Where Have All The Music Listeners Gone?

 

NPD Group, a market research firm, released some unpleasant figures for the music industry on Thursday. Here is a smattering of statistics regarding music consuming trends:

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New Shit On The Way! (NSFW)

Friends and Readers of Playtonic Ds,

Thank you as always for coming to the site and reading me and my fellow compadres’ music/ philosophy musings. I know we were on a roll their for a while, posting interesting new content daily, and we will be back to that level of frequency soon. For now, enjoy this adorable video of babies tasting lemons and rest assured that we will be delivering some primo posts soon!

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Crystal Stilts – Music Hall of Williamsburg – February 20, 2010

Hey Playtonics,

Check out my picture and review from Saturday night’s Crystal Stilts concert at The Bowery Presents The House List:

http://houselist.bowerypresents.com/2010/02/crystal-stilts-earn-their-indie-stripes/

Additional pictures from the show after the jump:

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The Life of Boredom

Hey Playtonics,

As you may know by now, Playtonic Dialogues is a meeting place of ideas. While it is, more often than not, a hotbed of music news, reviews, and seasonally inspired mixtapes, the ultimate goal of this blog is to create discourse around the things that inspire us. Personally, my passions are philosophy and music. I am fascinated by questions and sounds. Toward the end of enriching these aspects of my life, I search a number of news sources for articles in regards to these topics. One website I particularly enjoy is Arts & Letters Daily. Their motto, located at the bottom of a busy homepage, aptly describes the site’s up-to-date links to intersting articles: ““Veritas odit moras,” is from line 850 of Seneca’s version of Oedipus. It means “Truth hates delay.””

Today I found this link to a beautifully written reflection on bordem from the magazine Philosophy Now titled La Vie D’Ennui (which Winnie informed me is pronounced  “la vee duhn wee”). Here is a very playtonic passage from the article:

Being observed to be bored stirs up judgment from others, especially parents. “Haven’t you got anything better to do?” they ask. Do they expect the truth? That you do have nothing better to do than lie around listening to music, but that you’re also perfectly happy doing this? And when did being told to tidy your room constitute an interesting alternative?

Check out A&L and Philosophy Now for some tasty food for thought.

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This Mixtape Definitely Knows What I’m Talking About

Everyone’s favorite comedian with 8 A’s in his name and an onstage DJ is dropping a mixtape. Aziz Ansari’s alter ego Raaaaaaaandy plans to release a mixtape with TV on the Radio guitarist and record producer Dave Sitek. In the above video you can see a behind the scenes look at Raaaaaaaandy going to work on some turntables. In addition to scrathcing the line “Put my dick in that burrito”, he announces that the mixtape is “dropping soon” and “we’ll put that shit out when we want”. My favorite part is DJ Ol’ Youngin bobbing to the record and authoritatively barking “What! Raaaaaaaandy Mixtape!”

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tape #2: on ice side a

The balmy escapism of beach tape was great while it lasted, but now that it’s mid-February I’ve resigned myself to the enduring cold of the  New England winter.  When I think of winter music, the sort of aesthetic that jumps to mind is one characterized by ephemeral vocals, distant instrumental layers, stark guitar picking and general bleakness of sound.  You’ll find songs on this side that fit that description, but I also labored to collect songs that managed to exist in winters that feature more emotions than the typical depression.  My hope is that this collection will bring you to peace with the inclemency of February and remind you that winter is not as awful as it makes your fingers feel. 

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Pay For Music? Unlikely…

When I was in middle school, I had an entrepreneurial friend who sold burnt CDs. Singer, as we called him, was the first person I knew to own a CD burner and immediately see its earning potential. His method consisted of shadily trolling the hallways between classes asking passersby, “Would you like to buy some She-Ds.” Yes, he had a bit of a speech impediment at that age. However, without a formal education in economics, he understood that he could create a viable market by selling cheap copies of popular albums. So, when I was 12, the choice was between buying music for $15 a pop at Sam Goody or paying Singer $5 for a copy of the new Smash Mouth. Let’s just say I have a fine collection of CDRs with sharpie smudged titles.

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Phantogram – Mercury Lounge – February 12, 2010

Hey Playtonics,

Check out my review from Friday night’s Phantogram concert at The Bowery Presents The House List:

http://houselist.bowerypresents.com/2010/02/phantogram-exceeds-expectations/

Photo courtesy of Diana Wong | http://dianawongphoto.blogspot.com/

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Shudder To Listen

Lately I’ve noticed my iTunes drifting back into the listening habits of my high school days: exclusively D.C. Hardcore/Post-Hardcore i.e. anything released on Dischord from 1980-1996.  Literally, this is all I would listen to for two straight years of high school. I hadn’t even heard Modest Mouse until sophomore year, when a friend started proclaiming their newest album at the time, “Good News…,” as shit, lamenting the fact Issac Brock stopped taking acid and drinking heavily.

Dischord Records has affected the majority of what I listen to. Immediate heavy listens went to Minor Threat, Fugazi, Nation of Ulysses, Q and not U…bands that remain my favorites to this day. But lately, I have really started to delve into what is their most nuanced and subtle heyday: early 90’s indie rock. What band captures this crazy blend of post-punk/hardcore, avant-garde/art rock, and pop? Shudder to Think.

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Plagiarism and New Kinds of Art

Recently, a book called “Axolotl Roadkill” was released in Germany, by 17 year-old Helene Hegemann, to positive reviews, brisk sales, and professional accolades. Yet, it is not without controversy. As it turns out, Ms. Hegemann lifted sections of her book from the work of another author writing under a nom-de-plume. Her response was that in today’s culture we are are always “mixing” and that she was merely riding the present current of cultural expression.

But I disagree.  More after the jump.

The New York Times has a good write up of the story here.

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