Thursday, March 5, 2015

Give em hell Mel



One of my favorite songs is "Ruby" written by Mel Tillis. One of my favorite movies is "Cannonball Run" starring Mel Tillis.

I received this press release today and was happy to see he is still performing. The man is 82 years old and still going strong. Good for you Mr. Tillis.

 

From the Press Release:

Shipshewana’s Blue Gate Theatre welcomes Country Music Hall of Fame member Mel Tillis. Tillis, one of the most legendary stars to ever grace the stage in Shipshewana, will perform his many hits on Saturday March 7th at 7pm.

Tillis is also known as one of the stars who helped get Branson on the map during the “boom” years, and even though he hasn’t had his own theater in many years, he still returns to perform there every year.

Tillis is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry, thanks in large part to his more than 60 hit songs throughout his career. He scored his first No. 1 with a song he had written for, and that was previously recorded by Webb Pierce: “I Ain’t Never” and went on to have several more No. 1 hits as a singer including “Coca Cola Cowboy,” “Send Me Down to Tucson” and “Southern Rains.”

Tillis also wrote an autobiography, “Stutterin’ Boy,” and has served as a spokesman and honorary chairman for the Stuttering Foundation of America. Most recently, he received the 2010 Academy of Country Music Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award, and in 2012 President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Arts.

While many folks were introduced to Tillis over the airwaves, an entire new generation of folks discovered him as an actor when he appeared in classic films like “Every Which Way But Loose” with Clint Eastwood, “W.W. & The Dixie Dancekings,” “The Cannonball Run I & II” and “Smokey and the Bandit II” alongside Burt Reynolds. Tillis also starred along with fellow Branson legend Roy Clark in the comedy “Uphill All the Way.”

Tickets for the show are available by contacting The Blue Gate Theater at 1-888-447-4725 or on the Web at http://www.BlueGateTheatre.com.

Showtime: Saturday March 7th, 2015 - 7:00pm (no preshow) | Doors open 1 hour prior to show.

Prices: Tickets Only - $69.00 -$49.00 -$39.00 -$19.00 Dinner and Theater - $85.00 -$65.00 -$55.00 -$35.00 This Concert will be held at the Shipshewana Event Center, 800 S Van Buren, Shipshewana, IN 46565

Friday, October 10, 2014

Exactly How Stupid Is Jennifer Lawrence



Why do women allow men to urinate, defecate, or ejaculate on their face? Regarding the latter feminist author Andrea Dworkin wrote that "The ejaculation on her is a way of saying (through showing) that she is contaminated with his dirt; that she is dirty."

On August 31st 2014 the first round of The Fappening was dropped. Since then there have been multiple rounds released. I have no idea how many images are currently out there. Among the celebrities targeted Jennifer Lawrence had pornographic images of herself, which she was storing on her cell phone, stolen and posted on the internet. In this month's issue of Vanity Fair she blames everybody for her misfortune including the government, the owner's of the web pages, any person that views the images, and the entire world, stating "I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world." Some of the participants she specifically chose to not blame were the photographer, the model that posed submissively with a large amount of semen deposited on her face, and the dumb-ass that was storing such images on her cell phone. I want to clarify that in my opinion she did nothing wrong by taking the pictures, but if she wants to create a list of "who's to blame" then she should start at the beginning of the chain.

http://hellogiggles.com/jennifer-lawrence-stolen-photos

In my lifetime, and on separate occasions, I have been caught in the middle of a gang shoot out, robbed at gun point, assaulted by strangers, and witnessed my fifteen year old neighbor murdered by a stray drive-by bullet. I am pretty sure I have never said "I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world." If she is struggling with the fact that somebody stole her porno pictures and posted them on the internet, then I think it's fair to question her grasp on reality. This isn't something that only happens to celebrities. "Ex-girlfriend" web sites, displaying these type of images of non-celebrities, have existed almost as long as the internet has been around. We have all heard the stories about teenage girls killing themselves over the same experiences Jennifer Lawrence is going through right now. I guess in her opinion the subject wasn't important until it happened to her.

