Feature / Music
Pass The Mic: Artists and 2007

Words: Michael • Posted pre-2010

Quick Links: Blacklisted, Bridge Nine Records, Bullet Treatment, Ceremony, Coalesce, Coliseum/Black Cross, Converge, Die Young (TX), Forensics, Fucked Up, Jena Berlin, Lemuria, New Idea Society, The Out Circuit, Oxbow, Pulling Teeth, Ready the Jet, Rise and Fall, Rosetta, Set Your Goals, Scouts Honor, Skin Like Iron, This Time Next Year, Tokyo Police Club

Ready The Jet

Jay Adelberg

Scene Point Blank: What are your top five albums that were released in 2007?

  1. Clutch - From Beale St. to Oblivion
  2. Against Me! - New Wave
  3. Neurosis - Given to the Rising
  4. Lifetime - Lifetime
  5. Smoke or Fire - This Sinking Ship

Scene Point Blank: How will you remember 2007? (In terms of music)

2007 was the year that emo broke. We finally hit our saturation point of screamo bands containing dudes in ladies pants.

Scene Point Blank: What kind of impact do you think donation-based releases like Radiohead, Saul Williams, etc? will have on the record industry?

I think the jury is still out on that. Obviously, everyone involved in the music industry still needs to figure out a new business model to make money. It seems the illegal downloading is under control (at least compared to few years ago) and iTunes is still the only game in town. It turned out most people paid nothing for the Radiohead, and Radiohead themselves have now declared this a publicity stunt. Who knows where it goes from here?

Scene Point Blank: 2007 saw the decommissioning of two prominent file-sharing groups - Demonoid and Oink. What kind of impact will the increased crackdown on file-sharing have on the record industry? Did it personally have an effect on you?

I actually have never downloaded a single song, either legally or illegally. I have iTunes, but I just import my own music in there and put it in my iPod. The industry emerged from the whole downloading thing and we can now see it was all a murder-suicide pact. The business was intent on killing the downloaders, now they are turning the gun on themselves. It was the greed of the music industry that got us here, so it's no shock they've had so much trouble adapting to the new playing field. I actually put up POSITIVE comp numbers at Hot Topic. This proved my theory that if you offer the right selection at the right prices with a staff that is knowledgeable and passionate about music there are still plenty of people out there who want to buy music the old fashioned way.

Scene Point Blank: What can we look forward to from your band in 2008?

My band? Well, we are hoping to play out as much as possible and do a split 7" with Turkish Techno.

Scene Point Blank: What three records are you looking forward to most in 2008?

Alkaline Trio, Social Distortion, and I would love a new Avail album!

Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/readythejet

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