DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: artists

  • Radio Free Amsterdam Poster 2022

    Art and music can heal and unify people, we can feel this intuitively. Good music makes us well. RFA brings together a potent mixture of good music selectors who mix up the musical medicine to be administered by our medicine man: Big Chief (John Sinclair)

    Music for peace. Music for therapy, for all, criss-crossing boundaries and borders, arriving on-time at the ears and headspace of the people. Tune in, soak up the culture. Relax, take a load off. 

    https://radiofreeamsterdam.org/

    RFA

  • The Medium Is The Message: That Rogan Spotify Thing.

    (I wrote this on February 2nd, but left it here as a draft. In just a few days, both Joe Rogan and Russel Brand are trending on social media. The latest is that Donald Trump came out in support of Rogan, and Spotify CEO Daniel Elk doubled down on his support for Rogan’s Podcast. Neil Young has doubled down on his message to delete spotify and support creative artists. Here’s my take on it all.)

    “In our communication age, misinformation is the problem. Ditch the misinformers. Find a good clean place to support with your monthly checks. You have the real power. Use it.”

    —Neil Young.


    In sync with the major trends on social media, over the last week I’ve been tweeting and dropping a few one liners about the latest Joe Rogan Spotify story, but I feel it deserves a longer, edited overview to explain what I think and why. I confess, this scrawl is a personal rant in parts, but it also includes parts that reference terse and well balanced critiques of Spotify and other digital monopolies. Thanks in part to Cory Doctorow for being the clearest authority on the impact of digital media, and previously addressing the Joe Rogan Spotify deal in mid 2020, and to Matt Stoller for same sharpness and sense for constructive critique.       

    Yes, I’ve watched JR podcasts, multiple dozens of them over a protracted period of time since it launched over a decade ago. In particular, I was drawn to those featuring Doug Stanhope (who originally inspired Joe Rogan back in 2003) and Bill Burr, and other comedians, though I often feel deflated after listening to Joe’s shows, compared to the laugh out loud funny originals of Doug and Bill, to my taste buds. I’ve watched the Alex Jones car crash interviews and the Elon Musk smoke out, I watched the Oliver Stone interview, I watched David Choe, Paul Stamets, Lex Fridman, Bernie Sanders, Brian Muraresku, Jordan Peterson (help) and now I come to think of it, yeah, a lot of other dudes, mostly dudes chatting dude stuff: Secret Cults, Hidden Mysteries, DMT Magic, Lost Civilizations, Deep State, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Covid Conspiracies and other cliches. What’s not to laugh at, what’s funny?   

    Yet, personally I’ve never got the swift kick from Rogan’s podcasts that I detected some others around me seemed to be getting. It’s probably me, it has to be me, maybe I’m spoiled? Or is JR just not sharp? Am I expecting too much from popular Podcasters and Youtube celebrities? Same goes for Russel Brand, sadly, a descent into solipsism. I’m expecting much better and feel let down when I listen. It causes me to think, he ain’t processed any Karl Popper but he harps on about George Soros. I sense a third rate comedy, over stretched, too long and over-marketed, too much focus on subscribe and likes, a MAGMA MAFIA method? Furthermore, most but not all of these monopolists defend against criticism with that old chestnut, “I’m not a scientist or a doctor, I just want to talk to interesting people.” Yeah, right. And then there’s media monopoly which damages independent Podcast culture and independent music culture and erodes our trust in science.  

    Again, look, please, dear reader, don’t get me wrong, Spotify helps millions of songs reach billions of ears, music, that sacred beautiful powerful art that I’ve spent half my life studying and playing and promoting. Yes, we all benefit from hearing it. And please, listen to what you like. The deeper issue is not JR’s content, it’s about the business practice and strategy of Spotify and it’s detrimental effect on independent art and creativity. Mega rich and powerful media entities like Spotify sponsor huge events and festivals, but which financially benefit the tiny top tier of bands and performers, another kick in the maracas.   

    I do not receive any payment for my work uploaded to Spotify, I never use it. Most of my artist friends who do, also receive next to zip. It’s a bad deal for the majority, for 99.9% of artists on the platform, and yes, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal, Sony, TimeWarner, Universal aren’t much better. Cory Doctorow writes: “Spotify has been on an extraordinary, acquisition-and exclusivity-driven spending spree, buying 15 companies, and doing deals like this one with Rogan.”


