PROMOCOPY

"Ying Yang Twins will shoot next video in Los Angeles tomorrow"

2005-06-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

When: TOMORROW - Tuesday, June 7th
Where: Los Angeles, CA

If you are interested in doing a behind-the-scenes story or covering the Yang Yang [sic] Twins video for their second single, "BADD" - please contact:

Joe Wiggins
Urban Publicity
TVT Records
23 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
212.979.6410 x290
212.979.6489
joe@tvtrecords.com

What: Platinum Atlanta-based rap duo and Source Awards Rap Group of the
Year, Ying Yang Twins follow-up to the red hot single "Wait" will be "Badd"
featuring Mike Jones. A video for "Badd" will be shot in Los Angeles
tomorrow. "Badd" is the second single from the new Ying Yang Twins album,
U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta)

Who: YING YANG TWINS and MIKE JONES
Ying Yang Twins online press kit can be viewed by clicking on the link
below:

http://toolkits.tvtrecords.com/toolkit.jsp?id=2

don't stop believin'

2005-05-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

Says Amanda Cagan:

"This summer at Journey’s 30th anniversary U.S. tour, dubbed 'The concert that takes you back…and into the future,' fans will experience a mixture of nostalgia, excitement, and delight from the moment they arrive until the time they leave. In addition to being treated to an entire evening of music spanning Journey’s entire history, this trek will include an added ingredient, “Journeyville,” a festive area located near the front entrance at most of the venues. Fans will be treated to continuous video playback on large outdoor screens showing various moments throughout Journey’s history such as classic music videos, behind-the-scenes clips and much more...The centerpiece of “Journeyville” will be a “30th Anniversary Journey Motorcycle,” created and built by Arlen Ness Motorcycles and featuring amazing artwork from all of Journey’s albums. Fans will have a chance of winning this beautiful motorcycle by making a contribution to Journey’s favorite children’s charities at the exhibit. One lucky fan will ride away into the sunset on this one-of-a-kind motorcycle at the end of the tour!"

Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Team Up as "Gnarls Barkley"

2005-04-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

I don't get the Gnarls Barkley reference. But I was a rather vocal supporter of the Round Mound on the grammar school court, so I frankly just don't see the humor.

Not much I want to complain about on either the copy or the project, which I'm looking forward to. But anyway, Danger Mouse, the dude behind that recent "watershed moment in music history," paired with "the flamboyant, one-of-a-kind force of nature Cee-Lo," are looking to release this thing in late summer of this year.

"The album is currently in the hands of Monopoly Atlanta and Waxploitation Music Corp, with the artists in talks with major label distributors," the PR goes on. "This is the kind of distinctive, ahead of the curve album that kids are begging for," say Waxploitation's Jeff Antebi. There you are, kids. Don't get cut on that edge.

"Calling all critic -types!!!"

2005-04-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

So much of this is based in a lame inability to just not pay attention to PR, but there you are. I think I've received multiple email messages this week from Lava Records (that's Warner Bros) publicity VP Lisbeth Casaday about the John Butler Trio, and I just broke. "Seriously folks - JBT are breathing new life into the catch phrase 'alternative'" didn't even dissuade me.

Tireless publicity = Good publicity? Like radio play?

"The unbelievably talented Australians...made their network debut on Letterman last Tuesday. And, we are #21 on the overall new Artist Chart."

And this modest measure of success may be because this band is good. But how would I know when I can't not respond to publicity.

gain exposure with key audiences of Gen X/Y

2005-04-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

XLR8R, Jimmy Kimmel. Whatever.

but i was there

2005-04-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

bring shoes, and your ass.

IMPORTANT:
you must e-mail rsvp for the list to:
events@dfarecords.com

c.r.e.a.m.

2005-04-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggers: Get paid to advertorialize just like publicists and the fashion magazines that eat their swill: "We give you the subject, you write and post it to your blog, we send you $5 through Paypal. That simple." Rad.

annie, throw in the towel

2005-04-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

"The songs on The Very Best Of The Human League are, simply put, as good as pop gets," says Alison Tarnofsky over at Astralwerks. You're not going to find me trying to deny the pop genius of a song like "Don't You Want Me?" But really.

amazing musicians/kick-ass activists (whatevs)

2005-04-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

While I'm not used to actually reading email from Mike Cubillos at Earshot Media, imagine my pleasant surprise when I opened a message from this guy yesterday and noticed that Gratitude is set to play multiple PETA-sponsored barbecues! Good for them! (And I mean that, as the writer of this blog is no longer either cynical or "meta.")

The sad part about it all is that although, "Gratitude will be taking part in Peta-sponsored BBQs around several of the [AP Vans Tour] shows...details on these will be announced soon." Hunt as I may, I can't come up with any definite PETA dates at present. Sorry. But here are dates on the AP Vans thing, bros.

still so not back to work

2005-04-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

I started to explain to someone the other day about how the stuff of real life was just so much more rad than the stuff of Promocopy. And then I realized I was just talking too much and not saying anything. Like Promocopy. But Ms. Boot: there are all of these clues that I just can't add up and my research arm is wasted. (And just wondering: if you know who I am, how come I'm not promoting you?)

back to work (not an exact science)

2005-04-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

One that I've never heard before: a publicist was complaining to me the other day about how terrible a writer her boss is. She was telling me that her boss, who owns the label she works for, often "helps out" with the press releases, but is then unwilling to be edited. The exchange and final product, the publicist told me, proves to be both frustrating and embarrassing for her. I'll say that a boss who doesn't play by the rules is nothing new to me, and neither is the scenario of work being marred by controlling overseers (hear that editors!), but I found myself paying less attention to what she was actually telling me than to what I read as a relevant subtext.

(Let me digress for a moment here to remind readers that a healthy handful of publicists that I deal with in real life know--I suspect--very well that I am behind Promocopy. But for whatever reason, these people are uncompelled to discuss the matter with me, and the issue has gone (for the most part) unmentioned heretofore. The relationships are tricky because, although the publications I tend to write for can hardly be described as high profile, most of the labels/PR companies I deal with are fairly small and quite willing to take press wherever they can get it. So I'm guessing that most publicists consider me bitching about them on this site to be a sort of lesser of two evils--the greater evil, then, being me not giving these people press elsewhere. Of course, I've never threatened to withhold press from a label because the label's publicist complained about (mis)treatment on Promocopy, but I think the suggestion may be working for me nonetheless. I often wonder, though, what kind of inconspicuous communications I'm receiving within this dynamic.)

This particular publicist asked me if I thought her label's press releases were terrible (it was apparent that she, to some degree, felt this way). It had honestly never occurred to me that the copy was that bad, and I had never brought it up to her. But I couldn't help wondering if she was gently nudging me toward criticizing her boss. I've been wondering for some time when Promocopy would make the jump from receiving post material exclusively from other writers with an interest in criticizing promotions; I've been waiting to hear from actual publicists who have some specific, insider dirt to dish. I'm totally not averse to exploring the gossip potential of this platform.

(please don't confuse this with the sound)

2005-03-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

(And that "Pitchfork, how I love to hate to love thee" bit is totally mine. Quotable quote. I don't care if you were thinking it and were just too embarrassed to say it. You're too late. Tough luck.)

not an exact science (ft. Daedelus)

2005-03-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

I love the new Daedelus record (not pictured at right). Exquisite Corpse. Mush Records. (Or hear Daedelus now on the Busdriver album) (*). I like the calculated ambivalence to hip-hop. "Musically Made Mishaps" never sounded better.

And while I'm at it, at least three tracks on that new Four Tet album are fucking awesome! That's all I'm saying.

(*) Ok, I'm saying a little bit more, but about something different, which, like much that's been posted here this week, may or may not make sense depending on how far inside my head you are. Fucking Pitchfork that I love to hate to love amazes and impresses me by running a piece on Busdriver yesterday (while I was down and out). I was complaining just yesterday about the general lack of respect for this guy, and then the internet came back on. Something about how dude's getting too little press , although I still know fuck all about Swishahouse. Backpackers out, hipsters in. I'm not sure how I feel about that one, but whatever.

hack (not an exact science)

2005-03-31T08:48:00.000-08:00

I bitch about these publicists, but here's the bind I'm in: Dude tells me over the phone from Miami this morning that his "concierge service" produces one-of-a-kind entertainment/event/vacation experiences and that one such memorable mold breaker involves some low level exec renting a yacht with a cadre of marginal adult film actors and then inviting his coincidentally-just-happens-to-be-in-the-same-port-vacationing (with his family--ugh) boss to join him for a ride, in response to which the boss soon thereafter promotes said exec to VP. Sound like the stuff of legend? (I don't think it matters.) My commission: to write 700 words on the dude who makes this kind of thing happen for a living, incorporating "colorful details and anecdotes," of which the story above is, I'm afraid, on the mark.

I know that none of this is really about promotional copy, but I think I'm dealing with similar themes.

not an exact science (not an exact science)

2005-03-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

I had to pick up a physical dictionary to see if my use of "feat" in the last post was correctly spelled.

(Shit goes nutty when the internet is not working. It's like the 19th century out here.)

not an exact science (reprise)

2005-03-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

(written in anticipation of reinstated internet access, 4/30, 1:20 pm) Internet was working for a moment there, but I'm now again so totally alone. Something about the phone jacks in this place. Funny how I had this guy who sounded so not amused on the phone (literally, I'm guessing, on the other side of the world) when I realized that the phone chord for some reason wasn't plugged into the wall. "Thanks! I think it's working now." But it's plugged in now and shit is still and/or again not working. And I'm wondering now if people who wrote (write?) in journals--by which I mean, wrote without any anticipation of even the minor publishing feat of blogging--got the sensation, when writing, of just muttering to themselves.

not an exact science (dub plate)

2005-03-30T12:32:00.000-08:00

In a recent two-week period I received records/promotional materials addressed to my name at two different magazines for which I've never written--but each was sent to one of two different publications for which I do regularly write. Right writer's name, wrong publication name, right address (in relation to writer). Twice. Get it?

Although, curiously, I applied for a job at one of the mags that I had never written for about a week after receiving these records. I didn't realize it until now.

not an exact science

2005-03-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

(written in anticipation of reinstated internet access, 3/28, 10:52 am) In the irregular event that I end up without an internet connection, I get this very isolated, claustrophobic feeling. It's not that I hate talking on the phone, but I have to admit that I find a kind of artistry in written communication that manifests itself well through email and is totally lost in conversation. And I always get stuck chatting on the phone, which I actually kind of like to do, but it feels totally unproductive. Whereas email provides the ever-present capacity to just cut off the dialogue at any moment. I like that. And instant messenger: I hate that shit. But I'd take it right now, out here on my island.

satan getcha

2005-03-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

And then there was the time that I commented on some guy suggesting (on MLK day) that if Dr. King were alive he would be tuning into a live radio broadcast that night of a band this guy was promoting. Seemed kind of dodgy to me, kind of flippant--not even taking into account the lack of regard for Dr. King's musical tastes, which all sort of made a joke out of the whole thing, which gets back to my flippancy claim. But I was probably being a bit sensitive and an ass when I posted this guy's telephone number and email address on the blog. I'm an ass. What do you want me to tell you, people?

So dude writes me two months later to tell me that no one ever emailed him, which means that no one reads my blog. damn. foiled again.

