Dead Milkmen Free For All

[Rodney]

So, I was just wondering, how are you folks getting your music these days,
and how do you learn about new releases?

You see, it occurred to me, the other day in the studio, that if I wasn’t
in the Dead Milkmen, I’d most likely be completely unaware of the
existence of The King in Yellow, as we don’t play the sort of music that I
normally listen to. Ay, there's the rub. I’d like people who listen to all
genres of music (except Jazz and Folk, naturally) to be aware of the CD.
Currently, the only way a Deadmau5 fan, for example, is going to know
about it is if he or she is dyslexic. There is a good chance that someone
who streams Pandora will hear a song or two off the CD, solely do to the
fact that the AI for Pandora is so patently brainsick that it just
automatically assumes that people who like Suicide Commando are also
really, really, really into Alanis Morissette ‘cuz, hey, the both use
microphones, don’t they?

Now, I’m a huge fan of Amanda Palmer (Originally, I wanted to call the new CD “Who Palmed Amanda Killer?”), but the only reason I know that she has a new CD out, on which she covers Nick Cave’s “The Ship Song” (Warning: As she starts to play the intro, some hedgeborn lout lets loose a
frighteningly loud “whoo-hoo”), is because I read about it in The Onion. I
love VNV Nation; they’re probably one of my three favorite musical acts of all time, but do you know how I learned about them? I bought a VNV t-shirt and then checked out the band. That’s right; I bought the shirt first. I guess it’s a good thing our t-shirts are pretty effin’ sweet (as demonstrated in Opie Cunningham’s comedic tour de force, The Dilemma).

Which brings me to next source of musical information: Record Stores
(since I bought my VNV t-shirt in one). There are basically four of these
in the part of Philly that matters. My favorite is Digital Ferret, on
South 4th Street, which specializes in Goth, EBM, EGL, and Industrial. If
you ask the person behind the counter to recommend something new & good, 9-times-outta-10, you’ll be happy with the result (I learned about Angels on Acid – who put out a brilliant CD – because they played a free show at the Ferret). Long in the Tooth, on Sansom near 22nd street, is great place to buy CD’s but it’s also one of those places that seems trapped in 1993: if you ask for something new and good, you get a 40 minute story about how amazing Guided by Voices are live (I saw ‘em open for Cheap Trick once; the less said about GbV the better. Cheap Trick ruled, though.). I’m sure that AKA Music in Olde City is a fine store (I’ve even bought a few things there), but there’s something about the vibe in that place that makes me feel that I’ll be mocked for purchasing an Angelspit CD or anything other than Yo Lo Tengo on vinyl, for that matter. FYE is the chain store on Broad & Chestnut. It’s been going out of business since approximately 1978. I shoplift there.

If I may digress (and anyone who complains will have their account
terminated), when I was young, there were only two places where you could buy records within 30 miles of my house. The first was Jamesway, a chain store with a surprisingly eclectic selection of music (Frank Zappa and the Ramones included) and an abhorrent amount of chewing gum stuck to the underside of the food counter. Then there was The Mad Platter in West Chester. The Platter was run by a pair of hippies who were loath to sell you anything other than Grateful Dead records (which I assume were bootlegs, as the Dead couldn’t possibly have had 5,000 recording in their catalog circa 1980, or could they?). I swear, they faded flower children behind the counter at the Platter (which my friend Tom used to call “The Plate-full Dead”) once tried to talk me out of purchasing a copy of The Damned’s greatest hits on the grounds that the music was “Kinda angry”.

Maybe it has something to do with my cumulative bad experiences with
record store employees, or just my discomfort with people in general (I
really should get tested for Asperger's syndrome one of these days), but I
buy most of my music online these days. Basically, I’ll be at home
listening to Live365 (Destroy All Monsters is a great radio station) and
when they play a song that I like and don’t already own, I just click a
link and buy an mp3 for less than $1. I spend about $10 a week on music. I really wish this had existed when I was young.

OK, to sum up, I’d like to know where you get your music (CD store or
digital download) and how you hear about new releases.

[Dirty Sanchez]

i wish there were more new bands i was tuned into but mostly i sit around and wait for releases and shows by bands that are all 20+ yrs old.
i mostly buy cds from the band at shows. good record stores these days are becoming pretty scarce. i do some mail ordering sometimes to at least give a few bucks to the indies...although i do admit to buying the new motorhead cd at best buy a few weeks ago, but only after 2 good stores didn't have it.
i bought eat your paisley on casette at mad platter.

[Cult Leader Lettuce]

When it comes to hearing about music, sometimes I find out about new bands by seeing them opening for acts that I like. At other times, I find out about new bands from various music chats I frequent. Yet other times, I find out from friends and by word of mouth.

As for buying records, I do most of my music buying at the local used cd store in town. Run by good people, they stock a nice selection of cds, tapes, and records, and they have a pretty good selection of the kinda music that I like. When I need something new, I sometimes go online to places like Amazon or eBay, or I'll drive to downtown Atlanta to some of the indie stores that I've been shopping at since the 90's. While there used to be multiple chain music stores in the suburban area that I live in, they all died out when the Best Buys came along.

