Empire Records: Open 'Til Midnight

Dedicated to my Nanny....

This Is Not Goodbye - Melissa Etheridge

"I can paint my face, and stand very still

It's not very practical, but it still pays the bills..."

The Perfect Fit - The Dresden Dolls

I wasn't certain how last night's very intimate solo show with the singer/songwriting force behind The Dresden Dolls would go last night at the Rivoli.  My one prior experience with Amanda solo was the event known as Fuck The Back Row, which was meant to be primarily a showcase of Amanda's favourite songs from films, and it featured Brian Viglione, her drumming partner-in-crime anyway.  But Brian is off gallavanting and drumming his sweet heart out elsewhere, leaving Amanda entirely solo on the tiny stage, without a compatriot should the crowd prove unkind (an event that would hearken the End of Days, really, since Amanda's words and piano-smashing are what make most of the wannabe-goth-punk girls squeal with delight, anyway).  I have not been reading setlists from previous dates on this mini-tour, nor have I been keeping up with Amanda's blogging.  In the end, I came away pleasantly surprised, somewhat confused at setlist choices, but overall tremendously satisfied with Ms. Palmer's outing.

The first pleasant surprise of the night was the opening duo Vermillion Lies, two Toronto-area girls who made their way, as many do, to California to seek their fortunes.  Billed as a cabaret duo, the best way I can describe their antics is to provide the following recipe:

1 Part Amanda Palmer wordplay

1 Part Quirky Canadian Humour a la Kids In The Hall

2 Parts Ditty Bops charm

Combine all ingredients in a blender, give 'em a whir, and pour out onto a stage before a group of audience members who eagerly embrace shrieking, "What's In the Box?" (alas, not Gwyneth Paltrow's head). 

I am absolutely in love with these girls.  Their songs ranged from humour-filled love songs to descriptions of Planet Porn, to a celebration of Global Warming ("It's hot!" or "It's not cool!", depending on where you stood in the venue).  Their charm and wit make for excellent audience engagement, and their lyrics will elicit healthy laughter and joy.  Add in their talent for percussion from the everyday object (BBQ grills, marionettes tapping their feet...) and you have yourself a versatile and fun night.  You will also be invited to join the circus by becoming a zombie and anyone with zombie humour is full of win in my books.

The mood was light and festive when Amanda Palmer took the stage, approaching a standing mic and lip synching her way through Ben Folds' song Cologne, while holding up bristleboard messages, one word at a time that said hello, thanked us for coming, told us Ben was singing the song and that he'd helped on her solo disc Who Killed Amanda Palmer (reviewed previously here by myself) and also, in a candid admission that was very genuine given her body language and shy warming up for the beginning of the set, "It's hard being up here alone."  I can imagine so, given the years spent touring with Brian as a unit.  Dressed in a bra and a bee-adorned corset that made me wonder if her time recently with author Neil Gaiman had led to an inadvertent connection with Tori Amos (long-time friend of Neil), Amanda settled into the keyboard before her and launched into long-time solo track and now album cut Ampersand. 

The entire night was an intimate sort of sharing, with banter between Amanda and the audience, an "Ask Amanda" portion of the show where questions were taken from the audience, and unfortunately, some people who felt the need to sing louder than Amanda to staples like Mrs. O and Half-Jack.  I'm just grateful said Bright Eyes-obsessed girl did not know the words to the solo songs that comprised a bulk of the set.  The questions ranged from the interesting ("Did you ever sell your Volvo?") to the dishy ("Did David Lee Roth ever see the Shores of California video?") to the silly ("Will you have my babies?", to which Amanda declared, "No!  No babies for me right now.  I'm too busy playing a piano!", and another boy asking, "Should I be a top or a bottom?", to which Amanda first said, "How the hell should I know?", then suggested an audience vote, then finally settled and said, "I'd have to say you're a switch.  If you have to ask...").  Stories recounted included the tale behind haunting song Strength Through Music and how her friend Kate asked her to bring a gun from Chicago to NY via Toronto, to Neil Gaiman phoning Amanda during the day and asking her to say hi to his fans at the Toronto show and to tell them he loves them, "because he is that fucking awesome." 

