RTP-area local music and culture

[bendy <bendy AT blackstrap.org>]

grady wrote:
> (you hope) transform you into that guy 
> who hangs around the Chateau Marmont with Courtney Love for three days & 
> writes all about the experience in Rolling Stone for a cool $8k.

> Sounds to me like "who is my audience?" was answered by "my fellow 
> Pitchfork freelancers,"

And Pitchfork pays, what, $40 a review? That'll buy you ten cups of 
Starbucks to fuel your next review. Even if a writer struggles and 
strives and gets into Pitchfork, it's not like they're suddenly in the 
world of Camereon Crowe in Almost Famous.

The continuing disconnect between how the music scene is evolving and 
how it worked before filesharing/blogs/protools extends way beyond folks 
who draw RIAA salaries.

This is the anecdote I always keep in mind if I ever have the urge to be 
snarky about an unestablished band: I gotta friend who works for an 
avant garde press. They publish and translate and reissue a lot of stuff 
that has no commercial prospects but has a solid academic cult. One of 
his projects was a reprinting a book by an unknown-but-still-alive 
writer, a book he rediscovered and was charmed by, and there were enough 
NEA funds left over that he could take it on as a pet project.

He sends out a as many promo copies as allows. The only place the book 
get reviewed is Art Forum. And the critic, who my friend knows, panned 
it. Next time he sees the guy, he say something like, "Come on man, that 
book is like a tiny flower that had barely had a chance of being 
noticed, and walked over and stomped on it."

Yeah, there's bad independent music out there, but it's not being 
cynically foisted on anyone. It's the product of earnest effort, and 
probably has an audience somewhere. If something doesn't work for you as 
a critic, you can always be a journalist, and report on what you think 
they're trying to do.

In 1973, there were what, a dozen nationally distributed labels and five 
national rock publications?  There was some serious scarcity a work, and 
a ton of money to be divided among a small elite of staffers, musicians 
and journalists. That's how they afforded all that coke. If you think 
anything like that still exists, and that you could make into that world 
if it did, you're delusional. That, or such a huge asshole, you'd be 
rich already, doing something that's actually valued under the current 
economy.

Bendy!