I got a mention in Sneaker Freaker's best of the best list this year. I've gotten a lot of love for my DC Remix, but I didn't feel right saying "my shoe was great" hahaha (Thanks to Kim and Pam for understanding!). So I picked my other favorite sneaker for this year.
Check it out here: http://www.sneakerfreaker.com/feature/2008-best-sneakers/5/
Happy New Year mike
I have a "What I'm Listening To" page on Myspace right now. It came out OK. They omitted a few songs and rearranged the order. Whatever, the music is still good :) Below is the playlist from the email I sent them. Next page has the link, and the songs they left out.
SHINODA MIXTAPE
1. Crystal Castles - "Alice Practice"
2. Shy Child - "Pressure To Come"
3. Yourcodenameis:MILO - "I am connecting flight"
4. Millionaire - "Petty Thug"
5. Passion Pit - "I've Got Your Number"
6. Vampire Weekend - "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance"
7. Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal"
8. Glasvegas - "Daddy's Gone"
9. M83 - "Run Into Flowers"
10. Linkin Park - "Leave Out All The Rest (M. Shinoda Remix)"
I just posted here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/26/record-labels-are-b0.html
regarding this:
http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/rock-star-brought-to-you-by-huge-advertiser
Taking my own experiences with my band out of the equation, let me just address this as a fan. There have been artists who use their music as a means to another end for a long time :) From 80's glam rock stars who used their band as a way to get chicks and live the "rock star life," to today's rapper with a yacht-load of endorsements, there is always an "artist" who is eager to sell their art to get what they really want. On the other hand, there are those who are only concerned with the artistic process and don't sell it out for anything. The music career is the goal, and the journey is the destination.
Most artists sit somewhere in between.
In general, the way an artist rides the line between best-seller and credibility depends upon their cultural understanding of what's appropriate. They're informed by the music outlets they hear locally and online, the music cultures they choose to be a part of, and what their social/cultural group's feeling about "selling out" is. It goes without saying that if you live in Hong Kong (where super-pop music rules the charts) and your favorite artists are Black Eyed Peas and 50 Cent, your idea of "sell out" is going to be drastically different than someone who lives in Los Angeles and listens to Pearl Jam or Minor Threat.
The culture defines the threshold. The fans and the artists, together, declare their opinion about when the line is crossed.
My concern is in the motivation. In addition to the difficult business of "getting noticed" by the fans, some musicians have extra pressure to pay the bills. The music industry is locking new artists into oppressive 360-deal enslavement, and trying to gradually hack away at the rights they initially promised their older acts, in order to protect their bottom line. And as long as the bands allow the labels to take their rights, the artists will have more pressure to look for money elsewhere.
Although I agree with a good deal of what Klein says in this piece, it is immediately evident that there is no one set of rules that works for everybody...but there are guidelines to help you set up your set of rules, such as:
If you license your music, do it with partners who get you, treat you fairly, and whose product is consistent with your message.
Do your homework, and know what your rights are worth, so when you trade them for something, you know you're getting a fair deal.
Put your brand identity, your credibility, first.
I'll leave you with a thought from Klein's interview:
"One of the advertising creatives that I spoke to talked about doing away with the middlemen of record labels, that ultimately music could be released straight through advertisers. And I just thought, “God, that’s so curious that he would see that as doing away with the middleman when it’s clearly replacing the middleman.” And I can’t say for sure whether advertising executives are worse than record executives, but I don’t think they’re better. So, yeah, I think there is a gap here. And what the Internet offers is some possibility of — if not completely removing a middleman — creating a more transparent middleman and one that doesn’t take away so much of the money."
mike
I'm going to go out on a limb on this one. Opinions of the commentator aside, let's talk about the issue of gay rights in the following piece. The following was an opinion piece on Keith Olbermann's show:
I am pretty sure this conversation is not going to fit in the comments section here on MS.com, so: to the first commenter, please start a new thread on linkinpark.com for discussion on this topic. As a reminder: flaming, slurs (including ones directed at sexual orientation and race), and intimidation will result in a ban of your account, so be respectful.
Thoughtful, intelligent contribution to the topic is the only kind I want to see. Think carefully before you post.
mike
EDIT: based on the comments after this post, I thought some of you might want to see this calendar showing the peaceful protests that are going on in CA. http://www.eqca.org/site/apps/cd/month.asp?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4028667
EDIT 2: some of you who posted here may be interested in this as well: A large group is planning and organizing a nationwide (and somewhat worldwide) effort. Their website, with information on the protest near you, is here: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/
Here a couple random notes I'm paying attention to right now:
AXIS at SURU - British-American graffiti artist AXIS is holding his first art show at SURU in Los Angeles. The show goes up on Nov. 15th. more info at http://suru-la.com/
Funny "Aside" from http://blackrimglasses.com/: "How to manage a startup in a downturn... How about stop going to so many fucking conferences and stop putting on parties. How about investing in actually starting up a company rather than seeing the same people in different locations every two weeks talking about the same things. Just saying."
Viva La Hova - just released online; a mixtape by Mick Boogie featuring mashups of Jay-Z and Coldplay songs. Like the Grey Album, but without the Beatles (or like Collision Course, but...). No disrespect though--there are some cool tracks.
MTV Videos - Albeit about 5 years too late, MTV has put their video database online. Now you can search for any video in their collection. Might as well do it online, you're not going to see any of this stuff on their channel, if you haven't already watched it on youtube. http://www.mtvmusic.com/
Shouts out to Charlie Bravo and Mr. Hahn for the heads-up. mike
As previously noted, mikeshinoda.com has an RSS feed. I wanted to take a second to talk about how to use it. If you're already an RSS user, ignore this post, and feel free to pitch in with your "expert" RSS suggestions in the comments section. I'll paraphrase a few key notes by Tim Ferris and Ryan Holiday. For an in-depth look at what Ryan had to say, go HERE
In a nutshell, RSS is like TiVo for your web browsing--you pick what you like, and it retrieves it. You just subscribe to the sites that you visit regularly, and they show up when something is new. You can do it via GOOGLE READER, or something similar.
Important note: a lot of web mail readers will allow you to subscribe to an RSS feed as well. if you're on a Mac, like me, you can simply add it to your Mac Mail RSS tab; you just go under File / Add RSS Feeds, and paste in the RSS feed weblink. When new posts show up on mikeshinoda.com, they'll simply (and immediately) show up in your email inbox. Very handy.
For everyone that wants to subscribe to my RSS feed, this is the link feed://www.mikeshinoda.com/feeds/blog.xml
Enjoy, mike
EDIT: weird that the RSS link isn't working for some of you. try copying and pasting?