In terms of setlist choices, I have to say I was a bit puzzled.  Fan favourite Astronaut from the solo album had to be begged for in the encore, Oasis was a lucky moment brought on by a "you pick something" whim borne of "cheating" by "playing so many covers", and rocking track Leeds United was nowhere to be found.  Coin-Operated Boy fell flat solo, namely because anyone who's seen more than two shows is tired of the track live and its only saving grace is the interaction between Amanda and Brian on stage.  The plethora of covers was confusing, and seemed to be a case of Amanda not knowing whether it was "right" to play Dolls' material solo (even though she wrote it!) and not wanting to just play the entire new solo disc live and call it a night.  Don't get me wrong;  the covers were all solid and throroughly enjoyable, but I come to see Amanda to see Amanda's lyrical magic at work.  If I were to peg a few songs from The Dresden Dolls' catalogue as strong choices for solo play, I'd suggest The Perfect Fit, Slide, Truce, First Orgasm, Delilah, Me & The Minibar, Boston, Glass Slipper....   See Amanda?  Plenty of better choices than that radio-loved song about that boy of plastic and elastic!  For a cover, try Emilie Autumn's Gothic Lolita! 

One of the things I appreciate about Amanda is her willingness to collaborate live with her openers, and the guest vocals with Vermillion Lies on encore Radiohead cover Creep (whilst standing in the audience) were wonderful.  Amanda strumming that tiny Uke cracked me up.  Another thing I have to express is that, this being my first time hearing Amanda perform after surgery to address her vocal cords, I was astonished at how clean and powerful her voice sounded.  She almost sounded better than prior to the surgery.  Kudos to her surgeon!

More information can be found about Amanda at her solo MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/whokilledamandapalmer

Vermillion Lies is also on MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/vermillionlies

SETLIST:  AMANDA PALMER @ THE RIVOLI, TORONTO 8/9/08

*Entrance - lip synching to Cologne by Ben Folds*
Ampersand
Icarus (Jason Webley cover)
Blake Says
Mrs. O
I Google You
Runs In the Family
Coin-Operated Boy
Strength Through Music
Guitar Hero
Look Mummy, No Hands (Dillie Keane cover)
Oasis
Apres Moi (Regina Spektor cover)
Half-Jack

Encore:
Creep (Radiohead cover with Amanda on Uke! Guest vox by Vermillion Lies as she walked through the crowd singing)
Astronaut

"I wake up
On the floor
Start it up again
Like it matters anymore
I don't know
If it does
Is this really all
That there ever was?
Put the gun
In my mouth
Close your eyes
Blow my fucking brains out
Pretty patterns
On the floor
That's enough for you
But i still need more..."

1,000,000 - Nine Inch Nails

Oh Trent.  You and your angst are so pretty to so many.  Your new album is a surprising throw-back to the days of Pretty Hate Machine and it pleases me with its strange danceability.  And yet, something has gone wrong with our love affair, Trent.  I walked away from your show Tuesday night feeling unsatisfied, like a lover brought nearly to climax after hours of foreplay, only for the man to shoot off, roll over and sleep, leaving me fumbling for a vibrator.

This isn't to say that Trent has lost his live touch in terms of performance;  despite being under the weather, the man whispered, growled and screamed his way through a long set of songs with gusto, complete with an incredible visual display of lights and projected images true to the NIN tradition.  What was lacking in this show was proper setlist placement, resulting in a show that packed on the ferocity towards the end of the main set, only to chill to near-lounge mellowness for the entire encore, including the audience-ruined classic Hurt (can you people NOT clap in rhythm, if you feel the need to clap?  It's Hurt, not Heresy.  Oi.).  I've delayed this review for several days, mainly because I walked out with such a nasty taste in my mouth from the lacklustre finale that I began to wonder whether I was "getting over" Nine Inch Nails, music in general, or perhaps just suffering from a basic concept in Psychology known as the Recency Effect (i.e., we remember well what we heard/saw most recently).  After several days (and an enthusiastic listening of Somewhat Damaged last night), I've concluded that the encore, being the last thing I heard, overshadowed the rest of the show, thus doing the precise opposite of what an encore is meant to do:  send you onto the streets happy and wishing for more, full of energy (and usually the band's latest kicking single). 