The best part about it is that I really like the record that this band he was promoting has made. I sometimes feel kind of resigned to loving the music and hating the way it's promoted. But just sometimes.

ain't noise pollution (hey Lucy Beer!)

2005-03-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

(Before reading this post, please take some random piece of information contained in email format--preferably with large file attached to it--and send it to the email address you'll find when clicking upon this text.)

I guess I play dirty and take cheap shots whenever possible, so I'm no ethical authority. But some publicist has added Promocopy Robot to her email promo list, which I find to be well beyond the pale. Please, publicists: take pity on me. This inbox is literally the only part of my life not corrupted by your agenda.

A little part of me has died today and I'm currently writing a short opera about it.

I commend Lucy Beer in the off chance that she thinks it's funny to put me on her list, as a means of aggravating me. If that's the plan, let me be the first to note that the technique is successful; it's working. But I rather imagine she just thought that I was celebrating music promotion over here and wanted a piece of my audience. That vast, responsive audience.

Why can't these people just stay away and let me bitch about them in peace? I mean, really. And anyway: it's all promotion, right? Which Lucy Beer is taking advantage of right now by me writing about her. damn. foiled again.

(But I take all this back if you want to write me a note and not push any product on me. That's fine. Josh Bloom wrote me another nice message the other day. Nothing wrong with that.)

the [award] goes to kris chen

2005-03-24T13:36:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago Kris Chen, who works at Domino Records US, wrote me to tell me that he didn't belong on the Promocopy Players list. "I think real publicists are jealous because I'm not one," he told me. "I run the mailroom and pay the bills and pretend to be a publicist when I don't have enough budget to hire one." I guess I had caught him on a few of those occasions when he was pretending.

I only mention it now because I've made him Promocopy's honorary mascot. "Sadly," he said at the time. "I don't think anyone is jealous. Yet." How could I not be charmed?

Also, Kris: If you find this demeaning, feel free to tell me to knock it off.

not yet a woman

2005-03-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

Kelly Osbourne is putting out another album in June, and you know I'm dying to weigh in on the promotional copy, which packs an awesome four pages of bio information. I haven't even read beyond a few blurbs for fear that this is going to be too amazing to pass up.

"...the young scion of rock royalty..."

"...co-written by Kelly herself."

"...Kelly delves into the deterioration of our society..."

Tantalizing. The problem is that her publicity machine is benched. Sprained something. I can't even remember. But I don't want to be that overly aggressive coach that risks the season for a couple minutes of play from the star.

Kelly Osbourne will be in New York for press 4/22 - 4/26, so I guess there are other options (unlike the rest of you, I'm two people). Sleeping in the Nothing the album's called. So, so rad. I'm trying to make an adult decision on this.

remember how they messed up this old fool

2005-03-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is kind of old, and I don't have anything funny (or not) to say about it, but anyway: "Devendra Banhart is currently hard at work in upstate NY recording his first release for XL Recordings...with an eye towards release later this year," says Howard Wuelfing. "He is joined in the studio by Thom Monohan (Pernice Bros.) engineering and Andy Cabic (Vetiver) and Noah Georgeson abetting him as accompanying musicians/singers."

Getting excited? (I really don't think there are any satirical possibilities here. This is just news. I don't even know what Devendra Banhart sounds like, come to think of it. I couldn't care less.)

"He'll then join Andy and Vetiver as guitarist and second vocalist touring Europe in May and June," continues Wuelfing. "Plans are for Devendra to tour Europe on his own with backing band in June July and August, and the the U.S. in October."

That's it.

The List (promocopy robot [unconvincingly] poses like an academic to impress Oliver Wang and then makes fun of it to impress Jessica Hopper)

2005-03-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

Most of what's below refers to Clyde Smith's idea of "the list" of hip hop artists constructed for and by an indie rock audience's appreciation, as earlier noted on his ProHipHop.com. He uses an example at SXSW: "I directly experienced who's on the list and who's off at a SXSW Murder Dog showcase," says Smith. "SXSW is indie rock oriented and hip hop acts that don't appeal to an indie rock crowd don't do well there."

Let me first say that I would be carrying on this dialogue with Clyde Smith via direct email if not for the nagging feeling that every time I put serious work into Promocopy-related topics--and Smith's posts concerning my blog have offered me a lot to chew on--Promocopy had ought to benefit through production. I'd also respond directly to his posts at ProHipHop if the blog allowed for comments. But here I am.

Secondly, and no news to anyone who pays a lot of attention to Promocopy: I'm pretty far out of my range on topics of hip-hop, and I don't want to give the impression that I should be understood as anything other than an outsider in a conversation about hip-hop, particularly with someone so informed on the matter as Smith (not to mention my construction of an argument isn't exactly an equal match for his). But fortunately for me, the guy has politely engaged me in dialogue and is (I'll be the first to admit) setting me straight on a few topics. And most importantly, this dialogue (for me, at least) is not about hip-hop per se, but rather about how indie rock views hip-hop and whether or not there is a type of hip-hop that indie rockers are exposed to and gravitate toward (and whether that exposure and gravitation are two sides of a single coin).

Diplomacy and caveats aside, I'll concede to Smith that my mention of Nas, The Roots and J5 last time indicates three examples of what is essentially the type of rap artists that an indie rock fan would listen to, if for no other reason than the fact that I brought them up. Although, (naive as I may be) I seriously have to question lumping Nas alongside Jurassic 5, even in terms of both having (as Smith describes the two) "either an old school or a conscious hip hop identity." Nonetheless, the fact that I chose to cite Nas instead of (to use one of Smith's references) something on Swishahouse clearly underlines Smith's point that an indie rocker wouldn't even know to look toward Swishahouse.

I think both Smith and I have a sense of which hip hop artists, as he puts it, are "on the list"--Smith recognizing the duality because he sees both who is on and who is off; me just recognizing the list. I'll slightly modify last time's gee whiz question to ask, "can I, informed primarily by indie rock, appreciate Swishahouse," and I'll set that one up as a premise. I'm really interested in whether this on/off-the-list binary is a matter of the list writers (ie, the indie rock community) being ignorant of hip-hop that doesn't make the list, or is it more about the list excluding such hip-hop as a matter of cultural taste (ie, is Aesop Rock just more palatable to the indie rock sensibility than--to again use Smith's example--something on Swishahouse)? I personally feel (seeing only one side of it as I am) like it's a little of both, although I can't help but think that my own distaste for certain types of music almost always comes down to a kind of ignorance on my part. But can that cultural divide that creates my ignorance be crossed, and does hip-hop want indie rock coming across?

And here's where I get to use my favorite phrase: hell if I know.

Again, big thanks to Smith for spending time on the topic. I find his insight informative and illuminating, especially as I suspect that he has better things to do than school indie rockers on the politics of hip-hop consumption.

newsflash

2005-03-21T12:40:00.001-08:00

Pitchfork went all real-time today, further squelching any chance I might have at relevance. And then Schreiber wrote a news piece about it (which I find totally metastic--but then, I would).

Much as I love Pitchfork, this is all getting so Major-Indie. Prepare to pay with either your wallets or your souls, post-punkers.

hey little sister

2005-03-21T07:44:00.000-08:00

Billy Idol apparently has a new album coming out tomorrow on Sanctuary. Ellen Zoe Golden of JLM PR skippers this sinking ship, informing me that Idol is doing a Tower in-store appearance on Friday ( 6 pm-7:30 pm) in Hollywood, CA, followed by a show at the Roxy, down the street, at 9 pm.

What's particularly pathetic about all this is that Hollywood is the smallest Tower I've ever been in, and the Roxy, which holds well under 500 people, is hardly a triumphant return to form. Undaunted, Sanctuary managed to get Rolling Stone to run a review of the record, at least on the web site (I don't know if it's in the print edition, but I'm not going to pick that shit up to find out). Here are the good bits:

"Did somebody say, 'new billy Idol album'? Thanks, God!" That's a hot lead! Read it as sarcasm and it works so much better.

Buncha other crap about what Idol has been doing for the past decade, and then the clincher:

"...fortunately he's still Billy Idol, which means his primary concern is debauched sex with underage headbangers."

"Fortunately"? Isn't pedophilia being suggested here?

I was hanging on an impossible thread of hope that this publicist had misquoted the magazine, but no dice. That's what it says.

Rob Sheffield, folks. Fucking stellar.

Do you think what was intended was more like, "Fortunately, he's still Billy Idol, which means his primary concern is [educating today's youth about how to avoid the dangers of] debauched sex with [overaged] headbangers?" I suspect that's going to be the real lesson of this album.

Here's the offending track, which, for all its inane lyrical content and female-focused aggression, I don't really hear any clear references to statutory rape. So the Sheffield comment was unnecessary, a mere critical lagniappe. Wonderful. Really very responsible.

Everybody having good fun? Everybody partying?

2005-03-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

So, going to see a couple of bands tonight that I've been mildly interested in seeing, although it's also work. +1'd, I called up a friend, who I've been lately (scattered-ly) showering with such extra door prizes, to go along. Although I'm now concerned that sustained bites to the hand the feeds free ticket are going to be in order.

(Recent complaint-riddled evenings with this person have accompanied live sets by Futureheads, The Album Leaf, and, of course, Frankie Chan/Kid Millionaire/Club Cobrasnake, the last of which, I'll allow, is a bit of an acquired taste.)

Now listening to one of these bands I'll be seeing tonight, I'm a little concerned about how this dude, who has a very decent knowledge of post-punk, will be bitching. We share an increasingly small overlapping space in our respective musical tastes. While he at various points in our relationship has turned me on to The Wedding Present, A Certain Ratio, Moonshake, Bailter Space--all bands now seemingly forever on my sub-regular playlist--he has for years completely ignored my song of praise attached to the likes of The Kinks, Parliament, Minutemen, Mirah. And hip-hop is totally out of the question for this guy, as he categorically dismisses everything from Tribe Called Quest to Nas to Busdriver, so much so that I'm not even going to mention, say, Lady Sovereign. I mean, really! I think I slipped one under his guard when we saw Bloc Party last year, but he refuses to see any merit in the music of TV On the Radio. Hit or miss, at best.

Suffice it to say that I think the cards are stacked against me tonight. My question(s) being: How do people with very common experiences with music come to eventually have such different musical tastes? And how do you keep the act of going out to see bands fun, particularly if you're going with folks who know a lot about music, are very opinionated and are not shy about critically voicing that opinion to the disparagment of bands you like?

*(And btw, that photo up there was taken by Jessica Miller, a very fine photographer who-- although I haven't worked with her as such--I've dealt with, and I can't imagine she's used to being silent about people using her images without giving proper credit.)

and speaking of me lounging in my office:

2005-03-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

I, for one, am thrilled by the suggestion that somebody employed by The New Yorker doesn't know how to type.

btw, did ex go to LDN? I loved that solicitation-as-blogged internal dialogue the other day. It somehow made the guy that much more heroic, and I say that in all earnestness.

Soo, "getting" kind of voyeuristic out here.

(I'm thinking about getting back to work.)

and speaking of tax fraud:

2005-03-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

(Did I mention that I'm repositioning this blog as a tedious journal re: my tedious life?)

Anyone ever been audited for taking the home office deduction? (Was that a free-floating, totally insignificant Wire reference?!)

