Another biological mystery for our world's most accomplished scientists and researchers to unravel. If they can decode the human genome, maybe they can determine what causes people to be A-Holes. I feel lucky not to have been cursed with the gene that causes this affliction. Unfortunately, this is an insidious disease that wreaks havoc on others' lives.
Say, for instance, you are a tenant living in a house owned by someone else. Say that you have paid your rent on time for 3+ years, kept the place in great condition and generally have caused no headaches for your landlord. Then, without warning, the A-Hole gene kicks in. You fall behind on rent by almost two months. Then, after several months of your landlord trying to work with you, you decide to break your lease and move back to A-Hole-ville...I mean, California. You give your landlord 5 days notice, and set a day/time for him to come and inspect the condition of the house and collect keys/garage remotes/back rent from you. And finally, to cap off months of A-Holity, you bolt before the arranged meeting time, leaving the house in precarious condition, taking the keys (to the locks on the doors, which you had changed without informing the landlord, who is now locked out of his own f-ing house), garage remotes and money with you.
Do everyone a favor please, and donate your body to science so we can isolate this malicious gene and spare future mankind a lot of heartache.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
SXSW Part 7 - Softball
The last day of SXSW was reserved for the softball game. I was on the record label team, and incredibly, we schooled our first round opponent (the agents, maybe?) 27-12. Second round was not quite as productive as we got mercy-ruled (there was no mercy rule in Round 1) 14-4 by the SXSW staff team. Oh well...better luck next year. We won one game, which is something my regular team here in Vegas can't seem to grasp the concept of.
Overall, I had a good time at the festival. Would have been more fun if I had attended with someone else. I hope a few of the contacts turn out to open some doors. Otherwise, I'm not sure the $1,500+ I dumped will be worth it.
Anyway, I hope you all (and by all, I mean the 3 people who may be reading this) will continue to follow my adventures in the music industry. ProGenitor Entertainment Network is in the setting-up stages, so I will try to post entries on a semi-regular basis to keep "everyone" updated on how things are going. Coming soon will be the "It's Alright EP" by Faryn Sand and farynsand.com. Stay tuned...
Overall, I had a good time at the festival. Would have been more fun if I had attended with someone else. I hope a few of the contacts turn out to open some doors. Otherwise, I'm not sure the $1,500+ I dumped will be worth it.
Anyway, I hope you all (and by all, I mean the 3 people who may be reading this) will continue to follow my adventures in the music industry. ProGenitor Entertainment Network is in the setting-up stages, so I will try to post entries on a semi-regular basis to keep "everyone" updated on how things are going. Coming soon will be the "It's Alright EP" by Faryn Sand and farynsand.com. Stay tuned...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
SXSW Part 6 - Day 4
Saturday got off to a somewhat inauspicious start. The shuttle was a no-show so I had to call the folks running the service to get one to swing by. The plan was to grab food before the day's festivities began, but I ended up not having time. So onto the...
12pm Quickie Session - "In the Studio." This turned out to involve highly technical discussions regarding recording equipment, the engineering process and the like - way over my head. When I posed questions that were specific to my situation and interests, I got some rather broadbased answers. Not too helpful.
For some odd reason, I was totally fried at this point, so I scrapped plans to participate in the Mentor Session, and picked up some much-needed nourishment. The Mentor Sessions were designed to offer an opportunity to speak one-on-one with a number of industry "experts," but I didn't even see anyone particularly intriguing on the list. Looked like a bunch of local Austin-ites.
At 3pm, I attended a panel discussion on fan-based marketing. A few interesting ideas were thrown out, but again, a little underwhelming. That did it for the seminar portion of SXSW. As you can tell from my comments, I was a little disappointed at the perceived value I got for my money, but I think time will have to tell. If even one of the little tidbits I picked up turns out to lead to something good, then it will likely all have been worth it.
Crashed for a few hours back at the motel and headed back downtown around 10pm. I couldn't for the life of me find anything that piqued my interest on the show schedule prior to the Third Eye Blind set, which was scheduled for 1230am. So I had some dinner at a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, which was pretty good.
Got to Stubbs about 1145pm, which was about half hour into the Indigo Girls set. I caught the last 4 or 5 songs they played. Surprisingly enough, they were really good. I've never been a fan, and know practically nothing that they sing, but they sounded spot on. Glad I got there early.
