DMB Australia

As I reported recently, Warner Music has announced that a digital release of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King will be available tomorrow.

Presumably this would mean that it may be part of iTunes as of Tuesday, and potentially also be released via Bigpond Music. Stay tuned for details as to when it finds its way onto the Internet for legal purchasing.

If you’re preordering Big Whiskey from the DMB store, you obviously know that you’re getting the Live Trax 15 release for free with your order.

For those waiting for 26 June to arrive, iTunes have launched a nice promotion via their page on Facebook. If you’re part of the Facebook community, go to facebook.itunes.com (which you can do by clicking on the picture at the top of this post), become an iTunes fan, and then look for the Spring into Summer Mix picture on that home page. You’ll be given a redemption code, which will only work on US Store based iTunes accounts (I have discussed the ability for Aussies to get one of thse in the past via the service of Mediawob)

The download has 1o songs, and 2 of them are Dancing Nancies and Cornbread, live cuts from the 9 August 2008 show at Alpine Valley. Well worth the effort of setting up a US account in my opinion.

In a brief aside for those interested in what type of case they will be buying Big Whiskey in, the JB Hi-fi page, updated since Warner took hold of the rights, indicates a CD Digipak. For those not sure what they are like, click here to find out.

This is the first of my editorial pieces – full of reasoned opinion, and poerhaps laced with some humour…

Take yourself back to 2005. If you were a DMB fan back then, take a few moments to remember how Stand Up was promoted by Sony BMG in the lead up to its release in mid May of o5. The fact that the band was touring was a great start – we had the chance to hear American Baby, the first single from Stand Up, performed live for the first time. DMB appeared on Rove Live. There were newspaper adverts, radio adverts, in store samplers being played at Sanity and the like, and a little bit of radio play to go along with it. Triple M even had a competition with the major prize being a trip to Randalls Island, New York for the band’s 2 night stand there on 30 and 31 Jul 05. I hadn’t been a fan until the autumn of 04 so didin’t have anything to compare it with, but it seemed to be a reasonable effort.

In the lead up to Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, an album that proverbialy “pisses” all over Stand Up in terms of both musical and lyrical ability, there’s been hardly anything. If you go back through previous blog entries, you’ll see conjecture over release dates, the label who would release it, and the formats on offer. It all seems ridiculous compared to the band’s heartland in the US, where pre-orders at the DMB site are undoubtedly going strong, fans are being treated to a live streaming of the album through Pandora, and will get to view DMB’s charity concert in New York City on 1 June via either hi-definition cable/satellite TV or a video streaming site that’s useless to someone who doesn’t speak American.

I wouldn’t say it’s the band or its management giving Australia the middle finger, but record labels who simply see other more mainstram, poppy acts as more marketable. But they seemingly ignore the fact that DMB have sold around 35 million records worldwide and are in the top 100 selling artists of all time when you count records sold in the US only. And it’s a form of music that isn’t really too foreign to the Australian people, considering the association that the band has had with artists such as John Butler Trio and Xavier Rudd.

So Warner Music find themselves in a position where they can either continue the “tradition” of hurting the chances of the band doing well in Australia (and thus touring here again), or actually making an effort to market this release, which is worthy of being heard by as many Australians as possible. Sure, the band can’t do a whirlwind promo tour at the end of June because they’ll be immersed in their northern hemisphere summer schedule, but Warner can make the presence known via the media, through some good advertising in music retail stores, and conveying their reputation to an audience who hasn’t really been made aware of it.

Let’s face it, the odds of DMB returning to Australia in, say, our forthcoming summer, hinge critically on how well this album does here. Will it do as well as 21st Century Breakdown (Green Day’s latest release) has done, and will continue to do? Probably not, because more people can easily identify Billie Joe and co by virtue of the profile they’ve been afforded by their distributors here, and are familiar with their music. Or will it tank, and subside into the nether regions of the ARIA charts? That’s realistically up to Warner to decide. Assuming the the album pops up on iTunes next Tuesday (being the first Tuesday after the prescribed digital release date of 1 June), it will be interesting to see if it cracks the Top 20 and maintains some sort of position there, at least until the 26 June physical release (which in my opinion is rather puzzling regardless of whether or not it’s due to the wrangling over distribution rights).

But both releases will only do well if people know it exists. And whilst the word of mouth of you, the DMB fanatic, can do a little bit, it’s Warner’s marketing that will count the most.

Warner Music have issued a press release for Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King announcing a 1 June digital release date (possibly iTunes Australia) and a 26 June physical release date. Not sure how this will affect the EzyDVD release of the Super Deluxe (I doubt it will…I’d suggest that they’re importing directly from the US) but this should put an end to the speculation, even though the 26 June date is a lot less than desirable.

http://www.warnermusic.com.au/news/dave-matthews-band-return-with-new-album

As I previously alluded to, the April demo of Big Whiskey has leaked. It has been confirmed from several sources that it is an unfinished “album”, with changes between the versions in the demo and the final public release. The policy of the DMB Australia site is that no links to leaked songs will be posted, but you’d probably be able to track it down somehow.

That said, I compiled a few thoughts on the demo and posted them at antsmarching.org. Here they are for your perusal – a bit of a teaser for what is to come.