I'm in this kind of dumb bind wherein my apartment is the only place I work from, but it's so incredibly small that there's no single area that is used exclusively for work. I pretty much eat dinner, take afternoon naps, play fetch with the dog, read The New Yorker, research, edit, and write from exactly the same place. Fuck ergonomics. I'm typing from the very same spot on my couch right now.

I get kind of itchy around tax time every year. Like I'm alone. Like I'm totally alone.

This guy once told me that he had been audited three times. "It's no big deal," he says. But he's doing a book on baby yoga. You think it's unrelated?

Elation. Chills. Dancing.

2005-03-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, fine. What really drew me back more than anything else was my suspicion--gleaned from eyeing a single, truncated adverb--that my favorite blogger in the world had anonymously posted a comment on this very blog, this very day, calling me back into action.

If you are my favorite blogger and you posted a comment on this blog today: ta, and at your service.

If you're not my favorite blogger, and you still posted a comment on this blog today, I'm totes not impressed that you made me look like a starstruck fool.

post-postscript postscript

2005-03-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

I mean, really.

(But you know something, people: I can't even convey how real it is--after several weeks of talking to editors, other writers, this lady that owns the liquor store down the street from my apartment, about the the art of connecting to people through the written word--to be sitting here, back from the brink of extinction, writing post after post that seventeen other people are reading.)

(I always wonder how some of these publicists feel when they put all this work into promoting a record that sells like 350 copies.)

(I mean, I've considered the realities of putting time, effort, emotion, etc, into a record review that has likely not caused a single person to go out and buy the record--either because the record was too obscure to resonate, the publication reached too few readers or the writing was just bad. I'm sure it's happened.)

post-postscript

2005-03-15T21:37:00.000-08:00

Not just to suggest that I'm not all anti-, I was also really impressed that Josh Bloom wrote me the other day, asking me to update this thing. I had never thought about how funny it might be to be another publicist watching peers get ripped. Like scales from my eyes...

Josh Bloom is good people: Anyone who can avoid the siren call of publicizing poetic about Mia Doi Todd must be possessed of strong character.

But just be warned, dude: I'm watching the ongoing Sufjan Stevens Illinois PR like a vulture.

postscript

2005-03-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

And it wasn't only the freelance blues and merely the lack of inspiration that was keeping me away:

Father: "Do you read the blog?"

Spouse, graduate instructor at prestigious research institution: [laughter] "We have our own interests."

I find that there's nothing like chortling aversion to get me back on the horse.

reentry

2005-03-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of the "joke" that I've been unemployed ever since I decided to start trading exclusively in 1099s and tax fraud. I still get mileage out of this bit when walking the streets unshowered at 10:30 am, particularly when I see some 9-5 chump I know taking an early lunch break. But sometimes, admittedly, I feel way more unemployed than others.

Having been comatosely negligent in posting over here, I thought about the explanation that I'd been off vacationing in the Bahamas or finishing my epic poem (once you start writing under anonymity, the lies flow like cheap copy). But the lame truth of it all is that I've just been looking for work. I made an uneasy pact with myself that I was going to get focused and make something happen professionally before I spent any more time mocking underpaid publicists about overzealous thesaurus use.

Of course, that didn't really work either, as I'm still pretty unemployed, sinking deeper into laziness, even as I file here/file there for as little as $.10 per word. (OK, I do it for free, too. Big deal.) And then this blog. I have to say that once I let this thing go for a week, a month, the promotional copy coming through the mailbox started seeming less and less stupid.

Even as Peter Bottomley calls The Holy Ghost's Welcome to Ignore Us "a staggering LP flaunting nearly a dozen potential hit songs."

Even as somebody at Noreaster Media refers to some band that apparently recalls the "burning modern rock sound of Jimmy Eat World."

Evan as the mysterious Marie V. says that, "Alan Astor has taken everything that we have come to love from classic records of the past 50 years and added a voice and sound that are all his own."

Even as somebody or other suggests that, "It's no secret that certain blueprints registered in 1982 in the UK have been used by a flotilla of bands recently...[Out Hud and its new album Let Us Never Speak of it Again] will outlast the trends, just as they proceeded them."

Even as Trevor Seamon asks, "What is it that makes a man these days?" And answers: "Lately it seems that the answer to that question consists of silly Hip-Hop feuds, tricked-out Hummers and clearing the brush off of West Texas ranches...In Fog's world, maturity is the result of sonic adventure and reinventing the popular song."

There you have it. It wasn't like there was a shitload of, like, so terrible promotional copy to go along with the shitload of albums that came in over the last several weeks. (Actually, there was some pretty ripe material, but it's still on the DL.)

Anyway, I'm back from vacation, but still short on work. So, if anyone can figure out how to get me paid without revealing my identity, I'm all ears.

next thursday: interpol to sign breast live in nyc (omg)

2005-02-25T19:37:00.000-08:00

Lucy Hurst over at Matador (aka Beggars) unwittingly informs me that Interpol will be signing shit on March 3rd at Tower on 4th and B'way from 7-8pm. That's right, one hour. Don't ever say they don't do it for the kids.

As is noted in the right column over there, Matador ignores me, and that's not rhetorical. But some (I'm guessing) mischievous soul whose writing I just happen to respect a lot (note my Pavlovian response to the following suggestion) sent me an Interpol press release earlier today with the (again, I'm guessing mischievous) proposal that I "blow up this spot now." Which is funny because there are probably eight dozen Interpol fansites with more readers than this blog, and my ability to blow anything up (aside from my ego that time Hopper gave me the nod) is questionable.

And, it's been on the website for a minute.

Journalistic integrity and all that--I can't really say whether or not this press release sent to me by a third party is valid. Just wanted to get that out there. Although it looks pretty accurate, given my nagging willingness to believe promotional copy about music is only contextually about music.

According to the press release, "Interpol signings are usually [stupid] events." (I think that's what she was trying to say. Quoter's license. Like I said, I can't vouch for the authenticity of this thing.)

"Their fans can be somewhat obsessive," Hurst goes on. "Other similar events have witnessed lines around the block, screaming fans, crying girls, girls with 'marry me carlos' sprawled on their chests, fans chasing the band's car, and even the occasional breast signing. Should be a crazy day!" Indeed!

Now, I have never been near an Interpol live situation, so I have no idea, but I dare somebody to verify that it's only girls crying at these things. I'm skeptical. It's kind of hard for me to believe that dudes who look like Interpol are not attracting a significant male audience. I mean, if I'm a guy and I'm going to be attracted to another guy, he might look a little something like Carlos D. But that's just me. And I just don't buy the "screaming fans, crying girls" couplet; the gender qualification feels forced and plainly unbelievable.

"For more info [on the sexual identification of Interpol's audience] contact Lucy at Matador/Beggars"

cowboyz 'n' poodles (aka rock is dead)

2005-02-24T12:24:00.000-08:00

Some former little buckaroo over at DFA tells me that Pixeltan is set to perform its first live show in 4 years this Friday at Rothko (although this is old news). With Kid 606 no less. Good show, folks.

And from Music Video Distributors in late March comes the GG Allin: Savage South – Best of 1992 Tour DVD. (I'm not suggesting that you go out and buy this, but I just tend to think that any piece of information including the words "GG Allin" is innately funny.)

(There's always going to be a 12-year old boy inside of me.)

The DVD material is culled from three shows in Febrary '92, including nights in Atlanta, San Antonio and Austin. There's apparently also an "ultra-rare previously unreleased GG Interview."

The cheesy but totally appropriate copy, provided by Merle Allin, GG's corny brother, runs as follows:

In February of 1992, GG Allin & the Murder Junkies would continue to pave a bloody path of destruction across the land. GG's shows were becoming more and more violent and confrontational. He started to describe his concerts as a war between him and his audience. His mind was a machine gun, his body the bullets and anyone in the way was the target.

Each night, GG would attack an already hostile crowd, creating a riot-like atmosphere. It was without a doubt the most dangerous yet thrilling experience I have ever encountered. Unfortunately, GG's reign of terror would end abruptly when he was arrested for disorderly conduct and endangering the lives of his audience. He was extradited back to Michigan to serve out the final years of his original prison sentence. The Savage South Tour will go down in history as one of the most violent tours ever. These shows have all of the intensity and insanity people have come to expect from a GG Allin performance… and more.

gonzo ambivalence

2005-02-21T08:31:00.000-08:00

Some journalist is going to find something kind to say about the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson, but it's not going to be me.

bulimic blog blues

2005-02-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

The following was written in response to a message from a member of a band whose press release I wrote about here some time ago, which I am just getting around to responding to. This person was very nice and asked me to be confidential about the correspondence, but--lazy prick that I am--I can hardly be expected to pass up the chance to post relevant material here when I've been so negligent in my blogging duties of late. At any rate, I've taken out the names.

This blog is (at least supposed to be) about promotional materials and the way that they intersect with and come to represent the music they are linked with. I was trying less to indict your band with that post than I was attempting to utilize your record's one-sheet within the larger theme of independent music's very uncomfortable relationship to the selling of product--a theme that is very important to this blog and one that, if your email is any indication, is also an issue for you.

My stance on all this is that there is nothing wrong with wanting to make money--even a lot of money--from your art. I think that honest, independently funded music that attempts to avoid taking part in a commercialized distributional/promotional machine (what I'll often refer to as "major label" music, but which is also a big part of how many indie labels operate--the main point being a greater concern for profit than for the art) is exactly what the popular music buying public needs, in my opinion. And there's nothing wrong with that sort of art generating income. I think it only gets a little dodgy when the promotional/marketing/distributional tools attempt to manipulate the audience--and this can be anything from pressuring media outlets to play or review certain artists to using exaggerated, hyperbolic or plain inaccurate rhetoric in a press release. As I tend to prefer indie music to Top 40 pop, I deal with that latter scenario more often than the former.

My goal with this blog is to create a check to what I see as some really disturbing trends in independent music promotion. I remember a time not too long ago when most indie labels I dealt with did all their promo inhouse. The rise of PR companies catering to indie labels in the last several years has been phenomenal, and lot of the people working in this sort of indie PR space are coming from very commercial environments and have brought with them some of the sell-at-any-cost ethos common to popular marketing. I'm just trying to remind people that Indie can mean something in terms of character and credibility and respect for an audience.

So, again, not at all to complain about your music, but merely to take issue with some of the methods utilized to promote your music. In terms of your record's one-sheet, I see an inconsistency in "trying to make fun of [your]selves" for promoting the record when it's plainly done within the larger environment of record promotion. Criticizing yourself for engaging in behavior you do not believe in does not absolve you from the behavior. This is a line that a lot of indie bands/PR companies are trying to walk, based in a concern that I see very commonly among people who care a lot about their art and have strong convictions about not making a product out of it.

I think commodification of the art is already taking place when you record the music. I think that the point should not be to avoid making product out of art--you've, in my opinion, already done that by making a record with a price tag on it. The point should rather be to offer this very good, very reasonably priced recording of the art in a way that is fair to consumers. Selling the product along with the disclaimer that you don't really want to be selling the product is neither fair to the critics (who receive this message and pass it on to the public) or to yourselves.

Again, this is all just my opinion. It's easy for me to sit out here and bark about this stuff from behind the shield of anonymity, a way to protect my own self interest in this project--to not cut off my supply from publicists that I'm turning around and criticizing. But I don't think the kind of distance (from the material I'm criticizing) in which I'm working is unique in the world of criticism. I don't think this dialogue is all that different from what generally goes on between a critic and a piece of art. I'm just taking on the mundane shit.

run the road

2005-02-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

I guess the real issue last night, when I was up too late running the mouth with that last post, was that Vice sent me the grime comp without any kind of promotional copy.

