Q&A with Dublab's Mark "Frosty" McNeill

Mark McNeill by dublabrat on Flickr

Mark McNeill, co-founder of Los Angeles online radio station Dublab, chats about how he got his start in radio at the University of Southern California, his first experiences recording audio as a kid, his collection of unusual cassette tapes, and why he thinks cassettes are still around.

Read the full article on Neon Tommy.

Rewind to cassettes: the analog, low-fidelity, hands-on movement

Tijuana Panthers' Half Baked cassette by Kill/Hurt 

The sleeve artwork for the limited-edition cassette tape released by Los Angeles indie band Tijuana Panthers has black clip art of a panther's head, cowboy boots, and jumper cables over a picture of an orange tropical flower. The band name is scrolled in cursive along the top, and the album name, Max Baker, appears in block letters on the bottom corner. Opening the case, with a screech of the plastic hinge, reveals a gold cassette tape—the band's release on Kill/Hurt, a Hollywood cassette-only label.

"I grew up collecting and listening to cassette tapes and records, because that's the format that was around," said Phil Shaheen, drummer for Tijuana Panthers. "I like the fact that cassettes are in again and that there are cool little labels putting them out."

It’s true—cassettes seem a little ridiculous at first. They’re bulky, they require listeners to flip them in the middle of a track, and cassette players are no longer widely available. But in contrast with the easy accessibility of digital media, the intimate quality of the cassette outweighs its limitations. An increase of cassette record labels in Southern California and mixtape enthusiasm in the Bay Area and up the West Coast signal the medium's renewed relevance.

Cassettes attract small indie bands with their cheap price. For 70 cents a tape, an artist can get small batches of music in the public's hands for less than on CDs or vinyl. Michael McKinney, president of M2 Communications, a Pasadena-based duplication company, reports his cassette output to be between 6,000 and 10,000 tapes each month. "Tape orders have definitely picked up from almost nothing in the last couple years, and it's been almost entirely indie bands," McKinney told the Los Angeles Times.

Several record producers in Los Angeles provide cassette releases to interested bands. Chris Jahnle and his girlfriend Kat Bouza, founders of Hollywood's label Kill/Hurt, started the company dubbing small batches of noise-rock cassettes with giant grey duplicators purchased for $200 from eBay. Cassettes naturally have hiss, treble, and distortion—qualities that go along with the mood of garage, punk and other noisy genres, said Bouza.

Not Not Fun, an Eagle Rock-based label founded by Britt Brown and his wife, Amanda Brown, specializes in cassette releases for noisy rock bands. They both loved cassettes since high school, so when they started the label it was never a question whether or not they would produce cassettes, said Britt Brown. The label completes about 20 cassette releases a year, charging the band $1,500 for 500 copies. Because Not Not Fun gives 20 percent of profits back to the band and doesn't require a contract, the Browns haven't had trouble attracting clients since the company started in 2003.

Mark "Frosty" McNeill by dublabrat on Flickr

For Mark McNeill, a self-proclaimed music nerd who co-founded the Los Angeles Internet radio station Dublab, the attainability of cassettes attracts artists. "I think that some of it is just that it's being rediscovered…but it's also affordable," said McNeill. "A lot of tape labels are pressing them at home one by one and it's instantly accessible and you can make it. I think that kinda low-entry barrier and ease of creation are great and make it desirable to make tapes."

On the second Friday of each month, Dublab hosts Top Tape, a DJ night at Silverlake's Hyperion Tavern. The event features a tag-team rotation of tape-only DJs and the magnetic, low-fidelity sounds of cassette tapes. About 20 DJs show up each month, with enough time to spin three tapes each. "We had to go from five to three since a lot more DJs have been showing up," said McNeill of the event's growing popularity. DJs play anything from "brand new music straight out of the studio that they dub on a tape and bring down, to old cassettes they find in thrift stores," said McNeill. "A lot of the DJs that come down are buying cassettes for the purpose of bringing them down and playing them at Top Tape for an audience." The event, he said, "perpetuates a community that gets excited about it."

