Blogs

The pay-to-play system (see also: payola) plagues all levels of the music industry, but it seems especially prevalent in hip-hop.

In an article published this morning in the Examiner , Tech N9ne discusses his antipathy toward the practice, saying, "The game has turned into not how good you are, but how much you can pay to get played. We might have $20,000, but we’re not going to give it to no DJ to play our song 700 times a week. We might want to put the $20,000 in more posters to give out hand-to-hand.”

Read the article here.

Further Reading
GO: Our 12/07 feature by Nadia Pflaum on how pay-to-play has affected some local rappers.
GO: Our review, by Dan LeRoy, of Tech N9ne's new album, Killer.

... thepitch

Enter it hither: place to buy tickets

And then say the magic word:
yousaaaaaaaiiiiieeeeeeeooooooo!

By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE

Hey, Kansas City kids! Ever wish you lived in the utopian Omaha music scene, where indie rock flows endlessly and members of Saddle Creek bands tend the bars? Well, if you’re under 18, don’t get so wistful. Starting tomorrow night, music fans age 17 and under will need a notarized letter from their parents in order to get into a show at the Slowdown or the Waiting Room, the city’s most happening rock bars.

The new rule – along with requirements for the bars to have extra security, wrist bands for the 21-and-over folks and different cups for booze and non-alcoholic beverages – is part of a music venue ordinance passed by the Omaha City Council earlier this month. It’s annoying for club owners and patrons both. But it could be worse. The council had considered banning the youngins from the clubs altogether because as stand-alone bars that don’t admit minors on nights when there isn’t music, the venues fell into a legal gray area.

Read more about the ordinance in this Omaha World-Herald article and at the Slowdown’s Web site.

If anybody needs help in these troubled times for the music industry, it's the owners of independent record stores. This Saturday, April 19, close your iTunes and get out and buy some wax (or CD or poster -- hell, something) at one of our fine local, independent retailers. Many stores around the country are offering up sales and hosting in-stores. Contact the stores below to find out what's going on within their brick'n'mortar walls this Saturday.

KANSAS CITY

Vinyl Renaissance
10922 Shawnee Mission Parkway
Shawnee, KS
913-962-0014
On the Web: www.vinyl-renaissance.net
NRSD Specials/Events: sales on new vinyl releases and more

"We have a wide, wide age group of people that come in on an event day like this, and there's a lot of info-sharing about music imparted from one age group to the next." -- Dan Phillips, Vinyl Renaissance owner

Little Red Rooster
1800 W. 39th Street
KCMO
816-531-9673
On the Web: www.myspace.com/littleredroostervinyl

Zebedee's RPM
1208 W. 39th Street
KCMO
816-960-6900
On the Web: www.zebedeesrpm.com

Needmore Discs
11212 W. 75th St
Shawnee, KS
913-248-8622
On the Web: www.needmorediscs.com
NRSD Specials/Events: "big sale, lots of giveaways"

Streetside Records
4128 Broadway Street
KCMO
816-561-1580
(not exactly "independent" but still cool)

LAWRENCE

Love Garden
936 1/2 Massachusetts St.
785-843-1551
On the Web: www.lovegardensounds.com

Kief's Downtown
(785) 865-4337
2429 Iowa Street
On the Web: www.kiefs.com

No longer merely your sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel is now your web news aggregator. Today, the former Genesis singer and -- many believe -- GOD launched his (and his co-investors') newly redesigned "recommendation engine" The Filter.

As Gabe explained to CNET:

"When you drown people in an ocean of information, you've got to give them navigation tools," Gabriel said. "I know that there is better stuff out there than what I generally am exposed to... So if I have a sort of intelligent ally working with me 24 hours a day, I think I have a much better chance of getting the stuff that will entertain, excite, and inspire me."

Basically, using algorithims and magic spells, The Filter finds entertainment content on the web it thinks you'll like so that you don't have dig for it yourself.

One thing you still gotta do yourself, however...

SHOCK THE MONKEY!

See Also: Peter in KC, 1982

The Brick, the Record Bar, Davey's ... no longer will concertgoers be able to light up a delicious Marlboro Red or Benson & Hedges 100 and blow it into the face and lungs of cranky nonsmoking music lovers braving deadly secondhand tar and carbon monoxide and god knows what else in order to support their favorite band.

Well, smokers, you can still spark a fag right here on the Wayward Blog. Think about it: if you smoke here instead of at the bar, you'll probably live longer because you tend to spend less time here than in bars and you can't actually smoke on a Web site.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the smoking ban. It seems both like a trampling of business owners' (that is, bar owners') rights, but also it'll be good for the music scene, getting more people out to shows. Maybe they should've just made all live music events non-smoking. That would have quelled a lot of complaints in my circle.

The winner of The Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest is... these guys!

Photo by Emily Moore (www.emilylaurenmoore.com)

Woo! Congratulations, Nomathmatics. You guys rocked this past Friday night at NV. Enjoy your trip to Miami. Send us a postcard.

To the other DJs: Thank you — you were all phenomenal.

Merry Christmas from all of us here to all of you there.

Please enjoy this classic, and don't get drunk and hit anyone like last year.

Our year's best band is headed toward the big time, or if not that, well at least it's got a deal. The Republic Tigers have signed a contract with Chop Shop Records. Who Chop Shop, you ask? According to the label's MySpace...

The woman behind the soundtracks to "The OC" and "Grey's Anatomy" is launching her own label.

Alexandra Patsavas, the influential TV and film music supervisor who has helped put Death Cab for Cutie, Snow Patrol and the Fray on the mainstream map, has inked a deal with Warner Music Group's Atlantic Records to form a new imprint, Chop Shop Records. The label shares the name of Patsavas' 10-year-old California-based firm, Chop Shop Music Supervision.

