The Set List: CMJ Dilemma For Bands: What is Music Worth

October 17, 2007

CMJ Dilemma For Bands: What is Music Worth

A bit of an interesting debate arose in a panel I was on today. A label owner based in Germany felt recorded music has become a form of a "business card" for young bands and that unless an act is on a major label, there are too many blocks in the international revenue stream. A New York-based French man disagreed, suggesting that recorded music has to be sold to retain its value to keep everyone in the food chain operating.
It took me back to just the night before in which three bands had three clearly different views on their music and its relative value. Cholo, a New York quartet that thrives on herky jerky melodies and course yet ambivalent male-female vocal interaction, had a friend give out its CDs. On each, a sticker read in part: "Thanks for accepting this gift from cholo. Feel free to burn copies and share with your friends." They also advertised a gig at Union Hall on Nov. 20.
NYCSmoke, with a far more commercial sound that's a bit of emo 2.0 mixed with some early '80s drum sounds and polished late '70s guitar licks, said they traveled three-quarters of a block to get to the Ludlow Street venue Fat Baby. They sold their CD for 10 bucks. This is an act with eye on that big money prize, the sort of rock act that may well soon charm an A&R exec who loves modern music with the contingency that it reminds him (or maybe her) of the classics.
And then there's the Tel Aviv band RockFour, which won - deservedly - a contest for their version of Syd Barrett's "Arnold Layne." Although they had to battle some guitar-crackling-sound snafus, they came off as professional distillers of adventurous rock bands of years gone by. In some ways its reminiscent of the early rock en Espanol bands that wore their influences so clearly on their sleeves. But here, the assimilation is as thorough and complete as, say XTC did with its predecessors; this is as fully formed a band as one is likely to see at these types of festivals. Playing Rickenbacker guitar and bass means you won't avoid certain Beatles-Byrds sonic results, yet RockFour is doing so in a refreshing and catchy way.
They have U.S. distribution - "The Memories of the Never Happened" was released Oct. 9 - and quite rightly they're selling the CDs at gigs. It's the "Arnold Layne" recordings they should be giving away for free.