McNeill feels the medium brings a sense of community among those enthusiastic enough to dig through resale shops and garage sales to find unique tapes and sounds to remix. "For someone who's on the hunt for exciting music, it's really interesting because when you're out there at a thrift store going through a pile of cassettes, you're going to find some home recording tapes—you find mind blowing stuff on straight-to-tape demos. It's a one-off private glimpse into a moment . . . it could be anything," said McNeill. "The search and the exploration can pay off in a big way."

Walking past a Thai video store, McNeill spotted a stack of cassettes on the counter. Checking them out, he found they were talks on Buddhism in Thai. "I was hoping they would be music, but I'm going to record a Thai vinyl set straight onto the cassette," he said. McNeill has also played a set on Dublab with cassettes he scavenged from an Ethiopian market and created a DJ mix from tapes he bought on a trip to Cambodia. "It's not meant to be a gimmick, but it's a tool to exploring music that doesn't exist in other forms," said McNeill. "There's certain music that lends itself to cassette, whether because of economic reasons or because that's what was available."

The members of the San Francisco Mixtape Society understand the community and handcrafted feeling of exchanging mixtapes. Every month, members transform The Make-Out Room, a bar in the Mission District, into a venue for exchanging mixes. "Basically it's like a secret Santa party but with mixtapes," said Annie Lin, the society's co-founder. Each member brings his own mix to trade, leaving with a new set of tracks.

Although the club accepts submissions on CDs and USB drives as well, "you get a free beer if you bring cassette tapes," said Lin. The society will present a panel on the art of mixtapes at SXSW, a major music and technology festival in Austin, Texas in March 2012. "I think in the current digital age," said Lin, "people have a craving to get back to other people through music." With a mixtape, "it is one person who made it just for them, as opposed to throwing up a playlist on a music blog where millions of people can view it."

In late October, the indie band Wilco announced the release of its new album, The Whole Love, in a limited-edition cassette on its own label, dBpm Records. Cassettes make economic sense for bands releasing an album in a few hundred copies, but the release by Wilco, a band with two Grammy awards, points to the format attracting artists for reasons other than cost. "I think it's because of the fact that they want to see and experiment with the whole medium," said Lin of the release. "The value in CDs has really gone down over the years, and there is a huge resurgence of alternate media, like vinyl for example. I think going to cassette is just an experiment with that." A cassette tape can create a more personal attachment to the music because it can’t easily be dumped into an MP3 player and the listener can’t skip around to different tracks. The album becomes a cohesive unit.

"There's also something very interactive and fun about a tape," said Matt Carr, founder of the music blog Everybody Taste and Washington, D.C. record label Analog Edition. "You can literally see the magnetic tape travel around the spool, and when it gets stuck, you can fix it with a pencil," said Carr. "It's very analog, and now that the digital world has been conquered by the MP3…I think there's a lot of room in the world of music for physical, creative, and DIY forms of art." That return to do-it-yourself intimacy in spite of the digital era explains a famous band like Wilco’s choice to release a limited edition cassette.

The surge of cassette use by DJs, by bands and for individual mixtapes is an experiment reinventing an old medium for today's music scene. As technology continues to change the way we share music, making digital recording increasingly impersonal, musical counterculture will return to media of the past. Who knows, in the future CDs could provide the same comfort and nostalgia cassettes do today. It's a strange thought, but the return to cassettes also sounded a little ridiculous at first.

The unpaid internship: some call it a right of passage, but in most cases, it’s illegal

Creative Commons

During an unpaid internship at a youth football camp in the summer of 2011, Matt Leland, a senior Broadcast Journalism major at the University of Southern California, wasn't told he would be required to pay for his own transportation to the camp locations. This included flights to and from San Francisco to Colorado and San Diego, and a train to Los Angeles. Leland estimates spending over $1,000 in transportation costs during his internship.

"The most ridiculous thing about the internship came at the conclusion of the Colorado camp," said Leland. A supervisor asked him to drive a large truck full of equipment from Colorado to San Francisco. "This meant canceling my already-paid-for flight, getting into a vehicle I had no idea how to drive, and spending the next two full days on the road with a lot of expensive equipment that I was suddenly responsible for," said Leland. "Luckily, I was able to find someone who actually had experience doing this before being roped too far into it. . .but I still think it's ridiculous that I was even asked, considering the circumstances and my lack of compensation."