I have to say that opening band Deerhunter failed completely.  Very few people in the pit were impressed, and that went double for the stands.  I was completely unimpressed with their failure to effectively use multiple lead guitars, their contrived sound that felt like a bastard child of Nirvana on Ritalin...  Ugh.  No words.  Completely cliched and awful.  Did Trent pick them?  How could he go from openers like A Perfect Circle and The Dresden Dolls to that?  But enough of them;  on to the main event...

I should have sense a strange disturbance in the force when Discipline, the lead single from Trent's latest offering The Slip emerged early in the set in a rapid-fire assault of tracks from that disc, including the delicious track 1,000,000 which feels in a way as a "fuck off" to fans wanting more 'emo' Trent since his addiction recovery ("That's enough for you...").  Trent and company rocked the show nicely at first, and then the pattern of the night became more apparent:  he was going to conduct mini-concerts for each release lacking a proper tour thus far in Canada.  An extended instrumental sequence featuring multiple tracks from Ghosts went on just a little too long, to the point where I nearly dozed off despite the beautiful staging and my general like of the double-disc set (perhaps it was second-hand pot from the people in front of me blazing up?). 

Then began a primarily 'old' set of classics, heavily laden with material prior to The Fragile, which leads me to my next complaint, and one that holds from their last outings here for With Teeth:  what the hell is up with the complete ignoring of The Fragile, which is one of my favourite NIN discs?  Seriously, between two shows, I've heard three songs, one instrumental, and none of them major singles.  Where are Starfuckers Inc, We're In This Together, The Fragile, The Day The World Went Away or Somewhat Damaged?  Late in the set, while talking to the crowd, Trent noted this was the beginning of the tour and that the band had spent "four months locked ina dark room, trying to figure out what the fans wanted to hear".  Appearently Trent couldn't seet the cardboard casing of The Fragile in his little mortuary of practice space.  I know the album sold well;  where are the tunes, goddamn it?

Sliding in towards and through the encore, we were primarily showered with tracks from Year Zero, which was not toured in Canada, and again felt like an overkill mini-set.  What's worse, after Hurt, Trent went out on mellow track In This Twilight instead of something with oomph like Capital G or, hey, for a mellow-ish outro, how about the single My Violent Heart?  Of four encore tracks, 3 were down notes.  That's NOT how to wrap a show.  If you swapped the last four tracks of the main set with the encore, I would have had a much more favourable impression of the show.  I left half-asleep and annoyed instead of pumped and enthused.

Please don't get me wrong;  I love mellow tracks as well.  But you really need to keep a set mixed, and usually Trent is solid for it.  The albums weren't mixed, the set went through distinct up and down periods, and it just felt disjointed in a very bad way.  Perhaps with feeling ill, Trent kept the ending easy, avoiding vocal acrobatics?  It's the only excuse I can think of.  Then again, the main set closed HARD.  And why were the albums not blended together?  Why separate the albums in the set?

Overall, the show, especially the main set, was a solid outing.  But having come from my last show, where I had no idea what track would be next, where the encore rocked, this paled dramatically in comparison.  Amazing what setlist order can do...  I've never experienced disliking a show almost strictly on set order before. 

SETLIST:  NINE INCH NAILS @ ACC, TORONTO 8/5/08

999,999

1,000,000

Letting You

Discipline

March of the Pigs

Head Down

The Frail

Closer

Gave Up

The Warning [play it]

Vessel

Ghosts 5

Ghosts 6

Ghosts 19

Ghosts Piggy

The Greater Good

Pinion

Wish

Terrible Lie

Survivalism

The Big Come Down

Ghosts 31

Only [play it]

The Hand That Feeds

Head Like A Hole

ENCORE:

Echoplex

God Given

The Good Soldier

Hurt

In This Twilight

“All is love
All is choice
Everyone and every voice
All of life that you see
All are possibilities
As above so below
To wed the sense into the soul
This is truth I believe
I believe I believe

Truth is of the people, by the people, for the people..."