As for buying digital copies, I feel that they're not worth the money that one usually pays for them, unless it's something that is impossible to get on CD or record (there have been a time or two that I've bought a digital copy, such as when the JP Incorporated album came out, and it was available as mp3 on amazon a while before there was a CD available). If I want an album on my digital music player or my computer, I'll just rip the record or cd to my harddrive. If I ever have a harddrive die on me, I'll still have hardcopies, and I won't have to say "I'm going to have to go and download hundreds of albums again, fuck." At least with my compact discs and records, I know that I'll still have them around until the aluminum layer on the cds oxidizes, or until the globe warms up enough to melt all my records. Or until Godzilla decides to become real and terrorizes the planet.
_________________
The unofficial archivist. Keep digitizing those old recordings everybody!

Current Projects: A stack of tapes from Timothy, will be hopefully getting those finished soon! Lotsa upgrades to things that have been circulating for a while.

[mrclean]

I hear about and buy new music several ways:

1. I listen to two radio stations: WXPN and WHYY while commuting to work. Both sometimes play music that catches my attention and then I might seek an artist out on the Internet for more information. Two artists that have recently gotten my attention: "Esperanza Spalding"and the "Secret Sisters". Ms. Spalding was on waaay before her recent Grammy win and played live in the NPR studio. I was so taken with a performance of a song called "Little Fly" I went home, downloaded the NPR news segment and actually cut my own MP3 of the live in the studio performance...I need to still buy the Secret Sisters disc.

2. Facebook - folks post videos there and I occasionally see something I have not heard of and might check it out more.

3. iTunes - I buy MP3s from iTunes

4. Amazon - I buy CDs and MP3s from amazon. when I buy an actual CD now I usually rip it into the computer immediately.

5. Recommendations from friends. I have several like-minded friends who like similar style things and we share info when we come across something good. Recently I heard about the band "Pell Mell" from a friend - cool instrumental stuff from the late 80s and 90's...

6. Online research. I was recently looking for info on "bandcamp" - the music website - and found several artists that I liked. Check this out: http://tournamentknights.com/

FYI - I never had a vinyl LP collection. I collected cassettes (and still have quite a few in the basement). I went from Cassettes to CD's to MP3s.

I have about 700 CDs in my collection (at one point I might have had over 1000). I have over 9000 songs (21 days) of music in iTunes.

Don't tell Rodney but I listen to a fair amount of Jazz and (old/classic) Country music.
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-- Mr. Clean

[Cult Leader Lettuce]

[dinorock]

I put the mike of my Lloyds cassete recorder up to the speaker of my Dumont AM radio turned to 980 oldies. (Did actually do that when I was a kid.)
I used to buy vinyl albums and record them on cassete first play before the pops, scratches and skips formed.)
I still buy cd's when I can. Download them on I-Tunes. But I really like to have a hard copy.
And I listen to a lot of jazz. Expand your horizons. (Big hat country pop sucks.)
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GO HABS!!

[mrclean]

I have several Wayne Hancock CDs and saw him live here in Philly a few years back - great show!
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-- Mr. Clean

[Marshall]

I'd have to say my methods of discovering new music is similar.

Mostly I depend on friends to turn me on to new music. In fact, our band has covered some songs (note: we are not a cover band) that I never heard the original versions of until way later. Joe has made me a few comps and that has turned me on to new music. I was given a jacket-less cassette of Bucky Fellini from a friend.

Bands covering or mentioning other bands. I discovered, by way of The Milkmen: Daniel Johnston, Alice Donut and Tom Waits to name a few, just by liking The Dead Milkmen. In the days of napster and limewire I would do a search for something like "Depeche Mode Cover" and I'd find an artist covering a song by them, and I'd look them up. There was someone covering The Cure called Her Majesty, a beautiful piano and voice arrangement of Boys Don't Cry and when I went to research the band (which I could never find btw), I stumbled upon the album title "Her Majesty" by The Decemberists. So I listened to them out of curiosity, and liked them just fine.

NPR is another great resource for me for music and books. Learned about The Lucksmiths, a since-disbanded Australian trio, through NPR. XPN I imagine will be what makes aware to a lot of people The King In Yellow, assuming they get a copy to play on air. It's Philly, of course they'll be excited.

Amazon sometimes has some pretty good recommendations regarding what I might like (unlike pandora I guess), and if I have time to fuss around online (like now), you can listen to song samples commitment-free.

I like jazz. Do I lose?

[sparksfiend]

I usually stumble across new bands on Youtube of all places. I remember watching Matt Pless cover Punk Rock Girl and thinking "Wow... this is pretty good, I wonder what his original material is like" and I was pleasently surprised with what I found.
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"Do you know what it's like to be violated by a 300-pound Filipino skinhead named Gunther? It ain't no picnic!"

