Getting People To Dance: The New Download Scheme

Been doing a lot of dance gigs recently—building the ol’ chops to play live again. And I’ve been wondering about why people dance to some songs and not others. There are lots of songs that we’ll play that are just slammin’ but the dancers? Ho humsville. Then other songs, that everyone in the band feels totally ambivalent about? The dancers lose their minds. There is a middle-aged stampede to hump the stuffed tiger. (Don’t ask.)

Now you could say that the above situation is because ‘the band’ likes songs that are more musically interesting than the dancers, but this is only partly true. Though I would agree that there sure is some perverse (and inverse) correlation between musical quality and general dance-ability, this is not always for certain; not by a country mile. In fact, I can’t figure it out. All I can say about it is this metaphor:

I’ve railed against Lady Gaga’s lack of musicality before. But since then I’ve learned something else: people think she’s seriously hot. I mean, teenage girls have told me in complete seriousness that they believe her to be one of the truly beautiful women that ever trod the earth and drew breath. And I think she’s a serious candidate for a collar. And a licence. If you take my meaning. So there must be some generational thing, governing everything from the ears to the eyes to the schwanstücker that makes it almost impossible to figure out what people outside your tribe like or want.

Which of course, explains completely why I changed the Freebie Song Download scheme.

You see, people were downloading songs in records numbers—not paying for them in any higher numbers, mind you, but it actually has taken a slight bite outta the number of illegal downloads I’ve seen in the past six months. Cool. But the thing is, I was so eager to embrace this whole ‘free’ thing (which I think is a total crock o’ shit, by the way—see above discussion of generation differences—I forgot to throw ethics in that list.) So I changed it up slightly. I’m makin’ ya work for it a bit.

What I’m asking for is that everyone who wants a free song submit—the interweb’s term, not mine, to being a part of my mailing list. (Getting back to the ‘submit’ thing, I could make that work for me. ON YOUR FEET OR ON YOUR KNEES!) OK, maybe not.

Anyhoo, it seems reasonable to ask y’all to be a part of things, at least a little, in return for some free samples. I’m gonna change up the list of freebies frequently to highlight tunes that most people never get to check out unless they break down and get the CDs.

And I’m gonna track who keeps comin’ back to the well (something marketers call ‘conversion’.) This is all not so much because I have pretensions of major sales increases, but rather just because my curiosity gets piqued. Like the dance music I spoke of above, I’m interested in predicting which techniques will motivate people best. And like the above, the hope of course, is to find a system that I the musician find helpful to achieving my goals and that you still find enjoyable enough to dance to. I think Dick Clark woulda called that… oh… about an 85.

But Lady Gaga probably has no idea who Dick Clark is. Is Dick Clark still even alive? Perhaps just his hair.

At any rate. Please let me know what you think of the new download scheme. And the tunes you download, of course.

OK, It’s August. So Where The Heck Is Positive Re-Mastered?

Dear JC,

On 24 May you wrote that the re-mastered version of Positive would be available by 1 August of this year.
Well, it’s now the fifteenth and I’ve heard nothing about this for quite some time.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall that your last record was also delayed. And the one before that. And so was the one before that.

You know I support you, mate. But let me ask you: Why bother telling people about new albums if you never come anywhere near the target? Why not try putting out a new album after it’s done and not talking about it beforehand?

Hoisted on my own blog-petard. How embarrassing.

The raw truth is this: The sun got in my eyes. So it fell out of me bag on the way to school. And my dog ate it. And then things got really tough.

But seriously ladies and germs, there’s been the usual delays which result from trying to do too many darned things all at once and expecting everything to fall into place. Moving is one thing. The rip off of my drum set being another. The ongoing health crap.

That said, these are all just excuses and my correspondent’s points are all well taken. Unfortunately, in order to sell these coasters of sonic platinum, I kinda/sorta have to have goals. I need to set a time-line if only because I am desperately trying to target another frequent complaint from my most loyal fans. Which goes something like this old joke:

“JC, with your amazing marketing skills, if you’d have met Harlan Sanders back in the day? We’d now know the Colonel’s secret recipe as ‘Hot Dead Bird In A Box For Three Bucks’.”

