My plan for 2013 was to actively try to attend more music events then I had been seeing. While I have been really scanning and watching the calendars I just have not made it to the shows I planned. Some were because they sold out or I ended up otherwise obligated at the same time. But then there are the ones that I just didn’t go to. No reason, just Lamed Out. I also forgot to document a few of the shows I have been to so not only am I slacking, I am lacking the ones I did see.
What can I say I am a work in progress. I will continue to work at it.
Great Depression (abq)
Mr. & Mrs. Jones (abq)
Porter Draw played this show as well.
Elevator Boys (Albuquerque NM)
The Johnny Cats (Albuquerque, NM)
Chinese Love Beads (El Paso, TX)
Mom. Her hands have seen a lot of hard work.
This was an easy one. The Porter Draw played.
Burt’s Tiki Lounge 1/4/13
Jenny, Amelia and Whitney (Beautiful songs and amazing voices right here in Albuquerque.)
Shoulder Voices (Albuquerque music scene staples)
Many people have gone through this process of self-discovery at various ages. Sometimes it hits us when we’re 20, 36, or 86. But each person I’m sure stumbles through it differently. Here’s what I discovered and what’s helped me:
- Write a personal mission statement and keep it open in your browser and read it slowly every morning. Revise it as often as you see fit and try to minimize the number of items to establish an essence of who you are.
- Get rid of things that aren’t essential to your life. Simplify.
- Eliminate as many stressful things as possible. Do meaningful things that make you happy and relaxed, like massages and hikes in the woods. Give yourself a break.
- Eliminate people and things that make growth difficult.
- Spend much less time looking at screens and more time reading books.
- Spend a ton of time alone reading books that provide a little insight into life. I’ve found waking up a little early and reading something nice is a great way to start your day. Anyway, time at night would be good too. The point is, just read enlightening books and eliminate distractions when reading.
- Write. I created my own private tumblr that I’m treating like a diary adding my own writing but also anything that I find insightful, like passages from the books I’m reading. I want all of this stuff to be in the same place. And I also want to be able to read through it and see progress and reminders.
- Write down the qualities you find attractive in a person. Read them a few times a week.
- Go out with friends that talk about real issues and ones that you trust for good, objective advice.
- Have a glass or two of wine but not much more.
- Be consistently kind to everyone.
I have decided to partake in this madness. I will some how try and document all of them too. Just to make it more stupid.
This year I am going to try to keep track of all the bands I see. Large or small. I think it will be fun to look back on at the end of the year and see who I saw and where. Maybe it will make me pick up the pace and see some shows I would not usually see. Maybe not.
I will use the tag #LiveMusic. I will include bands I see when my band is playing. Seems fair.
Lets see how it goes.
Dogs in Christmas Sweaters. They love it.
Me.
Consider Pandora and Spotify, the streaming music services that are becoming ever more integrated into our daily listening habits. My BMI royalty check arrived recently, reporting songwriting earnings from the first quarter of 2012, and I was glad to see that our music is being listened to via these services. Galaxie 500’s “Tugboat”, for example, was played 7,800 times on Pandora that quarter, for which its three songwriters were paid a collective total of 21 cents, or seven cents each. Spotify pays better: For the 5,960 times “Tugboat” was played there, Galaxie 500’s songwriters went collectively into triple digits: $1.05 (35 cents each).
To put this into perspective: Since we own our own recordings, by my calculation it would take songwriting royalties for roughly 312,000 plays on Pandora to earn us the profit of one— one— LP sale. (On Spotify, one LP is equivalent to 47,680 plays.)
That means I have about 7 days to figure out how to not ruin the holiday for everyone else while trying to not completely implode at the same time.
