Longing for the day ...: Music Archives

12 Good Bars and True - NSAI Feedback

Having put all of my "Alive and Alone" songs up for evaluation I had one more free evaluation left. In a rush-of-blood moment I decided to put 12 Good Bars and True into the system to see where it sits... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:57 AM | Comments (0)

Red Hot - NSAI feedback

I co-wrote Red Hot with Shanon Watkins. He came over one afternoon and we explored a guitar riff that I had in my head. He came up with a melody and some placeholder lyrics. He left it with me to... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:23 PM | Comments (0)

Home Free - Be Free re-write - NSAI feedback

Home Free is one that I have already re-written plenty of times. It has evolved a long way but I still feel it could be much better. However, I really think it has great potential if I can get it... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

Somebody Else's Skin - NSAI feedback

Somebody Else's Skin was an attempt at being silly and catchy and not particularly anything. I've just realised that I never posted it when I first wrote it - probably because I was never happy with it until I recorded... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

Simplicity - NSAI feedback

Simplicity is one of the first songs I wrote. I've been dragging it around for decades (literally) knowing that it's weird and not likely to mean anything to anyone apart from me and a few very close friends who love... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:14 AM | Comments (0)

When It's Over - NSAI feedback

When It's Over is, to me, a novelty song. It came from mucking about with a guitar and trying to be catchy and groovy. That said, it is, according to some people, one of the catchiest darn things ever so... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:01 PM | Comments (0)

She Don't Want Your Love - NSAI feedback

Next song I received feedback for was She Don't Want Your Love.This one is a very personal song to me, which I also had critiqued by Jason Blume some time ago. I thought I had improved it a lot ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:35 PM | Comments (0)

Angels - NSAI feedback

Next song to be critiqued was Angels. Remember that this was not originally my song - it's my re-write of Ann Leung's song. Here's the version I submitted, as distribute to YouTube by CDBaby: I enterd this in the "Gospel"... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:05 PM | Comments (0)

Baby I Need Your Soul - NSAI feedback

OK, so at the start of this year I decided to get value for my NSAI membership and throw as many songs in for feedback as possible. It's been a long time since I got the feedback, and I ended... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:01 PM | Comments (0)

Forever Mine - NSAI feedback

I decided to continue seeking feedback from the Nashville Songwriters Association International about my songs. After the last two I thought perhaps I'd go back to the drawing board on all of them before wasting my precious feedback opportunities on... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Vale Aretha! One of the greatest voices ever and an artist of class and integrity. You will be missed but never forgotten, Queen of Soul. And your contributions to the Blues Brothers were awesome and made the movies even more... More

Posted by Huge at 9:36 AM | Comments (0)

Maccas' Drive Through Blues

It's a wonderful exercise for an artist to deconstruct the works of the great artists. It's also a dangerous practice to re-write them into a modern scenario - it can leave to some completely inappropriate outcomes. Nonetheless, this is what... More

Posted by Huge at 2:11 PM | Comments (0)

Having a proper go at this music career thing.

"The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it." Debbi Fields Things haven't been working... More

Posted by Huge at 1:09 PM | Comments (1)

Heart's With You - NSAI feedback

Following my feedback from the Nashville Songwriters Association about Whiskey and History I thought I'd get more straight away. This time I thought I'd try my most obviously hooky song - went with Heart's With You from I am Leaving!... More

Posted by Huge at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

Whiskey and History - NSAI feedback.

OK, so I joined the Nashville Songwriters Association. It seemed a logical step if I want to be serious about developing my chops as a songwriter. I love the Australian Songwriters Association and will keep being involved locally when I... More

Posted by Huge at 8:17 PM | Comments (0)

Grant funding - knockbacks and new tracks ...

OK, so I applied for some government grants to support the Tetrafasi Project late last year. I asked for about $40k each from Arts Queensland and The Australia Council. That's a lot to ask for straight up! The AQ grant... More

Posted by Huge at 4:39 PM | Comments (0)

Donnie's Black Dog - the full story

I was mowing my parents' lawn last week ... in the Queensland heat and humidity ... when a flash of inspiration popped into my head. Now, my head usually reverts to playing music when the rest of me is doing... More

Posted by Huge at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)

CD Launch today!

OK, so "Alive and Alone" has been written, recorded, mixed, mastered, duplicated, and promoted. Today is the big launch party at Bellbowrie Tavern! Here's the flyer I bashed together to promote it: Cute, huh! I came up with that hook... More

Posted by Huge at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

Whoops! Missed this one, too ...

So, while I wasn't really paying attention (actually, I looked every day but didn't find it), Youtube released "Alive and Alone": Apparently this happened 6 days ago, but when I searched for "The Genre Benders" in Youtube and saw the... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:49 PM | Comments (0)

Whoops! Big opportunity for support missed ...

Some time ago I entered Dad Joke Blues into AMRAP's Airit program, which connects radio broadcaster to new music. It is an essential step for self-published musicians - several radio stations have played the songs off the back of this... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone radio host feedback

Came into contact via Facebook with Anita Monk, who hosts a radio program in Victoria that is part of a radio segment called Wrokdown. Her target audience is dscribed as follows: "The older audience are very particular in their choice... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:08 PM | Comments (0)

Dad Joke Blues gets some recognition!

You could have knocked me down with a feather last night when I received a notice that Dad Joke Blues has been shortlisted for the Australian Songwriters Association Songwriting Contest! The acoustic version is in the Folk/Acoustic catgory. This, of... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

Funding Tetrafasi in future

OK, so "Alive and Alone" is done and distributed via CDBaby. Happy with that - I did it all myself and it cost me nothing but my time. Trouble is, the next one is gonna need more people to play... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:01 PM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone is in iTunes!!

Well, it took a week, but 7 days after being sent to Tunes (according to CDBaby) here it is: https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/alive-and-alone/id1300393014 That took longer than I had hoped, but goves you some idea of the realities of preparing for a launch.... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone has made it onto Spotify!

Only took a few days and it's there, just as CDBaby promised: Not bad at all ... in Spotify thre days after approval by the CDBaby minions ... happy with that service. Now ... iTunes, where are you?... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:33 PM | Comments (0)

Distribution approved - we're off to the races (so to speak)

Approved! Alive and Alone is on its way through the digital realm to the major digital music retailers! CDBaby sent it to 24 retailers on the first day - including iTunes and Spotify, which are by far the biggest and... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

Release stuffups - Or, I should have known better by now ...

Confession - when I released Alive and Alone via CDBaby last week, I entered the meta data late at night after a few celebratory drinks. That was a mistake - you should ALWAYS be professional and do your best work.... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:28 PM | Comments (0)

Mixing Alive and Alone - Day 2: Mastering

Hmmmm ... not as bad as it could have been in the cold light of day. Pretty happy with most of the tracks. Suzie and I listened to the whole album at bedtime and I noticed three thigns I wanted... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:23 PM | Comments (0)

Mixing Alive and Alone - Day 1

Wow! So that went better than expected - got a first mix of all ten tracks in one day! I put this down to the consistency of the recordings, the use of a mix template, and the simplicity of the... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)

Mixing Alive and Alone - setup

Right! The time has come to mix this thing ... need to just get it out. I have a bad habit of agonising over the imperfections and wanting to fix things, but after watching Macklemore on the subject, I have... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:18 PM | Comments (0)

Unsigned Only song contest entry

Just found out that Dad Joke Blues did not make the cut for UO this year. To be fair, this was a long shot entry in the Folk Singer-Songwriter category so it's not really surprising ... still entereed in two... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

Entered Dad Joke Blues in the ASA song contest

At long last I've entered a song in the Australian Songwriters Association Songwriting Contest. I've been the Brisbane Regional Coordinator for several years now, but have never entered a song until now - mainly bcause until recently, RCs were not... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

Entered USA Songwriting Contest

Today I entered Dad Joke Blues into the USA Song Contest. Cost me US$35 for the version below to enter the "Comedy/Novelty" category. Winners will be determined by November 15, 2017.... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)

Entered Unsigned Only song contest

OK, so the Dad Joke Blues just got entered into the Unsigned Only Music Competition for US$35. The version posted below was entered into the Folk/Singer-songwriter category, which seemed the most appropriate ... Winners for the 2017 competition will... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:47 PM | Comments (0)

Australian Songwriters Conference review

In June I attended the Australian Songwriters Conference at Ettalong Beach. It would be an expensive exercise and I knew nothing about the conference but I am trying to develop as a songwriter so I felt the "not inexpensive" fee... More

Posted by Huge at 5:57 PM | Comments (0)

Australian Songwriting Conference - song feedback

Well!! A while ago I wrote about the idea of taking my songs and pitching some of them to publishers at the Australian Songwriting Conference. Will write a full review about that experience later (short version: awaesome!) ... but wanted... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

Dad Joke Blues

Last weekend the family went up to the farm. We had a stack of fun patting Dopey the steer and generally chilling, and in a moment of intense craziness we came up with a future project idea: the Huge Family... More

Posted by Huge at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)

Found me a producer ... and got the Dad Joke Blues

Recorded the Dad Joke Blues for a fun home project - two versions. Gumby and Mike came over a while back and we jammed on it for an afternoon and recorded some stuff. One version is electric - that's how... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:22 PM | Comments (0)

Australian Songwriting Conference - opportunity for feedback

A while ago I signed up to attend the Australian Songwriting Conference in Ettalong Beach, NSW in June. I wanted to expand my networks and find new influences and opportunities. It's gonna cost a heap (I'm paying it off) but... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)

Think I need one more stage ...