After a riveting 50-minute equipment check, Third Eye Blind came on at 1250am. I have mixed feelings about this one. The songs of theirs with which I was unfamiliar (read: most of them) did not blow me away. A couple were decent. And I have to hand it to Stephan Jenkins; he's an undeniably charasmatic front man. I'd heard that they had a rabid following - even years after their commercial peak - and accordingly, the place was packed to the rafters. They did play "Jumper" and "Never Let You Go," which were probably the two lesser-known of their four hits. But continuing in the mind-numbing tradition of one-hit or few-hit wonders who seem to have an aversion to playing songs for which they are best recognized, they left out "Semi-Charmed Life" and "How's It Gonna Be." If you have fewer than seven hits or so in your entire career, your setlist shouldn't really involve that much guesswork. They're about to put out their fourth album. It's not like they've been around since 1972. Unless the set is otherwise blistering, this "hit neglect" automatically ruins the whole experience for me. Sure - the die hard fans knew the other songs. But there's a reason why these songs were hits - they were probably amongst your best. And there were several other fans expressing dismay when the lights came back up. You're there for the fans, not for you. Play the freakin hits. Especially when one was arguably one of the catchiest pop tunes of the 90's. GRADES: Indigo Girls B+/Third Eye Blind (A for stage presence), (F for setlist) - C overall
12pm Quickie Session - "In the Studio." This turned out to involve highly technical discussions regarding recording equipment, the engineering process and the like - way over my head. When I posed questions that were specific to my situation and interests, I got some rather broadbased answers. Not too helpful.
For some odd reason, I was totally fried at this point, so I scrapped plans to participate in the Mentor Session, and picked up some much-needed nourishment. The Mentor Sessions were designed to offer an opportunity to speak one-on-one with a number of industry "experts," but I didn't even see anyone particularly intriguing on the list. Looked like a bunch of local Austin-ites.
At 3pm, I attended a panel discussion on fan-based marketing. A few interesting ideas were thrown out, but again, a little underwhelming. That did it for the seminar portion of SXSW. As you can tell from my comments, I was a little disappointed at the perceived value I got for my money, but I think time will have to tell. If even one of the little tidbits I picked up turns out to lead to something good, then it will likely all have been worth it.
Crashed for a few hours back at the motel and headed back downtown around 10pm. I couldn't for the life of me find anything that piqued my interest on the show schedule prior to the Third Eye Blind set, which was scheduled for 1230am. So I had some dinner at a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, which was pretty good.
Got to Stubbs about 1145pm, which was about half hour into the Indigo Girls set. I caught the last 4 or 5 songs they played. Surprisingly enough, they were really good. I've never been a fan, and know practically nothing that they sing, but they sounded spot on. Glad I got there early.
After a riveting 50-minute equipment check, Third Eye Blind came on at 1250am. I have mixed feelings about this one. The songs of theirs with which I was unfamiliar (read: most of them) did not blow me away. A couple were decent. And I have to hand it to Stephan Jenkins; he's an undeniably charasmatic front man. I'd heard that they had a rabid following - even years after their commercial peak - and accordingly, the place was packed to the rafters. They did play "Jumper" and "Never Let You Go," which were probably the two lesser-known of their four hits. But continuing in the mind-numbing tradition of one-hit or few-hit wonders who seem to have an aversion to playing songs for which they are best recognized, they left out "Semi-Charmed Life" and "How's It Gonna Be." If you have fewer than seven hits or so in your entire career, your setlist shouldn't really involve that much guesswork. They're about to put out their fourth album. It's not like they've been around since 1972. Unless the set is otherwise blistering, this "hit neglect" automatically ruins the whole experience for me. Sure - the die hard fans knew the other songs. But there's a reason why these songs were hits - they were probably amongst your best. And there were several other fans expressing dismay when the lights came back up. You're there for the fans, not for you. Play the freakin hits. Especially when one was arguably one of the catchiest pop tunes of the 90's. GRADES: Indigo Girls B+/Third Eye Blind (A for stage presence), (F for setlist) - C overall
Thursday, April 2, 2009
SXSW Part 5 - Day 3
So Day 3 started off with another "Quickie Session," this one on the topic of live shows. Still enjoyed this format more than the panel discussions. Spoke with Jordan Burger, the booking agent for one of my favorite songwriters, Angie Aparo. Also had the drummer from Blondie, Clem Burke and the talent buyer for Central Park SummerStage sit at our table.
Next was a panel called, "Artist Development meets Economic Reality." More with the speakers going off on tangents, broad discussion bringing up points we could, for the most part, figure out ourselves - more managers are serving capacities traditionally filled by labels, major label support budgets are lower these days, working as an indie artist does not provide for a glamorous lifestyle, money is in touring not selling CD's, etc. Heard a lot of it before.