 What Happens Tomorrow - Melissa Etheridge

Several months ago, a friend announced that he was treating me to a Melissa Etheridge show, insisting I had to see her perform live.  I accepted out of nostalgia, mainly;  growing up, I can recall days of driving around in my father's truck with him blaring Melissa's first two albums at high volume, espousing her talents.  I was in agreeance with him, but somehow never really bothered to buy any of her future albums, nor did I keep track of her beyond the radio singles (all of which I enjoyed) and the story of her battle with cancer.  Her vocal talents conjure up the bluesy rock of Springsteen and the soul of Janis Joplin, two artists that were part of the broad musical background of my youth.  

In recent weeks, cancer has crept into my life undesired, laying seige to a dear family member, and under the dark clouds of that knowledge, listening to a sampling of Melissa's music, namely her 2007 album The Awakening, has been a tremendous comfort that resonates to the core.  By the time the day of the show actually arrived, I would say I almost needed to attend.   

I was greeted with a pleasant surprise at the pre-show dinner my friend had arranged:  an autographed ticket, courtesy of a fluke signing in the afternoon at the venue.  A very nice souvenir of what became one of the most awe-inspiring nights of music I've witnessed.  The women I spoke with prior to start time who, upon hearing I was a "Melissa virgin", insisted I would be blown away to the point that I would be "lucky to make it out alive", weren't lying.

As the lights dimmed and the band began filling the stage, Melissa's guitarist Phillip rocked the place he grew up with O Canada on electric guitar, which brought the crowd to an even louder roar.  Melissa rushed on stage as he wrapped up, playfully kicked him in the ass, and launched into her song All-American Girl with gusto. 

Two things are striking and key about Melissa's live performance:  her incredible stage presence and warmth, and her endurance in the performance department.  Clocking her set in at 2 hours and 55 minutes (minus encore applause break) and her voice holding strong until the bitter end, Melissa Etheridge is the Energizer Bunny of live performances, outdoing even Tori Amos (an artist whose fans can vouch for her staying power live).  She smiles, laughs, runs around stage and belts out powerful notes, revelling in the enthusiasm of her enraptured audience.  My voice was hoarse from hooting and hollering in appreciation;  how she was able to wail away during the choruses of show closer Like The Way I Do, I do not know. 

The tour's set presentation is structured around a biographical theme, with Melissa recalling the story of her childhood, her pursuit of her music dreams, her loves lost and won and her battle with cancer using songs both past and present to expand upon and conjure images of her points.  The stage chatter made me nostalgic for early days of Tori Amos' live shows, where she'd tell several stories a night, as if chatting with old friends.  Melissa laid herself bare, self-deprecating healthily with humour at her bad choices and even recalling her cancer diagnosis with a light touch that spoke of an acceptance of life and the bad it may dish out and the good to be taken from it.  Before launching into her track I Run For Life, Melissa spoke of her cancer and her feeling that it was a blessing in a sense, because it forced her to slow down and think about her life, its direction, and what meant the most to her.  She encouraged the audience to slow down, to take time, to find what makes them happy and go do it, instead of waiting for stress and the ways we harm ourselves to force us to slow down and think of what we truly wanted.  It was incredibly heartening, and at that moment in the show, I decided that I would try, in spite of my current worry and pain, to find joy in life in honour of the family that will soon depart. 

Regrets?  A few songs I would have liked to hear weren't played, but I did get my request (Similar Features) and An Unexpected Rain, my favourites off The Awakening, so I cannot complain much.  It would have been nice to hear Breathe, Piece of My Heart, Map of the Stars as well, but the show was a fantastic set for a virgin whose knowledge slanted towards the very old and the very new.  All in all, an incredible night, and easily in the top twenty live shows I've seen.

A few specific highlights:

Don't You Need/Similar Features/Don't You Need:  A clever blending of two songs, and not the only combination of the night, and Melissa effectively booted the 80's out of Similar Features and gave it a 90's rock feel instead.  Absolutely lovely.

