James Moore's Blog, page 72

New PC Worship album not on The Grinch’s playlist

The Grinch would not enjoy this album. What, with all the noise, Noise, NOISE. Like its cover, Buried Wish by PC Worship, is a giant pile of nearly indescribable matter. It was written by Justin Frye in the underground space of an X-ed out building in Bushwick, Brooklyn and recorded with a conglomerate of musicians.

This is PC Worship’s first full-length since 2014’s Social Rust. After multiple releases of rust-covered noise rock disobedience, Buried Wish manages to find a little bit of polish. Noise still rattles wherever it can, but there are some songs that make you wanna move to the front room to make sure no one is there.

The first single, “Blank Touch,” sounds like twenty guitars trying to fit down the same water slide. “Back of my $$$” is moved by the weight of a tremoring distorted bass. It’s like headbanging in slow motion. I’m sitting here drooling as “Help” plays. The song opens like Cruella DeVille creeping around your dark home. Violins rise up the speed of steam off the heated cement and a bass line plucks along. “I can’t ask for help again, ” sings Frye.

Frye’s voice is deep and moldy. On “Perched on a Wall” he sounds like early shit-kicker Beck, but downtuned and drowsy. Beck after raiding medicine cabinets late one night. Like the title suggests, “Torched” is a deep inflation of rotten sound.

The songs all sprawl out, magnetized to every guitar’s tuning peg. The six-minute monolithic drum pounding of the title track is a form of hypnosis. The consistent dredging creates a chilling drone that slowly digs the knife in. “Blank Touch,” meanwhile, is straightforward drum+guitar blues rock.

Buried Wish feels like it could’ve been recorded among the early-90s too-stoned-to-function experimental rock bands like Beck, the Flaming Lips, Smog or Pavement. Only without all the washed out, sunny nostalgia. It’s shadier, slower and more devoid of sensitivity. Buried Wish will be released February 24 on Northern Spy Records.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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SCAM Alert for Empiremusicpromotions.com

SCAM ALERT for our musician audience. Two fake companies, Empire Music Promotions and now, Ignite Music Promotions (http://www.ignitemusicpromotions.com/), we strongly advise steering clear of. Ignite Music Promotions, apparently a Los Angeles firm with 10 YEARS experience, was actually launched a few days ago by Calgary resident Paul Tingle, friend of Ryan Donnelly, who launched Empire Music Promotions after working for I.M.P and gaining access to our contacts. Both of these individuals are scam artists. Neither are musicians. Neither have industry connections. Both are fake sites attempting to copy I.M.P’s ethos and model to make a quick buck. These two have collaborated in launching dummy/copy sites, appearing as PR professionals.

Paul Tingle/Anthony

Ryan Donnelly

If you hear about your music from either Ryan Donnelly (or Jonathan Donnelly, which he also goes by) or Paul Tingle (or Paul Anthony, which he also goes by) or ANY outreach from these websites, steer clear!

www.empiremusicpromotions.com
www.ignitemusicpromotions.com

I would stake my 8 years of I.M.P’s impeccable industry reputation on the accuracy of this post. I don’t want to see anyone getting ripped off by these guys. These types of digital cowboys need to be stopped.

We encourage you to share this and warn your fellow musicians.

Steve James Moore
CEO, Independent Music Promotions Inc

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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SMART Marketing And You

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So, I wrote earlier this week about SWOT analysis and think it’s one of the most important things you can do in developing your bands brand. However I’ve also been learning about SMART marketing lately and I want to share its magic with you. While it’s maybe not as straightforward as SWOT it’s definitely something that you are going to want to look into and something we’ve sort of touched on in the past and could definitely dedicate more time to understanding. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time bound. Now if that’s not something that I’ve been pushing y’all to do with this blog for months now then I don’t know what is. So let’s get right down to it!

Specifics are key for any band, especially one in niche underground markets. After all – how do you expect anyone to give a shit about your music if you can’t specifically target the people who seem to be the most in tune with it. Beyond that if you don’t have specific goals as to what you want to do and when then you’re just going to sit around trying to come up with ideas on ‘how to get big’ and have no real plan, leaving you in the boring rut that most bands seem to find themselves in after a few months. Nothing about having specific goals is hard if you do your research you just need to make sure that they are there and that they are going to have at least some impact on what the future of your band can be.

Now measurability is something that I feel like very few bands have a decent grasp on. Most acts seem to want to rate this exclusively on sales, but if you look at trends in the music industry that’s not really a good idea. Nor is streams because even that model has subtle shifts that dramatically impact your numbers from album cycle to album cycle. I’m not saying sales shouldn’t be a part of it, but you need to be smart in how you incorporate them. Perhaps more important is the number of social media followers you have and Youtube views you get. Also important is to see the amount of money you are getting at shows and the number of people you are drawing (Though it would make sense that those numbers were related) Beyond that, look at things like merch sales and superfans, sometimes atypical metrics like licensing placements are the best way to judge growth. Just make sure that whenever you set specific goals you have a way to measure your progress towards them!