Next panel was on licensing music. A few more potentially useful were Web sites thrown out here, but again, I don't think the moderator was really doing his job. They did not touch upon all the different kinds of rights that they mentioned at the outset.
Late that afternoon, I finally got to walk the Trade show. Collected some business cards. A lot of the exhibitors were Web-based businesses with sites geared towards being one-stop shops for "baby" or developing acts. Offering a variety of services including help with development of e-marketing campaigns, ticketing, manufacturing, digital retail. One in particular, theConnextion.com has been around since 1997, which generated a little more interest on my part, since many of the others were just launching and who knows if they'll be around 6 months from now? It was good to talk to some folks and see some reinforcement that indie musicians and labels have a plethora of resources at their disposal.
That night, the original plan was to see Margaret Cho at 9pm, but it turned out to be a littany of back-to-back comedians doing 15-minute sets, plus there was no shuttle at that time, so I skipped it. Headed over to The Ale House to see Rocco DeLuca and The Burden at 1130pm, but got there at 11. That turned out to be my best move of the festival. L.A.-based singer-songwriter, Tyrone Wells was going on just as I arrived. Very brief 20-minute set, but far and away the best performance I saw in Austin. Great to discover a "new" musician, albeit one who has apparently been releasing material for a decade. The guy can sing his head off. Grade: A+. Downloaded many of the songs from his latest album, "Remain" when I got home. Check him out. Rocco DeLuca turned out not to be my cup of tea, but oh well. I thought I was going to be sneaky and try to listen to the "surprise" Metallica show from outside Stubbs. No chance of actually getting in, as people had been lined up since the afternoon. Turns out, there was no chance of hearing it either, as the information I had heard - that they were going on around 1230am - was faulty. I got there around 1145pm and they had already been and gone. Not a big deal. Supposedly, some other big name acts showed up for unannounced sets throughout the festival, including Blondie, Kanye West and Jane's Addiction. Anyway, I had planned to catch a couple other late night shows, but once again, my energy reserves betrayed me, and I found myself heading back to the motel.
Next was a panel called, "Artist Development meets Economic Reality." More with the speakers going off on tangents, broad discussion bringing up points we could, for the most part, figure out ourselves - more managers are serving capacities traditionally filled by labels, major label support budgets are lower these days, working as an indie artist does not provide for a glamorous lifestyle, money is in touring not selling CD's, etc. Heard a lot of it before.
Next panel was on licensing music. A few more potentially useful were Web sites thrown out here, but again, I don't think the moderator was really doing his job. They did not touch upon all the different kinds of rights that they mentioned at the outset.
Late that afternoon, I finally got to walk the Trade show. Collected some business cards. A lot of the exhibitors were Web-based businesses with sites geared towards being one-stop shops for "baby" or developing acts. Offering a variety of services including help with development of e-marketing campaigns, ticketing, manufacturing, digital retail. One in particular, theConnextion.com has been around since 1997, which generated a little more interest on my part, since many of the others were just launching and who knows if they'll be around 6 months from now? It was good to talk to some folks and see some reinforcement that indie musicians and labels have a plethora of resources at their disposal.
That night, the original plan was to see Margaret Cho at 9pm, but it turned out to be a littany of back-to-back comedians doing 15-minute sets, plus there was no shuttle at that time, so I skipped it. Headed over to The Ale House to see Rocco DeLuca and The Burden at 1130pm, but got there at 11. That turned out to be my best move of the festival. L.A.-based singer-songwriter, Tyrone Wells was going on just as I arrived. Very brief 20-minute set, but far and away the best performance I saw in Austin. Great to discover a "new" musician, albeit one who has apparently been releasing material for a decade. The guy can sing his head off. Grade: A+. Downloaded many of the songs from his latest album, "Remain" when I got home. Check him out. Rocco DeLuca turned out not to be my cup of tea, but oh well. I thought I was going to be sneaky and try to listen to the "surprise" Metallica show from outside Stubbs. No chance of actually getting in, as people had been lined up since the afternoon. Turns out, there was no chance of hearing it either, as the information I had heard - that they were going on around 1230am - was faulty. I got there around 1145pm and they had already been and gone. Not a big deal. Supposedly, some other big name acts showed up for unannounced sets throughout the festival, including Blondie, Kanye West and Jane's Addiction. Anyway, I had planned to catch a couple other late night shows, but once again, my energy reserves betrayed me, and I found myself heading back to the motel.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
SXSW Part 4 - Day 2
My Day 2 activities at the Convention Center consisted of three panel discussions: Music Publishing, Placing Songs in TV & Film, and Doing a 360-Degree Deal With Yourself. Basically, only the TV & Film one was worth the time, with a few useful tidbits picked up there. The publishing one was given by the Brabec Brothers, who have written an extensive book on the topic. Trying to cram all the info in their book into an hour and fifteen minutes clearly was an exercise in futility. Didn't learn much I hadn't already read elsewhere. The last one turned into a theoretical discussion amongst the panelists on what it means to be successful in the music business these days and also on the advantages/disadvantages of being on a major label. Not sure what any of this had to do with the intended panel topic. Plus, this panel started an hour late. Quincy Jones was giving the keynote speech of the convention in the same room in which our panel was supposed to start at 330pm. Someone clearly didn't want to tell Mr. Jones to shut up, because we waited an hour before they moved us to a different location.
