If older folk still buy music and younger people steal it, why did John Mayer sell almost twice as many albums the first week out as Bon Jovi?

This “oh snap!” moment brought to you by Bob Lefsetz.

Guys. People still buy music. And I would bet that young people, even the ones that download illegally, still buy more than the older folks. iTunes has sold well over a billion songs and I would guess that the majority of those sales went to people under 30.

It takes a lot more work and awareness than it used to in order to sell albums. John Mayer’s is one of my favorite Twitter accounts to follow. He’s clever, witty and he knows how to connect with his fans. He knows that Twitter is not where you do a sales pitch. But I would bet that a large portion of album sales for Battle Studies came from his Twitter followers, because he is constantly reminding them that he is there and that he’s worth paying attention to.

Bon Jovi on the other hand…

As my own producer, the point of the entire game is to write without questions or fear. If it’s not good, who cares?? I’ll have good songs and I’ll have bad songs in life, but if I fear ‘bad’ songs I won’t be able to write anything from an honest place.

I should be done with this song by mid-week, assuming I stay on point and keep on writing.

from Battle Studies Mid-Action Report by John Mayer.

Almost as though he were responding in time to what I just said, Mayer, one of the better-known songwriters of our day, points out that being great takes a while. Not only does he force himself to write — knowing all too well that a certain percentage of what comes out will be crap — but even the bad stuff takes more than a couple hours to put together.

Are there only twenty good Christmas songs? I’m starting to get that idea.

Last year I made a Christmas mix for my friends that included all the tracks below. This year I’m trying to turn it into a tradition, but I’m having trouble finding good Christmas music that I haven’t already used. At least not without tapping further into Sufjan’s and Mindy Smith’s Christmas albums than I already have. That would be a bit lopsided a mix, don’t you think?

Maybe I should have saved a few for this year. Anyone know any good Christmas songs on par with these ones?

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, July. Another stressful month that I was hoping wouldn’t be. I moved to a new house, my job got busier than ever and I had hardly any time for musical discovery. Surprising how much new stuff ended up on the list despite all that.

A lot of people didn’t like the new M83. Neither did I. Keep listening. It gets much better with time.

And do yourself a favor and listen to the new Avett Brothers EP. It will make you reexamine your life.

1. Ratatat – “Mirando” (LP3)
2. Alkaline Trio – “Time to Waste” (Crimson)
3. M83 – “Skin of the Night” (Saturdays = Youth)
4. The Monkees – “Whole Wide World” (Pool It)
5. Lykke Li – “Dance Dance Dance” (Little Bit EP)
6. Stars of the Lid – “Apreludes (in C sharp major)” (and Their Refinement of the Decline)
7. Benji Hughes – “Baby, It’s Your Life” (A Love Extreme)
8. John Mayer – “In Your Atmosphere” (Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles)
9. M83 – “Graveyard Girl” (Saturdays = Youth)
10. My Brightest Diamond – “Inside a Boy” (A Thousand Shark’s Teeth)
11. The Avett Brothers – “Tear Down the House” (The Second Gleam EP)
12. Opeth – “Heir Apparent” (Watershed)

Oh, hey… it’s October already! Time for last month’s playlist.

September saw me visiting people I love in Ohio, buying lots of music (explaining Of Montreal and John Mayer), watching the VMAs (explaining the Timberlake, Timbaland, Rihanna appearances), listening to Kanye and 50 Cent face off with albums releasing on the same day (Kanye clearly won) and making an alt. country playlist for a friend (which explains Ray LaMontagne, Patsy Cline, Emmylou and the always-intriguing Ryan Adams) and anticipating the release of Iron & Wine’s new album (which is amazing, by the way).

1. Bat For Lashes – “Horse And I” (Fur And Gold)
2. John Mayer – “Gravity” (Continuum)
3. Of Montreal – “Gronlandic Edit” (Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?)
4. A Fine Frenzy – “The Minnow & The Trout” (One Cell In The Sea)
5. Junior Boys – “In The Morning” (So This Is Goodbye)
6. Kanye West – “Stronger” (Graduation)
7. 50 Cent – “Ayo Technology” (Curtis)
8. Justin Timberlake – “Let Me Talk To You Prelude/My Love” (Futuresex/Lovesounds)
9. Rihanna – “Umbrella” (Good Girl Gone Bad)
10. Timbaland – “The Way I Are” (Shock Value)
11. The Deadly Syndrome – “I Hope I Become A Ghost” (The Ortolan)
12. Dire Straits – “Sultans Of Swing” (Dire Straits)
13. Ray LaMontagne – “Jolene” (Trouble)
14. Iron & Wine – “Boy With A Coin” (The Shepherd’s Dog)
15. Patsy Cline – “Crazy” (Showcase)
16. Bob Dylan – “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (Bringing It All Back Home)
17. Ryan Adams – “My Winding Wheel” (Heartbreaker)
18. Emmylou Harris – “The Pearl” (Red Dirt Girl)
19. Ben Folds – “Trusted” (Songs For Silverman)

Thanks to Hype Machine for making the linking thing easier, by the way.

A while back my best friend started keeping a monthly playlist. Any particular song that she felt was a favorite or most-played item was added to this list. The idea is that, at some undefined point in the future, she’ll appreciate being able to go back and see what she was listening to at a particular era of time.

I took the idea and changed the rules to fit me a little better. I create a monthly playlist but it not only contains favorites of the time, but any song that caught my attention (in a good way) during the month, whether or not I really listened to it a huge amount.

