12.30pm, at the Round Gallery, Birmingham Museum, on the 10th of September...the FINAL Thee Moths show.
One more, no more.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Test Loops, by Alex Charles by theealex
Soon I'll be doing a lot less of Thee Moths, and eventually will stop all together....here's the first tentative step towards something new, as I go 'solo'
Soon I'll be doing a lot less of Thee Moths, and eventually will stop all together....here's the first tentative step towards something new, as I go 'solo'
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Some more thoughts on File Sharing.
The debate about file sharing, and how much it's harming (or otherwise) various music scenes has been going on for ages, and recently The Wire started covering it, as even specialist labels start to feel the pinch of Mediafire and download blogs.
Mostly the arguments against file sharing are coming from the owners of labels, rather than the artists themselves. The message is clear, the labels, whether they be EMI or ReR want the clock to be turned back to a halcyon, pre-internet, age, an age where they controlled the artists, the means of recording, reproduction, distribution, and publicity.
Almost without fail, the labels have adopted a rather entitled stance, reacting in shock that people would be so 'evil' as to take something for free when the opportunity arises. I've seen label bosses react as if people downloading music are immoral disinterested plebs, thieves and pirates who don't even listen to the music 'properly' (heaven forbid that you should listen to music on an iPod!), The labels think that they have a right to expect people to buy their stuff, that people should be grateful that they're making music available.
They're wrong. People don't owe them anything, listeners AND bands alike.
The truth is bands no longer need them. The means to record are now available to practically anyone with access to even the most basic of equipment - got an iPhone or iPod Touch? Then you can download a fully functioning recording app that is far more powerful and flexible than a briefcase sized Roland VS840EX was ten years ago (and will cost you about £5 rather than the £700 I spent on the Roland). If you've got a laptop or cheap home computer (and almost everyone has these days) then you can get perfectly good free software (legitimately, there's a lot of Open Source audio stuff out there, and a lot of it's brilliant). Mic's are inexpensive, and there are plenty of cables that will link your guitar (or whatever) directly to the USB port of your laptop. In fact, the means to record 'professionally' at home have existed for a good 15 years now, and the corresponding closure of countless shitty 'demo' studios around the country is (IMO) a good thing.
Once bands have recorded they don't need a label to release, they can just upload to any number of free websites, and either give their music away for free, or charge a small amount and make some money via sites like Bandcamp. What do labels actually DO for bands these days? They manufacture a small run of records, 'pay' the band with a percentage of the pressing, then try and sell the discs. Why involve the middle man at all? Despite what label audiophiles claim, most people can't actually tell the difference between a 192kbps mp3 and a CD, and I maintain that anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and that same CD is just deluding themselves. For practically everyone mp3s are fine, just as tapes and vinyl (with arguably lower fidelity) before them were fine.
So all that's left for the labels to do is act as PR for their acts, after all there's no point in making a wonderful record if no-one ever buys it. But even then, a lot of the smaller labels do runs so small that they don't send out any review copies. In truth I don't think that the labels have a place in the new world that's stumbling, blinking, into the light of a world where everything is free.
I'm going to say something that a lot of people won't agree with here - I think it's great that people now expect to get music for free, and here's why....
When making music ceases to be anything that's even slightly profitable the types of people who are attracted to it by the potential rock star lifestyle will go elsewhere. I want to see the music industry collapse to the point where rehearsal studios go out of business due to the lack of sub-Kings of Leon acts practising their lumpen sludge, I want to see record sales plummet to virtually nothing......why do I want this? Because it'll be GOOD for the music, the artists, and the listeners in the long term.
Look at it as an evolutionary die back, the extinction of the dinosaurs providing the environment that led to mammals taking over the planet. Once the music industry is totally destroyed the ONLY people left making music will be those who do it for the love of it, because they feel they have something genuinely important to say via song, are unable to NOT DO IT. Remove the promise of potential riches and the wankers, twats, cocks, and cunts who think they they'll form a band and make a load of money and fuck tonnes of girls, will just go off and do something else that allows them to live that dream....and they'll no longer be swaggering around our venues acting like Bono despite it being a rainy Wednesday night at a 100 capacity venue in Derby. Into the void will flood the only musicians left, the ones doing it for (what I consider) the 'right' reasons.
