Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Thank you for sharing, 'record clubs' are something that really
interest me. I hadn't heard much about them until I started doing AB
Records, in my discussions with artists. It sounds like something
that I would have loved, although there wasn't anything like it when
I was growing up in the early 2000s in Scotland. I previously
mentioned the record label Last Night From Glasgow. They are very
exciting as a company and they actually have a subscription model
that is similar to those record clubs from the past, very cool to
see!

How do people discover music these days? I think my primary source
is still a good in-person record shop. Flicking through the CDs or
the records, there is no better approach, I think. I especially like
buying an album based on the cover artwork, with no prior knowledge,
the excitement of putting that album on when you get home...
brilliant! As I say, I love Bandcamp for lesser-known artists too,
and I think it really is the best online platform. 

I also still discover music through covermount CDs from Mojo and
Uncut. Mojo and Uncut actually greatly inspired Aldora Britain
Records. So, I have the e-zine (my version of a magazine) and we
have the Bandcamp samplers (my version of the covermount CDs). I
also love discovering new music through Jools Holland's TV show,
something I have watched religiously since I was about 12! Just
looking at some of the records I have listened to this week, and
loads are artists I discovered through Jools... Blackberry Smoke,
Charles Bradley, Drive-By Truckers, Band of Horses, Dexys, Seasick
Steve, The Vaccines, the list could go on!

I think my approach to musical discovery is quite 'niche' for a 29
year old though. Most of my friends are very much in the Spotify
camp. So, playlists I imagine would be their main source of
discovery. 

I also think it is more challenging than ever to discover 'your'
band, that band that stays with you through life and mean something
incredible to you. But I also think, at the same time, it is easier
than ever, the amount of stuff out there, the amount of styles and
genres and approaches, the decrease in gatekeepers, such as
old-school record deals, etc. 
  

    
One of the goals of klezmershack.com is to provide discovery tools
for klezmer and other Jewish music. I am surprised that there hasn't
been an accompanying community of folks sharing, "this is what I
just heard/saw live," but so far, haven't seen it - although I am
pretty sure there are big discussions at camps and other gatherings
which have merch tables.

But maybe not. At Balkan night this spring I came away with no leads
to good recordings beyond searching the internet to see if any of
the bands performing had anything new or interesting. There wasn't
even a mention of recordings in the program booklet.
  

    
Just an administrative note to remind that today is the last
"official" day of this discussion. Big thanks to Tom for his
generosity in making the time for joining us here, as we've learned
how busy he is between ABR and his family. His commitment to
participate through the end of the month concludes today. That said,
the topic will remain active and his guest account will be in good
standing for another couple of months or so. Hopefully this
conversation can continue, time permitting.

And gratitude as well to <joeyx> and <mcdee> for their domain
expertise, pertinent questions, and observations. And to everyone
who has participated, as well as the lurkers taking it all in. Thank
you all for a great discussion.
  

    
Big thanks to Axon, Tom, etc.!

On another note, I've made enough on Bandcamp album sales to buy a
"Songs of Richard Farina" music book! I was this many years old when
I learned what a lot of his political songs were about. Brilliant,
unique, long time gone songwriter.
  

    
And author of a novel, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me,"
that influenced me early on.  I happen to have an excerpt handy:

"All about them the golden girls, shopping for dainties in
Lairville. Even in the midst of the wild-maned winter's chill,
skipping about in sneakers and sweatsocks, cream-colored raincoats.
A generation in the mold, the Great White Pattern Maker lying in his
prosperous bed, grinning while the liquid cools. But he does not
know my bellows. Someone there is who will huff and will puff. The
sophomores in their new junior blazers, like Saturday's magazines
out on Thursday. Freshly covered textbooks from the campus store,
slide rules dangling in leather, sheathed broadswords, chinos
scrubbed to the virgin fiber, starch pressed into straightrazor
creases, Oxford shirts buttoned down under crewneck sweaters, blue
eyes bobbing everywhere, stunned by the android synthesis of
one-a-day vitamins, Tropicana orange juice, fresh country eggs,
Kraft homogenized cheese, tetrapacks of fortified milk, Cheerios
with sun-ripened bananas, corn-flake-breaded chicken, hot fudge
sundaes, Dairy Queen root beer floats, cheeseburgers, hybrid creamed
corn, riboflavin extract, brewer's yeast, crunchy peanut butter,
tuna fish casseroles, pancakes and imitation maple syrup, chuck
steaks, occasional Maine lobster, Social Tea biscuits, defatted
wheat germ, Kellogg's Concentrate, chopped string beans,
Wonderbread, Bosco, onion rings, escarole salads, lentil stews,
sundry fowl innards, Pecan Sandies, Almond Joys, aureomycin,
penicillin, antitetanus toxoid, smallpox vaccine, Alka-Seltzer,
Empirin, Vicks VapoRub, Arrid with chlorophyll, Super Anahist nose
spray, Dristan decongestant, billions of cubic feet of wholesome,
reconditioned breathing air, and the more sholesome breeds of
fraternal exercise available to Western man. Ah, the regimented good
will and force-fed confidence of those who are not meek but will
inherit the earth all the same."

Thomas Pynchon was best man at his wedding, and dedicated "Gravity's
Rainbow" to Farina.
  

    
I loved those Richard and Mimi Farina albums--his music was _made_
for Bandcamp--but the novel has some serious flaws. I wish we'd had
a chance to see if he got wiser with age. (I'm not sure that Pynchon
did, but that's another topic.)

I'm left with <tnf>'s question - how do we better enable music
discovery in the age of Spotify and the personalized
corporate-ization of music discovery (and homogenization),
especially in the age of AI - and do most people (if presumably not
many/any people in _this_ discussion) really care.
  

    
Pynchon described the novel as "coming on like the Hallelujah Chorus
done by 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch... hilarious, chilling,
sexy, profound, maniacal, beautiful and outrageous all at the same
time." The flaws didn't bother him - or me. (I started to say more,
but we're veering off topic, I fear.)
  

    
Ari - thank you for sharing that website link! One of my main
takeaways from AB Records over the last several years had been
'world music'. This has led to my discovery of lots of different
folky and rootsy forms, and Balkan has been a cool one to dive into,
klezmer too, I find it fascinating and intriguing to delve into
different musical forms from around the world. It is crazy how many
different cultures and societies there are out there, all with their
different forms of expression!

Thanks to all, and to Axon of course, I will continue to check in
with this discussion and would be happy to contribute more over the
next few weeks!
  

    
Jon, I don't want to go far afield, but a novel that ends with the
male hero forcibly shoving a heroin suppository up his
ex-girlfriend's ass in revenge is seriously problematic in ways that
we can merrily discuss over in <books.>.

I loved it for a long time before the contradictions made it
impossible to re-read, recommend, or enjoy having on my shelf. As I
wrote, we'll never know if Farina had it in him to evolve in good
ways. What we've got is what we've got.
  

    
I never considered Gnossos a hero - I thought he was what they call
an anti-hero, and deeply flawed.