Archive for July 2014

Envisioning My Crowdfunding Campaign

If I were to run a crowd funding campaign for one of my musical endeavours, here are some likely perks (gosh, I hate this word):

  • Music as download (5$?)
  • Music as download and on CD (15$?)
  • Music as download, bonus music as download (20$?)
  • Music as download and on CD, bonus music as download (30$?)
  • Music as download and on CD, bonus music as download, Manticess – God Save the Writer CD (from 2010), Jutze – Vivien CD (from 1999) (50$?)
  • Music as download and on CD, bonus music as download, original hand-written lyrics to a Jutze of your choice (subject to availability; these are the lyrics written during the song writing process, each sheet is unique; some songs had no written lyrics, some were lost) (50$?)
  • Music as download and on CD, bonus music as download, plus I write and record a 52-second song about a topic of your choice (restrictions apply) (60$?)

Depending on the production, I might also add some sort making of footage, maybe for free, maybe via link in the CD, maybe a separate DVD (including some live songs?)

Band Websites Suck.

Much like university websites, band websites suck. It is just too hard to archive all news items and to compile a complete list of concerts and releases. There have been some promising sites but one by one they got sacked. A lack of updates would have been bad. Still, every band homepage I’ve ever cherished has been cut down during the past 13 years. There might be a couple of artists I’m not really a fan of who still have a proper web presense. And there are, of course, some fan sites that provide all the info. (That’s what I attempt to do on anglagard.net.) Most offical band pages, however, have simply been replaced by shallow marketing schemes. New album out soon! Winter tour dates. And only then did they stop the updates. It used to make me angry. Now it only makes me sad, because I still don’t see why the old stuff has to go as soon as a new album is coming out. Our rather, a new social media campaign manager is on board.

Woher wissen Sie das alles eigentlich?

Part of my job is statistical consulting. Recently, I explained the use of plausible values in PISA to someone, who then asked me a question I found very interesting: “Where did you learn all this?” I really liked this question, because it goes beyond the search for a particular solution to a particular problem. So now I resolved to ask it myself more often when I get advice from others.

Peter K. Rosenthal Rules!

The funniest* online thing of the last 12 months has certainly been The Onion‘s Film Standard featuring Peter K. Rosenthal. Here are four brilliant movie reviews to get you started:

  1. The Onion Reviews ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’
  2. The Onion Reviews ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
  3. The Onion Reviews ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’
  4. The Onion Reviews ‘Gravity’

* Funny as in I fell from my chair due to laughter-induced stomach cramps.

The Pine Hill Cover Album According to Jutze

Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky announced a new album of cover songs. One of the crowd-funding options is a cover version of your choice. The current price (3,000 US$) is off my limits, so I could just stop there. Or I could fantasize about which songs would make a good choice. After a couple of days of rumination I’ve begun to see a silver lining: It’s terribly difficult to pick just one song. Of course, I still hope they lower the price – but well, here is my current list of potential covers with some remarks.

  1. The Hooters: “May You Always Fit the Shoe” – an unreleased song that was played live in 1992. I only have a noisy live version, so I’d love to get a better recording. The original has some nice vocals by the late Mindy Jostyn, so this would be a great duet for Richard and Lucy. Fun fact: Co-writer Rob Hyman has collaborated with Dar Williams on all of her newer albums.
  2. Dave Carter: “Calvary’s Hill” – another unreleased song that I only heard played by Ron Greitzer and Tracy Grammer (in a lo-fi mp3). A hauntingly beautiful song with great harmonies.
  3. The Brandos: “Hallowed Ground” – my favourite Band with one of their folk-influenced songs.
  4. David Kincaid: “Paddy’s Lamentation” – an Irish traditional with lyrics from the Civil War. This one would suit Richard perfectly, in my opinion.
  5. The Coalminers’ Beat: “Take Me High Above” – a song about violence in Northern Ireland. The combination of male and female vocals makes this a very good contender; also, I’m still not over the fact that the band broke up.
  6. The Del-Lords: “Poem of the River” – it is very tempting to simply list my favourite songs. Still, Richard and Lucy should be able to contribute something unique to the compositions.
  7. Bruce Springsteen: “My Hometown” or “Dancing in the Dark” – Richard already tackled a couple of Springsteen’s songs. I’d love to hear more!
  8. Bon Jovi: “Last Man Standing” – the slower version from “100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” already hints at the potential of this song as a folk number.
  9. Chris de Burgh: “Last Night” – possibly an odd choice. Yet, it’s a tale told in a song and could possibly be turned from pop to folk.
  10. Iron Maiden: “Alexander the Great” – certainly an odd choice. This one would need a thorough transformation. Not sure how the outcome would sound. Quite a gamble for 3,000 bucks.
  11. Traveling Wilburys: “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” – Richard already did a Dylan cover. This one has more narrative elements and also a group feel to it that maybe could be translated in the duo setting.
  12. Per Gessle: “Elvis in Deutschland” – this is the demo from the re-release of the album “The World According to Gessle”. Another experiment in terms of turning pop into folk.
  13. Genesis: “Smalltalk” – I’m embarrassed that I listed so many songs from major label releases. Anyhow, Richard could make this one even more intense, I guess.
  14. Pat Algar: “Once in a Very Blue Moon” – Richard’s take on this one is stunning to say the least.

I’m tempted to add more songs, say, CCR‘s “Someday Never Comes” and “Brothers in Arms” (Dire Straits); but I think these songs are already perfect. Any cover version would be bound to disappoint on some level. And the list above would already be 42,000 dollars, no need to increase the costs further.

PS: Naturally, I’d love it if they were to include some of their unreleased songs, for example, “Walden Well” (Richard) and “If You Love Someone That’s What You Do” (Lucy).