If you’re a musician or you’re in a band, it’s pretty important to be able to make videos. Music videos, and also just videos of you being your charming, disgusting, vulgar, shocking, insightful, intelligent, funny, possibly naked, drunk, and disorderly selves. Luckily, much like putting together an album, these days making a video isn’t exactly rocket science, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.

The newest crop of smart phones on the market are turning into real, serious business video recorders. These devices are ideal for carrying around and recording shows, impromptu jams, and all those bonkers moments that will become great music video material. What makes these phones better than their ancestors are features like HD video recording and on-the-go editing software. But wait! Don’t go running out to buy an iPhone 4 just yet. There are other phones on the market with similar technology. Let’s take a look at them:

The iPhone 4 vs. The N8 vs. The HTC EVO

Camera!

While Steve Jobs assures us that the iPhone’s 5 megapixel camera is plenty enough pixels for any camera, Google’s newest HTC phone rocks 8 megapixels, while the Nokia N8 comes in for the win with a cool 12. The media might be hyping the iPhone 4, but the N8 is what the people love!

Video Recording

The iPhone is the winner here. It does 720p at 30fps. While the HTC and the N8 both do 720p video, they also run at 24 and 25 fps, respectively, which might explain Jobs’ confidence regarding video quality.

I worked at a used bookstore in high school and college, and I learned something interesting about booksellers: most people who sell used books don’t read. My boss and his colleagues told me that over the years, sellers see so many books come and go that it becomes almost impossible to choose one to read, and eventually, you just kinda give up.

I remembered that detail this week as I was reading an interview at Wired.com with the founder of Tommy Boy Records, Tom Silverman. Silverman has a lot of things to say that are contrary to the whole, “hey-ho, technology is saving the music industry” line we hear so much these days. The bad news? The music market is so glutted with bands and artists struggling to DIY that nobody is making any money. Fewer artists are breaking through today than ever before.

According to Silverman, our love affair with technology has created a supersaturated system whereby there is too much content for any quality to rise to the top. He quotes numbers claiming that 79,000 (80%) of the albums released last year sold under 100 copies – a number so insignificant in terms of industry stats that it might as well not exist. In other words, the industry itself is becoming like a used bookseller, so overwhelmed by choice that all those many choices may as well not exist.

Indie Artists Aren’t Surviving

Some musicians are independent whether they like it or not. They can try to conform, try to get on board with a label and produce pretty, marketable pop tracks, but in the end they find it impossible, and system collapse is inevitable. The tragedy of this whole scenario is that it can actually destroy talented people, compromise creativity, and confuse artistic instincts. Case in point: the strange and corrupted career of Liz Phair.

Phair is making headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. She released her new album, Funstyle, on the 4th of July, and if you thought she’d been getting mixed reviews as of late, the word on Funstyle is anything but. Pitchfork called it “horrible on every conceivable level.” MusicRadar called it “bizarro.” And LATimesBlog generously suggests that you shouldn’t overlook it, even if it is terrible.

Rough.

The album, Phair’s sixth, was released exclusively online, because according to her, she lost both label and manager for it. In response to reviews of Funstyle, the homepage of her website reads:

How To Like It.

You were never supposed to hear these songs. These songs lost me my management, my record deal and a lot of nights of sleep.

Yes, I rapped one of them. I’m as surprised as you are. But here is the thing you need to know about these songs and the ones coming next: These are all me. Love them, or hate them, but don’t mistake them for anything other than an entirely personal, un-tethered-from-the-machine, free for all view of the world, refracted through my own crazy lens.

If you’re standing in a forest, tilting your head way back to glimpse the tops of all those majestic, thickly trunked trees, it’s just impossible not to be moved by their centuries-old resilience; the stoic strength that sees them through even the harshest storms that Mother Nature can unleash.

Yet locked deep within the core of each of those mighty oaks and towering sequoias is something even stronger than their outwardly impressive surface layers: the heartwood.

A tree’s densest, most durable—and often most beautiful—element, the heartwood is the robust, knotty marrow that keeps it standing proud and tall for all to marvel at. And not only is Heartwood also the name of Canadian singer-songwriter Sora’s astonishing third release, it’s as well the perfect metaphor for her music: gorgeous, rich, endlessly enduring.

Independent musician Matthew Ryan is releasing his latest album, Dear Lover, in digital format today. The CD is available at most digital music stores including: iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Emusic, The Nokia Store and more.