Been thinking about the three stages of album development in the multi-album project. Three is good, but I think it sells the process short. Now that I have all the guitars down and most of the vocals down, I've been... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:07 PM | Comments (0)

Recording setup

Wanted to share the technical aspects of my recording process ... just for all you nerds and gear sluts. It's not very impressive, I'm afraid ... I'm using Pro Tools 9 on a 2011 Macbook Pro. I have an M-Audio... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - Day 7

Spent most of today figuring out how to play "She Don't Want Your Love". Came up with something completely different to everything I'd play on it before. Rather proud of that ... especially since the song has always been cowboy... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:31 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - Day 6

Right! Got "Angels" down ... eventually. Still not happy with the ending, but at least it's in the can at close to what I want it to sound and feel like. Gonna take a break for a few days and... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:17 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - Day 5

More completed today. Lots more? Well, actually, it felt like a lot but today was compromised by other activities with kids and work and so on. Not as many hours put in, so not as much accomplished. Managed to get... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:53 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - day 4

Better progress today. Took yesterday off to think about it (and do some work that pays for my house) and then ripped in today. Got the following in the can: The rest of Simplicity Home Free Raindrops (that took a... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:39 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - day 3

Today I started again, recording just the guitar parts. Took longer then expected because I was able to pay more attention to the nuances of what I was doing and didn't like some of what was happening. I used exactly... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - day 2

Got the remaining songs in the can as single-take roughs today. Total of 12 down now. Still not happy with this approach, tho. Cry to Heaven, Simplicity, and When the Angels Came are in the can along with the 9... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:32 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Alive and Alone - day 1

OK, so I got most of the songs down as guide tracks to pick them apart. Don't think this was a very useful thing to do - I'm not happy with the results and it took me all day due... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:08 PM | Comments (0)

Collaborators ...

Been thinking about who to work with on this multi-album project. Quality producers in Brisbane are few and far between. Magoo mixed my last single, "Budget Crisis" and I learned a heap from him. Great bloke to work with ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:30 PM | Comments (0)

Stages of album development

Right! Riffing on this concept some more: what are the stages of development that I would have to cover? Seems to me there are a bunch of ways songs get made ... and they all involve collaboration - even among... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:45 PM | Comments (0)

Multi-album project - how?

OK, so I got a lofty ambition and launched into a crazy idea and now I have no idea how I'm going to do this. It's just sunk in to me how much work is going to be involved in... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:35 PM | Comments (0)

Multi-album setlist

Riffing on this a lot lately. Thinking the setlist will look something like this: Red Hot Simplicity She Don't Want Your Love Raindrops Cry to Heaven When It's Over Forever Mine Home Free Whiskey and History Also wanna get some... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

Multi-album project update

OK, so been thinking about this idea a lot. I reckon I can do four versions of the same songs ... start with a worktape and finish with a full production, anything goes sort of thing. About a dozen songs... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:26 PM | Comments (0)

Got me an idea ...

Been thinking about the things that songwriters ask me at Wax Lyricals and other events. There's a theme emerging that I think I can help with ... but it's gonna take some doing. :-) People keep asking me about getting... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:11 PM | Comments (0)

Budget Crisis

As readers of this blog will know, I have some fairly clear and strong political leanings. I've never been a member of any party but I know what I think is a good way to run the country: full equality... More

Posted by Huge at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

I'm wearing my breakfast

Many years ago, when my kids were babies, I wrote this silly ditty for my son, Edward, who was looking very proud of himself for finishing his breakfast - except that he was wearing a lot of it. I used... More

Posted by Huge at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)

Turning attention into traction - Mouthzoff column

This is my ninth column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in December. While a network fo highly skilled and motivated people in the indutry is vital, so is the attention of fans. Only they can form a foundation for... More

Posted by DrHuge at 2:21 PM | Comments (0)

Independence - the power is in the network - Mouthzoff column

This is my eigth column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in November. This one concerns an essential skill that any business owner - especially an independent artist - needs to develop: networking. You can't do it all yourself, so... More

Posted by DrHuge at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)

The art of making enough good art - Mouthzoff column

This is my seventh column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in October. This one aims to help reassure artists that they are already good enough and that they simply need to get there stuff out into the market, seek... More

Posted by DrHuge at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

Beware the trap of fixed ongoing service fees - Mouthzoff column

This is my sixth column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in September. This topic doesn't seem important to a lot of Indies, who just want as much cash as they can get quickly. But it's vital to make smart... More

Posted by DrHuge at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)

Woodford Folk Festival 2013/14 review

This year I had the great honour and priviledge to gain a spot as a Stage Manager at the Woodford Folk Festival, one of the biggest live music events in the world. I was initially appointed to Bill's Bar, which... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:49 PM | Comments (0)

Your fan base wants a relationship - Mouthzoff column

This is my fourth column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in July. The topic is one of vital importance to anyone building a career using new music models - because in this environment, he who dies with the largest... More

Posted by DrHuge at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

Review: Jason Blume songwriting workshop - Mouthzoff column

As readers know, I'm a keen songwriter and heavily involved in helping Brisbane songwriters develop and grow. So when the opportunity came up for me to attend this workshop by one of the best, Jason Blume, I jumped at it.... More

Posted by Huge at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

You need fans before you can ask for fan funding - Mouthzoff column

This is my second column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in June. The topic is one that causes a lot of confusion among Indie - fan funding - because they can see it work for others and don't understand... More

Posted by DrHuge at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

You can't lose sales you would never have had - Mouthzoff column

This is my first column for Mouthzoff magazine. It was published in May. The topic is one that I get asked all the time by Independent Musos: should I protect my copyrights and if so, HOW?In 1999 global record sales... More

Posted by DrHuge at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Writing for Mouthzoff Mag

OK, so some time ago I started writing a monthly column for my good friend Randy G's monthly e-zine. It's a brand new publication aimed at the south-east Qld music scene and I like to support anything that supports local... More

Posted by DrHuge at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone - and slow

You might have noticed by now that I've stopped posting about the Alive and Alone recordings. That's because I burned out badly (literally) trying to record in my house in the heat, then turn up to work feeling refreshed. Also,... More

Posted by Huge at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone - percussion permission

This week I've been mucking about with the percussion parts. Not every song has one, but since that's my strong suit I thought I'd start there. As you may have noticed, I have a heap of percussion toys to play... More

Posted by Huge at 7:45 AM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone - better than expected ...

Tonight, after a hard day back at the office I say down and listened back to the guides I recorded yesterday. I had feared that, given my fatigue levels and lack of concentration, some of them would be incredibly sloppy... More

Posted by Huge at 8:19 PM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone - stage 1 accomplished

Recorded all the guide tracks today. Happy with that but it's not as much as I'd hoped to achieve. I was hoping to have some of the main guitars down as well.There were several reasons for delays - one was... More

Posted by Huge at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

Alive and Alone - the plan

In 2007 I released I am Leaving! I am Leaving! and toured the USA and Canada, playing some solo acoustic shows on my way to interview people and attend the Independent Music Conference in Philadelphia, at which I played more... More

Posted by Huge at 5:32 PM | Comments (0)

Whiskey and History

In recent years I've spent many nights contemplating my life and future by the fire in my back yard. This has been an important part of my recovery from my divorce and associated trauma, and has all too frequently been... More

Posted by Huge at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

Red Hot

I have always loved what John Butler does. I'm not a big fan of his songs as a general rule, but some of them are awesome and his playing is always incredible. Ditto Keith Urban, so when I saw their... More

Posted by Huge at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

If I Had Stew - The major label response

Well, I'm gobsmacked! No wonder the major labels are in so much trouble. A complete contrast in the response from two publishers in my pursuit of a simple clearance to record my parody.First things first - credit where it's due.... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:59 PM | Comments (2)

If I had Stew - Update 2

Still no word from Sony, despite me following their advice. However, I did get a response from tomas at Maratone on 14 Sept. He very kindly told me that I need to get in touch with Kobalt Music Publishing, who... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)

If I had stew

I like to think I'm a pretty funny kinda guy with an ear for satire, so since I first heard Adam Lambert's "If I had you" I've known it would be dead easy to rip off. I've been playing with... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)

You Gotta Dance

I generally try to keep my family out of this blog but this was a bit special. Some time ago my 9-year-old daughter, who's been trying everything get my attention post-divorce (how does a 40-year-old man relate to a 9-year-old... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)

Next chapter

Well, I've been absent from this blog for far too long. What I've been doing, however, has (hopefully) set up the next chapter of my life, which will see a lot more action around here. At long last, the PhD... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

Free is just one form of convenient

Lately I've read several articles providing "the artist's side of the story" as to why music "can't be free". These include: Mark Mulligan's Why Music Can't Just Be Free: The Artists' Side Of The Story, Rick Chazan's On Music Piracy,... More

Posted by DrHuge at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

Don't Make Me Steal ... please

Just found the Don't Make Me Steal project via Hypebot. It's an appeal from movie fans to movie makers, setting out a manifesto for the conditions under which they promise not to illegally download movie online. Great idea ... Of... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)

It's all about engagement ...