Under normal circumstances I'm grateful to be spared the bullshit, I listen to the record and just go for it. But, frankly, I know fuck all about grime. Isn't the point of this comp to bring grime it to an underexposed American audience? You'd think the label would have thought to offer some details beside a track listing. (Anyone more important than me who did get a one-sheet is encourages to send it over.)

Although anything I would have to say about the album, here or elsewhere, will undoubtedly be lost in the shadow of Pitchfork (or, of course, Stylus--but still, this thing comes out the second week of next month--where's the etiquette?). Because is hip-hop going to pay any real attention to this comp? Hell if I know.

I am curious to see what actually happens with this album.

(Either way, I think burying the white midget twelve tracks deep was a bad move. Am I right?)

(Am I right? Incidentally, I'm not trying to suggest any conflict of interest there. I wouldn't.)

I'll probably be doing this, probably forever

2005-02-17T00:13:00.000-08:00

"Popvert is not a band...it's a project"

Several different manifestations of being that asshole who sits around and mocks other people present themselves when I read the statement above, but I'm going to try to narrow it down.

First off, a musical project involving a bunch of musicians who don't want to be called a band had ought to have something to do with theater or therapy, or maybe specialized carpentry. It's just not a good premise for a group of people that make pop music. My problem with these sort of "beyond mere music" statements about music is that I just don't think there's anything wrong with music. It would be one thing if these people made sound art, but they do a straight-ahead OMD cover here.

And secondly, those aren't my quotes, but rather the quotation marks of the publicist (ie, "'Popvert is not a band...it's a project'"). As I was reading this press release, there was this bit I was crafting in my head about the ironic subversion of sentiment when my step-mother writes, with quotation marks, "'Happy Birthday'" on birthday cards. That somehow evolved into how, if I were going to make fun of myself for being totally pretentious about this blog that I thought was artistically important and beyond mere haphazard pontification, I would say something like, "Promocopy is not a blog...it's a project," and I'd put rabbit ears in the air with my hands to indicate quotation marks.

But then, I got to the bottom of the one-sheet and saw that the "not a band" statement is repeated, and I realized that the initial quote is not a subtitle, but rather a pull quote. I can't figure out if whoever wrote this is potentially crafty enough (although simultaneously, I hope, quite naive) to believe that this kind of editorial device is going to fly in a piece of promotional copy, or rather that this person just doesn't really recognized the difference between promotional and editorial. It's a toss-up.

I guess I could go on. There's loads about the people in the band--one called Pepvert (ie, Pepvert of Popvert) and another known as "Ninja Drummer," and a reference to this album as a "'great record'" (yes, again in quotation marks), but it doesn't really matter. While this is an exaggeratedly dumb music project (at least in conception, although I'm not saying the music is good) promoted with exaggeratedly dumb language, I can't say that the techniques utilized here are much different than what I read all day long from dozens of other one-sheets. Without strong pop stats, it sometimes seems like it's all the same approach:

1. This product is incomparably unique, just because (+ strange words)
2. These are names that you recognize and should associate with this product

The point being, again, that music promotion has less to do with furnishing critics with functional details (eg, musicians involved, previous work) than it does with lamely attempting to direct critical response. It's not that I'm naive to the fact that the music industry runs on this kind of fuel, but my convictions feel a little infringed upon when this sort of crap as offered as unique and independent art. Or whatever, the shit is just stupid and annoying.

"This is not a tantrum...it's a project"

breakdown (the chicken)

2005-02-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

Apologies to readers for how little of what I'm supposed to be doing here has actually appeared here over the last couple weeks. It's a busy season with whatever I do for a living.

And so: I got the Mahjongg LP in the mail the other day, and the one-sheet says that Cold Crush is putting it out on, um, sometime after now. (Just because I can, I looked it up on the Cold Crush website: 3/22/2005.)

The promotional angle taken on this one is tricky, or possibly just confused: "Way back in the day..."--I'm slightly paraphrasing here, as the copy is really fucked up and punky (ie, "way back intheeedddayyyyy99999MaHJ?ONHHGG")--"...Mahjongg ruled the charts...[the forthcoming album] RaYDONcoNG 2005 is the pinnacle so far of Mahjongg's five albums on Cold Crush...all the facets of their platinum-plus sound."

Being passingly familiar with Mahjongg, Cold Crush and Call Girl PR, who sent me the disc + press release, I'm inclined to think that the copy is not the fault of the latter party. So, I'm not shooting any messengers today. But here's the position I'm dealing with: over-the-top sarcasm suggesting the implausible and false multi-platinum and large-back-catalogue stature of this band. But that's no big deal. I'm used to, like, totally not being serious, as well as watching kids from undergroundland fetishizing popularity positioned as the new and titillating and safe and indie-friendly ur-popularity. I think we used to call it "doing it for the wrong reasons," and its eventual outcome "selling out," but I understand this kind of name-calling is just passe, reductive, etc., these days.

Where that first bit of copy above gets tricky is when the press release goes on to state that Mahjongg's "debut EP...announced a big noise in the music world." Did anyone else hear that noise? I'm still hearing silence. But, within the scope of this one-sheet's agenda, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to take this statement seriously. Is everything in this press release supposed to be read in terms of the absurdist exaggeration of the opening lines noted above? My guess is no, and that whoever wrote this thing is just trying to sneak in the idea that Mahjongg is, well, relevant. Because the copy goes on to say that "Mahjongg is basically a bar band that got lucky," which works as self-deprecation, except that I don't see how this band ever got lucky (a Cold Crush deal?). So it's just more of the sort of "This Band Has Arrived" proclamations that indie publicists spend all day trying to get across--merely wrapped in we-don't-give-a-fuck rhetoric.

People who write promotional copy are schemers, I'm telling you. Unpack that shit.

In all honesty, I was actually a little surprised that there wasn't much excitement over the band's first EP (I really like at least half of Machinegong, and the full-length is moving on me). Not to get all Pitchfork-is-runnin'-things-indie, but I think that site is a pretty good indicator of what is popular in Indie Rock--and, as far as I can tell, the EP wasn't even reviewed there. Mahjongg strikes me as so perfectly of-the-moment and fashionable (and I say that with no hidden criticism, but rather as a suggestion that Mahjongg is so potentially hot!), except for that they're not yet hot. But maybe that's just me. Again: did I somehow miss the impact this band made? I'm willing to be persuaded.

The frustrating upshot of all of this is that the one-sheet really does attempt to satirize the act of record promotion via the use of promotional tools like one-sheets. For example: "For Fans Of: ...Duck Rock...Razor Scooters...Oxygen" and "Exists In the Same World As: ...Digital Cable...Indonesian Is the New Sumatran." I'm not completely insensitive to the idea that the promotion of pop art can be really dodgy, but the sardonic sentiment strikes me as a little disingenuous when it comes in a readymade promotional tool sent with this commodified piece of art by a company that gets paid to enable bands to make a "big noise." Although, this let's-sell-the-music-alongside-the-message-that-selling-the-music-is-lame stance is kind of a normal maneuver for indie rock PR, methinks.

“The Day Things Changed”

2005-02-14T16:14:00.000-08:00

Touch and Go (+ Quarterstick) has a fine new website, and today's front page is raw. Publicist Miranda Lange cracks wise, "How was anyone to know that the internet was was not a fad equivalent to the CB of the 90’s? ...for a while there it really looked like it was just something set up between Star Trek fans needing to find out when the next convention was."

Who cares?, I know, but I think it's safe for me to say that T&G is one of my all time fave labels (yeah, I'm still on the edge of my seat every time Knuckles gets sent to the glue factory), and I'm very pleased to see the label finally get rid of that "temporary" web presence that's been around for as long as I can remember.

just good news (psychological methods to sell should be destroyed)

2005-02-13T22:40:00.000-08:00

This straight from Howard Wuelfing, with no complaints from me:

The San Pedro Film Society in association with Rocket Fuel Films is proud to announce the premiere of We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen at 8PM on Friday, February 25, 2005 at San Pedro's historic Warner Grand Theatre. Minutemen Mike Watt and George Hurley along with Director Tim Irwin and Producer Keith Schieron will sit for a question and answer session with the audience after the screening...

Ten buck in Pedro, rather south of LA. Check out the trailer.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen is a feature length documentary chronicling this ground breaking, early 80's punk rock band from their humble beginnings in the harbor town of San Pedro, CA to their untimely demise when lead singer and guitarist D. Boon was killed in a van accident in December of 1985.

Told by those who were there, We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen weaves together footage from over fifty newly shot interviews with archival interviews and live performances to capture the dynamic energy and do-it-yourself spirit of these punk rock pioneers. Newly shot interviews include Minutemen Mike Watt and George Hurley as well as Bill Morgan, Brendan Mullen, Brother Dale, Brother Matt, Byron Coley, Carla Bozulich, Carlos Guitarlos, Chris Morris, Colin Newman, Dave Markey, David Rees, Dez Cadena, Ed Crawford, Flea, Greg Ginn, Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, J Mascis, Jack Brewer, Jean Watt, Jello Biafra, Joe Baiza, Joe Carducci, John Doe, John Talley-jones, Keith Morris, Kevin Barrett, Kira Roessler, Kjehl Johansen, Kurt Schellenbach, Lisa Roeland, Martin Lyon, Michel C. Ford, Mike Martt, Milo Auckerman, Nannette Roeland, Nels Cline, Pat Hoed, Randy Johnson, Ray Farrell, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Bonney, Richard Derrick, Richard Hell, Richard Meltzer, Bobby Holtzman, Scott Becker, Thurston Moore, Tom Watson, Tony Platon and Vince Meghrouni.

continuing education

2005-02-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

All I'm doing today is waxing malcontent with these people.

Hey Publicists!

2005-02-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

Put some release dates on these one-sheets! Please.

I can listen to the music and come up with my own adjectives to describe it.

behind the sweet scenes

2005-02-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

Promotional copy about rock music = the new rock music? Yeah!

the heat is on

2005-02-09T22:27:00.000-08:00

Word of those rascally publicists murmuring about this blog has again surfaced, once more giving me the false impression that anyone is paying attention. The Promocopy Boosters this week reported mixed responses from publicists, who, all in all, seem to like the concept at play here. But only in theory--definitely not when it's aimed directly at them. How reasonable. (Watch some other lucky wordsmith's name vanish from the roster forever--because, Wait--not all publicity is good publicity!) Said boosters were wise enough to not actually forward any email to Promocopy this time around (lest I "blog that shit" ©). So no direct quotes. Sorry, readers. I guess you're just going to have to take my word and trust my character.

There. Now that I have my smug statement of denial out of the way, and while on the topic of character: I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that the jig is up for Promocopy as it was originally envisioned. I'm just not clever, thorough or possessed with ample free time enough to cover all my bases, and inquisitive minds are on to my identity. While I've been receiving accusatory email from the beginning, this last week has shown a sharp increase in messages from folks who are keen to who's behind this thing. And a few of them appear to be particularly pleased with themselves. Well done, lads!

