The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

Join me on Soul City Radio tonight (8/25) as I discuss my book entitled, “Criminalizing Independent Music: The Recording Industry Association of America’s Advancement of Dominant Ideology”. The show will be live from 7-8pm, but I am sure you can replay it for a while after the recording on the site. I was on the show back in January during their panel discussion series on the state of independent music.

About The Book (more…)

On Saturday there will be a benefit show at the Ottobar. Several DJs will spin and local dance tunes creators Lazerbitch will play.  Proceeds will go to the Ottobar.  Why?  Well, nobody can talk about the specifics publicly, but the club is the subject of a lawsuit, one that apparently has something to do with its insurance policy.  Legal bills are a hardship for Ottobar ownership so they are openly asking their customers to chip in by purchasing $10 tickets for this event or even to donate via Paypal.  Missiontix, the site that handles ticket sales for Ottobar shows and other hip events in Baltimore, is even waiving service charges for ticket sales for this event.

Although it sounds like a good time and I believe that this is a good cause, I’ll take a pass myself.  Instead, when I attend a BIMA fest show there in a couple of weeks I’ll just drink more heavily than normal.  Maybe I’ll buy a t-shirt.  If they have copies available I may even buy a DVD of DJs, the crazy sex-n-drugs soap opera set at the Ottobar.  If you have been thinking about checking out the Ottobar, get there for this benefit or another upcoming show.  A lot of people would appreciate it.

People that like to romanticize the changing of music mediums often lament about the loss of recording technology. This is one of the reasons why there has been a recent boom in vinyl album sales because people miss the crackly analog that supposedly sounds so much better. While I don’t want to get into the aesthetics of it (maybe vinyl just does sound “better”), this imagined losing of old technologies is strange and generally unique to music (could you imagine romanticizing the quality of a rotary phone? Is anyone willing to give up their G4 phone to be put through by an operator?). Well, it’s official, CNN has declared that the CD is dying. (more…)

For those of you that follow this blog who are interested in how the music industry operates, I strongly recommend going to Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Day tomorrow, Tuesday, May 25th. The day is set-up to feature discussions about policies currently on the congressional agenda that are pertinent to musicians. While most of these panels are on music, technology and the internet, one panel is on musicians position in the new health care legislation. The policy is from 11am-5:30pm at the New America Foundation. RSVP here. Detailed schedule after the jump. (more…)

“Two muses put an artistic touch on a week of lobbying to stop mountaintop removal”

By Johnny Kilroy

It’s not unusual to get a bunch of hill folk together, and to discover that a few of them brought instruments for a hasty jam.

Appalachians, in fact, carry their culture with them like a pocket knife.  They’re naked without it.  You can’t take a pocket knife into the halls of Congress, but you can’t go naked either.

That’s why many of the coalfield residents who attended the 5th annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington decided to be their own salty selves. When the time comes to sing, it’s okay to sing your song a little out of tune. Even if the story was lost on the suits, the air would be a little fuller for the effort. (more)

For those of you interested in the state of the music industry, tune into Soul City Radio this Friday at 10pm for the last of four panels on independent music. Yours truly will be participating in the panel with Teisha Marie and Casey Rae-Hunter with host DeWayne Alston. It should be an interesting discussion on the implications that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has on music as a whole. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post about the panel during and after the discussion. More details and the radio widget after the jump.

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From time to time I would like to use this space to theorize about the music industry. It would be great to get feedback from people interested in these ideas. This one is specifically trying to describe what P2P networks are. Leave your comments if you have anything to add.

In its infancy, the internet was nothing more than a few people with computers connected over some servers that allowed those people to gather information easier. Many of those first users (more…)

This is a melancholy week for Baltimore-area music fans, as two important sites are about to become memories:  the Glen Burnie Record & Tape Traders location and Friends bar in Fells Point.  Record & Tape Traders, as the name indicates, has been an important independent music retailer in Maryland for decades.  A few years ago they closed down several store locations in Annapolis, Rehobeth, Dundalk, and elsewhere.  After Sunday’s in-store wake, their only remaining store will be in Towson.

February also marks the final month for Friends in Fells.  Although not a live music venue, Friends has served as an important meeting place where Baltimore musicians have worked as deejays and bartenders while others have been regular customers, talking shop over beers.  Known for its late-night happy hour, Friends has made a great night-ender for folks who have spent their evening elsewhere, including live shows.  I’ll be saying goodbye on Wednesday the 24th, when DJ King Gilbert Partridge will host his final “No Rest For The Wicked” garage, etc., set while Matt Naas of The Expotentials pours drinks for one last time.  If you hear about the theft of Friends’ jukebox, loaded with the most amazing library of rock CDs imaginable, I will have had nothing to do with it.

Its great to see musicians doing real activism. Check-out this post by Johnny Kilroy: http://tenthmil.com/campaigns/arts/do_the_kings_of_leon_love_their_mountains.

Are you interested in the ability for the independent musician to take-on the Big Four record labels? Then check-out the up-coming panels on Soul City Radio. During the month of February, Soul City Radio will be bringing you a series of panel discussions. The panels will be discussing various issues pertinent to the independent music industry and the artists that make up it’s ranks. Keep your mind open in order to

Each week will bring you a different panel and a different discussion. The following is a list of topics and panelists: (more…)