IJ’s Music Wire

NYT Critic’s Choice CDs - Last summer was a tough one for the R&B singer Omarion. In June he signed up to be a part of Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records. By August he was out, allegedly by mutual consent. “Girl You Know,” a song he recorded with that crew, was done over, with Omarion’s hook replaced with one by the tender R&B singer Lloyd. The new version, called “BedRock,” became a smash. More…

Artists can be forgiven for having control issues when everything they touch is gold. Britt Daniel, Spoon’s gifted frontman, crafts brilliantly understated pop gems that follow a strict protocol: Keep the mix clean, the orchestration tight and the lyrics a bit oblique. It’s a carefully plotted formula that’s helped make Spoon one of the most reliably gratifying bands of the past 15 years, with more than a dozen studio albums and EPs to its name. Stream Spoon’s new album here.

James Taylor and Carole King, a pair of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted singer-songwriters, will bring their Troubadour Reunion tour to North America this May.  More…

On this date in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, the King was born. Today marks what would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday, and to celebrate his legacy, we’re looking back at Presley’s historic career in the Rolling Stone archives.  More…

As the Noughties draws to its end, we can reveal that ‘Chasing Cars‘ by Snow Patrol can be named as the most played and used song of the last decade.  More…

Once upon a time, when pop was young and London swung, we were a nation of singles buyers. Albums provided a higher profit margin for the record companies, but it wasn’t until the end of the 60s that the public started buying more albums than singles. Once they did though, that was that: LPs were the engine of the music industry, the focus of critical consideration. The fortunes of the album became an index of music’s commercial and creative health.  More…

NYT Critic’s Choice CDs - What year is this? For the 30-year-old English songwriter Findlay Brown, it’s somewhere around 1964-66, when Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound was the foundation for the Righteous Brothers, Roy Orbison was making rockabilly operatic and, in Britain, John Barry was scoring James Bond films and the Walker Brothers were singing booming, despairing pop. Read more…

Indie-Music.com’s prestigious Top 25 is presented each year in January to honor excellence and achievement in independent music. The very best song entries will receive Top 25 Nominations during 3 rounds of competition throughout the year, with Finalist Nominations officially announced in November. Top 25 winners are chosen the old school way - industry professionals on our staff and beyond carefully listen to each song with an ear towards great songwriting and performance. Winners receive premium front page exposure on Indie-Music.com a complete media campaign promoting the winners. Read more…

The songwriting industry has taken a hit from the economy just like the rest of the music business. Usually, songwriters look to publishers to get their music into the hands of recording artists or create licensing deals to generate revenues from their songs.  StartMySong was created to further facilitate this process by allowing songwriters from anywhere in the world the chance to pitch their music to publishers, music supervisors, and others looking for the next big hit. Read more…

If you love folk music (or any kind of music, for that matter), you might consider donating to a very good cause.  Sing Out Magazine, which also produces the Sing Out! sing-a-long book, a fantastic collection of songs with lyrics and chords, is having some trouble during these difficult financial times.  I’ll let Pete Seeger, who helped found Sing Out!, do the talking:

Here is the link to their website: Sing Out!

Never mind the “sex” part of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, that’s so utterly rampant I’ve started a whole article just on that subject. But today I want to talk about a quote in High Times Magazine (which, oddly enough, has little or no web presence…somebody get too lazy?? :-))

It’s from Alanis Morissette, who claims that she uses pot to tap into her creative juices:

“I’m all about moderation - as best I can be. As an artist, there’s a sweet jump-starting quality to it (marijuana) for me. I’ve often felt telepathic and receptive to inexplicable messages my whole life. I can stave those off when I’m not high. When I’m high - well, they come in and there’s less of a veil, so to speak. So if ever I need some clarity… or a quantum leap in terms of writing something, it’s a quick way for me to get to it.”

I’m not against pot. I’ve smoked it myself, although admittedly, not for some time. I tried writing songs when I was high, and did so, but the end result was not as wonderful as I thought it was when I was high.

Anybody who has smoked pot knows that it tends to blow a lot of things out of proportion. You THINK everything is funnier, more amazing, more beautiful…it doesn’t actually MAKE them so. So you are kidding yourself if you think you write better songs when you’re high. Morissette claims that it gives her quicker access to ethereal messages that she otherwise pushes away when she’s not high. I tell you what! Don’t push that stuff away in the first place! Then you won’t need pot to find your way to it.

I swore to myself that I wrote some amazing stuff when I was stoned. And when I wasn’t stoned anymore I realized it was no better than what I usually wrote, in fact it was often nowhere near as good as I thought it was when I was stoned. I know that there is this appealing and almost romantic notion to writers, whether they are songwriters or fiction writers, any kind, that drugs and alcohol enhance creativity. Unfortunately, Morissette, whether she knows it or not, will convince some kid somewhere that he or she should start smoking pot so they can become a better songwriter.

And this kid might not understand the notion of “moderation”.

It’s just not a very smart message to be sending out there.

IJ