In the article she tries to put a spin on her participation by saying she was in a loving, four year, long-distance relationship and for fear that her man might view porn, she created the images as an alternative. I have been in love. I didn't show my love by telling my woman to get on her knees while I marked her as my territory. If her man was looking at porn of her then he was watching other porn as well, but I am sure she knows that. All things considered, including the fact that she is no longer in this relationship, it kind of seems like it probably wasn't as loving as she describes, or possibly she just has no idea what love really is.

The day the Vanity Fair article was released, her Wikipedia page was bombarded with nude photos of her.

http://www.inquisitr.com/1525888/jennifer-lawrences-wikipedia-slammed-with-nude-the-fappening-photos-same-day-she-breaks-silence/

So if her goal was to get people to stop talking about her, or to stop posting photos of her, then she failed.

Personally I think, with the article, she was hoping to portray herself as a strong woman. Out of all the celebrities involved, her images were some of the most degrading. I wouldn't say that she set feminism back, but she certainly showed that she is no supporter of its cause. On a core level, I am sure that is what is bothering her more than the fact that people saw her boobies. As a result she blamed the world instead of just saying "I like dirty sex and it's none of your fucking business."

Changing the subject for a second, lets take a walk down memory lane. Do you remember in 2012 when everybody and their dog's cousin had Stop Sopa & Pipa on their social network sights / Facebook profile picture?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA

I was the only person I knew that was in favor of the laws. My argument at the time was:

"Just because something is available (the internet) does not mean you are entitled to it. Opium, a product of nature, was once legal in every country. It was the action of it's abusers that dictated the need for it's control."

The people that opposed the law (pretty much everybody) stated that once the government started putting restrictions on the internet, then the process would be never ending. I wonder how Jennifer Lawrence felt about Sopa/Pipa? As far as that goes, any and all of the celebrities targeted by the hackers, I wonder on which side of that argument each of them stood. Sopa/Pipa pertained to copyrighted material, and not specifically to what has happened to them, but in this Vanity Fair article she is crying that the government hasn't done something about what is happening on the internet, so one thing does have something to do with the other.

And she is not alone.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/568497/20141003/jennifer-lawrence-google-hacked-images-fappening-ariana.htm#.VDeFTBauRgM

The woman targeted are banning together and threatening to sue Google. The key part of that statement is the word "threatening." I am sure if anybody threatens to sue Google they just say "Cool, get in line." With more money than these woman would be willing to spend, and a far superior legal team, I am sure Google isn't staying up worrying about this threat, if they even consider it a threat.

It is a tired cliche, but it remains true. You can't have your cake and eat it too. The internet needs to be regulated. If all you ladies worked together, and were willing to accept the fact that with the regulations you want, there will also be regulations you don't want, I think you could use this situation to bring about the change you desire.

Admittedly I have seen a fair amount of the images that were released. According to Jennifer Lawrence that makes me a sex offender, but according to Jennifer Lawrence love is demonstrated by a man subjugating a woman, soooo yeah. Back in September my first impression was, "Why are there so many images of Jennifer Lawrence?" and then as I went through all of them I noticed that most of the images of the other ladies are just nudes. The majority of them could be printed in Playboy while some of her photos wouldn't be allowed in Hustler. When talking to my daughters about all the leaked images her name was the only one to come up. I told them "Don't be as stupid as Jennifer Lawrence." Then yesterday, after reading sections from the recent article, I reminded my daughters what I told them back in September and said "Nevermind, I am beginning to think that nobody is as stupid as Jennifer Lawrence."

Friday, June 6, 2014

Video Interview: Teenage Daydreams



Last year we did a pretty extensive interview with the one-man band that is Teenage Daydreams. You can read it here.

