You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

 Rawking   

I’m leaving for L.A. in a few hours to see NIN. So excited. Which reminded me that I need to post this. Check Trent out in his pre-NIN days.

NXNP - Music Marketing: Brands and Bands

 Rawk Radio    Rawking   

I kind of did stream of conciousness notes of the Music Marketing: Brands and Bands panel.

The lo-down: session on how to build a fanbase through the local media, merchandising, marketing and promotion - loosely moderated by George Vargas, the UT music critic.
The panelists (besides George Varga): Erik Stein (Scoop Marketing), Garett Michaels (FM 94/9), Jeff Motch (Lively & Motch), Petey X (Merch Lackey), Greg Pearson (Trusonic) and Tadd Crayton (loserkids.com)

My notes (these were totally what I was typing while I was listening to the panel):

George Varga asks all the panelists if they’ve been in a band….out of the 7…just 2 of them (one of them on season 2 of real world. Don’t recognize him at all. )

Crap, my cell phone just went off….bad bad me. we all got to hear Against Me!

Varga: Era of the internet….in flux but where will it be going?
Petey: play out…presence on the internet. Looks at myspace if a band is asking merchlackey to print tees. Merch a key factor in getting yourself out there (repeated more than once from everyone so far…)

(editor note: Varga asks everyone to tell the audience what they do)
Stein: as a professional publicists – need to start as DIY before you can really break.
Garett: “we play music”
Motch: design….Jack Johnson is his biggest client
Petey: 10 yrs as a musician and then what’s next? I can do this better than most people out there.
Pearson: tru-sonic – 30000 retail locations that they provide music for. Retail, music choice. Custom playlists. Original and covers. 20% unsigned artists.
Crayton: loserkids – fashion/started by the blink guys. Formerly of artist direct.

Varga points out a “Common denominator” - blink (stein, motch and crayton)
Using blink as an example of how do it right - they toured up and down the west coast – blink – where all the airplay and popularity came from.
Garett: passionate fanbase – don’t do unless you love it. (blink) he heard from programmers on the west coast (while in Detroit)
Motch: If someone’s an asshole, you don’t help them.
Stein: access is a lot freer. With the web, they need content.
Garett: on radio programming – what is radio trying to do. It’s a business – used KROQ as an exmaple. Narrow and formulaic.  When programming KBZT, they looked at the opportunity in the market. KBZT tried to build a passionate fan base on word of mouth. They had an agenda. Garett comments on the state of radio (my favorite topic). He calls it “Formulaic bullshit” Notes that KBZT only plays three songs of top 10 in their format. Radio cannot break a band it is an accelerator. Gives MIA as an example of how radio is an accelerator. MIA was a critic’s darling when the album came out. They tried playing “Paper Planes”. Not much traction on air. Now “Paper Planes” is being used in the trailer for the movie Pineapple Express. Radio (crossover over different genres) is jumping on it now.

Next topic: Does good press matter?
Petey: Bad press is good press.

Another topic: how do you hear new music?
Motch: 91x made me turn off the radio.
Garett: tools for discovering new music – recommendations and word of mouth. (He sideway insulted Varga with saying that he would rather listen to someone he respected as opposed to Varga’s writing.)
Guitar center -10 formats, core playlist. Mix in custom acts.

(At this point I stopped taking notes...wasn’t as interesting because they were kinda all saying the same thing.)

But I recorded the whole thing and here are some cool quotes (besides the couple of gems up there....)

Garett: “The 900 lb. gorilla of rock radio in America is KROQ.”
Garett: “Who remembers the Nixons?” Stein: “I do, I was their publicist.”
Petey: “No one wants to see that the record they worked six months on and poured their heart and soul into just be bagged by a person who can’t even play guitar.”
Petey: “In your life you can only sell out once.”
Motch: “Anyone who really loves music in this town doesn’t listen to the radio.”

On another note - the panel was definitely dominated by Petey, Stein, Motch and Garett. Pearson and Crayton barely got a word in edgewise. But all in all, very entertaining and informative for sure. Can’t wait to go see bands in a few hours.

