The Bass Geek

Google’s new Android system means Amazon’s mp3 store has a direct link to new phones. The iPhone already has that link to iTunes. It’s not just physical media that’s becoming obsolete - now you don’t even need a personal computer if the craving gets to be too much.

Theoretically speaking, of course. For God’s sakes, please back up your media purchases on a home computer. One lost phone and you’re out for the whole thing.

I’d still love to see the DRM go away on iTunes (Amazon can do it, you can too) and the fidelity of the files to increase (can’t fit the whole collection, but it still sounds better), but this sure beats an SD card.

This TechCrunch article is quite right on its initial assessment of slotMusic.

• Physical media is on its way out as a distribution system for music
• The economics of this just don’t make sense
• There are better alternatives already on the market

It’s just the part at the end where it derails horribly.

The future of music is free streaming and (also free, eventually) downloads, not physical media.

There’s also a link to a previous TechCrunch article that has the entire Internet doing the small musician a favor by forcing their material to be free and flinging it about wildly. I responded to that article here, so feel free to peruse that.

There’s no doubt that publicity and marketing on a theoretically open and level field gives smaller artists huge advantages they never had before. But all of that publicity and marketing doesn’t help the artist if they’re unable to sell their products (and no, not all artists can or should rely on merchandising and live performances to make a living - for some it’s impractical, for others impossible). At least subscription models or the “music like water” model proposed in The Future of Music compensate musicians for their work, unwieldy as it may be. Simply demanding music for free and saying you’ll help them with their merch and shows in the future means a lot of broken promises and artists who can’t continue their careers.

TechCrunch seems fond of pointing out that economics demand zero cost for electronic copies of music, but they ignore that artists that can’t support themselves equals less music on the market for them to get for free. Suffocating the source of your product isn’t a good way to promote production.

It’s a full weekend at Radio Radio this weekend:

• Tonight - International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I have absolutely no idea what to do with this information. But it’s for charity, so have at it.
• Saturday - Three Bad Jacks, Rumble Club, and Deacon Sean. Fans of rockabilly and The Clash need to be here.
• Sunday - KRISTEENYOUNG and The Working Hours - if it’s good enough for Morrissey, it’s good enough for you.

Sam’s Saloon has the Ten Foot Band, and The Half Step Sisters tonight.

Big Car Gallery has an installation at Oranje this weekend - the location is actually at 24th and Illinois, but the origins qualify for this post.

Deano’s Vino has Wilson & Company tonight and the Ten Foot Band tomorrow. This, my friends, is how you conduct a Fountain Square tour.

No, not Pat Metheney, silly.

Engadget is reporting that the PS3 version of the new Guitar Hero franchise installment can import MIDI tracks for use as songs in the actual game (boo for no Xbox 360 functionality). Although I’m guessing the MIDI synths in the game won’t match up to the pro sounds from the other songs, it does provide independent artists a chance to get their music on the game, if only through external downloaded content (and with no vocals - take note, future Joe Satrianis of the world!).

Also, the new IMN podcast is up - download here or listen at the site (or on WFYI HD2 Thursdays at 4pm).

FoBG Marshall Kreeb recently finished this devastating project as a DIY project - he’d been playing a nice Stingray but evidently wanted something that could cleave stone in twain with his band Devils of Belgrade.  Hence, the bass you see here.  For those who are interested in the pertinent stats, here they are:=

Body: Dinky J Bass Style, Swamp Ash, Black Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish
Neck: Graphite - Made by Moses Graphite, Hipshot Tuners
Pickups, Electricals, & Misc.: 2 Bartolini Musicman style Humbuckers (one is a classic modeled off of the original stingray pickup, the other is based off the modern design in the current basses), Leo Quan Badass II Bridge, Aguilar OBPII Active Preamp (18V).

Knob Configuration Is: Volume, Blend, Treble, Mid(push-pull frequency select), Bass

The part that intrigues me is the graphite neck. Kreeb says drilling the Moses Graphite neck was the scariest part of the project:

You have to drill pilot holes for the tuner mounting screws, string tree, and neck bolts. The neck bolts come with brass inserts from Moses that you set into the pilot holes, then the neck attaches to the body with 4 bolts - standard Fender bolt pattern.

From there, it was a lot of soldering, wet sanding, sealing and buffing. Looks fantastic, and I am both terrified and intrigued by his description of the sound combined with his Eden rig:

It sounds like the great hammer of Thor striking down upon the weak of heart

I can see why this had to be a DIY project - such a sound does not usually roll off of the factory floor.