Now with a new LP to promote, and a single soon to be featured on an upcoming compilation album by Lackpro Records, we once again reached out to Teenage Daydreams to see what's what. This time we thought we would try something new. Always a great sport, Aidan from Teenage Daydream said he was down to do it, and willing to be our guinea pig, test pilot, first video interview.

Our intention is to do a series of interviews with different artists in different stages of their career, asking each artist the same questions. The purpose of asking the same questions is to demonstrate different ways each artist approaches obstacles, and views their path. Some artists give dull same ol same ol answers, but usually we get some creative twists. For example when asked how he promoted his first recordings, Teenage Daydreams said he utilized Craigslist to do this. A clever approach to cheap promotion, he is the first to have stated he sought attention this way.

Hopefully these videos will offer some type of insight into what works, and what doesn't work. More than that, we hope you find them entertaining.

_____

May You Marry Rich



In a recent interview Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramar said he doesn't see any point in the band making another album. Citing the dismal state of the music industry as the reason, Kramar said "Records don't sell, and they don't do anything."

Kramer Interview


The same logic was also stated by REM when they gave their farewell speech in 2011. The band held a press conference to announce their departure, probably because without a press conference nobody would have noticed.

A clear case could be made that these acts don't sell because these acts are no longer relevant. I would point out that the Miley Cyrus album Bangerz (one of the most hyped releases in years) was out for 7 months and only just reached platinum status last month. Lady Ga Ga's album Artpop had a very strong release, but has now been out over half a year and is still not platinum.

If you are in your twenties, or younger, then this doesn't mean much to you, but once upon a time popular albums shipped platinum. Stores bought enough copies that before any single fan had a CD in their hand, the artist had already earned 10% of 15 million dollars (approximately).

There was a day and a time and a moment in history when a small band or artist could pay for his own album, and sell enough at shows to earn some serious money. Hootie and the Blowfish did it. They were so successful at doing it that before signing with a label they were able to sell 50K copies of a demo EP in 1993. Let's assume they charged a modest $5 a piece (although it is more likely they charged $10). At five per unit, that's $250,000 in the bands pocket (minus expenses).

As things are, I doubt it is possible for a band to do the same today. How often do you buy music? I virtually never pay for it.

When I have this discussion with my grandmother she always tries to claim the higher ground by saying that she always pays for her music. That is true, but used albums and cassettes acquired at garage sales do not earn the performer any revenue.

This is why you no longer hear stories about how a band met, at least not true stories. The industry is changing and 99.9% of acts on major labels are created by the label. It's a story older than Motown: "If you set here, don't talk back, and look pretty, we will let you have the crumbs that fall from the table." An example of this would be Lorde who was 13 when she signed to Universal and was under their tutelage for four years, working with singing instructors, and songwriters, before the label could convince the public that she was worth a shit.

Why then would you want to be a musician in a time when your chances at widespread success are so slim? I mean there are always ditches that need to be dug, and truthfully you would earn more money (and certainly spend less) making holes in the ground. I guess you could be an artist because you derive satisfaction from the process. I guess you could do it because you're not just another attention hungry whore.

On a different subject, earlier this year Imagine Dragons won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance proving that Rock is dead. More recently, Lorde won the Billboard award for Best Rock Song proving that God is dead.

Things are not what they once were. You can go with the flow, or get out of the way, but the progression is not going backwards. I once loved Rock music, but any more I seldom recognize it.

I think about this often. Occasionally it causes me to become depressed. Having reached my lowest point, unaware of how much I needed salvation, a single, suspended light shined upon me. Nurturing my otherwise starved desire for sincere creativity in music the band Colourmusic blessed me with the album May You Marry Rich.  

Not familiar with Colourmusic? That's a shame. You need to rectify that. This band's got balls. After taking two albums to their label and having the suits tell them that the records weren't commercial enough, rather than scrapping their vision, the band chose to pay to release the albums themselves.

May You Marry Rich, released on the Memphis Industries label, is the follow up to that nearly noumenon hiatus.

