I was just recently made aware of Billy Bragg’s fascinating “Jail Guitar Doors” program. The initiative basically gives inmates musical instruments, with the idea that it will give them a hobby, other than, say, killing people. So far, the re-conviction rates of those who have participated in the program is only 10%-15%, opposed to the 61% national average in the UK. Truly impressive. Music plays a significant role in our lives, and our western society, including corporations, has done a relatively good job recognizing the importance of music in our over scheduled lives. I think we need to continue supporting music programs at public schools, and ensure that schools with less government funding have the necessary means to sustain these programs. Unfortunately, the schools with the least government funding are often in neighborhoods were crime is most persistent. Sure, the program may be a little expensive, but so is locking a person up for 80 years. This way, maybe we can help avoid needless crime, and perhaps even get a good band or two out of it. The Independent just recently covered a story on “Jail Guitar Doors,” and I highly recommend you read the article. When they interviewed Bragg he said:

I never ask the prisoners I meet why they are inside. When I’m with them, I’m dealing with them strictly as individuals. What they did to get themselves in here in the first place is none of my business. I don’t want to judge them on that, not least because they’ve been judged on it already – they’re banged up, aren’t they? And anyway, these instruments aren’t presents, they’re a challenge, a challenge for them to try to make something of themselves. My hope is that they will see this as an opportunity to take that first step on the path back to society.

I believe the program “Jail Guitar Doors” is only a UK run program. I am not personally knowledgeable about specific organizations in the US that have similar programs, but am sure they exist. If any one has any information, either for donating instruments to schools or prisons, or wherever, please leave a comment below– I will update the post. I care about this issue, not only because I think it’s important to help prevent crime, but also because I think everyone has the right to explore music, and their inner passion. I’m not particularly good at any instrument, but it’s not from a lack of opportunity. Right now, I play the guitar a little, and like playing, but over the years I have dabbled in the Saxophone, Piano, and Drums. If you are on this site you obviously have a deep passion for music as well. It’s just interesting to think about how lucky we all are, and question what would have happened if the musicians we treasure were born under different circumstances where they didn’t have access to instruments.

Mermaid Avenue:

Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars

Hello everyone,

So I have a few things I would like to quickly bring up. The first thing is irrelevant to most of you, the second is a favor I need to ask of you. The third is “the best of Indie Muse”–Mp3’s that hopefully you will like. Indiemuse.com has been here for a while, but some of you are newcomers. For those of you who don’t have time to go through all of my first band posts, I want to aggregate some of the Mp3’s so you can have a listen. If they are on this site, it means we endorse them. We don’t post for quantity–we post for quality. We want Indie Muse to be a place where you can come if you have similar music tastes, and find music that you will hopefully like. We aren’t hot shots who think we are so cool or more “expert” than you in regards to independent music, because we run a music blog. We simply love music and want to share our tastes.

1) If anyone has extra Wilco tickets for either night (February 26 or 27th) at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC, please let me know. Those of you who have visited the site before know Wilco is my favorite band, and I’ve been following them in Chicago for a long time. I still haven’t washed my hands since shaking one of them with Jeff Tweedy, while he sang “Hummingbird.” But yeah, getting tickets has been a disaster. I won’t bore you with the details.

Wilco -  More Like The Moon 

Wilco - Radio Cure (live-kicking the television)–brilliance at its finest. This live version makes me want to weep. I can’t believe I missed this show in Chicago. Please, if you have extra DC tickets I can purchase. You will be my savior.

2) Musicfloss.com. Do you like the domain name? Not as a replacement domain for this blog, but for a little music website I’m working on. I can tell you a little bit more about it later. But the domain name..if you can offer any feedback, it would be greatly appreciated. Your opinion really matters to me here. Don’t worry, it’s not a site that sells dental floss that plays music, although that would be a good idea. I just want to know if it’s catchy, easy to remember..non-offensive. Thank you in advance for your help.

3) Like I stated earlier in this post, I like every song we put on Indie Muse. But these five are some of my older favorites..and I posted them back in 2006, when I first started the blog. Expect more “recaps” in the upcoming weeks. If there is an artist that you like here, type their name into our search on the left hand sidebar to see the original post.

Gary Jules - No Poetry

The Weepies -Gotta Have You

The Scourge of the Sea - Waterwings

Jeremy Messersmith - Beautiful Children

Ugly Casanova - Hotcha Girls

See that picture? Ben Folds took that picture. Understand? Just try to remember. I remembered because someone passed me a link for a Ben Folds show back in December where he debuted some new songs. The recording begins with Folds explaining that they had new material that they were working out. They have 13 songs recorded, supposedly.

