One of the things that has struck me over the past few years is the incredible relationship the new crop of rock bands have with each other and their fans. Call it the Warped Nation. bands meet on the Vans Warped Tour and then as each of their careers take off they bring their new pals out on the road with them giving them a leg up. These bands also also use the Internet to reach out to their fans and that personal connection is reciprocated with a loyalty thought to have been lost long ago.
A case in point is My Chemical Romance. The band songs have touched the very soul of their fans. Kids relate to the isolation that lead singer Gerard Way portrays in his lyrics and confirms in his interviews. The band has been labeled Kings of Emo but that comes from the establishment - writers need to pigeonhole every new group that comes along that they don't feel a personal connection with.
Earlier this fall MCR delivered a masterpiece album, The Black Parade. The record perfectly straddles the worlds of excessive glam rock and stripped down punk rock ethos. Okay, I love this record but that's not the point of the story.
As a part of the album's launch in Canada we arranged for the band to come to Toronto for an in store appearance at HMV and a live performance on MuchMusic. As we put the trip together the band's management insisted that the instore appearance was not to have a curfew. Indeed the band stuck around at the store for four hours making sure that everyone of their fans that showed up had a chance to meet them. But that's not the point of the story either, although it is closer to the point.
The next evening the band appeared on MuchMusic, performing 6 songs and taking questions from the audience and viewers across the country. Everyone agrees that the show was a big success. But that's what happened on screen. Behind the scenes, on the streets outside of MuchMusic some of the kids who came to watch the show were getting hassled.
After the show ended the band stuck around and signed autographs for as many people as they could. As they headed back up to their dressing room though, Frank Iero, one of the guitarists grabbed me by the arm and asked if I had a copy of the limited edition box of The Black Parade. Confused by why he was asking I told him that we had a limited supply in Canada and they had all been sent to retail outlets. That's when he pointed at a girl with tears in her eyes. He said that she had brought her copy of the box down to Much in hopes of getting it signed but someone had ripped it out of her hand and disappeared. He wanted to replace the box for her. When I told him that i didn't have a copy he told his guitar tech to run down the street and buy her a copy at the HMV down the street.
Unfortunately HMV had sold out of the box set but a few weeks later the band sent me an e-mail with the girl's address and asked me to find a box and send it to her which we were able to do. It's that kind of dedication to the fans that bodes well for the long term health of the career of MCR and the other bands of the Warped Nation.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The Best Of Ready Records
Universal has just released this 2 cd compilation record. Ready Records was the first Canadian label I ever worked for.
In 1984 I came back to Canada from the U.S. I worked for a time as an editor of industrial films but got tired of the grind pretty quickly and wanted to try and get back into the music industry. I flew to New york and met with everyone I knew to find out if they knew anyone I should talk to in Toronto. Jeff Aldrich at Chrysalis mentioned Al Mair at Attic Records to whom he had been talking about Lee Aaron with. Jeff made an advance call and when I got back home I arranged a meeting with Al.
We talked for about half an hour after which Al said that there wasn't anything for me at Attic but Ready records was looking for someone to do radio promotion and publicity and he had told them that he was meeting with me. He told me that that he told them that he'd send me over to meet with them if he thought I was worth the time. He gave me directions and I hopped on the King St. East streetcar over to Ready's Berkeley St. offices.
Andy and Angus were waiting for me when I showed up and we had a good chat about music and the ins and outs of marketing. I assured them that my experiences in New York had prepared me for a job like this. I left the office and headed home confident that i had done the best I could. The next day they called and offered me the job. It was Thursday and I said I could start on Monday. I didn't mention that i really didn't have any idea how to do either job.
The next morning I drove to Buffalo and took a flight (People's Express) back to New York City. i went back to the Chrysalis offices and sat in Daniel Glass' office for the morning watching and listening as he work the phones with radio stations across America. In the afternoon I sat with Rhonda Levine and picked up as much as I could in four hours about how to be a publicist.
I spent the weekend in New York with my friends and flew back on Monday morning, driving from the airport directly to Ready. I was on my way and the first record I worked was The Spoons' "Tell No Lies."
I had fun at ready working with the Extras, the Spoons, Manteca and Michael Zee but I must admit that the songs sounded much better back then then they do right now. As each track goes by I can remember specific moments like Daniel Richler interviewing the extras about their "ground-breaking" animated video for "I Can't Stand Still," trying to help Rick Santers look cool at a photo shoot or watching The Spoons in concert with drummer Derrick Ross (hey, Bud) standing at his kit for the entire show.