Another thing that bands seem to struggle with is having actionable goals. Wanting to get your song placed in a major film is cool and all, but if you don’t have those kinds of connections then how the hell do you think that’s going to happen? The same goes for wanting to get on a big tour package – it’s not going to happen right away. Rather look at your resources and realize what you might be able to do in a way that makes sense. For example, while you might not get to tour with a genre leader you could probably work with a slightly bigger band in your local scene to do a few weekend runs in your general area. Also realize that actionable goals tend to be small, you should be able to knock them out quickly and easily and then after a while you’ll look back and see a mess of successes!

The relevance of your goals is also crucial The R in SMART sometimes also stands for ‘road mapped’ and these ideas are one and the same. You need to make sure that the individual steps in your strategy are such that they make sense in context and relative to each other. If you’re trying to become a strong touring act in your region then your goal of playing at least one international festival isn’t going to make a whole lot of sense. At the same time if you are trying to focus your energy on licensing music you shouldn’t spend a ton of time outside the studio unless you have enough contacts locally for playing live and the like to be easy for you. Not a lot of bands seem to have especially relevant goals, for example, don’t be touring if you’re not drawing over 50 people at home. Figure this shit out and the move on! Trust me, it will be easier this way.

Finally we get onto perhaps the most important part of the SMART system, time. Time is the key in all of these things. If you’re not executing in a timely manner or in a way that will make sense for your band as a whole then you are shooting yourself in the foot. The thing is people don’t always have the time or energy to devote into their music that you might. Beyond that you can’t try to do certain things in too short a time scale without looking like an asshole. For example – odds are you are never going to be able to book good shows on a two week time scale, nor are you quickly going to get other exciting opportunities. Be ready for these things to take time and realize that at the end of the day sometimes it’s more rewarding to have to wait your turn.

Long story short – I hope this makes some sort of sense and is something you are easily able to incorporate into your band structure. In many ways marketing acronyms like these are great because they are just consolidations of things I have written dozens of articles about just far more clear and a little more to the point than how I might have explained it. Beyond that – when your band has to deal with the corporate world having acronyms like these is going to be extremely useful in making you look smart and reminding everyone in the room that you too are a professional with a lot to bring to the table. Sometimes it’s just appearing smart and on top of it that is key.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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SWOT Analysis And Your Band

SWOT analysis sounds like a big fancy term that marketing folks use in order to talk down to us little guys, and in many ways it is. However after continuing my marketing research and finding it being brought up in just about every music industry marketing book I came to realize that I can’t ignore it anymore. For the uninitiated, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. By breaking down each of these elements you are going to have a better understanding of where you are at in the music industry and what you need to do in order to keep on growing. From what I’ve come to understand reading in the past few weeks this is a crucial step in better understanding how to develop your band as a brand. So let’s delve into the weird world of SWOT analysis (Or as some call it, OSWT analysis) together in order to better understand how to get a leg up together.

So right off the bat – strengths. This one is fairly obvious, you need to look at what makes your band a unique product and what makes you viable for growth several years down the line. Strengths for an independent band could include big things like having large financial resources, a unique concept that people respond to or being able to easily access a lot of big markets. They can also be little things like, gas being cheap in your region, having a single van that can easily fit everyone in the band and their gear, or having a dude in the band who is really connected with the scene. However, try to make sure that you don’t fall into the easy trap of having non-quantifiable ‘strengths’. For example don’t try and claim you have “Great songs” unless you have a professional songwriter in the band or have already charted. Similarly, something like “Dedicated fans” isn’t a great strength either unless you CAN quantify it. You get what I’m trying to say.

Now it’s time for weaknesses, no ones favorite thing to talk about. The weaknesses your band faces are not just the inverse of your strengths, although many of them can be. Very often the problems a band will have to deal with are just a result of the bitter nihilism of the music scene on the independent level. That is to say, a legitimate weakness is “No one cares about our band” or alternatively, “No big blogs have written about our band”. The lack of attention on the underground scene is perhaps the biggest weakness that any band needs to overcome and you need to appreciate that “not knowing anyone who books big bands” is a legitimate struggle that you are going to have to overcome if you want to find any real success in this industry. I know that sounds bitter and nihilistic, but such is life. Keep a realistic vision of where you are at, and use that to fuel the fire in your belly to keep on driving for new successes.

Opportunities are the exciting part about the music industry, though it’s sometimes hard to see how valuable they may or may not be. Your opportunities need to be concrete – they can’t just be pipe dreams offered by a random website, you need to be able to turn them into strenghts. You need to invest your energy into looking for opportunities that mean something, like opening for a bigger band, playing a show in a new market and all that good stuff. Opportunities can be things like “A new venue with a promoter interested in our genre is opening” or “Our genre is selling like never before”. They can also be based in demographic information. For example if you are a political band, with youth interest in politics rising an opportunity you could find would be “Individuals in the 18-24 demographic that we are targeting are also increasingly interested in politics” At the same time the death of a genre can be an important opportunity, IE: “Stoner rock is dying out and our genre looks like it could be the logical successor” It is crucial to understand that opportunities are all around you, but you need to view them in a healthy and logical way.

