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faux pas is now on facebook. become a fan or whatever it is you do over there. my super ego extends further into the information superhighway. it strings out like spaghetti! woooooooooooOOOO O O O O

“i love you faux pas”
 

there has also been a few sneaky updates elsewhere… in the meantime, time trumpet catches up with an increasingly odd tom cruise:

watch the entire first series of time trumpet here. lasair will throw you a chocolate jesus. lastly, in case i don’t get a chance to mention it before it happens – melbourne beat-dude AOI joins me on 3rrr on tuesday night for a live on-air performance, and also what promises to be a good chat about stuff like for example his recent mixtape (feat. a capellas from ghostface, mf doom, beastie boys et al over his bubbly proto-wonky productions – downloadable at http://datarook.net/aoi/).

and lastly, if you call my phone and lionel richie answers, don’t be alarmed. as confucious once said “if level two calls melbourne independent musician, but lionel richie answers phone, somewhere an angel dies”

web stats. they tell me what pages refer to this one, they tell me what google searches lead people to come here, and also what files are the most downloaded. i’ve always had an unhealthy affection for statistics, and when the statistics are about myself, well its that perfect blend of market research and narcissism that i find so irresistible.

like, for example, did you know that aside from “faux pas”, the most popular google search term that led people here in 2006 was “daniel vettori.” here is daniel vettori, he is appealing:

very appealing.

looking at my web stats is also how i found out that in 6 weeks there have been 40,000 downloads of a moody blues edit i posted in july. whoops. sorry moodies – i never intended to become some major kind of hub for moodies piracy but it looks like i temporarily did (i just removed the track). funny thing is i can’t figure out where any of that traffic has come from, but thats another matter. suffice to say, if you’re here reading this because you came here to download that moody blues track, dude, get in touch and tell me how you got here.

the main thing i wanted to do here, however, (aside from reiterating my attraction to daniel vettori) was reflect briefly on the number of downloads of faux pas tracks since this site started almost 3 years ago. giving music away as mp3s, its something i’ve always wanted to do and something that i support. you often hear debate about the merit of it but you don’t often see the stats. anyway, i was pretty surprised when i did some quick sums, and i wouldn’t say that its changed my opinion on giving stuff away for free… but its food for thought.

MEGA DOWNLOAD CHART (aka faux pas narcissism index #274) November 2005 – August 2008:

For the Trees – 20679 downloads
White Light – 10166 downloads
Tim as a Brim – 8532 downloads
Hermann’s Hermans – 8429 downloads
Barry – 6203 downloads

TOTAL – 54009 downloads

now lets take into account the fact that there is a fairly high percentage of false downloads – from googlebots and other automated spiders corrupting the data, and also people who maybe get half way through downloading a song and then think better of it (understandable) – lets be conservative and say that 50% of the downloads are false. thats still about 25,000 songs i’ve given away for free in close to 3 years. its about 25 a day. if each of those songs had been a paid download, lets say 50c each, i’d have about $12,500. not necessarily enough to quit my day job and move to the bahamas with robert palmer (weekend at bernies style, of course) but… that’d be more than enough for someone like me (someone who isn’t necessarily beholden to exorbatant studio hire costs, giant promotion budgets, or extravagant coke habits) to make another record or two.

but thats not how it works any more and we all know it. the idea that you could sell a song to someone was invented by record labels when they figured out a way to mechanically reproduce (and mass produce) sound – technology invented the idea that recordings had economic value and now technology is turning it around. the framework that underpinned this whole idea of reproducing and selling recordings is an industrial one (one of factories, machines, plastic and vinyl) and its being completely undermined by the internet like so many other outdated mechanical ideas. one day we’ll all be giving it all away for free – and most artists of a certain profile already are giving it all away for free, whether they want to or not, as most of you freeloading mp3-aggregator-loving torrent-seeding hippies are more than aware. selling music, whether it be on shiny discs or in ones and zeroes, is a 20th century idea thats simply taking a long time to die.

i, for one, look forward to the time when i can give all of my music away completely for free to anyone who wants it, and thats exactly what i’ll do if i can figure out another way (patronage, licensing, bank robbery, selling fake watches on ebay) to sustain the little cottage industry that is faux pas. in the meantime, did i mention i sell t-shirts?

i’m sorry to say that i won’t be able to make it to ROCK 4 ROOTS in nauen, germany tonight, despite being listed at last.fm as part of the line-up:

my apologies also to the german band faux pas, who have to see my face plasted around last.fm while they are trying to promote their own gigs. i love that you can listen to a little playlist at last.fm, sampling the various metal bands playing at rock 4 roots, and in the middle of all that you’ve got “for the trees” wedged in there. if i ever go to nauen, someone in a dark trenchcoat with long hair is gonna recognise my face and bash it in.

but hey, looks like its gonna be a good show. germany’s number one exponents of folk-metal, XIV Dark Centuries, are going to be there:

meanwhile, if you are in melbourne and are looking for somewhere to go tonight, i highly recommend checking out pikelet at the tote in collingwood. also playing are extreme wheeze, charge group, the twerps, and you’ll also see me and dave from to and fro there making between-band song selections.

i’m going to a small town called venus bay for two weeks to work on my album. me and all my computers and things that make noises. there’s no internet down there, it hasn’t been invented. they don’t even have electricity, or fire.

there was a lot of stuff i was going to tell you about before i went, film clips, remixes for people, collaborations, but i’ve completely run out of time. even this blog post i’ve left until the last possible minute. so there’ll be plenty to talk about when i get back.

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wish me luck. i plan to come back a changed man. until then, adios.

music from right at the fringe of my brain!
in three parts!!!

part 1. despair!!

MP3: Faux Pas – Live from Doom

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recorded in one take, in the doom-chair, in despair, about one hour ago

part 2. relief!!!

MP3: Hand on the Bum

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part 3. satanic heart!!!!

MP3: Heart – Bazzacuda (Satanic Guitar Hero mix)

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