Jay Clifford's big break

Sardinia with Jump Little Children (Michael Winger Drinking with Jay Clifford, originally uploaded by mwingerski.

Here's a picture from way back in 2002 when I travelled to Sardinia with Jump Little Children working as their sound engineer / Italian translator.

Jay has recently had some great success with his new album "Driving Blind" and the single from it was just featured on Gray's Anatomy last week.

Meanwhile, he's got a promotional site up to make his next music video. His friend, Zach Braff, is making it by soliciting clips of people lip synching the song in various parts of the world. Check it out at www.jaycliffordmusicvideo.com and watch as Zach explains the process while he pimps Jay's new record.

I've known Jay for a while and he's one of the most talented musicians I've met. We toured together when I released my solo album and also with my old band, Dayroom. I always love seeing old friends get the success they deserve... congratulations Jay!

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MySpace is about to make your life easier?

If there's one thing that I've found most frustrating about having an online presence as an artist, it's the sheer chaos surrounding the environment of social networking, band profile sites, blogs, facebook, myspace, imeem bebo, garageband, ilike and the list goes on and on...

Yesterday, Digital Music News reported that MySpace is going to make "profiles" portable. What this means to the artist is that instead of having to update your photos, blog, bio, and video across 15 websites or more, you can do it once and it will show up on whatever social networking sites you might choose to put them on.

This is pretty profound and what I think will be the way to go in the future.
At the SF Music Tech conference yesterday, I heard Tim Westergren, the head of Pandora
online radio suggest that bands should actually add an extra band member whose sole job is to manage and handle your web presence. Theoretically this sort of job falls into what a label or manager would traditionally do. But we don't live in traditional times anymore...

And the web presence is hugely important. Perhaps music managers will start adding these types of team members to their teams, if they haven't already. And if you're looking to get a start in the music business as a young internet-savvy person, then that's certainly an opening you could position yourself with.

But I give props to myspace for getting the jump on this "profile portability." Anything that makes life easier on artists in this crazy new music business is a good thing.

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Super Adventure Club comes to Cafe Du Nord on April 27

Cafe Du Nord - April 27 with Roy 2000, Radioactive and the Genie (of Spearhead) |

The end of the lowest common denominator? (or at least an alternative)

Barack Obama's recent speech about race and the media in the US

My favorite quote about Barack Obama's recent speech came from Jon Stewart who said "He spoke to Americans as if they were adults"

Given how large an audience the broadcasters are aiming at, they have to aim for the lowest common denominator to maintain that audience (and sell ads, most importantly). As a result, the TV news has to keep the news easily comprehensible for its entire audience. The level of rational thought required for any discussion or debate needs to be pretty low. Essentially, it must be comprehensible to 12 year olds and high drop outs. (Not that these are the only people who watch the news, but they represent the lowest common denominator)

Obama's speech was a complex and very thoughtful argument but it doesn't lend itself to soundbites very well. If you didn't hear or read the whole speech, then you miss the point of much of it. And the message I got from it, more than anything, is that our media culture is distorting and dividing our nation. But that argument is something that your average 12 year old high school drop out is probably not going to have much interest in understanding. I am hopeful that much of the voting public does have an interest in understanding that and doing something to change it.

Luckily, we live in an age where it's possible to hear Obama's entire speech without relying on media soundbites. The good part about the internet is that the lowest common denominator doesn't have to apply to how you get the news, art, music, film, humor, or anything else, if you don't want it to. Hopefully, the leaders of our democracy will realize that and start using their brains a bit more. Obama's off to a good start.