The Label Journals #9 - "The Value of Failure and Disappointment"

A few weeks back, the Giants called up a young pitching phenom named Tim Lincecum to make his major league debut. The 22-year old had basically dominated at every level he'd ever pitched and Giants fans were clamoring for him to get his shot in the pro's. His first inning was not impressive, as he gave up two runs. He lasted into the fifth, ultimately giving up five with the Giants losing the game. As I watched this happen, I felt almost a sense of relief. For a pitcher who had not really faced that kind of adversity, it seemed the disappointment and failure in this first start would end up being a valuable learning experience. I've come to realize over the past three years now just that value. Which is not to say that I see an importance in my label failing, as I kind of see my first two years in San Francisco as all the disappointment I needed. That being said, I am really thankful for how much I had to struggle to get to the point where I am now. For instance, had I gotten the television position I tried so hard for back in 2004, who knows where I would be now.

While I want nothing more than for New and Used Records to come out of the gate a resounding success, I am not afraid of a different result. It is really important to me to document as much as possible during this process, and I am really a big believer in the fact that we need to put it all out there. Since we've started this project, documentation has been an integral part and I want to make sure that wherever this road leads, that is documented too. Any adversity we face will be a valuable part of the story. There really is a great deal of uncertainty right now, as we just don't know how many people we will be able to pull for this CD release show or whether that will lead to other show offers in the coming months. We don't know how and even if local press and critics will respond. And we just don't know how much the CD will sell.

There has also been some conflict within the band. I am not going to get too detailed about it right now and it's nothing earth-shattering, but I have been successfully trying to balance my neutral stance in relation to the band. Since my role is kind of a unique label president/ manager/ booker/ documentarian/ PR guy, a certain amount of conflict resolution falls under there I think. At the same time, I also try and keep a certain distance to let things play out. I've spent much of the past couple days either on the phone or at dinner with band members just making sure we're on the same page. I'm big into keeping the channels of communication open at all times. When a disagreement arises within the band about how certain things should be done, it does force me to look at the situation and how it relates to my own goals of marketing and promotion. At the end of the day, though, I'm really just reminded of something my friend and mentor David Katznelson told me ... which is if you have an artist that you really believe in, then you put your weight behind them and let them go where they want to go. I'm certainly in this for the long haul - and I think success, failure, disappointment are all a part of that.

Oh, and as for Lincecum - well since that first start, he's 2-0 and appears virtually unhittable. I don't know if he'll rival my affection for Barry Zito, but he's certainly someone I can get behind.

The Label Journals #8

Since we last spoke ... the CD has been approved and gone to print, the new label website is under construction, more shows are being set up for the summer, and I've fully launched our local press campaign. I'm pushing the CD locally right now in anticipation of our CD release show, and will pursue a more national campaign afterwards. I've emailed press releases to all the major local press, and followed that up with the CD and press kit. I'll soon follow that up with another round of emails.

Mission Creek Music Festival
As I've mentioned, last week was the annual Mission Creek Music Festival here in San Francisco, where I was able to make it out to a few shows. Last Wednesday, I caught the Herms at Rickshaw stop - whom I'd never seen before (though I have seen their frontman's solo act three times and produced a video podcast on him). We talked afterwards about setting up a show with the Passionistas in July, which really would be great seeing as how I think the two would go quite well together. Not to mention the fact that they're one of the most popular bands in the city.

On Sunday, I did two shows - first, the closing party in the afternoon at Thee Parkside. That was really fun, with great performances from Merch and Birds and Batteries, as well as lots of chatting amongst fellow bloggers and podcasters. It was great to see Nick from Albondigas and Krissy from SFist, as well as the guys from the Bay Bridged who were co-sponsoring the festival and hooked me up with a press badge.

Later that evening I caught the Hot Toddies and our friends the Music Lovers at the Make-Out Room, which ended up just being a nice, relaxing evening. I really do enjoy the Music Lovers quite a lot and they played a new song called "Saturday" which I thought was just fantastic. I'm excited that we'll be playing at least one show with them in the near future.

