FillaMusik

I’ve just read a bunch on Jason Jordan and I must say I’ve never despised and admired someone equally like I have Mr. Jordan… Sometimes when I’m feeling down and I start tracing back how I got to where I am now, I also like to imagine paths to success that I didn’t get to take yet that I desperately wish I could…Jordan has taken my wishful accomplishments and shat on them with what he’s actually done. that. is. awesome. An interview conducted with Taxi.com (http://www.taxi.com/transmitter/0508/headlineA0508.html) has jason interpreting what he feels the A&R men do, and I must say that his job sounds way better than being stuck behind the mixing desk at the studio. damn it. now what do I do… Jason seems to have a fantastic business sense, but above all else, a respect for the art and artists that the music business builds its profitable foundations on…I have nothing but respect for those who respect the art. I can’t wait to meet this man and pick his brain.

Okay…A label with limited promotional budgets but boundless potential…any one interested yet?

1. guerrilla anything - okay I love smartassery and rogue techniques to get a point across…I think the best thing for our label would be to create a promotional love-child birthed from Banksy (http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html **sidenote: PLEASE familiarize yourself with Banksy) and rabid street team children). I’m usually not one for littering or those promotional band leaflets, but I think if we stick to simple imagery and have leaflets of very few words (think a leaflet with our logo and just a URL or “owldrop” on it) and go nuts at the tech center, student center, sporting events, Temple hangouts and just try and look like this:http://freemoneys.ytmnd.com/ (sans the money part), we could get tons of people interested.

2. OWLDROP SHOWS!!!! I think we need to be very ambitious with creating something tangible, especially since OwlDrop is a fledgling digital label…there has to be something people can ‘pick up.’ I think picking one or the other (regarding a show at the belltower or atrium in SAC) isn’t good enough, maybe we should do both. I want someone to turn the corner to get away from our promotion and find them neck-deep in more OwlDroppings…err…you know what I mean. Even if these 2 shows aren’t feasible in the next few weeks/months, it is imperative that OwlDrop gets its hands in the Temple music scene ASAP…house parties, local venues, anything!

3. Technology - whoever suggested handing out free shit (doughnuts, stickers, anything) in exchange for signing up on any of our many digital domains is on the right track. The more traffic to our sites, the more UNIQUE visitors, the better…I say every month or so we have some label reps get a table outside the belltower (or student center atrium if we’re gonna be fussy about the cold) with a few laptops and a bunch of hot coffee and just talk to people and thank them for braving the cold in order to become an active member of Temple’s music community.

4. pre-existing Temple gigs! Temple has tons of school-oriented shows…be it Jazz, classical, theatre, etc. We need people attending these shows (pre/post schmoozing) and getting the word out to performers and audience alike that Temple has a label.

5. RADIO!!! Alex mentioned being in an impressive position at WRTI, Temple’s fantastic radio station (i only listen to this and XPN, sorry wired!) I know that radio listeners, especially college radio listeners is a very specific niche, but reaching out will lend us credibility in a business that is beginning to ignore (dare i say, shun) the radio crowd…for shame! I know some people at XPN and wired that could probably get us a few seconds of time to plug the label…

I spent a good 20 minutes looking for info on one Arthur Mann, our guest for the upcoming Owldrop meeting…It’s always good to get some background on a person if you’re going to be sitting across from them, that’s what I say. All I could find was this Allbusiness.com article, http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4375521-1.html, other than a producing credit list that is IMPRESSIVE to say the least, i’m pumped for tomorrow! Mann, co-founder of Rykodisc pulled some pretty revolutionary and insightful business moves going with the CD-exclusive publishing…I can’t wait to get his input on the future. Maybe Mann with give owldrop a golden goose…

As noted in my blog post on Marc Brownstein, the man responsible for the Disco Biscuits jazzfunk basslines for nearly 15 years, I get down with the Disco Biscuits…but again, I haven’t kept up with them since before their last release. Luckily for me, I know what the internet is and I have used her to fetch me an article (http://www.cincygroove.com/?q=node/943) from right around the Biscuits dropped off the radar for me (come on, we all make mistakes!)— which incidentally was between Rocket 3 (2006) and this year’s Planet Anthem…both good albums…let it be known. The Disco Biscuits have always been interesting to me, because they pull off the live-band recording better than their contemporaries lies Phish do…I can actually keep my attention when listening to the Biscuits, the tracks don’t necessarily bleed into one another and sound like the same 12-track song. Scott Preston, who interviews Disco Biscuits keyboard player Aaron Magner for Cincy Groove Magazine does the catch-up thing very well, focusing mostly on the band’s Summerly Camp Bisco fest and their recently released album. The kinship and solidarity of this band is truly remarkable, I think they’ll be around for years and improving with age, much like a super-classy glass of wine…

As noted in my blog post on Marc Brownstein, the man responsible for the Disco Biscuits jazzfunk basslines for nearly 15 years, I get down with the Disco Biscuits…but again, I haven’t kept up with them since before their last release. Luckily for me, I know what the internet is and I have used her to fetch me an article (http://www.cincygroove.com/?q=node/943) from right around the Biscuits dropped off the radar for me (come on, we all make mistakes!)— which incidentally was between Rocket 3 (2006) and this year’s Planet Anthem…both good albums…let it be known. The Disco Biscuits have always been interesting to me, because they pull off the live-band recording better than their contemporaries lies Phish do…I can actually keep my attention when listening to the Biscuits, the tracks don’t necessarily bleed into one another and sound like the same 12-track song. Scott Preston, who interviews Disco Biscuits keyboard player Aaron Magner for Cincy Groove Magazine does the catch-up thing very well, focusing mostly on the band’s Summerly Camp Bisco fest and their recently released album. The kinship and solidarity of this band is truly remarkable, I think they’ll be around for years and improving with age, much like a super-classy glass of wine…

