Oh My Goth!

Ah February. It brings with it Valentines Day, lamenting the end of the football season, and four more weeks of being cold wet and dark. Such a gloomy time of year. What an appropriate time to focus on many things goth. Yes, February will be goth history month. So take off your cape and pull up a coffin to sit on. We’ll gather around the candelabra and share tales of a music subculture known as goth. Keep an eye out for our first installment.

NIN - Year Zero / Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D

Nine Inch Nails peaked in 1994 with The Downward Spiral. Where do you go from the top? Downward, of course. NIN waited 5 years to make a follow up to their greatest achievement and released a bloated sleeper of a double disc album. It had its moments, but the fire was gone. 2004 they released another album that was alright, yet uninspired. This year’s, Year Zero rediscovered, or rather reinvented, the fire that once made them great. In the early nineties Trent focused his lyrics on the personal struggles with faith, desire, self worth, etc. It was the ultimate soundtrack to an angst ridden youth. Now that he is in his forties it is rather pathetic to be lamenting the same thing. Thus part of the shortcomings of 1999’s The Fragile. Year Zero is blippy and noisy industrial music with lyrics based around paranoid visions of a world led by GW. Most of the lyrics are written from the perspective of characters that he has set in a future that is an exaggeration of the threats of the fallout of a country continuing down the path we are on. A little social satire that is poignant today, yet not limited to having value only in the here and now. Reznor has raised the bar in terms of the notion of his music as art. Preceding the release of Year Zero, song titles and themes from the album were worked into the artwork on t-shirts and posters sold during their previous tours. The song titles and themes led devoted fans with lots of time on there hands, on an internet scavenger hunt that revealed an alternate reality puzzle set in the future as imagined for this album. Fans unfolded the backdrop for the concept leading up to the release. For nerds like me, this was way cool. More impressively, the album works just as well without the context of a bleak future laid out first. It is an effort right on par with TDS. Wikipedia has a pretty good synopsis of the web end (along with links) for those who are interested.
The sister remix album is a good listen as well. It's a remix album, that says the most of it. You're not going to uncover anything deeper in the story here, but the mixes are fun and work well enough to stand on their own.

Another Perspective On The Music Industry

With all of the American Idol hoopla starting up again, I enjoyed coming across this article (see LIFE AND CRIMES link). We watch these kids lay there hopes and dreams on a notion of having it made once they get a record deal. Is it all worth it?

Stanger's Almanac

I am very excited about the trend of remastering and re-releasing albums, especially when they are loaded with all sorts of extras. The Cure has been doing this with their entire catalog in waves. This year the extended versions of Disintegration and Wish are set to arrive. I can't wait. At the end of this month Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac will be re-released as a double disc. This album launched my interest in Ryan Adams as well as Alt. Country music. To this day, it remains in my top five favorite albums of all time. Much of the extra material consists of songs that I have heard before, but have never had high quality recordings of. I'm sure that there will be a review posted in the weeks to come.

Pearl Jam will never sound the same

The Browns posted this link on their blog recently. Carley and I were laughing so hard that we were nearly crying as we watched it. Click on the BLACK link.

thoughts on a sad industry

2007: the best year for music for people who love it, the worst year for music for people who sell it.

I am beside myself with the quantity of good music that came out this past year. Yet, record sales are in a steep decline.

The music industry has had a marketing model that is obsolete. They refuse to let it go and that is why the major record labels are slowly reaching the end. They often point the finger at file sharing. Sure, that is a thorn, but there are far bigger issues facing the industry. Blaming their problems on file sharing is like blaming McDonalds for being fat.

The first thing that this industry is about five years behind on is the fact that the majority of people who buy music are increasingly using mp3 type formats to listen to music. When I buy a CD, the first thing that I do is put it on my computer to upload onto my iPod. Yet, the major labels are sticking with CDs as the major way of selling their product. That is about as smart as if a company only sold cassettes in the 90s during the CD boom.

Another aspect that the industry hasn’t moved quickly enough on is that entertainment options and choices are diversifying. The major TV networks faced this as cable networks and the Internet started drawing audiences away from the big three networks. The networks took a blow and adjusted their programming and have included those competing formats and the “on demand” philosophy. NBC shows full episodes of their prime time programs online whenever a viewer wants and takes advantage of online advertisement money. Adapt and survive. That is the cardinal rule. The record industry seems to want to fight it instead. In a world with so much at our fingertips, instead of finding a way to make it work for them, the major labels are suing their customers and driving the prices of cds higher. Charging 18.99 for a Justin Timberlake album, when most customers really just want the single seems to dare consumers to find other means of acquiring the music. Creating this scenerio is compromising the value of the product itself (music right?) among its consumers.

It seems to me that the future of music business lies in soundtracks to videogames, commercials, and movies. For years, the best music being broadcast has been in commercials and in video games.

The album format also needs to retire as the package of choice for most music. I love the album format when the contents are meant to work together. Leave the album format to artists that have a strong following and a conceptual vision to tie a dozen songs together that create a product greater than the sum of it’s parts. Most albums are made of a handful of singles and filler. It’s too easy to just download the a-sides for cheap or free. Why would anybody pay nearly 20 bucks for an album that is made of 50 percent b-sides and the packaging offers less than what you could get from a google image search. In general the cd album has little more to offer the consumer than they can get for free or cheap. (Then again, proper marketing has convinced us that we need to go out and buy bottled water when it is nearly free, or at least already paid for, right at our finger tips.) Back to the cd… Give the consumer something in that package that feels of value. Texture the packaging. Put in stickers. Print the label on the disc with paint that changes color as the disc heats up from playing. Make a cover that folds out into some sort of pop up book interpretation of one of the songs. These are all things that have been done and they are things that have driven me to seek the actual cd over a digital version. If you want to extend the life of this format, you need to make it include something that can’t be downloaded.

at the mixing table

Check out some of the remixes that I have posted on the remix.nin site.