This morning there are some great articles in various other publication that point to something I've been thinking about for a while now: building a career as an Indie is all about directly engaging with people who like what you... More

Posted by DrHuge at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

The definition of damn fine music

All you art-wankers and Alt/Indie activists can kiss my arse. There's no substitute for a shit-hot performance of a great tune. If this don't get your pulse racing then you're a corpse. Timeless! Eternal! Blessed music, thy name is this... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

The decline in professional musicians

In recent times I have come across several mentions of the complaint that the number of professional musicians in declining. This is usually followed by some declaration or lament that without professional status, less or worse music will be made.... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:59 PM | Comments (0)

Responding to a reviewer

Found this review of my E-book. So happy that someone has engaged with the ideas!! Actually, I'm honoured that although Jillian disagrees with the central premise of Part 1, she still wants to read Parts 2 and 3. Working on... More

Posted by DrHuge at 1:00 PM | Comments (1)

Review of Music Xray's S2O service

I read about Music Xray's S2O service in a LinkedIn forum and thought "what a great idea" so I signed up and entered The Genre Benders' album into the system (free). The "matches" the S2O system produces are based on... More

Posted by Huge at 12:57 PM | Comments (4)

Never a truer word spoken ...

Just read this rant from Street Carnage, which points out the brutal reality of playing in bands and advises people not to. Can't say I disagree, ironically. Life on the road can be boring, but it's also an opportunity to... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

Breaking an act ...

Just read this post from Mike McCready. I like the way Mike thinks about a bunch of things, but I think he's on slightly the wrong track with this one. To start with, the whole notion of "breaking" and act... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)

Things Indies can learn from Idol ...

Found this article via Bob Baker. It's pitched at writers but it's also very true for Independent musos. No matter what people think of American Idol, or any other variant of the Idol franchise, the performers on it are coached... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:57 PM | Comments (0)

How to make a viny record - from 1956

Willy sent me this incredible short film by RCA Victor detailing the process of making a vinyl record. It's quite long but it goes through the recording process (no multi-tracking!), then the molding and then the pressing and distribution. It's... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:02 PM | Comments (0)

It's better to reliquish control; Kulash gets it. Why doesn't EMI?

Interesting op-ed in the New York Times by OK Go singer Damian Kulash. Kulash notes that his band acted in violation of their record contract when they posted their famous treadmills video on YouTube and he gets stuck into EMI... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:59 AM | Comments (0)

New Merch store

Hey there ... long time no see ... I've been playing with ReverbNation and have made this funky online store. It's got all the GBs tracks in it, plus some t-shirts and ringtones and other stuff. It would mean a... More

Posted by Huge at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

Music as a visual artform

One of my immediate thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson was that his legacy is his contribution to making music a visual artform. Michael's songwriting was OK but fairly forgettable, his musicianship was also marginal ... but to way... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)

Wombats Anthem

This is a silly song I made up for the NTRA Over35s team when I played for Australia the first time in 2006. I originally wrote this main bit and a few verses for some of the players, including Beardy,... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:35 PM | Comments (0)

The world's biggest jam and recording session ...

Musicians and bands who have performed original music in Brisbane are being invited to participate in a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest recording session with multiple artists, possibly the world’s longest jam. This is a unique opportunity for... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:46 PM | Comments (0)

Reznor's latest advice ... another beauty

Techdirt has another gem from Trent Reznor. Advice for indies on how to run their business. It's fairly general advice, but pretty good. Some of the comments provide interesting additional advice and so on. Rather than just report this, I... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

Sweet Freedom

In the past 6 months or so I've started doing some work for a social-justice oriented, not-for-profit record label called Sweet Freedom. they've been around for a while with considerable success but they realised that they knew little about online... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

Maintaining relationships ...

Just caught Techdirt's coverage of Shaun Groves' pontifications on the importance of fan relationships (got it via CDBaby on Facebook - how networked it THAT!!) Shaun discusses the changing nature of relationship-building for indies - about how the only important... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)

Not really a model ... yet

Just read Mike Masnick's take on U2 manager Paul McGuinness's rather tiresome whinge about the online music environment. I generally agree with Mike but I wanted to pick up on one thing he said that I think is misleading. Mike... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:10 PM | Comments (0)

Brian Eno's spot on ... sort of

Found Hypebot's extract from an interview with Brian Eno, in which he outlines a "Recipe For New Music Business Success". He makes is sound very simple when he talks up the virtues of monetising the aspects of music that are... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)

I'll say it again: "Idol" is not about music ...

I*'m not sure why people bother writing this crap any more, since it's pretty much self-evident, but the New York Times has, once again published a destruction of the American Idol final result. Predictably, this article complains that the winner... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:35 PM | Comments (0)

Go, Danger Mouse ...

Just found the great news via Techdirt (via Dubber): Danger Mouse is releasing his new album without any music on it. Of course, this was done before by Green Day, but DM has put a whole new spin on it.... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

New Music I've discovered

For my birthday a short while ago I was given a copy of Preston Reed's Handwritten Notes. It's an interesting album with some really cool stuff, but ... sigh ... I just find it hard to get into this solo... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:26 PM | Comments (0)

New toys

In order to make these new recordings, I have invested in a new electric guitar. It's a Michael Kelly Valor Custom T (Amber), which is sweet as. I wanted something with twin humbuckers to complement my fat Strat (which is... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

Re-Bending of the Genres

OK, well, after a long absence I have decided that the best way to rekindle my interest in music and music studies is to start doing musical things once more. For this reason I have re-entered the studio and resumed... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)

Killng the music industry - Torrentfreak style

Great article on Torrentfreak about the factors affecting recorded music sales. It lists 8 changes since the advent of Napster that would have had a major impact, and it's not wrong. Of course, it's a little self-serving in denying that... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)

American Idol Discriminates

American Idol Discriminates from TJR on Vimeo. This is TJR's song about how American Idol only allows contestants under the age of 29. The original video was pulled by Youtube because Fremantle Media claimed breach of Copyright. So TJR made... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:01 AM | Comments (0)

eMusic data supports the Long Tail

Some time ago there was a study showing that of 13million tracks available on the Internet, 10 million hadn't sold at all. This, it was claimed, proved that the Long Tail theory was bunkum. Chris Anderson, proud daddy of the... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:34 PM | Comments (0)

Support critical reflection!!!

My [MusicThoughts] buddy TJR made a really great song about American Idol. He made a video for it using clips from the show and posted it to YouTube. The Video was a huge hit, getting 20,000 views in a week.... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)

Inside Midem

A wonderful and revealing article in Techdirt about what's happening at annual music industry conference Midemnet. It clearly shows the state of the industry in one little snippet - new experiments that show new possibilities and much confusion among the... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:17 AM | Comments (0)

Hypebot's top Music 2.0 posts

Hypebot has posted a summary of their best Music 2.0 posts of 2008. It's got some really good stuff in it. Very important in years to come, I'm sure. Check it out, read their literature and get into the resources... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:36 AM | Comments (0)

Musowiki update

Right! Need to get back into updating regularly. Sorry about that. News: I have submitted the Musowiki paper for my thesis. It's been submitted to the International Journal of Community Music, who will hopefully find it enlightening enough to publish.... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)

Myspace is dead. Repeat after me: MySpace is dead.

Just got this ripper of a story about MySpace taking over the URL of a band called Mobile just because they wanted www.myspace.com/mobile as part of their strategy for entry into the mobile music marketplace. This is a classic demonstration... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:46 AM | Comments (0)

"Debunking the Long Tail"?

The Register published an article some time back about new research that claims to "debunk the Long Tail". It takes a critical mathematical approach mainly to the precise shape of the curve - is it a Pareto curve, as Chris... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

On albums

[Musicthoughts] recently had an interesting discussion about the value of albums, inspired by a Lefsetz rant. I thought this might provide a slightly different take on the idea: For the record, I agree with Stephan's thinking completely: "I don't think... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

MySpace Music

So, MySpace Music has finally launched in a most unexpected manner ... how predictable. All I know for sure is that since the launch I have not been able to listen to any music on MySpace. I click on the... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:11 AM | Comments (0)

Can you feel it?

The return of an asinine TV show called "Australian Idol"? Actually, no, I can't feel it. I have far more important and ugly things to think about right now and in any case I'm having trouble raising any interest in... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:25 AM | Comments (0)

Vanessa Amorosi live

One of the things Dec Cluskey recommends is to get out regularly and see charting artists at work. Dec says if you want to perform like a star you need to study the way stars perform - reasonable point! So... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

Fete de la Musique

What an amazing musical experience I had yesterday! It pretty much covered everything that is great and awful about life as a musician. If only everyone could share something like this ... It started with the Brisbane Fete de la... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)

The power of radio

Anyone who doubts the importance of radio airplay in establishing your value as a musical performer needs to take a long, hard look at the APRA awards. The nominees for Song of the Year are all big radio hits, as... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

Meeting the millenials

Interesting report released by Music Tank last week called "Meet the Millennials". It's written, at least in part, by Nettwerk's Terry McBride, so it's certainly worth reading. Now, I'm always highly skeptical of anything that makes broad claims about the... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

The best advice you don't have to buy

Derek Sivers has just released his manifesto for being heard. Derek has long agreed with the view, which I believe was first expressed by Cory Doctorrow, that the enemy of the unsigned artists is not piracy, but obscurity. This is... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

Myspace has very little to do with it ...