I have really had a serious love for Ben Folds for a long time… but maybe the same old thing was getting old for me too, because I forgot the last time I played him on my iPod. Listening to him again after a long break was pretty surprising because what he played , while still being very “signature Folds”, broke some boundaries–in a genre where he may well be the only member. My favorite of the bunch was stuck in my head for a while and I’m pleased to share it. Enjoy:

MP3: Ben Folds - “Brainwashed” Live - 12/19/07

Here are the rest:

MP3: Ben Folds - “Free Coffee” Live - 12/19/07 (Song starts 1:10)

*He uses some distortion and an autopan on the piano. It was only a matter of time… if you ask me…

*Still very nasty.

MP3: Ben Folds - “Effington” Live - 12/19/07

MP3: Ben Folds - ” You Don’t Know Me” Live - 12/19/07 (Song starts 1:20)

MP3: Ben Folds - “The Bitch Went Nuts” Live - 12/19/07 (Song starts 1:00)

MP3: Ben Folds - “Errant Dog” Live - 12/19/07 (Song starts 1:10)

Get: Show Info | Whole Show Recording

Support the Folds always, damnit!

I was cleaning up some of my old bookmarks today and came across this 2 minute video showing how big-name CD manufacturers are distorting sounds to make them seem louder, and the negative impact this has on sound quality. Thought it was an interesting video you might want to check out.

Update: If you are interested in this topic, you can also check out this new article published by Rolling Stone addressing the Loudness War. Really weird that I came across this today, because I had no idea this article was written until after posting this video which I had bookmarked for ever.

Hello friends,

Sorry for the lack of posts. My school year started a month ago, and things have been very busy. Here are a few things that I would like to tell you.

1) If you have missed me (which I know so many of you have), and would like to listen to a great two hours of music, I am now going to have my own radio show on Sunday’s from 2-4 pm EST on WVAU.org (Click HERE to stream) . That’s right, my very own radio show. Well I do have a partner, Jenna, but I’m sure you will all just adore her. Plan for very awkward air breaks, it will be great!

2) As for the blog.. I have some good news and some bad news. First with the good news. We are working on updating the design of the site, and will hopefully have that implemented soon. It looks nice, and I think you guys will like it—-spice things up a little bit. Also, several more contributers are going to join Indie Muse, which is going to make this quite the place to be. I can tell you that these guys were not just randomly chosen off the street (well maybe one of them was), and I am only allowing them to post for the the site because I know they will carry on the Indie Muse spirit—-awesomeness. They have amazing tastes in music, and are all musicians themselves, which I’ll talk more about later. The plan is to update a whole lot more. If you’ve been on the site before, you probably know by now that we aren’t professional writers or “music critics,” and we don’t try to be—-we just like to share the music we love, and give you some info about the bands so you can find new music and spread the good word. To make the site more useful, it needs to be updated more and now that we have more people, it will be. You can count on that.

Now for the bad news. Wait. There is no bad news! I figured that if you were anticipating bad news, and than suprisingly found out there was none, it would make for more good news.

See you soon,

David

I’m not even going to apologize this time. I always think I’m going to do better, but something always comes up, and I don’t post. Like this time I can say I was in Seattle for two weeks, which is true, and that I’ll get more posts up this week, but at this point I’d be foolish to think something else won’t come up this week. If I were breaking up with you, these first sentences would work perfectly when explaining why I can’t keep the site up anymore, but fortunately that’s not happening. In fact, this is a renewal of our vows. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are weird and stand while you are on your computer, please take a moment to sit down, as this news is surely going to blow you off your feet. Indiemuse.com is going to get a makeover. In several ways. Starting today, I am happy to announce that my good friend, Dave Nyman, who you may know from the blog Just-pretend.blogspot.com, is joining Indiemuse.com. If we are lucky, several more writers will join our team, as well. Dave is extremely knowledgeable about today’s best music, and is a quite talented musician himself. We are both very lucky to have him.

So this is how this is going to work—I’m still going to be posting, and will still try my very best to share with you the music I’m loving, but in addition, you will now be graced with Dave’s musical taste. And if our other friends decide they would like to join us, we are possibly looking at a new post everyday.

One thing that will not change is our mission. All we are trying to do is find other fans who appreciate the same music as we do, and help spread the good word. I want to thank all of you for your support, even through my hiatus. Be expecting a post from Dave soon, and remember, I will not be offended at all if you get us confused, as he is bound to make great discoveries that I would love to take credit for.

Oh yes, and by any chance are you, or someone you know, a graphic designer who would be kind enough to help us out with the banner for the site? We are thinking we might change things up a little bit in terms of the display, and I am horrible with Photoshop. Just awful. We are looking to have a cool Indie Muse graphic logo, maybe something revolving around music. If you could help us, we would be forever grateful, and will link to your site and give major props.