Less than a year later Ready closed their doors. I had made some good friends and learned the basics of a couple of jobs I would become intimate with over the next two decades.
In 1984 I came back to Canada from the U.S. I worked for a time as an editor of industrial films but got tired of the grind pretty quickly and wanted to try and get back into the music industry. I flew to New york and met with everyone I knew to find out if they knew anyone I should talk to in Toronto. Jeff Aldrich at Chrysalis mentioned Al Mair at Attic Records to whom he had been talking about Lee Aaron with. Jeff made an advance call and when I got back home I arranged a meeting with Al.
We talked for about half an hour after which Al said that there wasn't anything for me at Attic but Ready records was looking for someone to do radio promotion and publicity and he had told them that he was meeting with me. He told me that that he told them that he'd send me over to meet with them if he thought I was worth the time. He gave me directions and I hopped on the King St. East streetcar over to Ready's Berkeley St. offices.
Andy and Angus were waiting for me when I showed up and we had a good chat about music and the ins and outs of marketing. I assured them that my experiences in New York had prepared me for a job like this. I left the office and headed home confident that i had done the best I could. The next day they called and offered me the job. It was Thursday and I said I could start on Monday. I didn't mention that i really didn't have any idea how to do either job.
The next morning I drove to Buffalo and took a flight (People's Express) back to New York City. i went back to the Chrysalis offices and sat in Daniel Glass' office for the morning watching and listening as he work the phones with radio stations across America. In the afternoon I sat with Rhonda Levine and picked up as much as I could in four hours about how to be a publicist.
I spent the weekend in New York with my friends and flew back on Monday morning, driving from the airport directly to Ready. I was on my way and the first record I worked was The Spoons' "Tell No Lies."
I had fun at ready working with the Extras, the Spoons, Manteca and Michael Zee but I must admit that the songs sounded much better back then then they do right now. As each track goes by I can remember specific moments like Daniel Richler interviewing the extras about their "ground-breaking" animated video for "I Can't Stand Still," trying to help Rick Santers look cool at a photo shoot or watching The Spoons in concert with drummer Derrick Ross (hey, Bud) standing at his kit for the entire show.
Less than a year later Ready closed their doors. I had made some good friends and learned the basics of a couple of jobs I would become intimate with over the next two decades.
In Memory Of Ahmet Ertegun
Like so many other music fans, I have long been an admirer of the accomplishments of Ahmet Ertegun. The book Music Man chronicles the start of Atlantic Records and is an incredible peek behind the scenes of the earliest days of the music industry.
I started working at Warner in 1992. In those days, Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker were still at Warner Bros. and Jac Holzman (the founder of Elektra) was running Discovery Records. Once a year a few of us would head down to the U.S. for a national sales convention and there was always an opportunity to bend the ear of one of these industry giants or sit in on some of their own war stories.
As the years moved forward though, many of the original mavericks moved on or were moved out as the industry evolved. I remember one convention when all of the people that molded music as I knew it stood on the stage at one time taking their bows. A year later, only Ahmet remained.
Whenever an artist got signed to Atlantic Records one of their biggest thrills was being brought up to Ahmet's office where he would regale them with stories of signing the Rolling Stones, hanging out with Led Zeppelin or recording Aretha Franklin. My one and only meeting with Ahmet took place in an elevator.
It was about ten years ago. We were at a Warner convention in Washington. It was 1am and we were coming back to the hotel from seeing a band I have long forgotten. We got in the elevator and before the door closed we could see Ahmet shuffling towards us with a couple of pretty young friends. Never one to be shy, I was quick to introduce myself to him after the doors closed.
"Nice to meet you kid," he said in a gruff voice that has stuck to me to this day. I asked him his thoughts on how the industry was changing and he launched into a personal diatribe. "It's the fucking bean counters that are ruining the business," he griped. "They're telling us what we can and can't sign. The fucking bean counters are screwing it up."
Our floor came up and the doors opened. As we walked out I turned to say it was nice to have met you. It was the one and only meeting with Ahmet, but it sure was memorable.
By the way, we have survived the bean counters.
I started working at Warner in 1992. In those days, Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker were still at Warner Bros. and Jac Holzman (the founder of Elektra) was running Discovery Records. Once a year a few of us would head down to the U.S. for a national sales convention and there was always an opportunity to bend the ear of one of these industry giants or sit in on some of their own war stories.
As the years moved forward though, many of the original mavericks moved on or were moved out as the industry evolved. I remember one convention when all of the people that molded music as I knew it stood on the stage at one time taking their bows. A year later, only Ahmet remained.
