Blog Assignment 5

Proofs!!!

Rocking On, Lollapalooza Style by Mary Ellen Podmolik

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue_lollapaloozaapr08,0,3026508.story

The author of this piece put a different spin on the Lollapalooza festival by elaborating on how much revenue it creates rather than just focusing on the acts. She went into detail about how festivals and touring have become the main source of revenue for artists due to a decline in CD sales. Artists now have to tour in order to generate revenue. The author also mentioned how prices for festival shows have gone up in the past couple of years due to the demand. Fans are used to paying into the hundreds for festival tickets now, so they will. She also briefly mentioned how the festival acts have radius clauses that keep performers who are part of the festival from playing certain concert halls in the area before the big show.
As far as my story goes on the politics behind Lollapalooza, the financial aspect and radius clause within this story support it fully. They are two important angles that I am focusing on in my story. The radius clause in particular interests me because of how it affects the music scene here. Since bands that are on the bill cannot play in the area, what do they do in the meantime? Are they losing any money because of the radius clauses?

Nine Inch Nails follows Radiohead and dumps label - By Josephine Moulds

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/09/bcnnine109.xml

In this article, the author elaborates on how both Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have basically stuck it to the record companies by releasing their music independently through their own websites. Both have made large profits off of cutting out the middle man, which makes me wonder whether Lollapalooza organizers specifically focused on the getting these bands on the bill this year.
One small question I would like to answer within my story is if organizers feel that these bands will bring in more revenue. While my story focuses more on the smaller bands and the politics behind playing the illustrious festival, it would be interesting to included a little bit of information about these almost “guerilla” marketing tactics used by these both bands. Is this something that organizers were looking for while creating the bill? Did bands have to have some sort of criteria relating to this possible “guerilla” theme in any way?

Full Lollapalooza Line-Up Announced, Perry Peeved At "Pepe Le Pew"

http://idolator.com/376674/full-lollapalooza-line+up-announced-perry-peeved-at-pepe-le-pew
This is an interesting blog entry because of the author mentioning how this year’s lineup was supposedly leaked by Chicago Sun-Times writer Jim DeRogatis. This may be just hearsay, but it offers a little bit of perspective on how Lollapalooza organizers really like to keep everything extremely confidential. It kind of reflects where I am currently at with my piece. Why are the politics behind the festival kept so quiet? Is there anything going on behind the scenes that the public should know about?
Towards the end of the blog entry, the author displays a quote from the festival mastermind Perry Ferrell, talking about how many of the artists will be collaborating on music together to put onto ITunes, and then performing the songs they create together on stage at Lollapalooza. This has some validity within my story because of the fact that it may involve some of the smaller bands I am trying to showcase. Will one of the smaller more local bands get to collaborate on a song with Radiohead? If so, how will they end up getting to do that? Who decides who collaborates with whom?

MTVs You R Here Interactive Website
http://yourhere.mtv.com/

This I found to be rather interesting. It is an interactive fan website that allows the user to upload images and video at certain live concerts and create blogs about their experience and the content. This could be an interesting facet of my story because of how bands that are set to play Lollapalooza might be able create more buzz for themselves.
Are there any bands that are set top play that are involved in any websites or marketing campaigns like this? And if they are, did Lollapalooza organizers pick up on certain campaigns and determine the lineup from instances like that?




Read more!

Blog Assignment 4

No Loozas at Lolla This Year

With summer tours like Ozzfest and Warped Tour losing fans (largely in due to RPGs like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy), Lollapalooza is completely on its game and will most definitely be attracting a plethora of music fans to Grant Park in August.

The lineup, announced earlier this week, includes the three mammoth headliners: Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, and Nine Inch Nails (My mother used to say things always come in threes). Not to mention the rest of the lineup, which includes acts such as our hometown boys Kanye West and Wilco, along with Gnarls Barkley, The Raconteurs and Bloc Party just to name a few. The bill is definitely worth standing in a pool of hot sweaty grossness for three days straight (Does that make me CRAZYEEAH??).