An Unexpected Rain:  Brought tears to my eyes near the end, especially when Melissa's face looked so incredibly pained to sing the final verse.  Phillip is a fantastic guitarist as well, and he punctuates this song with aching chords.

I Run For Life:  One of the loudest moments of the concert, it felt like an enormous outpouring of love for all cancer survivors and those who've lost someone, Melissa included.  The applause was incredible at the end. 

Bring Me Some Water:  Incredibly powerful and rocking live!  Wow!  I've always loved this song but hot damn!

Kingdom of Heaven:  Tears to the eyes again...  Such an incredibly moving and truth-filled song, it makes you wonder how long it will take for some people to wake up to the reality of how religion is twisted to suit political agendas.

What Happens Tomorrow:  Melissa altered the lyrics about a woman becoming President to a verse about 'a black man' instead.  Go Obama!  But beyond that, it's a wonderful song and a fitting closer for the main set.

Like The Way I Do:  The intense vocals and jamming on this one, the final song of the night, were made all the more impressive by the context of it being on the tail end of a very long set.  A kick-ass way to leave the venue bopping out the door. 

SETLIST:  MELISSA ETHERIDGE @ MASSEY HALL, TORONTO, 7/28/08

O Canada
All American Girl
Into the Dark
California
Don't You Need/Similar Features/Don't You Need
Unexpected Rain
Bring Me Some Water
I Want To Come Over
My Lover (spotlight by Melissa on Philip!!)
Let Me Go
Please Baby Please/I'm The Only One
If I Wanted To
Down to One (band eventually leaves the stage until Melissa alone at end of song)
I Want To Be in Love (Melissa starts solo and finishes with the band)
Mercy
I Run for Life
2001/I Need to Wake Up
Message to Myself/Come to My Window
All We Can Really Do
Kingdom of Heaven
Open Your Mind
The Universe Listened/Imagine That/What Happens tomorrow?

Encore
Like The Way I Do

"Your look was so haunting, an unexpected pain

I am so sorry for the unexpected rain

The sadness that you kissed

The fresh scars on your wrist

I can't make it go away...

Goodnight ladies, goodnight; I'm going to leave you now..."

An Unexpected Rain - Melissa Etheridge

When I was little, around 9 or so, I used to drive around with my dad in his tow truck, listening to music and killing time between calls on the radio.  We'd buy scratch and win lottery tickets and listen to music loudly.

I was blessed to grow up in a household where music was omnipresent.  There was no silence.  My parents combined listened to so many different genres of music that I grew up liking almost everything.  But despite that variety in the home in which I grew to be a music addict, there were two moments in my life that surprised even me:

1)  When I realized that the 'silly song' my parents used to sing to me like a nursery rhyme as a child was the chorus of Babooshka by Kate Bush.  My dad told me to shut up when I called him on being a fan.

2)  Thinking back on how my dad could switch from listening to Black Sabbath to Melissa Etheridge in the same day and then espouse her talents in long speeches.

One of his favourite songs was Similar Features.  It's one of mine as well.  Funnily, despite this upbringing of mine, I only began listening to Kate Bush in 2005 and only just now have bothered to explore Melissa's music.  I have been missing out.  In a moment where life has me reflecting on my path and my choices, on life and death, I've stumbled into Melissa's realm on the heels of the release of her 2007 album The Awakening, an album I am going to recommend without hesitation and with urgency.

The album's concept is a journey across Melissa's life as she struggled with cancer, a sort of reflection and a spiritual awakening that came with that reflection in the face of possible death.  There are several songs about religion and love, as well as a general spiritual understanding of ourselves as beings.  If that sounds campy, it doesn't come off that way in the context of the album and its lyrics.  It's a very cohesive album, one that flows and feels best digested as a whole.

Two of the songs struck me from moment one:  Kingdom of Heaven and An Unexpected Rain.  The latter is resonating in ways that stretch beyond the actual story of the song for me, striking me in this reminder of how my grandfather, faced with terminal cancer, is at peace with that but struggling with being the harbinger of bad news, the cause of sorrow and tears.  His pain lies not in the imminent end of his life, but in the pained faces of those who love him, and his worry for how they will cope.  Hence the lyrics above, quoted;  they capture that terrible feeling of guilt for being the reason for someone's anguish.