Whenever an artist got signed to Atlantic Records one of their biggest thrills was being brought up to Ahmet's office where he would regale them with stories of signing the Rolling Stones, hanging out with Led Zeppelin or recording Aretha Franklin. My one and only meeting with Ahmet took place in an elevator.
It was about ten years ago. We were at a Warner convention in Washington. It was 1am and we were coming back to the hotel from seeing a band I have long forgotten. We got in the elevator and before the door closed we could see Ahmet shuffling towards us with a couple of pretty young friends. Never one to be shy, I was quick to introduce myself to him after the doors closed.
"Nice to meet you kid," he said in a gruff voice that has stuck to me to this day. I asked him his thoughts on how the industry was changing and he launched into a personal diatribe. "It's the fucking bean counters that are ruining the business," he griped. "They're telling us what we can and can't sign. The fucking bean counters are screwing it up."
Our floor came up and the doors opened. As we walked out I turned to say it was nice to have met you. It was the one and only meeting with Ahmet, but it sure was memorable.
By the way, we have survived the bean counters.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Stone Temple Pilots - Tennis Anyone?
The question keeps coming up in conversations. "Who's your favourite band?" My all-time favourite band is Aerosmith. Of course I could qualify that and say that I'm really only talking about everything up to Draw the Line and then Permanent Vacation. But for sheer power of material and a catalogue that has no blots on the landscape, I choose Stone Temple Pilots.
I first heard a 30 second snippet of "Sex Type Thing" on an advance cassette coming out of the label managers office in the summer of 1992. I ran in there and snatched the tape to listen to the riff over and over again. In those days there was no internet yet and finding out information about unknown bands was tough. I didn't care. Over the next couple of weeks I played that snippet to whoever would listen. By the time the advance of the first STP record came in I was a full-on devotee.
A few months later the band played their first Toronto show at the Rivoli. It was jammed and it was loud. So loud in fact that they blew the PA speakers. I remember a midget crowd surfing that night. This was six months before "Plush" came out and everything changed for the band.
When Stone Temple Pilots played at the Masonic Temple (now the MTV Canada studios) on Purple, they blew the PA again. They started wondering if they were jinxed in this town. Throughout the 90's STP kept coming back to Toronto. they opened for the Stones here and they played an unforgettable Molson "Blind date" show around the time everyone had thought they had broken up.
In 2001 the band came to Toronto for the last time. We brought them to town to do press for the album Shangri La Dee Da. They were here for four days. They played in the MuchMusic parking lot and Weiland was full-on Iggy that night. We took the band out for dinner and I toasted them as the finest live band on the planet. But let's go back a couple of days...
I met the band at the airport. It was always a special treat to spend time with the DeLeo brothers so i was really looking forward to this trip. When the band came out of the terminal they were all full of hugs and ready to work. Weiland looked great. He came off the plane with a tennis sweater draped around his neck, a hat tilted to the side and a tennis racket folded under his arm. In the car, on the way to the hotel, he said he'd be looking for a game. Well, I was game and arranged a court for the next morning. he assured me that he'd be ready.
I was psyched. A chance to play tennis with one of my favourite rock singers was a treat I would cherish for a very long time. As promised I showed up at the hotel at 8:30am to pick him up and, as I should have suspected, there was no sign of him in the lobby and no answer in the room. After 4 or 5 calls to his room I called his road manager who said that they had all gone out the night before and he probably wouldn't get up until noon. Oh well. I called to cancel the court and changed out of my tennis togs. Later that day, when Weiland showed up to begin his interviews he apologized about sleeping in.
One of the amazing things about Weiland is his ability to change into the Rock Star when the time comes. When he's not "on" he can blend into any social situation and no one would notice him there but when he walks into and interview or onto a stage he becomes ten feet tall. With Weiland as the centre of attention, Dean DeLeo is able to weave a series of delectable hard rock riffs while his brother Rob and drummer Eric hold down a monster rhythm.
They showed up out of nowhere and then they disappeared. Gone but never forgotten. Long live STP!
I first heard a 30 second snippet of "Sex Type Thing" on an advance cassette coming out of the label managers office in the summer of 1992. I ran in there and snatched the tape to listen to the riff over and over again. In those days there was no internet yet and finding out information about unknown bands was tough. I didn't care. Over the next couple of weeks I played that snippet to whoever would listen. By the time the advance of the first STP record came in I was a full-on devotee.
A few months later the band played their first Toronto show at the Rivoli. It was jammed and it was loud. So loud in fact that they blew the PA speakers. I remember a midget crowd surfing that night. This was six months before "Plush" came out and everything changed for the band.