    Support Independent Music Culture

    Add to this the fact I’m a DJ and vinyl lover, self inflicting physical injuries so as to continue occasionally getting the chance to set up and play records in a new way, striving to play a spectrum of music and do justice to the term disc jockey, hands on. I buy records and have done for over 30 years. I’ve spent tens of thousands of Pounds and hours listening, mixing, compiling music, and often zero payment. I don’t want sympathy. I want you to support the others struggling and bring hope in remaining fiercely independent to some lucky few out there now ready to give it everything.     

    In 2022, I’m rewarded for my 25 years service to music, both as a DJ and recording artist, by copyright infringement notices on Youtube (sometimes for my own works) and audio censoring on Twitch, and stipulations about what is and is not a DJ mix, or radio DJ mix, or a remix, depending on what platform and/or territory: Soundcloud / Mixcloud etc. My point is that I paid money for physical records, I’ve supported local record shops, independent labels, artists, small venues and clubs, for three decades across the United States, Holland and the UK. What better record of integrity than a record of playing records with integrity? I’m lucky in many respects, I’ve had breaks and gigs and releases and some very fine co-conspirators, god help the next generations coming up who have to navigate these shark infested digital waters. 

    The question remains, how, HOW do we better evaluate art and artists in 2022? How can we support independent artists to do what they love and keep it local and make it pay and give a glimmer of hope that some fortunate few may make a living off art? Blockchain, I hear you say, Spotify, I hear you chant, surely it’s not social media or bust? It’s either Facebook or no luck, if you want to promote your indie project? The elephants in the room are for-profit digital music monopolies, and variations on media monopolies. Is it hard cash and hard throttling of the competition based on numbers favoured by shareholders, internet spiraling down into a click-bait moneyball analytica con.

    “taking something from the federated, open, competitive web and sticking it inside a walled garden. It’s the App Store strategy, the Facebook strategy, the AOL strategy, the MSN strategy.”

    Cory Doctorow, 2020.

    MAGMA MAFIA

    Yes, I often moan about what goes viral but does not fit my own quality control. It’s tricky to avoid embittered whataboutism, and yes, artists can bring out the best and worst in purists. As the saying goes, a jack of all trades is a jack of no trades. But let’s not forget the good advice from Karl Popper, Marshall McLuhan and Robert Anton Wilson. A pinch of pluralism, multi model-agnosticism enriches the communication and experience of negotiating culture through the lens of art.      

    Besides the great thinkers and legendary artists and musicians, there’s the great unknowns, those millions of musicians and bands and performers who are aching to be seen and noticed, acknowledged. They deserve that break, that chance. Yet, pre and now post (ish) pandemic, artists have faced the colossal five headed beast MAGMA (Meta Amazon Google Microsoft Apple) and the new digital landscape where your latest work can get shared and played around the world a million times before you can afford to pay for a large coffee with the profits, after the skimming and scheming of the MAGMA posse. Cory adds, “Why does Wall Street like this? because acquisition-driven growth is a great way to establish a monopoly in which rents are extracted from suppliers and customers to the benefit of shareholders.”   

    Spotify is reported to be worth around 58 Billion USD. Joe Rogan was paid 100,000,000 by Spotify for a deal. Am I missing the part where Joe Rogan sets up 100 independent record labels, or opens a series of community music studio’s, or radio studio’s, starts indie record labels, supports local art music scenes? With 100,000,000 Joe could really help make a cultural impact on music, specifically, because that’s what Spotify does right, music culture? How ss a podcast like a musical composition, how is it different?

    Specifically, who benefits financially most from the JR Podcast boost? Jordan Peterson? Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Daniel Elk, Jeff Bezos, MAGMA? Is it those who lean into the intellectual dark web, have books and book tours and films and albums? Or the up-coming creatives, future Podcasters and musicians? And what about other super wealthy billionaires, why don’t they support indie music culture and put their money where they’re yacht is? Governments? Aren’t they also supposed to be here, having this conversation about funding and support and helping musicians and labels and venues and festivals burst back into life again, safely, the regenesis of culture? The discussion and action should tackle the root of the problem: paywalls and digital monopolies, and freeing creatives, leveling up with the big guys, and preventing cannibalism.    Why is there so little support for local and independent artists and groups and bands and labels, journalists, writers, why not give them equal air-time with deep-state conspiracies and spurious pseudo-science?  

