Now of course, I see what Radiohead did by releasing their own album... and I appreciate it in it's own regard. However, the part that concerns me is more the false ideas that it presents to any upcoming band. Of course Radiohead could do something like that. They are one of the biggest bands of today. They have more money than most indie labels anyway, so of course they didn't need a label to release an album. Of course, they could afford to just give it away.
The problem lies in the fact that there are still bands out there who are not up to the par of Radiohead, but think they can do the same. No. It's not like that. Small indie / regional touring bands still need that extra 5 to 10 bucks to help them get from Albuquerque to Houston. Radiohead can take a plane.
As long as bands have the ideality in their head that all they want to do is write and record music, there is still a place for labels. As long as bands have bad credit and live paycheck to paycheck, there is still a place for labels. Even the mere storage of packing supplies, thousands of albums, and everything else needed to make a successful business of a band doesn't fit in the unaffordable studio apartments that Los Angeles has to offer. And in that is where there is hope for the likes of me.
I appreciate what Radiohead did, but it brought a completely unwarranted realm of cockiness to other musicians that they can in fact, do the same. Maybe they can?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sometimes I wonder
If I will ever release another physical cd. Nobody really knows where the music industry is going, but we can all speculate.
One of my favorite insights about all of this comes from Moses Avalon's book, "Secrets of Negotiating a Record Contract". In it, he says, "As I write these words, companies with new ideas for distribution are fighting vast financial powers. But what they represent is greater than their opponent's resources for they represent the future and the future can't be stopped. It can, however, have enemies. Who are they? They are anyone who opposes change; as long as they can keep things from changing, these enemies of the future will continue to make money without adapting to new ideas and new concepts. Progress is historically unkind to such people. Progress is the future. You are the future. You are progress. Lead, follow, or get out of the way..."
Rest of the book aside, the ending provides us with some hope. And really, that's all we need. Just a little glimpse of the end of the tunnel to keep us interested in finding it.
It seems like many indie labels, such as myself, are becoming more of a promotional and marketing firm - with the money being made on tours and merchandise aside from the music itself.
Then there are bands like Fugazi, who only play five dollar shows, and don't even sell any band "merch"... yet they maintain the band, and even get a certain amount of respect, just for their perseverance. Ian MacKaye is definitely someone I look up to, though I don't follow his practices to a T.
I guess the only answer is that you have to be in this because you love it and not any other reason, because otherwise, you won't last.
I know I haven't been around that long. Going on year five as a label, year 2 doing this full-time. But at least I'm still here. Still typing. Still caring. Still listening.
One of my favorite insights about all of this comes from Moses Avalon's book, "Secrets of Negotiating a Record Contract". In it, he says, "As I write these words, companies with new ideas for distribution are fighting vast financial powers. But what they represent is greater than their opponent's resources for they represent the future and the future can't be stopped. It can, however, have enemies. Who are they? They are anyone who opposes change; as long as they can keep things from changing, these enemies of the future will continue to make money without adapting to new ideas and new concepts. Progress is historically unkind to such people. Progress is the future. You are the future. You are progress. Lead, follow, or get out of the way..."
Rest of the book aside, the ending provides us with some hope. And really, that's all we need. Just a little glimpse of the end of the tunnel to keep us interested in finding it.
It seems like many indie labels, such as myself, are becoming more of a promotional and marketing firm - with the money being made on tours and merchandise aside from the music itself.
Then there are bands like Fugazi, who only play five dollar shows, and don't even sell any band "merch"... yet they maintain the band, and even get a certain amount of respect, just for their perseverance. Ian MacKaye is definitely someone I look up to, though I don't follow his practices to a T.
I guess the only answer is that you have to be in this because you love it and not any other reason, because otherwise, you won't last.
I know I haven't been around that long. Going on year five as a label, year 2 doing this full-time. But at least I'm still here. Still typing. Still caring. Still listening.
Booking
Recently, I have been focusing more on booking various bands and managing than the actual label work itself.
Some of the bands I have booked tours for:
Death is not a Joyride
Legs on Sale
Sputnik Monroe
The Pleasures of Merely Circulating
I'm looking to book more tours, for more bands. Criteria is I must love your music. I generally accept booking submissions via sonicbids. It's just easier that way.