Guilty as charged. I wanted ever so much to make this record different and not keep missing deadlines. Because the real truth is that if I want to sell this thing like it’s got “a secret blend of eleven herbs and spices” I gotta get it out to “the press” at least a month before it goes into production. It’s called lead time and it’s why I can’t just wait until I “get ‘er done, Larry.”

Anyhoo, rest assured things proceed apace. We’re probably looking at an October 1, 2010 ship date—still plenty of time to get ‘er done for holiday shopping and to stage a wee bit of a comeback tour. (Fingers crossed!)

I was gonna put in some specifically cool things I’m working on to make Positive Re-Mastered the greatest thing since this (Insanity or genius? You make the call!) but shame prevents me from making any other claims that may come back to bite me in the ass.

So for now, I’ll simply tell you that I’ll ping you back when I have more hard facts and fewer predictions on offer. I simply don’t want to oversell anymore.

I mean, seriously, if Positive Re-Mastered redefines the outer limits of beauty and profundity in recorded sound, it’s not something that I should be talking about ahead of time. Now is it?

The Rhythm Of Prog

When people think of ‘prog’ they don’t think of an aesthetic, they think of a beat. Well DUHHHHH! And when you further think about it, every style of popular music is defined by it’s basic beat.

I’ve been thinking about ‘prog’ as if it were ‘classical’ or even ‘jazz’ where it’s the process more than anything else that defines the music. But we’re talking about ROCK, baby. So people have expectations that are like popular styles.

And judged in that way? A lot of my stuff sure as shit ain’t prog. In fact, if one listens to it like a normal person, it’s largely this amalgamation of 80′s power pop, funk, glam and rockabilly—with some prog stuff in there (the odd 6/8 and 7/4 beat) to keep one’s cape flappin’ in the breeze.

This has further driven me over the edge in my desire to steer the musical boat back to shore.

Giddyup!
Now what is the quintessential prog beat? Like good porn, I can’t tell ya, but… it sure feels a lot like a waltz to me (as if porn ever had a ‘waltz’ soundtrack.) But by that I mean (as I alluded above) all ya gotta do to evoke the gods of prog is to start playing something with a ‘three’ feel. Slow? You sound like Yes or Gentle Giant (‘Heart Of The Sunrise’.) Faster? Any number of tunes by Rush, Genesis and even Led Zeppelin (Immigrant Song.) In short, if it gallops? It’s probably in the realm of prog.

Am I A Believer?
When I think of the stuff I do that feels the most ‘prog’, Oceans Below (Superpower) always comes to mind. And, true to the formula, it starts in a loping 6/8. But then for the big smash-hit finish? I switched to a groove I clearly lifted from The Monkees Papa Gene’s Blues. On crack.

My natural bent is so ‘pop’ (and so retro-pop) that I can’t even space out correctly.

As I’ve been saying, I’m determined to get back to the whole ‘prog’ ethos. But for me it is an ethos and not a ‘beat’. I was drawn to prog groups not because of the time signature or groove, but rather because they were attempting to combine many styles together that I happen to like.

Here in Seattle, ‘fusion cuisine’ has been all the rage for quite some years. When it works? When it’s done by someone who really knows what they’re doing? Combining bacon and ice cream or licorice and fish are fantastic ideas. When it’s not; and when they don’t? Oy. My guess is that there are a lot more recipes that taste as you’d expect licorice on fish to taste than actually taste good. Because let’s face it: it’s licorice. On fish.

Prog is like that. It really takes a lot to make it work. So more often than not, it fails. And when it fails, it’s quite the joke. But like fusion cuisine, I can’t pin it down as having one characteristic beat (or flavour.) Because if it had that? It wouldn’t be fusion anymore.

