2 posts from September 2008

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Go Wrecking Belles!

Sep 7, 2008
1 comment

Wooohoooo! Richmond Wrecking Belles smashed the Oakland Outlaws last night at Herbst Pavilion, 96-64. The Outlaws were undefeated going into this bout, so I was a little nervous - but Richmond's defense shut down the mighty Oakland jammers and Oakland couldn't return the favor.

Richmond played a tight team game all night. After the bout, sitting at Rudy's eating Buffalo Tofu and onion rings, Rachel and Darren and Nina and I were trying to pick an MVP and we really couldn't. Everyone on the track played their guts out the whole time. My MVP vote actually went to J. Crush, who wasn't on the track at all but ran around keeping the fans pumped and did some impressive booty-shaking to the halftime show. Rowr.

Oh yeah - the halftime show. The Loyd Family Players rocked the house with their syncopated drum corps awesomeness. They're talented percussionists for sure, but it was the players themselves that took the performance to the next level. Every single player was totally into the performance, smiling and rocking out and clearly in love with the music. People were getting out of their seats and dancing all over the arena. If you ever get a chance to see these folks perform, don't miss it.

The B.A.D. Girls are fundraising right now to pay for their November trip to the Nationals in Portland. They're ranked #6 in the nation (out of 50), so they're bound to kick ass and take names. Help out with a donation if you can.

Singles vs. albums

Sep 4, 2008
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My day job as an interaction designer involves a lot of user research. I recently did a project for an online music distribution service where I talked to a bunch of "music junkies" in the SF Bay Area about the way they listen. I was surprised to find that most of my participants (all btwn 18 and 35) were still pretty album-focused - even though they're mostly listening on computers or iPods, where other sorting methods (artist, genre, playlist) are easily accessible. It's a listening paradigm that's deeply entrenched in popular culture.

As a musician, that kinda bums me out. I mostly work solo. I'm something of a perfectionist about my songwriting, recording, and production. I have a day job, hobbies, and an active social life. An album takes me a really fucking long time to finish.

My buddy Aki says I should just throw tracks up online as I get them finished and not worry about it. Music isn't going to be a full-time job for me; it's not like I have the time or physical stamina to tour. If I want to press CDs at some point, I could just do it when I have enough singles completed.

I can't rationally refute his argument. I'm showing my age, I guess. I subscribe to the album paradigm. I have a romanticized view of physical media - 7", 12", CD - even though I buy all of my music digitally. Posting online singles just feels like cheating, somehow.