    When compared with the relatively speaking, waffle, on whatever political hot potato is in the oven that week, independent art and culture and music get very little air-time and that’s a shame. Coincidently, it’s similar to the strategy of Spotify and most other digital beasts, algorithms deciding what song to play next, or what fringe subject to exploit for maximum click bait. Vice media also comes to mind here. And sadly, the listeners don’t seem to mind, in a world where vinyl DJ’s are a thing of the past. It’s a digital matrix multiverse, I suppose, and we’re all trapped here behind a paywall like an imprisoned Tron. 

    Look, watch Joe Rogan and do the dance if you like, I really don’t care. This best critique is not about the specific details of his content, it’s the deal with Spotify and support of digital monopolies, while claiming to stand and speak for freedom and just a bit of a chat. I hope for a deeper conversation about digital monopolies (big tech?) which demonstrably, JR, Russel Brand and Jordan Peterson, my three punching bags, have problems getting to grips with at times, perhaps because they depend on others to do the monopolizing for them: Spotify, Google-Youtube, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta. We need to talk about this on a neutral platform, if one exists? Bring back public assembly!

    I’ve Seen The Stylus And The Damage Done. 

    Today, I supported an independent second hand record shop, I purchased physical discs that hold musical information and can be further manipulated with innovative hand movements if so desired. The digital platform monopolies and their main promoters don’t understand this or care. As Bruce Sterling summarized: whatever happens to musicians will happen to us all eventually.  Support your local record store, library, band, artist, label. Boycott the main offenders, if you really want to fight, put your attention where your mouth is.   

    The repeated, demonstrable lack of a clear ability to communicate scientifically about science is not entertainment. If saying, “I’m not a scientist” gives you a license to not at least attempt to communicate like a scientist (climbing toward an operationalist language that defines the instruments used to take measurements,) that’s a shame. See: Neurological relativity. I’m going off course again.

    JR’s coverage and selection of guests during the Sars 2 CoronaVirus pandemic, speaking about the Virus and the Vaccine and the Lab Leak turned me even further away from him, and changed my slight revulsion of the bald wrestling MC into something else, darker and even less funny and seemingly pandering to what’s best described as the Intellectual dark web, as floppy of a term that maybe. I thought JR’s video about Covid and Ivermectin and throwing the kitchen sink cocktail was irresponsible at best, outright dangerous at worst, but it sure got some traction and mileage on the old social media, just like Trump’s equally irresponsible proclamations.

    I fear that we’ve come to a dark-side digital meritocracy without the need for any helping hidden hand, no need for a nefarious secret cabal to insist we display our social tokens (like and subscribe?), instead of being led by a totalitarian dictator, the faithful and vulnerable follow happily singing of “Freedom” behind the likes of JR, RB and JP, believing they truly care about us, our independent voices and our creative community more than they care for book sales and tours, and paywall payouts. 

    Break The Monopolies. 

    Support local artists and with luck they with help you speak and communicate and gain agency in your society by means of cultural transformation, towards a new better place where every town and city can have it’s independent journalists and podcasters and media platforms, where we can all embrace these digital simulations beamed at our senses 24/7 for what they actually are: media monopoly games for a shrinking few MAGMA players. 

    Naturally I’m also wrong, hopefully less than 51% of the time. I’m not saying these podcasts or books or videos should be censored, but I am saying that a market monopoly on the means to communication, when combined with hazardous health advice, is an explosive recipe. Popular figures have a growing responsibility to study science, logic, reason and suspend their judgment and check their prejudice, in a post Q-anon world. With increased size and popularity comes added responsibility, climate awareness, mental health awareness and MAGMA monopoly awareness.      