A national survey found almost 75 percent of college students take-on at least one internship during their time at four-year schools. The survey, conducted by Intern Bridge in 2010, included over 42,000 students at 400 universities. Of those interns, almost 20 percent reported they didn't get paid or receive school credit for working, making the work illegal.

"I think it's a mixture of free labor and the desire to educate students," said Faith Xue, a senior Communication major at the University of Southern California, on the motivation for companies to hire interns. "I've had five internships and they've varied in terms of how much I feel like the company or boss actually cares about what I learn and [them] using me solely to do the work they don't want to do."

Xue worked without pay or school credit for a surf and fashion magazine based in Santa Monica, Calif. during the summer of 2011. "I expected to gain experience learning the ins and outs of what it takes to produce a magazine and hopefully exercise some reporting and writing skills," she said. The internship touched on this, but mostly involved menial, day-to-day tasks to assist her manager. "I was asked by one of my bosses to research cleaning companies in the area," said Xue. "A week later, she asked me if I could clean, dust and Swiffer the entire office space…completely disregarding the fact that I had emailed her cleaning company options a week before. She asked me to 'especially clean the bathroom, because it's terrible in there.'"

"Two weeks later, she asked me if I could clean the bathroom again, because I was 'so good at it last time.'  So for the second time, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor and toilet of this magazine's bathroom," said Xue.

To be considered legal, an unpaid internship must comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The act spells out six qualifications, summarized below, allowing a company to hire "trainees" that do not qualify as employees.

The Supreme Court deems an internship meeting all of these qualifications legal:

• The training is similar to education received in a vocational school and is for the benefit of the student.
• The trainees work with a close supervisor and do not take the place of paid employees.
• The employer doesn’t receive any direct advantage from the work, and sometimes “his operations may even be impeded” by providing the internship.
• The trainee is not entitled to a job at the end of the period and understands he will not receive payment.

Although many unpaid internships don't follow these regulations, students continue to accept them due to an extreme pressure to gain experience, boost résumés, or make connections.

A senior Cinema-Television Production major at the University of Southern California, who asked to remain anonymous, interns for a prominent Los Angeles writer and director’s production company. “Between me and his assistant, we pick up his kids from school, we take them to their sports lessons, their after-school activities… we tell his kids when to do their homework. I know their schedule better than my own at this point,” he said.

Running an errand—a trip to the vet with his boss’s dog—the intern had to spend $170 of his own money to pay the fee. “Usually the companies are good about reimbursing…but it’s always awkward asking and I find that I’m too focused on the job I’m doing to really keep a good track of all my own receipts, so I’m not usually able to get reimbursed,” he said.

"In the film industry you’re expected to be someone’s bitch for years, even after you graduate. But I’ve had really good experiences... and overall it’s been worth it,” he said.

A survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that over 76 percent of companies reported relevant work experience was the critical factor in making hires. Often, adding internships to résumés is the only compensation students receive for their work.

"[Being] an intern is almost like a rite of passage, but a very important one. Sometimes they are given daunting tasks but everyone has had to do it. It is almost like a way of paying your dues," said Meredith Strober, who has seen both sides of the experience as a former intern in the entertainment industry and a former manager for a Discovery Communications' internship program.

"I think students get internships so they have better chances of receiving a job after graduation. Employers like to see that a recent graduate has experience in the real world. It is also a great way for college students with limited connections in their industries to get a foot in the door," said Strober.

Nearly 20 percent of large for-profit companies, defined as those with more than 5,000 employees, have unpaid internships, according to Intern Bridge. This doesn’t include the massive programs run by nonprofits, government offices, and small for-profit companies.

With 4,200 employees, Discovery Communications—the parent company of 13 U.S. networks including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and TLC—operates an extensive internship program in eight locations nationwide. "There were several departments that had interns in the L.A. office, such as production, development, education, ad sales, etc.," said Strober, estimating about 20 interns cycled through the Los Angeles office every semester.

