Monicker

I don’t know, from what i can remember, merchandise at concerts has been grossly overpriced well before the internet. Maybe this Paradise stuff is slightly more (taking into account inflation) than the average prices of tour merch, say, 25 years ago, but i bet not by that much. I remember when i was a kid seeing t-shirts at some concerts for around $40. I just went to an inflation calculator site, and, as an example: $40 in 1988 is the equivalent to $78.50 today. Also, most recording artists outside of the very top mega sellers, have never made that much profit from records. That’s why touring has always been very important to artists. Live performances are an artist's bread and butter. I've said this before and i'll say it again: I think where piracy and file sharing have hit the industry the most/hardest is in the budgets for recordings. Labels just don't have big money anymore to allow artists to make big budget records as they were once made (exempting Axl Rose with Chinese Democracy ) This is going pretty far back, but just as an example: In 1966 Brian Wilson racked up a $50,000 bill to Capitol records for the recording of the Beach Boys single Good Vibrations, the most expensive single at that time, spanning around 20 sessions over the course of around half a year at four different studios. That's $358,000 in today's money. For one song. Now, that was more of an exception than the rule, but it still goes to show how much $ record companies had at one point in time. Can you imagine even the biggest major label today spending $358,000 on one song for a pop artist? Sure, 5 Points is a tiny label, but just for some point of reference, what was the budget for AKA, $50,000? For the entire record. With a big producer like Kahne. Anyone have any figures from Interscope for BTD? I've been curious about this.

"Hmm, i've got an idea. I'm going to rerecord my very best recordings!" –Elizabeth Grant

I'm surprised by some of the things people haven't mentioned about the shows, like how they're playing the backing vocals from the album (lame--BUT someone should bribe the engineer for a copy of all of those backing vocals only mixes ), and how the Body Electric arrangement is pretty different from last summer's shows and the album version.

I read the title of this thread as My New Meth Teacher. Oh, the things that this forum does to one.

I cannot believe that music like this exists. Is this song a comment on people not being "original" while sounding like music for a Doritos commercial made in five minutes on GarageBand by an in-house jingle writer at Disney? What is SMASH? Why does this exist? Let me see if the magikarp flops around this time

TFMGQTDDTOT

TFMGQTDDTOT

That's what you're writing to Lana? It's a little ambiguous but i think she'll like it.

Speaking of...it seems Lana had the GNR version in mind for her cover (which, as i write that, i realize now that it's pretty obvious she would have). Man, your Malcolm McDowell milk sipping gif is making me uneasy, the way it freezes for a bit and looks like a still but then it just comes to life.

I am here to further uproot this thread and initiate a riot. Smash Beatles/Lennon/McCartney idolatry and burn the temple to the ground (with no offense, of course, to those who do genuinely like them). Most overrated music and band in the universe--given the way that they are widely viewed as the be-all and end-all of popular music, they can't possibly not be overrated. The cult-like mentality that deifies both the band and its two principal members has been damaging to the music world for close to fifty years. Not their fault, of course. They have a few good songs though (though mostly not even the Lennon ones ) Peace, d00d. I <3 NY

Will you still BE AGGRESSIVE, B-E AGGRESSIVE, love me, B-E-A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E, when i'm no longer young and beautiful.

Not sure if this is a fat joke or, like, his wife is due soon/recently had a baby, and so he can't tour right now.

Ha, i actually don't dislike the loon (whatever it happens to be--i'd be surprised if Haynie created the sound), i just have a lot of issues with how much/often he uses it, and also how loud it usually is in the mix. Now that i think of it more, i wonder if it's an ego thing. What i mean by that is that it seems like an attempt to put his "producer's stamp" on the stuff he produces, like a calling card of sorts. That was kind of a big thing in the '90s with Timbaland, how one could always recognize a Timbaland single and his signature sound when they heard it. Although, unlike Haynie, Timbaland was pretty adventurous and varied for a while. I don't think he got gimmicky until later.

I really like what they’ve done with the arrangements. Lots of nuance, variation, and attention to detail. I’m also really glad there’s a new drummer/percussionist. I wasn’t too fond of the previous one and this new guy is great. Anyone happen to know who he is? EDIT: And those small changes with the full band on Video Games really breathes new life into the song. Really nice

Off topic, but in response to your post: I'm not singling you out here, but i hear that explanation a lot--that he was going for a dark/atmospheric sort of vibe on the record--and i don't understand it. What's so dark or moody about Rick James yelling throughout an entire record? You are right that there are so many things to get samples from. But i would take it a step further and say that there are also so many things to get sound from. One need not look toward prerecorded ones. Everywhere you look, all around us, there are interesting, everyday sounds to be found, in plain view, or hidden and waiting to be discovered, or waiting to be created and crafted. I cannot comprehend the concept of lifting entire elements from someone else's work (every single detail about it: the idea itself, the engineering [microphone selection and placement, etc.], the performance and execution, the production, the mix, etc.) when the world is full of endless sound possibilities. How boring can a person be? People like Haynie are, in my opinion, a threat to the art and magic of record production, contributing to its homogenization and degradation, and they're better suited to filing someone's taxes than shaping the sound of someone's record. Good god, can you tell i don't like the guy's work? Ha. Anyway, i don't want to derail this thread. Back to the good news of a new Lana recording!