Food For Thought?
My goal for the next round of material is to do what prog should do, but not worry so much about whether or not it gallops or uses a mellotron or whatever other conventions are usually ascribed to it stylistically. But at the same time, I’m mindful that if one sounds too ‘pop’ or ‘funk’ or whatever then one is probably straying off course. Because that means you’re ignoring the fact that it’s a fusion.

I still like Oceans Below because I think it succeeded in this regard. It fused a number of styles together in a fashion that I still like. And for me, the playing (guitars, drums, bass) has the energy I used to feel from some of my fave prog groups—even if it isn’t doesn’t exactly ‘gallop’ but rather takes that last train to Clarksville.

As I get ready to start pounding again, I’m going to be more careful to adhere to that fusion of styles—which starts at bedrock with the beat. But will that beat be more ‘classically’ prog as a lot of people hear it in their heads? I doubt it. But I sure hope it’s a lot more to the material than can be summed up as ‘oh that’s a funk tune’ or ‘that’s a pop tune’ or any one word description. If the drumming is truly interesting? It’ll take at least two hyphens to describe what’s goin’ on.

*EBF: East Butt Fuck. The Boonies. Green Acres.

Positive Remastered — Finally!

After nine years? The first record from JCHMusic will finally be available as a professionally remastered version.

As long-term listeners know, in late 2007 I embarked on a plan to re-master the first four records prior to the release of Home. For some reason, I released them in reverse order, starting with Balance — then Compartments and Superpower. Then all heck started to break loose in my life and I had to leave off.

Until now, this has always been a great personal sadness for me. After more than twenty years playing other people’s stuff, Positive was a chance to finally get the music out there that I wanted to do. So, like many artists’ first records, it contains some of my best stuff (in fact, the sophomore jinx so many artists encounter is often simply the result of one simple fact: they’ve usually had umpteen years to develop ten great songs for their initial offering but then only twelve months to do the second. Do the math.)

The really annoying thing is that, although Positive benefited greatly from the ‘first release effect’ as far as song quality, it also suffered in equal amount from another common characteristic of first records: namely crappy recording quality. And the complexity of reasons that led to thiss can all be summed up in one sentence: On the job training. I was teaching myself the wonders of digital recording as I went and made all the usual mistakes that newbies make.

In my defense, I have to say that I never intended to release Positive to the general public. As I’ve commented on ad nauseum, I was still in the ‘traditional marketing mode.’ My goal was simply to get something out to ‘the industry’, get a record deal of some kind and then record the ‘real’ debut album. With someone else’s money. Putting it on a web site was a complete afterthought and came about only because I was writing shopping cart software at my ‘day job.’ Making it available for sale was more of an exercise in learning e-commerce than in cutting edge music promotion. But for whatever reason, people bought it; I started touring to support it and the rest is recent history.

Now here we are. Positive has several songs that I still think are among my best efforts and I feel strongly that they deserve to be heard the way I meant for them to sound. At my live shows, “Why Don’t You Come In?” and “You Are Loved” always were among the best received pieces.

So while everyone is waiting for me to get on with something truly ‘new’, I’m offering the next best thing in the meantime—completely new mixes of the original twelve songs that I think you’ll find are as striking as seeing the Sistine Chapel before and after the cleaning. OK, maybe not quite that striking.

As we get closer to release date, we’ll be posting some ‘before and after’ clips to give you some idea of the differences. At the risk of sounding immodest, I think you’ll be impressed at the difference that nine years and a couple of Grammy® Award-winning engineers can make.

Some Details

• Positive Re-Mastered is scheduled to ship August 1, 2010. As you’ve overwhelmingly demanded, it will be packaged in the traditional jewel-box and include not only the original art, but additional production notes.
• If you pre-order (we’ll start taking orders July 1) you will receive an autographed copy and a personal note.
• For current owners, as before, there will be a trade-up offery. You will be able to get the new release for a measly $5.00. If you ship back your current version, we’ll even pick up the return shipping.