Check out their previous work. All of it is gold. This new album, however, is a staggering leap forward from the bands back catalog, while still maintaining the group's eccentric existentialism. Teetering between profound and profane, May You Marry Rich is a beautiful portrayal of the thinking man's lowest common denominator: it's all about sex baby. It's all about you and me. Or in this case, more often about submission.



After you've listened to it and fell in love with it, then do yourself a favor and go out of your way to go see them live. I once saw Nick Cave perform with a 7 piece band, and I would argue that Colourmusic's three piece can compete with Cave's wall of sound any day of the week. It is all encompassing, completely awe inspiring, and always entertaining.

Things will never be as they once were, but now I believe there's a chance (although slight) that they can be even better. I once was lost, but now I am found. Was blind but now I see. May You Marry Rich has given me hope that the record industry may once again be able to sustain intelligent life.

You can learn more about the band's background from their Bio:

http://www.memphis-industries.com/artist/colourmusic/

and enjoy their back catalog for free here (but you really should pay them for their effort):

http://colourmusic.bandcamp.com/

And don't go away without watching their awesome video for the song You For Leaving Me. It's not from the new album. I just love the video.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Songs Sung Then Redone.



In the movie "Juno" Jason Bateman's character describes the song Superstar performed by Sonic Youth as "the greatest cover song ever." I do agree with the movie's author Diablo Cody that it is a wonderful song, but I am not sure about greatest ever.

Cover bands are often the subject of ridicule, but a great cover song is something to cherish. The band Marilyn Manson's two biggest hits were Sweet Dreams and Tainted Love. Both were originally performed by other artists. Marilyn Manson was little more than a cover band, and nobody seemed to notice.

When a band not normally known for doing cover songs takes the music of some one else, changes it, and makes it their own, that can be incredible. When the band Less Love took a punk song written by the band Misfits, and did an acoustic version of it, well I don't know if it is incredible, but it is good.



Technically it is two Misfits songs: the song Bullet and the song Skulls put together.

This song is from the band's second LP which was a joint effort with the band Wondernaut called Paradigms in the Design, released by Lackpro Records.

If I was to think about it, and try to name what I consider to be "The Greatest Cover Songs Of All Time" that would be a tough call. There are so many great examples. I think my final decision would either have to be Hurt by Johnny Cash



or Got The Time by Anthrax



I guess there is something to be said about an artist that does so well with a cover, that history forgets it wasn't originally theirs. Another example of that would be Because The Night by Patti Smith. Most folks don't realize it was written and originally recorded by Bruce Springsteen.



The same can be said about Blinded By The Light, poor Bruce.



It certainly doesn't make my top 50 list of best cover songs, but I do want to give honorable mention to the Kermit version of Hurt. Well played sir.

   

---EDIT 10/25/2014---

This is probably one of the last songs I would have ever thought anybody would cover. Kudos to The White Buffalo for taking an otherwise uninteresting song and making it fucking legit. The song is House of Pain originally performed by Faster Pussycat.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

AJR video I'm Ready, mostly just insulting



In two days, October 17th, Youtube will be hosting their first ever music award show. In preparation for it, the wanna be next big boy band AJR has released what has to be the absolute worst video idea ever: AJR "I'm Ready".

The main point this video wishes to convey is that this band is going to be HOT. It might be a good idea to backup your emails now, because this band is going to blow up all the social networking sites, and most likely shut down the internet in the process.



In case fans aren't sure how to respond to this amazing band, the video even tells us what replies we should post. For example, "The Next Hanson" according to the video, would be an acceptable response. Of course I would point out that Hanson aint doing much these days. AJR might want to aim higher.

The video is a none stop flow of commercials selling us everything from cell phones to Youtube.

I question whether or not this is actually a Vevo video. It kind of seems like they just put the Vevo logo in the video, and they created a Youtube account and put VEVO on the end of the name.

