Thursday, March 4, 2010

HIPSTER RUNOFF

HIPSTER RUNOFF

Shaun White drops his last xtreme meme until the next Winter Olympic Buzz Cycle

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 03:15 PM PST


While this original Terry Richardson picture seems ’sweet’ and ‘alt’, as if Shaun White doesn’t care about the fake sport of snowboarding, it was disappointing to find out that it was actually the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. This picture seems like it is trying to take Shaun White’s extreme alt brand ‘to the masses.’ Many people think that Terry Richardson is a ’shitty’ photographer, but this photograph perfectly captures the the public perception of xtreme sports.

Unfortunately, the magazine industry is ‘in the shitter’, and Rolling Stone played it safe by having this Olympic hero pose for the magazine after the Winter Olympics.

Do u think this magazine cover was ‘bundled’ with a massive Target campaign?

Conspiracy theorists claim that Shaun White is going to ‘take roids’ not just to ensure he wins the Winter X Games, but also to take on Carrot Top as the ‘buff-est’ red head in the history of modern pop culture.

Is Shaun White the Tiger Woods of snowboarding, or does he have to ‘bang’ more strippers?
Is Shaun White a ‘corporate sellout’?
R yall happy that the Winter Olympics are over so we don’t have to simulate ‘caring’ about snow-based sports?
Should I buy a subscription to Rolling Stone, or just DL free mp3s from blogspots?
Does cold weather make yall sad?

My Buzzband is trying 2 reach new fans [via the subway]

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 11:44 AM PST

Photos by Ryan Barkan via BrooklynVegan


It’s difficult to be a buzzband in the modern world. It seems like every1 is just trying to do stuff on the internet to ‘go viral’/capture ur attention for 1-4 minutes, but they are forgetting about the spirit of music. The spirit of humanity. Music is here to lift us up, and help us enjoy life…sometimes even 2 help us escape from how much we h8 the trappings of modern society. My buzzband decided to do something new and original. We decided to go to the people. Instead of playing in a club or bar or church auditorium, we were going to find real people to play our real music. We went to a meaningful subway portal.

Playing our music to people who use public transportation will help us connect with real people, living real lives’ in this real city of ours. First, we will succeed as a local band, playing rush hour every day for the next year. Then we will be signed and go ‘national’, and hopefully ‘international.’ It seems plausible that record label CEOs chill on this bus stop. In addition, this meaningful public space means provided us with some sweet acoustics that really helped our sound.

It was kinda inconvenient though, bc my female band mate has a really zany vintage piano thingy. Sucked 2 lug it down the stairs.

A lot of people didn’t ‘get’ us and our music though. Maybe this is indicative of mainstream markets and their expectation of ‘how music should sound.’ So many bros were just like ‘I want to get on my day without all of this hipster scum making my life hell.’

I think some of them confused us for ‘beggars’. They didn’t look at us or listen to us, as if we were less than human. Maybe they hated buskers (people who play music 4 money) because they don’t have a solid track record.

We made $1. I wonder if it would be easier to maintain this business model, or to try to sell digital copies + exploit commercial licensing on the internet.

It was about more than just ‘making money.’ We used HD flip cams to cover the event, so we could get tons of internet media. Youtube, tweets, flickr fotos. We are social. We are social media.

Tons of people were twitpicing and dropping mad hashtags. Some people even used a tumblr app to live microblog that (Thank G-d for 3G wireless networks).

Wonder if the Bedford L Platform the altest place to play a meaningful live impromptu performance, or if we should have gone to a stop with a mainstream audience?

It seemed like we had invented something new. A new movement. The busker wave scene had been born, and we felt like we were the ones taking it to the mainstream.

Everything was going really chill. We had a lot of fans, and people were mad stoked to see us playing our cutesy indie music in a live zany context…

but then some ass hole African American came over and started banging on empty Home Depot buckets

Then some other African american came along and started banging on even more buckets, creating an ambient sound that sorta felt like Phil Spector recording Animal Collective.

Then things got weird when another busker band came along and started playing

Then some AZN bro came and started riffing on his acoustic

The vibe was texturous, and another African American busker came to riff on his sax.

We were fortunate enough to have a keyboard player there to really add some cute jingles. Her yamaha keyboard + amp + power generator really came in handy in the 3rd hour of our jam sesh.

Another AZN came out of nowhere and jammed hard on his sterling silver electro saxophone

Two of the founding members of the busker wave movement were sort of resentful of the new found popularity of our busker wave super group. They had been in the industry for 20 years, but didn’t understand how our busker group had monetized so well.