    I support Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, and others that challenge the media monopoly of Spotify. I’m not onside with some third rate edgy material that might get banned on some other platform because it’s toxic or harmful. I’m siding with beautiful music and a lifetime’s dedication to the artform, that’s where my heart is at. Plus, to me, the crazy horse sense of removing music based on their revulsion to edgy toxic misinformation, so effectively boycotting their label and/or platform, shows a degree of integrity lacking across entertainment media in 2022. 

    Platform/Label, what’s the difference besides the pay? I concede that Neil and Joni are rich and famous enough to get away with such a boycott, but they did it, and I can’t see clearly how they benefit from this, which suggests to me they’re sincere. JR is not sincere from where I’m sitting. He should have me on his show, I’d love to serve up a roast, he can invite Jordan Peterson and Russel Brand too. Let’s go. As long as I can have my band with me to demonstrate what we say and how we say it, how we play it. I’ve no need to delete Spotify, I’ve never used it and always stood for independent homegrown culture.    


    “It was Marx who said one capitalist will kill many other capitalists, that the system begins to consume itself.

    Michael Parenti, Democracy Now, 2009.


    –Steven Pratt
    DJ / Drummer / Writer
    #DeepScratch
    #SquintinQuarantino  #SteveFly

    02/02/22 (edited 04/02/22)

  • Support Your Artists To Strengthen Your National Security

    Support Your Artists To Strengthen Your National Security

    But it is the names of the artists who have yet to grace those stages, the artists the public do not yet know and risk never knowing, that we should be talking about. Grassroots music venues aren’t about the past of our music industry, they are about its future.–Mark Davyd.

    Yes, I’m an artist, musician, but a professional? (not if you base it on my income) many of us, if you hadn’t noticed, are not in this for the money and fame. This is a therapy for our friends, family, extended audience, our perceived enemies and above all therapy for ourselves, as all else flows forward from self. Until the government fully supports creative arts properly, in all sectors (during a pandemic or not) citizens will be wide open to foreign state interference and the toxic tip of disinformation.     
     
    I used to joke twenty years ago that the local Job Center should make “Job Seeker Records” due to the fact all the musicians I knew were either signing on or had to keep a day job to support their artistic calling. DJs were lucky to get twenty quid from a gig, often paying to play when organizing their own events, independently and paying to release their music with little hope of commercial success, exclusive dubplate culture among DJ’s was not for profit. Those who were fortunate to get signed with an advance, equal to the money earned from a regular 9-5 job, were not viable in their home town and enticed to the largest city nearby, or London. In the 1990s I witnessed successful people moving away from their nests to larger cities where the action, the work and the money are at. This sad fact seems wrong-headed and would be unnecessary if local support were provided. The consolidation of industries under the neoliberal surge in the 1990s is responsible for driving creative talent away from where it is currently required most, home. 

    If big tech and government and the music industry wanted to solve this they’d create a local infrastructure to support/fund creative arts, business with the same effort and pride with which they support the international finance sector, the arms manufacture sector. Yes, artists and creative industries need the money to pay rent and eat and survive, yet at the same time, we could all benefit from a new relationship between the arts and commerce, where the state and its corporate backers come together to support a decentralized and rotational network of independent artists, capable of being seen and heard equally with market giants like Ed Sheeran…without having to resort to Apple Google Facebook Amazon and Spotify for all their distribution and licensing. 

    Most but not all artists and creatives I know are left-leaning, it comes with the territory of open sincere exploration and experiment, the opposite of absolute conclusive conservatism. I get the sense that the current hard-right conservative government in the UK enjoys bashing the left and creative arts culture, an excuse to underfund, look away and inflict intentional suffering. This is nothing new since the 1960s and 1970s the Tories have attacked the liberal arts, working-class creative culture and generally they supported massive corporate takeovers and consolidation of the music business industry (Labour too), up to its current domination by the five big tech companies and two or three major labels.

    Every artist I know has questioned and fought for independence, probably with more passion in the early days, “we’re never gonna’ sell-out or play that pants commercial shit” type attitudes. Then they get married, have a family and play in a Ted Nuget cover band at retirement homes. I’m not judging, but there remains an underground, experimental, abstract…in it for the sheer exhilaration of making it new every time, authenticity in great art and artists. The attitude and life of Thelonious Monk as opposed to Jeff Bezos, to make a stark contrast. 