***EDIT 06/05/2014.. The VEVO logo has been removed from the video, and the band's channel no longer includes the word VEVO in the title. I am going to go ahead and feel free to assume I was right and VEVO made them remove their trademarked name.***

The song is catchy, and if I were to only compare the music to Nsync or Back Street Boys, I would say it's not that bad. I have noticed that this new wave of boy bands have much better song writers than it's predecessor.

Over all I found this video insulting. Where Tipper Gore once got outraged because videos contained half naked women and she was too lazy to parent what her kids watched, I equally don't want to live in a world where music videos have become little more than mini propaganda films, or three minute infomercials.

Tipper, this one's for you:


So back on AJR "I'm Ready" pay attention to the number of views the video got on the first day.




Right now their phoney Vevo account has only two videos. One that is a month old and has 119k views, and this one that is only 21 hours old and already has half as many.


Ask yourself this question: do you have the balls to make a video in which you prophesize that the very video folks are watching will go viral? The answer is no. Nobody does, unless they have a guaranteed plan to ensure the views necessary to "appear" viral (like "appearing" to be a Vevo video). Introducing Trendsetter Marketing the company that represents AJR. Trendsetter is not a management company, they are strictly a marketing company. Their job is to get the product out there and guarantee certain results. Who knows how they did it. Maybe they legitimately bought youtube views by advertising with Google. Maybe they hired a company that utilizes more shady methods (google search: buy youtube views). What we do know for sure, is that when it comes to all them comments (google search: buy youtube comments), and all them views, well that shit just aint legit. I hope they didn't pay Trendsetter too much, because they could have done this for themselves, video and all, for about $700.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Makar: life after the Funeral



Miley showed us her young "ten-year-old boy" ass on MTV’s Video Award Show, and nobody asked the question “Why does MTV still have a video award show?”

Will her current album be remembered in 10 years? Not likely, but she got paid so what does she care. The thing that stood out to me about all of this is the unbelievable effort it has taken to make us notice her. While Wrecking Ball is not a bad song, it’s not really that good. Yet it took five of today’s top songwriters (none of them Cyrus) to pen that bitch. In addition to Dr. Luke, this team included two of today’s top piano composers. Knowing that, I feel obligated to repeat myself, it’s not bad, but it’s not really that good. So pulling all the stops in an effort to be so big it can’t be ignored, Miley behaves like a knucklehead.

In the late 1980’s people believed punk was dead because the punk performers were out of our sight, touring the world instead of constantly releasing new albums. In the early 90’s ex-Black Flag singer Henry Rollins said he remembered being in Europe doing a show, and hearing that, with grunge, punk was back. It shocked him because he didn’t realize it ever went away. Along the same lines, I remember last year being surprised when I saw footage of Miley Cyrus doing a show in Brazil. I didn’t realize she was still working in the music industry.

We are a fast food culture demanding instant entertainment, and disposable music. There are no classic-rap stations, or bands doing rap cover songs. Despite their popularity, and the fact that they won a Billboard award, and were nominated for a Grammy, nobody is listening to SWV (Sisters With Voices). We churn through pop music like a lawn mower going over grass, spitting it out the side. There was a time when the charts reflected society. Today, just because a song charts doesn’t mean it is truly culturally significant. Sixty percent or more of the music-loving world will never hear Wrecking Ball. The song is only significant to a very small group of people that happen to be the number one group (13 – 17 year old girls) that buy more music than all other group combined. The real way this song reflects our culture is in how much effort Cyrus had to go through to force us to pay attention.

I recently looked at a list of all the songs published in 1924. It consisted of 93 songs total. Comparably, today I received 76 album submissions for review consideration. If we assume there are ten songs on each submission that is 760 new songs to consider today. Tomorrow there will be a fresh batch approximately the same size. Without knowing the title of each of the 93 songs, we know that they are all culturally significant, because they represent the few songs released that year. The same can’t be said about a song released today. Today’s music is a drop that will inevitably be lost in the ocean.

