Pribek

This, is a fine example of the inherent problems that go along with the ideas of using music as a loss leader to enhance brand integrity and, using musicians to pimp products and represent corporate interests.

British trio South have become embroiled in a legal battle with the cigarette brand Camel over a misunderstanding that occurred during their recent performance at SXSW.

The band, who have risen to success in the states over the course of their fifteen year career, agreed to headline a corporate show for Camel Cigarettes at this year’s SXSW festival for around £10,000.

However after seeing a female audience member at the gig with a Camel tattoo branded on her arm, Joel, one of the two lead singers of the band, joked through the microphone, “Don’t smoke, it’s bad for you”.

Though just intended as a flippant remark, South were told by Camel representatives when they left the stage that the comment meant they wouldn’t be paid, and have come home to face a serious legal battle.

Guys-GUYS!; I thought we covered this at the last secret meeting. In order for us musicians to take advantage of the digital wonderland, in order to access the panacea, we are going to have to learn to keep our thoughts, feelings, opinions and ideas to ourselves. We can’t just continue to go around saying “what’s on our minds” anymore. We aren’t special. We aren’t personalities. We are there to do a job, make corporations acceptable to mass audiences of young consumers with disposable dollars. This means, quit joking around, cut the banter and, keep…your…damn…mouth…SHUT!

What’s worse, South, you did it at the very showcase for the new business model, SXSW! What’s even worse is, that at this pointless gathering of musical lemmings, the world’s largest example of the sleazy club owner’s oldest trick in the book, the battle of the bands, you were getting paid for Chrissake! Of the 335,643 bands that appeared at SXSW this year, the vast, Vast majority were seen at after parties attempting to hustle 30 something chicks with frosted hair and a few too many Jaeger Bombs under their fab accessories for gas money home.

Who knows, maybe some good will come out of this. Maybe, some young bands will see what happened and use this as an example of what not to do.

Keep you guitars in tune, keep you hair combed (product please!), smile and play a short version of your MP3 that you are giving away on MySpace. Keep your clever ideas to yourself and…

Meet The New Boss.

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3:15 p.m.: First pitch by Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright

It’s opening day, Cardinal Nation.

Ahh…but if our hearts and minds could only permanently reside at the Elysian Fields on opening day, for on opening day, everyone is in a pennant race.

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I’m just a tad bit weary right now. We had a Thirst N’ Howl rehearsal this afternoon and then Allen Edwards (bass player) and I went over to see Lou (Sorry I’m not early) Whitney at The Studio. The new Bill Dees record, “Where Does The Time Go” (which Lou and I produced and played on) was back from mastering and I wanted to give a listen on Lou’s monitors. It sounds great. Randy Kling down in Nashville did the mastering. He’s done a couple of other ones for us including the “Trouble Ain’t Over” record and we continue to be pleased with his work.

What Is Mastering?

I was afraid you might ask that.

Short answer-Tweaking

Long answer-Go read “Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science” by Bob Katz.

Jack’s real answer-Mastering is the final sonic step in the record making process. After you have recorded the music and then, mixed the music it is time to send the music away to be mastered. The mastering guy will then decide what types of finishing touches need to be applied to the mixed tracks. These finishing touches may include such delights as equalization, overall leveling, compression and even things like tiny bits of delay. The mastering guy also will put the songs in sequence, cut unwanted noises like chatter, drummer counting the song off, and guitar player playing an A chord to see if he is in tune before and after songs, and decide how much silence should go in between the songs. Also, if you would like to have groovy hidden tracks or far out cross fades, things like that, the mastering guy will perform these tasks. See what I mean, tweaking.

Note that I said, send the music away. I want to stress that. You may be very clever with your plug-ins and mixing and engineering and brilliant and all that. But, it helps to have another set of ears, especially ears that are experienced at mastering, involved in the finished product. If you are serious about your music, you should want another set of ears involved.

For some reason (ego?) a lot of folks think that it’s a good idea to bypass the extra ears. In fact, in these days of everybody having a digital work station and everybody releasing a CD, most of everybody decides that they don’t need to spend the extra dough to properly master their masterpiece. Consequently, there art a lot of whoomphy or hollow sounding records out there. See, they sound good through the monitors of the digital workstation or through the headphones but, whoomphy in the car or living room. The mastering guy goes to great lengths to make sure that your record sounds good when played on different devices and different systems.

So, don’t settle for whoomph childrens,

Send The Music Away!

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