    I’ve two suggestions, start-up local “Job Seeker Records” imprints, modelled as if you were funded by the state. (See Scarfolk Council for examples)  Demonstrate how much future creativity lies dormant and untapped. My second suggestion is more on a personal level, try to support people in their early artistic endeavours and experiments, encourage the following of one’s intuition in combination with healthy research, study and practice. As many great musicians and artists repeat, music is a therapy for them, the process is part of the journey, the destination unknown and when the voyage is over when you find yourself with your creation, is only a part of the creative process. To campaign for keeping governments, the recording industry and finance rotational and decentralized should not be exclusive with leftwing politics, but the progressive movement toward an equal humane society of self-owning ones, united in a common process of sharing resources, intelligence, imagination and beneficial tools worldwide.

    The Covid-19 Pandemic has brought us all into a world that musicians have been familiar with for decades, the recession of bands, labels and funding, tours, independent venues, and markets due to consolidation by big tech and the major labels. IF…artists had thriving and viable systems based on the Bandcamp model for example, in conjunction with grants and support from the multiple billions in profits generated by the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and their shareholders, they could thrive and create freely without having to worry about paying rent, eating and/or paying medical bills and health expenses. These would be first world benefits of living in Great Britain, America, and some of the other richest most technologically advanced societies on earth, and most importantly the artistic productions would be subsidized to become freely available for everybody on earth!

    Yes, art and music should be FREE, FREEDOM! But only with the support and subsidy provided by the state and corporations taking the cream off the top and giving very little back. Universal Basic Income would already cover the immediate challenges to most of the people I’m concerned about here, it has a similar result, not starving and having the means for self-therapy that can be shared with others, a win-win in any caring society. This new vision I’m riffing on (dreaming about) would also benefit a nation’s identity and status on the world stage, bringing altruism, equality and balance to a nation’s entertainment-media ecology. Instead of the Euro-Vision song contest, we need something more like the Eurovision–who supported the most artists to create the most songs, which in turn created the most shared revenue and employment for that nation–competition? 

    Local bands and local folk music, experimental non-commercial music must have an equal footing in the mediasphere with Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga and Kanye West. The audience can still choose to tune into whatever they wish, but they feel warm in their hearts that the creative arts are open and seductive as a viable career for some, a form of therapy and community for others. Either way, it is subsidized, so no need to second guess. To trust that taxes and all working communities everywhere are happy to support the arts in equal measure with the rest of the economy, ballooning with finance, arms manufacture and pharmaceutical trade. Those who claim that funding the military and army and navy is more important than the arts do not understand or do not want to understand the current battlespace of disinformation warfare. Art and creative industries like gaming have been hijacked from creative artists and weaponized to support populist hard-right movements, see Pepe the frog, Trump 2016 and the Vote Leave campaigns for appropriation of art in service of anything but support for artists.

    Imagine if Banksy were foreign secretary, Stephen Fry Prime Minister, Brian Cox and Roger Penrose as education ministers, Jamie Oliver as Health minister, Gary Lineker as minister for sport, James O’ Brien as minister for communications. Why not? They’re arguable the best at managing those domains.

    How have people ended up voting for the dullest most blatant liars and cheats, while going further than not supporting artists and creatives, attacking them and joining the hard right in stereotyping them as the enemy in their vulture culture warfare.    

    I’d like to continue this thought with the hope of refining some points and counter-arguments.

    –Steve Fly (29/10/2020)
    https://www.patreon.com/stevefly


    https://www.musicweek.com/opinion/read/viewpoint-mark-davyd-on-the-battle-to-reopen-every-venue-safely/081590

  • SQ – A CALLING (COME TOGETHER)

    SQ – A CALLING (COME TOGETHER)