When Stone Temple Pilots played at the Masonic Temple (now the MTV Canada studios) on Purple, they blew the PA again. They started wondering if they were jinxed in this town. Throughout the 90's STP kept coming back to Toronto. they opened for the Stones here and they played an unforgettable Molson "Blind date" show around the time everyone had thought they had broken up.
In 2001 the band came to Toronto for the last time. We brought them to town to do press for the album Shangri La Dee Da. They were here for four days. They played in the MuchMusic parking lot and Weiland was full-on Iggy that night. We took the band out for dinner and I toasted them as the finest live band on the planet. But let's go back a couple of days...
I met the band at the airport. It was always a special treat to spend time with the DeLeo brothers so i was really looking forward to this trip. When the band came out of the terminal they were all full of hugs and ready to work. Weiland looked great. He came off the plane with a tennis sweater draped around his neck, a hat tilted to the side and a tennis racket folded under his arm. In the car, on the way to the hotel, he said he'd be looking for a game. Well, I was game and arranged a court for the next morning. he assured me that he'd be ready.
I was psyched. A chance to play tennis with one of my favourite rock singers was a treat I would cherish for a very long time. As promised I showed up at the hotel at 8:30am to pick him up and, as I should have suspected, there was no sign of him in the lobby and no answer in the room. After 4 or 5 calls to his room I called his road manager who said that they had all gone out the night before and he probably wouldn't get up until noon. Oh well. I called to cancel the court and changed out of my tennis togs. Later that day, when Weiland showed up to begin his interviews he apologized about sleeping in.
One of the amazing things about Weiland is his ability to change into the Rock Star when the time comes. When he's not "on" he can blend into any social situation and no one would notice him there but when he walks into and interview or onto a stage he becomes ten feet tall. With Weiland as the centre of attention, Dean DeLeo is able to weave a series of delectable hard rock riffs while his brother Rob and drummer Eric hold down a monster rhythm.
They showed up out of nowhere and then they disappeared. Gone but never forgotten. Long live STP!
Monday, December 18, 2006
The John Butler Trio
One of the coolest things about working at a record company is hearing music long before anyone else gets to hear it. I am currently listening to a six song sampler of tracks from the forthcoming album from The John Butler Trio.
If you don't already know JBT you should check out www.johnbutlertrio.com. Imagine a twelve string guitar plugged into a rack of effects pedals to a stack of Marshall stacks cranked to eleven and playing a hard rock meld of bluegrass and funk into a cosmic stew. If you think I'm exaggerating that can only mean that you haven't clicked on the link yet.
John Butler is already a legend in Australia. I caught JBT at a packed El Mocambo 18 months ago (filled with transplanted Australians no doubt) and his guitar wizardry was remarkable. The band is tighter than Bush's pursed lips. before the show we went out for dinner and they turned out to be a great bunch of guys with that old reliable Australian sense of humour. Their the salt of the earth too. John has started The JB Seed Fund, a program in which he helps young artists gain knowledge to help further their careers.
The new album will come out on March 20 in North America. His website player is spinning the track "Funky Tonight" which is the current single in Australia. Although that song isn't on the sampler I have, tracks like "Better tahn," "Good Excuse" and "Grooving Slowly" promise that the new record is going to be a must have for anyone digging the jam band scene and way beyond. If you haven't discovered this guy yet you should take the time to do so now and turn your friends on to him.
If you don't already know JBT you should check out www.johnbutlertrio.com. Imagine a twelve string guitar plugged into a rack of effects pedals to a stack of Marshall stacks cranked to eleven and playing a hard rock meld of bluegrass and funk into a cosmic stew. If you think I'm exaggerating that can only mean that you haven't clicked on the link yet.
John Butler is already a legend in Australia. I caught JBT at a packed El Mocambo 18 months ago (filled with transplanted Australians no doubt) and his guitar wizardry was remarkable. The band is tighter than Bush's pursed lips. before the show we went out for dinner and they turned out to be a great bunch of guys with that old reliable Australian sense of humour. Their the salt of the earth too. John has started The JB Seed Fund, a program in which he helps young artists gain knowledge to help further their careers.
The new album will come out on March 20 in North America. His website player is spinning the track "Funky Tonight" which is the current single in Australia. Although that song isn't on the sampler I have, tracks like "Better tahn," "Good Excuse" and "Grooving Slowly" promise that the new record is going to be a must have for anyone digging the jam band scene and way beyond. If you haven't discovered this guy yet you should take the time to do so now and turn your friends on to him.
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