With artists making art because they love it, the quality will go up, local gigs will cease being such a dismal grind of one shit guitar band after another, and with good gigs going on, people will start to enjoy live music again, which will in turn lead to them being more likely to buy the music they like, music that will be made available to them for the minimum of cost and maximum of convenience that the internet allows.
Downloading might be bad for labels, and it might spell the end for countless numbers of bands, but I don't care - I think the end result will be worth it.
The debate about file sharing, and how much it's harming (or otherwise) various music scenes has been going on for ages, and recently The Wire started covering it, as even specialist labels start to feel the pinch of Mediafire and download blogs.
Mostly the arguments against file sharing are coming from the owners of labels, rather than the artists themselves. The message is clear, the labels, whether they be EMI or ReR want the clock to be turned back to a halcyon, pre-internet, age, an age where they controlled the artists, the means of recording, reproduction, distribution, and publicity.
Almost without fail, the labels have adopted a rather entitled stance, reacting in shock that people would be so 'evil' as to take something for free when the opportunity arises. I've seen label bosses react as if people downloading music are immoral disinterested plebs, thieves and pirates who don't even listen to the music 'properly' (heaven forbid that you should listen to music on an iPod!), The labels think that they have a right to expect people to buy their stuff, that people should be grateful that they're making music available.
They're wrong. People don't owe them anything, listeners AND bands alike.
The truth is bands no longer need them. The means to record are now available to practically anyone with access to even the most basic of equipment - got an iPhone or iPod Touch? Then you can download a fully functioning recording app that is far more powerful and flexible than a briefcase sized Roland VS840EX was ten years ago (and will cost you about £5 rather than the £700 I spent on the Roland). If you've got a laptop or cheap home computer (and almost everyone has these days) then you can get perfectly good free software (legitimately, there's a lot of Open Source audio stuff out there, and a lot of it's brilliant). Mic's are inexpensive, and there are plenty of cables that will link your guitar (or whatever) directly to the USB port of your laptop. In fact, the means to record 'professionally' at home have existed for a good 15 years now, and the corresponding closure of countless shitty 'demo' studios around the country is (IMO) a good thing.
Once bands have recorded they don't need a label to release, they can just upload to any number of free websites, and either give their music away for free, or charge a small amount and make some money via sites like Bandcamp. What do labels actually DO for bands these days? They manufacture a small run of records, 'pay' the band with a percentage of the pressing, then try and sell the discs. Why involve the middle man at all? Despite what label audiophiles claim, most people can't actually tell the difference between a 192kbps mp3 and a CD, and I maintain that anyone who claims to be able to tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and that same CD is just deluding themselves. For practically everyone mp3s are fine, just as tapes and vinyl (with arguably lower fidelity) before them were fine.
So all that's left for the labels to do is act as PR for their acts, after all there's no point in making a wonderful record if no-one ever buys it. But even then, a lot of the smaller labels do runs so small that they don't send out any review copies. In truth I don't think that the labels have a place in the new world that's stumbling, blinking, into the light of a world where everything is free.
I'm going to say something that a lot of people won't agree with here - I think it's great that people now expect to get music for free, and here's why....
When making music ceases to be anything that's even slightly profitable the types of people who are attracted to it by the potential rock star lifestyle will go elsewhere. I want to see the music industry collapse to the point where rehearsal studios go out of business due to the lack of sub-Kings of Leon acts practising their lumpen sludge, I want to see record sales plummet to virtually nothing......why do I want this? Because it'll be GOOD for the music, the artists, and the listeners in the long term.
Look at it as an evolutionary die back, the extinction of the dinosaurs providing the environment that led to mammals taking over the planet. Once the music industry is totally destroyed the ONLY people left making music will be those who do it for the love of it, because they feel they have something genuinely important to say via song, are unable to NOT DO IT. Remove the promise of potential riches and the wankers, twats, cocks, and cunts who think they they'll form a band and make a load of money and fuck tonnes of girls, will just go off and do something else that allows them to live that dream....and they'll no longer be swaggering around our venues acting like Bono despite it being a rainy Wednesday night at a 100 capacity venue in Derby. Into the void will flood the only musicians left, the ones doing it for (what I consider) the 'right' reasons.
