The Little Ones » Blog

on Kick Ass, music licensing, and stuff…

thelittleones — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:26:15 +0000

Licensing music is such a weird thing as a band. On one hand, if you compare the number of artists in the world (???) to the number of actual licensed works (???), I’m sure you’ll find a ridiculous disparity. And although I don’t have this mystical ratio, I think it’s a pretty safe assumption. Another thing to consider are the amount of tv production companies that license music in perpetuity and use, use and re-use for when piecing together new off shoot sports news segments, or the latest reality tv show background music for when girl x and guy y are hitting it off, etc etc… Ya know, I’ve had the weird fortune of seeing it from a licensor perspective as well as licensee. On one end seeing the offers and when taking a look at it from a several year perspective, realizing how rare the opportunities actually are… and then from the licensee perspective and seeing first hand the sheer volume of pro-active solicitations from people wanting to send in music in hopes of landing a spot on something.

Anyhow, once you thrown those licensing dice, established that point on the come out roll, and found yourself on the receiving end of that offer… what do you do? do you leave it up or take it down? do you align yourself with that number? Once you get that rare opportunity (and for the record this doesn’t mean bags of gold or anything) you have to take into consideration… is this something you want your name associated with? Several years ago, Ed and I were doing a podcast interview with Paste magazine at ACL. Afterward we got copies of the latest issue and left the festival to hop a plane to somewhere I can’t even remember anymore. I read the issue from the festival to somewhere mid-flight and in there was an interesting interview with Jack White. In the interview the interviewer addressed his recent Coke TV ad at the time. Now I should preface this with the fact that the majority of the article was about recording the last album and how things like the internet and TVs are just distractions when in the studio. In fact, there’s one line I still remember to this day…”Who wants to hear: is there wifi in this studio? when trying to record an album”. My point being is that the the gist of the article was how he’s a purist when it comes to recording and music in general. The guy isn’t just focused, he surrounds himself in his art. Back to Coke ad… he was obviously asked the question because, and I think most would agree, it seemed a lil out of character for him. And his answer? simple, direct, to the point and logical. “I drink coke. Do you drink coke?”. Huh.

Anyway, from a band perspective, it’s a rare thing. And in last year or so, we’ve had some pretty great luck with this topic in general. From Yo Gabba Gabba to the recent Kick Ass, I personally feel like I’m living out my childhood fantasies. I’ve been a comic book nerd since I was 12. From Chris Claremont’s writing (for X-Men) to discovering Adrian Tomine in my adulthood, to finally be associated with something, and a Mark Millar comic at that, well…
I can now go pee myself.

till next time true believers,

-ian/lilonez

LEISURE

thelittleones — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:38:08 +0000

Work

thelittleones — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:34:16 +0000

Bee Gees Rhythm Machine

thelittleones — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:45:34 +0000

I am wondering why toy makers don’t make interesting toy instruments anymore. I was doing a bit of surfing last week and I stumbled on the Bee Gees Rhythm Machine. The toy was released in 1978 and features a rhythm section and an octave wheel. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it.

If you are interested in checking out some more interesting toy instruments you should visit the miniorgan website.

xEdward

Don Letts and The Punk Days

thelittleones — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:20:40 +0000

Very interesting snippet with Don Letts and the punk days. It’s amazing how two worlds can meet.

It’s been a while-RIP MJ

thelittleones — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:09:51 +0000

It seems like ages since we last posted something on our blog. Apologies, apologies to everyone. We have been busy in the studio writing and working on demos. I have to say that we are all very happy with the way things have been going. It’s a good feeling when you leave the space and want to play the new stuff we all worked on. A lot of things have happened since we last posted. The death of Michael Jackson is a very sad one for us. The band grew up on Michael and with his passing is an end to an era of music that won’t be matched. He is truly our king of pop. Despite your thoughts on his personal problems, you can’t deny the impact he has made on music and his true talent. It may be time to retire Oh, MJ from our set.

xEDo

Happy Father’s Day

thelittleones — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:53:59 +0000

Happy Father’s Day to you fathers out there.

We thought we’d share this interesting quote from Eric Clapton from an Esquire Magazine interview in 2007,

‘Up until I became a father, it was all about self-obsession. But then I learned exactly what it’s all about: the delight of being a servant. Olivier wrote that the greatest thing you could aspire to in life was to be a good servant.’

Oh and here’s a fitting video from Cat Stevens…

Floating Action

thelittleones — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:29:46 +0000

We just want to say how much we are enjoying the self-titled record from Floating Action. Really great grooves and sounds. The songs are the perfect soundtrack for our day. If you haven’t checked out the record then click here

Here is a great youtube link where they are performing ‘To Connect’ at Lake Ponchatrain Beach in New Orleans.

–ed–>

Happy Birthday Lee!

thelittleones — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:03:41 +0000

The Little Feet Blog Crew would like to wish Uncle Lee a very happy birthday today. If you see him, please give him a shaka brah. In honor of Lee’s birthday here’s a birthday margarita and a previously unreleased track from The Monkees.

The Monkees-Happy Birthday To You (Previously Unissued)

Happy Birthday Lee!

x’s an o’s,
I-E-B-D

Shuffling Along

thelittleones — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:46:35 +0000

We finished tracking drums and bass for two new demos. Pretty exciting stuff here in Uncle Lee’s studio. We plan on adding some more layers today. Keep ya posted on our progress.

-edward