The other day I read this interview with Ingrid Michaelson, which is billed as revealing how MySpace can help musos "make it" on the same scale as Ingrid has. Since I found the article via Myspace For Musicians, I think... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)

20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time

I love a good list and I love a good story of stupidity, so this list of acts of stupidity in Blender is right up my alley. Hard to disagree with number 1, though I think some of the others... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

Well, that blew out some cobwebs ...

Played at the Kenmore Tavern last night for Fretfest. A little 6-song solo acoustic set: Be Free Vital Signs When It's Over Mighty Fine Day Heart's With You Simplicity I was reminded the hard way that you play how you... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)

The predictable response

Well, it was always going to happen and here it is (thanks, Rachel!). A response from some New Media-savvy people pointing out how stupid the in-tune campaign is. It's a slightly over-done reaction (I basically just yawned) but, well, this... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:51 PM | Comments (0)

Australian Music In Tune?

Puh-lease! Will someone wake the major music industry bodies up?? This is getting ridiculous. How out-of-touch do they ant to seem? This initiative is pathetic, and a PR disaster. It's the sort of idea you'd expect a bunch of pissed... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)

The demise of Sonific

It's sad to see that another experiment in approaches to independent music has gone the way of the dodo. Sonific, like a lot of Gerd Leonhard's stuff, was a great idea cruelled by harsh reality. Gerd bills himself as a... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

MusoWiki stage 1 is complete!

One of the reasons I have not been posting much lately is because of the amount of time I been spending building www.musowiki.net. I'm pleased to announce that the Global component of the site is now complete and ready for... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:57 PM | Comments (0)

We'll miss you Jackie

Just read about the death of Jackie Orszaczky. I never met him personally but I read his name on so many album credits and spoke to so many people who played with him that I feel like I knew his... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:11 AM | Comments (0)

Fergie/The Police

Caught this show at Suncorp Stadium last night. WOW! Unfortunately, the guys I went with were more interested in boozing it up than catching the show so I missed the first act and the start of Fergie's set. Also, we... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:45 AM | Comments (1)

Music Market=share market for labels

I apologise for my absence - been busy. This morning I fielded a question from Jon David Francys via MySpace mail. He asked a very good question about the future for independent labels in the new environment and I thought... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:29 AM | Comments (0)

The "musical middle class"

Over at Hypebot there's been an interesting discussion going on about the idea of a musical middle class. This is the idea that more acts, bands and/or artists are now making a living from music than ever before. They may... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

Another great summary

Seth Godin has been raking over the entrails of the music industry figures from 2007 and has come up with some lessons from recent experience. I'm not convinced about some of them or the order in which they're placed ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:14 AM | Comments (0)

A great summary ...

Just found this post by Ian Rogers about how new technologies have changed the music industry. It's a fantastic summary of the impact (or not) of the new environment. Complete, thoughtful, insightful. You have to read it and understand it... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)

Someone agrees!

For some time now I've been working on what I've called my "tentacle theory" of business for indies. This is basically the idea that you need to extend your reach as far as you can into the rest of the... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:46 PM | Comments (0)

Playing with Demands

Just trying this out. But it will work if you click on it ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:23 PM | Comments (0)

The Genre Benders go Live! Twice!

At long last, The Genre Benders go live with a splash this weekend at The Alley Bar, 2 Frew St, Milton! We're on Friday night at 7pm with Yield, Triplickit, A Date with Apathy and Lord Byron. Doors open 5.30.... More

Posted by Huge at 9:06 AM | Comments (0)

Go Tah! Go Tah! Go Tah!

Just heard that my best Brooklyn Buddy, Tah Phrum Duh Bush was voted "Favorite Male Hip Hop Performer" at the first Annual Upper States Awards at the Palace Theater in Syracuse, NY. Excellent and well deserved - Tah's a legend.... More

Posted by Huge at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)

Radiohead's "success"?

Comscore have issued a report that estimates the rate of paid downloads from Radiohead's pay-what-you-like experiment. In a nutshell, they found that in the first 29 days of October, the album was downloaded about 1.2 million times and paid for... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

Vinyl and MP3 vs CDs

Occasionally I come across articles like this one, which talk about the return of vinyl as a force for music sales and another "nail in the coffin" of the much-criticised CD. Oh, come on! It's a crock! Look at all... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:36 AM | Comments (0)

Giving music away or making it available??

An interesting point came up on the MusicThoughts list yesterday and it peaked my interest - especially in light of an article from Andrew Dubber that I'd read earlier. Here's the original meme and my response: >> When you give... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

Podcasting

I just spent today listing my podcast in as many places as possible, including this one, which asked me to publish this bit of code here: My Odeo Channel (odeo/a0359c902d0ff2f1) Of course, there are lots of other sites that list... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:49 PM | Comments (0)

Most predictable ARIAs ever ...

Well, I predicted the winners of all but two ARIAS last night. I missed Gotye, mainly because I knew nothing about him - never heard his music and had only heard his name in connection with his nomination; and Sarah... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

Music files may be abundant, but listener value and attention are still scarce.

Just came across this Techdirt article, in which Mike discusses the economics of abundance and therefore the virtues for an artist/band of making music available for free. This is an example of slightly muddled and mistaken thinking but before I... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

Some sense from the other side

I am often amazed at the one-sidedness of discussion about free music. It always seems to reflect the view that bands, artists or record companies have been ripping consumers off for so long that therefore any steps taken to obtain... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

7 Stupid Mistakes

I found this yesterday. The e-book is not bad and you can get it free if you tell four other people about it. It's called "The 7 Stupid Mistakes People Make Trying To Get Into The Music Business" and it... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)

Song contests

Coupla years ago a friend of mine won a major songwriting contest in Australia but, much to his frustration, told me that success didn't translate into better fortunes as a performer. Since I heard that story I have been wondering... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

Awesome election rap battle

A friend of mine posted this to Facebook, and I thought it was so brilliant I'd have to share it. Have to find out more about these guys: The Axis of Awesome.But first, here's their election rap:... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

OK, OK, I now have Sonicbids ...

Despite my own better judgement, I have finally got around to signing up for a Sonicbids account for The Genre Benders. I have resisted this for a long time because I could not see the value proposition in it as... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

Hypebot's 100 Free & Affordable High & Low Tech Music Promotion Tips

I've been following this for a while now and there's some really good stuff in here. Handy, simple and cheap. Of course, not all of them will work for everyone and some of them will not work at all once... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:41 PM | Comments (0)

Jmag's best advice ...

Jmag, Triple J radio's print extension, has started publishing its "How to ... " section on a blog. I've not read many of these, but they seem to be packed with a bunch of great advice for indies on various... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

Not Radiohead, Regurgitator!

Like the sheep I can sometimes be, I defied my track record of finding Radiohead's music boring and art-wanky and downloaded the free new album. I paid nothing for it, on the promise that I'd send them something if it... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

Me at fRETfEST

My mate Graham came to see me play at fRETfEST last Saturday night and used his mobile phone to record my performance. It's been uploaded to YouTube, and here it is: The picture quality is awful but the sound is... More

Posted by Huge at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)

Darn! Fell at the last hurdle.

Missed out on the fRETfEST final. I can't really argue with the people who made it in - they're all interesting - but there are a couple that I wonder what the judges see in them. I take comfort in... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

Radiohead wrap

This came out of a discussion on MusicThoughts. There's heap of commentary about the new Radiohead approach to releasing albums but I think a lot of people are reading far too much into this. The strategy is transparent and ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

More of me in Philly

Again, from Rachel Rocks, a review and another photo ... "HUGE came all the way from Australia to check out the IMC. When he performed, he came out wearing these funky pants, that made you think he’s a little crazy,... More

Posted by Huge at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

Through to the Semis!

Wow! I'm in the final 20 performers in fRETfEST. Given the competition I saw last Saturday, I'm blown away by that. They were all so good ... some amazing songs and great performances. Honoured to be in that company. This... More

Posted by Huge at 9:13 AM | Comments (0)

Keeping fans' interest

At IMC, one of the more unexpectedly interesting perspectives came from David Cooper, who's an accountant. He specialises in making stuff to help artists at the back end - the accounting and management jobs that most artists struggle with. We... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

How to stand out in the crowd

Jim Fetzer was great for a quote at the Independent Music Conference. At one stage we were discussing the difficult issue of how a band can get people to notice them in this world that is flooded with acts doing... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

Have the confidence to be rejected

Got this one from Derek Sivers' website. Derek's an incredible guy who I had the honour to meet a couple of Big Sound Conferences ago. He knows what it takes to be in independent artist and delights in helping indies... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

Keep your eyes on the prize ...

James Fetzer, fetzer music management, covers, covers bands, covers songs, originals bands, original songs, covering songs, playing covers, independent music, independent artists, independent musicians, original music More

Posted by Hughie at 2:12 PM | Comments (0)

Made it into Fretfest!