The company, like many others, requires that students receive school credit as compensation. For many students in summer internships, this means paying money to enroll in an internship course at an academic institution if they are not taking summer school. At the University of Southern California, students must enroll in a class of 2-4 units to receive credit. At $1,420 per unit, this means between $2,840 and $5,680 of a student's own money in order to receive credit and abide by the FLSA.

Academic advisors recommend taking an internship course at a community college to avoid the hefty price tag of USC tuition. A course at Los Angeles City College costs $226 per unit for out-of-state and $36 for in-state students. "Even though it's probably not transferable, it will be a lot less expensive," said an undergraduate academic advisor at USC.

In an effort to make a good impression on employers, students make sacrifices to make the most out of their internships. "I was basically his assistant—I would schedule all of his meetings, doing his personal assistant stuff all the time, from home when I wake up and sending emails during class," said the Cinema-Production major of his two-day-a-week internship for the CEO of a prominent production company. "It's always worth it, you have to work your ass off for these places and I love doing that because if you show them that you care, they’ll care about you too."

Ross Perlin, author of 'Intern Nation,' on the research process

Ross Perlin (Verso Books)

My day was ending and—halfway across the world—Ross Perlin’s was beginning. Despite the patchy telephone connection, I could hear the passion in his voice as he told me about his project. Just a few years out of graduate school, Perlin has researched and written a book on the ever-growing phenomena of the internship, a subject seriously lacking in previous research and writing.

Perlin feels the release of his book, Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, in May 2011 has created a solid foundation for more research on the subject and ignited conversation in the media.

A Curious Mind

As an undergrad at Stanford, Perlin recalls his peers constantly looking for, working or talking about internships. Consumed with summer jobs, school and travel, Perlin did not intern until attending graduate school at the University of London.

After working unpaid with several other interns at a Non-Governmental Organization, Perlin became curious about the concept of the internship. “First I kind of wanted to read something, a book or a nice long article, that would tell me about internships and where they had come about,” said Perlin.  Although he searched extensively, “I didn’t really find anything of any length or detail; there were almost no statistics” on the topic, he said.

Desperate for a cohesive look at the internship in today’s world, Perlin decided to tackle the issue himself.

Starting from Scratch

With no investigative or journalism background besides an obsession with his high school newspaper, Perlin blindly began to dig through the little information he could find.

“I was kind of figuring out how to investigate a topic almost from scratch, a topic a lot of people know about and have a story about but there wasn’t very much material of any kind around, so that was the big challenge and interest of doing the book,” said Perlin. Recognizing public interest in the issue, he started out with the idea of writing an article between five and ten thousand words. After finishing, he found the word count limiting.

“It felt like such an overview, I felt it should be extended, and inform people,” said Perlin. “It was about widening the perspective to see the issue in its full ramifications.”
From here, the idea of the book was born.

With little existing background or research, Perlin relied on what he calls a “convenience sample” to get the ball rolling. He talked to everyone he knew and everyone he met to get their internship stories. “If they said something that sparked me, I would talk further about it. It was based on people I know, not scientific,” he said.

Perlin continued his search for specific examples by posting online, on message boards and simply by going places and meeting people. “Sometimes I would just post up signs in cafes or wherever and tried to cast a wide net, but also I focused on things where I knew there were relevant stories,” he said.

Because of the lack of statistics on the topic, Perlin acquired personal testimony from numerous interviews to drive the story. “I traveled around a lot to meet people in person,” he said. To make the most out of interviews, he found it was best to establish a relationship with the subject however he could.

“I definitely find that you get the better stuff after you’ve been talking for a little while already, going out for a cup of coffee…or going out for a few beers is a little better,” said Perlin.

Due to the nature of the book, in some cases he found people reluctant to sign their name to their stories. Perlin made the decision to obscure identities in the book for the protection of his sources. “I do think it’s always better to name names, it lends an air of reality to the story you’re telling,” he said. However, since he relied on powerful stories to drive the book due to a lack of prior research and statistics, he opted to protect his sources and stick with the good stories.

Even with this protection, some sources were still scared. “I thought it was a crucial, big story but the person involved kinda went back and forth and they were too afraid ultimately to let me use it,” said Perlin of a Hollywood story he found of particular interest.