During my lunch break, I met Anthony, a guy who works for a new Web site called Worldsings.com. They're a social networking site for musicians and they're running a contest to find the "best song in the world." Feel free to submit yours. The finalists get invited to a big bash in, where else, VEGAS, next March, where the winner will be crowned. Let's hope the Web site is still around by then.
The lateness of the last panel precluded me from walking the trade show floor, and also precluded me from hopping a free shuttle back to the hotel, so I decided to hang out downtown until the musical showcases began that evening. So I spent some time walking around Austin. This is when I truly grasped the full extent of shitholery that encompasses the city. This was also when I had my near encounter with the Austin bat community. But, the downtime did provide me with the opportunity to get my entrepreneurial gears turning, so I spent a portion of the time taking notes.
9PM - time for the Meat Puppets to play at Stubbs, I'm assuming one of the larger venues on the SXSW circuit. They squeeze around 2,000+ people into an outdoor area...basically the backyard of the Stubbs restaurant. It was like a giant frat party, albeit with a slightly older crowd. The Meat Puppets are best known for their 90's hit "Backwater," which, naturally, they did not play. So that's the first demerit in my book. They're next best known for having penned two songs that Nirvana covered for the latter's MTV Unplugged in New York performance and CD. It was very apparent to me why "Lake of Fire" and "Plateau" were radio hits for Nirvana and not for the Meat Puppets. These guys looked like you could have run into them at a biker bar somewhere in Nebraska. Also very oddly distracting was Cris Kirkwood (the brother who's not the singer) not saying anything in between songs, yet making extremely peculiar vocal sounds and flailing his hands in the air for no apparent reason. Overall, I did not get the Puppets' vibe. It should be noted though, that their 2000 CD, "Golden Lies," is quiet awesome. I am listening to it right now, just to remind myself why I attended the show. Of course, they played nothing from this album :-) Overall grade: C-
I stuck around for the next band, Gomez. I'd heard of them but not known any songs of theirs. When I left in the middle of the third song, the same was still gladly true. Not a fan.
I had plans to catch other shows, but to paraphrase Roger Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon movies, "I'm getting too old for this shit." Just didn't have the will or the energy, so I once again retreated to the palatial Travelodge.
During my lunch break, I met Anthony, a guy who works for a new Web site called Worldsings.com. They're a social networking site for musicians and they're running a contest to find the "best song in the world." Feel free to submit yours. The finalists get invited to a big bash in, where else, VEGAS, next March, where the winner will be crowned. Let's hope the Web site is still around by then.
The lateness of the last panel precluded me from walking the trade show floor, and also precluded me from hopping a free shuttle back to the hotel, so I decided to hang out downtown until the musical showcases began that evening. So I spent some time walking around Austin. This is when I truly grasped the full extent of shitholery that encompasses the city. This was also when I had my near encounter with the Austin bat community. But, the downtime did provide me with the opportunity to get my entrepreneurial gears turning, so I spent a portion of the time taking notes.
9PM - time for the Meat Puppets to play at Stubbs, I'm assuming one of the larger venues on the SXSW circuit. They squeeze around 2,000+ people into an outdoor area...basically the backyard of the Stubbs restaurant. It was like a giant frat party, albeit with a slightly older crowd. The Meat Puppets are best known for their 90's hit "Backwater," which, naturally, they did not play. So that's the first demerit in my book. They're next best known for having penned two songs that Nirvana covered for the latter's MTV Unplugged in New York performance and CD. It was very apparent to me why "Lake of Fire" and "Plateau" were radio hits for Nirvana and not for the Meat Puppets. These guys looked like you could have run into them at a biker bar somewhere in Nebraska. Also very oddly distracting was Cris Kirkwood (the brother who's not the singer) not saying anything in between songs, yet making extremely peculiar vocal sounds and flailing his hands in the air for no apparent reason. Overall, I did not get the Puppets' vibe. It should be noted though, that their 2000 CD, "Golden Lies," is quiet awesome. I am listening to it right now, just to remind myself why I attended the show. Of course, they played nothing from this album :-) Overall grade: C-
I stuck around for the next band, Gomez. I'd heard of them but not known any songs of theirs. When I left in the middle of the third song, the same was still gladly true. Not a fan.