Got an e-mail last night confirming that I passed the audition and made it into the first heat of Fretfest in the Middle-age Farts category. I played my latest song, "When it's Over" (slightly reworked after IMC07), and got some... More

Posted by Huge at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

Confidence to be rejected

Got this one from Derek Sivers' website. Derek's an incredible guy who I had the honour to meet a couple of Big Sound Conferences ago. He knows what it takes to be in independent artist and delights in helping indies... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:46 PM | Comments (0)

Why should people care??

Jim Fetzer has a unique approach to managing Indie bands ... or any band, for that matter. He has an interesting take on life. But in one of the IMC07 panels, he made the point that for all the new... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

Words you will never hear ...

At the IMC07 I attended a session on song arrangement run by Lawrence "Gelboni" Gelburd. It was very informative. He basically just showed us how he had re-worked a song by a band he was helping. The song was already... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

Music discovery

Just found this post from Hype Machine. They asked readers "How do you discover music?" and, not surprisingly, the top answer was from online editorials, followed by friends' recommendations. The lowest rating was given to "Online Mechanical", which means via... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

Me in Philly!

Thanks to Rachel Rocks at the Pennsylvania Musician magazine, here's a photo of me in action at the Independent Music conference in Philadelphia on August 30. It's always interesting to see yourself as others see you .. not that you... More

Posted by Huge at 3:34 PM | Comments (0)

The Big Picture

Independent music conference, IMC07, independent music, tips for musicians, tips for artists, tips for independent musicians, tips for independent artists, help for artists, help for musicians, how to become an independent artist, independent music career, music business, music industry, independent music business, independent music career More

Posted by Hughie at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

The value of your brand

Found a great article about the David Lee Roth reunion with Van Halen. Gotta say I'm a huge Van Halen fan and all three singers worked for me - although the Cherone things is not my favourite album. Perhaps that's... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Business approaches for indies

This post arose out of a discussion on the [MusicThoughts] e-mail list. We were pulling apart the benefits and weaknesses of using Tunecore or CDBaby as your service of choice to digitally distribute your music - at least that's roughly... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

The GBs on iTunes

The Genre Benders' I am leaving! I am leaving!" is now available on iTunes: Enjoy!... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

Songwriting as expression

Just found Patti Witten's nifty story about her experience at a songwriting workshop run by Rosanne Cash (Johnny's daughter, among other things). I've never been much of a one for these sorts of workshoppy gigs - I recognise the lonliness... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

Recommendations and fans!

The Genre Benders' debut is now available for sale from CDBaby and I've uploaded it to Last.fm and Amie Street, where the opening track has been recommended - how cool is that! I'm working on getting it to Garageband.com, but... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

Well, there you go ...

Since I finished "I am leaving! I am leaving", I've sent it out to a lot of people and places. Some of them have completely ignored me, but to date all of the feedback has been positive. Until today ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)

The Album is up on Last.fm

OK, I've uploaded it to http://www.last.fm/music/The+Genre+Benders/I+am+leaving%21+I+am+leaving%21 - that's the album page. I've embedded it it here: table.lfmWidget20070718023725 td {margin:0 !important;padding:0 !important;border:0 !important;}table.lfmWidget20070718023725 tr.lfmHead a:hover {background:url(http://panther1.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/radio/regular_red.png) no-repeat 0 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget20070718023725 tr.lfmEmbed object {float:left;}table.lfmWidget20070718023725 tr.lfmFoot td.lfmConfig a:hover {background:url(http://panther1.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat 0px 0 !important;;}table.lfmWidget20070718023725... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:34 PM | Comments (0)

Vale, Mark Gillett

Got the saddest news yesterday. My good friend Mark Gillett, writer of Dancing With the Stones and many other great tunes, died last April of cancer. He is sorely missed in the folk music community of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:32 PM | Comments (0)

Got an international gig!

Just got confirmed as performing at the Independent Music Conference in Philadelphia in August/Sept. Not sure of the exact dates yet. I'm hoping this will be an accoustic set of about 1/2 hour as a "showcase" (IMC hates that word... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

Genre Benders album is nearly here

OK, it's being replicated, so if you want to pre-order the CD, please do so here using the PayPal shopping facility. If you'd like to hear it before you buy, go to The Genre Benders' website. For people ordering the... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

Another WOFTAM

Apparently I got nowhere in the QSong awards. The finalists have been announced and none of my three entries is present. The finalists list looks like the usual suspects ... Still, I comfort myself with the knowledge that the greatest... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)

How good was Guy Sebastian??

Update: Guy's official site is here. Thanks to Nessa for reminding me to include it. One of the absolute highlights of last night's Origin game had to be Guy Sebastian's version of the national anthem ... Now, I object to... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:47 PM | Comments (4)

My studio

Thought I'd take some pics of the studio to show you ... it's pretty primitive. Here's the mixing setup, which is what I'm doing most the time at them moment: It's in one half of my garage ... and cannot... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:05 AM | Comments (1)

A Working Class Hero?

Great to hear that politics is back on the musical agenda via this song and Green Day. It's one of my favourite songs - has everything that a great song needs. I also really dig Green Day - they're a... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:38 PM | Comments (0)

Damn in French = rien!

Just got a letter from France saying that Bun' Ber E's French distribution company, Jam Label, has gone into liquidation. This is a bummer, but they never actually earned us anything ... at least, they never paid us anything. We... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)

A bootleg?

UPDATE: the finished product is now available and can be ordered from here. If you want to listen before you buy, the songs are available here. OK, my engineer just presented me with a bunch of quick mixes of the... More

Posted by Huge at 10:50 AM | Comments (1)

Astral Traveller

Another of the riffs Tristan came up with turned into this funky number. It's a bit of a nonsense song, really. At the time I wrote (most of) the lyrics I was interested in what my darling and I called... More

Posted by Huge at 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

Entered Songwriting contest

OK, I've just driven to the Valley and lodged a three-song entry in the QSong awards 2007. I entered the bootleg mixes of "Heart's With You" (Country category), "12 Good Bars and True" (Blues/Roots category) and "Dirty" (Pop category). I'm... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)

Dirty

Several years ago (~1995) I was in an unsuccessful 3-piece band called 'Lifta". The band came and went nowhere but the guitarist, Tristan Rogers, had a real flair for making up interesting guitar riffs. Tristan is the brother of Adam,... More

Posted by Huge at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

IT IS DONE!!

The album is in the can! (except for a sax part ...) I still have to edit things a bit and choose which take to use in a few places. But it is all recorded except for the sax part... More

Posted by Huge at 9:06 AM | Comments (0)

Welcome back, Casey ...

Heard an interview with Casey Donovan on the radio this morning. That's the Australian singer, not gay the porn star. She was talking about her life since Idol and her new music. Interesting listening to her new music ... she's... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:58 PM | Comments (0)

So Far Away

In about 1993 I broke up with a girlfriend of 3 years: Erin. I found this profoundly upsetting but ultimately life-changing as it pulled me out of a rut and got me looking to the rest of my life. Just... More

Posted by Huge at 3:58 PM | Comments (0)

Predictable dreams

Sometimes my brain works in such predictable ways. Had a shocking case of insomnia last night following the dream that always haunts periods of near-achievement. In this case, I dreamt I was called in to play bass for the Police... More

Posted by Huge at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

Nope, not quite ...

I just went and checked, and I have two bits to add to the music: "Mighty Fine Day" needs an accoustic guitar and "So Far Away" needs a triangle. And, of course, there's the sax part on "Long for the... More

Posted by Huge at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

Dare I breathe it? The music is done ... at last???

As of about an hour ago, I think ... well, I'm pretty sure ... as sure as I can be ... although tomorrow might tell a different story ... the music for the first album is in the can. That... More

Posted by Huge at 8:04 PM | Comments (0)

Missy Higgins ... musical chick lit

The other day my darling and I were driving along discussing why I don't get Missy Higgins. Don't get me wrong, I think she's a great peformer, always immaculately produced with obviously great material ... but her songs just don't... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

Manifesto for New Music Strategies

Just found this. It's brilliant summary of the New Music environment. These are the principles by which I operate and into which I am conducting further research (as is its author, Andrew Dubber). I won't summaries it because it's a... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:37 PM | Comments (0)

Having some fun ...

Went out to the Lounge Room Gallery in Red Hill last Saturday night for an Open Mic ... There was some real talent on display, though the venue was a little cramped, and it was good fun. I played three... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)

Conversations with Lefsetz

Had a recent exchange with Bob Lefsetz about the phenomenon I noticed in iTunes. Now that I've had a few days to think about it, I thought I'd blog on the subject ... First of all I have to say... More

Posted by Hughie at 5:20 PM | Comments (0)

Sony wakes up!?

Good to see one of the major record companies has finally found a good use for the web. Shame it's not one that works to the advantage of everybody else ... But it makes perfect sense to them and doesn't... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:46 PM | Comments (0)

Can Apple manipulate the digital music market?

