They also have just finished shooting the first video called Everything’s Perfect and that’s almost how the video shoot went. One of the directors, Jimmie Myers, almost took a long fall off the top of a very tall ladder.  It wouldn’t have been pretty.  Be on the look out for the video and the making of it just in time for Valentines Day.  For now check out some of the behind the scenes pictures from the shoot in the gallery slide show below.

It appears that we got some love on Mashable for music monday as well.  So head over and get your free downloads.  Check out the interview with Jazek in Insite magazine as well.

J. Vega sits down with Ryan and discusses the release of the new Spy For Hire Cd, Speak In Numbers.

Fast forward to now, where after years of working in restaurants and retail, my career path switched from music to wine, while Dale continues to evolve and improve as a recording engineer and producer, as evidence in his work with Atlanta band Spy For Hire.  While I am still a huge FAN of music, I retired my pipes a long time ago, opting to peddle grape juice over dark metal dirges.

Which brings me to my first wine-and-music pairing, a bit different sound than Dale and I grew up listening to, yet something we both can appreciate now.  The music is Otis Taylor’s “Truth Is Not Fiction,” and the wine is Gros Nore Bandol 2006.

Otis Taylor is a bluesman in the rawest sense of the term, penning songs that are steeped in roots, folk and soul, choosing to utilize instruments like banjo and cello to paint stark, bitter landscapes that he labels “trance blues.”

My wife and I first became aware of him while watching the recent Mark Wahlberg movie “Shooter.”  Part of the movie’s soundtrack was an amazingly stirring tune called “Nasty Letter.”  Emotive and effecting, the story brings out raw, bloody feelings of longing and despair.  Conjuring images of dust, dark and cold earth, it is amongst the most primal of songscapes I have heard since first hearing the old mono recordings of Robert Johnson and Elmore James. 

There are 12 songs on his Truth Is Not Fiction CD.  The first song on the disc, “Rosa, Rosa” is an homage to freedom fighter Rosa Parks.  “Kitchen Towel” follows with the tale of a Native American family’s failure and brutal demise.  “Comb Your Brown Hair,” “Babies Don’t Lie,” and “Be My Frankenstein” all touch on love, life and living in such a desolate, vividly provocative way, his vocals resonating up from subtle to berserk, reminiscent of Screaming Jay Hawkins.  Like driving a long desert highway, as you come over the horizon, the song “House of the Crosses” delves deep into human suffering with a fictitious story of a young boy who grows up to be the prison guard to his murderous father.  With only acoustic guitar and cello behind him, the story winds through a barren landscape.

With each passing song, the images of a long journey, wrought with anguish, foreboding and despair wash over you, with an underlying naked beauty that glimmered hope in at least the tiny corners of its tone.  “Nasty Letter” chimes in with a cold reminder that love is not always kind, the story revolving around a harsh goodbye.  Again, only acoustic guitar and cello are there to prop up the heartbreaking lyrics.

The record finishes up with the standard “Baby Please Don’t Go,” a plea to the listener to stay awhile, and give solace to the words and music Taylor constructs.

So why Bandol?  Well, Bandol in general is predominantly Mourvedre from the Provence in France.  Legendary reds that cry out “dusty, earthy wines” the Gros Nore Bandol is indicative of the terroir – red clay and pebbles.  The Mourvedre gives the wine a gritty tannic grip, like walking in a desert for days with no water.  Grenache and Cinsault ease the dryness with glimpses of sexy red fruit, lending to its acidity and complexity.  The Mourvedre however, gives the wine a dark, brooding depth, almost mysterious with its opaque color in the glass, and the dense, concentrated mouthfeel.  Robust and feral, the wine gains momentum in the glass, taking in oxygen and releasing increasing glimpses into its shadowy personae.

Otis Taylor and Bandol.  Light a candle, plug in, pour and enjoy.