Stay tuned for breaking coverage of my haphazard management of multiple personality disorder, pathological lying, obsessive/compulsive behavior, and, like, my career.

exit music

2005-02-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

Howard Wuelfing writes: "From his groundbreaking transcriptions...to his unforgettably sublime interpretations of classic and new repertoire, pianist Christopher O'Riley has redefined the possibilities of classical music"...by doing Radiohead covers.

It seems kind of late in the game to be listening to classical music for any other reason than the fact that pop music is dumb. Or are the kids hep to this stuff? "This ain't yr grandfather's classical music"? Kudos to Wuelfing for attempting to sell this oddity (or otherworldly treasure of sonic elegance, whatever) to a pop audience, although I have to wonder what this press release looks like to someone who reviews classical music. All of that said, this stuff (if a bit gimmicky) is actually pretty good. But, of course, I'm a geek.

And anyway, wasn't that gag pretty much driven into the ground by the end of that string of marginally successful alternative rock albums Wendy Carlos recorded throughout the '90s?

I obviously have neither a sense of humor nor any clue what I'm talking about.

when the levee breaks

2005-02-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

Jason Roth at Capitol (EMI) informs me that Morningwood will be touring with The Music this spring, and that its "legendary sweat-soaked live shows, featuring their playful brand of hard distortion pop, have been known to include spirited bumping, grinding, dancing, stuffed animals and at least one known audience member being shipped off to Bellevue hospital during the set." Not to be insensitive, but: Crazy!

Also noted: "Morningwood is like springtime in my pants." (Vice) Great. Thank you.

rock/roll is bitchin

2005-02-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

Anyone know anything about the etymology of the critics-are-full-of-shit argument? Is it related (in reference to music) to the music-critics-are-failed-musicians line, or is it more in the pop-culture-is-not-real-culture camp?

demon boyz?

2005-02-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

"There's a widely held belief that [Roots Manuva's] influence in the UK is incalculable," says Trevor Seamon at Score Press. Sorta passive, but I'll take it. "...and that he opened the door for the success of The Streets, Dizzee Rascal." Um, I'd kinda hate to put it all in Rodney Smith's lap. But anyway, new album Awfully Deep out April 19 on Big Dada, although it was out last month in the UK (even Canada gets it in March). What sense does that make, Ninja Tune? Don't make me start posting mp3s. I'll do it.

call me habitual

2005-02-07T23:12:00.000-08:00

(Sean Booth, Member of the Biological Stakeholders Group of Placer County, CA)

Bryn Bridenthal wrote to tell me about the company that's doing pre-sale tickets for Green Day's forthcoming tour ("open to all Green Day fans"): "Cinder Block Inc. is a leading independent merchandising and licensing company...with an emphasis on quality, integrity, customer service and product innovation – principles forged from its punk rock roots." (I'm getting that once you're Green Day in 2005, who sells the tickets is more interesting than who makes the music?) Better Cinder Block than this monster, for sure. Although I'm a little uncomfortable associating "punk rock roots" with "corporate clients including Pixar, Sega, several sports teams (Oakland Raiders, San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's) and more." Local is good. Whatever.

But then: Sam Hunt, who runs Velocirecords wrote to tell me that he accidentally downloaded some Canadian singer-songwriter's album thinking it was a project by one of the guys in Autechre. (Incidentally, the two musicians have the same name.)

You have to admire Hunt's nose for opportunity, as he's now putting the guy's record out. Yeah! That's how independent music works!

[So I have a few heroes]

2005-02-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

[Big deal]

molto grazie

2005-02-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

Huge thanks to I'm So Sinsurr and Pop Life for mentioning me earlier this week. (Oliver Wang kind of inspired me into this blog world, but more on that another time.) I'm a big fan of both of those blogs, so getting the nod is quite rewarding.

And if anyone is going to get to the bottom of that unsolved Galkin/Nickelodeon mystery, I think we know it's Catchdubs.

Also: The Fader throws a bone over here!

Bananas! says Aoki, who I briefly spoke to at that thing last night before he spotted somebody more important. Whatever. (I don't even think the dude writes his own promo copy, I'm so sure.) I later saw his sister (also Aoki) trying to get into the club after the main event. Small world, small guest list.

I didn't even know Fader had a blog.

Interrobang (?!) #1

2005-02-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Julianne Shepherd with a column at Pitchfork?

That's what I hear from the Unicorn's tear.

Nice.

somewhere in the amazon

2005-02-04T01:33:00.000-08:00

At the risk of giving away my geography:

Sean, I hope you got your shit together, because I would not want to have missed what went down tonight. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like in New York, where people have been seriously preparing for this. Folks out here were just awestruck.

My only exposure to Dip so far being Florida (read: no live experience), I wasn't really prepared for what that dude brings to the club. I caught on pretty quick.

I mean, she's a great performer, totally in control of what she's doing in front of a crowd. But given her tracks versus his, in the live setting, I'm going with the latter.

Of course, she's still on top of it. Serious moments of perfection.

I don't pay attention to Epitaph

2005-02-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

New Sage Francis on Epitaph Feb. 8? News to me, but I guess that's why I follow So Many Shrimp. Really good rundown of the project over there.

With a Sixtoo track! Alias, DangerMouse, Joey Beats! Will Oldham? I mean, I really like Will Oldham.

Check out the mp3s at the bottom of that post.

You know I had to run over to Epitaph to have a look at the PR: "We may never know just how the smallest state in the Union ended up home to one of the loudest voices of our time." Some qualification may have helped that statement.

Anyway, don't let me turn you off.

(And I like The Locust. Big deal.)

no one listens anyway

2005-02-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

OK, back to the trash talk: I think I am probably as surprised as anyone to hear that Reel Big Fish is still bothering with it. Come April 5, We're Not Happy Till You're Not Happy, the band's first album (I think) since 2002's Cheer Up, hits the bargain bins (look for the hole punch through the barcode).

Granted, attempting to criticize this Reel Big Fish's schtick is a lost cause when the inevitable, "'Dude,' you just don't 'get it'--we're only 'in' it for 'the money!'" looms snickeringly over about 98.3 percent of any form of public relations (including the music) this band has ever embarked upon. I generally don't feel comfortable being totally dismissive and plain mean to a band, but zany cynicism is Reel Big Fish's capital, so I figure I might as well just trade.

Says the one-sheet: "The new album was co-produced by Shawn Sullivan and Reel Big Fish front man Aaron Barrett," the latter being the only member of this revolving-door lineup to be mentioned in the release. Idiosyncratic Control Freak seems to be a tag that follows Barrett around, so his singular presence here may be by design.

Two covers grace this album: Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout a Revolution," and Morrissey's "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful," the latter of which I can only imagine is aimed at "the haters." Although the issue is no doubt far more complicated than I am able to comprehend, as the irony of a second-rate Suburban Rhythm tribute band thumbing a nose at its legion of fair-weather fans cannot be lost on Barrett. Who's Suburban Rhythm? Precisely.

In his defense, Mike Cubillos from Earshot Media just kind of lets this shit speak for itself. I think, like the rest of us, he's confused about how to respond to (let alone promote) a band that mocks itself for making crap music and its fans for buying it.

still getting random

2005-02-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

I know this self-referential shit has got to be getting a bit tiresome, but I couldn't help noticing that someone came to Promocopy the other day via a Google search for "actress and 'only 4'11'."

Think this person is a casting agent? Or What?

Of course that Google search was funneled to an older post here on the white midget, one that was undercooked and will probably prove to be just dumb. Much as I want to dismiss her, she kind of defies my will-to-aversion. Hardly Art, Hardly Garbage equivocated this morning about some simmering commentary on the young MC, which I'm looking forward to.

And, of course, he also waxes giddy on this week's main event. Dude, I'm in your corner.

Somebody in Toronto want to write me tomorrow and tell me how it went?

one thing

2005-02-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

Like a lot of people who listen almost exclusively to rock bands on small labels, my sense of how reasonable it is to listen to pop music has changed a lot over the last couple years. Much contemporary indie music crit is seriously addressing how, like, totally OK the Billboard singles chart is, but I'm still a little more interested in how outsider musicians are considering the pop realm.

Go on about Beyonce as much as you want, but the real draw of an artist, for me, is the fact that she's coming from the same place I am. Because I can't really relate to why public perception is of any real concern.

That said, I've always been struck by the idea (particularly in recent years) that indie music has a touch of fantasy in it, and that even the most independent of musicians is still in some ways that kid in her underwear in front of the mirror singing into a brush handle and playing popstar. No one last year spoke to me on that level so much as Khaela Maricich, who performs as The Blow: "Hock It"

And while there’s really no point in comparing Maricich’s voice to, say, Beyonce’s, I think playing pop is more and more of what independent music--even in a post-punk tradition--is about these days.

money, it's a hit

2005-02-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

Anyone else asked for a user ID and password to look at Pitchfork this morning, about 11:00 am EST?

Redesign kink? I'm not looking forward to paying for that content.

deux real action heroes

2005-02-01T22:57:00.000-08:00

Medicom et Headbangers sont heureux de vous faire part de la naissance des 12"inch Daft Punk, un set de deux Real Action Heroes à l'effigie du célèbre duo français. Vous ne pouvez toujours pas les voir mais au moins vous pourrez les toucher! 1000 exemplaires dans le monde, 250 en France, en avant-première chez colette dès le 7 février. 300 euros.

pitchfork on high

2005-02-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

Referring to the lead news story at Pitchfork today: It's kind of hard to tell if writer Nick Patch (Nic Patch?) is making fun of himself (or his editor?) for suggesting the site has "exclusive" information on the forthcoming Spoon release--that a new album titled Gimme Fiction, "is complete and set to be released May 10 via Merge Records." "We're pretty fucking excited," he ironizes, setting back the cause of progressive, post-irony indie rockers everywhere [rather a Pitchfork-esque turn of phrase, eh?] . "Yeah, like Who's The Boss on DVD excited." But you would think the Pitchfork editors actually are excited, because they made the decision to put "Exclusive" on the heading. But not that excited, because it wouldn't be cool.

Anyway, I digress: What does "Exclusive" mean on the internet, when this story is just sitting around waiting to be scooped and dumped on someone else's web page for immediate publication. Does the fact that Spoon, if questioned, would say they gave the release date of their album to Pitchfork before they gave it to anyone else make any difference to someone who reads the information here first?

And in case anything else in that news story is seemingly important to Spoon fans, I think versions of that tracklist have been floating about since October. Just saying.

Moving from the catty and obviously envious into the merely annoying: My criticism being that the egalitarian strengths of the internet are sort of undermined by Pitchfork politically using its weight to get information before anyone else (yes, I understand it was surely in the best interests of Spoon to cooperate) and then suggesting (although pointlessly) that this information is exclusive to the site.

You can get all that stuff here, anyway, "exclusive" or not. I read Pitchfork every day. I'll tell you about it.

must make money soon before end

2005-01-31T21:05:00.000-08:00

I don’t think I’ve ever previously received a press release attempting to rationalize [my own language] a musician’s decision to put her music in a beer ad, but here it is. The gist is that SF deep house DJ Kaskade’s “upbeat acoustical dance mix” “Steppin’ Out” has been tapped [hey now!] by “leading music design company” DeepMix for use in a “dynamic Budweiser spot” that is “visually driven” and concerns “how various people enjoy Budweiser.”

Amazing. You really can’t write this stuff. Except for that somebody did.

