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Page 12 ' ■Thursday, December 9,1999
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By Jason Hardy
Senior staff writer
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Editor’s note: Today, we present thefourth in a
week-long series exploring where the arts are
headed in the next century.
The basementof Mike and A.J. Mogis’ Lincoln
home is pretty cozy.
The walls are lined with foam soundproof
padding that creates a very “non-basement” feel,
and die separate rooms are connected by tight hall
ways.
In one room, a drum set sits with microphones
strategically perched around its many angles. In
another room, an array of guitars waits to be
played, as does the bass upstairs in the kitchen.
Finally, tucked away in the basement’s west
side is the control room where Mike sits at a desk,
typing on a keyboard and flanked by two thin com
puter screens.
He clicks the computer’s mouse, and a sound
board die size of a Yugo lights up like die grill of
die “Knight Rida” car; and a drum beat immedi
ately fills the room.
The brothers’ basement doubles as Dead
Space, a recording studio formerly called Whoop
Ass, where a number of local tends have recorded,
including The Faint and Mike and A J.’s group,
Lullaby for the Working Class.
Despite being located in the basement, the
studio has become recognized regionally as
well as nationally for its impressive sound qual
ity.
In the last 30 years, technology and popular
music have teamed up to change both the way
music is played and recorded. America watched
this union manifest itself through the rise of genres
such as techno and the demise of others such as
folk.
The “new thing” has constantly been updated,
as has the source proclaiming its arrival. TV
turned into MTY MTV turned into VH1, VH1 A
turned into a multitude of 24-hour satellite
stations, and eventually, the Internet bullied
its way to the front of the line. >
Finally, the shockwaves from this A
technological boom swept across the /A
Heartland and, in doing so, left a num- jm
ber of indelible marks on local music’s /A
former face. fAj
Washed away in the erosion were A
primitive things such as tapes and 45s. A
What was left were puddles filled A
with CDRs, invisible MP3 files, real IM
audio files and Sony minidiscs. Pretty uA
neat, huh?
In a phone interview from his home
in Lincoln, Bemie McGinn, owner of
Lincoln’s Caulfield Records,
http://www. acton. com/caulfieldU and
member of the local group Luck of
Aleia, took some time to discuss
these technological advances and
their relation to the local music
scene. i
“It’s a pretty exciting time,”
McGinn said.‘To see people not have 1
to rely on a major-or even an indie - /
label to get their music out there is \
pretty exciting.
“Recording has certainly gotten
remarkably better, in terms of cost and
quantity. Ten years ago, anything that
was recorded locally you could just
tell - it sounded local. It didn’t have
that up-ffont quality.”
Richard Alloway, general manag- '
er of KRNU, said the. station receives ,
more local music on compact disc
than it ever did before. He also said
there was a notable increase in the
quality.
“Certainly die CD is a more hon
est medium in some respects. You’re
going to hear more on a CD than on a
cassette, for better or for worse,”
Alloway said “A lot of die local acts
we play now sound as good as the
national acts they’re sandwiched
between.”
McGinn started Caulfield*”’"^
Records in 1988 as a means to
release an album for his former
band, Sideshow. Since then, ^
he’s worked with about 15
bands and is currently working on
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Technology
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34th and 35th ■ « ■
sr^t music for less money
lation spanning ~
Caulfields record
ings over the last five years, and the second is a full
length album from m.i.j.
The decreasing cost and increasing quality
involved in recording and producing CD albums
has made McGinn’s job as an artist and music pro
moter sligjhtly easier. But it’s also created a more
saturated market, in terms of competition. Still,
McGinn cites the advances as being largely bene
ficial for everyone involved.
“Eight years ago it was like, ‘Oh my God,
you’re going to put out a CD? You’re not putting
out a tape?’ But it’s just super affordable now,”
McGinn said.
“On the other hand, that’s just more and more
music. I mean die ratio of good to bad music tends
to be heavier on the bad side, but if I had to choose
which way to have it, I’d rather see people have
access to put out their music.
“It’s put the power back into the musicians’
hands across the board, and I can’t think of that big
of a drawback through these advances. I mean,
some of the older technology that was around left a
lot to be desired, and since quality is less of an issue
now, the perfor
^^^^^^^^^^^^nance can shine
Back at Dead Space, A. J. took a break from the
recording process to talk about the increasing
influx of local recordings into the market, while
Mike re-recorded a drum track in the basement
“Just from the experience we’ve had here at die
studio, when you hear a good band, you know it”
A.J. said. “I think it might be a litde harder for some
of the more marginal bands that aren’t super great
but are still pretty good. That’s where the saturation
is.”
A.J. said the equipment used at Dead Space
was mostly semi-professional gear that can put out
music easily comparable to professional equip
ment. Since last summer, Dead Space has used
computers to save music on hard discs rather than
tape format, the traditional method.
With this more advanced gear also comes an
ability to clean up the recordings, as opposed to
cleaning up the actual performance. At times, it’s a
mixed blessing.