So if you are a band working today, trying to get your music heard, what can you do about all of this? You can constantly put out new music, releasing an album a year, fight against the current, and not likely succeed anyway, or you can say fuck it and just make music on your own terms. The latter is the approach of the New York band Makar. Formed eleven years ago, this band has two releases to date. Their most recent album Funeral Genius was released in 2011.

Considerably more interesting than a Destiny Hope Cyrus album, Funeral Genius is a well written menagerie of influences delivered in a pop-rock-punk format.

Via email conversation, Mark Makar and I recently discussed the future, the past, and life after the Funeral.

[ME] Why so long between albums?

[Mark] We like to take our time, write the songs then rehearse them for a while, really live with them to make sure we’re happy with them. Once we are we take our time with the recording process as well until we are completely happy with what we’ve done. Our past two albums, 99 Cent Dreams (our debut) and Funeral Genius each took 3 years to record, but the first was done mostly in a studio and the latter was done almost completely at home. Once we’re done recording we take a few years to promote each album during which time we typically write songs for the next album. Unlike major label bands who have full systems go once their album is recorded, we do all the promotion ourselves. We send out CDs to colleges, independent radio, reviewers etc. and all of that takes time and money. Recently we have been greatly aided by our Publicist, Gina Sigillito, who lives in Austin Texas. She submitted Funeral Genius to the Deli Magazine and we’ve been on their top NY bands list under indie pop/guitar pop for the past 16 months with the likes of MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Fun. and Santigold. We’re definitely honing the Makar marketing machine, but it still takes a long time when you have to do everything yourself.

[ME]Do you find it difficult to maintain fans interest at the current speed / time between albums?

[Mark] Music is so accessible today and there are so many bands coming out with new music all the time. We do our thing, then the next minute someone else does their thing and so forth and so on, but everything is flying by at light speed. To retain fans at that speed let alone the molecular composition of our bodies is next to impossible. We’re pretty laid back about it, which is probably not the best way to retain fans, but the creative process comes before all else no matter how long that takes. I think each album connects with a new batch of fans and we’re very thankful for anyone who enjoys our music or might enjoy it again in the future. Bands and artists should always be on guard for oversaturation of their work. We definitely are and so spacing out the creative process allows us all to breath, live life, then come back together again in the future to celebrate a new musical creation.

[ME] What do the two main members do full time?

[Mark] By day we’re mild mannered executive assistants at a corporate lawfirm in Midtown, the last place on earth any artist should be. By night we’re indie rocking freaks with our hair on fire cooking up new musical concoctions in our kitchen rehearsal/recording studio with the help of protools! One job pays the bills, the other feeds the soul. We’re also both working on finishing our first fictional novels (which should be done this year!). Andrea’s writing a coming of age, sci-fi, murder mystery, love story with a red leather booted killer called “Pushed” set in the wilds of Oberlin and New York and I’m writing a coming of age love story called “Little Owen Way” set in the wilds of Marthas Vineyard and New York. Andrea has had many short stories and poems published so we’re hoping that writing could become our day jobs and help fund a life where we could create all the time and go on musical tours.

[ME] In addition to the next album possibly being acoustic, what else can we expect from the next project?

[Mark] Our third album is called “Fancy Hercules” and it’s going to be an eleven to twelve song album that combines every style from punk to rock to folk to pop with strange theatrical stylings on some songs. We’ve put drums and bass on our last two albums, but have been playing out just the two of us recently and really like the sound of that. However, we’re going to record everything in time so that if we want to go back and put drums and bass on we can, but also, maybe even try some sequencing and take Makar into the 21st century. Our last drummer has been asking to try it so we may let him or learn how to do it ourselves. And here you can see why albums can take a while to bake. If we need to learn how to do something lord knows how long it will take to finish the album. However, we would probably put out the acoustic album then put out the sequenced album later if we were going down that long and winding road. We wouldn’t want to push the release date back any longer than we normally do.

[ME] Will you record the next album yourself, or will you go into a studio and work with a producer?

