One of the saddest things about the music business is how archaic and antiqued the whole process is. Not the actual making of music, but the wait time between the completion of an album and the official release date. What eventually happens is that the album is done, it gets leaked on the internet, people download and fall in love with it, then 3 months later it is officially released and it is old news. The album doesn’t sell, and the artist gets sh*t on by the label. The only upside is that as long as the album is dope people will still pay to see you perform.
Anyway, the reason for this diatribe, and there is one, you will see, is my new favourite band, Broken Bells. Broken Bells is comprised of artist/producer Danger Mouse aka, Brian Burton and singer/songwriter James Mercer. These names no doubt ring familiar as Burton is the one half of the worldwide sensation Gnarls Barkley, made popular by their awesome-turned incredibly annoying song “Crazy” and Mercer is the vocal talent behind the phenomenal and emotion evoking indie band, the Shins. The Broken Bells project was first announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 and shortly thereafter, on December 14 the band released their first email update, in which a binary-coded message stating ‘The High Road is hard to find’ was displayed, offering a link to the band’s web page. On the morning of December 21, the band informed fans in an e-mail message of the release of their debut single “The High Road”, which was made available as a free download on their official site. The self-titled debut album is due out in the U.S. on March 9, 2010. However, and yes this is where my previous rants comes in, the album leaked on to the internet on December 22, 2009 and is now on heavy rotation on mine, and many other peoples iPod.
I love this album so much that I want to purchase it right now, and give these two musical talents my money, yet the album is not due out for another two months. You see how the music business is in a state of decay? With every passing minute they are literally losing money! The quickest and easiest solution I can see, and rather obviously I might add, is that once the album is done, have it available for digital download until you can ship the actual album to the stores, that way people have the option to buy it and instead of “stealing” it. Seems simple enough to me.
Okay so now that that second rant is done watch the video for “The High Road” directed by the acclaimed Sophie Muller, and tell me you don’t love it… I insist.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWBG1j_flrg&hl=en_US&fs=1&]