My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

One of the benefits to starting a record label - quite possibly the only one - is that you feel pretty cool telling other people you have a record label. It sounds pretty awesome. Whether it is worth all the money you invest in it just to sound cool, well that's another story. These days, though, starting a label is pretty simple, so I guess I'm not all that special. I guess I know enough that people occasionally inquire with regards to what it would take to start their own label. I guess more than anything, it takes a lot of faith. No one seems to have a lot of faith in this business right now, but I've strangely been overcome with the feeling that everything is going to be OK. When I was in Amoeba on a Tuesday afternoon, there was a good size amount of people there shopping. In fact, Amoeba always has a good crowd when I drop by there.

Though I have no statistics to back this up, I always think that this vinyl resurgence will actually happen. I've been reading The Tipping Point, which i all about social trends and epidemics and the "little things" that make them happen. I've been wondering how I can apply what I've learned from this book to the independent music industry. Maybe vinyl will become one of those things like Hush Puppies that all of a sudden become fashionable again. That being said, I don't have any immediate plans to produce any vinyl, but Devil in the Woods has a pretty amazing vinyl back catalog that includes Sparklehorse's It's A Wonderful Life and two Of Montreal albums (including a vinyl-only "best of"). You can see a nice little collage of some of DIW's biggest releases here. That's quite a history so I am stoked to be so involved with the whole re-launch.***The Lower Class Revolt website is up and running. There you can find out more about the exciting projects they have happening as well as some of what I will be involved in. There's also some (rather dark) performance videos I shot from the last LCR show at the Knockout.***Here are two more Passionistas video spots for Sonic Living...


Don't forget the Passionistas radio show, Make Me Famous, airs the fourth Monday of every month on West Add Radio at 9PM. You can hear the first episode here.***San Francisco band The Dodos got a pretty fantastic review at Pitchfork today. My friend Ben worked as their tour manager last year.***I noticed We Are Scientists have a new album out. I've been kinda out of the loop of what those guys are up to, however I did know them back in college and used to book them to play my Art Collective parties. Still trying to milk that for all it's worth.