The Case Against Digital Recording

The line in the story that got to me was this:

In an age where most music is recorded directly to computers and is then edited, spliced and mashed to a shiny gloss with no errant notes to be found, the mistakes and idiosyncracies that used to appear on records have all but disappeared. Call it heart, or soul, or personality, but there is a small population of musicians who are trying to bring it back to the record making process.

Yep.  I couldn't agree more.  Read the entire story about Jace Lasek in the Toronto Star.

The Authenticity Fetish

If there's one thing that will kill an artist among a certain group of potential fans, it's perceived lack of authenticity.  If you're not "real" or "street," then you're dead to them.  But why?

The New Statesman explores this concept of cultural authenticity.

Picture the tragic scenes in Crouch End, north London, early this year. The patrons of Harris + Hoole, a local coffee shop, had just learned to their horror that the supermarket chain Tesco owns a 49 per cent stake in the company. Shaken caffeine-guzzlers told the Guardian that they felt “duped” and “upset” because they’d thought it was an “independent” coffee shop. A rival coffee hawker sneered that Tesco was “trying to make money” out of “artisan values” – although, presumably, so was he.  Most charmingly, the manager of the café confided that head office had instructed her to make the store feel as independent as possible. "We try to be independent," she said. "We want to be independent. We want to have that feel."

Click to read more ...

Mojo Magazine Picks the 100 Greatest Music Films

If you had to pick the best music movies of all time, what would be on your list?  Spinal Tap? The Decline of Western Civilization (Pt. 1)?  Phantom of the Paradise? The Blues Brothers?

There's plenty to debate in this space and Mojo magazine has poured some gasoline on the fire with their list of the top 100 music movies of all time.  

Start here and revisit the site until they've posted all the clips.

How to React to Critics

Great tattoo graphic. Click the image to learn more.Critical or negative feedback can be tough to deal with.  Hell, anyone who's ever had troll comment on a Facebook or Twitter post knows what I'm talking about.

Brain Pickings has a terrific post on how various cultural icons dealt with criticism of any kind.  For example, Mark Twain had this to say about critics:

The critic's symbol should be the tumbe-bug: he deposits his egg in someone else's dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.

Good advice for the next time someone tries to knock you down with an anonymous comment about anything from your web post to your music.

How Do You Like Your Headphones?

Headphone sound is an extremely subjective thing.  Me, I like accuracy across all frequency ranges.  You might like something with a lot of emphasis on the bass.

If you're in the latter category, CNET has an article on this debate that you might want to read.

Manufacturers are well aware that most people like bass, and that buyers tend to favor one headphone over another based on how much bass it produces. I think that's obvious, but a recent study cited in Brent Butterworth's blog countered that assumption. "The Relationship between Perception and Measurement of Headphone Sound Quality," a paper by Sean Olive and Todd Welti presented at last October's Audio Engineering Society convention found that a panel of trained listeners preferred the more accurate measuring headphones in a series of blind tests. 

Really?  Yep.  Read the whole thing here.