balcony and the art of spoof-seeding napster
i've often considered writing an article or an extendy-ish blog post about bands that i found about on napster back in the good old "real napster" days as a result of spoof-seeding (i.e. acts who put up their songs online under incorrect (aka famous) artist names to attract downloads). that was a pretty sneaky tactic!!! i remember downloading tons o' mp3s by rappers who posted their tracks up as being by eminem or notorious b.i.g. and then you'd play the track and you were all like "um, more like SHITminem or notorious S.H.I.T.".
but i actually also found a few gems as a result of this particular brand of electronical wool-over-the-eyes pulling. prolly the most notable example is "jobriath" by , a singer/songwriter with a flair for the melodramatic (and the mellotron!) who posted his music on napster under names like david bowie, scott walker, and nick cave (i even once saw one of his tracks come back in a search result as a collaboration between all three AND elliott smith -- holy lordy, that woulda been either the best or lamest song of all time).
it could have been really annoying to think i was getting some super rare '60s scott song only to find that it was a track by some contemporary no-name, but instead, i was quite pleased to come across "jobriath," because it's a great, great song that draws from the best parts of '60s "wall of sound" pop, '70s glam rock, and '80s britpop. if it had a dj shadow-y stutterdrum element to it, it might have literally made the 2000 version of me cry with sheer delight.
so, props to you, balcony, for having the brains and entreprenurial dishonesty to trick me with your digital awesomery!
balcony - "jobriath"
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2 comments:
interesting post. thanks.
Interesting indeed and a cool angle on this. That fake eminem song Jeff B. put out is another super fascinating angle on this whole concept. You should tell that tale as well...
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