Live From Daryl's House -- Inside the Indie Music Revolution

LIVE FROM DARYL's HOUSE. Who would've imagined it 20 years ago? Or even 10? Daryl Hall of HALL AND OATES fame hires a camera crew and starts his own reality TV series on the internet -- inviting musicians of all ilk, primarily singers, to come to his righteous pad and jam with him and a stellar band while people film it. The series was already 40 shows in when I first heard about it. But that's not saying much. I tend to be the last to know when it comes to these kinds of things actually. I once heard Eric Clapton say that one of the many "worst things about being a recording artist, especially being a touring one, is that you never get to see other musicians perform live because you're always on the road." I was taken by surprise when i first heard that. But it made sense as I got older and started to become busier. Now i rely on the recommendations of a select few to turn me on to the latest as I make feeble attempts to keep up with my own daily schedule. A buddy of mine told me "Dude check out Todd on LIVE FROM DARYL'S HOUSE" as if it were common knowledge. I remember innocently asking him "who's Daryl?" before discovering it was none other than Daryl Hall.
And so i did. Watch the show with Todd that is. Todd for those confused refers to legendary singer, songwriter and producer extraordinaire Todd Rundgren. When "Todd" does anything, musicians pay attention. Like his voice these days or not, he's still one of the path-clearers in music and technology after over 40 years in the business. Yep. Todd the God really was on Daryls show, but they filmed it live from Todd's house. In Hawaaii. A gorgeous spread, live half shell amphiteatre on his property and all. The music they made in those few hours that day sounded incredible. So I proceeded to watch about twenty more episodes of the show. Daryl wasn't fucking around. There were Christmas specials, family specials, cooking episodes. Frankly I couldn't believe it.
Most musicians or entertainers resort to playing fourth of July parties, Vegas, or Native American casions once their star begins to dim, all along hoping that some big new record company executive half their age will come along and sign them to another deal. Here's hoping. Last I heard from HALL AND OATES before this was some best of gig they were doing on... You guessed it, New Years Eve. I've never gone for that kind of thing myself. Neither as a music fan nor as a performer. I personally find it degrading to all the hard work they've done before that made them a big star in the first place. Go out in style or die trying. But for Gods sake never ever ever play Vegas; or worse yet reform your old group with none of the original members but still call it by the same name (Axl Rose... As only one example of this heinous crime). The only exception is if your singer has died before you were ready to call it a day. Which plenty of them do. That's the biz. Queen, INXS, Alice in Chains... It happens.
But lets get back to DARYLS HOUSE. So heres the man himself with a high budget truck full of camera and sound men (and ladies one assumes) making some new shit happen. Not exactly cutting edge musically, but definitely cutting edge from an indie music marketing perspective. I was surprised. Pleasantly so. And impressed. Older artists, what the business refers to as "Heritage Acts", have to make a living and still want to keep the flame of hope for their careers burning just as much as younger never before discovered acts do. Maybe even more. They've become used to it.
But let's face it, it ain't easy. And recording an "American standards" album has already been done. Too many times. (Sir Paul what were you thinking?) So too has announcing to the world that you're "now a classical music composer" (Sir Paul again...) The same way OK GO got their fifteen minutes of fame by creating a music video of them elegantly falling off of treadmills at the gym, or !!! (pronounced chick chick chick) earned their brief five minutes of fun in the sun by naming their band a bunch of punctuation symbols instead of with a word is the same kind of cutting edge, out of the box thinking and play-acting that just about anyone these days in the music business needs to do in order to reach enoug people to make a big enough noise to sell even a few thousand albums (remember those) or fill a decent sized venue. Major label or indie, it's all the same now. Think Nikki Minage or Lady Gaga or LMFAO or Chris Brown or Lil' Wayne. It's all about the gimmick that will grab that spotlight. And Daryl Hall, after over thirty years as a reigning platinum selling pop superstar, found a new way to do it.
I really like this show/concept. Besides being a very cool idea, the show itself comes off surprisingly real and free of pretension. This is the kind of 'out of the box' thinking that indie (and non-indie) artists of all kind should be brainstorming and doing all the time to keep "their thing" fresh. One doesn't have to already be famous. In Hall's case Hall and Oates were as big as it gets, (but that's not a necessity for this kind of indie revolution marketing). His model worked because he was Daryl Hall sure, but it never would have flown if the music wasn't good. I'm sure he was apprehensive about the idea at first. Who wouldnt be in his position? But he went for it. And looking back now, it feels like a much needed breath of very fine smelling fresh air in a busines environment where freshness, let alone oxegyn, is rare; or in the worst case scenario, like Mexico, just no longer avaialable.
U become a superstar, ur star rises and falls along the usual curve, and maybe u even lose ur record deal, but instead of moping about praying and grovelling for another record deal (a very misunderstood and arcane desire at this point in the biz; and a diff blog post entirely) u come up w a cool new idea, throw it up on the internet, stick to it, it catches, u get picked up by a TV network for ur own show, keep the Exec Producer cred, sign a new record deal but more on ur own terms, and pretty soon you're back on the map, new people are discovering your old and new music, and tons of others are copying u. Again! And ur star starts rising again. Daryl Hall, gotta hand it 2 the man. Really smart (besides being a gifted singer/songwriter/producer). Definitely a brilliant example of an indie music revolution success story worth noting as we make our way through the new music business (or lack thereof) labyrinth. Kudos to U Daryl.