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Editorial
One more year of Buckyball adventures. We’ve done some pretty interesting things. For one, we have a nifty looking new website, thanks to the invaluable help of Jonathan Tessler of the Complex and Jonathan Land. It was time to freshen the look and feel, and trim a bit. The old website had become a bit of a Winchester House (don’t know what I’m talking about? visit winchestermysteryhouse.com) the new website includes lots of downloads, mp3’s and new videos, and our tour books, including a new one of our latest outing in Europe.
We released the live Tunnels CD, “The Art of Living Dangerously” in September. It is a completely in-house production-- all done on a G4 laptop, from recording to mixing and mastering. The CD has received some great reviews so far, and we have been enjoying promoting the album live, touring with drummer Lance Carter to the Far East, and with drummer John O’Reilly to the not so far Western Europe. Sarah Pillow recently performed (for the first time that I know in the History of modern music) two back to back performances based on the Remixes release with her early music group Galileo’s Daughters, and her cross over project which features two new members: our longtime Tunnels cohort Van Manakas on guitar, and Antar Goodwin on bass.
Now what we have to look forward to in 2005 is pretty exciting. Percy and I are working on compositions for a new Tunnels CD that should come out in the middle of the year; Sarah Pillow will go back to revisit some great standards on an upcoming jazz release. We have a new artist on the Buckyball roster, whose name is Dan Siegler. He has created a fascinating mix of hi- and low-tech electronica named “Errors”, which will be released in the Spring. There are also a few shows that every New Yorker should put on their agenda: Sarah is going to give a concert on January 9th at the Madison Ave. Presbyterian Church with Galileo’s Daughters, which will feature the music of 17th century Italian nun composers and include a special guest who knows quite a bit about Galileo’s Daughters...the original ones! That should make for a very interesting concert. Sarah will also perform with her cross over group at Makor on February 9th, and our friend, bass clarinetist Michael Lytle, is putting together an improvised performance at the Bowery Poetry Club on January 29th featuring Percy, Marc and another longtime musician friend, Jim Mussen, on drums. And there are more performances in the works- please stay tuned. M.W.
Democracy working for Independent Artists
It was a dark day for independent music, compadres, a dark day. One would think that a media company and label founded to sell records and promote musicians, would not be responsible for wanton destruction of inventory and back catalogue items. One would also think, as good capitalists, they would at least offer to sell the cds back to the artist instead of destroying them. One might also think that the record label would keep accurate accounting and be sure to pay their artists royalties due in a timely fashion. One would be wrong.
Since Evolver Records took over the Knitting Factory labels recently, they started to methodically drop and physically destroy a vast amount of the back catalog. They had not reported or paid royalties to artists and they refused to return CDs that they did not plan on selling back to the artists who recorded them. Moreover, they refused to return master recordings to the artists they were putting out of print, despite the fact that this was specifically stipulated in the contracts.
One of the most egregious examples is in the story of Tom Cora’s widow, Catherine Jauniaux. A group of artists generously donated their time and skills to a benefit album for her and her son in 2000. To this day, she has not seen a penny of the royalties from the company.
So in the spirit of democracy, the abused artists mobilized. A website was formed, a petition was signed, and a demonstration took place on December 15 to protest this outrageous behavior. A boycott was slated to begin February 14th against the Knitting Factory if no resolution was found.
We are pleased to report that at the end of the deomonstration a settlement was reached with the new managers of Knit Media. Details can be found at the website www.takeittothebridge.com.
As Bucky Fuller said, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, and Buckyball Music was founded on this principle. Some of the greatest artists are also savvy businesspeople, if eclectic in their approach. The belief that artistic integrity will be diminished if artists educate themselves about the business side is killing creative music. The artists under contract with Knit Media learned the hard way that they must come to gether to create a stronger voice, and they succeeded in being heard. A.G.G. and S.P.
