Halcyon Days

The good news for Internet Radio fans (myself included): The battle over royalty payments to song copyright holders appears to have been settled.

The bad news? Free listening might remain free only to a certain point.

The Pandora site blog has this explanation from founder Tim Westergren.  Essentially, the big webcasters will pay an amount based on either a portion of their revenue (up to 25 percent) or a per performance fee, with smaller players paying based on a percentage of revenue or expenses.

What you will find in Westergren’s blog entry about the agreement is something I expect to become the norm.  You will still be able to listen for free, but the free ride will be capped.  In Pandora’s case, it will be 40 hours per month.

I expect this to become a standard model across the board, Internet stations capping the amount of free listening time per month, beyond which you will be asked to pitch in a small access fee (in Pandora’s case, it is going to be just 99 cents) or upgrade to a paid premium service in the cases of those sites that offer such a service.

There will still be some casualties on the battlefield, especially among the smaller webcasters, some of which were totally dependent on not having to fork over a significant recurring royalties payment.  Hopefully, your favorite station will not be among those going silent.

The group’s name is Quiet Company, but their fans – a quickly growing number – are not keeping quiet about this Austin-based piano rock band.

In an interview before a recent show in Tyler, Texas, songwriter and vocalist Taylor Muse spoke about the band’s knack for instantly connecting with listeners.

“We don’t have a lot of fans in the grand scheme of things, but the ones we have are really, really big fans,” Muse said.

Their music apparently has quite a bit of power in it, Muse mentioning that one man told him “Love Is A Shotgun,” from the group’s first album, “Shine Honesty,” saved the man’s marriage.

“That’s really awesome to me. We’ve had people use our stuff in their weddings and that’s a real big honor to me. Yeah, we’ve had a few people tell us things like that, we’re one of their new favorite bands…it’s really amazing to hear.”

The band’s new album, “Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon,” seems likely to keep the buzz going strong and the legion of Quiet Company fans swelling in number (click here for album review). It has already received many enthusiastic reviews, although Muse said it is quite different from “Shine Honesty” in one regard.

“The first record is really just me and one other guy (Alex Bhore). He recorded it and played all the drums on the record. Most of those songs were not really developed in a band setting…

“That record kind of came before Quiet Company was even a live band,” Muse continued. “Now that we’ve been a live band for a while, the new record sounds a lot more like a full band, more like a full sound, more of a developed sound. I think sonically the songs on ‘Shine Honesty’ are huge and the songs on ‘Everyone You Love’ are even bigger.”

“It definitely adds a new dynamic and character to something,” band drummer Jeff Weathers added. “You always get more perspectives out of a band setting instead of just a single songwriter, even when it’s ideas originally written by Taylor. They get translated differently by somebody actually having to play the exact rhythm and note he’s played, but it’s their touch on the instrument.”

It has all added up to a sound and songs that have a distinct mark of originality, and yet are very inviting to the listener. Muse said although he certainly has musical influences, presenting something unique is not a chore.

“I don’t find it terribly difficult to walk that line. But I think a lot of bands do, and it’s not that I am such a better songwriter than they are,” he said. “I don’t feel the need to be anybody except who I am.

“Our influences come through and they show, but I wouldn’t say that we sound like anybody. I remember when I was younger in early bands, trying to sing just like some other guy or trying to play guitar like somebody else. I just don’t do that anymore. I guess that’s part of maturity, growing up and finding out what you do.”

Weathers remarked that Quiet Company definitely is not what he termed one of the “mall bands.”

“They’re all interchangeable and kind of disposable. I wonder if they sit and go ‘Hey, this song we just wrote sounds exactly like this other band,’ or do they not notice it, or do they not mind it? I don’t really know.”

He added, “We run with a crowd of bands we can really respect. I feel like all of our friends do their own thing and nobody’s really ripping off anybody.”

The two band members also weighed in on the role of technology in today’s music industry. Muse said the world of MySpace and YouTube has its good and bad elements as it concerns bands and music distribution.

“I think it totally threw everybody into different corners of the room and now they’re just starting to come back together,” he said. “It (Internet presence) was a perk, and now people are realizing it’s a standard. It’s also now a new niche in that you see bands totally produced strictly virtual, just like you have companies that are virtual. They never set foot on stage and they’re building whole markets just on Web presence.

“The bad thing is now it’s too easy to be a band. In our general society, it’s too easy to do too many things virtually now. You have a lot of people trying to do things (and) they don’t have to go through the heartache, they don’t have to go through the actual getting into the band and putting out the work, they don’t have to get in the streets and actually put out the work,” Muse added. “Recording equipment has made it to the point where anybody and their dog can make a record, and it’s a decent sounding record.”