On this particular day, die lounging members
of the latest incarnation of Bright Eyes watch as
Mike attempts to layer the sound of a kickdrum in
with an earlier recording. They talk about the beat’s
tempo and its overall energy and try a number of
different arrangements, each a result of a different
click of the mouse. Finally, they decide to play it
again
“There’s an issue of being able to manipulate
things so much that it sounds premanufactured,” he
said. “It kind of makes me sick at heart to have a
guy come in and do vocals who maybe isn’t the
best singer, and he wants me to go fix it with
SRL the ‘Auto Tune’ and make it sound like he
knows what he s doing.
While more affordable recording tech
nology has made it easier for bands to get
quality recordings, cheaper CD-copying
equipment has also made it easier to get
quantity.
Last September, Dan Augustyn, a 23
year-old graduate student in math at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, helped
start a record company called Milk
Records, 1742 K St. Suite B4. The
company was designed to put out
CDs of local artists.
\ * l ’ l ' ’_
* Shawn Drapal/DN
At Iirst, the concept seems like
nothing new, but what sets Milk
Records apart from other local
record labels is best summed up in
the opening section of the label’s
Web site, http://www.milk
records.com/.
“Milk Records is a new record
label whose goal is to provide inde
I, pendent recording artists the oppor
i tunity to sell their albums over the
I Internet. No one will be turned
1 away. We’ll manufacture your CD
* and sell it from our Web catalog at
no cost to you. All you have to do is
send us your album and wait for the
royalty checks to roll in!”
It’s an enticing offer that
Augustyn said came from a desire
to do things differently from tradi
tional record companies.
“We looked at die practices of
record companies, and we’ve had
l a bunch of things that, if We were
I to succeed (as a band), we’d like
1 to have changed, so we just
I decided to start a record compa
K\ ny that was as artist-friendly as
P possible,” he said.
' “Our contract is designed so
_ that the artist maintains the owner
ship of their music, which is different
rom most contracts, and normally
record companies give 10 or 12 per
cent as retail royalties. We give 50
^ percent.”
' He said Milk would put out
CDs regardless of the quality of the
«-—
It’s put the power back in
the musicians’ hands
across the board.”
Bernie McGinn
owner of Caufield Records
recordings, and the bands could decide on the retail
price of the CD, so long as Milk gets at least $2.50
per CD to cover its costs.
“If the artist thinks that their music is good
enough, that’s all we worry about,” Augustyn said
“We also have a list place where they can send
promo albums and just pay postage.”
Milk’s interesting proposition brings up anoth
er area of excitement and concern for local bands -
music on the Internet
For McGinn, the advent of the Internet has
allowed people all over the world to hear bands on
his label through MP3 format He hopes the songs
will entice listeners to take a trip to the record store
and buy the album.
“I can tell that people from Singapore, Japan,
Germany and all over the states have downloaded
these songs,” McGinn said. “There’s usually like
15 downloads a day, and I know I’ve bought stuff
by hearing an illegally copied MP3 or two.”
He said the Internet has also networked a vast
amount of touring information that has made
going on the road much easier.
“When I was booking the first Sideshow tours
in 1991,1 had like $400 and $500 phone bills just
from booking die tour,” he said. “With e-mail, you
can hound people a lot easier, and it’s just a much
more organized network.
“I know a number of bands who are able to
book their tours while they’re on the road, so I think
it’s helped the professional musician or the strug
gling band.”
But with the Internet’s many advantages also
come some drawbacks in terms of people pirating
music. It’s something that is becoming more
prominent, and even McGinn has had to deal with
entire Caulfield albums being posted on the
Internet available for free to anyone who wants
them.
Aiioway said inese aeveiopmenis couia nave
far-reaching consequences.
“I think the whole structure of how we get
music is going to change over the next years, and 1
think the music industry is scared,” he said.
“They’ve held the keys to the castle for a long time,
and things are changing.
“I don’t think this will stop people from getting
music at a record store. The established organiza
tions will figure out how to get involved in it.
They’re not going to stand by and watch this hap
pen.
Despite the blitzkrieg of technological innova
tions being fired at the local music scene, there
remain some constants.
While digital recording has become incredibly
accurate, A J. said, Dead Space spent more money
last year on older recording equipment than on die
latest gear.
“When you switch to more modem stuff, it has
more of what you’d expect from an ideal set up,
you know, no distortion, you don’t hear die funny
quirks that, from a technical standpoint, aren’t
good,” A.J. said. “But to our ears they sound better.
“There are a lot of subtle things, but they seem
to add up to make a difference.”
Ultimately, regardless of the quality of a
groups’ recordings, they will eventually have to be
able to perform live. It’s one aspect of the local
music scene that simply won’t change.
“In the music business, you still have to have a
band that can tour,” A. J. said. “And once they get on
stage, it becomes pretty obvious that die emperor
has no clothes.”