With artists making art because they love it, the quality will go up, local gigs will cease being such a dismal grind of one shit guitar band after another, and with good gigs going on, people will start to enjoy live music again, which will in turn lead to them being more likely to buy the music they like, music that will be made available to them for the minimum of cost and maximum of convenience that the internet allows.
Downloading might be bad for labels, and it might spell the end for countless numbers of bands, but I don't care - I think the end result will be worth it.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Available NOW, the new album from Thee Moths, via Stray Recordings, 'Soundcloudbusting'
CLICKY CLICKY CLICK CLICK
CLICKY CLICKY CLICK CLICK
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
http://www.scotmusicawards.co.uk/scottish-music-industry-awards-voting-form.html - PLEASE vote for me! I'm nominated for Best Poster Artist
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
A couple of months ago the Netaudio festival threw open its doors for musicians around the world to apply to play at their event in May. In what seemed like a very encouragingly open way, they claimed that the selection of the acts playing on the Open Platform stage would be done via a vote on Soundcloud. Bands were encouraged to upload their music, and to drive traffic to the Netaudio site to vote on who should play.
The voting closed at the end of March, and an announcement was made that the successful artists would be notified at the beginning of April. The weeks passed, and there was no announcement...I wasn't too worried though, Thee Moths had come second, and were the top UK act by a significant amount of votes.
Then the announcement was made.....and NONE of the top five acts were playing! In fact, when the list was examined only two of the artists that had submitted work were playing at all, the rest of the bill being taken up by artists chosen by the festival organisers! Something else had happened as well....the Open Platform page had been altered from saying the acts would be chosen by the vote, to stating that the acts would be 'partially' chosen by the vote!
Understandably several musicians were unhappy about this, and questioned Netaudio via their Facebook page and email. The organisers completely ignored my email asking them what was going on, and then made out that I'd posted a reply to them that was too abusive to not be deleted - that post? Merely asking why a joke act called Cuntbucket had got through when other, far better acts, hadn't. I guess using Cuntbucket's full name was enough for them to decide I'd posted 'abuse'.
Anyway, they posted a halfarsed 'explanation' and then that was the matter closed...until yesterday.
Yesterday I got an email from them, breathlessly trumping their event, and again announcing the acts to play the Open Platform event. Needless to say I was a little annoyed to be spammed by them, so I wrote the following -
Today I got this reply
The FUCKING CHEEK! Acting as if I'M in the wrong for thinking their behaviour has been shitty in the extreme? And then telling ME not to email again after I've complained to them about their spamming?? What a shower of cunts!
The guys running Netaudio London 11 are frauds and self appointed gatekeepers, as well as being dishonest and unrepentant about that dishonesty. I'm disgusted that people like this have so much control over the way the experimental underground in the UK is run.
The voting closed at the end of March, and an announcement was made that the successful artists would be notified at the beginning of April. The weeks passed, and there was no announcement...I wasn't too worried though, Thee Moths had come second, and were the top UK act by a significant amount of votes.
Then the announcement was made.....and NONE of the top five acts were playing! In fact, when the list was examined only two of the artists that had submitted work were playing at all, the rest of the bill being taken up by artists chosen by the festival organisers! Something else had happened as well....the Open Platform page had been altered from saying the acts would be chosen by the vote, to stating that the acts would be 'partially' chosen by the vote!
Understandably several musicians were unhappy about this, and questioned Netaudio via their Facebook page and email. The organisers completely ignored my email asking them what was going on, and then made out that I'd posted a reply to them that was too abusive to not be deleted - that post? Merely asking why a joke act called Cuntbucket had got through when other, far better acts, hadn't. I guess using Cuntbucket's full name was enough for them to decide I'd posted 'abuse'.
