STUFF:
Photos and Posters
Photos and miscellanea
Bye-bye, Spotify® — For part-time, "hobbyist" musicians, Spotify probably isn't much worse than most music-streaming websites. Nor necessarily more greedy than any capitalistic venture that makes money... off of the work of others.
But the business side of pop music has been turned upside down and inside out, over the last four decades. Driven by Big Money, technology, and online-music privateers. Cheered on by listeners who don't value music... but sure like getting free stuff!
Technology has made it easy for anyone to create music and get it on the Web. But having a song on the crowded Internet means almost nothing, in itself.
You have to tour and do a lot of marketing — so people can find you on the Web. Too many artists are misled by streaming sites' hype.
These websites are not as altruistic as they profess. Disingenuousness and laziness are two reasons Spotify can be singled out for criticism. Having been a Spotify "artist" since 2018, we decided we were only validating the myth and left, in mid 2024.
New bands get noticed by having a song on a playlist webpage — which is run by a "curator." But many of these people are secretly affiliated with major music companies. Or they act like Frank Zappa's album title, "We're Only in it for the Money."
Both of C's albums were released through CD Baby — which distributes singles and albums to most of the top streaming websites. (But why did they drop SoundCloud, in 2023?)
We started our marketing with online college stations — getting a couple air-time plays — and then focused on Spotify. We bought back-to-back editions of the Indie Spotify Bible and sent playlist hosts 71 emails, Tweets, and Instagram messages. There was one reply: "We'll listen to one song. For $8."
Sure, Spotify put out an "E China C [sic] Radio" playlist with 50 songs. But it was posted only on our webpage. And it had just two of our songs: The first one and the last.
When CD Baby sent our second album to Spotify, they posted it as if it was from a different band. So listeners stumbling upon one album's webpage, didn't know about the other album.
Spotify policy unnecessarily minimizes artists' creativity. It has restrictions on the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of band names and song titles and no flexibility for posted content and formating.
A band's name is the band's name. It is how fans find their band's stuff.
But please — fellow players, "out of the spotlight" — don't let this cynical craziness silence your music! Even if you make it "only" for your own satisfaction and musical growth.
You are living music. And the rebellion that's Rock 'n' Roll.
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A week after closing our account, we received an email with the Subject "You're now on Spotify Free." Having already declined that option, we're walking away from the status quo. Consequently, the previous Spotify information on this website's "Music" page will not be deleted. The account-closure procedure had its own dissapointments: • The process can't be started, inside the Spotify application. A Web search is required to find information... which is on the Spotify website. • Closure-procedure prompts ask if you want to delete only the Premium account or delete that account and the free one. Selection of the second option, as demonstrated, ... will be ignored. |
'C' T – D.I.Y. — The band's merchandising website on CafePress® was deactivated, in May 2024. We are sorry. But you can "do-it-yourself" create a band T-shirt with our image file. Download the file by clicking the thumbnail picture (at right). A print shop can put the image on a shirt. The file's design is C's favorite "T" — combining the band logo (the Chinese hanzi character for "Sea," inside the English letter "C") and the band name (in hanzi-stylized English). The image file is in the Portable Network Graphics format (*.PNG) and meets the CafePress® website's requirements: Size, 1,548 by 1,755 pixels; Resolution, 200 DPI. The image is designed to be printed on a Navy-colored T-shirt. (Image RED = 255|0|0, decimal; FF0000, hexadecimal. Image WHITE = "Invisible." "Band" BLUE = 0|0|52; 000082.) |
"Tardy" Project Completed — C had hoped to include its most ambition composition on its second album, released in early 2023. But the band ran out of energy . . . and musical extracations. The song gives a lyrical and musical description of "Hungry Ghosts" — one of the realms of the Buddhist "Wheel of Life." The ghosts' three-count theme haunts the two-count Introduction and Instrumental sections — reflecting the often-unrealized turmoil fomented by the ghosts. At right: The piece's songbook documentation. (Lyrics.) The song is posted to the band's SoundCloud website — on the "New Songs" playlist page. |