The website is a place for fans to share and listen to remixes that they have made of nin songs. I have three songs uploaded onto the site at the moment. I am pretty amazed at the quantity of mixes that appear daily. Can there really be that many other dorks out there? Anyway, I'm pretty excited to be part of this. Here's how to find my songs:

1. click the remix.nin link in my links column
2. click on the “listen” link towards the top left
3. a blue box will appear on the bottom left. Above it there will be a “search” link to click.
4. in the search box type “carbar”
5. after you hit search, my mixes should appear in the blue box. You can listen to them by clicking the triangle button next to each song.

Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Favorite albums of 2006

Johnny Cash – American V
There were some albums that popped up or came into my grasp after the end of the year last year. The one that grabbed me the most had to be Johnny Cash’s American V. This album was assembled posthumously of material that the country legend was working on as he neared the end. Unfortunately, his life journey came to close before the recording sessions did. Producer, Rick Rubin, and other people who were working on the record, pulled together the tracks that had been laid down and put together an album that captures the final breath of genius from the man in black. The lyrical themes deal with regret, loneliness, making peace with god, and ultimately death. They aren’t foreign topics for Cash, but there is a real gravity to them when they are delivered by a man who is very aware that he is standing on death’s doorstep. Cash even sounds like he is on the verge of death in his voice. Warbly and fragile, nearly gasping for the air to deliver the next line. Yet, rather than being sad or pathetic, it is a beautiful, somber, and even inspired requiem that brings closure to a long journey and weathered soul.


Drive By Truckers – Blessing and a Curse
The other late bloomer that comes to mind is the Drive By Truckers’ Blessing and a Curse. It’s a solid blend of Alt. Country and Southern Rock. “Easy on Yourself” is a send up to Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Aftermath USA” is a whole new breed of “caught you cheating” song. The lyrics catalog the evidence of a lover’s indiscretions in the laundry list of offenses that slowly moves from bad to atrocious. In the midst of the this list, much like real victims of abusive relationships and unlike any Carrie Underwood song, the best effort made to stand up for yourself is a hollow and off hand threat, “I’ll get around to getting even some day.”


Neko Case – The Fox Confessor
Neko is a Canadian musician who has dabbled with traditional county music and rock-a-billy song structures. She has a voice that would lead to believe that she might be the reincarnation of young Patsy Cline. Fox is her oldest effort and leaves behind many of her country roots, allowing her to transcend the simply being pegged as a niche act for Cline fans. The looser song structures and complex lyrical themes make this her strongest effort by far.



Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
Jehro – Jehro
These two albums pleasantly took me by surprise. Both are debut efforts and both incorporate world music influences. Beirut is an Arizona based band that draws influence from traditional Balkan type music set within indie pop songs. It just makes me smile. Jehro is a Cuban from Brooklyn who made an album with cover art that screamed, “check me out.” After sampling the album I brought it straight to the register. It’s laid-back reggae/Cuban influenced songs played as a soundtrack to most of our summer.




I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – Fear Is On Our Sides
This is the year where it has become apparent to me that the well of good band names is running dry. Shakespeare has asked, “What’s in a name?” My response is, “apparently, not much.” Some of the best bands of the last five years have had the worst name: Death Cab For Cutie, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead, Silver Jews, Clap Hands Say Yeah, and my favorite Say Hi To Your Mom. These are all real bands with terrible names and good or great music. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness encompass aspects of many other acts that I love. Their debut album is plodding and at times shoegazer heavy. They fit quite well in the company of Interpol, Mogwai, and Faith era Cure. There is little to sing along with, but that’s not what they are about.



Voltaire – Voltaire Live
Apoptygma Berzerk – You and Me Against The World
Although I turned thirty this year, there is still a pre-pubescent boy deep down inside of me. Just to be clear, that statement is strictly meant metaphorically and not Mark Foley-ly. The Voltaire disc is a live show that works as kind of a best of. His songs are witty and crass and even insightful at times. Mostly, it is laden with potty humor and is just 55 minutes of laughs, especially if you are a Goth or a geek or both. Apop on the other hand made a record this year that is the epitome of what a real rock album should be in the 21 century. It is loud. It is angsty and dumb. It is packed with stadium anthem choruses that you can’t help but sing along to and over used clichés. There is absolutely nothing to read into below the surface of any lyric. Any of these things on their own would turn me off to an album, but when you put them all together with no pretense of being anything more than the superficial effort that it is, it works beautifully. It’s like somebody dipped their Bon Jovi-Slippery When Wet into my Nine Inch Nails-Pretty Hate Machine and came out with a tasty treat.

Welcome to Rutneski Ear Candy

This is the sister site to the Rutneskiland blog. The original blog has mainly been focused on family events. On occasion, I would slip in a piece about music that didn't really fit with the theme of that blog. Those music posts will now find a home here. I hope to keep them fun and frequent.

Keep listening!
-Brad