Finally we have to face what is often an enigma for bands, threats. Threats include things like “Streaming seems like it will be increasingly non viable as more services develop” or “There are similar bands in the scene with more cash to burn and time to spend on their music.” Hell, it can also be big things like, “The scene in our area is weakening with a lot of the cool clubs closing down every month.” Sometimes things can be specific to you band, and some things you need to sort of keep close to the vest, like the potential threat that a band members girlfriend could have, or the inherent struggle of drug addiction in America. You need to be realistic when assessing threats, the things that impact you are not going to be the things that Lady Gaga complains about, you are operating in different worlds. So keep your ear to the ground and try to see what the scene is worried about and incorporate that into your plans.

At the end of the day you need to look at each of the elements in the SWOT analysis and figure out how you can handle them individually. Turn your weaknesses into strengths by funneling time and energy into them and try to get sufficiently far ahead of the game on your threats so that we can mutually handle the struggle of this industry. At the same time, be sure to emphasize your strengths and focus them in on your opportunities. It’s things like this that help to make you band into a viable company and not just a passion project, though that’s cool too. Sometimes you need to appreciate the business mentality behind this whole thing and at the end of the day, keeping in line with the SWOT principles is what is gonna get you there.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Taking The Time For Others

Catering to individuals is one of the most important thing you can do as a band or as a figure in the music industry. Being able to see what the other person is interested in and invest your time in making sure that they see that you care is crucial. This isn’t about catering to superfans right now, I’ve already talked about that and why that can be important. No this I more about spending the time to show that someone who is invested in your music sees you have something a little more specific for them and the sort of respect that longterm relationships are based on, not just a casual interest because they might be able to help you out in the short term. Remember that at the end of the day it’s important to keep these friends around because you never know who might end up being important five years down the line and who is going to keep on keeping on in who this industry and who might get a real job. Which is why we find the significance of personal relationships so vital.

Now the real issue becomes keeping track of all of these people and their relationship to you and perhaps more importantly with each other. There’s a lot of ways to do this and it’s important to know that there is no key way to keep track of everyone. I know that some people still keep Rolodex’s but in all honesty I feel like Facebook is generally a pretty good way to remember whose who. That being said it’s also sometimes a good idea to right down some details about important people, or at least people you are trying to impress for them to want to continue working with you. For example I remember being at a party with a major journalist the other day who I hadn’t seen in months. I correctly remembered the age of his toddler son because I had revised my notes earlier in the day and he was very impressed leading to a delightful conversation and eventually fruitful collaboration a few days later. This sort of thing happens time and time again and is the basis of what a lot of the music industry runs on.

So I appreciate how I might sound kind of crazy right now. I’m aware that keeping track of your contracts personal details can seem a little weird and obsessive, but as far as I can tell people throughout history have been doing it, either in the form of Rolodex’s that had lots of personal details on them, Facebook stalking, or detailed diary entries. These are all things that humans have been adapted to doing. It’s been proven that you can only really show compassion and keep up with the lives of about 150 people, a group sometimes referred to as your Monkeysphere. This is a part of our simple biology. Of course being in music we need to be able to work with far more than just 150 people so we need to keep on top of our shit and keep driving. Having an understanding of your expanded network is, as far as I can tell, the only way to have any real advancement in this industry of folks who simply rely on relationships all day, every day.

I know it’s sometimes hard to believe this shit but remember that with much of the industry there aren’t proper contracts so the relationship is all that matters. That’s another one of those things that is often hard to believe but sadly true. People don’t have contracts simply because we know most people won’t read them and we have to hold each other accountable by having relatively simple arrangements most of the time and transparency on the numbers. That’s the struggle we all have to face on the day to day and why we need to keep compassion and targeting things to a specific person at the fore. If you show that you are willing to take the time out of your day to go beyond sending a form email to someone then they are going to find a lot more of a reason to want to chat with you and work on developing something cool than if you just view them as another stepping stone on the road to music industry success. After all, is it really success if you got there only by pissing people off and making them feel used?

For the record, this doesn’t totally apply to mass emails. While personalizing to a degree can be helpful, IE: having the other persons name or company in the title of whatever email you’re sending is always a plus for sure, but when you need to send out a few hundred emails at a pop it doesn’t make sense to research every individual. That being said – phone calls might be a better place to start with that sort of thing, but that’ for a different article. By the same token, if there is someone you truly do have a special connection with then there is also a reason to invest time in energy in something more unique. The point being – there definitely is a cut off and you definitely do need to be careful with your mass emails, but also acknowledge the inherent beauty of the things and the influence that they can end up having on your career.

