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[RSettee]

J.J. Blair wrote on Wed, 03 January 2007 19:38

Don't take a band and go to labels and say "give us money to make a record."  Go to them with a finished product.  At worst, you'll record one or two new songs or have the TLA remix the thing.

That's a good point. I misread what you were trying to say.

Quote:

I do want to add that I have never found an A&R person being at the label or not at the label when a band they signed was released to make one bit of difference to it's success.

I've heard alot of horror stories from bands (especially in the early to mid 90's), where their friends at the label got canned, and then no one supported their album. Take Jawbox for example: when they signed to Atlantic after being on Dischord, they not only made an artistically pure statement, but they bolstered and improved everything: writing, production, etc. "For Your Own Special Sweetheart" is an amazing album. But then their friends at the label got canned, then Atlantic created the Tag mini label, at which point they released the S/T album in 1996, and when the label folded mid promotion, the album sadly went nowhere.

To me, I never saw the point of signing a band and putting money into something that you wouldn't properly develop or support. That just reconfirms why most bands are money losers on majors, while something ridiculous like the 2 to 5 percent that actually make money are left to squeeze blood out of a stone.

[compasspnt]

J.J. Blair wrote on Thu, 04 January 2007 19:28

...so I really could care less.

You could?  How much less?  If you COULD care less, then why not do so, and not stop your lessening of caring at the current point of it?


Oh wait, maybe you meant that you COULDN'T care less...

[jimmyjazz]

Yeah, I've worked with a couple of bands here in Austin who had bizarre major label experiences.  Spoon jumped from Matador to Elektra and lost all support within a month of their album release.  (Since then, they have had huge indie success on Merge, and I believe they have actually re-released their Elektra album to considerable acclaim.)  Fastball went mega-gold with their sophomore record on Hollywood, and then seemingly had no coherent label support for their followup.  How does a label abandon a band on their followup to a huge hit record?

[J.J. Blair]

compasspnt wrote on Thu, 04 January 2007 19:13

You could?  How much less?  If you COULD care less, then why not do so, and not stop your lessening of caring at the current point of it? Oh wait, maybe you meant that you COULDN'T care less...

Nobody make a move!  It's the ...

[wwittman]

The frustrating thing about being part of the grammar police is that the grammar COURTS let offenders off with such light sentences.

[E Merrill]

compasspnt wrote on Thu, 04 January 2007 22:13

J.J. Blair wrote on Thu, 04 January 2007 19:28 ...so I really could care less.   You could?  How much less?  If you COULD care less, then why not do so, and not stop your lessening of caring at the current point of it? Oh wait, maybe you meant that you COULDN'T care less...

he could care less but doesn't even fecking bother. That's a whole new level of carelessness that isn't even fathomed when one considers what one can or can not care less about.

[J.J. Blair]

wwittman wrote on Thu, 04 January 2007 22:43

The frustrating thing about being part of the grammar police is that the grammar COURTS let offenders off with such light sentences.

:rimshot:   LOL.

[rnicklaus]

J.J. Blair wrote on Fri, 05 January 2007 02:00

:rimshot:   LOL.

As this is an audio forum, it would be great to be able to add icons that played short samples like a rimshot or haha, etc., when triggered.

THAT would be funny.

[J.J. Blair]

OK, just got off the phone with Jason.  His new record will be coming out in Japan in April.  And I don't want to jinx it by divulging the details, but it looks like something nice is going to happen for the rest of the worldwide release.  I'll be very stoked for him if it all works out.  

And yes, it was the Alanis tour that Neglektra decided not to support, so the band did it for free.  But he did do a Suzanne Vega tour before that, and I mixed the two up.

There ya have it.

[RSettee]

jimmyjazz wrote on Thu, 04 January 2007 22:43

Yeah, I've worked with a couple of bands here in Austin who had bizarre major label experiences. Spoon jumped from Matador to Elektra and lost all support within a month of their album release. (Since then, they have had huge indie success on Merge, and I believe they have actually re-released their Elektra album to considerable acclaim.) Fastball went mega-gold with their sophomore record on Hollywood, and then seemingly had no coherent label support for their followup. How does a label abandon a band on their followup to a huge hit record?

I agree. Another band, Chainsaw Kittens, put out an album "Pop Heiress" which had approximately a month or so (or less) of promo in 1994, and then it hit the cutout bins probably just months after that. That's a shame, man, because that album is pure rock n' roll gold--mind you, they were onto a non-existent trend in the "Sex Pistols/ Cheap Trick/ Bowie/ Undertones/ T-Rex" sound-- but had Mammoth promoted it correctly, it would have been huge, because there was absolutely nothing that sounded like that album then--or now, for that matter. For what it's worth, every time that I put that on, people ask, "who is this?" and all the girls that I put it on for all seem to dig the Robin Zander via Iggy/ Bowie delivery that Tyson had. It has an immediacy that few albums have had. From the production (it was mixed at Ocean Way), down to the songs, it's just deadly in every aspect. But no one heard it. I do my best to spam every messageboard that I go to about it, heh, but even that only does so much (shrugs shoulders).