Photo by Jonny Magowan

The Music Industry is a weekly column that dissects local and national music-business headlines with the help of local industry professionals and music fanatics.

This month, dark lords of alt-hip-hop Death Grips emerged from the shadows to thrill believers by leaking their latest album, NO LOVE DEEP WEB, online. The album's cover features a very NSFW shot of male genitalia  with the title scrawled on it in Sharpie, and inside, the record follows a sweaty band of punks from Sacramento as they commandeer the rap format and wipe the floor with their more commercial counterparts in the process.

Supposedly, their label Epic Records wasn't in on the decision, and they retaliated by pulling the band's website. Now, I'm a marketer by trade, and I can smell strategy a mile away. So, when casually interested bloggers and journos wondered timidly whether the Death Grips leak may have been a setup, I had to laugh.

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Erik Hess

Chris Bierden, Picked to Click ringer

Well, by now you've probably all heard the news, and hopped on Twitter to express your approval and/or disdain for City Pages. (Or just yawned.) That's right: this week we unveiled the winners of Picked to Click 2012, which hit newsstands yesterday and pretty well changed our lives forever. You know, the popularity contest that local gatekeepers put on every year to promote their friends' music? The one that jinxes all those poor musicians?

Er, wait. Forget I said that last part.

All things told, though, P2C (or P2C2K12, if you're not into the whole brevity thing) is as much a chance to just have some plain old fun as it is anything else. So we could spend our time dissecting the results and figuring out what it all means -- what it really tells us about the music scene, circa 2012. Or we could, you know, pick out a few random facts from the voting and make fun of them. (Hint: that's what's about to happen.)
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Photo by Erik Hess (More shots here.)

Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello rallies against another Wisconsin Republican, Scott Walker, back in June.

See Also:
Rage Against The Machine: The Battle of Minneapolis, part deux
Brother Ali to join Tom Morello at rally to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Deep within a recent New York Times profile we discover that Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan is a Rage Against the Machine fan. While the Wisconsin congressman is certainly entitled to enjoy Zach de la Rocha's fiery flow and Tom Morello's guitar pedal wizardry, they're not going to love him back.

Much like Ronald Reagan unintentionally invoking Bruce Springsteen's tale of an unemployed Vietnam vet, "Born in the U.S.A.," or John McCain trying to use outspoken liberal Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" campaigning, this is definitely not a harmonious political arrangement. It was only earlier this year that Morello rallied in Madison to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, and four years ago that Rage Against the Machine ripped up the Twin Cities during the Republican National Convention.

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First Avenue marketing coordinator Machen Davis' response to our hearing survey was just this photo.

For most, losing the ability to see is unthinkable, but to true fans of music, deafness is just as harrowing of a thought. Composer Ludwig van Beethoven contemplated suicide because of his hearing loss, and certainly plenty of folks in music-related fields would have to find a new line of work immediately if they couldn't hear.

And yet, the act of listening to music -- especially in a live setting -- puts us at risk for losing our hearing on a regular basis. While we probably won't behave the way the Oregon mother of a Justin Bieber fan did recently and sue for damage to our ears, the loudness of some shows can be enough to put a wedge between a fan and what they're trying to experience.

Our ears (and bodies) all experience live music differently, so Gimme Noise decided to survey more than 30 musicians, writers, venue employees, publicists and friends to see what their experiences with hearing loss, what kind of earplugs they (do or don't) wear, and the (sometimes very surprising) loudest shows they've ever attended.

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Photo by Erik Hess

Basilica Block Party 2012 did not have trouble drawing a crowd.

See Also:
SoundTown 2012 has been canceled
SoundTown 2012 statement: Ticket threshold wasn't met
SoundTown 2011: A first-ever adventure in Somerset

It's been almost a week now since word broke out that the SoundTown Music and Camping Festival is cancelled this year, just two short weeks before the gates were set to open. But even now there's something that feels inevitable about how the whole situation shook itself out -- not inevitable that the festival would get cancelled, per se, but that it would be one extreme or the other. It would be complete failure, or complete success.

From the time that Somerset Amphitheater owner and general manager Matt Mithun launched the concept last year, there were plenty of grandiose ideas and lofty ambitions. SoundTown would be a bonafide destination festival, the Upper Midwest's answer to Coachella and Bonnaroo. Even after the understated first installment last summer, the promises never wavered.

