"indie" music in non-"indie" settings?

[furnhusch]

"On the one hand, I'm purer than the driven snow"

The Driven Snow.

Hello-
We're The Driven Snow and we're pleased to be opening for Thousands of War Dead. After the show, don't forget to buy a shirt and a limited edition cd.

I gotta start recording again.

[TheVole]

But it's real easy to say "money or no money" when it's somebody else's income you're talking about, and the harder it gets to sell records, the more artists are going to find themselves saying "fuck it, I gotta eat."

Exactly.  It's show business, not show art.

[DCDave]

He's no Bendis.

Edit: But I'm a huge nerd for Kang.

Bendis is pretty good. The first arc of New Avengers was okay, but it got A LOT better with the last issue. He is really decompressed with his storytelling pacing. Are you on the Bendis Board?

I am not. Comic book message boards are for looking, not interacting with.

They frighten me.

Did you read Cup O'Brian on Newsarama?

[waylaid]

But it's real easy to say "money or no money" when it's somebody else's income you're talking about, and the harder it gets to sell records, the more artists are going to find themselves saying "fuck it, I gotta eat."

Well, I'm not saying someone shouldn't accept the money or do what they like with their art, what I'm saying is I'll feel diferently about their music, I feel it trivialises it and the reasons I believed they were making it in the first place, the soul etc etc. This isn't their problem and I'm sure it probably doesn't mean much to them but it does to me.  Sure it's naive and overly idealistic in this day and age but I can live with that.

Most of the biggest composers of the 60's and 70's composed commercial music under pseudonyms (anybody hip to library music?)

Presumably because the didn't want their fanbase to know they'd use their talent to sell a ford cortina or something. Or maybe it was for contractual reasons   :wink:

[jordanmichael]

He's no Bendis.

Edit: But I'm a huge nerd for Kang.

Bendis is pretty good. The first arc of New Avengers was okay, but it got A LOT better with the last issue. He is really decompressed with his storytelling pacing. Are you on the Bendis Board?

I am not. Comic book message boards are for looking, not interacting with.

They frighten me.

Did you read Cup O'Brian on Newsarama?

I'll get around to it, but I am really active on his board, so I really know everything he has to say, and if was important, it'd be repeated there. But seriously, you should check out his board. It really isn't about comics, because we discuss comics so rarely. It is just fun, and you meet a lot of cool people and find out about a lot of books you wouldn't have normally. Also, it's fun to just bullshit with the creators.

[diesel_powered]

Presumably because the didn't want their fanbase to know they'd use their talent to sell a ford cortina or something. Or maybe it was for contractual reasons   :wink:

Okay, you got a point there, anybody who's a fan of music knows about the joys of getting in and out of contracts with respect to doing work. I mean, Pearl Jam's pseudonymous (is that a word?) contributions to Mirrorball are a prime example of this.

But also, I don't think anyone would've taken John Cage Or John Jaques Perrey (probably a butchery of spelling) seriously as "modern" composers if they knew they both were doing commercial music as well.

However, ironic or not, it was that commercial music that also put food in the fridge when they were doing a lot of their real innovation.

[DCDave]

I'll get around to it, but I am really active on his board, so I really know everything he has to say, and if was important, it'd be repeated there. But seriously, you should check out his board. It really isn't about comics, because we discuss comics so rarely. It is just fun, and you meet a lot of cool people and find out about a lot of books you wouldn't have normally. Also, it's fun to just bullshit with the creators.

Linkz plz plz.

[Maaik]

I have a lot of respect for the Working Artist, who toils for a corporation today as others once did under the Medici family.  A lot has changed since then, and there is a lot of difference between sculpting works for a rich man's garden and licensing a thirty second clip of your last single to sell running shoes.

Nevertheless, artists I care about are eating easier for it and I appreciate that.

[DCDave]

I have a lot of respect for the Working Artist, who toils for a corporation today as others once did under the Medici family.  A lot has changed since then, and there is a lot of difference between sculpting works for a rich man's garden and licensing a thirty second clip of your last single to sell running shoes.

Nevertheless, artists I care about are eating easier for it and I appreciate that.

This is pretty much 100% my position. Brothas gotta eat so they can live so they can still make music.

[dieblucasdie]

Though only "indie" under the loosest of definitions, this is probably the correct place to draw attention to the following:

Jarvis Cocker and Jonny Greenwood are going to play the Weird Sisters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

[jordanmichael]

I'll get around to it, but I am really active on his board, so I really know everything he has to say, and if was important, it'd be repeated there. But seriously, you should check out his board. It really isn't about comics, because we discuss comics so rarely. It is just fun, and you meet a lot of cool people and find out about a lot of books you wouldn't have normally. Also, it's fun to just bullshit with the creators.