Some of the bands I have booked tours for:
Death is not a Joyride
Legs on Sale
Sputnik Monroe
The Pleasures of Merely Circulating
I'm looking to book more tours, for more bands. Criteria is I must love your music. I generally accept booking submissions via sonicbids. It's just easier that way.
Sputnik Monroe - Santa Monica Mirror Interview
Artist Spotlight
Liz Ohanesian, Mirror Contributing Writer Sputnik Monroe
On Thursday, April 17, the tightly packed crowd at Mar Vista club The Good Hurt waited in anticipation for Sputnik Monroe. For five years, the band, whose members hail from Santa Monica, Culver City, and Marina del Rey, has been making waves across the Westside and beyond utilizing vintage keyboards, computers, and violins in addition to the usual guitar-bass-drum combination. And at just after 11 p.m., when the band took to the stage, the sound it emitted was almost too large for the tiny club, a dense onslaught of music that stirred onlookers.
"It's really a hodgepodge," says Kevin Netzley, singer and keyboardist of Sputnik Monroe, of the band's sound. "Spacey rock is kind of the best but doesn't really explain what we do. There are a lot of noises, a lot of sounds, but not in an ambient band kind of way."
He adds, "We definitely have melodies and movements to our music. We try to bring in a lot of different sounds."
No matter how one chooses to describe Sputnik Monroe, the band still produces an intricate, blissful sound that crosses generational lines.
"It's easy for us to peg people's generations or what they do by what they say to us afterwards," says Netzley. "Someone younger will tell us that we sound like [experimental rock band] Deerhunter and someone older will tell us that they are reminded of Pink Floyd. I think it's because we do incorporate, cull from so many influences."
The show at The Good Hurt was the launch pad for Sputnik Monroe's nine-day, seven-show Southwest tour, which would take the members to Austin and back. It was also a celebration for the band's latest EP We're Doomed, the follow up to the 2006 debut album Wake the Sleeping Giant.
In 2006, when Sputnik Monroe decided to record its debut album, the band traveled to Seattle with enough savings to create an 11-day recording budget to produce 10 songs. With just enough time to lay down a song a day, Wake the Sleeping Giant sounded "as good as it possibly could," Netzley explains.
"Two years later, after we finally felt like we toured and sold enough to warrant letting go of [the album], we did the exact opposite," says Netzley This time around, the band members stayed local, found a friend who could engineer the recording sessions, and took their time.
"We spent a month and a half doing five tunes," Netzley says of the recording process.
Sputnik Monroe plans to return to the studio later this year to record another short collection of songs.
"This EP is purposely a part one," says Netzley. "Hopefully, six months down the road, we'll put out part two and we'll hopefully be fresh and not have to play the same tunes two years later."
We're Doomed is available at selected independent and online music retailers. Go to sputnikmonroe.com for more details.
Liz Ohanesian, Mirror Contributing Writer Sputnik Monroe
On Thursday, April 17, the tightly packed crowd at Mar Vista club The Good Hurt waited in anticipation for Sputnik Monroe. For five years, the band, whose members hail from Santa Monica, Culver City, and Marina del Rey, has been making waves across the Westside and beyond utilizing vintage keyboards, computers, and violins in addition to the usual guitar-bass-drum combination. And at just after 11 p.m., when the band took to the stage, the sound it emitted was almost too large for the tiny club, a dense onslaught of music that stirred onlookers.
"It's really a hodgepodge," says Kevin Netzley, singer and keyboardist of Sputnik Monroe, of the band's sound. "Spacey rock is kind of the best but doesn't really explain what we do. There are a lot of noises, a lot of sounds, but not in an ambient band kind of way."
He adds, "We definitely have melodies and movements to our music. We try to bring in a lot of different sounds."
No matter how one chooses to describe Sputnik Monroe, the band still produces an intricate, blissful sound that crosses generational lines.
"It's easy for us to peg people's generations or what they do by what they say to us afterwards," says Netzley. "Someone younger will tell us that we sound like [experimental rock band] Deerhunter and someone older will tell us that they are reminded of Pink Floyd. I think it's because we do incorporate, cull from so many influences."
The show at The Good Hurt was the launch pad for Sputnik Monroe's nine-day, seven-show Southwest tour, which would take the members to Austin and back. It was also a celebration for the band's latest EP We're Doomed, the follow up to the 2006 debut album Wake the Sleeping Giant.