A Digital Dialogue of Opinion
(We have talked before about the emergence of new technologies, and we always have lively discussions in the Buckyball office, so we decided to share with you both sides of a digital coin)
A Digital Question
In this crazy, wacky fast moving world where the monopoly that astronomy has had on large numbers will be shortly replaced by the size of your hard drive, do you know that there are now more bytes on the average hard drive than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy? I am wondering if we have really thought about what this all means, particularly for us musicians. I don’t know about you, but the latest promotion of the cute little iPod boasts that you can put ten thousand songs on it. That really scares me, because as the famous law of the market decrees, to which we are all subjected, like it or not, is that the more there is of anything, the less is its value. Besides, how can you really process in your brain so much music?
Lets do a little thought experiment: How long will the five hundred songs that you downloaded last night on your trusty player take to listen to? Lets set two parameters: 1. You are not replaying anything more than twice, and 2. You are actually listening, it’s not just in the background. So lets do a little math: Five hundred times five minutes (the length of an average piece of music) times two (a couple of listenings) equal 5000 minutes, which is about 80 hours. Let’s assume a generous two hours a day, 5 days a week, and thats two months of listening to new music.
Now ten thousand?! You do the math. It is just plain impossible. The problem (as I see it) is that it is very detrimental to the creative musicians who are trying to step out of the formula. Music has to grow on you, and the best music takes two, three, sometime ten listens to be appreciated. Just think what it would do to our listening shedule. Simply put, good music needs attention, meaning: time. Sorry, Artist, you are number 4567, (Hmm… what year would that make me?). M.W.
A Digital Answer
In defense of the iPod…While there is validity to the accusation that no reasonable person would need that much music, the iPod is intended to be used as a dual mp3 player and pocket hard drive. The beauty of the iPod is that it removes the burden of choice for people, like me, who feel paralyzed with indecision over music when they leave the house for their commute. It enables us to consider music in a way we never have before. Instead of being committed to a single album, the artist’s vision, we have the choice of experiencing the fan’s vision—the Playlist. The Playlist, the cornerstone of the digital music revolution, lets me cycle between songs from as many artists as I want, in whatever theme I want, without switching albums! Now
that really rules.
Take it from someone who listens to songs all the time and says, “Hey, what is that? I’m going to go download that from iTunes!” The iPod democratizes music, even if you don’t listen to all of it, America is the land where bigger is better, and let’s be honest… if two people have a 40 GB iPod and one has 500 songs on it, and one has 2000 songs on it, is it really the iPod’s fault if they don’t listen to all their music or appreciate it? No. The iPod’s a tool. A really great tool. With really cute earbuds. I can’t wait til Christmas.
A.G.G.
Buckminster's Corner
A Geodesic Stamp for U.S.P.S.
Since last year, Buckyball has looked at the post office with a tinge of fear after experiencing the return of two large boxes meant for our distributor in France. We were on tour, so we shipped the boxes from Ohio at a friendly, small town locale. Unfortunately the folks at Your Neighborhood Post Office were not aware of a new law requiring an invoice on the outside of all boxes being shipped internationally. We didn’t know either. So, after waiting for months for the boxes to re-surface, and paying to recieve them and re-send them (a few hundred dollars), our cds are now being sold in France (viva la!) So, we’d like to think that in their understated way, the U.S. Post Office is reaching out to Buckyball (to start the healing) by issuing a stamp of our hero, Buckminster Fuller. It’s a replica of the tribute to him that was on the cover of Time magazine. It’s not a very flattering portrait, but the stamp acts as a kind of olive branch to counterbalance the frustration we felt as we wondered if a few thousand dollars of merchandise would be lost forever. I wonder why people feel anger towards postal workers, when they really do work hard to please their customers. S.P.
The well fed starving artist
Yeah! Raw eggs! Just remember GW didn’t have the luxury of pasteurization. With all this talk about what the founding fathers would do...apparently they’d be sitting around drinking eggnog.
George Washington’s Eggnog
1 pt. brandy
1/2 pint rye whiskey
4 oz. sherry
4 oz. rum
12 eggs, separated (pasteurized, ahem)
3/4 cup sugar
1 qt. milk
1 qt. cream
Combine liquor. Beat egg yolks in a large bowl until thick, then beat in sugar. Gradually add liquor, then milk, then cream while continuing to beat. Beat egg whites to stiff, not dry, peaks; fold into liquid mixture. For best flavor, cover and refrigerate 1-5 days before serving.
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