Post by Matt Kivel

The F Yeah fest wrapped this past Sunday with an intimate performance by Baltimore's Dan Deacon at Hanger 1018 in downtown LA. Attendance was surprisingly sparse due to a last minute location change (the gig was originally planned for the 6th street warehouse -- an equally obscure locale), but the small crowd was anything but diminutive in its unyielding display of affection and enthusiasm for Deacon's neck-snapping electronica.

100 to 200 hundred kids piled into the hanger's medium-sized front room and formed an ebullient circle around Deacon, who sang and spazzed ferociously. The group's collective body heat transformed the once airy space into a dense, oven-like enclosure. Intrepid fans unveiled a large quilt, which continually rose and receded above the bobbing audience who -- despite the effervescent sweat and body odor -- danced beneath its stitched patterns with reckless abandon. Deacon capped his 45 minute set with the epic sing-along "Silence Like The Wind Overtakes Me."

All in all, this F Yeah Fest was a wonderful celebration of Los Angeles' vibrant youth culture. It rallied independent music lovers and benefited from a truly positive, cynicism-free ethos that all but equaled the transcendent spirit of Arthurfest in 2005.   

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by Matt Kivel

With a name that inspires second-looks and suspicions of pre-pubescent speech impediments, Best Fwends are pranksters with a simple agenda -- to play loud music recklessly without pretense. A swelling crowd crammed into the undersized Annex venue two storefronts down from the Echo to dance and thrash to a rapid set of homespun karaoke freak-outs. The duo, comprised of Austin-based performers Dustin and Anthony pumped-fists and sang their hearts out to a series of ipod backing tracks, which ran the gamut from dance-floor friendly electronica to barroom, Pogues-style punk.

It was one of the more popular shows hosted at the surreal, linoleum-lined Annex venue and the group's extreme DIY aesthetic seemed to resonate with the F Yeah faithful on a visceral level. It's music that doesn't wait for the corroded wheels of bureaucracy to turn, completely obliterating the pedestal we so often place our musical heroes upon.

Photo by S. Cass

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Years ago, when the suggestion first arose that the Internet would level the playing field among musicians and labels, I figured one of the true beneficiaries would be jazz musicians. The majors are no longer interested in the music, European labels can't guarantee distribution and outside of specialty shops like Downtown Music Gallery in New York and Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, where might a jazz artist get their indie CD heard?
Besides, as the Knitting Factory label learned in the 1990s, indie jazz records do most of their business (about 80%) within a few miles of where the performers/performance space is based.
Palmetto Records, the fine Philadelphia label that has released superb discs by Ben Allison, Andrew Hill and Orrin Evans among many others, makes its first venture into the digital-only realm with the band Slow Poke.
Slow Poke, a popular downtown New York quartet, comprises slide guitarist David Tronzo, saxophonist Michael Blake, bassist Tony Scherr and percussionist Kenny Wollesen. Their album "At Home," which is available at the label's website, was recorded at Scherr's house in Brooklyn. Band's first album, recorded after "At Home," was "Redemption."

If given a choice on how much to pay for music, as Radiohead will do with their next album, one might wonder how cheap or generous an act's fans might be. Jane  Siberry has an idea.
Siberry, who now goes by the name Issa, is getting $1.18 per song through her "self-determined pricing" system. She gives the listener the option to download music for free as a gift, pay the standard rate of 99 cents, pay now or pay later based on what you think of a tune.
Data from her website states that 19% of the people go for the freebie and 57% opt to pay later. Once they have the music, 80% pay 99 cents,  14% pay above suggested and 6% pay below.
Siberry even breaks down the costs of making music on her own:
STUDIO TIME
* 35-50/hour = 300/day
* So far for 33 songs: about 140 days in brussels/australia/toronto/vancouver
* Studio Patrons to date = $10,099

TOUR CD
disc = $1
sleeves = .25 (100% recycled envelope with window)

SELF-DETERMINED STORE PROTOTYPE
costs directly incurred to create model for other artists to use = $3500

SHEET MUSIC
$150/song

MP3 STORE
Set-up mp3s/artwork 10 songs = 3 hours@ $65

Sheeba, the name of the Siberry store and site, explains its philosophy:

"the principles of music are also principles for good living. expansive, generous and harmony-seeking.
goodness is a core human quality.
we are treating others as we wish be treated."

When the inventive and genre-busting guitarist Nels Cline is not playing with Jeff Tweedy and pals, he leads his instrumental band the Nels Cline Singers. Cline has a gem of a new album, "Draw Breath," on Cryptogramophone, a worthy successor to his album of interpretations of Andrew Hill compositions. He does his thing on this video. Cline also has an mp3 page.