In 2006, when Sputnik Monroe decided to record its debut album, the band traveled to Seattle with enough savings to create an 11-day recording budget to produce 10 songs. With just enough time to lay down a song a day, Wake the Sleeping Giant sounded "as good as it possibly could," Netzley explains.
"Two years later, after we finally felt like we toured and sold enough to warrant letting go of [the album], we did the exact opposite," says Netzley This time around, the band members stayed local, found a friend who could engineer the recording sessions, and took their time.
"We spent a month and a half doing five tunes," Netzley says of the recording process.
Sputnik Monroe plans to return to the studio later this year to record another short collection of songs.
"This EP is purposely a part one," says Netzley. "Hopefully, six months down the road, we'll put out part two and we'll hopefully be fresh and not have to play the same tunes two years later."
We're Doomed is available at selected independent and online music retailers. Go to sputnikmonroe.com for more details.
Sputnik Monroe - Neon Buzz Review
Neon Buzz Magazine
ALBUM: Sputnik Monroe - We're Doomed
Defined, I assume, by themselves, Sputnik Monroe are allegedly a "electronic electric rock band". I feel somewhat awkward typing such words, as there is little evidence suggesting anything close to such title in their music. However, here I am, sitting at the laptop, dreary eyed, eagerly listening intently to each track repeatedly, despite being the only one in the silent household awake.
I've been proved wrong. Once again. 'Standing in Rank' is a mixed up, scatterbrained monster of a track, sounding like The Cooper Temple Clause fed through a disjointed synthesiser. Yelpy vocals and apocalyptic space riffs combine to make a rousing attack of intense musical mastermind, with layers upon layers of tantalizingly precise epic-prog rock.
'Ocean' lives up to expectations, sounding like an alt-rock frenzy preparing for angular war. Filled with instruments battling each other in ultimately clashing harmony, and alarming fret-work, Sputnik Monroe have mastered the art of creating a wholly anthemic, yet spiky sound.
As chords and drums clash and bang, contagious energetic twists and turns dotted in each song come alive, in a way that almost predicts a long and successful future for this criminally under-hyped group. Inventive, yet deadly rhythms set the music alight, creating a raucous yet beautifully mysterious edge to the band's distinctive edge.
Enigmatically entrancing, Sputnik Monroe have defined themselves and their unforgettable sound in a way that many current bands could only dream of. Exciting to the point of the unbelievable, this band are mind-blowingly awesome. Whatever you do, don't ever forget them. As if that was possible.
Olivia Jaremi
Posted by Neon Buzz at 01:38
Labels: Album
ALBUM: Sputnik Monroe - We're Doomed
Defined, I assume, by themselves, Sputnik Monroe are allegedly a "electronic electric rock band". I feel somewhat awkward typing such words, as there is little evidence suggesting anything close to such title in their music. However, here I am, sitting at the laptop, dreary eyed, eagerly listening intently to each track repeatedly, despite being the only one in the silent household awake.
I've been proved wrong. Once again. 'Standing in Rank' is a mixed up, scatterbrained monster of a track, sounding like The Cooper Temple Clause fed through a disjointed synthesiser. Yelpy vocals and apocalyptic space riffs combine to make a rousing attack of intense musical mastermind, with layers upon layers of tantalizingly precise epic-prog rock.
'Ocean' lives up to expectations, sounding like an alt-rock frenzy preparing for angular war. Filled with instruments battling each other in ultimately clashing harmony, and alarming fret-work, Sputnik Monroe have mastered the art of creating a wholly anthemic, yet spiky sound.
As chords and drums clash and bang, contagious energetic twists and turns dotted in each song come alive, in a way that almost predicts a long and successful future for this criminally under-hyped group. Inventive, yet deadly rhythms set the music alight, creating a raucous yet beautifully mysterious edge to the band's distinctive edge.
Enigmatically entrancing, Sputnik Monroe have defined themselves and their unforgettable sound in a way that many current bands could only dream of. Exciting to the point of the unbelievable, this band are mind-blowingly awesome. Whatever you do, don't ever forget them. As if that was possible.
Olivia Jaremi
Posted by Neon Buzz at 01:38
Labels: Album
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