David Fisher : What is Noise Blog

As reported in NME Radiohead has signed to ‘major’ UK label XL Records after the release of their In Rainbows album independently and online only for the price of “whatever” and with a discbox set for 40UKP.

This is horrid. While XL Recordings isn’t an RIAA affiliated label, and overall are ‘better’ as far as they go, this isn’t a good idea at all. If anything Radiohead should have just started their own label for the administrative tasks. Then again, maybe they realized that when you cut out the record company, then you assume all of the responsibilities and tasks that come with running your own record company. Just because you aren’t saying you have a record company, if you are taking money in exchange for the product (downloads and vinyl) then you’ve got a record company albeit a light-weight one.

I really thought that Radiohead overall was basically giving the finger to record labels and going to stay off them. It ends up that they just pulled the most wonderful marketing ploy ever. They went viral with it to a degree that they didn’t have to pay anything at all for marketing. They got NYT and other major coverage without paying a penny. Now they are hopping back to a label.

At the same time, Trent Reznor/NIN is without a label. I hope honestly he stays off the labels for good. The Niggy Tardust album will be out tomorrow. I can’t wait.

Tags: label, major, niggytardust, Radiohead, records, saul williams, signed, XL

I just registered two domains:

http://whatisnoise.com

and

http://delaydaddy.com

They will be the links for this blog (Which just might be moving to wordpress if I can’t make this prettier) and for my guitar pedal.

They aren’t operational yet since it’s going to take a while for the DNS to kick in (oh and I have to make the guitar pedal site, which I’m working on tonight). Give them a day or so and they should work.

Tags: delay daddy, dns, domain, whatisnoise

I really need to get better at scheduling my time better, and sleeping less. In my own special work-a-holic sadistic way I have picked up yet more things that I’m taking a stab at doing.

So now the list is

• Office Manager @ Jazkarta
• Started my guitar pedal company, working on that when possible
• Trying to get a collaborative prototyping space off the ground in Cambridge
• Working on music, finishing an album some day. Practicing as many instruments as possible
• Freelancing at Taylor Barefoot’s studio when work comes along (which it hasn’t recently, but I’m so busy thats ok)
• (NEW) Working on the side for a digital thinktank based in NYC as an agent.
• (NEW) Working for a grassroots political party doing all sorts of things to help in organizing them. Thankfully they don’t have anyone running in 08′.
• Trying to still enjoy photography

If I even THINK of picking up anything else, and I don’t remove at least two items from this list… someone needs to hit me. Hard.

I shudder to think that some day I might even have to try and fit all of this on a resume. Then again, I never want a job that requires a resume again. Resumes are so 20th century. I’d much rather have a job that I just meet someone and they say, “Work for me”.

As a sad note, you’d think with all of this happening that I’d be simply rich or something. That’s so far from the truth. My 180sq/ft apartment is starting to get to me.

UPDATE: Someone shoot me.
Rich and I are launching a Facebook app this weekend.
And organizing a coffee group in boston for meetings. wtf.

Tags: busy, facebook, jazkarta, photography, schedule, what I am doing

Wow, a sure sign of ‘getting old’. I think that Espresso Royale (specifically the one on Marlboro Street near NorthEastern) needs to turn down their freaking music.

First of all, the coffee shop is a great place to go. It has decent drinks, free wifi, and plenty of seating. However the guys and gals that work there find that they must pump their indie music as loud as possible. Even if you have an iPod in, you can barely hear yourself think unless you’re blasting equally obnoxious music just as loud into your ears.

Secondly, I don’t think it’s all the fault of the music. The room has horrid (as in none) acoustical design. It is probably impossible to make music sound good in here as is, and when combined with people talking loudly to speak over it then the problem just compounds. Perhaps some acoustical consultant will give them some free tips as to spare us all.

A great sounding room that I was in recently however is The Last Hurrah attached to the Omni Parker House. It’s a great quiet bar. It’s not so quiet that you feel that everyone is listening on your conversations, but the bar isn’t blasting music loudly and the bar doesn’t sound like the back-bar of a starbucks with things grinding all the time, etc. Great place.

Tags: acoustics, coffee, espresso, loud, marlboro, royale

Saul Williams has his new album coming out, “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!” at NiggyTardust.com but sadly, when Googling for Niggy Tardust, he is the 4th link. Looks like he needs some SEO going on. It’s amazing how good (and bad) some people are at that today. Apparently this blog does pretty well for certain queries, but I’m by no means a master of it. Hopefully after the launch of the album on the 1st, Google will get trained properly.

Update: He’s finally at the top of Google for searching “niggy tardust”.

Tags: google, niggytardust, saul williams, search, SEO