Cue house thump: DeepMix Takes Budweiser On A Musical “Journey”…

“American Journey” opens on a close-up of Budweiser bottle spraying as its cap is popped open. The view segues to bottles of the beer raining down from the sky and into the hands of people in various situations -- a couple enjoying the outdoor weather, patrons at an art event, friends hanging out at home, and customers enjoying dinner at a restaurant and at a bar. As the bottles continue to drop with precise delivery into people's hands, an attractive woman turns towards a man at the bar and grabs a falling bottle of beer -- apparently the last one since the guy comes up empty-handed.

The music-oriented spot concludes with the recognizable Bud crown logo and the motion graphics "Bright. Crisp. Clean. Pure."

Like I always say: This blog writes itself.

And there’s even info about the music in this press release from Om Records: "We felt the track fit well into the spot since it had an organic and contemporary feel, as well as global appeal,” says Dave Curtin, “DeepMix Music Supervisor.” “Also, we had a strong relationship with the record label and artist so we knew we could work out a deal that would fall within the agency's budget."

I appreciate how he candidly addresses not only having to work on the cheap, but also his ambition to take this thing global. If I were sitting on a concept so novel as budget beer, attractive women and an empty-handed, drunken male gaze, I’d so be all over that shit!

turn the bullshit off

2005-01-31T15:33:00.000-08:00

Although I'm not a big Jin fan, I really can't overstate the quality of sentiment behind his response to Hot 97's "Tsunami Song."

Listen to it here, courtesy of his website.

putting the dude back in dfa

2005-01-31T11:39:00.000-08:00

Much as I want to keep this from being a gossip column for indie (by which, in this case, I sorta mean "indie") geeks...

It all started out last week when I noticed that someone had come to Promocopy via a Google search for "hey dude jonathan galkin." I recognized the name, as Jonathan Galkin is the DFA label manager who's kind of the behind-the-scenes guy, handles the paperwork, the press, all that.

Curiosity piqued, I checked out the Google search and found that someone named Jonathan Galkin had appeared on a television show called "Hey Dude " that ran on Nickelodeon between 1989 and 1991. I didn't bother writing the person I know as Jonathan Galkin about it, as, in my experience, it's hard enough getting in touch with him when you want to give his label real press, let alone making fun of him on your blog. But IMDB seems to think it's the same guy.

I don't know how well this translates to anyone outside my head, but I'm thoroughly humored that this guy who's been thickly involved in the arbitration of indie cool over the past few years has entertainment roots in a television show about kids lounging at a ranch. Although Galkin's presence on "Hey Dude" apparently started out slowly, by episode 32, "Superstition," his character's superstitious nature preventing him from trying out for a TV game show was the stuff that would drive a whole episode.

(Despite the fact that he didn't ultimately pan out to be a favorite of viewers.)

Uh, so: During the course of the show's lifespan, Galkin's character Jake would go on to "discover the identity of a mysterious peeping Tom who's been bothering the gang" in "Return of Ted," he would "investigate a case of thievery" in "Presumed Stupid," and in "The Legend of Jed," "the staff invents an imaginary worker to blame for [Jake's] mistakes" in order to keep him from being fired. Yeah yeah yeah!

Go here to hear a clip of what I'm assuming is the theme song. So rad. I can only dream of hearing this clilp on a future DFA release...

crib notes

2005-01-31T09:13:00.000-08:00

Rather a novice on the topic of UK Garage, I've been reading quite a bit from Chantelle Fiddy's World of Grime of late, and I just noticed that she's now an "overseas correspondent" at The Tofu Hut.

Here's an informed consideration of the LCD Soundsystem album. I'm probably more willing to just let it ride as a singles collection. And "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" (although described here with such humorous precision as the Strokes doing the Stranglers) is still dumbly moving me, as it will, I think, a lot of people.

Rolling Stone continues to suck capitalism. All reverent and shit.

At least one person likes the new Daft Punk.

That damned Coachella.

Yeah, I don't know what any of this has to do with promotional copy. It's been kind of slow.

love and law

2005-01-30T01:58:00.000-08:00

Still fairly new on the scene, I've only had the good fortune to come into contact with (aka) the Unicorn's tear quite recently, and I only ventured so far as to link it this morning. Much to my delight, Jessica of said blog had a very nice thing or two to say about Promocopy this very afternoon. Thank you kindly!

(Relegated to the) Third Division status is a bit of a misnomer on that one, as tinyluckygenius only entered the ranks today. I foresee a bright future in which I just pay even more attention to that blog because I'm such an unabashed sucker for compliments.

In further world-revolves-around-this-blog news: I spoke to my lawyer today concerning that law firm checking me out the other day. He told me that I'm worth so incredibly little that there would be no incentive to go after me in any way.

(Full Disclosure: I am indeed so poor that I am in no position to retain a lawyer. This is just how my friends talk to me.)

He then dove into some analogy about the internet being some sort of wild west of free speech, all muffled against the throb of my aching pride. Or whatever. Point being that I shouldn't bother thinking twice about posting stuff like this:

Music from EMI

This e-mail including any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received it in error please advise the sender immediately by return email and then delete it from your system. The unauthorised use, distribution, copying or alteration of this email is strictly forbidden. If you need assistance please contact us on +44 20 7795 7000.

takin' it back

2005-01-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, who--since we're here--are described by Judy Miller at Motormouth Media as "today's premier source of real Funk & Soul." I don't think I need to address the overstatement.

Anyhow, these folks just released Naturally this week, an album of very decent retro soul and funk. The album is good, but up against Aretha Franklin and the Meters--I mean, there's a reason Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are going back to reference these artists.

All of that said, this last week's Soul Sides, which is Oliver Wang's informative and entertaining (if a bit dry) "record-appreciation [audio]blog," offered fine retro-sympathies toward the Dap-Kings' cause. Wang also posted a great Paul Nice remix of "Got To Be Love," originally a track by Greyboy, featuring Sharon Jones.

any review, retransmission or other use of this information...

2005-01-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

Somebody from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, apparently one of the largest law firms in the world, was looking at Promocopy for over five hours today. Sounds potentially annoying.

more information

2005-01-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Out Hud's new album Let Us Never Speak of It Again! is ready to go, due for release on March 21. You can hear annoyingly truncated pieces of several of the album's tracks at the band's website.

You'll also find a portion of the first single, "One Life To Leave" (out Feb. 7) on the site. It's described by the band's label as "two exclusive tracks and an indication of the awesomeness of the album to follow." I'm not going to argue with that kind of Cali-talk. And anyway, I'm not here to tell you how good or bad this album is.

This band can probably do without promo copy (and the offerings are quite slim), as critics were falling over themselves to file Street Dad's highest bid. While I never thought Street Dad was the godsend it was hailed to be--sort of spotty to my ears--I think Out Hud is amazing live and I was intrigued to see what would happen as this band developed in the studio (although many of these tracks date from early 2003).

The oft-cited post-Street Dad vocals from Phyllis Forbes and Molly Schnick work very well, helping to flesh out some of the undercooked pastiche passing as songs on the first album. Some of these tunes also sound conspicuously club friendly without loosing any of the weirdness. I don't hear anything that reaches the heights of "Dad, There's a Little Phrase...," but that's just me.

take money

2005-01-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

I'm told that former Ms. BIG Faith Evans' "time is now. You can see it in her newly toned physique." No kidding. Those are literally the first lines of the press release. I suspect that pic on the right wasn't taken at the gym, but that's beside the point.

Her forthcoming album The First Lady is supposedly "Faith Evans as you've never experienced her...Rich with womanly insight and wisdom..." What the fuck is "womanly insight"? Is that better or worse than real "insight"?

Aren't there any better ways to condescend to this person than to simply file her "womanly" qualities? I'll say it again: The public isn't stupid, it's these publicity machines creating an environment of stupid consumption (I'm talking concepts here as much as product). Art isn't about physique. Unless someone wants to make an analogy between pop music and porn. I'm all ears.

"Ten years into a career that has had its share of tribulations..." OK, that's what the pic is all about. I know it sounds like I'm making fun of her, but I'm really making fun of her publicist.

"I'm still here," Evans says. OK, I'm kind of making fun of her. She's on the Coach Carter soundtrack and the album comes out on some major label on March 29.

big city nights

2005-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

This info courtesy of Jon Galkin over at DFA: The new LCD Soundsystem site is up, where you can find videos for "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" and "Movement," two tracks from LCD's forthcoming LP (in stores 2/15). Both videos are fairly boring but mere dressing for two fairly righteous songs, the latter of which documents James Murphy's sustained evolution toward Mark E. Smith (in vocal if not in lyricism) better than anything else on the record. All in my humble opinion, of course.

The video for "Daft Punk..." makes direct allusions to Spike Jonze's video for--and this makes perfect sense, really--Daft Punk's "Da Funk." There's also this corny in-the-red motif throughout the video, as well as a conspicuously near-absolute presence of caucasians, which I guess is all part of the DFA revolution.

But that's all promocrap--the songs themselves, particularly "Daft Punk...," are damned catchy, and I've been listening pretty regularly. There are also a few fine promocopy.blogspot.com possibilities in the press release for the album, but out of respect to the disc's publicist, I will promote this thing no further.

down for a jack move

2005-01-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

Mixed thanks to digitalbul1et for pointing me toward Revolution In The Head, where I found this absurdist take on "Straight Outta Compton."

I'm in favor of rendering the voice of the oppressed comical and white people using the word "ni*ga" under the shield of irony as much as anyone (hey, it's a post-racism world, right?), but it's the cheap exchange of melody for rhythm that really bothers me.

power ballin'

2005-01-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

As much as I hate to say it, I'm here to give respect to both Ashley Chafin, publicist at Capitol Records (EMI), and the capitalist machine she's playing the role of cog within. "Capitol Recording Artist Chingy Announces US Tour," reads the headline of this press release in front of me, and all copy that follows is as straightforward and factual. No hyperbole, no quotes from crooked critics, no begging for press, none of the bullshit that I'm here to complain about--just straight references to multiple top ten Billboard chart placements, half a dozen recent talk show appearances, (triple) platinum and gold (so far) selling albums, live appearances and duets with gigantic stars, an appearance on the soundtrack of a #1 movie at the box office last week, and a handful of shows next month opening for DJ Quik.

There's literally nothing in this press release for me to talk shit about.

I guess I could sit here and tell you this MC sucks, but does it really matter?

london calling

2005-01-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Catchdubs and in the face of a bitter aversion to service fees, I picked up that MIA ticket last night. I didn't want to say anything until all purchases were final. I hate the competition.

floating in my tin can [sic]

2005-01-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

In case anyone out there recognized the first Fischerspooner album as "a shot heard around the world, an end-of-the millennium musical statement of pure digital and visual style," this one's for you. Come April 5, the art-pop goes back on stage with Fischerspooner's sophomore release, Odyssey.

(In some ways, I don't even know why I'm approaching this topic: Is there any way that promotional copy about Fischerspooner could not be ridiculously over the top?)

Ahem. According to Jason Roth at Capital (that's EMI), the duo's new album, Odyssey ("so named for the unexpected emotional and artistic journey it took to make") is no less than "a vast musical leap forward, and its realization would...stretch the duo to their physical and creative breaking point." Gosh.

"For their second album, Fischerspooner had a new agenda--to create a cohesive album of songs"... Hah! Ok, just kidding. That's selective quotation. "...that were more expressive and emotional than their predecessors." Much improved.