So long for now,

Kevin Keith

AKA K2 the Rock Wino

I was attending the CMJ Music Conference last week in NYC and as someone who wants to find out about all the cool events, I turn to twitter for information on what’s going on around town.  So, as I’m sitting in a panel on Wednesday and tweeting what’s happening.  I look and see a tweet from the infamous @juliaroy about a really cool music event for NYC music bloggers for free.  As one who has never been scared of being an outsider, I went ahead and tried to see if I could get in on this free special event.  Can you actually believe it worked and she accepted this ATLien into the NY get together? Me either.

What was the event? I was told that it was a Broadway Musical, Spring Awakening. Now you have to excuse me for my ignorance but I still didn’t know what I was in for. I’m thinking, well I am in New York City for the first time and I get to see my first musical, sure I’ll go.

I find out that we’re meeting at Fusion with our hosts Julia Roy and Eric Tabone for a few drinks before the show along with other NYC music bloggers; Patrik Sandberg, Faith-Ann Young and William Hubbard . Of course I show up fashionably late because of my extreme knowledge of NYC F*C&T (censored for your protection) train subway system. After having a glass of wine, we head up to Broadway in the ass numbing New York wind. In what seemed like 2 miles but in reality was only probably just a 10 minute walk. We waited for Eric to get our tickets in this 24 hour land of the chills and it was discovered that we were unfortunately one ticket short for our entourage. Eric so graciously gave up his ticket for one of us to see the show (If it was mine, thanks so much Eric).

We then go inside the Eugene O’Neill Theatre to escape the bitter cold and find our seats.  After landing myself in the 3rd row preparing to have my musical hymen broken (you should be so jealous now).  I was certainly not prepared for the experience about to unfold. The seats were so close that we actually had to duck spit from the actors and hold props. Ok, so maybe we didn’t get to hold any props.

It comes to find out that Julia and Eric work for Undercurrent. Which is digital think tank that has helped facilitate the phenomenon that Spring Awakening has generated on Broadway. Hence, our fantastic seats for this show.

The opening scene grabbed my attention with it’s sexuality, humor, taboos and Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo. It has a great story that weaves from Act to Act with amazing Rock and Roll pop songs as its canvas written by Tony Award winner Duncan Sheik. As the plot progressed it became pretty serious in its attention grabbing subject matter but never stepped to far away from the humor though. At least not enough to make me forget that it’s a life changing experience for me and the rest of the audience.

It’s funny, the older I get the less I remember about my losing my virginity. I’m pretty sure you know I’d be lying if I said it was great and lasted a really long time, for me or for her. Although, I have to say though that my first musical memories will be something that will last way beyond my alcoholic induced Alzheimer’s that was my first sexual encounter. Spring Awakening is a true remembrance of the things that we go through in our youth in dealing with our sexuality. It tackles all the confusion and frustration about the subject of sex that we have with our family and friends set to a Pop/Rock and Roll backdrop. This musical will be hard one to top in my future experiences with musicals. Unlike my first sexual encounter .

The Spring Awakening was just that, an awakening. For me, it makes me realize that I still have a whole lot of things that I have yet to do for the first time. So I ask you, “what haven’t you done for the first time yet?” Maybe it’s something as simple as twitter or something that you may not even be interested in, until you try it. So even if you don’t think something interests you, do it anyway because you can never know where it leads. Hell, you might even meet some really cool new people and have a great time in NYC like mine.

This could very well be their equal to U2’s The Joshua Tree.  This is not a comparison in greatness as much as it is a album that will get them world wide recognition beyond their die hard indie fans.  It is a great album.  So sit back with your favorite favorite bottle of Tempranillo and enjoy.

So the corporate elephants use to have the whole kingdom on lock down. How is that you ask? One word, Control.
First, you control the recordings by:

        1) Owning all the studios that house the expensive equipment to make the ‘records’ with.
        2) Owning all the copyrights to all the songs that are recorded (even though you didn’t write them) by using attorneys who are……well….ummm, versed in making up a language that is only decipherable by them and the Mayans.

Second, you control the distribution by owning all 4 distributors in the United States. This makes sure that no one gets out there and makes money in your system without you getting a piece of the pie.

Third, you control the ability to get these recordings to the masses.