I just sent this e-mail to Chris Anderson, Bob Lefsetz and the [Musicthoughts] e-mail list: Hi Chris and Bob. Thought you might be interested in this phenomenon, as observed via the [MusicThoughts] e-mail list. Its members are mostly independent artists... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

Giving the music away?

music business, music industry, music business models, giving music away, giving recordings away, free music, legitimate free downloads, Barenaked Ladies, MC Lars, More

Posted by Hughie at 1:16 PM | Comments (0)

Getting closer

OK, the album is slowly getting closer. I'm really happy with the way So far Away is coming up, though I'm perplexed about the chorus - it needs something to lift it a bit. Perhaps some backing vocals, or another... More

Posted by Huge at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

Producing the Genre Benders

Getting ever closer slowly. I now have drum parts down for 6 tracks (two don't need drums) and keyboards for two, thanks to Kathy Hirche. The guitars are getting closer to final parts and the vocals are still guides. I've... More

Posted by Huge at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

No Van Halen at their own show??

Distubing news at the pinnacle of the industry: Van Halen will not be performing at their own induction into the Hall of Fame. Not with DLR, not with Sammy, not at all. That's ridiculous!! Apparently, it's not uncommon for R&... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:54 AM | Comments (0)

Bye, Bye, Billy

Awful news this morning about the passing of Billly Thorpe. The world is a lesser place without this great performer and character. I wasn't into his music much but I enjoyed what I knew of it and respect anyone who... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:39 PM | Comments (0)

Onya Ricky!

There's not enough politics in music these days, so it's great to see that Ricky Martin got into trouble for making a political statement about George W Bush while performing in Puerto Rico. Even better, he had the balls to... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:31 PM | Comments (0)

Thanks, Dec!

Amazing what a difference a bit of professional advice makes. For the past little while I've been re-working and re-recording the song for my first solo album based on the advice (mainly) of Dec Cluskey. He's been spot on about... More

Posted by Huge at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

Van Halen gets a gong!

Just got the news that Van Halen are to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Now, I'm not a fan of the Hall of Fame - too much cronyism and wankery associated with it - but if ever there... More

Posted by Hughie at 3:36 PM | Comments (0)

Could Koopa be the first?

In my thesis research so far I have been at pains to distinguish between music that has become popular of its own - via the network of fans and so on - and music that has become popular because a... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

Great stuff!

Wish I'd known about these guys before. Bob Lefsetz used this song to make a point in one of his diatribes, and it's a ripper! Have to try and find the video and/or DVD. There are some other Three Dog... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)

More awesome stuff

Also via the Digital Music Weblog, found Andy McKee - accoustic finger-style guitarist beyond belief. Check out this, for example: These are the kinds of amazing artists that ought to be receiving major publicity and airplay from the major labels... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

Amazing stuff

On the Digital Music Weblog, they give props to this performance: Awesome, yeah? Not a new idea but an excellent way to use it. Must have a go at something similar myself. I wonder what the words are??... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

Comparison of digital distributors

Just found this comparison via a roundabout way. It's a table of the costs, processes and other aspects of some digital distribution companies that I knew nothing about. In fact, I knew nothing about some of these companies! But that's... More

Posted by Hughie at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

Gotta gig!

Went to see Jess at Bar Soma last night and she tentatively booked me for a 45 minute set, Wednesday, Feb 14 2007. Valentine's day. All originals - the beginning of something? Let's hope so. Think I'll play my standard... More

Posted by Huge at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

This is cool ...

Just found this via MySpace this morning. A woman called Mary wanted to b a friend of Bun' Ber E and she had it playing on her site. TSO describe themselves as "classical" but this is a very heavy-metal version... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:28 AM | Comments (0)

Is MySpace dying?

There's an interesting assessment in the Washington Post, which argues that MySpace may be yesterday's place to meet and therefore a business in trouble. Now, I've argued before that MySpace was "dead in the water" but for different reasons. I've... More

Posted by Hughie at 1:11 PM | Comments (1)

The Amazon Advantage?

A question was posted to the Musicthoughts list about Amazon and how to best get sales through it. I have kept my eye on this for some time but have never considered it viable. The perfect solution for Bun' Ber... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

Dungiggin'

Bun' Ber E played our last gig for 2006 yesterday at Dicey Reilly's. It was a load of fun but I'm sort of glad the playing commitments are over for the year. Frees me up to concentrate on The Genre... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:02 AM | Comments (0)

The Show must go on

Sir Elton, well done. That performance demonstrates well and truly that the show can always go on - especially when you have Davey Johnstone on your side. I would have loved to have seen that show but ... well ...... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

So, Dean Geyer's gone ...

And there's just Damien Leith and Jessica Mauboy left. Well, they're both fine performers so it really doesn't matter who wins - the world is a better place for having heard these two. That said, I'm cheering loudest for Jessica... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

What next?

Well, since I last posted about Australian Idol, Ricky's gone and now Chris has gone, leaving Jessica, Dean and Damien. So, who's going to the final? No idea, but my head says Dean and Jessica ... I think. Those two... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)

About time, guys ...

Just read about R.E.M and Van Halen making the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame nominations. Why has this not happened earlier? Van Halen are one of my all-time favourite bands (though perhaps not personally inspiring ...) and I think... More

Posted by Hughie at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

Lovely stuff, Tracey

A couple of weeks ago, at the Big Sound conference, I met the lovely Tracey Saxby and have been playing her CD, "Barefoot Accoustic" regularly ever since. She's an interesting girl - grew up in Bundaberg but based in westen... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:45 AM | Comments (0)

Lisa's gone?

Well, there you go ... how wrong can I be? I guess that's what I get for not really paying attention - only tuning in occasionally. Still, it's all the more pity becuase I thought the last two times I... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

Happy birthday, iPod

Just read that it was five years ago today that Steve Jobs launched the iPod, which well and truly changed the digital media landscape and set the standard for digital music. Apple's iPod, and the iTunes store that came shortly... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

Lavina Fan Club

Can't believe the best voice in the competition has been voted off already. So much for Idol being a singing contest. Still, Lavina's shown what she's got on the national stage and should be proud of what she's done. You... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

Klancie? You're kidding!

Once again I am reminded that Australian Idol is not a singing contest. To have the bottom three we had last night after the performances of Sunday night was ridiculous. Dean Geyer's fans have only themselves to blame - we... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

How to play guitar

Just found this guitar-playing resource. How cool! Has everything you could possibly need to learn to play guitar and then some. Even better, it has links to more advanced things and a store that sells instrumnts, amps, strings, and so... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

The competition is that weak??

Interesting to read about the field for honours at the "American Music Awards" this year. I can't believe there was so little high-quality music this year that so many of the usual suspects were nominated multimple times. I can think... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

Lavina fan club

What a voice! She was one of only two Idols to really rock it up on the "rock" show last night - is there anything she can't do?? That was, as Kyle said, disappointing - especially Mutto. (Coldplay on a... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:37 AM | Comments (0)

The Genre Benders are born

Well, after a long time discussing, planning and figuring stuff out, The Genre Benders had their first rehearsal/bash in a live setting two nights ago. Of course, various members have been writing and recording bits and pieces for a while,... More

Posted by Huge at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

Onya Mutto!

Good to see my boy got up! Now, next time you sing a song that seriously rocks, LET IT ROCK! I agree completely with Kyle and Mark about that last effort: it didn't make it - and also with Marcia... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:03 PM | Comments (0)

Mutto Fan club

Last time I didn't start fan clubs for Idol entrants until they's been voted off, but this time I'm getting in early with support for Mutto. I'd love to see a raw rocker get in there and spark up the... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)

Dean's a special

I have been avoiding Australian Idol up to this point, but my darling was watching it on Sunday night (I slept through last night's episode) so I caught the guys performing. The only real standout to me was Dean "the... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

Great entertainment ... ??

Went out Sunday night to see John Harley Weston and Indy Clark play accoustic sets at Ric's Bar in Fortitude Valley. Great value! Picked up both their CDs with autographs! Real live performers playing real live music fromtheir hearts and... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

Never a truer word spoken ...

Yesterday I read a great post from a great songwriting blog. It makes a simple but profound point for all those of us who value the expression in songwriting: "What 'serious' songwriter would've thought? Imagine sitting down with a publisher... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)

What have I been up to?

This blog has been dominated by sport stuff lately, but the tagline points out how wrong that its ... especially when I'm doing music full-time for the first time. So, what's doing? Well, right now I'm working on Bun' Ber... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:51 AM

Somebody heard me!

Just had a delivery guy here who heard me on Triple M the other week. He was a Blues supporter, but that's OK. He said it was hard to hear the words, though he was listening in his truck, but... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

What a waste of a day

Spent most of yesterday arguing with Pro Tools. I was trying to loop the bagpipe drone samples, and had to kill the pops at the joins. Pro Tools has a really cool device called a crossover that does this neatly,... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Me, in The Cage

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call while I was in the studio. The message was from Marto, who'd found the letter I sent them last year about my State of Origin Song. He couldn't find the CD I'd enclosed... More

Posted by Huge at 7:54 AM | Comments (1)

Doubly predictable

[sigh] Madonna was always going to do something to grab promotional headlines by annoying the Church in her new show and the Church was always going to help her by biting at her barbs ... Why is this news?? Why... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:13 PM | Comments (0)

Toughest gig ever

Last night was the hardest gig I've ever done. It was a 3.5 hour Ceilidh with Bun' Ber E at Acacia Ridge School so there was not a lot of playing but with a sore shoulder, there was intense pain.... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:13 PM | Comments (0)

Download sites growth

It's incredible how may sites have sprung up trying to make money by selling music in download form on the Internet. I've been compiling a list of them for my PhD and have racked up 15 without trying. That's just... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

Before the music dies

Great to see some respect being paid to the creators and developers of the less-acknowledged music in the USA. I haven't seen "Before the Music Dies" but it's long overdue, given the sad history of exploitation of performing artists. Can't... More

Posted by Hughie at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)

Ignorant journos ...