And on the other hand? “The good thing that comes out of things being more accessible, just like any commodity, is now we have more perfect information…people are more critical now, things are more transparent. We’re going to start to see through the hype, start to see through all these fake MySpace bands and out of that will rise better and stronger things due to competition,” Muse said.

“Metallica might have hated Napster, but I was very thankful for it because it let me find a ton of music you couldn’t find before,” he added. “The other good thing is it destroys the conglomerate music industry. It forces them to maybe be a little more creative or at least think a little more creatively, or just go out of business.”

The Novelist Who Helped Create A Band

If every musician and songwriter has a Damascus moment, Taylor Muse experienced his when he was a single-but-looking patron at a bookstore.

He said he never got to chat up the attractive girl he saw working behind the counter that day — an inquiry about a good novelist she could recommend only got him a referral to a male co-worker in the store who was more knowledgeable on that subject.

But it was there that Muse wound up buying three novels by Kurt Vonnegut “so I didn’t look like a total fool.”

“I bought Slaughterhouse Five and two other books. I read the other two first and I almost didn’t read Slaughterhouse Five. But finally, I read it and I instantly fell in love with his (Vonnegut’s) voice…A lot of his ideas really connected with me and it was a whole different perspective of the world that I just really never had considered.”

He remains a passionate fan of the late author. “The weird thing about Vonnegut is, if I just sat here and told you the plot of his books they would not sound interesting at all. They would sound like the most boring, worthless books of all time. He (Vonnegut) kind of knew that,” Muse said.

“Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon” is speckled throughout with references to Vonnegut’s 1961 novel Mother Night, starting with the first track, “A Nation of Two.” The title is borrowed from a play written by the novel’s protagonist, Howard W. Campbell, Jr., for his wife.

“They’re the only two in the nation and their nation has no room for politics or religion or society. It’s just them and that’s all they need,” Muse said. “They are totally sovereign and totally substantial, just being that for each other and whatever else happens, if they’ve got each other, the whole world can burn away but their nation of two remains.”

Weathers expressed admiration for his bandmate’s ability to pose deep and sometimes troubling questions in his songs without alienating the listener.

“I think what’s good about Taylor’s lyrics in that regard is he does a good job of keeping you guessing. I know where Taylor stands on a lot of religious things, but it’s like lyrically I don’t know where he stands,” Weathers said. “That’s the way to try to get people thinking on a subject without making them on the defensive. It’s letting people think on their own time and grow as themselves.”

Muse said he is continually amazed at the power of music and the potential of every song he writes.

“Kurt Vonnegut wrote, ‘Any work of art is one half of the conversation between two people,’” he said. “It’s my part of the conversation.”

Four Bands Quiet Company Thinks You Should Give A Listen
The Rocketboys – http://www.rocketboyband.com/
Jets Under Fire – http://www.jetsunderfire.com/
Dignan – www.myspace.com/dignan
Roy G and the Biv – www.myspace.com/roygandthebiv

With the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament under way, I couldn’t help but make this little observation:

While listening to my fave radio station, WEVL in Memphis, earlier this week, I heard a song entitled “Tiger High ‘85″ by a band called The Coach and Four. It’s an indie pop ode to the 1985 Memphis State University basketball team that made it to the Final Four but lost to eventual national champion Villanova – a game I covered in person in Lexington, Ky., for the Memphis State campus newspaper, the Daily Helmsman.

I like the song, but you know you’re getting old when local bands are writing songs about your college days.

Go Tigers, Go!

The Coach and Four: www.myspace.com/thecoachandfour

Boy, the lukewarm reviews keep rolling in on Apple’s latest little wonder, the new (and bewilderingly small) iPod Shuffle.

I have to say it’s an impressive bit of tech engineering to do a 4 GB music player in a body that’s only 1.8 inches tall and 0.3 inch thick. Being able to organize songs by playlist and including a multi-lingual voice feature that speaks music file info to you through the headphones is rather neat as well. But I’m seeing a lot of reviews so far that bemoan the absence of more intuitive controls (playlist/track selection has been moved to a button that is part of the headphones). Also, some are upset that this new Shuffle is third-party headphone unfriendly, requiring an adapter to use existing headphones.

I can forsee a more dubious problem: A $79 music player so small that it’s just asking to be lost somewhere in the house or accidentally sent through a wash cycle. No way would I be interested in buying it if I had small children or pets. And frankly, the change in the device’s controls just sounds like too steep a learning curve for a lot of people accustomed to buttons or a wheel on the body of the player.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out for Apple.

http://news.cnet.com/apple-shrinks-its-ipod-shuffle/?tag=rb_content;contentMain

There is a myriad of strong points about “Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon,” the new album from Austin-based Quiet Company.

But it took just one start-to-finish listen to realize the album’s truest triumphant point. There is not a single weak track amongst the 15 on the disc, not one that even allowed me to entertain the thought of pushing the skip track button in future. There are precious few albums I’ve listened to that I can honestly make that statement.