So yeah – please go out and make friends and realize that it is only through SPENDING TIME that you are going to make those friends .Everyone in this industry is very busy and has a lot on their plates too so you can’t just expect them to read your emails and want to work with you. Rather, honor all that they have to deal with and try to find the sort of balance and forward thinking lifestyle that you need for a career in an industry as stressful as this one to wok .If you show that you are not willing to take time to personalize things or even go out of your way and make a phone call then it’s easy to get lost in the waves of pretenders managing bullshit bands thinking that they have created something truly special. Alas – such is the struggle.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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What To Expect From Managers

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A lot of people who have managers don’t understand what those managers are supposed to do and this leads to crushing I had to face a kind of a frustrating disappointment this week in a friend who I hooked up with a manager this week. This isn’t so much to talk shit on that friend as much as it is to talk about how his expectations were a little muddled by the twisted realities of the industry. There’s a lot of issues at hand here, from miscommunication to entitlement but I want to take a minute to look at how a lot of these things can impact a client/manager relationship and what it means for your growth. Note too this isn’t just about managers, it can also apply to agents, labels and all that other good stuff. There’s a whole lot to pick apart with these sorts of things and we need to embrace the weird realities that this world can throw up at us with a smile and a wink.

I think the beginning of the issue is that people don’t seem to appreciate what a manager is supposed to do. Look at it this way – you are probably not generating that much income. If you’re a fairly big band then you’re maybe generating six figures annually, which means your manager is barely getting more than five from you. Think about how much money that is objectively, not for you, but in general. It’s hard for a manager to justify spending that much time on you even if you ARE paying them $10,000 a year so if you’re making less than that think about what it implies over the long term. The point I’m trying to make here is don’t expect your manager to do all your dirty work. They’re not going to write all your fucking press releases and they’re not going to do all your Facebook posts. They’re not going to handle all the bullshit finnicky bits, unless maybe they are a part of a bigger company that has interns to do that for you.

I know that many of you might think that’s what a manager should do, but that’s not really what they do, that job sounds more like a personal assistant. While for a lower level manager they might buy into that you gotta understand why many don’t want too or why they would end up being frustrated with that. A manager is supposed to help you get good tours and solid merch. They are supposed to help figure out the label situation, make sure the PR is on point and hep with growing your band on a level that requires serious industry connections to do. They are not there to babysit you every day of the week. If you want to be in a band that people take seriously then you need to appreciate that you at least need to have your shit moderately together. This is not an industry that you can expect to get everything handed to you – but a lot of people don’t seem to understand that to handle the day to day shit is not always the managers function.

Now a lot of this is due to miscommunication – some managers don’t understand that they don’t need to be doing all the lower level bullshit and some actually enjoy it. Sometimes it really just depends on how much money the band is generating. This can be a good thing. After all there is a place to create structured social media posts etc. I totally get it. Both sides on any management agreement need to be aware of what is expected. Again though this goes for things like labels and agents too. Sometimes your agent doesn’t realize that you expect them to help with vans and stuff (They shouldn’t, and if they do that’s bullshit) and you need to sit down and appreciate that. I feel like a lot of the larger issues in the music industry essentially boil down to bands not understanding what the powers that be are willing to offer. It’s not because they hate you but because at the end of the day it all depends on how much money you are generating.

Entitlement definitely also plays a role, and as much as I have waxed on about this in the past you guys get to sit through another few lines of me ranting. Entitled artists don’t seem to understand that people in the industry don’t merely exist in order for them to not have to do anything bu create music. In fact I don’t know any artists, even the really huge ones like Elton John and Metallica who don’t have at least some part of their job that they don’t like. There is going to be monotonous stuff because sometimes people just need access to the artist and nothing else. That’s the simple and harsh reality of it al and something that we are going to continually have to embrace. People can’t make all your problems go away, especially if your own shitty attitude isn’t helping you to figure out the next important step forward for you and your music.

So pull yourself up by your bootstraps and embrace the fact that adding a manager, agent or label to your team is not a way of alleviating all your work but rather a question of adding another tool to your arsenal so that you can reach out to more people. There is a weird balance that you’re going to need to figure out and its particular to every artist. Every band has a different relationship with their manager and you need to accept that as a simple reality and move forward together in a way that makes sense and leaves everyone with a smile on their face. I know that’s not always the greatest, but realize that your team probably has your best interests at heart and if you have the time you should sit down, shut the fuck u and be grateful that ANYONE is interested in supporting your music at all.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

The post What To Expect From Managers appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Managing Your Databases

So, a surprising amount of life in the music industry is building and maintaining databases. I’ve spent the last week of time off due to holidays creating lists of doom and stoner metal festivals as well as updating my music supervisor sheets. Sure I can’t reach to them because it’s the holidays but it’s the principle of the thing. Reaching out and figuring out the way forward for all of my bands and knowing that when the time comes again that I can send emails and go back to growing my portfolio as it where. Having databases is the best way to move forward, the best way to keep your band evolving and to keep on figuring out where your band needs to be and what they should be looking at doing for years to come. The use of databases has increasingly grown in recent years and I think that it could be a weird new era for music as we all realize that we have to increasingly rely on ideas from the traditional business world to really succeed.

