Would you pay $2.00 for this music? $3.00?

hey im, hope your aware your name is all over that... if your planning on keeping your identity and all..

I'm not worried about it, but thanks fraew. I'm not one for mystery.

I'm sure in some ways this thread = you just want people to listen to your music. That's ok, I can relate. I listened to the samples -- some of it sounds pretty cool. I like the grainy aesthetic a lot. I may in fact download something and send you the money. I have to decide which first.

I hope you wouldn't send money for a download, even if you could. I wasn't thinking of selling the stuff anywhere but through my friend's shop, keeping it local.

And yeah, I guess the thread is partly what you say it is. But I'm also doubtful that anyone would pay money for it. My friends have made me curious as to whether there's anything to it, or if they're just being overly generous.

The grainy aesthetic is due to the fact that I've recorded everything with a computer stick mic, and/or because that radio thing is really low bitrate mp3 ; )

Well I seem to be playing something from the Irish Sea and it sounds good, but it keeps stopping over and over after every few seconds and then continuing. Very annoying. The minute I get a grasp of it, it slips away. Then comes back and I get a grip on it again and then it slips away over and over. Agh.

Can you please tell me how to stop this madness and let the music run without stopping? Sure I'd pay money for that, sure.

Bimble ---

Are you saying the little thing at the top of the screen, or a download? I made the streams pretty easy to manage (small)--are you dial-up?

If you're curious enough for it to be worth the hassle, you might try doing a right-click/save on one of the files from the individual album pages (say, "Full of Blue-Green Doubt" or "Ramble On Within"). Maybe I should've made the album titles more obviously links. . .

If you press the square at the top, it should stop the flash player. . .

Whether the music is "worth paying for" is not really the question. The question is, "Why would someone pay $2.00 for this?" In other words, how will they find out about it? Where will they hear it in order that they will WANT to pay for it? Just putting it in a store won't do jack. Most people won't even pick up a free sampler that's sitting on a music store counter.

Hurting is speaking the gospel.

Hurting --

That's basically why I've never put it out--don't have the interest to treat it seriously enough to get it heard, unlike a lot of my friends with their music. But that's also why I figured I'd sell it (or give it away, as the case may be) in my friend's shop. He likes it, so he'll mention it to other people he thinks would like it, or play it for people. Plus, it's local, and so old acquaintances might pick it up just out of curiosity, since most people don't know I've ever recorded a note.

Plus I'll make some pretty snazzy handmade packaging, make little art objects out of them ; )

If you could convince him to play it in store and push it a little, i.e. "Hey what's this?" "It's ---. Actually, the CD's only two dollars dude."

My band has had a CD out for a little over a year. Everyone says how much they love it, we have it available on the internet, we sell it at shows (which are pretty regular), it's not that expensive for a nicely designed digipak full-length ($8), we got a little play on a major college radio station and did a live set there as well. We've got it in several indie stores in a couple of cities, and staff at some of those stores have recommended it and put little "staff pick" blurbs on it. Our grand total sales? Maybe 700 copies. Not to bitch at all, just to give you an idea of how hard it is to sell a self-released CD.

Luckily, the place is small enough and the patrons "select" (or whatever) enough that he pretty much does that to customer taste. He has whatever he wants to listen to playing, but if someone comes in he thinks should hear something, he'll pop it on. It's basically at his behest that I'm considering putting these things on CD. I have before, but in runs of like 10 copies, for friends.

Re: the difficulties of sales--honestly not a concern here. I'm not being modest when I call the stuff "tiny music". It's not a big part of my life. In fact, the few/various "industry" connections I've made over the years have made me wish I *were* selling something, or that I could hoist my friends' stuff without feeling guilty. With my own stuff and this thread, I was just hoping to gauge whether I'd be embarrassing myself by following my friends' advice--one never knows how much to trust "criticism" from friends, you know?

BTW, if you don't mind a little self-promotion on this board--what's your band called? Where can I hear a track or two?

Cool. I'm all for it then. I like your stuff. I say put it out.

As anyone who's seen my span threads knows, I have no problem with self-promotion: the band is American Altitude. http://www.myspace.com/americanaltitude is the quickest/best way to hear tracks, though we do also have a website http://www.americanaltitude.com. It's sort of avant-folky too, so you might like it.

To be more specific (about your stuff), one thing I really like is that you have these relatively simple chord progressions going on, but there are these sort of jarring counter-rhythmic and arhythmic undercurrents going on too.

Apparently myspace is down. So try our site, I guess.

Well look, has Scott Seward heard your stuff yet? Cause this reminds me of Eluvium's style. I want Scott to hear this stuff if he hasn't yet.

Hurting --

Thanks for the link, I'm bookmarking it now. Very lovely design! The only excuse for mine is that, like my music, it's not something I take seriously ; )

I appreciate what you say--and it makes sense, given the way I improvise the stuff. The chord progressions are simle (very, very simple) because I'm never thinking in terms of chords (or really thinking at all). I play each time in open tunings that I don't know, quickly develop a few "shapes" and patterns that sound right, and then start improvising something very basic. Then I just layer on more, and that usually ends up taking on more rhythmic characteristics than melodic, given that I don't really know the chords I'm about to play over. It probably all comes down to laziness, but the truth is I probably wouldn't get "better" if I practiced or tried harder--the only thing I have going for me is instinct.

Bimble --

Were you talking to me? I haven't heard of Scott Seward or Eluvium.

I'm fascinated when people say my stuff reminds them of things, because what I've always *disliked* about my music is that it *doesn't* reflect really any of what I actually listen to. Which I guess means I'm not sure if I'd like my own music, if I didn't make it. I'd love to sound like all my heroes and beloved genres, but I don't have the skill to channel any of them : )

Hurting --

Are you from New Jersey/Princeton area? One of my best friends was in a rather straightforward pop-rock band at Princeton (the University) that was fairly popular, wonder if you knew him.

This is very lovely--you're the real thing, I feel embarrased by your kind comments, now that I hear what you do. It's funny, though--this "Mountain and a Missle" has a similar "in the round," repeating pattern feeling to what I hope to achieve when I start improvising, just much better realised! The slow, subtle build is great.

Thanks. What's the Princeton-area band? I went to Rutgers myself, but there's some exchange between the two schools.

I believe they went by Calico. This was from around '98 to 2002.

Hurting, what do you play in your band?

I play drums. You do too Jordan, am I right?

Yep! I was just looking at the photos on the band site wondering which one you were (since I remembered you saying you play other instruments too).

I've been waiting for you two to do one of those Buddy Rich/Gene Krupa things.

We should do a drum duel by mail for ILX Comp 3.

I'm in.

I've created a monster.

Or, maybe I should say, a "Monster."