I’m going to throw this out there: I’m still looking to get my summer festival cherry popped…I think it’s going to be a long wait this time at this point, seeing as how, you know, it was snowing in North Jersey on friday…oh well. I’ve been through about eight years of my typical “oh great, it’s summertime…now I can go to overpriced woodstock-wannabe concerts with a bunch of mud-flinging cheeseheads” shpeel that I bust out every March to keep myself from shelling out $300 bucks to have a sub-mediocre live concert experience. Seeing as how the number of high-profile summer music festivals in the past five years has tripled I’m either in need of a major wake-up…or some kind of cynic-strengthening elixir…Camp Bisco might be the fest to save myself for, especially after reading Marc Brownstein’s latest interview (posted below) and checking out the 2009 line-up of Camp Bisco (check it out yourself; http://www.campbisco.net/09/index.html) The thought of the disco biscuits jamming with LCD Soundsystem makes my ears salivate. gross. In respect to why Camp Bisco is cherry-takin’ good, the fest isn’t structuring itself around the jam-band circuit necessarily, but finding like-minded artists to play with instead…way to jam outside the box…I dig

read this: http://theapp.appstate.edu/content/view/5448/40/ I already know quite a bit about the Biscuits, but I haven’t really stayed on top of them for about a year now… The most relevant article on Marc was found in Emily Melton’s short and to-the-point interview with Marc Brownstein is hosted by The Appalachian Online, a student newspaper out in the sticks….sorry sticks-people…I mean you and your backwards ways no harm. Marc actually addresses his choice to reach out to The Appalachian newspaper as opposed to any other media (in true Disco Biscuit fashion, it’s for the fans) and he offers up some interesting catch-up info…The Biscuits found their footing with their new drummer out in Boone, NC…soooo the setting is particularly important to him, which means he’ll be showing the local papers all sort of humble jam-rock loving…good stuff….I’m glad to read that even at the date of the article’s posting (Oct. 1st, 09), the Disco Biscuits are still playingy like possessed monsters 6 days a week. I can’t say I totally agree on how he describes his band’s sound these days (a mix between rock improv. and electronica…really?) I’m really pretty psyched about their live show after reading this article…thanks homework! Brownstein claims that the Disco Biscuits haven’t sounded this good live yet, how’s that for incentive to catch them? I’m looking for tickets/shows as I speak…er….type?

okay. I just read a really impassioned article on Amanda-Fucking-Palmer’s blog, http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/200582690/why-i-am-not-afraid-to-take-your-money-by-amanda…I can’t tell what to make of the language she’s using to describe a shift in the way artists make music, but regardless of her WC, the approach is flawless…artists need money! There’s some strange taboo when artists’ finances get thrown under the microscope. I don’t understand how artists become invalidated in some way when it’s discovered that—GASP—they are working to put food on the table and jet fuel in their jets. Since I busked for 2 years on the reg to pay my rent, I can feel the pain of starvation, but more importantly the empowerment you obtain from getting the extra $5 for hitting that high note. Art is hard, sometimes painful work and when you cross your rubicon and start putting yourself out there, I think a price for admission is more than justified. Gone are the days when artists get to hide behind this banner of selflessness and charity in absolute. I say to hell with that bullshit mentality anyways, if artists are so concerned about “being real,” then it’s time that we let them be real and worry about that paycheck. Speaking of which, I’ll be in Rittenhouse today, playing for a nice steak dinner…

OwlDrop Records has been framed in the past as Temple’s version of “The College Record Label,” a la CAM records (http://www.camrecords.org/) based out of UC Denver or even, to personal chagrin, another Philadelphia-based university, Drexel’s own MAD Dragon Records (www.maddragonrecords.com). Make no mistake, these are fine, respectable labels whose successes within the music industry are earning accolades from fans, artists, and industry professionals alike (please check them out, that’s why I posted links!). However, these labels have thus far achieved such successes by adhering to an arcane and failing business model that has left the industry collectively scrambling for a long lost luster and fans alienated and scratching their heads at the sheer number of ways you “should” be consuming their product. I am convinced the burgeoning OwlDrop Record Label is steering towards a multitude of successes: a record label with music, community, and integrity in mind above all else.

Temple’s OwlDrop Records is still in its infancy, but this is helping serve the label’s growth rather than stifle it. Music is everywhere. Anytime. Accessible. Free. OwlDrop is not confined to waiting for the industry to shift its lumbering path, but forging ahead on its own path. Owldrop aims to intimately connect its followers with the artists, community, but most importantly, each other in exciting ways that will cater to the countless listeners that, like myself, feel deprived of the pure connection to music that the tanking industry fails to even recognize as its saving grace.  OwlDrop’s social networking sites, blogs, iTunesU page, and our featured artists will provide interested listeners with an instant access to the Temple music community’s sights and sounds (and sites). Listeners can delve into Temple’s music scene effortlessly with songs, pictures, blogposts from our artists, and notifications of both Temple and non-Temple live performances, all from the same place. Because OwlDrop’s sustenance depends on its strong and active community, please visit our site and spread the word, help us take the music back to the people.

I just got done reading this: http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/new_sins/about/new_sins_magnet.php

It’s an awesome interview that A.D. Amorosi conducted with David Byrne of Talking Heads and large-suit fame…Amorosi pulls the enigmatic front-man apart and makes his esoteric, arty sensibilities a bit more accessible…i’m still waiting for a TH reunion…but I’m glad Amorosi didn’t ask David about that, I hear he kills when asked…