Music

[rome8180]

Also, @rome8180 if you like Don't Give Up, you MUST listen to Hounds of Love by Kate Bush from start to finish. It's a stunning album.

Big Kate Bush fan. Own Never for Ever and Hounds of Love on vinyl.

Got into her through my love for Joanna Newsom. You can see a pretty clear chain of influence there.

She also sings on the underground hit Games Without Frontiers on PG 3. I don't know Joanna Newsome.

Joanna Newsom is pretty much if you crossed Kate Bush with the female-led "freak folk" of the '60s. Ys is my favorite album by her but it may be a difficult entry point. I''ll post some songs I like later.

 

[rome8180]

Gabriel originally wanted Dolly Parton for "Don't Give Up." I wish we'd gotten both versions. Since the song was inspired by photos of the Dust Bowl migrants in the US, it would have been interesting/appropriate to have an American country singer on the track.

What a cool tidbit. What's the show again?

Classic Albums. Most episodes come with an Amazon Prime membership. But there are other places to watch it too.

 

[rhfarmer]

@rome8180 have you heard Peter Gabriel Plays Live?

 

[torontoduke]

I'm here for the Kate Bush love. Hounds of Love is incredible.

 

[rome8180]

This is one of the most brilliant compositions ever. This is the song I would show to people who think they don't like Zappa. It has like 8000 parts and they all flow together perfectly, and somehow it's catchy.

 

[torontoduke]

A North Carolina band, I believe. Classic.

 

[rome8180]

How did they manage to post a video with no title and no comment section? I followed the link and it's just a blank.

At any rate, I know Mitch Easter more as a producer. That song is super catchy though. You can see why he was such a perfect producer for REM. Very similar musical approach.

 

[rhfarmer]

Major Hoodoo Gurus vibes on that tune. I used to love Let's Active. Crows on a Phone Line was one of my faves.

 

[bfactor]

How did they manage to post a video with no title and no comment section? I followed the link and it's just a blank.

That freaked me out, I went to the direct link on youtube, refreshed, scrubbed the suffix stuff from the url, still the same. Thought my browser was acting up!

 

[rome8180]

Yeah, and if you click on the little Vevo icon in the corner of the video this happens.

 

[rome8180]

WTF, @torontoduke?

 

[torontoduke]

Don't know lads. Just like that band.

 

[rome8180]

I know the bass lines on Graceland are very niche subject matter, but I swear this video was a combination of religious experience and porn for me.

 

[TS9]

Chevelle haven't made any money from six million albums sold

I haven't listened to this interview, but I assume the "no money" claim is based exclusively on the recordings themselves, and not revenue from publishing/touring/merch, which potentially provides at least a moderately comfortable living for a band like Chevelle.

(Although I could be wrong – in this modern age of 360 deals, there's no guarantee you'll make much of anything for a really, really long time. Which is why lots and lots of bands/artists that appear successful also have to maintain side gigs, or in some cases work full-time jobs outside music. Go to Nashville, and there's a not-insignificant chance that the person handing you a Starbucks order has a song on country radio, for instance.)

The scale you have to achieve to get "rich" as an artist these days is absurdly high. Almost to the point of being impossible unless you're one of the precious few who can consistently sell out arenas and stadiums year after year.

 

[rome8180]

My friend's band, Black Map, has toured with Chevelle a couple times. Black Map definitely has to work "normal" jobs when not touring.

Bands usually get a guarantee for each show, which for the size of shows Chevelle and Black Map were playing is a few thousand dollars for each band. That's split between the band members and any crew they might have. Then you've got lodging, food, and gas to pay for. You've got the days in between shows. You're still paying rent back home while all this is going on.

My friend told me that they actually make most of their money at the merch table. People want to hang out with the band for a second and will pay $100 for a hoodie for the opportunity to do so.

You may each walk away from a tour with several thousand in profit, but that's not going to last you a year until the next tour.

 

[TS9]

It's pretty wild. A lot of jokes have been made over the past year about bands like Pearl Jam getting PPP loans, but major acts like that are essentially mini-corporations with full-time employees, and some mega artists have more employees than you might expect.

 

[rome8180]

Yeah, Black Map only employs a couple people. But Chevelle probably has half a dozen. Obviously profits aren't split equally, but that's still someone taking their 10% or their per diem or whatever. And for arena bands it would be a lot more than that. I watched a Metallica documentary, and they must have interviewed 20 different crew members.

 

[TS9]

I read somewhere that U2 toured with right at 200 crew members when it did its big Joshua Tree anniversary tour a few years ago. And the vast majority of those are some of the best of the best in their fields and don't necessarily come cheap in terms of salary, nevermind food, housing, insurance, etc. The cost to put on each of those shows had to be staggering.

 

[Bullettoothtony]

I read somewhere that U2 toured with right at 200 crew members when it did its big Joshua Tree anniversary tour a few years ago. And the vast majority of those are some of the best of the best in their fields and don't necessarily come cheap in terms of salary, nevermind food, housing, insurance, etc. The cost to put on each of those shows had to be staggering.

Last week I saw an awesome youtube video of them in Toronto i think, and they had a young girl in the audience come up and play guitar. I can't remember what she played first but then she asked if they could play "All I Want is You". I don't know how to link the video but I highly recommend watching it if you've never seen it... that shit gave me chills. I watched it probably half a dozen times in a row.

Part of why it appealed to me so much also is that I'd forgotten how much I love that song.

 

[rome8180]

I'm not sure if she was picked at random or not, since I haven't seen it. But I wonder when they pick out someone "random" from the audience if they've had people audition in advance. Chances of getting someone terrible would be too high. Lots of people think they can play a song, but performing it cleanly and in time with a band while standing in front of hundreds of thousands of people is a different thing.