With the speculation and rumors of possible lineups in the past, we can finally start to bask in the glory of Chicago’s most anticipated summer festival. And frankly, Lollapalooza is always a breath of fresh air from the “Get Ready to F*** Sh** Up Tours” that make their rounds in the area. So c’mon everybody, grab your sunscreen and baby wipes and let’s go!! Read more!

Blog Assignment 3 - Interview Log

Interview with Jason Calderia of The Helicopters

Can you give me a brief history of your band?

Here's an excerpt from our bio:


When Helicopters formed in 2005, the goal was clear: to write, fall in love with, break up with, destroy, build anew, polish, apologize to, and ultimately put to bed enough songs to compose their first full-length recording. In 2006 that goal was realized with the release of How to Fake Fall Asleep.

Having toured and recorded together in various band incarnations, How to Fake Fall Asleep signaled a clear departure from the band's four piece rock roots, delving headlong into electro-pop territories. Although electronic expermentation was always an integral part of live shows, it has now become a defining element of Helicopters' high energy, danceable pop sound.

While fans and critics spent 2006 enjoying the band's debut, filling shows, and trying to successfully learn just how to fake fall asleep, a new EP has taken form. Enter Walking to Be Looked At, the 2007 release from Helicopters: a series of succinct, melodic, vocal-driven arrangements that live somewhere in the middle of precise, deliberate, programmed blips and organic warmth of guitars and harmonies.

Attempts at genre-fication often place Helicopters somewhere between The Postal Service and Beck, with left field comparisons to Aluminum Group, Tahiti 80, New Order and other artists that embrace the digital side of songwriting.

2008 promises to be an exciting year for Helicopters, with a Lollapalooza performance under their belts, a new album already in the works, a busy schedule of shows, and a sense of optimism that only three regular guys from the Midwest can exude


- - -


As for our "history"...


Dave Moran (lead vocals, guitar) and I (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals) have been performing together in various band incarnations since 1998. Initially an acoustic duo dabbling in collaborative writing for the first time, we eventually brought a bass player on board (Gregory McClendon) to help round out the sound. Then we rifled through, oh, too many drummers to count, before deciding to stop what we were doing, regroup, and find our "sound." In 2003 we stopped performing live altogether and dove head first into writing and recording, playing around with the digital side of things (largely to replace a drummer we never really found.) The album How to Fake Fall Asleep came out of all this experimentation, and since the sound was so radically different than anything we had done up to that point, we released the album under the brand new band name "Helicopters" (named for the title of the photo that was on the cover of our first 100 limited-edition cds).


In 2007 Gregory moved to Ireland and was replaced by a long-time friend of mine Brian Fifield (keyboards, drum programming, vocals), and we've been writing, recording and performing as a trio ever since.


Our 3rd album in as many years comes out in June.


What did the Last Band Standing experience entail and how did you get into the competition?

We were aware of last years' Last Band Standing contest simply because of the press behind it. This year we entered sort of on a whim, not really expecting to make it very far. (I think there were something like 2000+ entries.) When we checked out their site and saw we made it into the initial batch of bands, that was pretty cool. Then suddenly we were in the top 100, qualifying us for round 2... and that's where things got the most exciting for us. The next 20 were selected by Perry Farrell and members of The Recording Academy, not by online voting. That's the part that gave us the most validation. Online voting isn't really the best judge of a band's musical abilities - it's a judge of a band's marketing/begging abilities. Which is fine, I guess - it's an important part of the music game. But being selected for the top 20 based on our music was the biggest thrill of the entire process.

Were there any stipulations that went along with your spot on the bill (i.e. restrictions on playing in the Chicago area beforehand)?

There may have been technical stipulations - I actually don't remember. But we didn't have shows set up immediately after Lollapalooza, so restrictions never came into play.

What did Lollapalooza do for you guys in the long run?

The biggest thing Lollapalooza did for us was put us on people's radars. In a city like Chicago where everyone and their brother is in a band, simply writing interesting music isn't always enough. It's extremely difficult to get noticed, and a lot of really amazing bands never do, which is a shame. Chicago no longer supports the local music scene like it did in the "High Fidelity" era, unfortunately. But having a Lollapalooza show on your resume gets people to listen, and that's really the whole point, isn't it? Read more!