Can't even get the basics right! The Sydney Morning Herald is today reporting on the Stones' Sydney concert, which was, by all reports, a beauty. However, they say Skeiff started the night with "a black Stratocaster guitar slung around his... More

Posted by Hughie at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Gonna spend most of today and tomorrow playing at Irish events in Brissie! Dicey Reilly's today, and tomorrow - the races! How Irish is that! Bun' Ber E will be out there and in the the thick of it all.... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)

CDs as a sales force

Interesting article on Slyck examining the prospects for the CD as a music sales medium. It's pretty thorough and goes over a recent report by NPD (pdf, 1.68MB) pretty well, concluding that, depsite the NPD finding, digital downloads will replace... More

Posted by Hughie at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)

We be jammin'

Had a great bash with the boys down at the club yesterday. It was a bit short notice - I got told about it Sat morning - but I got to play drums all afternoon, and sing a bit. Sensational!!... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:42 AM | Comments (0)

The death of the album ...

I've been reading articles like this one for a while now. They all basically claim that since digital delivery allows consumers to pick and choose individual tracks, this means that sales of packages of tunes in the form of albums... More

Posted by Hughie at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)

Value in old media

Interesting to note that a piece of paper with Beatles lyrics written on it is worth a lot of money. Goes to reinforce the old adage about easy things being worth less than difficult things - for all the copies... More

Posted by Huge at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

Learning from Idol mistakes

Great to read this morning that SonyBMG has signed all of the final three Idol contestants: Kate DeAraugo, Lee Harding and now Emily Williams. It shows that they've learned from their experience in missing out on finalists who've sold very... More

Posted by Huge at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

CDBaby rules!

Thought I'd better post something here about what a great job CDBaby do as a distributor of recordings. Not only do they sell the hard-copy CDs for Bun' Ber E, but they also have a digital distribution program, which puts... More

Posted by Huge at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

I guess it had to happen

Interesting to note that the Grateful Dead, long champions of the "give the music away free and make up for it elsewhere" philosophy, have come to a crunching commercial reality. The upshot of this is that they may decide not... More

Posted by Huge at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

The Australian Industry in America

Great to read the article by Tony George in themusic.com.au about government assistance for Australian musicians into the US market. This is a great boon and I'm sure Tony will do a huge job and have a heap of fun... More

Posted by Huge at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)

More on Idol

Couple of late notes from other sources on Idol. I didn't watch the finale or the results, largely because I'm bored with Idol, but I got the following by e-mail after it: Idols gave no respect 23 November 2005 I... More

Posted by Huge at 9:46 AM | Comments (1)

Defending Idol

I have to defend Australian Idol from some ridiculous statements about its failure to rate on TV. I have read repeated statements, when reporting the poor ratings for this series of Idol, attributing its performance to the "end of the... More

Posted by Huge at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

Getting toey

Right. Had a hit-out with Lizard Drinkin' on Saturday night. It was fun and blew out a lot of cobwebs. More have been booked in December. I was discussing the show with my favourite critic and she reminded me that... More

Posted by Huge at 2:54 PM | Comments (0)

Worrying trends in Australian music

What does this graph tell us? It's taken from the APRA annual report and shows the 5-year trend of money coming into and out of Australia for music royalties. You'll note that the annual amount of money coming into Australia... More

Posted by Huge at 5:11 PM | Comments (0)

Post-Arias discussion

Well, the Aria Awards have been handed out for another year. It's good to see the majors get together and congratulate themselves as an industry. Well done to the winners - that's a reward for all the hard work you've... More

Posted by Huge at 9:11 AM | Comments (0)

Common problems for performers

It was interesting to read in The Weekend Australian an extract from Chrissie Amphlett's autobiography in which she wrote about her initial difficulties being outrageous on stage. The most interesting bit was the part about the difference between playing her... More

Posted by Huge at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)

The faceless Dream Factory

BTW - I've decided that from now on I will refer to the major record company approach to the music business as "the dream factory". It seems appropriate, since that's exactly what they offer: dreams. When you wake up it's... More

Posted by Huge at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

Why stick to just one approach?

Watched the final episode of The Hit Game last night and it drove home to me yet another aspect of what's wrong with the music industry: The fixation with making artists stick to one "brand" of music. I thought the... More

Posted by Huge at 5:35 PM | Comments (0)

Never a truer word

Got some fairly sombre e-mails from my mate Phil Graham yesterday. He's in Canada for work but has had enough and wants to return to sunny Brisbane. Among other things, I suggested there was a song in one of the... More

Posted by Huge at 9:02 AM | Comments (0)

Hits and misses

I've been watching The Hit Game on the ABC for the past two weeks. Last night's episode was a brilliant expose of exactly what's wrong with the music industry. A talented, beautiful and experienced young Belinda-Lee Reid hangs her entire... More

Posted by Huge at 2:11 PM | Comments (2)

Promoting songs

Well, last week I got my copies of Australian Music Marketing Abroad's A'n'R magazine. In it (page 40), and on the accompanying CDs is "Heart's With You" (streaming version). The ad cost me Aus$700 and, given the company it's in,... More

Posted by Huge at 12:08 PM | Comments (2)

Well done, Joel

Just read about Joel Turner winning the world beatboxing championships in Germany. Excellent effort! Of course, I don't actually "get" beatboxing - it does nothing for me musically - but you only have to listen to the guy to hear... More

Posted by Huge at 5:35 PM | Comments (1)

On ya, Nick

I'm not much of a fan of Nick Cave's music but this story, wherein he threatens to walk out of a gig if he can't take his beer and cigarettes onto the stage, is a classic. It's a win for... More

Posted by Huge at 4:13 PM | Comments (0)

The band was cookin'

Managed to catch the last bit of Australian Idol last night - quite by accident. The singing was predictably ordinary but the band was cooking. Of course, this just served to remind me what can be achieved with a bit... More

Posted by Huge at 9:16 AM | Comments (0)

Ignoring Australian Idol

A couple of people asked me the other day at a gig whether I'm watching Australian Idol this time. I gotta confess that I'm not. (interesting to see the IdolBlog this time around - and that a Google of "Australian... More

Posted by Huge at 9:48 AM | Comments (2)

A rare pleasure

I got a rare and unexpected buzz on Saturday morning! As we were complaining about how cold and miserable it was at the Sunnybank RSL's 60th anniversary of VP day celebrations, a fan requested that we play "Heart's with you".... More

Posted by Huge at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)

Ain't it strange??

On the gig front, you go through long periods of nothing happening and then all of a sudden, several pop out at once. Two weddings in the space of two weeks, after almost a year of nothing for Lizard Drinkin'.... More

Posted by Huge at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

Getting on with it.

OK, the drum parts are coming along reasonably. Got a couple of bass parts down, too. Plenty of work to be done. Today I'm off to ACRO to get the next stage of the re-recording of State V State done.... More

Posted by Huge at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

Thick crusts of barnacles

Mental note: you can't just pick up an instrument having not played it for several years and expect to play recordably on it. That's been my frustating experience playing the drums over the past few weeks. I'm sure I wa... More

Posted by Huge at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

An industry in crisis.

Last night I was reading a book called The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, which quoted the following figures: in 1985 the US music industry made a pre-tax profit of US$200 million on gross sales of US$4.5 billion -... More

Posted by Huge at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

What am I up to??

This blog is supposed to be about music and stuff but it hasn't featured much of that lately. So, what is going on? Well, several things, really. I'm planning to re-record "State against State", which was ignored by everyone except... More

Posted by Huge at 9:49 AM | Comments (0)

Nice to have a win!

Just read about the impending changes to Queensland's town planning laws, which will create a "cultural precinct" in Fortitude Valley and stop residential developers from destroying live-music development in Brisbane. I have been a direct victim of this myself, when... More

Posted by Huge at 11:25 AM | Comments (2)

State Against State

As heard on Triple M's The Cage!: Click here to download (MP3, 2MB) or here to stream. As you might have figured out, I'm a huge Rugby League fan. Grew up with it, dad coached it, used to play it,... More

Posted by Huge at 10:17 AM | Comments (1)

What am I up to??

Thought I'd better bring readers up to speed with where I'm at in this project. I've been rather quiet lately ... sorry. The short answer is that many things are happening, not all of which seem as productive as others.... More

Posted by Huge at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

See you later, Casey?