Sample away:  An Unexpected Rain - Melissa Etheridge

http://www.last.fm/music/Melissa+Etheridge/+videos/+1-xck4kPR84rM

"At first the melody would come and walk with me through the mists in North Cornwall England. I would take this melody back to the Hammond Organ, the B3. I would sit and play with this for hours. Soon I began to have to deal with my mother's heart condition and she survived a cardiac arrest in September. Because of this I began thinking about the life cycle and that dying is part of the life cycle. Even though I realized this, logically, I couldn't accept the idea of losing my mother emotionally. The song started to become clearer as the days went by and I began to realize that the Beekeeper that had taken my character in the song, to death, to plead for my mother's life, the Queen Bee in the song, little did I know that although my mother would survive and that death did pass her by it would be the last time I saw my brother when I went back to stand by my mother's bedside. So life/death has it's own rhythm and it's own rhyme. The Beekeeper really acts as a Shaman, similar to the Medicine Man in the Native American tradition. We have the Beekeeper in the Celtic tradition"

Tori Amos - MSN Chat 2/22/05

I understand now, more than before, now that the proverbial wolf is finally right outside my door, just how much the soul can ache to travel to the keepers.  How great the longing is to offer every exchange, including one's own life, to spare the loss of one so beloved. 

This is my bargaining stage.  This is me asking for time to stand still, to wait, to slow down.  This is me not ready.  This is my rage at life's cycle, despite a long-term respect of nature borne of my personal beliefs, storming the castle gates and insisting I will not relinquish my King.

The Beekeeper - Tori Amos

Lately, between personal conversations with musicians and music industry types and quotes from musicians in magazines and in blogs, one has to wonder about the music industry and its ability to survive the technology of the day.  Evolution is all about survival of the fittest:  what can adapt to new surroundings and new demands will thrive, while the lacking in variation will perish when faced with new rules and circumstances.  It's the process by which 8-Tracks gave way to cassettes, which are slowly giving way to CD.  It's the reason why radio suffered with the youth when music videos came to life.  And now, the internet and the ever-growing number of ways to exchange and procure music are pressing the Big Labels and their chains of 1, 2, and 3-deep labels to either adapt to a new strategy or perish by the demanding downloader's sword. 

But let's be frank:  the music industry is misleading when it cries about 'declining sales' and 'losing money' due to the so-called 'evils' of downloading free music on peer-to-peer (P2P) services like Limewire and the classic, almost dinosaur-esque Napster.  It cites one set of figures without disclosing the complete picture, which, if analyzed, demonstrates that the Big Labels are profiting still.

Check out this article by Moses Avalon, the writer behind the book Confessions of a Record Producer (which, in and of itself, is a fantastic read for any music fan who wants to understand the logistics of the industry, nevermind indie artists considering a label deal).  As Moses spells out plainly, the actual revenues are not down in any significant way at all.  It's merely the RIAA's accounting which makes it so (this is why my old Limewire shared folder, back when I had an account, was called 'Screw the RIAA'). 

Quoting Moses:

WHAT THE RIAA DOESN’T INCLUDE IN “LOST SALES”

-- They don’t include CD sales of independent artists, only a decline in sales of titles on major labels. Indie sales make up about as much market share as all of Warner Music Group, which is about 20%.  So they are not including album sales equivalent to all of WMG in their calculations of “lost sales.” [...]

-- They don’t include the approximately two billion legally paid for downloads from iTunes, Yahoo e-Music and many others. These are not CD’s, technically, so they don’t count them in “reduced sales” even though record companies are getting tens of millions in new revenue from these sales. Also worth noting is that there has been a 71% increase for these types of sales. (2005: 244.2 million, 2006: 418.6 million) [...]

-- They don’t include the fact that the licensing fees for getting a hit song in a soundtrack has increased 1000% since 1995 (climbing from about $80,000 to about $1,000,000) with no additional hard costs to the label.

