Andrew Mason's album "Hardly Workin'" now available | Hacker News Reader

Andrew Mason's album "Hardly Workin'" now available

smandrew.com

85 pointsbjeanes56 comments

This is awesome. I don't care if the actual music sounds terrible, but the fact that there's a dude out there with millions of dollars and what he wants to do is record a educational business CD makes me happy.

This is the kind of eccentricity I think we should be lauding.

I completely agree. And to all the people making fun of him: when's the last time you've put yourself out there and sang in front of other people? There, hate the music if you like, but at least he's doing what he wants to do.

He went to school for music, too.

Okay, so what's your favorite track?

"Risin' Above the Pack" and K.I.S.S stand out for me so far.

(I love this kind of eccentricity.)

Sorry, I fat-fingered my upvote from my phone and accidentally downvoted you. :(

This happens all to often. Off topic but isn't it time for a better ux for this site? A little bit of space between up/down, a mobile view? I use http://cheeaun.github.com/hackerweb/ and it's great but not for voting...

I use this site for free and have gained way, way more from it than I have put in so I definitely don't care if improvements are made, but if one were to improve anything it would be great to be able to vote more easily with my fingers on a mobile device and to edit text more easily on a mobile device.

Editing text on my android becomes tough because the small box doesn't let me easily navigate around. My new S4 has a setting which allows me to use the volume keys to move the cursor which is a huge improvement, but there has to be a better way.

Editing text in Reddit is also challenging.

I was liking Risin' Above the Pack too, but It's Up to Us was just such a strong close to the album. The break about George Washington took my motivation to disrupt industries to an undiscovered Covey quadrant (mentally speaking).

  Now no one said it were easy
  It reminds me of another boy
  That had to fight to be free
  After he cut down a whole bunch of a tree
  His daddy came home and whipped him
  In the square for all to see
  But he didn't let that stop him
  No, he sailed across the Delaware sea,
  To build the greatest nation in history!

  Not gonna kid you,
  I can't tell you how long it will take
  But I know if we stay focused
  We'll be *Good to Great!*

He was an intern at electrical audio studios in Chicago for Steve Albini

Oh man how much more amazing would this have been if Steve Albini produced it!?

I don't think you understand... he sat side by side with Steve for a very long time. He was a fixture at electrical audio. I used to frequent PRF/Electrical Audio forums all the time and read a bunch of posts he had about being an intern. You can still read a lot of them at http://electricalaudio.com/phpBB3 under Intern's Corner (used to be electrical.com til they sold the domain) His user name was Intern_8033. Steve is on there all the time too.

Also, Steve Albini prefers "Recording Engineer", not producer.

Jim Alchin (former head of the windows division at MS) has made a few albums after he left Microsoft. http://www.jimallchin.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Allchin

The funny thing is the music doesn't really sound terrible, even if the songs are silly and the style is vapid. It's surprisingly well produced and recorded for an indie effort. He has spent some money and "done it properly," as it were. Many mainstream country releases sound no better to my ears ;-)

I guess Mason read "The 4-hour workweek" -- they say educational crap err CDs etc. are the highest-margin, easiest to sell product.

"...I spent a week in LA earlier this month recording Hardly Workin', a seven song album of motivational business music targeted at people newly entering the workforce"

So this is what happens when you are "unemployed" with $200 million in the bank.

" I've probably listened to the album over a dozen times now, and with each spin I feel like I learn something."

That's sort of an awkward statement to make as the creator.

He's channeling David Brent.

That's Andrew Mason's shtick. There is similar stuff in pretty much any other statement/article he writes.

I'll be the first to say it: what the fuck?

I've actually listened to this album and, uhh, yeah. This took some chutzpah. I'll give him that.

So yeah, its a rich guy doing goofy stuff with his money. Outstanding! I think its way less socially awkward and certainly less environmentally damaging than another giant boat or an Everest expedition. Good for him.

Reminds me a lot of this classic scene from the TV show "Arrested Development":

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xinzdo_it-ain-t-easy-being-...

Haha. It does.

Where can I get a discount coupon for the purchase of this?

Buy all songs individually for ~7, or buy them together as an album for ~10...

How is no one here understanding that it's a joke?

Communities with anonymous internet posters are biased towards 'hatin' on everything they see.

For the record, as someone who has read a few articles about the guy, seen a couple pictures, and in all honesty was leaning more towards not liking him more than I do, this news has excavated a nice, temporary soft spot in my heart for the guy. Funny stuff.

The music isn't actually bad. It is much better than I expected from some of the 'hating'. Production wise, it's stellar. He can sing well in the rock/pop style.

Is this Zepplin, Pink Floyd or Beatles? No but it's not trying to be. Would I want to buy it and listen to it? No, but I'm not in the target market and this music style bores me but musically, I cannot fault it.

Wow, Jim Allchin, that is pretty funny. Who would have thought?

(Here's a shameless plug for my new record, FWIW. http://music.lukehoward.com. I have also worked as a coffee-making intern in a studio. And written some software. Perhaps this isn't that uncommon...)

Is this a joke?

I honestly don't know.

you guys really don't know?

If anyone finds a Spotify link, please post it.

https://play.spotify.com/album/3HXowkOX2qi5WmK1nb65A0

Here's the Rdio link http://rd.io/x/QRGIESJvC74/

Google Music streaming link https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/sal/Blqdieerrwclsf...

Finally, a song with lyrics about Jack Welch! I've been waiting for another one ever since the classic Wu-Tang track "Six Sigma Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit."

I give him credit for doing awesome stuff after being ousted at Groupon. Takes strength to brush your shoulders off after a hard fall and do something like this.

It's not a hard fall when it's cushioned with millions of dollars.

Given the average level of morale and motivation of Groupon's employees right now, I'm not sure why I would want to follow Mason's advice...

Any latest news on their current average morale? I mean, many people were balking at groupon as much as two years ago... How are people still wanting to work there?

They do pay their employees you know ;)

How many actually think it is Mason's fault?

I can understand his reasons behind taking a break from all this and understandably so. However bad it turns out, this is the kind of behaviour we should be promoting. The 'bounce-back-ability', if I may, is what makes being an entrepreneur worth all the blood, sweat and tears.

This is not "bounce-back ability." It's more like "hit at an awkward angle at carom into left field" ability.

If people are looking for other motivational songs, I can heartily recommend Poor Jack from nightmare before christmas. It seems like it was scientifically designed to pick up spirits, and Jacks role is quite entrepreneurial. It encapsulates recovering from failure.

Pure Andy Kaufman.

Wow. I'm really not sure if this in jest or if it's completely straight faced. Either way, I have literally never heard anything like it, so... Great job! That's a really rare thing to do something truly original.

For everyone else wondering who that guy is: It's the ex-CEO of Groupon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mason

Now when people say no one in music makes money anymore we can simply point to Andrew Mason.

Is there any mention on who wrote/composed the songs?

He's actually not a bad singer, I must admit. :)

R.I.P., Jim Nayder:(

Why not bandcamp + "name your price"?

Oh boy...

Oh, okay. Um. Yeah.

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