Then a cello bro got off the subway, and we wrote a ’sad’ song. Really mellowed out the whole subway platform.

Then wrote a dance anthem with the help of a zany guy + another accordion player

It seems like tons of foreign tourists really got into our band. They took pictures on their digital cameras, then uploaded them to their picasa accounts.

Overall, I think our experiment was successful. We made a lot of new fans, met some real people, and we felt like we reconnected with the spirit of music. Indie music no longer just lives on the internet. Indie music lives on the streets, in the subways, and in the sewers [via the Ninja Turtles].

Not sure if our next show should be in a city bus

or on an airplane?

Feel like city bus might ‘reach real people’, but people who are flying probably have tons of spending money that they are willing 2 spend on CDs + band merch.

1 indie band. 1 dream

Was it a ‘good idea’ for this indie band to play a show at a subway stop to create internet media?
Where would yall play to make the most amount of fans? The Super Bowl?
Do yall think buskers are annoying because they play shitty music?
How do u feel about black men who bang on buckets as if it is a ‘real art form’?
Would yall rather give money to a busker, a beggar with a witty sign, or an indie band?

New Joanna Newsom Album ‘tanks’ and/or ‘flops’, sells only 7000 albums in first week

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 09:53 AM PST

Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/03/on-the-charts-johnny-cash-joanna-newsom-make-their-debuts-sade-still-leads.html


Despite winning worldwide critical acclaim from music criticism bros, the latest Joanna Newsom album has ‘completely flopped’ in the open market. It was ’such a failure’ that it will most likely inspire tons of internet journalism pieces that attempt to demonstrate the challenges behind converting blog buzz + internet acclaim into album sales. Many question her decision to have a 2.2 hour album that meanders around without a defined structure. Experts say should could have very easily crossed over into the post-Feist indie woman niche, but we can only imagine that she believed the whole ‘harp + piano vibe’ would catch on. Industry insiders are shocked + worried about the future of the alt Ren Fair music economy.

Via the LA Times:

Joanna Newsom, the week’s most-talked-about release, lands further down at No. 75. The long-awaited, highly-ambitious three-CD Drag City set “Have One on Me” sold more than 7,000 copies in its first week, and gives the critically beloved Newsom a new high on the big chart. Her 2006 effort, “Ys,” debuted and peaked at No. 134.

Apparently Sade had the #1 selling album of the week, selling 126,000 copies in its 3rd week in the open market.
In January, Vampire Weekend’s “Contra” debuted at #1 with 124,000 copies sold, setting the new standard for a successful mainstream indie band, especially because they were only on their second album.
Do yall think over 100K people downloaded the Joanna Newsom leak?
Is her record label going to ‘drop’ her?
Did she mismanage her PR campaign?
Could she have done more to push album sales?
Is this a ‘flop’, or
Just because u get internet critical acclaim, does it mean u will sell mad albums?
Fortunately, Newsom will be able to sell out live shows since bros are ‘horny’ 2 see her live?

Is Andy Samberg a more success musician than his GF [via mad youtube views] + Lonely Island album sales?

Will he have to ‘console her’ and still encourage her to stay true to her art, or will he ‘get real’ with her, and ask her to bring some bank to the relationship?
Did the window of opportunity 2 ‘cross over’ into the mainstream just close on Joanna Newsom?
I feel kinda bad for her, like as if the internet lied to her and told her she was awesome, but then she metaphorically ‘only applied to Ivy League schools’ and got mad rejected from all of them, and now has to go to community college.
U did ur best, JoJo. U did ur best.

Alt tweens get buzzed & make a Vampire Weekend Tribute Video

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 07:01 PM PST


“Giving Up The Gun” by the Vampire Weekend has been the most successful song of 2k10, since it is a ‘poppy masterpiece’ played by an indie band that also has a bloggable music video starring tons of search engine optimized celebs. In order to align their personal brands with this video / band, a group of alternative teens / tweens made a ‘tribute’ video, in which they put on alternative gear + tennis gear, then pranced around in front of their webcam aimlessly, giggling, being young, being alt, being free.

Is this video a ‘fucking disgrace’ to the Vampire Weekend brand or is it indicative of their core audience?
Is the Macbook webcam the most important tween innovation of the past 20 years?
Do u wish u could be a tween again? What song/video would yall have done a tribute 2?