-- They ignore the 300,000,000 ringtones that have generated about .30 cents each in new revenue (about $90,000,000) for labels in the past three years and due to a new ruling in the copyright office, will increase to about .50 cents each in coming years.

-- They are omitting the fact that downloaded music (ringtones, iTunes and subscription-based services) don’t require manufacturing costs nor is there any returned or damaged merchandise (with rare exception) from digital sales. So, in essence, record companies make substantially higher profit margins on newer sales. [...] 

When all is said and done, the major labels are hardly losing at all.  In fact, they're doing just fine, and this is furthered by the collapsing of smaller or vanity labels into the majors (or, at least, collapsing them into 2 and 3-deep label levels).  Add to this the reductions in staffing costs (as Moses says, "They are streamlining their staff because you no longer need a team of A&R executives making an average salary of $175,000 a year, with expense accounts for travel to hear a new act. Why bother when you can have three 20 year-olds for $30,000 a piece doing the same job by searching MySpace.[sic]") and one can hardly support actions like suing unemployed mothers for $200,000 by the RIAA.

There's also consideration to be given to the fact that the reduction in sales that does exist in concrete album copies (since that's all the RIAA counts) is centred strictly on the Top 40 market.  Indie sales, which account for 20% of the market, are holding steady in spite of the 'imminent death of the industry'.  If anything, indie acts have done nothing but benefit from the internet and sharing tools like Limewire or file sharing services like SendSpace.  Local bands with nary a penny to record a demo, let alone release it, can now home record a few tracks and stream them on MySpace, last.fm, the sixtyone.com or release MP3s on their websites for downloading and sharing and suddenly find themselves with a following countries away.  Bands like Boston's The Dresden Dolls built core followings that could fill venues (and thus justify tours) without leaving their small radius of safety and easy car travel.  Artists like Emilie Autumn, who has yet to hit North American soil, can drum up sales from music fanatics like me in Canada, all through the magic of avid music listeners hitting their favourite sharing forums and communities and saying, "Here!  Try this!" and tossing up a few files for sampling.

Emilie Autumn's 'Victorian Industrial' sound is not found on the radio by any stretch of the imagination.  How else would an artist break through these days, in a market saturated with Rihannas and Mileys? 

Let me tell you a secret, Big Labels.  Or rather, let me state what you are so in denial over:  if concrete sales, the ones with a higher profit margin, are what worry you, then I can explain why they're not as high as they used to be.  Gather 'round the fire and let me scare you with the reality:

1. Music listeners who generally like Top 40 music alone are incredibly fickle, get bored easily, and simply do not form the same attachments to artists they once did.  Thus, you will find that producing the same generic fodder will yield the same results:  one big hit = one successful album and tour = sophomore relative flop in most cases = the poor artist suckered into your horrid deals will perpetually be trying to help you 'recoup' while never seeing a dime of the money you made off their work.
2. Avid music listeners, the sort who are devoted, want music that affects them and lingers with them, be it through original melodies, unique lyrics and/or incredible live presence.  Miley isn't going to cut it for them.  The artists they want are clever enough not to sign for you in many cases, or to at least demand a sounder deal.  However, indie sales are fine, so perhaps it's not that the music industry is dead;  rather, the market for generic fluff is dead.
3. Fining and suing fans is only going to make the masses rebel more, in a metaphorical 'flipping of the bird'.  It will also drive them towards apathy towards music itself.  It's a plan that displeases many artists for that very reason.  Bills like the one Canada is currently tabling have sent musicians into a frenzy, and not a joyous one. 
4. Copy protection on CDs is a) a joke anyone with know-how gets around if determined; b) unfair, in that it prevents me from legally buying an album (Placebo, I'm looking at your last two discs) and then legally copying them to my own iPod; and c) as a result of b, deters people from bothering to buy an album they cannot rip to the omnipresent MP3 players and thus drives them to illegally download, thereby reducing sales.

