Issue 17 Volume 1
September 2008
September 2008Front Page
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Issue 17 Volume 1
September 2008 |
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THE BUSINESS OF BRANDING BANDS By David James Young reasons that companies spend heavily on creating strong visuals, but not nearly as much on the aural side of their brands. Yet music is capable of achieving a more powerful emotional impact and deserves at least as much attention and resources. Young started his involvement in music when he was 19 founding a label called Rubber Records, which has released over 200 albums and is distributed through EMI. He also owns another label, Zatzit, which is distributed by Shock Records. His newly formed company is Cherry Rock, which manages bands, looks to develop music as a brand, and offers, well, massage (but very hard edged, rock-style massage – “no whale noises”, and dolphins not allowed).
Progressive/Indie/Pop EP Launch:"Just
for a second we lied" Seeing this band for me was something of a frustrated pleasure. Pleasure, because this band deserves to really go somewhere. Frustrated, because they could be so good with a little more performance commitment from the front line. But I'd rather go see a talented band that’s not quite right than a perfect set of dullards, any day. The first thing you notice about this band is its solid back line –drums, tasteful and very musical; guitars interlocking in interesting ways; solid anchoring bass. Tight, and with the feeling that these guys have buffed and polished their sound carefully over years. ...continued
REVIEW THE REVIEWERBy Striker Lite Reviewer: Dan
Rule Don’t journalists read anyone except other journalists these days? Don’t they ever drink at the fountain of literature so they can at least tell the difference between a living language singing with the promise of meaning and a bloated corpse floating and farting atop the fountain’s surface; wadded, shapeless, impenetrable? I see little evidence of it in journalistic effluvium these days. To start, I dunno, but really, can’t we try a little harder with our word selection? Verbal variety is the strength of the best writers and the temptation and curse of the rest. Just because your thesaurus lists heaps of synonyms for a word does not mean all those words, or even many of them, will do as well as any other. Words have contextual value as well as meaning; and as we deride or ignore the value of words, their meaning is little by little pushed aside until it is no more than an ornament to their use.
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JEFF LANG LAYS IT ON THE LINE By Alyssa Coulson
HOME GROWN TALENT By Megan Albany
She opens our interview with a laugh saying.... “By the way I was born in 1974, I’m an aquarian, I’m single and I’m looking for a boyfriend about 6 foot tall..... you’re not going to print that are you” Send us your email, notes, memos, random thoughts, trenchant complaints. Tell us about your adventures, strugggles, disasters, disappointments and successes as a musician. We give preference to letters of 200 words or less, but try your luck anyway. We may edit your letters for reasons of space, or possibly because we're just a bunch of interfering bastards. Despite that, we welcome your feedback, comments and observations. You can use a pseudonym if you wish, but please include your real name, suburb/town and, if you are writing from outside Victoria, your state/country. Email us at musosunion@aol.com.
Got a
problem or question relating to the music biz? Ask Uncle Terry. Email Uncle Terry on musosunion@aol.com. Please provide your name and suburb (& state/country, if you're not a Victorian yokel...)
Dear Uncle Terry, Our band is going to do some recording at a studio run by a mate of ours. One of the band members reckons we should have a written agreement but the rest of us are happy to just take our mate’s word. We have agreed in conversation with him things like percentage splits on the recording and I’d feel a bit embarrassed asking him to sign something. Do you think we need it written down? We trust our mate. Brendan
Book reviews - Building Huge Media Enterprises for Fun and Profit by Jeremy Feeble. Review By Peter Kelleher Most of us will have fond memories of school piggy banks, of writing or editing for a college magazine or of punting a few grand on the stock market. Sure those were fun at the time, but they are generally regarded in adulthood as infantile and frivolous occupations. Jeremy Feeble’s new book shows how these disregarded pastimes can be put to good use and can even generate pocket money and better. .
An Addictive Personality May Just Give You The Edge Well they say that creating music or planning a tour can be a little like giving birth and that’s why I’ve decided to do both at once. Never one to shy from a challenge I am in the process of helping my husband organise his tour with the legendary Headhunters (aka Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters) while at the same time preparing for the birth of our first child. Now while this may seem like simply an opportunity for me to shamelessly plug my hubby’s October tour, which of course it is – see www.marcmittag.com for details – it is also an opportunity for me to bond with you, my dear reader over the huge, huge job that lies before all independent artists. Disclaimer:
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By Theo Schulsospekz Wagner on line
Bertelsmann Bails
Part 12 of a series by Hi folks and welcome back. We are still trying to answer the perennial question “how much should I charge for a gig?” Perhaps a better way of putting it is “How much should a gig be worth?” In Australia this question has been the subject of deliberations in industrial tribunals since at least the 1920’s and the results are the rates in the various awards covering the employment of musicians. These rates are not set by the Musicians’ Union but by independent industrial bodies (Federal award rates were previously set by the “Australian Industrial Relations Commission” and are now set by the “Fair Pay Commission”. State award rates are set by the state Industrial Relations Commissions). Part 15 in a series by
First things first. I have just noticed that the impossibly pretentious name of “Bellaire Hillock” has appeared at the top of my last two columns. This usurper is a fraud and wouldn’t know harmony if it stopped him in the street and smacked him with a haddock! I, Holden Fairlane, am, always have been and, if there is any justice and taste in the world, always will be the sole harmony columnist in “The Dues”. Out damned Hillock and never stick your bulbous, wine drinker’s nose into my column again! Ahhhh…. Better!! Welcome back or, if this is your first visit, welcome! First visitors are advised to check out previous articles in this series. There is a harmony column in most of the previous issues of “The Dues”. Your homework from last time was to work out the notes in all 12 of the “minor seventh flat 5” chords. Remember from last time that this chord is also called the “half diminished” chord. Also remember that its symbol can be Cmin7b5 or Cm7b5 or C-7b5 or CØ or CØ7, now there’s a recipe for an identity crisis! Let's look at them now in both letter name form and in musical notation. Chord Symbol |
John Butler
affectionately calls him “the man” and Rolling
Stone magazine’s editor labelled him a “guitar
genius” yet despite the accolades Jeff Lang isn’t
content to rest on his laurels. He recently released his 13th solo
album ‘Half Seas Over’ and although it is only
barely just on the shelves, the ingenuity of this latest collection of
sonic art has created waves with reviewers. Dues music journalist 