First of all – it’s important to realize why databases are becoming more popular. We are at a point in popular music where there are more festivals than we know what to do with .Some are just the same cycle of radio rock bands yeah, but there’s also more independent festivals than ever before, literally hundreds in any given genre. That’s a lot to pick apart I know and you need to be able to sort through them. It’s kind of overwhelming to look at an industry like this and realize how much shit you have to pick through to properly understand it. It’s too much to just keep track of in your head. If you try to do that things are going to fall through and you will end up hating yourself. Instead, in a world that has too goddamn much information for any reasonable person to keep track of we need to sit down and write down as much as possible so that we can save our valuable cerebral processing power for things that might need more immediate attention.

It’s also key to understand that most people don’t have databases because they haven’t sat down and fucking done them. These companies are ridiculously busy and a lot of the time it’s easier to just let this sort of stuff grow organically. I know that sounds brutal and frustrating a lot of the time but that’s just the way things go when your company is trying to make as much money ass possible but you don’t have the time to properly codify things. That being said, I am legitimately surprised that massive databases aren’t more common. I’ve found out that even big companies don’t have databases of just about everything under the sun and that confuses me. While I appreciate that the big money is in the big things and those larger companies have pre-existing partnerships there I feel like not having these sorts of databases to draw upon is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot.

So we’re in a world where you largely need to create these things on your own. This of course means that you need to spend hundreds of hours behind a computer screen using Google, Facebook and various sketchy websites as a way of compiling data. It’s key and it leaves you sending out countless emails for days on end with the hope that someone out there thinks that you are cool enough to respond to and decides to help you tap into the next level of things. I know that’s kind of a nightmare sometimes but it’s a hard knock life these days and as the money continues to dry up people are going to guard their resources more jealously than ever before. I personally believe this stuff should be out there, but at the same time I have cultivated many of the relationships in my databases for years and don’t want just any Tom, Dick or Harry violating them and upsetting my friends. This leads us to why not everyone uses massive databases.

At the end of the day everything, especially for the big boy labels, is based on personal relationships Now I know this is probably the best way for the little guys to get in on the action too, but how are people going to even know you are there until you go out and start sending emails? You need to have a blended approach. The big guys don’t often need databases because they know everyone doing everything anyway. They might have a sheet documenting various contacts and such but it grew organically over the years. For those of us at the bottom of the barrel we can only dream of getting to be a part of that subjectively amazing reality. Instead we have to scrabble, find things in our microniche and keep moving forward. I know that sounds a little too easy and frankly kinda condescending and I get why you would think that. If you’re not an active part of the scene no one is gonna give a fuck, I don’t know what else to tell you.

At the end of the day databases are how you can keep ahead of the game and continue emailing people year round in order to ensure continued success. In a world where most of us are caught with our thumbs up our asses trying to understand the demented realities of a constantly changing industry why not be the one with the biggest list of contacts you can reach out too? It’s only the beginning of a long process to be sure but it’s a vital start. You need to cultivate relationships with the folks on your lists so take notes, make calls and prepare for the next fucked up adventure this industry is sure to throw at you.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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5 of the Year’s Best Albums

2016 was a huge year for new music. Mainstream headliners like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wilco, Blink 182, Green Day and Metallica returned for another gasp. Years-in-hype releases from Radiohead, Kanye West, Solange, Frank Ocean and Drake finally came forward. Neil Young put out two albums while Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen added to their mountainous discographies. Here are the year’s best releases:

5. Post Pop Depression  by Iggy Pop

Released: March 18

Iggy Pop ages like the big oak tree that everyone pissed on in college. He soaks it up and moves forward. For Post Pop Depression, his seventeenth album, he teamed up with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Them Crooked Vultures), Dan Fertita (QOFSTA, The Dead Weather) and Matt Helders (The Arctic Monkeys). The collaboration makes perfect sense. Homme preserves the scuzz of Pop’s early days with the Stooges, but adds to it a tight-lipped air of cool. The guitars are thick like hamburger meat running alongside Pop’s chiseled scowl and the rhythm section provides a steady anchor.

While listening to “Gardenia” the screws in your neck loosen. The whole song rides on a rollicking bass line that gets the body moving like an inflatable air dancer. The chorus is an act of hypnosis. “All I wanna do is tell Gardenia what to do tonight,” Pop sings in an up and down cascade with Homme’s high-pitched vocals shadowing in the background. “American Valhalla,” sounds like background music from a lost episode of The Addams Family. “I shot my gun / I used my knife / This hasn’t been an easy life,” Pop sings.