Fuckin' A! Go Tigers! We'll look forward to hearing your fine homegrown jams on ABC in the near future. Or wherever. You guys rock.

Brandon Phillips needs no introduction, nor does his Wayward Blog Exclusive Survey Findings Report need explanation. Enjoy. -- Harper

At 12:00 PM CST on Saturday, November 17, 2007 I, Brandon Taylor Phillips, sat down with a cassette-tape from a rehearsal of my band, the Architects, to write lyrics to portions of previously composed music. At approximately 12:25 PM CST that same day, after repeated listening to the taped performance, I had what composers and lyricists refer to as “An Awful Idea”.

Based on my vast experience as a Music Industry Professional and my well-known reputation as a “Balla’”, I determined that the one and only course of action open to me in the face of the aforementioned “Awful Idea” was to organize an ad hoc Focus Group and put my “Awful Idea” to the test of peer opinion. The methodology was standard text-message or SMS-call-and-response. The sample group consisted of songwriters, experts in the field of popular music, and artists. The following are the results of that Focus Group Test.

(Photo by Michael Forester)

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The Range Life music blog (which is not affiliated with Lawrence's Range Life Records) is giving away tickets to see Annuals next Tuesday in Lawrence. You'll also get a free 7-inch. The catch is you have to write a 100-word essay about how you fell in love with Annuals.

We at The Pitch wouldn't even know how to begin doing that. We're entirely too distracted with Keyshia Cole. There's simply no room in our hearts for buzzworthy indie rock with women like Ms. Cole out there. No room for work, either, or everyday life. In fact, don't expect to see a Pitch next week. Or ever again. We're going to California to propose to Ms. Cole. If she doesn't accept, we will become her stalker. If this leads to imprisonment, so be it. We will escape and build an idol in the woods to her composed of mouse bones, mud and dove feathers.

Photo courtesy Geffen.com

Just kidding about all that. But she is hot.

Annuals.

Your favorite Kansas City music blogger is taking the rest of the week off. I didn't have time to prepare a series of blog entries to post while I'm away -- well, there is one; look for it on Friday -- so here's a video from our favorite YouTube-preserved era (late '70s Britain) and a goodbye kiss. Mwah!

Feel free to use this entry's comments section to vent or enthuse about the local scene, drop hints and tips, suggest things you think belong in the Pitch music section or on this blog, show us your tits, and discuss your brother-in-law's drinking problem.

BY RICK ANDERSON, Seattle Weekly

Photo courtesy of CourtneyLove.com. 

By Rick Anderson, SeattleWeekly.com 

"I did not fuck you," was how Courtney Love responded when told by her Seattle attorneys that she owed them up to $340,000 plus interest. That was the balance due on legal fees attorney Katherine Hendricks and O.Yale Lewis say Love incurred in a 2002 lawsuit against former members of her late husband's band, Nirvana, from which she ultimately earned at least $9 million. 

But the troubled rocker and widow of Kurt Cobain has now agreed to settle the attorneys' tab for an undisclosed amount, according to King County Superior Court records. The settlement, effective Monday, Sept. 17, apparently ends a three-year claim by Hendricks and Lewis, who alleged Love breached their legal-services contract. Hendricks would not discuss details of the settlement or confirm whether Love had paid her debt on time, as she agreed to do in an Aug. 28 settlement report. A trial had been set to begin on Wednesday.

Court records indicate Love paid the Hendricks & Lewis firm $1.15 million to represent her in the battle with Nirvana's two surviving members, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic. But the attorneys claimed she still owed $341,000, plus as much as $200,000 in interest accrued over five years.

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Bill over at the new local jazz blog Plastic Sax has written an open letter to the new director of American Jazz Museum. More importantly, the new director of the AMJ should read it. I can't believe they still haven't fixed those damn display cases!

I think Bill's onto something with that Sax Hero idea, but, at the same time, it is a little crazy. But why not? Sky's the limit. It's the American Jazz Museum. The museum of American jazz. Shouldn't there be interactive exhibits and stuff? Shouldn't there be things for kids to play with? Shouldn't there be drugs available for you to take that will make you feel like you can play the drums really crazy and good like Gene Krupa, and then a Drugged-Up Drum Hero game for you to play -- maybe like in a secret back room of the museum?

Hell, maybe that's exactly what museum administration does all day. No, I'm not alleging anything -- except that if they do take drugs and play drums all day, then I want to work there.

I've just been out in the heat a couple hours and need to lie down.

Speaking of which, it is still awfully hot outside. But listen up, kids. Don't you go and put a frozen chicken in your shirt. Greater men than you have died from that sort of thing. Don't fool around.

I guess we should let you know who won, huh?

Alright, here's the list, but first you have to look at the self-proclaimed King of Kansas City, Brodie Rush, the awards show host.

Best Male Vocalist: Brandon Phillips (the Architects); Best Female Vocalist: Kim Anderson (Flee the Seen); Best Blues/Soul: Ida McBeth; Best Jazz: the Grand Marquis; Best Country/Bluegrass: Split Lip Rayfield; Best Pop: It’s Over; Best Latin: Son Venezuela; Best Punk: Flee the Seen; Best Avant/Experimental: Onemilliontinytinyjesuses; Best Hardcore/Metal: the Esoteric; Best Folk/Roots: In the Pines; Best DJ/Hip-Hop: DJ Sku; Best DJ/Dance: Nomathmatics; Best Live Act: the Architects; Best Hip-Hop: Mac Lethal; Best Rock: the Architects; Best New Act: the Sex Police.

And so the people have chosen.

More photos after the jump.

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