Under a rock.
Remember how a calculated air of mystery hung over Belle & Sebastian as the band rose to fame? Details about their appearance and personnel were kept carefully under wraps. That's how the ECM roster of the 1970s seemed to me. Terje Rypdal? Jan Garbarek? Ralph Towner? Who were these guys? The label's album art provided no clues. To a Kansas boy in the pre-internet days, they might as well have been Martians. Now it's all too easy to discover that Towner looks like this. Time Line, the guitarist's most recent release, is typically ravishing.
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I just received a promotional email from Live Nation offering VIP premium access to concerts. It looks like little more than a "seat license program." (It's available at Starlight Theater in my town.) I don't begrudge promoters, venues, artists and labels for exploring new ways to make money. In fact, kudos to Trent Reznor. Be it NIN selling 2,500 units of a limited edition package at $300 a whack, or a power pop artist with a strong cult following selling personalized songs for $100 each, we're all going to have to figure out new ways to earn a living.
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Kansas City Click: It's gypsy punk night at the Beaumont. How will Gogol Bordello resist the mechanical bull?
1 comment:
Been a Towner fan since the days of The Winter Consort and the album Icarus.
As for Live Nation and Trent, I am going X-Rated on this family blog...
Bite me.
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