane between artist and listener — Im a craftsperson, after all. The church of the rock star that the music industry televangelists hawk has always been anathema to me anyway. This is about songs and sounds, nothing else.

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When I thought I was alone…

Posted on August 30th, 2007 by Andy

There was a time in between Galaxie 500 splitting up (in 1991) and us getting the Internet (late 1993 or early 94 I’d guess [1]) when I thought I was the only Galaxie 500 fan in the world. Occasionally a journalist (normally Everett True) might drop their name into an article but otherwise it was just me. The friends I’d seen Galaxie 500 with didn’t seem all that bothered by the fact that they weren’t around any more. Of course there was Luna, but I never really knew any Luna fans either and was always surprised that there was anyone else at the Luna shows I went to. So the Internet was a glorious revelation not only did the people on there know of Galaxie 500 but some of them loved them as much as I did.

Whenever I find a post like this one at Indie Selections For Your Erections I get a buzz to know that there are people who cared as much as I did (and still care) – it’s probably a bit sad because most of my Internet existence since 1994 has been amongst Galaxie 500 fans – but most of them don’t make such explicit declarations of love – I think they should do it more often…I do it all the time!

[1]The earliest mention of my Internet presence I’ve managed to track down (after a couple of minutes searching) is this post to alt.music alternative in September 1994 but we had definitely been around longer than that (we’d had a Compuserve account before the Demon one that this post was from).

Posted in Music, a head full of wishes, blogs and the internet | 2 Comments »

Sweet Watoo Watoo

Posted on August 8th, 2007 by Andy

Just came across some sweet videos of the very lovely Watoo Watoo on YouTube…they make me smile…here’s the one in English (The Golden Castle) as it’s (sadly) the only language I speak!

Maybe if we all rush out and buy their fab new album la fuite mk could afford a grown up guitar

La Fuite has a very sweet cover of Luna’s Chinatown that made its first appearance on the very rare "Decomposing" CDR (a tribute to Luna & Galaxie 500). It’s only rare because I was a rubbish at marketing it – I might try and get it online somewhere after the summer…

Posted in Music, blogs and the internet, last.fm | No Comments »

Rate Your Music

Posted on July 27th, 2007 by Andy

I’ve always had a problem rating my music – because pretty much everything I buy is bloody great and therefore deserves a 4.5 or a 5 out of 5 – so Rate Your Music was something I just shrugged off – I like the idea of collecting music online and using these sites to learn about more good music (it’s why I love last.fm so much) but the “Rate” bit put me off for a long time. BUT I signed up anyway…

I still have a problem, even with a concerted effort to make full use of the five-star rating system, pretty much everything I’ve rated so far has fallen into the 4.0 to 5.0 range – but I’m trying harder. I like the little things about it – comparing my ratings to other users, having a map of the world with my music dotted over it. It’s simple to use as long as I resist the temptation to turn it into a catalogue of my collection and instead use it as another way to find and reccommend music I’m sure I’ll learn to love it.

In reality it, like so much of Web 2.0 it really is just about me – the person who will find my page most interesting is undoubtedly me (just like I’m the one who finds my last.fm profile most interesting!)

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The end of Tangents – once home of Unpopular Culture

Posted on July 4th, 2007 by Andy

I sort of missed it happening but at the tail end of last month the very excellent Tangents (the home of unpopular culture) called it a day. I can’t remember how long I’ve been going there pretty much as long as I remember (in an Internet way). Lots and lots of great writing about good music and art and photography has introduced me to a lot of good music and art and photography. All the content still sits there but it’s sad to think that there won’t be anything new. I’m sure I’ll keep going there every couple of weeks – just out of habit.

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Let’s wake up the neighbors, let’s turn up our amps

Posted on April 25th, 2007 by Andy

Yo La Tengo
(originally uploaded by woxy)

The longest love affair I’ve had with a band that actually is still around is probably the one I have with Yo La Tengo.

There’s a nice little interview/in studio performance you can listen to on Woxy.com which includes them playing what is possibly, my favourite song from my favourite YLT album – Big Day Coming as well as a couple of Kinks numbers. There’s a bunch of pictures from the performance on Woxy’s Flickr stream.

(via Chromewaves)

Posted in Music, blogs and the internet | 1 Comment »

I should never underestimate the power of WordPress

Posted on April 24th, 2007 by Andy

There is, of course, a WordPress plug-in for everything and so it was negligent of me not to consider that I could have my cake AND eat it. Through the power of the lovely FeedWordPress I can have all those music posts I make on my Last.fm journal appear, as if by magic, on this blog. OK it does mean the same thing being in two places but it is still a good thing!

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What’s to become of Everything’s Swirling…

Posted on April 23rd, 2007 by Andy

I’ve decided to move all my music related blogging into last.fm – which sort of leaves this blog with a rather big hole to fill. It never was meant to be a music blog – but that’s pretty much what it turned into.

Last.fm is a fantastic website and while it’s blogging (journals) are still a little bit lacking in features (no decent archives, no import and export etc.) I think that as I spend a lot of my time over there it seems to make sense to write my barely read snobbish rants over there.

So…what to do with Everything’s Swirling…I do have a life beyond music – a family, television and films I watch, photos I take and photos I like – so there’s plenty that I could be doing with it – but over the last couple of months mostly what I’ve done with it is just ignore it – I’m just about ready to change that but we’ll see how things pan out.

In the meantime you can see my last.fm journal or profile or check out the A Head Full of Wishes group over there.

I’ll probably turn the A Head Full of Wishes site into more of a blog than just news so for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta bits keep an eye over there…

Posted in Music, blogs and the internet, idle nonsense | 1 Comment »

They would have liked me ’cause…sometimes I’m funny

Posted on March 19th, 2007 by Andy

Said the Gramophone had an mp3 of this song which made me smile with it’s angry bitterness and funniness and it’s near-spoken delivery…although I’m a bit bothered by her not wanting to kill “him” as well!

Soko – I'll kill her
Uploaded by Rkst

The other songs on their MySpace page are good too – don’t know anything more

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