JoCo in the Media
There's an extremely fun video interview HERE that shows the tragedy of being a rock music producer (going to another room; bringing a cardboard box; opening the box; pulling out some CDs). It's also got the first external view I've ever seen of The Studio -- a converted closet, according to this piece, instead of a corner of the kitchen. Short but fun.
ETA: This will teach me to post a discussion thread before refreshing the JoCo blog. Gaaah!
[20080324: Edited by Bry to change the thread category]
ETA: This will teach me to post a discussion thread before refreshing the JoCo blog. Gaaah!
[20080324: Edited by Bry to change the thread category]
Comments
I found out two very interesting things:
The rest of Europe isn't high in the demand area either -- some in Berlin, some in Stockholm, but just overall very few.
What do you Euro folks think can be done to increase the recognition and demand in enough cities so that five or six different concert venues of a decent size could be filled for a JoCo concert?
I don't know that the CNET interview discussion of money will really hurt fans' desires to contribute to the cause. So much of JoCo's fanbase is 30 and over that the issue for a lot of us is a genuine desire to compensate where we feel compensation is due. Even if I'd found out the guy was a millionaire, I would still feel it was only right to pay for the music he makes.
This isn't to say that everyone under 30 is looking for a free lunch, but artists whose fanbase is made up of primarily college students and teenagers who simply don't have a lot of money to spend are probably more likely to fall prey to the feared mentality mentioned above.
There were a number of people who stuck up for him or just had positive things to say. I was tempted to provide a rebuttal but I'm of the opinion that you don't poke a rabid dog. But I'll vent here a bit, if you don't mind.
I did notice that the Yahoo News article focused on how much money he was making and also that he "started" his career with Thing A Week. He had three albums released before that (albeit small albums) and it sounds like music has been his thing pretty much forever. He just didn't fully commit full time until then. A lot of musicians have "day jobs".
Anyhow, I liked the CNET interview much better. Especially when he caught himself saying "Mr. Fancy Pants" and realized that he quoted himself. Adorable!
I'm a little disappointed that he says that New York isn't as good as the West Coast, or Midwest, or anywhere else. :-(
I'm in New York, and I'm a fan.
And CoolJammer -- I'm pretty sure that JoCo wasn't talking about New York as a place; he was referring to New York audiences for his performances compared to west coast audiences. I think his point was that his most committed & engaged fans seem to be located in or near the silicon hub cities like Seattle, SF, Portland, Boston, et cetera.
You can tell that's likely to be the case by clicking on the Eventful button on the JoCo website homepage, and looking at the level of demand for his concerts. New York itself is WAY down the list compared to what you might imagine -- most people in the NY metro area either have little interest in his kind of music, or are too busy, or simply haven't heard of him, or some combo of the above.
It's like what they always say about prophets & their hometowns, I think.
I think part of the problem in New York is that there is SO much to do and see.
Excellent interview, well worth the time.
The actual JoCo stuff starts at about minute 16, if you don't want to hear about other tech stuff.
As your first grade teacher I should have seen this coming. I didn't smell the Geek, however, only the Wicked Cool. And cool in a totally authentic, unselfconscious way, with an open heart and willingness to stay true. Thanks for singing at my second-failed-marriage wedding ceremony. That was the best part of the whole affair. Hugs- Ms. B.
Liz B
POSTED TUE, MAR 11, 2008 1:11 PM PDT
Perhaps you should email the link to JoCo to make sure he see's it, as he doesn't always have time to check the fora.
She was a smart hippy in a Soc/Greaser town. Ahead of the crowd in most endeavours she undertook.
I think it's amazing just how much attention JoCo gets, when you consider he's not got an agent or a record company.
I think it's also thanks to you guys that he gets so much attention, it's like a small army ( i say you guys because i've just started listening and posting :P.)
i've shown my whole 3 friends his music and they all love it ^^ my girlfriend likes it but i think she's abit sick of me playing it NON-stop.
/me wishes they had agents.
It was from UCLA Radio and included the message... Just thought I'd mention it.
*is proud of herself*
[Question: Let's say, for whatever reason, he has to bail midway through -- what happens to the subscriptions?]
Quasi-relatedly, I'm not the only one, I'm sure, who was a little put off by the column Colleen linked to -- not only does it fail to provide links to Ari Hest and Jonathan Coulton (which can't be blamed on the columnist, since he's writing for print), but my first impression was that the article is rather dismissive of JoCo. I guess I see the point that he's trying to make -- unlike Coulton, Hest is leaving the security of a major label; he'd already achieved what is still regarded as success for an artist, and he didn't have to do the whole parachute-free jump. I'll be charitable enough to assume column length limitations prevented the writer from making the point less clumsily.
(Interesting, actually, that there's nothing about what Hest's music actually sounds like, just a list of his credentials. 300-odd subscribers sounds, to me, surprisingly low for an "established musician" who's twelve weeks into this project -- did his fan base not carry over? If a musician I'd been following and whose albums I'd been buying offered me 52 songs for $20, I'd be inclined to give it some strong consideration, at the least. Maybe he should cover a JoCo song?)
Here, by the way, is the columnist's previous column about JoCo. It's a good article, I think (he does accidentally call "Ikea" a Thing a Week, but I won't hold it against him).
mislabelling non TaW songs as TaW, that is. I think there was some article that listed 4 nonTaWs as TaWs.
When I saw his name, I could have sworn I had some track of his in my iTunes. It's a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", or more accurately, it's a cover of Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah."
Listen here if you wish.
I don't know if it gives any clues as to what his music sounds like in general, but it's what I've got. :-P
Random, but I collect a lot of covers. The fact that JoCo had covered Cohen was one of the things that really attracted me to him. I have 33 Cohen covers (6 of "Famous Blue Raincoat", 16 of "Hallelujah").
"Jonathan Coulton, congratulations on existing, and also on apparently being a talented and funny person!"