Edward Sharpe, Broken Bells
Here’s a puzzle for you.
I have been following Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes since their album came out in Summer 2009, and continuously was looking at their iTunes charting. Bear in mind that these guys do minimal to zilch PR. And yet, their album refuses to leave the top-25 of the Alternative charts on iTunes! It never went up to the top-10 either! It wasn’t a case of being released, charting in the top-10, getting “well known”, and then being considered a great album and continuing to exist in the top-25. That was more of a case of a release that was under the radar of most people who only check out the top-10, but with enough touring and word of mouth, being able to continue selling pretty well STEADILY. Which means that the charting in the top-25 we see today is a matter of CONTINUOUS discovering by fans. Whereas other bands will see dramatic curves in their album sale charts (if you were to use Excel), Edward Sharpe ONLY has a steady line, that inclines upwards little by little.
I’m very happy about this situation because it shows that a TRULY great band requires MINIMAL PR. As long as the concerts are great (and from what Dustin was telling me today they’re amazing on stage), the music is great, their personal stories are interesting, their videos are mesmerizing, all that creates a word of mouth that produces steady sales. Not super hits, but advancing popularity, little by little. It just shows that bands with a VISION don’t need major labels. And that band does have vision, very obvious from their two latest music videos that are part of a 12-part musical.
I also would like to blog about the Broken Bells, which I streamed their album today four times already! Their album, coming out March 9th, is the perfect blend for me of indie-sounding music but with the polishing of a major label record. Think of it as a brand new Linux distro that has the great usability and looks of Mac OS X. Yeah, something like that.
If that album had come out last year, it would probably sit in the No 1 of the decade for me. That’s how much I love their tunes.