Devon Williams- Euphoria

Much can be said for the 29-year-old Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Devon Williams. Looking back on his nearly 17-year-old career, his music has seen evolution and reinvention several times, going from brat punk (Osker), to “freak” folk (Fingers-Cut, Megamachine), to his layered 80’s sound he’s trying out on his latest offering Euphoria on Slumberland Records.

The album opens with super catchy “Revelations”, complete with “Bum, Bum, Bum” opening. While he drops the title of the record Euphoria in the lyrics in this track, he does on several other titles, in classic Devon style of re-using lyrics several times on an album. Right away you notice this is a more focused Devon, with lush layered echoed guitars, and tons of synth work (gives it a total 80’s vibe), like the rest of the record really makes the songs have tons of atmosphere. Giving some of the songs a nearly movie score tone. The second track “Your Sympathy” is the closest to he gets in sounding like his 2008 solo debut “Carefree” with the violin section, but the common theme on the record is soaring catchy choruses.

The rest of the album has it moments that, in as a whole, make the album catchy. Devon is also up to his old tricks with some classic one liners, like in the track “Favor Tree”, “29, I have a favor and I might need another”, like on the closing track of Carefree (“A Day In The Night”) where he mentions that “First I said musician now I just say artist, 14 years must stand for something.” Another blast from the past appears when a revamped version of “Sufferer” appears on the album, sounding more atmospheric and lush than the 7” version from a year ago. Sad that the b-side on that 7” “Who Cares About Forever” didn’t make it to Euphoria but the closer on the album another revamped song “Right Direction” ends the album on a high note.

“Right Direction” is a highlight of Euphoria because it really links all of his music together in a song. Having a faster pace it has some remnants of an Osker song, and the acoustic tinge of Fingers-Cut Megamachine, and fuzzy vocals of Carefree. However, of his new songs for the album, “Slight Pain”, is has down the highlight track. The song combines tons of orchestra elements, soaring chorus, and tune that sounds like it could be in a Disney movie. Not to mention the mini piano solo at the end really does add a nice touch to the track that easily could be a single.

Now, I don’t see the album being the biggest thing in indie rock, but he did make his sound somewhat more assessable, not to mention super catchy songs. Obviously he wants to expand his fan base and why not? The 2001 Osker album “Idle Will Kill” is bigger than ever now, gaining cult status in punk circles. As much as Devon shuns the music he made his in past (more so his teen years), he’s obviously aware of his popularity and hopefully he will start getting the recognition he deserves.

the record vs. the industry

Last Saturday was Record Store Day in New York City. Stores celebrated the one medium
of physical music that's kept these stores in business: the record. Surly, the instore performances also had a hand in keeping the interest in the day up, as well as the exclusive releases for that day. But why did I find myself waiting in line all day to go into a store where everything was picked over?

According to Google Trends, the term "Record Store Day" is only really searched in April, around the time of the actual date. Which makes sense, I mean you wouldn't be searching for Thanksgiving now in April now would you? (Well you might... but as a vegetarian myself not even in my thought process) But, rising every year in terms of popularity. But this got me wondering: as someone who frequents recordstores myself why is this one day the ONLY day I find these shops busy?

After going a search of Record Store Day on google insights I found that, on a international level, the USA was the top country in searching, not surprising. Number two was the UK, again not surprising, but surprising they aren't number one. I say this because the amount of 7" singles that comes out of the UK dwarfs the amount in North America. Number three was Canada which made sense, but number 4, the Netherlands. I found this surprising they were even over Australia at number five. When I followed up my search on Netherlands Record Store Day popularity I found that the amount of searches in the past year have nearly tripled in terms of popularity.

But the strangest thing I found was according to Google, in September 2007 the interest in knowing the numbers of album sales. I can't for the life of me figure out why that month in general it was so interesting to know. It's been in a pretty mainstream light that the numbers have been steadily declining as the years pass but why that month? It still remains a mystery to me.

But what I have concluded that Records aren't going anywhere. They've proven that they are the alpha medium of music and have been for decades. Even on the international level as well its obvious that they are still of interest as well. The hope of the music industry rests in the record, its only thing anymore that will sell in terms of physical copies in the realm of rock music. I might find people only showing interest in hole in the wall stores in Brooklyn on that fateful second weekend in April every year but hope they will come back is what the point of Record Store Day is, and with the interest going up, hopefully every weekend we can find ourselves waiting in a line.

YouTube fame?

Sure, we all know about the Rebecca Black video that went viral, and sure we all know about Bed Intruder rap (but that was so last summer). But, what exactly makes YouTube tick? What exactly how can you benefit from this endless web of video on a wedsite?

Luckily, in one of my classes at the New School last week, Jessica Chan from YouTube came into class to talk to us about how it is exactly YouTube works, and some tips on how it can work for you (and your band).

First of all, we all know everything is totally viral these days, the whole world is your audience if it's utilized correctly. She told us that most users on YouTube are well, kids. If you can appeal to that crowd what you post is more likely to spread. Plus in that realm, you can pick up more traffic by bloggers picking up what is what you're posting.

Which brings me to the next point, be yourself. Upload content that YOU like. If you enjoy cooking, why would you be talking about cars? Exactly, it makes no sense at all. Plus if you decide to post responses to other videos, some rules apply. Be yourself. Be a normal person, people respect that more in the end. But because the world has A.D.D. don't have views go over 3 minutes. Why? it'll get old and someone will notice something better on here. Keep their attention long enough.

Being yourself though, can be a fulltime job. Like your Twitter account, Facebook, etc, you got to keep uploading content to keep your viewers interested. Interest means views and views can mean... payday.

Jessica began to explain to us how the partners program works. Basically, you get paid per views on your videos because, well you are putting ads on your page. Before you yell "sellout!" at me, listen, social media is the not the future anymore, its the present. If you can make money for posting online something you do, talk about, or just whatever why not? See don't seem so bad when you think of it that way. However, before you get all excited over this, you got to meet some criteria, like people actually need to watch your content. So in my case, with tour videos from 2006-8 on my mine, no real views in years, so nope don't qualify.

Basically what I got out of what Jessica said is: be yourself on there, post frequently. and if you do you get the ball rolling try to make some money. But please, don't go overboard and make 10 minute videos, because no one will care.