[chrisnourcan]

Before they ruined tv with that digital box that I never bought, I used to like to watch bands on late night shows, and I like buying cd's at concerts, so I guess what I'm trying to say is, could you guys please go on Letterman? Or Conan, or something. And do a tour with lots of cd's for sale? That would be totally mint. In my opinion.

[cagliostro]

I used to listen to the radio. I became a dj in the late 80's, early 90's for a college station (and played tons of the Dead Milkmen thanks to no set playlist), and for some reason that ruined me for listening to the radio after that.
I heard about things from others, but then discovered CMJ (college music journal). I'd toss the magazine and put on the CD. I still pull out my CMJ CDs now and again to find artists worth tracking down. But my subscription stopped at some point and I didn't renew for some idiotic reason. Now they are no more, which is a pity to me. I think I then went into a slump and only followed bands that I had been following.
Nowadays, I find the occasional new artist through strange different means - the show Weeds frequently has a good playlist, and I found a few artists via their website with the radio attachment (I haven't been for a while though, so I don't know if it still exists). I also found a couple of bands through Rock Band, embarrasingly enough, but none really stuck other than the little bitty Boston bands that have a member working at Harmonix. Otherwise, people recommend things on some of the forums that I attend, and if a name sticks, I look 'em up on You Tube and give a listen for a while. If the rare occasion happens that I ever want to hear another song from them again, I'll pick up a CD, typically through Amazon or Borders. There are no indie record store within comfortable driving distance, and the ones I have found have employees so full of themselves I don't want to contribute to their paycheck. On those roadtrips where I do find a good independant store (or if I go back to one of the colleges I attended and go to the record store I worked for) I'll drop a ton of money to support them and take chances on things I only had a minor interest in.

[mrbigtoughguychris]

What is a record store?
They don't seem to have those around here anymore.
I have spent hours and hours researching music, online, since the music store died. There used to be an online music store that had an incredible "sounds like" and "influences" and "you might also like" section for each artist. I, sadly, cannot find that site any more.
I would select artists I liked and then buy CDs based on who they were related to.
Now with YouTube, and what not, I can sample the music immediately and sometimes find related artists that way.
I have found a few good artists via Pandora, but it can be sucky sometimes.
If you can find any websites with "spiderwebs" that are user created those are really cool. These diagrams show related artists and side project bands linked by user opinion. I have found many new artists and even new genres that way.
RSS feeds and allegedly twitter are a great way to hear about new music. I have just started dabbling in RSS, so I am not fully clear on how well it will work.
Google does list all of the weekly new releases from many sources, you can usually listen to the artists that way too.
Typing an artist into the google will give you a full discography and then you can also look at a wiki for band info on most bands I have looked for.
I have recently been into Pirate Metal, Death Metal and Folk Metal, and that has been a very interesting and exciting experience. I will always like the early to mid 80's pop and rap (Hyphy is my current favorite).
**BEWARE, E-Penis flexing is about to begin**
I have over 100,000 tracks in FLAC and MP3, plus about 3500 cds that I have not ripped yet and I am so far behind that I could probably listen to my own collection for the rest of my life and never collect anything new.
**E-Penis Flexing complete, sorry if I got any on you**
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Porn

[dandrew]

I hear "new" music from other people. Either from mix tape/CD's or putting a flash drive into their computer and cold lifting music from it. Like Dirty Sanchez said there's not too many great new bands out there, from what I've heard, but then again I don't listen for it. There's SO much old music that I have to catch up on still.

However, I have recently gotten into bandcamp.com and I am considering starting a page with my weirdo-mostly-instrumental-music-nonsense. Anybody can put anything up there.

My old favourite way of hearing new music was to buy it, sight unseen, sound unheard, from a record store. Buying the "Paranoid Time" 7" by The Minutemen based on the artwork changed my freakin' life.

[dinorock]

I get a lot of music ideas by listening to live. Last year at a jazz festival we were walking in the free stage area and heard this blues outfit from Kansas City called Moreland And Arbuckle. They kicked ass. Bought a CD. Should have bought two. (Dude was playing simultanious slide, and bass runs on a homemade cigar box guitar. Impressive)
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GO HABS!!

[LizardPrinceEros]

Most new bands I learn about from either seeing them play or word of mouth. I'll be honest though, I typically don't buy music unless--

-It's on vinyl, because I like to frame LPs that have had a profound impact on me.
-It can't be found elsewhere (torrent sites, friends, etc.) and I really want it.
-It's a band small enough that I feel they deserve my money.

Some folks may disagree with this, and I certainly can't claim a moral high ground because I really don't know if it's just or not. The fact is though, I wouldn't pay for most of the music I have, but because technology has allowed me the opportunity to listen to it for free, I'll gladly pay exorbitant ticket prices to see a band and buy merch.

If I hadn't pirated Milkmen songs from P2P networks when I was in middle school, I wouldn't have bought their shirts, I wouldn't have purchased Burn Witch Burn's album or Butterfly Joe's album, I wouldn't have flown to Chicago to see them play Riot Fest, I wouldn't have gotten half a dozen friends into the Milkmen... See where I'm going with this?