    All bands, slam fam to bluegrass move ass 
    metal, country grime get up reforge time
    symphony orchestras, big bands and choirs
    get it together, no time to wallow in the…

    shout loud from spires what inspires
    sharing live facts that transpire without tiring
    an army of artists from all walks working
    all sound systems all DJ’s ALL MC’s
    drop your mic-guard open up to neighbartists, please
    bring rap blues jazz reggae rave jam together
    oh wee la laa, we ready to perform in any weather

    promoters join forces, venues too, join voices
    we live as one family festival people this is true
    find the others and write and regroup
    build an undefinable genre-busting free-jazz beatbox troupe
    be mobile and drop your mobile for a while
    come out into the fields and greet fly masked smile
    all graphical wizards, kings of all boroughs, all trains
    graffiti street artist thrive, up bold holding reigns
    galloping tour buses and managers and labels
    and we’re off, come on, stop grooming stables
    turn the tables, take a task and cash that ticket
    it’s tea time and I bowling for collabs to make bind
    protecting wickets from the wicked at your neck.
    ready-break

    together as adjacent to the grass-roots change
    use art to channel love, and sometimes channel rage
    use sound, paint by hand, try to get off the page

    all bands and all artists, designers and singers
    rappers and poets and painters and sewers and
    funders and growers and drivers and cooks and
    dancers and actors and film-makers and sculptors and
    teachers and playwrights and coders and stage-workers
    clean up crew and lighting folk and studio hands
    and hardware brands and audio engineers and digital
    pioneers let’s get together and secure our futures.

    “Come Together“–The Beatles.

    love, SQ

  • Cops And Artists: What Do You Stand For?

    Dressed up like an outlaw from bottom to tops
    Question authority, scrutinize cops drinking tea in my flipflops 
    It’s a day job being a bobby, you supposed to stop robbery and
    Stand up for justice, not kneel on the neck, let’s discuss this 

    I ask all cops and bobbies to search their soul 
    To look into their title, their stereotype and role 
    I do the same as a musician and artist 
    I ask myself, am I lazy, contributing to society 
    What are my morals ethics and code of conduct 
    Just try to be nice, just don’t fucking murder anybody. 
    So cops hear me now, what is it you stand for? 
    The protection of people requires more candour 
    The origins of the word Police is polite 
    What the hell are you doing out there tonight? 

    The Polis is the state 
    And the policy is the state, but 
    Polite is the plight of the people with all due respect
    The people YOU are supposed to serve and protect 
    Just try and be polite when you break up a fight 
    Consider who’s bidding you’re doing 
    To be blunt, who’s agenda in office are you serving? 
    Who do you stand for, for who do you kneel? 

    I don’t want to give all police a hard time 
    There’s good cops and bad cops like butchers and Taxi drivers 
    But now’s the time to stand up, once again, and shout NO! 
    There’s a clear racist agenda in many cop gangs 
    Let’s not escalate into pop-shots and bangs 

    Stand up and protest with us 
    Join the calls for justice for justice 
    Look your partners in the eye and talk about this 
    No, it’s not as bad as it is in the U.S 
    But all cops worldwide should confess 
    They distance themselves from this murder mess 
    Prove their benevolence and stand up 
    To a public scrutiny test. 

    Like if a popular rock drummer strangled a security guard
    For demanding he show his wrist band or card 
    Live on stage live on film, you might understand 
    I would write a statement on behalf of all good drummers 
    I would distance myself from this monster with a passion 
    This killer who happens to share my profession 
    Why don’t you, coppa? 
    I’d sit down with any of you motherfuckers over a cuppa’ 
    We can trade stories, tit for tat 
    You tell of your terror and I tell of mine, how’s that? 
    We can trade footage of beatings, murder and crime 
    You show me your criminals, I’ll show you mine
    Of non-violent crime, like growing weed which is fine. 

    And what about the culture, ever thought to protect that 
    How many raves, festivals, and parties have you shut? 
    How many corporate CEOs, Royals, Ministers 
    Presidents and Tsars did you protect? 
    You weigh it up for me, I’m here twisting my drum sticks 
    Ready for your cop marching band of rednecks
    Ready for your bullhorn with my mic, tongue flex.

    No violence just words and video and sounds 
    We do art battle, peaceful yet piercing 
    Not violent but inciting thoughts 
    Artists don’t need policing like the fans of foot sports 
    So celebrate your good cops whomever they may be 
    Just don’t show me Dirty Harry, he’s fiction from TV
    I ask you again as I’m spread up on the wall 
    Cops, what, who and why do you stand for who you stand for? 

    –Squintin Quarantino 

    30/05/2020