I’m sad to see Amie Street go. It was an interesting model for online music sales: all music began free and the price of each track rose according to its popularity. There was an active social network that allowed users to follow each other’s interests as well as artists and labels. And most importantly for me, anyone could upload music to sell on the site, which led to an interesting community of music lovers and music makers. (How often did I log on to discover the frighteningly prolific Crimson Razorback or Robert Waddington had posted yet another track?)

I had two recordings available on Amie Street: Maps and one 4 one. At the time Amie Street closed down, Maps was selling for a whopping $1.15 and one 4 one was currently at $0.45. Neither record earned enough royalties to warrant a check from Amie Street, but given a long enough tail I could imagine a dollar or two coming in every so often. Neither is currently available on amazon.com. For online distribution of my music, it looks like I’ll rely more and more on bandcamp.

When I heard the news that Amie Street would be closing I did a quick inventory of the music I purchased on the site: (in order, roughly, from most recent to least recent purchases)

• Denseland
• A Broken Consort
• Prefuse 73
• Charlie Barnet
• Animal Collective
• Grizzly Bear
• Four Tet
• 20 Minute Loop
• Sunn 0)))
• Kathryn Williams
• Dirty Projectors
• Sebadoh
• Collections of Colonies of Bees
• Faron Young
• John Berndt
• Katy Moffatt
• Erik Friedlander
• Lou Reed
• Citymusic Cleveland
• Nico Muhly
• The Cave Singers
• Matmos
• Mouse on Mars
• Michael Bullock
• Clogs
• Charlie Hunter (the banjo player)
• Hem
• Twelve 20 Six
• The Be Good Tanyas
• Cecil Taylor

And an untold number of other artists whose work I heard but didn’t keep around. It sounds cruel, but the point of a site like amie street is exactly this kind of exposure–which is likely what I’ll miss the most.

Ray Hare swims in the River (photo by Chris Bassett)

Here are some excerpts from ASACs recent River of Drone marathon. I grabbed snippets at random from the recordings I made and appended them into a single, condensed track. These excerpts were from noon to 3pm and 8pm to 11pm in case you’re keeping score.

River of Drone excerpts

Also, Mark Lunt has posted some captivating photos from the event here.

The Albany Sonic Arts Collective celebrates their one-year anniversary with a 12-hour continuous live drone performance on Saturday Nov. 22 12pm-12am!
A RIVER OF DRONE
Saturday 11/22
12 Noon til Midnight
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany NY
Free

Performers will include: Eric Hardiman, Ray Hare, Holland Hopson, Jason Cosco, Mike Bullock, and Linda Aubry Bullock. Video projections/installations will also be presented.

The Albany Sonics Arts Collective (ASAC) presents YEAH! SWEET! YUMMY! featuring

• rise set twilight (Troy, NY)
• Chris Cooper & Bill Nace (Northampton, MA)
• Stars Shine Like Eyes

Saturday 17 May, 2008
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St. Albany, NY

Doors at 7:30 pm: show at 8:00

$5 suggested donation at the door

rise set twilight (Troy, NY)

• Linda Aubry Bullock, electronics
• Mike Bullock, video

rise set twilight (Troy, NY) – warm and shivery all at the same time.  Sweet loops of sound and light take you back to when your senses were new.

Cooper & Nace (Northampton, MA)

• Chris Cooper (Fat Worm of Error, The BSC, ex-Deerhoof, ex-Caroliner) , guitar
• Bill Nace (Vampire Belt), guitar

With friends like these, who needs Rock n’ Roll?  Chris and Bill are two guitarists who will make you fall in love, or at least in like, all over again.

Stars Shine Like Eyes

• Mike Bullock solo

Like those times when you are reading in bed and realize you’ve read the first line of that paragraph over and over again.  You can’t go on, you’ll go on.