Second Album: Cover — The album cover for the band's second release: |
Second Album: CD's Inside Cover — The inside cover for the compact-disc case of the band's second release. |
Second Album: Back Cover — Back side of the CD case for the second release. |
Three-Voice Doo Wop — In its early days, the band wrote parody songs of several musical genres — to learn how each form worked. We had a doo-wop song that was later changed and re-recorded as "Love of Mine." At right: The song's musical score for the lead vocal and the soproano and bass back-up vocals. The song appears on the band's second album, "DOH! Re𝄑 Me.". |
First "Real" Release — The album cover for the band's first "store-bought" release: "Return to the C" in 2018. |
Migrating from the Low Desert — A couple years after fleeing metropolitan Phoenix for the high-desert wildlands of Cochise County, the C rose again. It resumed practicing, then composing. And washed over the area's unsuspecting open-mic stages — with many months at the Stock Exchange Saloon in Old Bisbee. Shaking off the sand are, from left, Kiefer See, keyboards; Drummond Sea, percussion; and Guillermo Sí, guitars. |
Instrumental Lineup — Back row, from left: Frankie, Arcis, Korg, Edith, and Ricky. Front: Paddy. |
Moored in Port, early 2000s — When the C re-banded, in the early 2000s, it remained a composing/recording band — not a live-performance band. That changed, when they played with Almost NoRmL, from 2005 through 2008. Afterwards, C continued composing and performing, for a few more years. But then "Life" intervened — ending the band's second period of activity. Enjoying shore leave are, from left, Kiefer See, Drummond Sea, and Guillermo Sí. |
Fifth Studio, 2007 — Second studio at the second Tempe, AZ, house: Moving from the guest bedroom and expanding into the front room. A session for "Bitchin' Ride" — written with the joyous arrival of the Ovation guitar ("Virginia") being assaulted. |
Keyboards, 2007 — In the band's second period of activity, "Whys Skies" was one of the songs falling out of the band's increased work on keyboards (A/K/A: "Bach Camp"). Shot in the fifth studio. |
Hearing Voices — By 2007, several songs had two-and three-part vocals and "choir" segments — sometimes using the Korg's "voices." Shot in the fifth studio — with the mixing board, keyboard/monitor, and PC (red) in background. |
First Major Digital Production, 2006 — A 1974 song ("See me running") got a theatrical introduction and grew to 11 instrumental, vocal, and special-effects tracks. The tracks are shown in the Cubase software. |
Fourth Studio, 2006 — The first of two studios at the second Tempe house. Still using the old, analog-tape equipment. But electrified with a better, Les-Paul-clone (Epiphone) guitar ("Natasha"). |
Fourth Studio, Digitized — The same, 2006 studio, . . . but with the reel-to-reel tape machine replaced by a rack with eight-channel mixer, two-hard-drive PC, audio processor, and casette-tape recorder. |
Third Studio — The third studio and the first house in Tempe. Musically, the band wasn't very active here. Audio furniture was constructed, a couple KSAM Radio projects completed, and the "first (sorta) album" produced for cassette tape — from Okinawa and Tucson recordings. |
Second Studio — The second studio, but the first one in the U.S.A. In Tucson, Arizona, with our first orchestra — including the lovely Yahama spinet. |
First ("Sorta") Album, 1989 — The CD cover of an oldies album "released" on cassette tape (to very few) in 1989. The material was converted to CD in 2002. The backdrop is the East China Sea — off Machinato Beach, Okinawa. (The boat is a rental rowboat from Kiwanis Park in Tempe, Arizona.) |
First Studio — The first studio (and radio station, darkroom, and . . . apartment) in Machinato, Okinawa. |
First Electric Guitars — The old-friend Martin guitar ("Marti") welcomes the band's first electric guitars — prior to the purchase of the Yahama spinet. |
THE Man: J.S. Bach — When Lars returned to music and studied with Ruth Wulpi Meenan, he was gifted with many wonderful things. Among them, Johann Sebastian Bach. Alas, Lars was a late-starter keyboardist with novice hands and near-sighted reading. So theirs was a love/hate relationship. |
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Streaming Poster, 2019 —. |
Band Poster, 2015 — Kiefer, Drummond, and Guillermo setting sail. |
Instruments Poster, 2015 — The band's fourth major variation in instrumentation. |
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