17 Indie Artists on Their Oddest Odd Jobs That Pay the Bills When Music Doesn’t (not a poll)

What gamble are you talking about?

I was curious so I looked up known budgets of a few "classic" albums. "Pet Sounds" (which was a "Tusk"-like indulgence) reportedly cost $75,000 at the time and took 10 months. For comparison, "Sgt. Pepper" cost 25,000 pounds (not that the Beatles had a budget, per se), but I mention it since "Odyssey and Oracle" (recorded right after "Sgt. Pepper" at Abbey Road, some with Beatles equipment left behind) reportedly cost only ("only") 1000 pounds to record, but the band was tightly budgeted on time as well and had the songs totally rehearsed and worked-out (which of course has its own costs in terms of time, etc.). But it's an example of an ambitious classic album that cost a fraction of its peers' similarly ambitious output. So I think that what tons of money and studio time seems to truly afford is the luxury of spending months in the studio fiddling around, but if you have your shit together you can record something pretty awesome given limited time and money. And that's probably always been the case.

First Ramones something cost something like $6000 to record, which was cheap for the time but still nuts, because that's thousands of dollars on an album that imo doesn't really sound it. But that's an example of a classic that a lot of people could probably record today for a fraction of that budget and get a similar (or superior) sound. But of course those bands are not the Ramones.

Somewhat related, I read a piece in TapeOp about an engineer who got his start assisting (in the most boring of ways) Flood in the studio. So it was Flood producing 30 Seconds to Mars, in the band's home studio, for something like a year and a half. Now that is an indulgence.

What gamble are you talking about?

He's saying that investing a lot into DSotM would have been a commercial gamble for the label, compared to the present-day risk involved with investing into ambitious recordings by Ben Folds or Muse, I think? If that's true, I think it would be because the cost of recording and production has gone down thanks to technological advances. Folds in 2015 was surely not more bankable than Pink Floyd in 1973.

"Hysteria" reportedly cost $5 million and took 4 years to make. (Which is inconceivable to me.)

That's p incredible, although there were some famous, uh, complications that occurred during those four years, which probably drew out the process a little.

I suppose I've never thought of "Dark Side of the Moon" as being a famously expensive or extravagant recording.

Lorde took 18 months to record her second album, and worked in 4 studios between NYC and L.A. (according to Wikipedia); during which time she lived in Manhattan (I don’t know on whose dime).

Anyway, all that can’t have been cheap, and it was a luxury afforded recently to a young and still relatively untested artist. If I’m following the “debate” here...

For comparison, "Sgt. Pepper" cost 25,000 pounds (not that the Beatles had a budget, per se), but I mention it since "Odyssey and Oracle" (recorded right after "Sgt. Pepper" at Abbey Road, some with Beatles equipment left behind) reportedly cost only ("only") 1000 pounds to record

I assume that £1000 figure is in old money (£/s/d - don't forget, our coinage system was different in the '60s) and not adjusted for inflation, but it works out at £18,000 in new money (£/p) plus inflation adjustment. Not a cheap record at all. Has that Sgt. Pepper's figure been adjusted?

Odessey & Oracle is nowhere near as ambitious in the production department vs. Sgt. Pepper's, even if I do think it's the superior record.

Pounds were the same in old money btw, but, yes, £1000 would not have been cheap in 1967.

Odyssey & Oracle is a better sounding record than Sgt. Pepper by any measure except "this one's the best because it's Sgt Pepper" & also this discussion is ridiculous

Jesus fucking christ he thinks pounds were different in old money

They technically were. The only similarity between the pre-decimalisation pound and the post-decimalisation pound is the word pound.

Remember everything turrican says is ill-informed and wrong

― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Sunday, April 14, 2019 8:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're a great guy with a lot of worthwhile things to say and not at all a waste of time.

Wait, did the value of a pound change from the 14th to the 15th of February 1971? Otherwise, inflation is the only factor that needs to be considered when comparing GBP costs from the 60s vs the present day. xp

As stated, £1000 in 1967 would have been close to £18,000. A lot has been made of how much less Please Please Me cost in comparison to Sgt. Pepper's, but the £400 reported cost of Please Please Me would be about £8,300 today.

XP That's correct. Millions of people were gutted to discover on the 15th Feb 1971 that the money they'd left in their wallets over the weekend had suddenly turned into pixie dust. jfc my head hurts

They technically were. The only similarity between the pre-decimalisation pound and the post-decimalisation pound is the word pound.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“Am I out of touch?

...No, it’s the pounds that are wrong.”

I'm sorry I've been away and missed the last week or more of this thread

there has been some coin-clipping going on, call the sheriff!

There's been inteense discussion of how many bawbeees and groats it cost to record Screamadelica.

A lot of double e's there, like I'm posting in an Ayrshire accent or sumthin'

fuckin' shillings, how do they work?

Indie musicians these days haven't got a brass farthing to their name, let alone shillings.

no worries, there are more than enough posh hobbyists about to make up the indie quotas :p

go to keep pace with other leading EU zones with our output of indifferent mediocre rock music if global britain is going to be a success.

The (Innovative) Jam.

Did we ever figure out why hip-hop sucked in '96?

it's the shillings IIRC

We are the dollars and cents and the pounds and pence
And the mark and the yen, and yeah
We're gonna crack your little souls

We are the dollars and cents and the *pounds and pence

(*the post decimalization pound, of course)

this discussion actually felt pretty constructive before all the snark

more Simpsons references please, my sides are seriously splitting

I agree, but y'know what this place is like, some folks just can't help themselves.

Odyssey & Oracle is a better sounding record than Sgt. Pepper

I agree that it sounds better, even if the production isn't as ambitious. Of course, Geoff Emerick engineered both records, and having literally just come off the Sgt. Pepper's sessions then he would have been the best person to dial up a great sound quickly having already done the painstaking experimental work with The Beatles.

some folks just can't help themselves.

We noticed.

^ See what I mean?

Not been 51'd yet?

this thread has taken some weird fuckin turns since the last time i checked in

I've learned a lot.

a sterling example of ilx at its best

Like solar eclipses, such threads only occur once every 18 months on average.

All I’m reading is divergent opinions being discussed, interrupted by people being shitty to Turrican for having different opinions

It seems like people are primarily responding to his past transgressions, of which I'm not really aware, as we tend not to haunt the same threads.

he has a really obnoxious way of expressing himself, however, i must be the problem

he also tends to derail discussions into their most awful forms possible, which is guess is also a case of divergent opinions being discussed so fine

glad turrican is here he's bringing so much to the table

"different opinions" meaning "alternative facts", or maybe just "talking bullshit"

some things are either true or false, whether the British pound changed value on decimalisation is not really up for debate

i am really tired of making this case so i will stop if y'all think he's fine or whatever

No I'm pretty sure most of us think he's a turrible cant

I used to not quite get why he bugged ppl so much — then I “snapped” and lost my cool recently, so now I just ignore him.

17 Indie Artists on Their Oddest Odd Jobs That Pay the Bills When Music Doesn’t (yet another poll about noted ILM user Turrican)