"Like the albums that inspired it, Odyssey is a bona fide headphone album, layered with hidden sounds and ideas that reward the close listener. 'I was thinking of songs I remembered hearing on the radio as a kid,' says Fischer. 'That warm seventies FM sound coming off the radio from bands like The Beatles or Pink Floyd.'" [sigh]

Why even bother with the musicality of it all when it seems clear to anyone paying attention that the stage show is really what Fischerspooner is about. I mean, look at that picture above. That's not even anyone involved with the music! That's just the help! Fischerspooner is way less about music than it is art. And by "art," I'm talking about halfway between this type of thing and this. Am I wrong?

Although I think that's enough, this dude cut/pasted track by track info from the press release. Go ahead and look--you know you want to.

OK, Just one more delectably pretentious nugget from this press release, which goes on about how "Spooner reached out to the unlikely pairing of hit songwriter Linda Perry and pre-eminent intellectual Susan Sontag in a bid to reflect the twin pillars of their inspiration--high art and pop culture."

Spooner: "When I approached Susan, it was September 2003. I went to her house and had this fantasy that we would pick something to work on together from my notebook of ideas."

Roth: "Instead, after a brief discussion, she disappeared into her library and returned fifteen minutes later with a printed sheet of lyrics titled 'We Need A War.'"

Spooner: "I read them and said, I don't think I can say the word 'war.' I'm not comfortable saying it."

Sontag: "You need to get comfortable saying it. Your president approved eighty billion dollars for a war in Iraq yesterday."

fin

unpaid programming

2005-01-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

Petra Haden, who you may recall is currently preparing for the Feb. 22 release of her Who Sell Out vocal album, has fetched economical praise for the project from Who guy Pete Townshend, himself: "I love it. It is exquisite."

Howard Wuelfing describes Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out (there's a tiny photo at right from those tight bastards at Bar None) as "a tour de force," a statement that I don't really have anything to say about other than the fact that I kind of doubt its accuracy. But then again, what do I know.

Haden is also apparently singing backup vocals on that new Beck album that was leaked--you know, the one at that link that no longer works.

More interesting still, she's featured on the forthcoming Decemberists record, Picaresque, offering vocals and strings, and she'll be touring with the band in March/April. Wuelfing further notes that Haden has "not join[ed] as a permanent member," in case anyone was wondering.

rick james, bitch!

2005-01-19T16:16:00.000-08:00

So, after (merely annoyingly) making off with a stolen dime bag of DFA hand-claps and Richard X's hangover, Peter Hook, paranoid and sleepless, flees to Tokyo, where he happens upon a young Frank Black method acting the hazy memory of dubbing Tron into Japanese two weeks past deadline. Hook likes what he sees, and asks Black to audition for his next project--but only after retiring to the bathroom for a rail that's going to push off sleep just long enough to conceptualize what's about to happen...

As promised, here's a taste of the new Mu record, Out Of Breach (Manchester's Revenge), out February 21 on Output Recordings:

"We Love Guys Named Luke"

"Stop Bothering Michael Jackson"

You'll also want to check out the current issue of XLR8R, which features a cover story on the fab Mu herself.

As one of the above tracks is already readily available for purchase, and the other is nowhere near the best track on the record, I do suggest that you go out and buy Out Of Breach next month. I'm also kind of pulling for Gamall Awad, one of the good guys, who is promoting this record for Backspin.

rita spits out her laurel leaf

2005-01-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Of course, I'm not the only one doing this sort of thing.

with measured steps...

2005-01-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

Although I balked the other night when a friend mocked me for "counting hits," I have to admit to periodically checking up on where this blog's traffic is coming from. I noticed this weekend that multiple entries had come from a secured zone at the web site of They Walk In Line, a band that readers probably won't recall having been poked fun at around here. Upon following the link, a page on the band's website informed me that, "This server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested."

Was Promocopy being discussed behind closed doors? My very own? I can only dream that anyone is paying so much attention.

Nonetheless, sap that I am, I began to feel bad for dismissing this band before hearing its record, even though my criticisms in that post had specifically to do with an uncreative band name (one that unfortunately evokes the image of mechanical adherence to a mindless structure). (What?! This blog's about music promotion, after all.) To boot, the band's bio finds the group compared to various "pillars of alternative/indie rock" while admitting that, as recently as one year ago, "the band was not ready to settle on a direction"--immediately followed by a brief description of meeting with some A&R dude (gets a band focu$ed every time).

I combed the incoming media pile for this disc--which I don't remember seeing--fruitlessly, giving up to the notion that perhaps this band's publicist sent only the one-sheet, which actually happens quite often.

Fortunately, as it were, the band's site boasts mp3s: one track from the band's forthcoming LP Medical Necessities, and two from a former EP. Midtempo, slightly whiney, shoegazer stuff with inoffensive and predictable soft/loud exchanges, all reverby and comfy with echo. Not at all terrible.

So there you are. I'm not taking anything back, but now I can say with a guilt-free conscience that this band's name is worse than its music. And in all fairness, it's not like naming your band after a song penned by another band is without precedent. I'm sorry if I gave anyone that impression.

of course

2005-01-17T19:47:00.000-08:00

On the heels of that last post:

If Martin Luther king was alive today what would he be doing tonight?

Mr. King would tune into KXLU's Neuze Pollution @ 11pm for BEDROOM WALLS!

KXLU 88.9FM
http://www.kxlu.com/

BEDROOM WALLS
http://www.bedroomwalls.com

we thank you for caring and so does the great Mr. King!

Dave freeman and Bedroom Walls
aim: fallingelevator
323.344.1972

Anyone bothered with this kind of handling of Dr. King should feel free to get in touch with Dave Freeman and tell him about it: dave_femg@earthlink.net

MLK

2005-01-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

Pleased to find publicists giving it a rest today, and moved by reading what Kris Ex pulled together for the occasion.

if you happen to be accustomed to getting rubbed

2005-01-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

Now, I'm hardly the type of person who would make light of another individual whose loneliness in the world might cause him to express the anguish of an alienated, emotionally destructive life in public view, but DJ Jester & Quad Rod recently made a whole album for Fever Pitch about this type of thing, called Table for One.

Here's a piece of it, a track that doesn't nearly do the album--essentially a DJ's concept record about breakups--justice but still kind of gets the agenda across. But that's all you're getting, because this blog's about lame promotional materials. And the stuff that DJ Jester wrote to promote his own album is all pretty sincere and candid, so I'd kind of be doing you, the reader, a disservice by giving you any more on this record, right?

(Not Yet Titled)

2005-01-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

I hear that a new Beck album has been leaked (am I late on this?) for any of you ingrates out there who might be interested. But you're going to have to go to digitalbul1et to find out about it.

daily feature

2005-01-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

Finally with this new Pitchfork business.

whip crack

2005-01-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

In further egotistical and overbearingly self-referential Promocopy news...

I know I said the other day that this was a one-man effort, but someone who had been furnishing me with press releases just got shit from a publicist about my treatment of the material. So there you have it, while I'm doing all the writing here, there's at least one person out there pushing material my way and (so far) taking the fall for my trash talk.

I'm not going to mention this guy's name, so as not to aggravate him further or belittle the single publicist who cares about the issue (stay tuned and watch her name disappear from the blog...forever). I will, however, apologize to this (the former, not the publicist) sad jerk who so foolishly forwarded to me a personalized email message, which I in turn posted here as a message intended for me. The message drew heat toward him, once the original writer recognized the language, and for that I'm sorry.

Please don't out me, old man. All in good fun, this is.

And in all seriousness, it appears as if I may have cost the guy who took shit for me a fine opportunity. So to that publicist I cannot name: please do not take away from that person I cannot name the chance to do that thing with that third party I cannot name.

Love,
Promocopy Robot

michael franti slamdances w/ riddim

2005-01-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

In more Slamdance Film Festival News, Michael Franti, who fronts Spearhead, and kind of cares so much that it's annoying, now has a documentary film titled I Know I'm Not Alone, which will debut at the aforementioned festival.

Slamdance festival director Kathleen McInnis has this to say in general, which Franti's publicist Wendy Weisberg has co-opted for her own purposes in that way publicists do so very deftly: "We feel the documentary film to be the last stand of truly independent filmmaking--not yet co-opted by studios or the mini-majors but instead fresh voices from filmmakers almost always nearly shy of resources but rich in story."

There's no truly independent film out there taking any stands against corporate cinema. This is that same limp argument from people who are too lazy to seek out independent art and thusly feel more comfortable in suggesting that it does not exist. I would even take the argument that independent film doesn't matter over this. Anyway, I digress.

Weisberg then goes on to make Franti sound like a total corn-dog, although, it must be said, not out of character:

"Armed with an acoustic guitar and a video camera, Michael Franti takes viewers on a musical journey through war, life and occupation in Iraq, Israel, Jordan and Palestinian occupied territories...and everyday people who in turn reveal to him the often overlooked [???] human cost of war...Michael's storytelling and songs masterfully weave the film into a visual and musical tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.

There's some other absurd stuff about Franti "hanging out in a poet's lair," Franti singing his tune "Bomb the World" ("...you can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace...") to a roomful of soldiers who just fled a bomb, how he "ends the day on a joyful note" and then gets to go home to San Francisco.

"Joy, a desire for peace and love for the human spirit embody Michael Franti's musical message and with I Know I'm Not Alone, the artist spreads his ideas to a different audience via a new medium."

Not to be daft, but really, isn't Michael Franti just sitting around waiting for a war so he can pick up his guitar and soothe bruised souls with positive vibrations? Truly amazing the manipulative tone with which we utilize the destruction of the very fabric of Iraqi culture [woah--the rhetoric is contagious] in the promotion of art.

precipitation

2005-01-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

'Bout time the criticism started coming in. Everything I've heard about this blog so far has just been so very kind, so it's nice to hear a real response from the likes of catherine's PITA:

if i was having a little parent-teacher conference with the following blog's mom, i'd say it has a lot of potential: promocopy, wherein a bored music writer aims to skewer music publicists. a little highlighting would go a long way, anonymous. no one wants to read reams and reams of that shit for no apparent reason.

I guess a good excuse would be that I'm bored. Not to be difficult, but I'm a little unclear on what highlighting means. Given the sentence that follows, I think it may have something to do with editing. Point taken.

Also big thanks to Michaelangelo Matos , a writer whose work I greatly admire, for mentioning this new blog. I've yet to make a firm decision on the biggest problem with Promocopy, but its primary agenda being criticism of a subject matter that is largely only on the radar of people who write about indie rock music and know what it's like to deal with publicists is probably top three for me at this point. I think Matos is near the mark, noting that this blog is seemingly only for writers who work in this very self-centered arena.

I do, however, get some satisfaction out of the possibility that readers might take away from this blog that independent music is very much an industry, an evolving monster, complete with its own set of crooked and manipulative ringleaders. While I'm open to the argument that independent music can be art, the way that we are exposed to it is commerce, and in the past fifteen years folks have been figuring out how to make some serious profit without really sacrificing too much indie cultural capital.

If this is all clear to you, step back into the embrace of "us writer types" and make some room for those kids (myself included, although really no longer a kid) spending time mocking the unwashed masses. We've got our own wee capitalism going on out here, and I'm just taking a few notes, hoping to shed a little light on the topic.