So now I’m going to post these on my blog at the end of each month. For this introductory post I’ll post January’s because it’s the first playlist and I need to catch up. February is soon to follow. Oh, a little disclaimer: the songs aren’t sorted in any order other than whatever order they went on the list.

Monthly Playlist – January 2007

1. Band Of Horses – “The Funeral” (Everything All The Time)
2. The Black Keys – “Thickfreakness” (Thickfreakness)
3. Brand New – “Sowing Season (Yeah)” (The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me)
4. Calexico and Iron & Wine – “He Lays In The Reins” (In The Reins)
5. Calexico and Iron & Wine – “Sixteen, Maybe Less” (In The Reins)
6. DragonForce – “Through The Fire And Flames” (Inhuman Rampage)
7. Eluvium – “The Well-Meaning Professor” (An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death)
8. Fujiya & Miyagi – “Ankle Injuries” (Transparent Things)
9. Fujiya & Miyagi – “Collarbone” (Transparent Things)
10. Gomez – “See The World” (How We Operate)
11. Jeremy Enigk – “Been Here Before” (World Waits)
12. John Mayer – “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” (Continuum)
13. John Mayer – “Bold As Love” (Continuum)
14. Birdman & Lil Wayne – “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy (Street)” (Like Father Like Son)
15. Neko Case – “Star Witness” (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
16. Ratatat – “Wildcat” (Classics)
17. Ray LaMontagne – “Be Here Now” (Till The Sun Turns Black)
18. Regina Spektor – “Fidelity” (Begin To Hope)
19. Ryan Adams – “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
20. The Crystal Method – “High Roller” (Vegas)
21. The Decemberists – “The Perfect Crime #2″ (The Crane Wife)
22. The Shins – “Phantom Limb” (Wincing The Night Away)
23. Damien Rice – “9 Crimes” (9)
24. Caspian – “Quovis” (You Are The Conductor)
25. Caspian – “Further Up” (You Are The Conductor)
26. Portishead – “Glory Box” (Roseland NYC Live)
27. mewithoutYou – “Carousels” (Catch For Us The Foxes)
28. Explosions In The Sky – “The Only Moment We Were Alone” (The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place)

The final part of my four-part series. The list to end all lists. I present to you the best new albums in 2006.

1. mewithoutYou – Brother, Sister
2. This Will Destroy You – Young Mountain
3. Mew – And The Glass Handed Kites
4. Jeremy Enigk – World Waits
5. Joshua Radin – We Were Here
6. Malajube – Trompe-L’Oeil (US Release)
7. Band Of Horses – Everything All The Time
8. John Mayer – Continuum
9. P.O.S. – Audition
10. Norma Jean – Redeemer
11. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
12. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
13. Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche
14. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
15. The Appleseed Cast – Peregrine
16. Damien Rice – 9
17. The Knife – Silent Shout
18. Underoath – Define The Great Line
19. Angels & Airwaves – We Don’t Need To Whisper
20. Muse – Black Holes And Revelations

Well, that’s all folks. I had fun making these lists and you probably hated reading them. Or maybe you found something new to love. If that’s the case, my goal has been met.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Keep on discovering.

Part three of four. Of all the music I listened to that was released this year, these are the ones that mattered most.

1. This Will Destroy You – Quiet
2. Jeremy Enigk – Been Here Before
3. mewithoutYou – O, Porcupine
4. This Will Destroy You – The World Is Our ____
5. Mew – An Envoy To The Open Fields
6. mewithoutYou – In A Sweater Poorly Knit
7. Joshua Radin – Sundrenched World
8. mewithoutYou – C-Minor
9. Band Of Horses – The Funeral
10. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago (Acoustic Version)
11. Mew – The Zookeeper’s Boy
12. Thom Yorke – Harrowdown Hill
13. P.O.S. – Half-Cocked Concepts
14. Norma Jean – The End Of All Things Will Be Televised
15. Malajube – Montréal-40ºC
16. Mew – Special
17. The Mars Volta – Viscera Eyes
18. Malajube – Casse-cou
19. P.O.S. – P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life
20. Angels and Airwaves – The Adventure
21. Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche
22. The Knife – Silent Shout
23. Jay-Z – Show Me What You Got
24. Angels and Airwaves – Valkyrie Missile
25. John Mayer – Bold As Love
26. Underoath – A Moment Suspended In Time
27. Joshua Radin – Star Mile

And, if by some random chance you happen to have Rhapsody, you can listen to this playlist there.

Part two of four of my evil list-making scheme.

1. Sufjan Stevens
2. Explosions in the Sky
3. mewithoutYou
4. Radiohead
5. The Appleseed Cast
6. Nickel Creek
7. The Dillinger Escape Plan
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
9. The Mars Volta
10. A Perfect Circle
11. Andrew Bird
12. MxPx
13. AFI
14. Alison Krauss
15. Project 86
16. Tom Waits
17. Sigur Rós
18. The Faint
19. Chris Thile
20. This Will Destroy You
21. Mew
22. Iron & Wine
23. Coldplay
24. Cloud Cult
25. John Mayer
26. Opeth
27. Joshua Radin
28. Killswitch Engage
29. Incubus
30. Ryan Adams
31. Norma Jean
32. Robert Johnson
33. The Black Keys

Once again, thanks to Last.fm for making this list possible.