The Scene

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

Are you in the mood for some innovative music this weekend? Then look no further than the 9:30 Club. This Saturday, August 1st, Australian native Xavier Rudd is going to be playing at the club promoting his most recent album Dark Shades of Blue. Rudd plays an interesting mix of progressive rock that features the Didgeridoo (an Aboriginal instrument found in Australia). The uniqueness of the music doesn’t stop at the incorporation of the Didgeridoo though as Rudd’s main instrument is guitar and he is known to also play Weissenborn slide guitars, stomp box, harmonica, and percussion. While Rudd has achieved stardom back in Australia, he is hoping that this American tour (which started back on June 18th) will raise his popularity in the States. Fans of jam bands will find themselves more than happy with Rudd’s shows. Be sure to make it out to 9:30 Club on Saturday night to catch Rudd with Jeremy Fisher. Tickets are $20, but them here. (more…)

There is a lot at stake with the development of digital music and the ability to download it over the internet. One of the biggest confusions occurs when the Recording Industry Association of America discusses file-sharing as something that will end recorded music as we know it. If you listen to the RIAA, you are liable to believe that there will no longer be recorded music if file-sharers keep “pirating” music, but this is not close to the truth. Yes, major record labels could lose their dominance in the market place, but does that mean that music is dead? The RIAA has been claiming that the disintermediation provided by the internet will lead to the decline and ultimately the failure of the recording industry. The decline of the recording industry, however, is not the end of music. While the recording industry cannot exist without music, music can exist without the recording industry (even the music industry can exist without the recording industry).

Here’s a broad overview of how the “recording industry” has developed in the United States. (more…)

On Friday, July 17th, John Legend will bring his band to the Merriweather Post Pavillion at 7:30pm. Legend has been touring to sell his 2008 release Revolver. While John Legend’s voice is enough of a reason to get anyone into the crowd, also know that his summer tour is part of a “green” promotion. The “Greening” tour means that the band is performing “Carbon-Neutral concerts – offsetting CO2 emissions from venue energy use, buses and trucks, flights and hotel accommodations by supporting renewable energy projects.” One of the new songs that he has recently recorded has been leaked to the public; check-out “When it Rains” here. It’s my understanding that he’s also been playing “When it Rains” along with other new songs at his live shows.

Good news for all of the folk-indie rock fans out there. Wilco is playing at Wolf Trap on Wednesday, July 8th at 8pm. As always, Wolf Trap is a phenomenal venue to catch a show with its BYOB policy and cheap food within the gate. Touring with their (or rather Jeff Tweedy’s) most recent releast “Wilco (The Album)”, which is not getting the best reviews, yet the band is still managing to book big venues despite everything it’s been through. Honestly, I like Wilco only because they (or Tweedy at least) had the guts to stand-up to their record label work out a better deal – and it should be clear at this point that most record deals are exploitative. So pack your picnic basket and check-out Wilco with opening band Conor Oberst and the Mysic Valley Band.

Previously, I mentioned that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won its first lawsuit against people sharing music via the internet. As long as there has been copyright legislation, there has been “piracy” – I’m sure that someone was bootlegging copies of Beethoven’s symphonies. However, no one had before been charged for pirating something where they were in turn not profiting from its sale. Sharing music online is not the same thing as selling illegally reproduced music. Furthermore, all of this is being done in the name of the musicians – the RIAA argues that when people download music on file-sharing programs, they are stealing from musicians. But where is the money going from the RIAA’s litigation? Typically the money from lawsuits (not just about file-sharing) goes back to the RIAA and the major record labels. What follows is a brief explanation of why the RIAA and the major record labels are more exploitative of musicians than file-sharers. Future blog posts will further elucidate the erroneous nature of the music industry’s arguments about file-sharing. (more…)

On Monday evening I attended the third Fort Reno show of the summer.  Fort Reno is one of those “real DC” experiences that anybody living in the area needs to at least check out.  Part of what makes it great is that the bands seem to be chosen specifically because they would not normally be scheduled to play togehter.  Does pretty much any club in the area offer a superior concert experience?  Yeah, probably.  However, they have an excellent sound system run by a professional engineer.  The main difference is that the crowd is not necessarily there to see the bands as much as they are just there because it is the summer, so they have to go to Fort Reno  A description of the experience and review of the entertaining shows by Batala, the Small Doses, and Cigarbox Planetarium follows after the jump. (more…)