Again, thanks very much to Catherine and Michaelangelo for their advice, which plays a significant hand in my attempt to hone and focus this young blog.

shake yer body-body

2005-01-12T13:06:00.001-08:00

Just in case Mu's "Paris Hilton" wasn't bizarre enough on its own, here's the video, courtesy of Gamall Awad at Backspin Promo. Fairly out there and oh-so-rad! Seriously.

Says the publicist: "Utterly unique, Out of Breach [out Feb 21] unleashes a sonic assault of demented discoid punk, twisted beats, and screeching vocals, which is single handedly demolishing traditional musical boundaries." Over the top as that is, go ahead and listen to "Paris Hilton" again for confirmation: "a tribute to everyone’s favourite media princess, which has been tearing up dance floors worldwide with it’s pounding beats, acid squelches, and crazed chicken squawks." Ok, Ok, you get the picture.

Stay tuned for somebody or other to leak album tracks.

And still: Mu January tour dates:

17-JAN-05, Boston @ Middlesex Lounge
20-JAN-05, NY @ Joes Pub
21-JAN-05, Chicago @ Logan Square Auditorium
22-JAN-05, Detroit @ Oslo
26-JAN-05, Austin @ Copa
27-JAN-05, SF @ [TBA]
28-JAN-05, LA @ The Echo
29-JAN-05, NY @ Tribeca Grand Hotel

bloc party w/ chromeo (+ new video)

2005-01-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

I was a little confused about not seeing that Bloc Party EP [that's them, at right, Paul Frank-ing it out] on more US best-of-2004 lists (as a singles collection, it slayed, and this band is not slowing down). But whatever, 2005 is going to be something else entirely, methinks. Do pay attention to this band.

Bloc Party has scheduled UK shows with New Yorkers Chromeo for March, which I find to be thrilling and weird. (I mean, aside from Bloc Party being in the Vice stable now, but strangely still not out loud. hmmm) Straight from the Bloc Party site:

We're chuffed to announce our our latest brace of UK headline shows:

01.03.05 Edinburgh Liquid Room
02.03.05 Sheffield Leadmill
04.03.05 London Forum
05.03.05 Portsmouth Pyramid

We have also persuaded one of our favourite acts from across the pond Chromeo to come and open for us on all these shows. Make sure you arrive early to check them out.

Postscript: Just noticed a video for "Tulips" (UK b-side to "Little Thoughts" and US 12" out on Dim Mak in a couple weeks). Apparently it's exclusive there.

zeppelin reunites!

2005-01-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

Bobbie Gale at Capitol (that's EMI) seems proud to announce tour dates for Leed's (UK) own The Music. Anyone paying attention will likely recall that the band's sophomore LP Welcome to the North arrived in the US last October. You may possibly even have noticed that a video for "Breakin'," the album's first single, has just been put into rotation on MTV2.

I jest in the post heading because I saw The Music a couple years ago and I thought they sounded way too much like Led Zeppelin, which I think is humorous and should be made fun of. Get it? Hear it for yourself. (I send you there, because at the band's "official" site there's nothing under the downloads section but wallpaper's, screensavers and e-cards) And anyway, it's not just me making the Zep connection. Says The Music site that EMI built: "Celebrated by The Los Angeles Times for 'a grand sound that mixes Zeppelin, Queen and U2 into an electronics-spiked sonic storm.'" Right.

The band is going to be in the States throughout February and March, performing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on March 14th... They are also apparently scheduled to appear at South By Southwest. Recall that this is one of those major label bands marketed as indie. Playing at SXSW. Remember when the majors didn't care about the indie market share? Thanks Nirvana. Hey, thanks Matador!

Robert Plant (aka Robert Harvey, The Music's lead singer) has this to say about Americar: "We're excited to get back over and play our own gigs out there. It's been an amazing experience touring a country as diverse and intense as America."

So get all diverse and intense with The Music this Feb/March:

February
17 New York, New York Irving Plaza
18 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club
19 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Theatre of the Living Arts
22 Providence, Rhode Island The Call
23 Boston, Massachusetts Paradise Rock Club
24 Montreal, Quebec The Imperial
26 London, Ontario Centennial Hall
27 Detroit, Michigan St. Andrews Hall
28 Covington, Kentucky Jillians

March
2 Chicago, Illinois Metro
3 St. Louis, Missouri The Pageant
7 Seattle, Washington Neumos
8 Vancouver, British Columbia Commodore Ballroom
9 Portland, Oregon Crystal Ballroom
11 San Francisco, California Slim's
12 Los Angeles, California Henry Fonda Theatre
13 San Diego, California Canes Bar & Grill
15 Tempe, Arizona Marquee Theatre
17 Dallas, Texas Gypsy Tea Room & Ballroom

ice age

2005-01-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

Capping off a year that saw descriptions of "indie" rock's finest as (merely) "derivative" becoming totally passe (see Tannenbaum quote), even these new bands' names are turning into straight references:

Happy New Year! Just wanted to make sure you have the advance copy of They Walk In Line's new CD, "Medical Necessities." The album will be released Feburary 8 on Rock Ridge Music. Have you had a chance to check out the CD?

Oh yeah, I guess we already had Radio 4, so, we're on a roll here. (And yes I know it's "Walked In Line," but don't get smart, folks.)

I actually feel sympathy for the kind of publicist--like, say, Jennifer Levy Niederhoffer at Impress Media--who has to deal with this sort of thing (zzz). Willful ignorance of the need for music to be unique in order to be meaningfully lasting you might say, but, hey, that counts too.

But, uh, as to the actual music: I haven't heard this record yet, so stay tuned for me eating serious crow!

diplo's hook

2005-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

Voice readers will have come across this article by Douglas Wolk on Brazilan Rio Baile Funk a month ago, and I'm So Sinsurr readers would have caught on to Favela Booty Beats even before that, but, you know, I'm just here to pick up the scraps for the indie rockers.

Anyway, try a dash of this Tourettes Bass at your next house party and see if you can tease out some seizure. Plenty more where that came from.

hope i die before i get old

2005-01-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Cut/paste:

Hi there,

Happy new year! I wanted to let you know about CITIZEN COPE who is coming back thru town again on Wednesday, February 2 (with Marc Broussard). He was just there in December so you should have the music and press info already. In more recent news, Cope's album The Clarence Greenwood Recordings was recently selected as one of the Top 10 staff picks of 2004 on NPR's "All Songs Considered".

Please let me know if you're interested in attending the show or can provide any further coverage.

Thanks!

Maggie Wang
Sr. Director, Publicity
RCA Records/SONY BMG
1540 Broadway, 36th Floor
New York, NY 10036
212 930 7007 tel
212 930 4479 fax
maggie.wang@sonybmg.com
www.rcarecords.com/press/

koala does australia

2005-01-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

I know I'm supposed to be taking the piss or whatever, but after dealing with stacks of pro publicity month in and month out, I can't help but to have a soft spot in my heart for people who do their own PR. Here's the word from Kid Koala , via DJ Jester, on Short Attention Span Theatre tour dates in Australia later this month (+ Jester dates in New Zealand):

"...Inspired by episodes of 'The Muppet Show' and 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. I imagined if all the Muppets bought turntables and did an episode of the show on stage it might end up a little like this. There are loud moments, there are melancholy moments and there are silly moments. It's DJ Jester, P-Love and myself with 8 turntables set up in five turntable stations like a band (one for each layer of the track) and we have to move around between the different stations depending on what we're doing on each track. On some tracks I'll be doing drums and piano so there's a lot of running around which is all part of the fun. The whole thing is set up so you can figure out where all the sounds are coming from and which DJ's are doing what. It keeps it pretty dynamic that way. There's a drum turntable set up, there's a solo turntable set up and there's two sets of piano turntables. There's also a piano on-stage which we use to do some of the piano and turntable routines from the 'Nufonia Must Fall' soundtrack and we're doing a slide show to introduce the audience to some of the characters from the books and to set the scene for some of the musical pieces. We've also got some short animated films by Monkmus. They're really demented! There's one about a wine drinking pterodactyl and there's one about inflatable crocodiles and cockroaches flying into space." --Kid Koala

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE TOUR WITH KID KOALA, DJ P-LOVE, DJ JESTER, AND LEDERHOSEN LUCIL:

1/25: Adelaide, Australia @ Adelaide Festival Theatre
1/27: Kid Koala, P-Love, Jester on PBS FM Studio Five Live, 7PM (45 minute live set and interview)
1/28: Melbourne, Australia @ The Prince
1/28: KID KOALA, P-LOVE, JESTER on RRR radio, 12noon (Live Interview w/ Ennio Styles)
2/3: Sydney, Australia @ The Gaelic Club

..and then to New Zealand for:

THE FRUIT SALAD TOUR w/ LEDERHOSEN LUCIL AND DJ JESTER:

2/10: Auckland, New Zealand @ The Kings Arms
2/11: Napier, New Zealand @ O'Flaherty's
2/12: Wellington, New Zealand @ Indigo Bar
2/16: Onekaka, New Zealand @ The Mussel Inn
2/17: Christchurch, New Zealand @ Jetset Lounge
2/19: Dunedin, New Zealand @ Arc Cafe

time loves a hero

2005-01-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

The Arcade Fire, which received 2004's honorable Record that Nobody Heard But Indie Journalists Went Curiously Apeshit Over On Year-End Lists award, will be appearing live on Los Angeles' KCRW on Monday, January 17. That would be, of course, on the much ballyhoed Morning Becomes Eclectic show, during which the band is set to play at 11:15am. (The show should be archived shortly thereafter for anyone online.)

Also from the desk of KCRW publicist Debbie Adler: Inara George, LA vocalist and daughter of Lowell George will be performing on the show the next day at the same time. Just thought my dad might want to know about that.

on and on with the danger mouse-isms

2005-01-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well, if we thought there was any artistic credibility to the Grey Album (I mean, I did), we might now be squelching it as fast as we are able. The Grey Video, news to me courtesy of Sasha Frere-Jones.

And no, I don't know what this has to do with promotional copy, but I can probably think of something over the weekend.

Postscript: Of course, now that I take a look, Gothamist was going on about this in mid-November, as was Sleep Not Work, holycola, I'm sure the list goes on while I stretch from sleep.

new enon, feb 2

2005-01-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

I've personally never really been into the band, but I know how much you indie kids love this crap. Nice guy Chad Nelson at Touch and Go has this to say:

Enon has "Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence" out 2/22/05. This is a collection of hard to find singles (vinyl and web-only) that dates back to the initial incarnation of Enon back in 1998. Plus it comes with a fancy DVD that has some videos, live stuff, and band hijiinks. Enon continues to refine, reshape, and renew their sound, and this look back at the band's different eras more than defines that.

Ah, Chad Nelson. I feel so bad for how little press I get for this guy in response to the wealth (at least in numbers) of music he sends me, and I feel like I'm always slighting him. I absolutely love T & G's other publicist, Miranda Lange. She's a total straight shooter, I like her taste in music, she's fun, friendly, hooks up the shows (admittedly, so does Chad), wants to hang out when she's in town, all that. So whenever I call Touch and Go, I always want to talk with her. And I don't know how it works out, but those two publicists always, invariably, manage to to divide the the stuff that I love (TV on the Radio, !!!) and the stuff that I'm unmoved by (Pinback, Enon) between her and him, respectively. I feel like a heel, because Touch and Go is good people and has been nothing but a pleasure to work with. But what are you going to do.