        1) Through the use of terrestrial radio you get your songs played (The Malcolm X way, “by any means necessary” (cough, payola, cough, cough), I’m just sayin’).
        2) By having the Big Budgets to promote your product to the mass public.

How do you bring a product to the marketplace?  You beat a massive media blitz into a frenzy until it’s equal to the second coming of the man himself doing a world tour. Then throw some hyperbole into the mix. Sprinkle a dash of testimonial endorsements from celebrities along with a smidgen of PR and Viola! Low and behold we have a smash hit.

That is until the tech (r)evolution comes along and turns that kingdom upside down like a Cirque du Soleil show at the county fair in Ohio.  It brings with it the ability to publish, record and distribute from the desktop to the rest of the world quicker than a Muhammad Ali right hand. This ability plus the cost of admission to perform these tasks has been dramatically decreasing since the 90’s because the marching of technology keeps on going and going (Thanks to Moore’s Law and the Energizer Bunny).  And it will not stop.  Why?  Because technology is the (r)evolution of the collective consciousness of humanity right now.  

It’s the shear size that kept you on top of the musical food chain for so long and it is the exact thing that is bringing you closer to extinction everyday.  You are starting to feel what the rest of the kingdom has known for a long time.  If you don’t learn to adapt quickly to the changes in the environment then you will not survive for long.  You can’t cry about (r)evolutions.  They going to happen regardless of what you think and how hard you fight.  This is just the natural way of things.  If you can not change the course then you must find ways to avoid extinction.  

Your response time has been too slow in adapting to the environment-Internet. This is because your corporate world is dominated by too much hierarchy, that resembles a pyramid scheme all to well, and approvals through committees.  This approval time is detrimental to your very survival.  When the Internet is changing the daily landscape with its instantaneous charisma you can’t be taking a year to decide on what direction you should go.  Your impulse/response time has to be under the legal limit in this age of consumerism ADHD. You can’t be intoxicated by your own self-importance at the wheel of your company, especially right now. So please pay attention to the road ahead because the one eyed approach isn’t going to get you back to where you came from.

You must open both your eyes to the possibility of engaging your users (customers or whatever you refer to them as) with content that opens up the legions of communities that exist without you already. You do not have control over the social media so you need to adapt or die the way of the Wooly Mammoth through the impending Ice Age of musical consumption. The word during this Ice Age is sharing. There is no hoarding during these desperate times. It will only make things worse because people will go and find it somewhere else. At this point you have EPICally FAILed in capturing the ADHD of the people and they will find someone else who will share and discuss openly with them through what is known as social networks. Some of these networks you may know about already and some you probably will never find out about. If you find yourself saying to someone in the company, “What is social networking?”, “It’s myspace right?” then please close your doors and end it. You have no time to play catch up at this point. You are extinct already.

Although this may seem like a call for your demise, it is not such. It is your final chance for survival. I believe you have a lot more to offer than sounding like someone’s grandfather on the front porch, “Back when I was your age we could sell millions of Cd’s.” Quit holding on to the past. It’s over. Your only chance is to develop relationships with those of us who are out here on the Internet and understand it’s potential in bringing people together.

We are not standing here idly waiting for you to join us. We are out here hustlin’ everything that makes us happy. We are filling the niche’s you leave for The Long Tail feeders of the world. We are building businesses on such markets until the day you realize you are no longer in control and We collectively are free. Free to explore new market potentials. Free to develop the music we want with the artists we love. Free to create long lasting, career building relationships with our bands, brands and fans.

So please do not go let yourselves go extinct like the Wooly Mammoth it is avoidable if you choose to adapt to the Internet and it’s circular networks of people. You just have to participate. We are waiting….

Defining the musical chairs of (R)evolution,
The Amoeba

We recently sat down with Ryan Rulon from Spy For Hire and discussed their upcoming Cd, Speak In Numbers.  Look out for our video interview coming up.

Don’t believe me then listen and get a free download for yourself from RCRD LBL:

Don’t forget to grab the hauntingly chilled out Come On Over (The Clapp Remix) while your there.