With the SoundTown dream, at least for now, seemingly dead, there could be more at stake than just missing out on a chance to see Radiohead or the Tupac hologram live and in person. (Too soon?) What if the Twin Cities actually can't support such a concept? Or what if we're simply too over-saturated with festivals and other summertime shows, in general?
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Photo by Laura Dart

See Also:
Kevin Steinman says farewell and thanks to the Twin Cities
Kevin Steinman checks in from Norway to talk about the aftermath of the Oslo tragedy
Year in Music: More of Minnesota's best 2011 releases

Kevin Steinman will be a Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter until later this summer. After a farewell show at Bryant Lake Bowl on July 23, he's moving to Norway, where he can expect his healthcare treatment to be far less than $9,000 annually. Below, he tells his story.

When I named my most recent record Pre-Existing Condition, it was to the rest of the world just a metaphor, or a tongue-in-cheek reference to a medical system we're all familiar with. Until now, I've resisted speaking out about my chronic condition except to very close friends and family.

But with the Supreme Court upholding the legality of Congress' Patient Protection and Healthcare Reform Act of 2010, AKA "Obamacare," I feel like I ought to give one musician's testimony to how our present system fails us -- even those of us lucky enough to be "insured." I know that this story is only one of millions, and that many stories are far worse than mine. But I offer it to remind us that yesterday's victory still leaves us squarely in the jaws of a for-profit system, designed to make money for its shareholders.
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Photo by Ryan Siverson

Slug performing during Atmosphere's stop at First Avenue in February.

Related:
Is Wiz Khalifa as "raunchy" as a Star Tribune writer says?
Slug of Atmosphere: 'Prince was a shitty version of Rick James and Parliament'
Top 20 best Minnesota musicians: The complete list

Judging by the number of racist comments this blog weathers, some locals believe any amount of Twin Cities rap is too much. (Perhaps a Star Tribune writer feels that way, too.) For those of us who do enjoy partaking in the beats and rhymes, it's still possible to reach a threshold. These Modern Radio message board users felt this way in 2005, and Atmosphere rapper Slug discussed the scene's "oversaturation" in a 2008 TC Daily Planet interview.

Now, a journalist writing for an Australian magazine -- these things seem to always originate overseas -- asked Slug to revisit that very same question of how crowded the local community has become.
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Photo by Erik Hess

Collectors digging in the bins at Hymie's during Record Store Day 2011.

Related:
2012 Record Store Day events roundup
A celebration of independent Twin City record stores

With Record Store Day upon us once more, it's a little hard to believe that this is only the event's fifth installment. The annual celebration of brick and mortar music retailers has turned into such an extravaganza, and feels so deeply embedded in the culture of the business, that it feels like it could easily have been going on twice as long.

This year, no doubt, will be bigger and better than ever, with stores across the Twin Cities pulling out all the stops on special releases, concerts, and a variety of other side shows, from beer gardens to clowns to face painting. Unquestionably, Record Store Day is the biggest day of the year for those who love crate-digging -- and, crucially, for the businesses themselves. But it also begs a question: Can these businesses survive without Record Store Day? And if so, do they need it?

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Let's turn this into a teaching moment.

​Minnesota Give Up. No, that's not the title of Howler's next album, nor is it the slogan for the eyebrow-raising marketing campaign the band rolled out last week. But, if you were to read some of the things being bandied about on the interwebs about the interview that their baby-faced bandleader, Jordan Gatesmith, gave to the Guardian's Alex Petridis, you might think just that.

There's been considerable hand-wringing -- as well as some intelligent conversation -- generated by Gatesmith's interview, in which he had some less-than-flattering words for his hometown music scene. What he said doesn't exactly qualify as grounds for controversy, so given the touchy reaction of some folks, it's probably just the kind of bratty behavior the Twin Cities could use more of. Lest we forget, it's just the sort of thing a journalist like Petridis would love Gatesmith to say about our exotic little backwater town.

Earlier this morning Gatesmith had the opportunity to explain himself, and he struck a mature and contrite tone. Yet this episode once again brings to the fore a long-percolating subject of debate: Just how healthy is the Twin Cities music scene these days?

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​The mere announcement that Doomtree rapper/poet/writer Dessa is giving a lecture/performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum this evening has already stirred up a bunch of debate regarding her qualifications to give the talk.

"Mic Lines: Art, Ethics, and their Contested Connections," is expected to delve into the question of whether or not rappers have social responsibilities for their words, or if they can pull a Charles Barkley. And, it seems that she's giving us a taste of what she'll discuss in an essay published via Star Tribune today.

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