Band frontman Taylor Muse exhibits the sort of songwriting skills on this album you wish were the rule rather than the exception these days. The lyrics are intricate and original without being inaccessible. You know what’s being said and sung by Muse on each track but the phrasing, the word play and the timing is so admirable in its originality.

From “A Nation of Two” to “Seal My Fate” to “On Modern Men” and everything between and around, the album acts as a treatise on love, relationships, mortality, immortality, hopes, and fears – and aren’t those all synonyms for one another, anyway? Quiet Company dares to ask such a question here, but will gladly allow the listener all the time in the world to answer.

All that is wrapped in tasty musical arrangements and a sound that matches the fullness and depth of the lyrics. Case in point is the infectious second track with the deliriously long name, “It’s Better To Spend Money Like There’s No Tomorrow Than Spend Tonight Like There’s No Money.” This rocking track manages to feature band member Tommy Blank on the melodica, an instrument I’m unaccustomed to hearing on anything except Augustus Pablo records. Yet here it seems the only instrument in existence that fits the song’s midpoint interlude.

Fact is, the sound on “Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon,” within tracks and between tracks, is like a world-class roller coaster with soft buildups setting you up for exhilarating plunges, twists and turns. There are notes of whimsy as well as the most heartfelt sincerity, all perfectly placed throughout.

And by the end of the ride, you may have difficulty picking out which part was your absolute favorite, but you know you want to do it again and again.

Quiet Company is playing several shows this week at SXSW in Austin and will play Club Dada in Dallas on March 27.

www.quietcompanymusic.com

www.myspace.com/quietcompany

As an avowed and eternal fan of all things Stax, Sunday’s sad news of the death of Isaac Hayes hit particularly hard.

As I’m sitting here listening to some of Hayes’ recordings, I’m thinking of his vast influence on soul, R&B, even rap. Yet I will admit I was a latecomer to knowing much of Hayes’ own discography and the long list of songs he wrote or collaborated with partner David Porter during Stax Records’ heyday in the 60s and early 70s.

About six years ago, though, I bought the nine-disc set “The Complete Stax/Volt Singles Volume One” and were my ears ever opened, especially when it came to realizing just how many great songs in that collection were Hayes and Porter compositions.  Before that, I basically knew Hayes only as the man who recorded “Theme from Shaft” and wrote a couple of big hits for Sam and Dave.

A few months after that purchase, I picked up the second volume of Stax/Volt singles and gained a greater appreciation for Hayes’ own recordings, not to mention the oddness of his ascension from behind-the-scenes (albeit brilliant) songwriter to soul superstar.  While “Theme from Shaft” is and always will be a soul music history cornerstone, I found lots of Hayes’ material to like.  If pressed on the issue, I would have to say my personal favorite is his rendition of “The Look of Love,” a torch song best known as a No. 4 pop hit in 1968 for Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66.  Hayes’ version is sweet, hot and absolutely haunting – in the way lovers understand well.

Few of us get the opportunity to reinvent or resurrect ourselves in the public eye once, much less twice.  When Stax went under and Hayes suffered major financial setbacks, he was not one to fade away, turning to film and television acting while continuing to record songs.  Eventually, a whole new generation got to know Isaac Hayes via his vocal talents for the character of Chef on the animated show “South Park.”

No one relishes the day you have to say goodbye to someone whose work and life you admire greatly, less so when it happens so unexpectedly.  Suffice to say, Isaac Hayes will be as unforgettable as his performance of “Theme from Shaft” at the 1972 Academy Awards, and his musical and songwriting talent changed the landscape of the American soul sound for the better.

Friday nights will never be – or sound – the same for me.

Yesterday (July 16), I and most of the countless fans of Memphis volunteer radio station WEVL were shocked with the news that blues program host Dee Henderson, aka “Cap’n Pete”, was found dead in the backyard of his Memphis home from a bullet.  It has now been reported that Memphis police have charged a 30-year-old grandson of Henderson with the killing.

For the last 26 years, Henderson’s show, “Cap’n Pete’s Blues Cruise” could be heard in the Memphis area on WEVL.  i didn’t really pick up on the broadcasting gem that is WEVL until my second residential stint in Memphis in the early 1990s, but it was listening to the Blues Cruise and Cap’n Pete – a native Mississippian with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of blues musicians and their recordings – that converted me into a fan of the genre.

In that regard, Cap’n Pete was a true rarity among radio program hosts in the current age: One who could still influence, teach and warm the hearts of his listening audience. Had it not been for him and the Blues Cruise program, I might still be living without the enjoyment of Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and a host of other blues legends great and small.