Sources can be over-anxious about some things that are not too big of a deal, advised Perlin. “I don’t believe that you have to bend over backwards [to protect him], but I think what a source tells you on the record is fair game,” said Perlin.

Although he was blazing the trail writing a book on internships, Perlin was able to find some data on specific issues from academics and other organizations that care about internships. The National Association for Colleges and Employers as well as Intern Bridge conducted a few surveys he found helpful in his research. However, he noted a bias in the data since it was only recorded in instances of school-based internships for academic credit. These types of internships only make up a portion of all employed interns.

Perlin found it difficult to address all sides of the story, especially when he thought the issue had five or six different sides. “I felt the most important side was the interns themselves, so I gave them priority of place,” he said.

To give equal opportunity to employers, he contacted them to get their perspective, but in most cases he found responses automated and added little to the bigger picture. “You don’t need to give everyone their moment in the sun if they don’t have something specific to say,” said Perlin.

The Long Haul

Perlin conducted his research and interviews over two years, and compiled it all into the writing of the book over an additional year. “Keeping organized was not easy, but I had a good sense of what the chapter layout would be,” he said.

After an interview, Perlin would put the file into a certain box designated to a chapter, to remember he wanted the information to appear in that chapter. “Later I did often want to bring issues across chapters, so I organized things by theme and kept all the sources relevant to that theme in one place,” he said.

One of the most immediate and rewarding consequences of the book’s release came through its own publisher. “Soon after they decided to publish it, they were convinced enough to pay their own interns,” said Perlin.

How to keep your Buzz in downtown L.A.

Buzz's well-stocked beer cooler. (Buzz Beer Wine Shop Facebook)

A customer planning on buying a pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon at downtown L.A.’s Buzz Wine Beer Shop should prepare to be mocked. He’ll find the PBR in the cooler labeled “piss beers,” along with Budweiser, Miller High Life and Coors Light. The rest of the shelves hold imported Belgians, German hefeweizens—even an organic and gluten-free beer. The staff members are always willing to make suggestions. One, an outspoken brunette with retro chopped bangs dressed in a khaki jumper with her name—Molly—embroidered on it like a car-shop uniform, assists customers in the subtleties of beer selection. The employees’ passion for fine drinks shows. “A man’s not a real man unless he drinks good beer,” said Molly, swapping stories about men who drink light beers with three twenty-something female customers as she makes recommendations.

Buzz is about more than beer. It also sells sake, champagne, and wine. Employees use a tall library ladder that glides along the wall to reach more than 4,000 bottles of wine on the floor-to-ceiling shelves. But don’t get intimidated—a brochure outlining the right bottles “For a Special Someone,” “For the Boss” and “For the Host” helps even the most wine-illiterate customer. The store’s relaxed attitude stems from its owners David Bakhshi and Scott Kamalski. “We found it difficult to readily find unique and fun bottles and were bored with the options and the dull retail experiences” downtown, Bakhshi said.

Located on the trendy intersection of 5th and Spring streets, Buzz has Bolt Barbers and The Last Bookstore as neighbors. Close proximity to downtown lofts and bars keeps the shop busy. Employees ride a modified bicycle with a big wooden storage box to deliver to locations between the Hollywood, Santa Monica and Harbor freeways daily until 2 a.m. www.buzzwinebeershop.com, 213-622-2222, 460 South Spring Street #C, Los Angeles

CicLAvia transforms downtown L.A.

Anyone in Downtown Los Angeles expects to see traffic, but on Sunday the traffic was a different kind—bicycles. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on October 9, CicLAvia blocks motorized transportation from 10 miles of L.A. streets.

Walking along the sidewalks Sunday afternoon fills me with bike envy. I feel involved photographing the event, but not in the way biking through the streets together unifies the cyclists despite the fact that for many, their bikes are the only things they have in common. The sun gleams off the many mirrors of the tricked-out bike one man rides like it is a motorcycle. Occupy LA protesters mix with the cyclists on First Street outside of City Hall. An impromptu singer accompanied by men on beat and synth raps about passing cyclists on Spring and Sixth streets. The community energy in the streets, expressed through games of dodgeball, performance art, and live music along the route was intoxicating. CicLAvia caused the city to come alive.

