MANZANITA
Shana Cleveland, Gaussian Curve, Bassolino, Kyle Tierce, Patrick Shiroishi, Everyone's a sellout now, The State of Culture 2024.
A string of vacations, birthdays, work and booze led me to not be able to pack this for March. The articles regarding streaming, festivals and Dopamine Culture are very important and demand your attention.
IN HEAVY ROTATION
I notice in hindsight while preparing the newsletter, that I had been listening to moody soundtracks during March, was it the weather? was I going through feels?
♩BASSOLINO: (Italian 70s Soundtracks): The first soundtrack is by Neapolitan composer Bassolino, harkening to 70s Italian gangster/mafia movie soundtracks, incorporating uptempo grooves, disco, funk and more. Out today on Jakarta Records (sister label to Habibi Funk)
♩KYLE TIERCE: (Italian 70s Soundtracks, Library Music): This is the soundtrack to a real movie a 2022 gothic neo-giallo called 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀 𝙁𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙀𝙍𝙎 𝙊𝙁 𝘼 𝘿𝙊𝙂. Kyle aka beatmaker Dr. Quandary, combed through & combined elements of 70s library music, prog jazz & musique concrète to create the film's signature soundtrack. Out on Superspectrum.
♩SHANA CLEVELAND (Americana, Psychedelic Folk): This one is not really a soundtrack but It’s extremely cinematic. Shana is a member of all girl garage pop band La Luz, whom I’ve been a fan of since some time, and these songs were written while she was pregnant. This will teleport you to California in your head.
♩PATRICK SHIROISHI (JAZZ/IMPROV/AMBIENT): I Started a morning in March with this piece from LA sax player Patrick Shiroishi's latest album, shared it on bsky. Gray skies, but mellow and still hopeful. Another somber & meditative improv piece.
♩GAUSSIAN CURVE (AMBIENT/ELECTRONIC): is the holy trinity of Italian ambient/newage outsider maestro Gigi Masin, Amsterdam DJ/producer Young Marco and ambient guitarist Jonny Nash. Out on Music from Memory
UNDOMONDO DISCOVER WEEKLY
Thematic playlist w/ jangly guitars. garage rock, indie pop, psychedelia, folk, americana, post-punk & some noise rock at the end. Music from Cindy Lee, Ducks Ltd., Sons of Zoku, Shana Cleveland, Adrianne Lenker, Laetitia Sadier, The Smile, Marnie Stern, Jane Weaver, Meatbodies and more..
The State of the Culture, 2024 (Substack)
This is a catastrophe of the first order. and if we can’t create an anti-net or anti-web order, we’ll not be able to survive.
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok—an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.
Everyone’s a sellout now (VOX)
The internet has made it so that no matter who you are or what you do — from 9-to-5 middle managers to astronauts to housecleaners — you cannot escape the tyranny of the personal brand. For some, it looks like updating your LinkedIn connections whenever you get promoted; for others, it’s asking customers to give you five stars on Google Reviews; for still more, it’s crafting an engaging-but-authentic persona on Instagram. And for people who hope to publish a bestseller or release a hit record, it’s “building a platform” so that execs can use your existing audience to justify the costs of signing a new artist.
♩READ: Private Equity is Destroying Our Music Ecosystem (NY Times)
Private equity, the industry responsible for bankrupting companies, slashing jobs and raising the mortality rates at the nursing homes it acquires, is making money by gobbling up the rights for old hits and pumping them back into our present. The result is a markedly blander music scene, as financiers cannibalize the past at the expense of the future and make it even harder for us to build those new artists whose contributions will enrich our entire culture.
♩READ: 21 UK festivals cancelled, postponed or permanently cancelled, many more at risk, AIF reports (DJ Mag)
“Without intervention, it’s expected that the UK could see over 100 festivals disappear in 2024 due to rising costs. Without having had a single steady season since the pandemic in which to recover, the country’s festivals are under more financial strain than ever," AIF said in a statement.
♩READ: Life without Metadata (Disquiet)
This is something I’ve been meaning to say since 20 years of receiving promos. If you don’t send your music without Metadata, it gets lost & not listened to. :(
Think of how much easier it would be for the people to whom you’re sending your music if you just took the extra step to edit your metadata.
♩READ: The Oral History of Pitchfork (Slate)
This very long interview / article sheds a lot of light on the early days of Pitchfork and how it was founded, with a lot of the main players chiming in. I didn’t expect it to be this fun and interesting. And If you can’t get enough of Pitchfork, segue to Indie, Rocked by The Verge.
Brian Howe (contributor, 2003–23): The internet was this emerging uncharted frontier. It seemed natural that people were going to look for places to congregate on it. But someone has to make a bonfire for it all to come together.
Adam Krefman (director of business development and festivals, 2015–21): The internet was just a completely different place. It was almost like a solar system with large amounts of space between planetary bodies.
That’s all, see you soon! Find me on bsky, which is my favourite place to be these days.