I had to make sure I put in the right CD when the intro to “City Life” blared out of the speakers. With an electronica vibe accompanying Ryan’s vocals, it gives a refreshing feel to a familiar voice. Ryan’s previous albums also included some songs with a hint of electronica sound, but “City Life” is a track that takes it to a new place.

Ryan keeps an upbeat tempo feel with the title track, “Dear Lover,” which begins with a heart felt vocal asking, “Tell me what want. Tell me what you want…,” over a simple distorted riff. This song proves to show how emotionally sound and powerful his vocals can be. There are very few artists in the rock genre whose vocals can outshine the instruments.

with the sun shining and temperatures heating up, day 2 was a stark contrast of day 1 at lollapalooza. one of the benefits of following lollapalooza on twitter is getting secret information. for instance, early friday morning, lollapalooza tweeted that perry farrell would perform with leann rimes at the kids stage. today was no different.

shortly after lunch, lollapalooza tweeted that buddy guy would be performing at the kids stage, so that’s where i went. performing a song with quinn sullivan, the large crowd at the kids stage got to experience not only a guitar star in the making, but a guitar legend jamming with him. even though it was only one song, it was a great surprise. and with the end of that surprise comes another surprise, band of horses came a day early and will be performing at the kids stage in a few hours.

it was cold and rainy, not the typical august friday in chicago, and definitely not the typical start to lollapalooza. historically speaking, this festival, at least in its current form, has always been a weekend of sun and heat and lots of great music. but today was different, but it didn’t put a dapper on the performances or the crowds.

things started off with a rousing set put on by black joe lewis and the honeybears. even with the soaked crowd and cool temps, joe and co. got the crowd dancing with their infectious rock and soul. getting the crowd to sing along and participate is one of the band’s strengths, and they definitely played those strengths throughout their damp set.

so i’m reading a bunch of reviews of lollapalooza from music critics and i’m left wondering what they’re looking for when they’re watching these bands? some critics say things like, “i caught the last song of a band’s set,” or “i saw the band’s first two songs” and follow that up with, “the last song really brought down the band’s set” or “the first song set the mood for a boring set overall.” and i’m left thinking WHAT?!? you clearly just said you didn’t see the entire set and yet you’re reviewing the entire set? it doesn’t make any sense to me.

Nightmare of You has proven that practices makes for vast improve with their sophmore album, Infomaniac. The New York City-based indie rock band has created an album based on synergetic instrumental measures.

The background of the indie band’s musical influences of the Talking Heads and Supergrass surely rounds out the sophisticated sound Nightmare of You provides on the CD.

The first line that captured my ear is “Someday, but not today,” which is a laid back track that gives us the “struggling life experience,” which incorporates a tasteful guitar solo.

The soulful song, “Experimental Bed,” is lead in by a hip-hop drum beat and is accompanied by a classic rock guitar sound that leaves you wanting more.

After distributing two successful demos around the indie music community, indie pop rock band, The Rad, has recorded their first EP, Fake It Til You Make It.

The EP was produced by John Naclerio (Brand New, My Chemical Romance). The Tyler, Tex. based quintet’s EP release date is 6.23.2009.

The first track, “Minor Chords Are So 2003,” establishes The Rad’s rock sound, which focuses on the boyfriend’s view of trying to a “sold out” relationship.  The song’s live concert-ready track extends throughout Fake It Till You Make It.

The San Jose, Calif. based quintent has opened eyes and ears with their latest self-titled release. Already making noise with their first single, “You’re A Fake”, the band has hit the radio airwaves and have been touring in support of the album.

The album is filled with sing-along tracks that will have fans screaming lyrics during live shows.  

I Am Empire’s intro track, “Encompass”, sets the stage with an in your face guitar riff and trascends into an all-around rock track that will keep the lyric, “We are the lost and found…” in your head for days.

As mentioned, “You’re A Fake”,  blazes out of the speakers with lead guitar picking accompanied by a solid riff, which leads into the lyric, “Get up, Get up!!”. This song has just began to break out the band, and has lasting power.

On The Buzz, we want to feature all aspects of the music industry. We are conducting interviews and writing articles about the independent musician to the independent journalist writing about the indie movement.

Please send us your press releases, flyers or artist info. to n.pacheco@gighive.com.