Slideshow:



Contact me.

Follow me on Twitter.

A new vision for art galleries in L.A.

Young entrepreneurs change the art gallery scene in Los Angeles

An art gallery should be a welcoming place where all types of people feel comfortable to learn about and acquire art, and that's exactly what Hold Up Art aims to do.

Located in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles' cultural hub of food and art, Hold Up Art strives to make art accessible to people of all backgrounds.
"I think an easy way to look at this gallery is like a clothing boutique. We try to create a comfortable environment where you're not freaked out by a $500 leather jacket next to a pair of socks next to a pair of jeans that are priced all over the place," said Ben Kaufman, co-owner of the gallery. "If there's a celebrity buying some really nice thing and you can't afford that and you're buying the socks or the necklace that doesn't matter so much here."
The owners of Hold Up strive to break this impersonal cycle that closes art off to large parts of the public by making it inaccessible.


Hold Up Art opens its doors from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and until 10 or 11 p.m. on weekends, allowing a much larger audience for its exhibits.
Their extended hours open the gallery's doors to a broad range of people. "There's kids, there's Latinos, there's people buying food and eating around here, kids messing around on bikes going up and down here stop in, drunk Japanese guys that have been out drinking in Little Tokyo, tourists staying at the Kyoto hotel, totally a large spectrum of people," said Kaufman.
"Galleries should play a bigger role in society, they can offer a lot more. We try to engage everybody who walks in here," said Kaufman.
Some galleries come across as cold or intimidating, but accessibility and friendliness mean everything to Hold Up's owners. "We pull stuff out of the drawers and open up storage so you can see it and it doesn't matter if you have enough money to buy it or not, the idea is if you seeing it and thinking about it and telling people about it is better for the artist, it's better for us, it's better for society in general," said Kaufman.

Although it may seem the pair's youth would be a disadvantage in the art world, it hasn't always been.
"It definitely hurts and helps in some respects," said Kaufman of their age and inexperience in the gallery world.
Their youth and interest in technology has allowed them to employ a variety of marketing techniques like a strong reliance on Facebook that many other galleries lack and allows them to connect with a younger audience.
"

What resonates with these guys is that we are on the same page, sometimes street artists will come in and walk around and not introduce themselves and kind of check you out first," said Kaufman.
Kaufman said some of his and Lee's biggest challenges were establishing credibility and a body of art to open the gallery.
"

We really try to consign all the art but we had to invest maybe $10,000 or $15,000 into art just so that we could get the art in here, because a lot of people wouldn't consign to a guy they'd never heard of with no gallery and no website," said Kaufman.
Kaufman admits the gallery is not a non-profit, and although he and Lee are in it to make money, they are also in it to bring art from artists they believe in to the public in a fun, relaxed way.
In the future, the pair would like to make Hold Up Art into a cultural hub in Little Tokyo, incorporating food, drink, fashion and music into the gallery experience.
"Being there to help educate all the people is definitely a cornerstone of our philosophy," said Kaufman.


Until then, Hold Up will continue providing great art to all types of people.


The gallery offers artist prints and posters for $20 to one-of-a-kind artist pieces upwards of $2,000.
"All the artists make it already, there's just not one place that sells it," said Kaufman of the prints. "You have to go to the poster shop or the gallery, you can find posters all over the place but can't often find originals in the same place."

This makes Hold Up unique among more traditional galleries in Los Angeles.

Kaufman co-owns the gallery with long-time friend and fellow University of Southern California graduate Brian Lee. The pair came up with the intention of opening an art gallery one night when throwing around ideas about the future.

Kaufman and Lee's youth and unconventional concept of what a gallery should be bring a fresh perspective to the relationship between art and the viewer.

"The art industry and art galleries have not been reevaluated—what's different about an art show now than in the 1970s, than in the 1950s or 1930s? It's exactly the same," said Kaufman. "There's wine and people mingling and looking at the art and then they all go home and then the gallery is open three hours a day, four days a week and then they have another opening three months later."
Video: The gallery's current exhibit features student art alongside professionals and benefits Room 13, an art studio in a Los Angeles middle school where students have the opportunity to practice art alongside professionals and have their work displayed in public.