When the cavernous maw of Iggy Pop unhinges the grumble of decades past unfurls out. With every word uttered one can visualize the deep creases of his face moving in rhythm. His Adam’s apple vibrates back and forth with each syllable. “Vulture” starts with a wooden guitar lick that sounds like a throwaway demo. But, then Pop’s voice drops into the song like sewer sludge and you’re suddenly put on alert. “Fat black vulture white head hung low / Chewing dead meat by the side of the road / His evil breath smells just like death,” he warns dryly. Post Pop Depression ends with “Paraguay” a lacerating beat down with Pop calling bullshit on our world of constant unending information and the phonies that willingly prop it up. The snarling hero of our destructive tendencies still has enough saliva to spit back into the world.

4. Anti  by Rihanna

Released: January 28

Ri Ri, you make my heart ache. Anti was the most unhealthy addiction of the year. I got fat off of this. The downward cadence on “Needed Me” alone — “but baby you-ou-ou-ou-ou needed me” — makes Anti hard to put away. She gets cold with an ex-lover over a simple beat and an expanding wah-wah. When Rihanna sing, it’s in a downward spiral. “Didn’t they tell you that I was a savage? / fuck your white horse and your carriage.” Somewhere an ex is crying in his beer in a dark bar. Every other song could’ve been radio signals from the ocean and this would still be on the list somewhere. BUT, add in “Work,” “Consideration,” “Kiss It Better,” “Desperado,” “Woo,” “Yeah, I Said It”–come on, Lord please.

On “Consideration,” Rihanna gives the assist to SZA. Their voices move around each other in an uneven orbit. SZA bellowing beautifully bent notes; Rihanna soaring in an upward swing. The big single, “Work,” though, I barely know what she’s singing, gets catchier as time goes on. It’s one of her best singles. She sings against a coarse electronic tremble that never lets on “Woo.” Then, when you think it can’t any more vicious, Rihanna screams, “I don’t mean to really luh you / I don’t mean to really care about you no more.” Anti is a near classic from Rihanna. From song-to-song it dips and crashes through different styles, some all her own, some borrowed. Her powerful voice continues to lurk its way towards the outer extensions of R&B.

3. Gore  by Deftones

Released: April 8

Deftones continue to deliver, expanding their sound in subtle and intricate ways. They remain rooted in the punk metal headrush of their debut Adrenaline, but with each album since the sound has grown heavier and more melodic in equal parts. Gore, their eighth, furthers the formula into peak Deftones territory.

Song structure is rarely straightforward with many little fine twists and turns. If you headbang to this without knowing the song, you’ll fast get off beat. “Prayers/Triangles,” opens the album with a slow, meandering guitar the drums break and the chorus slashes through. Throw the bottle at the wall when “Doomed User” comes on. Deftones to the core. “Geometric Headdress” erupts like a tank through a wall. Chino Moreno’s scream scorches like a propane tank left to explode. Then ten seconds in it flips to an offbeat rumble with a wily guitar pushing the listener out of rhythm. Midway through “Hearts/Wires” settles over the album like the final rays of sunlight. A few simple guitar pluckings crawl over each other while Moreno sings of a memory lost. “The slit in the sky where you left / is all I see,” he aches. The slow build is hypnotizing.

Deftones just continue to breathe new life into an old sound. Gore, the third album since Vega took over for the late Chi Ching on bass, follows Koi No Yokan and Diamond Eyes on a continuing upscale of creativity that doesn’t seem to be slipping any time soon.

2. Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Released: September 9

You’re sitting at the desk drinking vodka from a mug in an empty room. With his voice, he’s calling you. With his voice, Nick Cave is calling you. “Jesus Alone” opens the sixteenth album from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds with a rhino-breathing vibration that pulsates from end to end. Skeleton Tree is a cloudy-eyed meandering through the forests of Cave’s mind. It captures him in a whirlpool of emotion as he attempts to create art in the aftermath of the tragic death of his 15-year old son, Arthur.

In July of 2015 Arthur fell 60 feet off the Ovingdean Gap cliffs overlooking the English Channel in Brighton. Reportedly, he had taken LSD with friends and separated after experiencing a bad trip. The event is deeply imprinted in Cave’s trembling baritone, but hidden in the code of his indirect lyrics. You feel it rather than simply hearing about it. The songs move with the rhythm of the chilling wind. Sparse piano notes wash away in the reverb of dark wandering tones. It sounds like unimaginable hurt. “Rings of Saturn” reads as a powerful ode to his wife’s motherly strength in the face of family tragedy. “Anthrocene” sounds like it could be a remix from Liars or Thom Yorke.

“I used to think that when you died you kind of wandered the world,” Cave sings on “Girl In Amber.” “Well, I don’t think that any more the phone it rings no more.” We are particle size when seen from a distance. Insignificant, scant, a blip. We live and we die and on the world turns. Cave knows this. It’s the very principle lurking behind each lyric and on Skeleton Tree he deals with the haunt like a master poet.

