David Gerard

I ran the Perth indie record charts, from 1989 to 1991. Corruption! Manipulation! Propaganda!

10 September, 20183 November, 2018 Indie, Opinion, Record 1

An excuse to get Perth bands into a published record chart, so they’d get some publicity and could use it in their marketing. And to propagandise Australian indie to the masses. Includes THE HITS OF 1989!

Records: The Rolling Stones, Deerful, Benjamin Shaw (2016, 2018).

7 September, 20181 June, 2019 Esoterica, Indie, Pop, Record, Rock 0

A party that everyone’s been looking forward to for weeks. They seem to be having a wonderful time.

Links: EBM is trendy, managing the Rolling Stones, Swiss modernist post punk, egregious YouTube content filtering.

3 September, 20185 September, 2018 Dance, Industrial, Post-Punk, Rock, Your rights 0

Post-punk albums in the style of 1960s Penguin nonfiction paperbacks.

Reviews: Aboleth, Zanias (2016, 2018).

23 August, 2018 Goth, Industrial, Metal, Record, Rock 0

Writing about music is the most ridiculous notion, and the review pile is only getting larger. So I’ll give just embedding players and mumbling something a go. This works for me, and that’s the important thing.

Links: Spotify metadata, VU meters, songwriting camps, Disney defends fair use, the history of Smash Hits.

20 August, 2018 Audio, mp3, Musician, Pop, Writing, Your rights 0

Twenty deadly diseases.

Links: Why the Rolling Stones suck, “fake artists,” ’80s remixes of current pop, ABBA, Philip Glass and S-Express, YouTube Music.

6 August, 20185 September, 2018 Dance, Links, mp3, Pop, Rock 2

The Rolling Stones piece certainly answers for me the question “why could I never get into this stuff?”

Vortex #3, March 1987: Triffids, Ed Kuepper, Greg Dear, Kno Matter, White Cross, OMD, Paul Weller.

30 July, 201830 July, 2018 Indie, Writing 0

Yes, I finally got Vortex #3 cleaned up and online.

Reviews: Marsy, Dot Dash (2018).

28 July, 201828 July, 2018 Pop, Punk, Record 0

Yeah, putting a Bandcamp embed into reviews is clearly the right thing.

Links: eMusic can’t pay its bills, nobody buys CDs, catalogue prices, majors upset Spotify not rolling out the red carpet.

27 July, 201827 July, 2018 Industry, Links, mp3 0

Welcome to the music industry! Here’s your accordion.

eMusic releases its blockchain ICO plan! … it’s not very good.

24 July, 201827 July, 2018 Indie, Industry, mp3 0

eMusic’s plan: 1. Collect a large pile of money. 2. Write an all-new music platform that does everything! 3. Pay people in eMusic magic beans.

Links: Windowing is passé, piracy lawyers go to jail, MP3 “restoration,” Damo Suzuki.

9 July, 2018 Industry, Links, mp3, Prog 0

I blame the delay on blockchain. Taking a while between confirmations.

Interview: Gina Cimmelli — My Little Lies (2018).

25 June, 2018 Indie, Interview, Record 0

A brilliant five-track indie pop EP. And my first musician interview in a couple of decades.

Streaming links: 24,000 new tracks a day, Spotify as label, streaming pays better than radio.

23 June, 2018 Links, mp3 0

And foreshadowing of Monday’s long-form post.

Links: World In Motion, pirates, kids listen to Swans, Irmin Schmidt.

17 June, 2018 Dance, Links, Post-Punk, Prog, Your rights 0

“If there’s one group who can capture the spirit of bitter infighting that typifies being in a World Cup squad …”

Limb: Saboteurs of the Sun (2018).

16 June, 201816 June, 2018 Metal, Prog, Record 0

Excellent fare for people who really enjoy Tolkein. A supernatural tone and a solid pounding that most anyone who likes heavy prog will appreciate.

Reripping the CDs, as you do.

12 June, 201815 June, 2018 Audio, Opinion 0

Here’s to cdparanoia and EAC, to turn the music trapped in the silver abominations back into the pure data they were meant to be.

Richard Syrett on Theodor Adorno, the Beatles, conspiracy theorists and … me.

6 June, 20186 June, 2018 Esoterica, Opinion, Pop, Radio, Rock 0

Did you know that Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote all the Beatles songs? I sure didn’t! In fact, I still don’t.

YouTube Music: your move, Spotify.

22 May, 2018 mp3 0

Good thing I eventually got that Spotify article done, hey.

Links: Albini on In Utero (again), the inbox flood, Level Music, blockchains (again).

13 May, 201814 May, 2018 Industry, Links, Punk, Writing 0

“We’ll save music on the blockchain!” Ethereum can’t scale up to cat pictures.

How to make Spotify suck less than YouTube for streaming.

9 May, 201828 June, 2023 mp3, Opinion 0

I actively try to use Spotify, because I like the idea that the artist will get at least a penny shaving. So why do I keep just using YouTube? Because it’s not a goddamn pain in the arse.