Commitment: Coda

As picayune as my ‘career’ has been by ‘American Idol’ standards, the truth is, that I have been totally blessed with a core following that most artists would kill to have. You who have been so devoted through all my ups and downs deserve the best quality recordings I can muster. It’s not only my pleasure and honour to finally offer Positive Re-mastered, but frankly? It’s the least I can do for everyone who has supported my work. Of course, I hope that this release finds new listeners—better mixes have definitely brought new people into the fold with each re-mastered album, but that’s not the main point. I want everyone to know that I’m back and just as energized about what I do as I was ten years ago. Positive Re-mastered is just the first fruit of that effort for 2010. As I sang almost a decade ago now into the first decent microphone I ever owned:

I am committed.

The Importance Of Being Earnest

…with apologies to Oscar Wilde (not the most serious guy in the world, but what-ehveeeer.)

In my last death-defying rant I talked about the terrifying trend towards twee.

This time I’m giving you the flip side–the road less travelled. Or at least, the one that I have decided upon after some reflection and pain and suffering.

I’ve taken a lot of criticism from you dears fans (we few, we happy few, we band of broth… OK, enough with the high-school Shakespeare already.)

As I was ranting, my ‘base’ has been on me for the past several years about my downward spiral towards ‘pop’. Not that I ever reached the levels of Pomplamoose (that would be far too perky for such a curmudgeon as I.) Still there has been a definite shift towards less complex music and simpler, more immediately recognizable themes.

When I force myself to listen to older records (as I have to now in order to post music to all these frickin’ ‘music sharing sites’) I realise that the most successful stuff I’ve done was the stuff that was the least obviously ‘commercial’. And by ‘successful’ I mean the work that I still find ‘OK’. (As an aside, I used to gauge my work in the following way: every once in a while, I’d be listening to Internet radio whilst doing something else and being very preoccupied. I’d pop out of my concentration for a minute and think to myself, ‘I really like that song that’s playing. I wonder who that guy is?’ And then of course, realise it was just li’l ol’ me. And that would mean it was a truly good song. But before you accuse me of narcissism unbound, recognise that the same thing probably has happened to you or another artist who’s work you enjoy. It happens to lots of very normal people. Really. It’s not just me. Seriously.)

So I’m here today to make my contrition. And as we Catholics know, there are the four faces of contrition: admission (of fault), submission (offering to make amends), commitment (here’s how I intend to do better), and finally the actual asking of pardon.) Since implicit in a true contrition is a plan for the future, consider this post something like a manifesto which I can sum up in one sentence. I promise to be even more fuckin’ serious than I already am.

I confess to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned.

For a while, I have drunk the indie kool-aid that constantly tells one to ‘lighten up’; that people have no need of musicians who are pretentious and take themselves to seriously. (Why. So. Serious? as The Joker would say.) More and more I bought into it and became more and more self-deprecating about what I do and what it takes to do what I do. And then I realised something: professionals don’t that. Doctors don’t do that. Lawyers don’t do that. Very few physicists do that. Seventh degree black belts in karate definitely don’t do that. In short, the most respected people in society take what they do very seriously and they wouldn’t dream of adopting an ‘aw shucks’ persona because ya know something it tarnishes the brand.

When Miles Davis got on stage in the early ’50′s and turned his back on the audience as he played it was the culmination of decades of struggle for respect by jazz musicians who previously had to mug and grin in order to get gigs. He had reached a point where he didn’t have to do that and part of his over the top arrogant schtick was to tell other musicians to respect themselves. It wasn’t enough anymore to have that internal belief. Rather, it was important to tell the world that jazz was a deep art form that demanded respect from the audience. Miles was educating the world to take artists seriously. Just like how barbers in the 15th century started demanding to be called ‘physicians’ and ‘surgeons’. Over the course of several centuries they built a brand identity of awe and respect for what they do that, as much as their education and skill, gives them the authority and the earning power they have.