[Mark] We’ll record Fancy Hercules completely at home. No fancy pants producer for Fancy Hercules. He’s fancy enough bare bones with no outside coat needed to clothe him. The drum and bass tracks for Funeral Genius were recorded in one day at Seaside studios in Park Slope and then the guitar, piano and vocals were all recorded at home on our protools digi 001. 99 Cent Dreams was recorded almost 100% in a studio, so this will be the first time we don’t even go into a studio.

[ME] In what ways do you think your song writing has changed over time?

[Mark] Our song writing process has been evolving along with our playing and singing. We’re much more confident as musicians and singers now than when we started and our songs sound looser and less structured. We’re trying to do more improvisational playing using scales and arpeggios, so definitely look out for Andrea to cut loose with some guitar solos on Fancy Hercules.

We used the pentatonic scale on our song “America Where Are You” on Funeral Genius, which as you know is the scale most often used in movies and country music to lend that expansive feel of the American West. We wanted that pioneer vibe added to America’s lyrics, which are about the search for America’s soul during the dark years of the Bush administration.

Mainly there’s a languidness to our writing style now. Andrea and I continue to collaborate on every song and having been in a relationship for 16 years there’s an ease to creating each song that just gets better with time. If Andrea writes something it will trigger ideas from me, which trigger more ideas from her and so forth and so on until a fully formed song has been birthed. We’ve birthed so many songs as married musicians that it may be time for us to get down to the real business of birthing tiny Makars.

[ME] Do you think you will ever do a national tour?

[Mark] We’ve thrown around the idea of touring several times, with several incarnations of Makar, but it always comes back to money and time. Now that it’s just the two of us we can travel around much more easily and wherever we go we can bring our instruments and play. So not only is it possible now to have a national tour, but even an international one could happen. And by tour it would be at most a week of dates at a time, such as this London gig we’re going to be doing next July with our friend Alistair, who’s in a great band called Battles of Winter. He’s putting on a little music festival of sorts that we’re going to take part in and are very excited about.

[ME] New York hasn't generated that many memorable rock bands. Other than Sonic Youth, The Strokes, The Ramones, and The Velvet Underground most of New York’s rock bands have disappeared in the journals of history. Sense New York is the city that never sleeps, and there is sooooo much going on there, why do you think it hasn't created more legendary rock bands?

[Mark} Wow, you’ve certainly thrown down the gauntlet with that one my friend. But let’s not forget some very important New York artists/bands and musical movements such as the whole Greenwich Village folk scene that produced Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, et al., the rap/rock visionaries the Beastie Boys, the punk scene that gave us Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, GG Allin, the rap scene that gave us Run DMC, Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J and Jazzy Jeff, the indie rock scene that gave us the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Le Tigre, Santigold, Moby, Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear, Sharon Van Etten, The National, Nous Non Plus and a whole slew of other amazing acts. And then of course the early days of Jazz on 57th street with greats such as Miles, Charles Mingus, Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker. And of course the Duke himself, Duke Ellington, before all of that!!! Come on pal, New York is and always has been the epicenter of the music world. If you can make it here you can make it anywhere. There might be a Seattle scene here and there, but New York is and always will be where it’s at. Period, end of story! Not that we’re biased or anything. :)

[ME] Right on, it’s cool to be proud of where you are from. I would never deny that the town’s Hip Hop scene is booming. But rock has never been New York’s grass roots, home grown gig. Also I would point out that from Bob Dylan, to Patti Smith, to Duke Ellington most of the people you mentioned by name, are not native New Yorkers. I guess what I am really curious about is why the city doesn’t have more of a rock community that grew up together, with an endless list of amazing musicians that all used to play in each other’s bands, and that support one another: similar to Athens Georgia in the early 80’s, Los Angeles in the late 80’s, or Seattle in the early 90’s. I don’t mean it in a negative way. It’s just an observation. When it comes to rock music, New York has never had it’s own sound.

If you haven’t yet, check out Makar’s latest album Funeral Genius:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/makar3

Visit their homepage:

http://www.makarmusic.com/

And be watching for new music from them in the future.