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Do you think downloading is killing the music industry or is it something else?
Downloading and the culture of free music have affected the income of record labels, but the street-level music scene (as defined by bands, entrepreneurial independent record labels, studios like mine, etc.) is doing great. Bands have an easier time than ever getting their music out into the world, and bands don't even need a label to have an international following. It's actually a great time to be in a band.
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Is rock with guitars becoming like Jazz in the 70s?
Absolutely no idea what you mean. I'll take a shot though. In the 1970s Jazz began becoming institutionalized as the music of public functions and high society. After this transformation, jazz became a funded art form, the way opera and popular classical music had been previously. Hello university jazz programs, publicly-funded jazz festivals, ad-hoc wedding entertainment, etc. That isn't happening to rock music.
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Do you think bands that are severely derivative, like most garage rock bands, are inferior to bands like Jesus Lizard who sound totally unique?
Yes. In other news, I think Ice is cold, fire is hot and the sun will probably come up tomorrow.
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Can you name drop some very new or recent young bands that are carrying the torch for rock and roll?
Dude, I hear them all the time. Just did a record for a band from Denton, Texas called Record Hop, and they were terrific. Rock bands are everywhere, and there are always a few good ones.
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Do you find your taste for heavy noisy stuff is diminishing as you get older (mine is!) and your appreciation for quiet folksy stuff is growing?
I have noticed that a bunch of people who were previously making really intense, hard rocking music have gravitated toward making moody acoustic music, and these audiences have overlapped. I still enjoy freakish noisy music, if executed with authority, and I still enjoy acoustic music likewise.