Song of the Day

Elliott Smith - New Moon:

Elliott Smith - New Monkey

Man, have I missed you guys. I just got back from Bonnaroo a few days ago, and must say that it was one experience that will be with me for the rest of my life. I had the opportunity to catch up with some good friends, and watch some amazing live performances. Here is a list of everyone I had the opportunity to see:

Tea Leaf Green, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Brazilian Girls, Kings Of Leon, Michael Franti, Lily Allen (for a minute), Ravi Coltrane Quartet, Tool, STS9, String Cheese Incident, Ziggy Marley, Xavier Rudd, Ween, Spoon, The Police (for a few songs), Flaming Lips, Sasha and John Digweed, Bob Wier & Ratdog, Wilco, and The White Stripes.

There is no disputing that the Lips concert was the most mind-blowing concert there. Anyone who was part of it will remember that night for a very long time. Before the show, hundreds of those little pointing lasers were thrown out into the crowd, and the laser, confetti flying, balloon bouncing, spaceship landing, festivities that took place afterwards were magnificent–it’s one of those things you just really have to be there to see. I know that many of the Lips shows are relatively similar, maybe besides the spaceship, but there was something really special about being outside that night with that many thousands of people.

While the Lips concert was great, there was a performance on Thursday night from a lesser known band, that really grabbed my attention–in fact, it was probably my second favorite show at Bonnaroo-Rodrigo Y Gabriela. I have never seen anyone in concert before who is as captivating to watch while playing the guitar as these two musicians. On stage, they sat on chairs with their acoustics, and showed off their quick hands, while performing some wonderful Mexican melodies. Most American musicians would not be able to play with the kind of talent these two displayed, particularly Gabriela. As you can see in the above picture, there were screens behind them, and the videographer who was filming their performance added that much more to the show, often focusing in on Rodrigo and Gabriela’s hands, and giving unique camera shots and nice effects. They are on a tour right now, so if you have an opportunity to see them, I highly recommend doing so.

Was anyone else at Bonnaroo? If you were there, what were your favorite shows? Hey, even if you weren’t there, what do you think would have been your favorite shows? I hope everyone is enjoying their summers, and that I’ll get to write more about Bonnaroo and some other great music I’ve been listening to soon.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Tamacun

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo

~R & G Official Site~

Bonus:

Flaming Lips - She Don’t Use Jelly

Flaming Lips - SpongeBob & Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall of Energy (great song)

Video for Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s “Diablo Rojo”:

If it weren’t for certain smaller record labels, the music scene would look quite different than it does today. It is very possible that some of your favorite musicians would have gone undiscovered. That is why I decided that the record labels should get their time in the sun on Indie Muse. A “mother’s day” for record labels, if you will. “Wait a minute, I thought you hated record labels,” you say. Umm. Yes, that is mostly true. But I don’t hate all record labels. I like smaller labels, who treat their bands with respect, and are in the business mainly for the music. So this is how this is going to work. Every once in a while, I am going to give recognition to labels who have had an impact on the industry. This week is going to be Sub Pop week. I don’t know exactly what “Sub Pop week” will consist of yet, but I guess we’ll both see, if you stick around. I’ll still be posting music from other labels during this time:)

Sub Pop is my favorite record label, so it’s only right to make them the first record label featured. Do you guys have any favorite Sub Pop artists?

Sub Pop History “Cliff Notes” version:

In 1986, Bruce Pivitt and Jonathon Poneman started Sub Pop Records in Seattle, WA, after meeting each other in a mattress store and decided to jointly release the debut EP from Soundgarden, Screaming Life. At Sub Pop, they like to think of these as the “early years,” as during this time, the label was known for their participation in the grunge movement. Throughout the 90’s, the label went through some changes and rough times. In 1995, facing bankruptcy after some of their bands went to bigger labels, Sub Pop sold 49% of the company to Warner Music. A year later Pavitt resigned to spend more time with his family. The label is stronger than ever before, and they have more money to be able to treat their artists better . They are a leading label in the indie/alternative rock scene, and have grown as a label through highly successful artists such as The Shins, Postal Service, Iron and Wine, where should I stop? In fact, it was just announced that Poneman has launched another label, Hardly Art. They currently only have one signed band, Arthur & Yu. The Hardly Art label will be run by Sarah Moody.

In Camera (June release):
Arthur & Yu - Come To View

Myspace

Bonus:

The most famous Sub Pop song ever:

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights

OK Go is at it again. If you haven’t seen this music video yet, watch it. It will blow your mind.

Ok Go- Oh No:

Ok Go- Do What You Want 

Did I call it, or did I call it. In my last Wilco post I stated, “Wilco has creative ways of releasing their material, and working with the fans, so we can probably expect some sort of album streaming, possibly even before the release.” Well, tonight is your lucky night. Wilco just announced a semi-secret (oops) listening party tonight at 10 pm Central time, for their upcoming release, Sky Blue Sky. The album’s set release date is May 15. Sudden change of plans for tonight.

You can access the stream at Wilcoworld.net. See you there! By the way, the above picture is the album cover for Sky Blue Sky.