Linkz plz plz.

www.606studios.com/bendisboard

[Maaik]

Though only "indie" under the loosest of definitions, this is probably the correct place to draw attention to the following:

Jarvis Cocker and Jonny Greenwood are going to play the Weird Sisters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Really?  That's kinda fucking awesome.  That last HP movie was pretty rad.

[jordanmichael]

Though only "indie" under the loosest of definitions, this is probably the correct place to draw attention to the following:

Jarvis Cocker and Jonny Greenwood are going to play the Weird Sisters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Really?  That's kinda fucking awesome.  That last HP movie was pretty rad.

The directing was A LOT better, but they still had the same guy doing the screenplays. I feel that since they know that everyone has read the books, they can get away with writing a crappy screenplay.

[peacocks]

I heard the white stripes on a pbs show called "history detectives" during footage of a reenactment of the revolutionary war.  they are pretty mainstream I guess but it was still kinda funny and out of place.

[W. Earl Piglet]

Of Montreal in Boarders, a bunch of stuff on MTV reality shows (Decemberists, Beulah, etc..)
nothing very exciting.

[patricke]

Chiming in late here (as usual) on the whole "licensing your tunes for commercials" issue. My take:

Licensing for TV shows/movies is different from licensing your music for something as explicitly commercial as selling a product. The former is two art forms intermingling (yes, TV shows and Hollywood flicks are "art," albeit not necessarily on par with, say, Dickens or Duchamp). The latter is associating you with a particular product, and even worse, with the attempt to hawk that product.

Maybe They Might Be Giants (whom I LOVE, despite everything) are such fans of Chrysler that they just had to get on a soapbox and proclaim their love for the company's cars in an ad, but I doubt it. Licensing your songs to Chrysler is just as much a political statement as licensing them for a PETA ad -- the artist appears to be supporting the product in question, even if (s)he's only doing it for the money.

Frankly, to me, the whole "everyone has to put food on the table" argument is a red herring. No artists are going to starve to death because they choose not to license their song to VW. It just means that they'll have to find other ways of making money (hello? day job? touring more? greatest-hits albums?), which may not be what they want to do, but it's a way to maintain artistic integrity. Sure, it might deprive us, the audience, of some of their art, but at least the art they do produce won't be tainted by being associated with a Depends commercial.

I'm with Tom Waits on this one (though admittedly, an artist of his financial/cultural stature has far more leeway to say no to commercials) -- I'd rather work a day job I dislike and only associate my music with causes/groups/art forms I would wholeheartedly stand behind than license my songs for a commercial selling a product. Even if that means turning down the $30K or toiling in obscurity or working a day job until I'm 50.

[Andrew_TSKS]

YES! YES! YES!

totally agreed with that entire glorious post, patricke. thank you ever so.

[lucky strike]

i heard the goats in starbucks on one of their compilations that headquarters sends them or whatever. it was at a perfect time and it is probably one of my top 5 favorite memories. everything was so perfect that winter.

[Maaik]

My mom and sister were just watching this show on PBS about Babyland General Hospital up in North Georgia--it's a sort of museum thingie for CabbagePatch Kids.  Toward the end, this chorus of horns and chimes and drums rolls in and my sister squeals "they're playing Sufjan Stevens!"

Indeed they were.  Something off of Illinois.  Funny that.

[RavingLunatic]

Speaking of Sufjan, "Chicago" was featured in some movie preview (a shitty comedy I think) I saw when I went to "A Prairie Home Companion" (me and my brothers were the only people in the theater uner 60 I think).

[SPACERACE]

they made a movie?

[sqr]

I think what it comes down to is that people are starting to get more hip about bands that aren't on major labels because the major labels are stagnating.

I didn't really wanna get involved in this thread other than to say that this is all nothing new. Don't y'all remember when Donny Walberg wore the Bauhaus shirt in a New Kids video? What about when Rage Against the Machine wore a Crudos shirt in their video? It goes back much farther than that too. There is an interesting YouTube video about the Amen breakbeat and it's history starting as the drumbreak from the b-side of an obscure funk single to it's appropriation by the underground hip-hop community, to it's innovative usage in underground electronic music (from rave to breakcore) to it's becoming such a part of our cultural landscape that it's recycled over and over in commercials and other mass media propaghanda.

[RavingLunatic]

they made a movie?

Yeah, I didn't particularly like it? Strangely enough, we went because my 15-year-old little brother is a huge fan of the show. He's a weird kid sometimes, but I love him.

[SPACERACE]

i love the radio show, but i don't see how a movie would work.

[girl]

i love the radio show, but i don't see how a movie would work.

The premise is that a big company bought the theatre and is closing down the show, so the show in the movie is their last one.  A lot of it takes place backstage, and Guy Noir is there.  I thought it was cute.