Do not scoff at anyone saying it feels like the loss of a dear friend or family member, for in this case, it is a true reflection of how Dee Henderson’s personality, charm and spirit wrapped itself warmly around your ears, mind and heart with every broadcast.  What I must add, though, is that his death is especially disturbing for reasons other than the audio void that now exists on Friday nights.

I tried to make my life as a Memphian work on three separate occasions in the past 25 years, and I gave up for the last time last fall.  First and foremost, I couldn’t find a stable and suitable job in the print media field in that area, and never could get a foot through the door in any non-journalism position, either.

Alongside that predicament, I just got tired of reading or hearing about one to three shootings, stabbings and violent deaths almost every day.  And even though I lived in what felt like one of the few remaining “relatively safe” neighborhoods, I was old enough and wise enough to know it could happen anywhere to anyone.  Memphis is now the violent crime capital of the South, second only to Detroit nationally, and one look at comments posted on any of the online news sites there will show you the growing outrage and frustration at a city government that doesn’t seem to have a clue about how to change any of it for the better.

You’ll also find a lot of comments posted from people who just got fed up with it and relocated.  I know how those folks feel, even after giving it multiple chances.  Right now, Memphis has about two things going for it, a nationally ranked college basketball team and a certain radio station which, thankfully for me and all the other Memphis expatriates, streams its broadcasts over the Internet.

I knew one day I was going to wake up and learn that i wouldn’t be hearing Cap’n Pete’s voice anymore.  I just never imagined it would be this soon, and this way.

On April 25, I attended a benefit music festival at A.E. Butler Intermediate School in Quinlan, Texas. The Grow the Arts Music Festival featured five bands, a silent auction, all the good concession favorites like nachos and hot dogs, and a throng of kids (and parents) having a blast.

I went to the event expecting to hear some great music. I came away from it not just with that, but a feeling that put a smile of hope for the future on my face.

The event is the brainchild of David Cheney, member of the rock group Dimmed and arts teacher at Butler Intermediate. Proceeds from tickets, concessions and the auction items will help Cheney buy clay and tools for the pottery program he has introduced to students, and which has been a rousing success thus far.

All the bands put on great sets, but as always seems to be the case with multi-act bills, one in particular steals the show.

On this night, it was a punk rock trio from Leonard, Texas, known as Fakie!

Their set consisted of some great original songs now available on the band’s debut EP (myspace.com/fakiepunks) and some awesome covers, including The Ramones’ “Sedated” and The Doors’ “Hello, I Love You”.

The lead vocalist and guitarist, Reed McBroom, was evoking not just shades but deep hues of Joe Strummer on stage – the stance, the guitar licks, the vocals and the interaction with the crowd.

On its own, the set would have you jumping onto your computer as soon as you got home to look up the band’s Web site.

Even more impressive – maybe awe provoking – is that the combined age of the band is only 37.

Reed is only 13 years old. Paige Watson, the drummer, is just 15 and bassist Buddy McBroom is the “kid” of the group at 9.

Yet here they were, second on the bill at a benefit rock concert, whipping up electrical intensity from a crowd that could just as well be classmates.

Three minutes into a backstage interview with the band after their set, I had to give way to a rapidly growing wave of young (and I do mean young) fans seeking autographs from the new rock heroes they had just discovered.

I couldn’t help but smile as Reed look toward me and his father, Mike McBroom, with that grin of disbelief as he poked his head just barely above the swarm.

Yeah, Reed, you guys were THAT good tonight.

As you might expect, the three have a rock lineage down from their respective fathers, both in the area music scene for many years themselves.

“My job is keeping them grounded,” Mike McBroom said. “I try to help them get their music as good as it can be.”

If Friday night was any evidence, he’s done his job well to this point.

What was most warming to me was the band’s genuine energy mixed with their obviously deep knowledge and appreciation of the punk and punk pop genres. In a day and age of cookie-cutter rap, pop princesses behaving badly, and American Idol, it was a very refreshing sight and sound.

More than anything, Fakie! exhibited everything the entire evening was all about.

For every A.E. Butler Intermediate with an art teacher/rock guitarist who understands the value and far-reaching effect of fine arts in public schools, and is willing to go to great lengths to find money to keep a program going, there are 100 campuses with nothing creative for the kids to do.

While I’m sympathetic with the financial struggles of public schools nationwide, it’s high time state legislators – caught up for years now with standardized testing goals in core classroom subjects – started seeing how equally important things like music, art, and theatre are to the very students whose future they claim to be safeguarding.

And that’s because, despite what the world around you would have you believe, it isn’t the politicians, the superstar pro athletes and the business executives who truly change the world and bring people together.

That job is, and always has been, on the shoulders of those of us whose lives are tied to a pen, a guitar string, a paintbrush, a chisel, or a stage.

Sure, we need to be able to read, write and work with numbers to fashion an everyday existence.

We need the arts to dream, to inspire others to dream, and to remember how wonderful it really is to be human.