I realise now that one reason I dug the music that formed me (the progressive rock and fusion musics of the ’70′s) is that these guys were serious. They played great and they wanted people to stop and listen because damn it, what they were doing was just as worthy of that rapt attention as any guy listening to a classical concert. Were they entertainers? Of course! Zawinul admitted over and over that he was consciously trying to make danceable music with Weather Report. Keith Emerson stabbing his Hammond organ with knives was total theatre. But that was like Dogberry in Much Ado and Osric in Hamlet; a bit of comic relief to balance out the load.

Pop Will Eat Itself

I travel in the pop and rock worlds. If you’re say Bela Fleck or Leo Kottke, you avoid the ‘respect’ and ‘seriousness’ issues by virtue of the fact that you’re doing a very elevated form of ‘folk music’. You can be as ‘serious’ as you like with a banjo in your hands. It has a built-in pretentious limiter.

But if you write and sing songs that are done with the requisite Fender bass and Gibson guitar and Ludwig drums and Hammond organ, the current climate frowns upon anything that even smells of pretention. As I’ve written ‘pretentious’ is the one word everyone who hated ‘prog’ spits out to show their contempt.

In short, I’ve realised that if I project that ‘aw shucks’ persona then I’m in trouble. Because I’m trying to get people to take what I do seriously in a climate that doesn’t necessarily wanna do that. Like Miles, we gotta fight for our right to… er… well not ‘party’ but have people pay attention. We gotta build a brand. We gotta get back something we had back in Miles’ day and through the seventies but which is now lost. We have to state clearly this simple idea:

Don’t Try This At Home

It is a good thing to make intelligent and complex vocal popular music that demands your attention. And like Miles did, we will insist that we who make such music are professionals.

You may have a guitar and GarageBand, but you cannot do what we do. Just like you may have a computer, but you aren’t a scientist. And you may have a Subzero freezer, but you’re no Julia Child. And I’m gonna try to convince you that, despite everything the culture tells you (Pomplamoose) music delivered by someone like me who knows what they’re doing really is superior to that made on a laptop in a dorm room.

This worship of the primitive, which has so taken over music seems to have largely bypassed the visual media. I mean, it is still quite possible to be a serious visual and dance artist. I think this is simply because there is a culture that has nurtured that brand because it never had the commercial success of music (until recently no painter could expect royalties anything like what a musician could make from one successful album.) Now that music royalties have languished so dreadfully, most musicians are pretty much in the same boat as painters; but without that infrastructure of museums, grants and patrons that allows one to do serious work and be taken seriously.

I’m Coming

…So to speak. My final word on this (for today) is that I realise how the culture has taken it’s toll on my work. What I do hasn’t been as technically challenging as it might have been in the past few years. I’ve substituted other qualities that I think matter (more mature lyrical themes, one hopes) but the fact that I substituted means to me that I have, to some degree, lost my way.

Over the past couple of years, it’s fair to say I’ve had my share of bad breaks (no pun intended), which I won’t go into here. But it’s given me a real chance to think about why I’ve carried on even though it has at times been physically, personally and financially just excruciating. There has to be a reason I put up with that in order to keep doing what I do. So if it’s gonna be hard, then darn it, I gotta make sure I do the most intense, concentrated and action-packed version of whatever I do. No ‘substitutions’. Rather, it should be more like stuffing an overnight bag with a Steinway D. I gotta cram as much technique and craft and energy into every piece until the disc just can’t take it any more! More is more!

You fans keep asking when I’m gonna be back; if not touring, at least with new material. And the short answer is. Soon. I don’t know all the details yet, but I do know that I have never felt so enthusiastic to get back to work as I do now. And I can tell you that I have never felt more like ‘shredding’ than I do now. My ‘less is more’ period is officially over.

And again, I don’t know exactly what the product is going to look like yet. I’m working on it. But I can tell you that I am going to jam something into yer face by the end of the year. And when I do? I promise you one thing right now as God is my witness.

It’s gonna be intense.