Everything Else
So somewhere in all of this, I've become a businessman and even a diplomat. In college, I kind of thought I would spend my 20s hunched over a computer editing emotionally heavy avant garde videos. Not that I don't still retain the avant garde spirit, I've just managed to mesh all of my skills and interests into something else. But that is what's special to me about the record label - it allows me to be creative in a new field while still utilizing my love for music, film, art, etc. I definitely see the label as an art project in itself. There has been some stress in recent weeks, and I've worked hard to keep this from feeling like "a job." I take this very seriously, but the moment I'm not enjoying it, I don't really know what the point will be.

The Label Journals #7

I slept very well last night ... which was a nice 180 from not having slept well the night before. Yesterday, I detailed everything that we are doing, so you can probably imagine the benefit of waking up feeling refreshed. Today was really more of the same with regards to work. I launched our local press campaign sending out emails to all the important people in the local music press, in hopes they'll review God's Boat, give us a mention and maybe a feature. I'd hope for all because I think the Passionistas are a band San Francisco could really get behind. I also think they are the kind of band San Francisco music fans have been looking for.
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We've had various CD art dilemmas to work through - but hopefully by tomorrow, we'll be done with that. It's a possibility though that I'll be picking up CDs on my way to the CD release party. As long as we have CDs by then, I think everything will be ok. I don't plan on launching our national press campaign until after that show anyway.
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Last Thursday, the Mission Creek Music Festival - one of San Francisco's finest local spotlights - kicked off and wraps up I think this weekend. I'm covering a couple shows for the Bay Bridged, and am hoping to see the Herms tomorrow night and Comets on Fire on thursday. I went and saw our friends Love is Chemicals last Saturday, filming the show and conducting an interview. Hopefully, I'll cut together a nice little segment in the next couple days ... I thought another one of the original video podcast videos would be a nice break from this label business. I've been spending much of my evenings working on Passionistas podcast number three. The story was actually just too detailed for just one episode - so there will be a 3.0 and a 3.5 - kinda like Kill Bill only you'll not have to wait six months in between.
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Last, glad to hear everyone liked the Port O'Brien song we posted the other day. Turns out Port O'Brien are big fans of the Passionistas. Many thanks to Van Pierszalowski of Port O'Brien for including God's Boat in his recent top five list in Dusted Magazine.  He wrote, "This is a San Francisco band that is just so fucking great. They deliver timeless rock and roll gems with great lyrics. My favorite part about their band is their videos they have on their Myspace. They are so funny and shed light on a usually too-serious scene." (Story here).  Incidentally, Van's list also featured Lily Allen, Neil Young, Modest Mouse and Hole, so I'd say we're in pretty good company.  

The Label Journals #6

Part of me feels I should be exhausted - but right now, I'm finding reserves I never knew I had. The past couple weeks have been tiring - an endless round of correcting the CD booklet, meeting with the printer, meeting with a web designer, setting up the CD release party and, now, launching a press campaign. Did I mention episode three of the podcast should be premiering this week? It's all exciting and fun, but now I feel a certain amount of pressure setting in. In the late hours of the day, that feeling aries when you realize you're investing a huge chunk of your finances into something with no gurantees. We've set up a CD release party at a real fantastic venue, but now the responsibility lies with us to really sell a lot of tickets. Thankfully - for the party - we have a fantastic bill. Kelley Stoltz is headlining and none of us really saw it happening any other way. Stoltz produced God's Boat and it as my podcast about him that lead the band to me. The Dilettantes - lead by Joel Gion, that charismatic percussionist from the Brian Jonestown Massacre - will also be playing. That seems somewhat fitting as well, as Dig was an inspiration for the original video podcast series. Our friends the Specs will play a short set to kick the whole thing off.
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All the work that must be done has clouded the fact that this could prove a major transition in my life. I feel as though, everything I've done artistically has been building up to this. Looking back at the past couple of years, namely the video and television jobs and internships that were not successful, I have absolutely no regrets.
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I've written up a press release, and this week I launch our local press campaign. I feel like there's really a story someone can get behind, be it the label born out of a blog, or the unique band people didn't take seriously or maybe simply the fact that it's the first album Stoltz has produced for another artist. I'm really excited about all of this and I think a lot of doors are going to open after the show on June 8. I really want New and Used Records to be a template you can follow - to pursue artistic passions on your terms and utilize the media available to you to the fullest extent. I also hope we can establish a new and exciting business model for record companies. I never took a business class and never fancied myself a business man - thus, I've been looking at running this label as if it were a kind of installation/performance art project. I'll have to explain that further later.