NXNP - Session Info

 Rawking   

NXNP session info has been posted here.

There’s more than a few familiar faces on these panels.

Music Industry 101: the Basics in 2008
Panelists include:
Robbie Lloyd (Silva Artist Management), Ben Moore (Big Fish Studios), Steve Churchyard (Producer INXS/The Pretenders), Chris Cantore (X1FM), Ken Leighton (San Diego Reader), Nathan Dinsdale (San Diego CityBeat)

Music Marketing: Promoting Your Band
Panelists include:
George Varga (San Diego Union Tribune), Jeff Motch (Lively & Motch), Petey (Merch Lackey), Garrett Michaels (FM 94/9), Tadd Crayton (loserkids.com), Cary Baker (Conqueroo PR), Eric Stein (Snoop Marketing)

Touring 2008: Getting a gig locally, and in another town.
Panelists include:
Tim Mays (The Casbah), Len Paul (SOMA San Diego), Steve Poltz (Singer-Songwriter), Kristen Worden-Harris (Croshal Entertainment), Candace Mandracia (Live Nation/House of Blues)

Is a Record Deal in your Future?
Panelists include:
Eric Howarth (M-Theory Music), Neils Schroeder (Surfdog Records), James Agren (Darla Records), Sean-Michael Dove (myspace Records), Jennifer Knoepfle (ASCAP)

I gotta wake up and be there at 10 to go to this stuff? Grrr. I do think that the panel that Garett is sitting on should be interesting. I’m thinking I may have to live blog it.

SXSW - Woo Hoo

 Rawking   

Okay, before I even got here I had a bit of a OMG-I’m-going-to-SXSW moment. I was sitting in my exit aisle window seat when the two people in front of me (also in an exit aisle) show up. And they are none other than Kim and Kelley Deal. OMG. The whole 37 minute plane ride was a little nerve wracking for me. Like I kinda wanted to say hi and what not, but at the same time, I didn’t want to be a dork. So I didn’t. Kelley read a book the entire time and Kim took a nap, in case anyone was wondering. Haha.

And now I must figure out where my friends are so we can get some dinner and some Shiner (of course.)

QOTSA hearts B00bs

 Random Tidbits    Rawking   

The QOTSA video for “3s and 7s” is cool. It’s very Russ Meyer “Faster Pussycat Kill Kill”. Well except that the chicks don’t have huge boobs. But whatevs.
Check it out…

P.S. You may have seen the banner to Boobiethon to the left. It launches on Monday, but they’re already taking submissions. Go get your boobie on already..... 

Pub in SD Music Matters

 Rawking   

If you happen to see an issue of the new SD Music Matters, pick it up and check out the article that Cullen wrote on SD music blogging. He interviewed Cat Dirt, Rosey and yours truly and I think it’s a fair representation of what we are all about. Rosey actually typed out the article here if you’re like me and have no clue where to get a paper copy of the issue.

Gotta love that the four bands that I was quoted talking about were P!@TD, FOB, Linkin Park, and Delta Spirit. That sums it up pretty nicely. BTW, Cullen is an EXCELLENT writer and if you’re not checking out his writing on Dirtbag’s Delight, you are totally missing out.

Tween Girl Sadness

 Rawking   

If I was a tween girl, this totally would have bummed me out today:

My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and Mindless Self Indulgence bassist Lyn Z tied the knot over the weekend at the end of the Projekt Revolution tour. Both bands were part of the tour, and when it ended on Monday in Englewood, CO, the duo got married that evening at the venue - the Coors Amphitheatre. The pair will now tour together again as MSI is slated to open for MCR on their European tour beginning October 30.

Source: FMQB

P.S. Can you imagine telling your kids that you got married at the Coors Amplitheatre? How un-rock-n-roll. (Hopefully my marriage story will involve a spur of the moment trip to vegas and being married by an Elvis impersonator. Or even better, getting married on the beach in Waikiki like Kurt and Court.)