1. Blackstar  by David Bowie

Released: January 8

David Bowie was in the top tier of rock and roll superstars, a god on earth, living breathing cultural history. The fact that his surprising death on January 8th surreptitiously worked as promotion for his 25th album, Blackstar, makes it all the more surreal. Was he really beamed to earth at a young age with his rocketing rise to super-stardom already planned out? The album is extravagant, ghostly, teetering on the outskirts of what is considered to be a traditional rock and roll album. It swivels and sinks into the poorly lit backroom of the musical mansion Bowie built over his fifty-plus-year-career.

Blackstar is a seven-song voyage, a trek through the panicked headspace of someone too aware of their mortality. It shifts in moods and tempos, wandering, but never too far. The title track is a ten-minute ride alongside Bowie as he passes through the layers of Heaven. The song wears many faces, turning inside out and evolving with the minutes. Blackstar picks up with “‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore.” A heavyset drum and bass union churns through the song as it progresses into a perpetual Coleman swirl, horns gone akimbo. Bowie hits the high notes with a twisted sadness, a hidden anarchy while singing the title line. You can see his chiseled grin slowly rise with each word.

“Lazarus” is when the listener begins to really ache. The song saunters in with a clean, melancholic guitar scale and steady drums. But, then these soft devious horns slither in slightly offbeat. When Bowie enters he sings, “Look up here / I’m in heaven,” and your heart skips a beat. In his slow drift outward he’s catching the wind currents like the bluebird without misgiving. Blackstar is a lasting statement to not only David Bowie’s artistry, but to how he lived his life through that artistry. He worked hard through the end of his days to give us a product he’d be remembered by, a final soundtrack to the epilogue of a life lived in constant creation.

Best of the rest (L-R):Ape in Pink Marble  by Devendra Banhart / A Seat at the Table  by SolangeSonoran Depravation  by GATECREEPER / Strangers  by Marissa Nadler

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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The Magic… and Misery of Soundscan

Soundscan is… shall we say… interesting to me. Soundscan is in many ways the worst thing going on in the music industry right now and something that we all need to figure out how to deal with. It’s perhaps the most lied too organization in the industry as well, with the possible exception of the IRS. Why? Because Soundscan is also one of the most outmoded systems in all of entertainment and has a long history of being manipulated. I know this sounds very jaded and nihilistic but in time it will become clear. Soundscan needs to die, and fast – otherwise bands will be left depending on traditional mediums even after the last CD is sold. We are rapidly reaching a point where Soundscan is realizing this and it seems to me that they will eventually figure it out – even if you do have to remind yourself that when these things finally do adapt they will still be hopelessly behind the times. Such is the beauty of the clusterfuck that is the Nielsen Soundscan rating system.

I’m not going to go into the history of Soundscan because fuck that, rather I will tell you what you need to know as a background. Soundscan is what Billboard uses to publish their charts. Billboards charts started up as a way to help radio DJ’s determine what songs were popular, in their genre, regionally and more. In many ways that makes sense. DJ’s need to know these things if they want those sweet sweet advertising dollars. The issue is that Soundscan rapidly became a way for labels and managers to claim bragging rights. Now again – this too is not TECHNICALLY a problem since labels and managers work hard! They want to brag. Hell I’ve bragged about this sort of stuff and I’m just some fucking dork who manages nerdy metal bands. The problem was that the bragging soon impacted reality. If you’re charting then odds are you’re going to keep charting for a while at least. Not just that but if you are charting then it means that the label is going to pay more attention to you.

This is in turn leads to one of the more… shall we say morally gray areas of the music industry – and on two fronts. The main one is that it gives bands a reason to fudge numbers. When you’re dealing with niche markets you get to be put on niche lists like Heatseekers or Hard Rock. Being in te top 40 of those lists is not that hard – you only need to sell a few thousand copies, a relative trifling for a big band on tour. However… as many naive youngsters are disappointed to find out bands fudge the numbers. The reasoning behind it is simple. Soundscan, especially when you are only moving a few hundred copies is bullshit, so you might as well take advantage of what you can. You’re a band and you’re hungry and not all bands are created equal. This is perfectly natural, capitalism at work. You gotta break a few eggs and all that. This has been going on for decades too – it’s why there are often scandals about artists packaging tickets with albums in order to boost sales or convincing crooked retailers to scan records twice, or for their competitors, not at all. The system is that easy to fool.

The other big issue it creates is payola which operates at all levels of the industry. Again – I know that sounds shitty but it’s been going on for like seventy years now and isn’t going to stop anytime soon. I know you want to think that your local radio station is playing music that they love and believe in but sadly that is not, will not be, and never has been the case. The reason that bands engage in payola is exactly the same though – it boosts their spot on the charts by boosting sales and by being boosted on the charts you know that you are going to sell more copies and get more attention from your label. In a day of limited resources this is ALL THAT MATTERS. That being said – it’s important to also know that many of the radio people get bonuses based on the chart position of the bands they are working – meaning payola is important for them too. Long story short – it’s all scrabbling for the same scraps and that sucks.