Well, it's increasingly apparent that Casey Donovan Mark 1 is over. For her sake, that's a pity. Of course the music that she and the Idol gurus produced was entirely forgettable, which is also a pity, but that's the nature... More

Posted by Huge at 12:23 PM | Comments (2)

Latest offerings

I'm afraid I've been rather slack about keeping readers up to date with the latest events here, but things have gotten reasonably interesting. Yesterday, I took delivery of this, which is the latest version of Longing for the Day -... More

Posted by Huge at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

Interesting developments

Wanted to make a few observations about some articles I've been reading lately. I think the sum of them really is nidicating that I have been right all along about this medium and its potential. The first and most intuitive... More

Posted by Huge at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)

Vale Casey Donovan's first career

Well, I predicted it, and now Immedia is reporting that Casey Donovan's career is over as her debut album sales slump. Seems her album is almost out of the top 100 after failing to reach the expected heights. However, I... More

Posted by Huge at 11:12 AM | Comments (31)

Bun' Ber E in Japan

Also wanted to note that a Japanese radio program, Yellowbeat, has put one of Bun' Ber E's tunes on rotation. Apparently they'll start by playing Orange & Blue, off our latest album, Unplugged, on Friday Night (Tokyo time). Thanks, guys.... More

Posted by Hughie at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

Australian Idol: Travesty or Treat?

Interesting debate in The Sydney Morning Herald, which I heard about via the Australian music Council's e-newsletter, about whether or not Australian Idol is "good for the local record industry". It's an interesting debate, not so much because interesting or... More

Posted by Huge at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

Popularity and diversity

Found an interesting article that argues that too much diversity can make people jaded about choice. I think this is spot on, and it's why a lot of the hyperbolic suggestions about the Internet providing venue for lots of alternative... More

Posted by Huge at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

Lies, damn lies and the music industry

Finally, some respectable research has pointed out the utter bollocks that ARIA has been sprouting about music sales figures in Australia. I almost gagged on the contradiction between the sales figures and the spin when they were released, and it's... More

Posted by Huge at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

Reflections on Idol

Well, it's good to be liberated from having to watch TV at certain times ... I've just been told that Ngaiire will perform, apparently, at the finale. That's awesome and is a good reason to watch again. For the record,... More

Posted by Huge at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

Unplugged is almost here

Cool! After much effort, argument, delay and stress, Bun' Ber E Unplugged will soon return from the factory. We're taking advance orders via PayPal here. This has been an interesting experience. Our first CD, Ceilidh, was recorded in a professional... More

Posted by Hughie at 8:23 AM | Comments (0)

Moving on.

Well, I didn't watch Idol last night, and according to the papers, lots of others agree with me as audiences decline just when they should be growing. I read the result in this morning's paper and it only confirmed my... More

Posted by Huge at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)

Over Idol

I guess you've figured out about now that I'm largely over Idol. Rather disappointed that it's not more about singing and performance, but fascinated about what, exactly, it is. Unfortunately, without more information, like exact vote counts, and without the... More

Posted by Huge at 8:05 AM | Comments (0)

Marty Fan club

Right! I give up ... There's no point in trying to pick this comp ... there's no justice to the public's voting patterns. I notice that this evening Marcia was very careful to put the Kybosh on any suggestion that... More

Posted by Huge at 9:27 PM | Comments (0)

Ricky-Lee fan club

NOTE: Since I posted this, I've had lots of comments that seem to indicate that people think this is Ricki-Lee's website (see below). It's not, and I don't know how to get in touch with her, either. Her website is... More

Posted by Huge at 8:44 PM | Comments (16)

Springsteen voting for change

Just read about the long-awaited Vote 4 Change concerts. As a long-time Springsteen fan, I've gotta confess It's no surprise to see the man stand up against what he percieves as the destuction of the America he loves. I'm no... More

Posted by Huge at 1:32 PM | Comments (0)

What are the Idols thinking???

Caught the song selections for Sunday's "own choice" show - these people are not listening to the judges' comments! An Italian hymn? George? They may be the best band in the land (I don't agree, with that, BTW) but they're... More

Posted by Huge at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

Idol predictions

OK, well, I was right about Emilia but wrong about Marty and Casey. I'm not surprised at Marty - he's been sailing close to the wind for a few weeks. But I agree with Mark that it would have been... More

Posted by Huge at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)

Another Idol moment

A few notes on tonight's performances: Casey: A trademark powerful performance but it seemed to lack something. Went for the big note at the end and hit it big but didn't do much with it ... hmmmm ... nothing wrong,... More

Posted by Huge at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)

Missing Idol

Didn't manage to catch Idol last night because I went to see my parents and they watched Bradman ... also a good show. However, there seemed to be no surprises in the bottom three ... except I'm still waiting for... More

Posted by Huge at 7:47 PM | Comments (0)

Utterly forgettable Idols

Enough said. But the beatbox thing is interesting. I'll be watching those guys with interest.... More

Posted by Huge at 9:25 PM | Comments (0)

Best wishes, Dan

Well, I was shocked to see Dan knocked out. But I was not displeased. As I have noted before, Dan had the weakest voice and one of the weaker on-stage presences in the competition. I was sure he'd go further,... More

Posted by Huge at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Still being Idol

Didn't post last week following the Jakarta bombing. Thought Thursday night's show was interesting, but don't have time to go into it here. Tonight I'll try to give an entrant-by-entrant critique in order - then a summary and prediction ...... More

Posted by Huge at 8:04 PM | Comments (0)

Angie fan club

Well, I was disappointed about Ngaiire, but I'm gobsmacked about Angie. I picked the other two to be in the three, and probably expected Amali to be the one to go, but Angie is just so fabulous. That said, her... More

Posted by Huge at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

Ngaiire fan club

I'm very disappointed. Perhaps they should have reversed the wildcard selections and had 2 by popular choice. Still, the two they picked are not bad. A quick note before I watch the first final - I'm backing Dan to win.... More

Posted by Huge at 7:32 PM | Comments (11)

Missing Idol

Next hought it would happen but ... due to a family miscalculation ... I missed the first half of Idol tonight. hence, I won't try to pick the winners. However, a quick observation is that they were all better than... More

Posted by Huge at 9:06 PM | Comments (0)

Idol moments #2

OK, so, Angeline, Liza, Amali and Daniel. I'd give myself 2.5 for that. Angie was no surprise - she was the pick of the night and will only get better with practice. Amali I picked as well, actually, I wrote... More

Posted by Huge at 9:00 PM | Comments (0)

Australian Idol, round 2

OK, I wasn't impressed at all by this lot. Lots of potential that didn't materialise. Marcia was very defensive, especially of the youngsters, and so she should be, but they really weren't as good as last week. Mark said it... More

Posted by Huge at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)

Idol moments

Well, Australian Idol has gotten serious, and I'm pleased to say that, after half-watching Sunday's show, I picked the four finalists from last night - though I got the order slightly wrong, in that I thought Ngaiire would go through... More

Posted by Huge at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

Blowing out the cobwebs

Well ... had me some fun yesterday down at the local club. We had an open-slather jamm - all welcome, any style. Yesterday, I lent them my PA, played accoustic guitar, had a sing, played drums and percussion, clapped, cheered... More

Posted by Huge at 9:42 PM | Comments (1)

We're on iTunes!

Just found Bun' Ber E's debut CD, Ceilidh, in the Apple iTunes store. What a buzz!! Awesome to see it for sale in the same space as all of my heroes! Never thought I'd see the day, and even if... More

Posted by Huge at 9:13 PM | Comments (0)

Determination

Well! This morning on the radio I heard an interview between the hosts and one of the nobody comperes from Australian Idol. They were trying to arouse interest in the upcoming Brisbane auditions. Inevitably, the question was asked why Idol... More

Posted by Huge at 9:33 PM | Comments (3)

Australian Idol

On a lighter note, I was persuaded by my family to audition for Australian Idol. I went to the site to check it out and discovered that I'm too old. They didn't mention the age restrictions on the show. Glad... More

Posted by Huge at 9:15 PM | Comments (1)

What a week I've had!

Well, it's been one of the best weeks I've had for a long time. On Tuesday I received notice that a nice woman in Florida, USA, liked Bun' Ber E's CD enough to buy it from CDBaby. That was a... More

Posted by Huge at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

Success of sorts

Well, we've just sold our first Bun' Ber E CD from CDBaby! Thank you to the person who bought it. Florida will never sound the same again. This is a very exciting turn of events and I hope it will... More

Posted by Huge at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

That's what it's all about

The New York Times recently ran this (requires registration). It looks at the "Grey Album" and the drive to produce new art by merging the old and the new. I thought I was a bit of a no-brainer, to be... More

Posted by Hughie at 6:52 PM | Comments (1)

Serendipity and musical appreciation

I was stuck by the feeling "I love Music!" Where else could it all come together? What a wonderful, many-splendid thing we have and how precious it is. More

Posted by Huge at 4:12 PM | Comments (2)

(Pop) music's lack of cultural examination

Germaine Greer finally said something with which I agree. She wrote in the OZ "If your ambition is to live on Ramsay Street, where nobody has even been heard to discuss a book or a movie, let alone an international event, then Australia may be the place for you". I have to say that that's frighteningly (and unpleasantly) accurate from my limited experience. More

Posted by Huge at 10:34 AM | Comments (3)

Songwriters must get with the program, too ...

I'm glad that my efforts at this web site have been designed to oppose these "music industry" trends. I want the music associated with this site to have as diverse a source of inputs and to be distrubted as widely as possible. More

Posted by Hughie at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

Category: Music

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