What's The Deal With Saul Williams?

majesticons was the best thing mike ladd ever did.

ive a feeling the production on the new saul album is going to be a bit dated. he should have worked with el-p instead of trent if hes going for a murky rock-appealing bomb squad type of thing.

i saw mike ladd when i was like 18, there were like 20 other people there but it blew my miiiiind man

"someone" leaked a track on the pirate bay:

http://www.nin.com :

**UPDATE!
Seems like someone leaked a track...
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3858980

The beats on the Majesticons LP were great, what made it a bit-less-than-awesome is that some of it's targets were kinda too easy, even if the lyrics were often really funny. The Infesticons LP on the other hand was marred by being too artsy, what with the spoken word slam poetry stuff taking up almost half of the album. If Ladd ever does the rumoured third installment in the series, which is supposed to be a synthesis between the Infesticons and Majesticons, it should have the potential for greatness.

I'm halfway through my first listen and I'm not sure what to think just yet, except that a) no one should cover U2 and b) the chorus of the title track is actually pretty funny.

"When I say 'Niggy', you say nothin'! Niggy."
(pause)
"Niggy."
(pause)
"When I say 'Niggy', you say nothin'! Niggy."
"Nothing!"
"Shut up."

Also besides "Scared Monkey" this might as well be Year Zero Pt 2, which is not a good thing. Waaaay too much Trent input on this thing.

the cover of sunday bloody sunday... hmm.

in 2 consecutive posts Simon H. made me think "maybe I do want to hear this album" and then "ok, maybe not."

Hey, this is actually pretty g-

"Hail Mary, Mother of God / Got your whole host of angels shuffling on my iPod"

WHAT

OW (MY BRAIN)

I'm pleasantly surprised by this album.

"the cover of sunday bloody sunday..."

quite awful i thought.

half the album is quite awful in fact. a lot of the industrial/rockier elements just sound really corny.

ok ok, I might be wrong. :-)

a) no one should cover U2

RONG

counterpoint:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/MrClivver/SH105417s.jpg

^ on point

It's a good record
I like the music and words
Hello all you guys

It's a strange time to be an artist in the recording business. It's pretty easy to see what NOT to do these days, but less obvious to know what's right. As I find myself free from the bloated bureaucracy of major labels, finally able to do whatever I want... well, what is that? What is the "right" way to release records, treat your music and your audience with respect and attempt to make a living as well? I have a number of musician friends who are either in a similar situation or feel they soon will be, and it's a real source of anxiety and uncertainty.
I'd like to share my experience releasing Saul Williams' "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust" and what I've learned from the process. Perhaps by revealing of all our data - our "dirty laundry" - we can contribute to a better solution.

A quick history: Saul makes a great record that I produce. We can't find the right home at a major label. We decide to release it ourselves, digitally. Saul does not have limitless financial resources so we shop around for a company that can fulfill our needs. We choose Musicane because they are competent and are willing to adapt to what we want. The results are here: niggytardust.com

We offer the entire record free (as in totally free to the visitor - we pay bandwidth costs) as 192 MP3s, or for $5 you can choose higher fidelity versions and feel good about supporting the artist directly. We offer all major CCs and PayPal as payment options.
Here's what I was thinking: Fans are interested in music as soon as it's available (that's a good thing, remember) and usually that's a leak from the label's manufacturing plants. Offering the record digitally as its first appearance in the marketplace eliminates that problem. I thought if you offered the whole record free at reasonable quality - no strings attached - and offered a hassle free way to show support that clearly goes straight to the artists who made it at an unquestionably low price people would "do the right thing". I know, I know...
Well, now I DO know and you will too.

Saul's previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies.

As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul's new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay.

Of those paying,

3220 chose 192kbps MP3
19,764 chose 320kbps MP3
5338 chose FLAC

Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen.
If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul's last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K - five times as many - sought out this new record, that's great - right?
I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct - that most of the people that chose to download Saul's record came from his or my own fan-base - is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I'm not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening.
Add to that: we spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record utilizing an A-list team and studio, Musicane fees, an old publishing deal, sample clearance fees, paying to give the record away (bandwidth costs), and nobody's getting rich off this project.

But...
Saul's music in in more people's iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He'll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can.

So - if you're an artist looking to utilize this method of distribution, make of these figures what you will and hopefully this info is enlightening.

Best,
TR

DLed this for free; have listened to it once and am not that fussed to again. Is it just me or does Saul's singing voice sound very Reznoresque all of a sudden?

My mates got a spare ticket to see him in Hoxton tonight so I'm going along. Don't really know what to expect from him live. I like Amethyst Rock Star, but haven't really been into much he's done since aside from the odd tune.

So, he's got a VERY compelling stage presence and seems like a nice, funny guy. Tight band also. However, they only played new songs, most of which didn't seem great.

Almost the best part was in the encore, when he did Coded Language acappella and totally killed it. Then said "I don't know what any of that means".

http://blog.amtrak.com/amtrakresidency/