Special Announcement

New and Used Records Presents...

The Passionistas CD Release Party

featuring
Kelley Stoltz
The Passionistas (of course)
The Dilettantes
&
The Specs

Friday, June 8 @ Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, between Church and Sanchez
San Francisco, CA

Doors at 8, Show at 9, $10, 21+

God's Boat Out June 5 on N&UR

The Label Journals #5

I'm not in the Passionistas - as this photo may suggest. That's me sitting on the right, by the way.

Last tuesday, The Passionistas gathered in their basement practice space/recording studio along with fabulous photagrapher Christelle Imperial de Castro. She's previously shot brilliant photos for the likes of Xiu Xiu and Social Studies. Christelle brought a lot of great ideas to the table, including cutting out those letters above their heads, and all the props kicking around the basement proved rather useful. Having photos we were all really happy with lead to a little bit of debate with regards to the cover art.

We had been pretty set on the elephant shield cover Andrew designed - in fact that is what had been submitted for digital retailers. Myles was rather in favor of using a photo and, after a series of phone calls between the four of us, we were convinced. The band ended up designing their own CD booklet and I, for the most part, stayed out of that one; I had digital deals to finalize and promotional videos to edit. The end result, though, was quite fantastic. I had initially not given the booklet a great deal of thought, figuring we could keep things simple. What they put together far exceeded my expectations. However, this is the lesson I learn with the Passionistas - when they go for something, they really go for it. Now we have a CD which I think is going to look pretty professional. That'll be nice when launching the press campaign - I want everyone (print, radio, etc) to know that we're really serious about N&UR. We want this to be really big. Our release date is now less than a month away and I'm really excited to share this with you all.

The Label Journals #4

I feel pretty exhausted right now.

Just wrapped up a very positive three hour meeting with the Passionistas where we sorted out what needs to be done before we submit the cd to its printer. We've basically set a couple of deadlines next week to finalize everything for both the digital and physical release. Once that's done, it will be out of our hands and a huge burden will be off of our shoulders. The band's been sorting out the details for the inside of their booklet, which looks like it will be including a photo collage and a short story, as well as that delightful image at the top.
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I wish more of these business discussions could have been documented for our video podcast series, as I think it would be very interesting. Sometimes it is challenging to partake in/lead a business meeting and document at the same time, but I'm sure as hell going to try. Expect to see a little more of me come episode four. Since I have kind of become a character in this story, I'm interested in doing both kind of a personal episode, as well as documenting the business aspect of the label.
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The band has a photo shoot on Monday which should be very interesting. The decision was made to go with a professional photographer, which seems like the right one. While we're doing much of this ourselves with no budget, we also are taking this product very seriously. I'm into doing things D.I.Y. but I also want them to look right and maintain a level of professionalism. The band seems to agree. We're about to enter a pretty competitive business but I feel as though we really can compete. This next week will take a lot of work - I'm also meeting with a web designer and setting up a meeting with a music lawyer - but it is one of the biggest hurdles we need to get over ... and once we're over that, we can really get to work on the fun stuff.