Me too, definitely. That sounded so good and interesting and unexpected. And analog synths and drum machine! Sounded really exciting. Will someone inform me when it's available? I don’t keep up with this shit. The movie looks unwatchable. The Y&B melody kind of stinks and her delivery sounds very phoned in. Maybe it’ll be a “grower” though. The guy is the quintessence of a one-trick pony. It's unreal how limited his scope as a producer is. It borders on self-parody. And i doubt he himself created any of the sonic stamps you hear on everything he touches. I mean, we're talking about a guy who overuses an already overused Rick James sample.

I'm still laughing at the title of this thread, that it's only one breast. Don't change it though, please.

I'm three seconds away from revealing your real name, evil. Don't fuck with Mo. (OMG, while googling for a picture to use i just randomly came upon photos of an old co-worker's wedding. WTF is the internet?)

An online moniker is very different. Most people don’t use their real name for privacy concerns because the internet is insane.

It's funny, i was just thinking about this the other day and i had an epiphany of sorts. When i sent her a message with a link to the Money Hunny cover i recorded, i addressed her as Lizzy. I'm not sure why i did that, but i didn't give it much thought. I guess i thought it was cute and personal (why did i feel like i needed to be cute and personal?) Since then, for unrelated reasons, i've been thinking about stuff like identity and different trangender issues, and in thinking about some of these things, i suddenly realized that it was in very poor taste to call her Lizzy because it disregards or overrides her decision. It's almost like taking away a person's agency and putting a decision that is not yours in your hands. It's presumptuous and even condescending. I don't think it's really any different than a situation where someone is, say, born female and wishes to be referred to as "he" and not respecting that decision just because the person wasn't born male. She chose the name Lana Del Rey, so i think that decision ought to be respected. It's not our call to address her by anything else. Perhaps some of you will think that i'm overthinking this and taking it too seriously, but i just thought i'd pass along my thoughts on the matter because i think it's worth thinking over. For whatever it's worth, i really regret calling her Lizzy.

Wait, is this thread only about one of her breasts? Surprised evil hasn’t come in here yet with some dirty old man hashtags. Ya’ll need to get out more into the real world if you think Lana’s breasts are that tiny. They’re “small” but not exceptionally so. Small breasts rule though. Itty Bitty Titty Committee Appreciation charter member right here, folks Anything bigger than a B is too big for my, uhm...taste. I'm gonna go now.

^ Most mysterious first post & general post on the forum to date.

SO pumped 4 this new album, bitchez. Katy is my LYFE.

SM57s/58s (they're the same mic in reality with a different grille) are cardioid not super. But i was talking solely about video aesthetics--she's in what looks like a dimly lit bar or practice space with equipment seen in the background, wearing a flannel shirt. The mic is very appropriate. I would bet a bajillion dollars that she's never actually cut vocals using an SM57 (at least not since BTD). With these kinds of productions like BTD, the mic is the strongest link, not the weakest, so i'm not concerned at all with what mic they're using on her vocals. I've only ever seen her recording with one of those Manley Gold mics, which are like $5,000-$7,000, in those photos that came out a couple of months ago in that little project studio with Rick Nowles (?) Pickup pattern is honestly probably the very least of my concerns (the mics that she would be using in the studio, like the aforementioned Manley, will have variable pickup patterns anyway, so any of those mics can go from hypercardioid, cardioid, figure 8, omni, etc. literally with one switch). I am most concerned with the preamaps that these engineers/producers are going into, but especially all these "in the box" effects and plug-ins. Like, whatever reverb plug-ins have been used on her vocals since BTD stink. The worst offender so far is the reverb on the new Yayo. Not because it's a very big sounding reverb but just because it's an overly bright, shitty, cheap sounding plug-in. Million Dollar Man is another terrible use of cheap reverb plug-ins. I'd love to hear her vocals coming from a real, well-built echo chamber. *Interesting side note: I remember back when Homogenic came out, Bjork mentioned once in an interview how she intentionally chose to use an SM58 on her studio vocals because she liked its plain quality and the fact that it was an easy microphone to hold in her hand (!) I saw footage around this time of her in the studio recording vocals, and she was indeed holding the mic, and it was indeed an SM58. Whatever works for you, right?

Swimming up the river? ... Hey! Alright. Cool. Wanna hear another one?