Anyway, they posted a halfarsed 'explanation' and then that was the matter closed...until yesterday.
Those emails in full
Yesterday I got an email from them, breathlessly trumping their event, and again announcing the acts to play the Open Platform event. Needless to say I was a little annoyed to be spammed by them, so I wrote the following -
"You send me this after fucking over the artists that were in the
vote?? And after IGNORING the email I sent you about it??
You guys have no shame. Do not email me again, you frauds."
Today I got this reply
"The issue was already discussed on facebook.
The mailshot has an unsubscribe link. Use it.
Your email address is now filtered/deleted now in my inbox so don't bother emailing again - I wont see it."
The FUCKING CHEEK! Acting as if I'M in the wrong for thinking their behaviour has been shitty in the extreme? And then telling ME not to email again after I've complained to them about their spamming?? What a shower of cunts!
The guys running Netaudio London 11 are frauds and self appointed gatekeepers, as well as being dishonest and unrepentant about that dishonesty. I'm disgusted that people like this have so much control over the way the experimental underground in the UK is run.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Monday, February 07, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Some times I post things over here -> http://futurecitiesofthefuture.tumblr.com/
And there's a facebook page for Thee Moths, plus a twitter, just search
And there's a facebook page for Thee Moths, plus a twitter, just search
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
From here -
http://strawberryanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/06/interview-with-alex-botten-clark-from.html
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Interview With Alex Botten-Clark from Thee Moths
This album has some very relaxing parts that take you on a little journey, I like listening to it while I'm making things since it is mostly instrumental apart from track 9 which sounds like a non intrusive monk chant, it doesn't distract me with words and instead puts me in a zone of concentration and relaxation and I like all the strange electronic noises and ambient sounds, It could be played while walking around a magical garden like in Alice in Wonderland because it sounds so organic. You should give it a listen. I also asked Alex some questions....
You can listen to the whole record here completely free - which is also where people can buy it for a total bargain of £2 (or, if you want the physical version) you can buy it from here
"Alex, was just going to ask you about your inspiration for this album and also could you explain how your music has developed over the years since now it is more electronic? "
The change was very gradual. I'd always done solo things over the years using the drum machines on cheap keyboards, but it was playing a weekend's worth of shows with LA's Lucky Dragons that really changed the way I thought about making music. Out went the guitar and songs, in came a Powerbook (later replaced with a MacBook). I like how portable and versatile laptops can be. These days the two I use live are pretty much just doing some light effects processing, but the options for more are always there. Even with a huge case of equipment I'm still hauling less around than I did when I was playing in guitar bands.
"Who is Will and Dani who you mention the album is dedicated to? "
Dani and Will are a band called Celer. They are married. Dani died suddenly last year. She is a friend that I miss. The the first two tracks on the album are named for Dani and Will.
"I would also like to know your thoughts on free music and why you have personally decided to let people listen for free."
I produce a LOT of music these days, often going only a couple of weeks between releases. Most of it now gets released as part of the ongoing SuperLimited project -where I put out records in tiny runs (anything from 1 to 20 copies) - but some are put up for free on the web. I'd rather 3000 people download something for free than 5 people buy a CD leaving me with boxes of unsold product under my bed. Many small indies would only do a run of 500 CDs and they would often not sell out. I'd get paid with a percentage of the pressing that I'd often just give away. Nowadays I can put something out, have it cost nothing to manufacture, and have many thousands of people hear it. I make no more money than I did, but I make no less.
The Super Limited stuff is totally different - once it's sold out that's it, I don't put the music up for sale online as mp3s....I guess I see the whole thing as an art project
"and one last thing, if people buy a hard copy "Limited to 50 copies in hand numbered and stickered arigato paks." what does "arigato" packs mean?"
Click here to see an Arigato Pak - they're card sleeves designed and manufactured by Stumptown Printers in Portland, Oregon. They are easily printed on, and far nicer than plastic cases.
Alex has many talents you should visit his personal website to check out his amazing art which should really have a whole new post all of it's own that I will do at some point, gig posters and listen to the many bands and music he has made including Magnetic North Pole.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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