The Label Journals #3

The Passionistas ventured to LA this past weekend - see the nifty flyer - while the boss stayed back in San Francisco. The idea of accompanying the band on road trips/tours/etc sounds really fun to me - however, given that this was just a weekend trip, it didn't quite make sense. If the text messages are any indication, the show went pretty well - "we made friends and everything" Aaron wrote me. Even though we don't yet have a record to sell, I was glad to see them getting out of the city as it is important to me that we build an audience outside of the Bay Area. As much as I love San Francisco, it is pretty challenging to sell a band in this city, if your name isn't the Lovemakers or Kelley Stoltz (thankfully the latter is in our corner). San Francisco is more on an event city, thus there aren't high sums of people eager to check out random new bands. Furthermore, with most shows being 21+, selling merch can prove exceptionally difficult. However, I think the Passionistas have serious potential to be one of those big San Francisco bands - and making it here would be a serious accomplishment. That being said, I'm excited for our out-of-city shows, like this Sacramento show with the Music Lovers in late June.

With our June 5 release date approaching, there's a great deal we've got to do. The to-do list is just getting longer ...
-Sort out cover art for digital release
-Sort out cover/booklet art for cd
-Print cds
-Firm opening act(s) for cd release
-Design website
-Edit 2-3 more video podcasts
-Re-launch new and improved Radio Hour podcast
-Band photo shoot
-Send out press releases
-Secure interviews
-Media strategy session w/ band

And I don't even think that's everything. Like, T-Shirts and buttons - we probably need that stuff, too. Even with all that, we've still be plotting more releases for later in the year. God's Boat will probably be the only major N&UR release in 2006, but there could be a couple digital only ones as well.

The Label Journals #2

Last Wednesday's show at the Hemlock had to be one of the most fun Passionistas shows yet.

Even though the set consisted of just seven songs - which translated into roughly ten minutes - it was a blast. The crowd seemed slightly perplexed by the ending, however they seemed to be enjoying the experience. The band was especially punk rock on a self-destructing version of "So Rock N Roll." The show marked the first for new Passionista drummer, Tim, who looked like he'd done this sort of thing a time or two before.

Our friends Love is Chemicals took the stage next, turning the mood to indie pop and rocking the house. As fun as it is watching a show, I have to say that I am really warming up to this whole schmoozing thing - we chatted with Christian (1/2 of the Bay Bridged), had drinks with Katie Ann (the Specs, the Girl Most Likely To) and even visited with some old friends. I didn't make it back till one AM, which may have been just a bit too much fun for a Wednesday night. However, this whole record label business is pretty damn fun - I can't lie. (Note: the above picture was not taken at the Hemlock show, but instead at the Eagle Tavern)>

The Label Journals - #1

The Label Journals is a recurring blog chronicling my adventures as an inexperienced record company president. As soon as the label's website is set up, I will move it over there.

The challenge with starting a record label is that as soon as one task is accomplished, there's a list of more to do. Thus, we haven't really had the opportunity to pat ourselves on the back or anything - but we can do that when we're older. I'm pretty excited though ... we've a got a June 5 release date, a digital distribution deal, a pretty rad cover, and a CD release party on June 8 at Cafe du Nord with a very special guest. I feel really lucky to have signed a band with a serious work ethic and a strong sense of self-promotion. One thing about the Passionistas is that they really don't stop being the Passionistas. That is, everything they do in their daily lives is either a creative project that falls under the Passionistas banner, or is important to their identity as a Passionista. I guess I'll get more in detail later about what I think it means to be a Passionista.
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As some of you know this project did not start out with me looking to sign a band, but instead began as an extension of our video podcast series. The initial idea was to chronicle the band's story in a series of short videos. I'm happy to say that we have not lost sight of that and, in fact, blogging and podcasting are pretty central to our marketing strategy. The second episode of the Passionistas series is almost done - expect to see it up next wednesday, with a new one two weeks after that. It took a little while, but the structure of the video series is starting to come together. In this next episode, we do some "confessional" interview/narration which is a real departure from the video work I've done in the past. I hope that the aesthetics of the video series will continue to change and evolve. I've also become a character in this story, so expect me to show up again around episode four.
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My current task right now is figuring out how we are actually going to print these cds, and that is thankfully happening a bit quicker than expected. I need to get back to that, now, and make a couple of quick phone calls. Don't forget you can befriend us at MySpace, where we've also got a couple of free downloads.