So what IS a good indicator of how popular a band is if all this other stuff is, according to your esteemed columnist only so much bullshit? Youtube views and Spotify streams. Real people aren’t buying records. More importantly – most serious fans are not buying records because there is too goddamn much to buy! Sure some have a ton of discretionary income and will invest in the physical product but odds are your average fan doesn’t want to be burdened with that hit. So they go to Youtube and Spotify. Now that’s fine – but it doesn’t fucking pay. Like, at all. So now you’re up shit creek without a paddle and life has become utterly meaningless right? WRONG. There are services already out there that help pitch you to these sorts of things and I think as more people come to terms with the new reality of the industry they will be the true locus of power.

So yeah – lots of harsh lessons in todays article. I know that I come off as rather bitter and seem like a know it all but I’ve been around a time or two. You can call me out if you want – I am legitimately curious about other peoples experiences. This is all just a reflection of my own work. As strange as it may seem, label people are still really fucking out of touch most of the fucking time and they don’t seem to understand that by the end we are all going to have to embrace the unfortunate reality of Youtube and Spotify (And hope that they start paying more) or remain slaves to an increasingly irrelevant format.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Management and Label Deals

Record labels across the board are chronically understaffed – that’s just a harsh toke on a brutal truth. That’s why record labels have started to set up some rather nefarious management deals. That is to say that they will sign you,but they want you to work with a specific manager or management group. This can often come at the expense of your current manager, if you have one. Still – I want to try and take the time to evaluate the relative potency of both sides of this arrangement. While it certainly can seem a bit frustrating – especially if you have a close relationship with a particular manager there is definitely an advantage for the artist – not just from the record labels point of view. Coming to terms with management deals and their place in this industry is going to be an important part of any artists prolonged success.

Management deals are set up because record labels don’t have the funds to support the kinds of people who can really help to break an artist. They are set up also because the label can’t really justify taking an additional percentage of an artists income if they aren’t providing some sort of managerial services. At the same time – they want the artist to get as big as possible. The only solution they really have then is to help max out that merch game and touring – things that a label can definitely help with and give advice on but which they can’t fully or properly invest themselves into. Management deals sometimes are a part of the record contract itself – but a lot of the time they are set up in a sort of weird nebulous manner – ie: the label makes it clear to the artist that they don’t need to accept a manager but it sure would help them having a future with the label if they hired this particular guy.

Now I’m not too sure about the legality of that but I do know that labels definitely do take into account your managerial situation when they sign you or decide to keep you. This isn’t just a political thing, though that can have an influence (More on that later) but also a financial thing. Like I said before – in this day and age the label fronts the money but it’s the managers and PR people who are really going to start moving product. There’s only so much energy a record label can invest after all. Labels are in the business of signing bands that they think are going to move units – if you can’t make a case that your band is going to move units or have the know how to do that, with a manager, consultant or something else then you are going to find yourself rapidly traveling up shit creek without a paddle. Most industry people simply don’t trust artists and are going to feel much more comfortable if there is someone between them to facilitate things.

Of course – having a manager has countless advantages, especially one that has been approved by the label. It means that there is already a relationship there and it means that there is already somewhere you can start to try and twist the label for extra things like tour support or a slightly edited contract. These things may sound minor in and of themselves, but as I’ve discussed before, in this industry it’s all about saving bits and pieces here and there. Most artists have managers because those are the guys who really help them to develop but a lot of artists have issues finding a manager who works for them. In some ways having that choice taken away from you can be remarkably helpful and help you to determine where you really fit into the grand scheme of things. In the age of solipsism and social media sometimes all you need as an artist is some much needed perspective.

That being said – as helpful as a label appointed manager can but don’t think for a second that this isn’t also a political move. Giving a struggling management company a client is a great way for a label to look magnanimous. On the flip side of the coin – management companies might try and suck up multiple artists from a label in order to gain greater influence over that label with the implication that by managing the labels artists they are doing them a major solid so the label should be more willing to sign their bands in the future. As previously discussed – a lot of this industry is just a huge circle jerk so by consequence it would make sense that some of these management deals are really only set up in order to hep facilitate a side of things that many artists feel like they would be better off without. Unfortunately anywhere big money starts to come in one is also going to find political influence – that’s just the way the industry rolls.

Long story short – management deals while occasionally helpful are usually just a way for industry players to get their fingers sunk deeper into each other so that they can all congratulate each other at the big circle jerk-y parties they have every quarter. I’m not saying you should totally alienate and disregard a record label who pushes for one, but you definitely should be very careful – especially if whatever manager you might end up having to hire doesn’t seem like a good fit. Play your cards right and a management deal within a label could end up being a boon, but if you slip up you could leave yourself hanging for years.

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