- Grux > Shake Me isn’t my favourite DMB album opening…but it’s damn close. Mainly because of Grux though…even though Shake Me is fun.
- I’m a big fan of Tim’s acoustic playing on LITHOG (Lying in the Hands of God). There’s nothing much else that stands out about the song for me besides subtleties such as the soprano sax and Carter’s drumming, but after the first listen, I immediately warmed to it. I recall seeing someone say it sounded like it could have come off Crash, and I’d tend to agree.
- I think someoned hinted at Dave’s voice not sounding all that aggressive in WIA (Why I Am). Maybe it’s what comes with hearing it live before studio, but I tend to agree.
- I really like the variation and subtle complexities in Dive In and think it’d make a great (dare I say it, Grammy nominee-worthy) single. The verse chord progression sounds slightly similar to Karma Police (in terms of the piano more than anything else). It feels longer than 4:30 though. Some of Carter’s intricacies on this song (especially the intro) are . And Tim’s solo = the tits. The more I listen to it, the more it just stands out as a great song. And the more back reading I do, the more I’m going to come and edit this post and say that I agree with it, eg. Cavallo’s layering and production.
- As I said earlier, I don’t mind a lack of horns in Spaceman…particularly the intro. Maybe it could do with some in the chorus just like the live versions.
- Squirm is epic. Maybe I should retract the U2/Batman reference so that Erik can live easier. The buildup is great from beginning to end, and the string arrangement throughout the song works very, very well.
- Alligator Pie is fun. As I said earlier, it has shades of John Butler Trio that come through with the banjo and (to a lesser extent) Dave’s vocal delivery. This could end up being a great jam song with Robert Randolph joining in (almsot sounds like it could have been him on the recording itself). But yeah…it is very Southern rock, but done quite well.
- This cut of Seven is underwhelming – the weakest track on the demo IMO. The live one was good because the electric guitar had a bit more oomph during the verses, but it doesn’t seem to capture the same vibe in studio. And Dave’s falsetto sounds a bit too weak. Hopefully the final cut is better.
- The intro > verse transition of Time Bomb seems a bit less awkward with the better quality recording we have. I haven’t been made to change my underwear with it though…maybe when I hear it live. Maybe it’s just me, but in that outro, Daves vocal delivery should perhaps have been a tad clearer in terms of his pitch.
- My Baby Blue is near perfect for the painful subject matter it’s dealing with. It almost seems it’s one of those single take jobs where it’s just Dave, a guitar, and the emotion of the lyrics. Seeing this in E1 during this year would be just magical.
- You and Me sounds like something that could have come off Some Devil. I like it a lot more than the little sound grab from the ringtone site seemed to reveal. I think it’ll probably be more suited to D&T shows than full band, even though I enjoy the way that the percussion has been done.

Favourite song: Hard to pick between Dive In, Squirm and My Baby Blue
Least favourite: In its current form, Seven (although I much prefer it live)
Ranking: A solid 4th, but not too far at all from the Big 3
Rating: A solid 3 out of 4 stars

And I predict that most of this will change when I hear it through headphones (and hear the final version when it becomes available.

Message boards are abuzz with the reports of a leak of the album termed as a demo from studio sessions that was compiled this past April. Those in the know say that there are minor instrumental and lyric differences in some of the songs, but the demo is a fair representation of what to expect in the finished product.

I have the demo and whilst I haven’t had the chance to listen to it in its entirety, suffice to say that it is a vast improvement from Stand Up. More details forthcoming…you may need to do some searching to find the demo itself.

In what will probably come as a huge disappointment for Australia’s DMB community, the vinyl format of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King will not be sold in reatil stores in Australia.

An email I received from JB Hi-Fi’s online store has revealed that a tussle between Sony Music and Warner Music for distribution rights was won by Warner, and they are not releasing the vinyl format. No word on other formats (including the Super Deluxe as sold by Ezy DVD), but it seems almost certain that the only way you’ll be able to purchase the vinyl is through the DMB online store or an alternative overseas retail outlet.

The link that I posted a few days ago to the JB Hif-fi listing of the Big Whiskey vinyl states the following:

Sorry, this product is not currently available for purchase.

Previously, the vinyl (and the CD) could be pre-ordered. Whether this means that the album will not be available for web order until the listed date (12 June) remains to be seen. I’ve emailed the orders department of the site for more info, and will update this entry ASAP.

A ringtones site featuring music from Sony Music artists is featuring 30 second preview clips of 4 of the forthcoming Big Whiskey songs – Why I Am, Seven, You and Me, and Dive In. Go to http://www.sonymusicmobile.com/hub/sonymusic/dispatcher/browse?o=0&fc=&a=5538 and click on the Preview symbol. So far, You and Me hasn’t been as warmly received as the other songs featured, but the fan base seems to be indicating that the diversity in the material heard so far is a positive sign as we await the release of the album.

The opening song of the new album (following the Grux “prelude” track) has been released to those who have subscribed to the iTunes Pass. It’s certainly a song that packs plenty of energy (which we already knew about based on the leaked clip and previous videos of the sessions, and has drawn a majority positive response from the fan base.

If you want to find out more, I still recommend you try and subscribe to the pass using the info I provided recently, otherwise it’ll likely appear on Youtube. However, to respect copyright issues and avoid any problems, I won’t be posting any such videos.