Artists are increasingly refusing to play the old reindeer games, turning instead to a more independent approach, 'pay what you want' options, and artist self-leaks (Trent Reznor owns this game).  They're also beginning to buck the demon that is Ticketbastard - err, Ticketmaster - and its increasingly shady dealings with its own brokering service and take their concert sales elsewhere, much to the delight of fans, but that's a whole other article I'll get around to eventually.  The major label musicians are beginning to see that the problem lies not with the business itself, but with the model employed by players who, like those extinct dinosaurs, failed to adapt and evolve in order to survive and thrive.  Tori Amos, in parting with Epic/Sony to go indie this year, released the following statement on her website:

This is an exciting time. There will be many ways in the present and in the future for artists to cross what has become the new unchartered Music Frontier. Ways that may seem impossible today but in a months time will seem probable. There are many ways to be involved in a structure. But what kind of structure will it be and what will be the make up of it's foundation? These are important questions, so important that I've been observing many different working templates in the music business for years now. The key word here is the word "working." In some cases these structures do not work positively for some artists. Only for those who have designed the system to specifically "work" for the corporate few. Artists need not fear structure, we just have to design and partner with expansive ideas. It is time for us as artists to stop being dependent, dependent on any system that has become undependable. Only then can we help to create a new system that propagates and secures independence for each creator.

As more artists begin to understand what Tori has grasped - that the system and structure need to change with the times, and artists can no longer afford to be passive - the music industry will, in my estimation, begin to thrive in ways once dreamed about as remote possibilities.  Indie artists are learning this lesson as well;  the old days of driving and performing small gigs to attempt to drum up fans are no longer profitable, particularly with gas prices and looming recession threats.  It's a shame, for a live music fan like myself, who enjoys discovering artists while attending the shows of others.  But that's why I never listen to radio anymore, but instead rely on communities online and friends who say, "Hey!  Check this one out!" and help me continue to nurture my growing variety of music on my laptop, which is wincing from the HD that is half-consumed by music files;  I live to discover music and I, too, have adapted with the times and embraced the new age, as opposed to throwing my toys in my pram and taking my ball home, leaving lawsuit-hungry lawyers in my wake.

Make no mistake:  the RIAA and labels are not fighting for harsher penalties for the benefits of the creators of the music we download.  They're fighting to line their own pockets further, and fighting to preserve the old system that has done well by them.  If this were truly about 'protecting the rights of the artist to get paid', why aren't the voices of musicians and their (from my stance, very fair) suggestions being heeded? 

Is the music industry dead?  No.  Is the industry's old model dead?  So much so that we're beating the horse into a bloody pulp instead of simply burying the damn corpse and buying a new foal.  But it's up to us to demand the business evolve, rather than devolve into a caveman mentality of clubbing innocent downloaders into financial submission and killing desires to attend concerts (where big label artists actually make a few dollars).  Sitting passively behind our monitors while our torrents run is accepting the status quo.  And we - artists and fans alike - can no longer afford to do so.

Recommended Reading:

Tori Amos: Piece by Piece

Confessions of a Record Producer: How to Survive the Scams and Shams of the Music Business

Elisa Live-Dancing @ Vatican concert

Mary introduced me to this song and it's one of those songs I drift from, only to return to it again and remember just how simple the melody is and yet its emotional richness spins complex webs about my heart and mind.

Dancing is a form of release, of fun, of freedom, as we learned in Footloose, but it's also intimacy and intensity, an exposure, a sense of trust placed in another.  We allow another to lead and for those of us scarred and burned by the flame of passion, it's a giving over of control not to be undertaken lightly.  And in the arms of a good person, a partner who loves with a purity and faithfulness that seems unreal, such is its rarity now, dancing is a way of finding refuge and home in the storm of life's woes.

Saturday, I spent hours in that refuge, and smiled more than I have in weeks.  The storms gave way, if only briefly, to a glimmer of sunlight.  I belonged somewhere. 

"The depth of life will dim my temptation to live for you
If I were to be alone, silence would rock my tears
'Cause it's all about love, and I know better
How life is a waving feather..."

Another version (solo piano):

Elisa Dancing live@Then comes the sun showcase