I had plans to catch other shows, but to paraphrase Roger Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon movies, "I'm getting too old for this shit." Just didn't have the will or the energy, so I once again retreated to the palatial Travelodge.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
SXSW Part 3 - The Beginning
Nothing like taking an overnight flight and then having to sit through half a day of seminars - but that is how my adventures at South By Southwest 2009 started off. Landed in Austin around 930am, made a beeline for the aforementioned Travelodge, dropped off the bags and caught the SXSW shuttle down to the Convention Center.
First up was a "Quickie Session" on Promotions, Publicity & Press. Sounds a little suspect, but it was actually a speed-dating style gathering where the attendees were divided into several tables of about 5 or so, and we got to have around 10 minutes speaking with one of several industry experts. The experts would then rotate tables so we could speak to the next one...and so forth. I attended a couple of these over the subsequent days and found it to be an interesting setup. I've already followed up with several of these folks to thank them and heard back from a couple. Just good to know of some people in the business.
Then, three back-to-back panel discussions where we basically sat in a lecture center and listened to a panel of 2 to 5 industry people speak on certain topics. I attended panels on Artist Management, Getting Gigs and Online Resources. The latter being, by far, the most comprehensive and fruitful session I attended during the festival. Online is where it's at folks. I was planning on attending a fourth panel on Merchandising, but couldn't quite make it any further without getting some food and then sleep, so...off to the Travelodge for a few-hour crash.
I headed back downtown late that night to catch my first musical showcase. It was the 90's 4-hit wonder, Fastball. The showcases featured short sets, mostly in small, hole-in-the-wall bars. This one was pretty good. They get brownie points for playing their biggest hits, which, as I'll write later, some acts feel is unnecessary. Overall grade: B+
More to come...
First up was a "Quickie Session" on Promotions, Publicity & Press. Sounds a little suspect, but it was actually a speed-dating style gathering where the attendees were divided into several tables of about 5 or so, and we got to have around 10 minutes speaking with one of several industry experts. The experts would then rotate tables so we could speak to the next one...and so forth. I attended a couple of these over the subsequent days and found it to be an interesting setup. I've already followed up with several of these folks to thank them and heard back from a couple. Just good to know of some people in the business.
Then, three back-to-back panel discussions where we basically sat in a lecture center and listened to a panel of 2 to 5 industry people speak on certain topics. I attended panels on Artist Management, Getting Gigs and Online Resources. The latter being, by far, the most comprehensive and fruitful session I attended during the festival. Online is where it's at folks. I was planning on attending a fourth panel on Merchandising, but couldn't quite make it any further without getting some food and then sleep, so...off to the Travelodge for a few-hour crash.
I headed back downtown late that night to catch my first musical showcase. It was the 90's 4-hit wonder, Fastball. The showcases featured short sets, mostly in small, hole-in-the-wall bars. This one was pretty good. They get brownie points for playing their biggest hits, which, as I'll write later, some acts feel is unnecessary. Overall grade: B+
More to come...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
SXSW Part 2 - Accommodations
Choosing a hotel online is always an adventure. To paraphrase the line from Forrest Gump, "You never know what you're gonna get." After having dumped over $1,000 on the festival registration and airfare, I was looking to skimp on the hotel accommodations. So I found a rate of $60 or so per night at the Travelodge. After all is said and done, it wasn't really that bad. It was clean enough, but certainly far from luxury. It's a beaten up motel that is flanked by the Highland Mall just across the way. As with many lower-end establishments, the drainage in the shower took a while to go into effect, but other than that, not too many issues. Except, ah yes, there was a leak seemingly coming from behind the toilet. The folks at travelodge quickly got the water cleaned up from the bathroom floor, but when I returned that evening, I discovered that water had seeped underneath the carpet in the bedroom section of the room. As the great Yogi Berra once said, "It's like deja vu all over again." Having just dropped a bucketload of money repairing water damage in my own bedroom, this was not a welcome discovery. But, at that point, I only had a couple days left there, so I simply advised the concierge to have the issue addressed quickly. Not sure if they did anything, but hopefully they won't have mushrooms growing through the carpet like I did at home. All in all, seeing as though I spent hardly any time in the room, it was passable. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it though.
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