They Phoned It In (another in an occasional series): Kristin Hersh: It's radikal! I'm giving away my maybe shitty EP for free!

Am I misremembering, or did SST have some sort of ethic that most everybody on the label had a job apart from being in a band?

this how you prove you have zero faith in yr readers' intelligence.

It's not tongue-in-cheek in Calendar. It's all so so earnest and striving and desperate and isn't Kristin Hersh so good for you, don't you just want to nominate her for a big thinker award?

Wankers.

And there's one with lots of guitar.

And there's the one about the tree.

Of course, neither the article or Hersh deal with the longstanding reality of cyberspace and free-ness. If you give something away for free, a substantial number of people don't assign any value to it. That is, while they'll certainly have a sample, they'll assume you and it are basically worthless. It's the American way of measurement. The worth and substance of an item is judged by its dollar value. And they won't tell you to your face.

an indie rock song with lots of guitar? you don't say. ;-)

(I know, don't answer this)

the only radical thing about her/her manager's statement is that it's coming from someone who in the last decade or so has used almost every trick in the book to separate her fanbase from it's pesos - ie. 'works in progress' subs off the website, putting up guitars on ebay for $10,000, releasing 2 half good albums on the same day when they could have been comped together to make one great one - i'm sure no one here begrudges her these things, in a way i admire them because it's putting a notional value on what you create. we all need the buck, none of us can survive on goodwill and fresh air, make whatever you can, you'd be stupid not to.

but the old order changeth. now everything's free and the playing field is truly level. no longer do musicians have to impress their talents on hassled a&r guys to get a shot at being heard - they just slam it up on myspace and the world can hear it, judge it, mock it, love it, ignore it, as it sees fit. for those of us with nothing to lose this is fantastic news - for people still trying to scratch a living out there i imagine less so.

what happens when you can't make money out of music anymore? i had to go out, get a job and relinquish my dreams of being a kept man in a beach hut making useless beautiful things into my dotage for an adoring public. boo hoo. poor fucking me.

let's ALL be songwriters. let's all grab a guitar, record our pathetic imaginings and toss 'em to the wind. millions of songs to the ether, some great, some dreadful and every shade in between. In 2006 no one has any greater 'right' to be heard than anyone else.

the situation is radical indeed but she didn't invent it.

Comrade, put down the borscht and get back in the bread line!

Anger? I dunno. It's that the story was -- well -- so obviously phoned in and full of laughter-inspiring quotes. Maybe she could write a song called "I'm a superhero" and get it played on "Smallville" next year. Last night they played Depeche Mode.

let's ALL be songwriters. let's all grab a guitar, record our pathetic imaginings and toss 'em to the wind. millions of songs to the ether, some great, some dreadful and every shade in between. In 2006 no one has any greater 'right' to be heard than anyone else.

Listen, I've played in bands for a long time, never made any money, never will make any money always had a day job, blah blah blah....that being said...You don't think there's any value to the fact that some great music would have never been created WITHOUT the "star" system of the music industry...I'm thinking people like Miles Davis....Brian Wilson, etc...do you think that you could make, say, "Bitches Brew" could be made in someone's basement on weekends between working shifts at Starbucks?

john you seem to have a wierd hatred of people trying to make a living making music...as if it's something horribly wrong or something....i don't get it.....There's something to be said for letting creative people be creative without the hassles of day to day life...not everything can be done without time and money, no matter how many of us (myself included) would like to think so....

Yeah, until she said something people thought she ought not to say. How dare she.

Throwing Muses are fantastic. I really liked Golden Ocean too.. will check out the new EP this afternoon.

if i had a problem with people making money out of music i would be a rank hypocrite b/c i've had my snout in the same trough before. perhaps some residual jealousy surfacing now that i've slipped off the south pole of planet pop and have to go to work and shit.

you're right M@tt, i do have a kind of non-specific hatred in me sometimes and yeah, it's weird. it's definitely not the part of my personality that i like the most but i use it where neccessary. the internet does tend to bring out those polarities in lots of people, as does music.

oops therapy alert