Details are still emerging about a plane flying into some leased Internal Revenue Services office building in Austin, Texas. No one can confirm if this was terrorism, or just some bro who ‘went bonkers.’
Sources say it was an isolated incident, but modern indie music fans can’t help but wonder about the impact of this on SXSW, a music + technology conference where some of the world’s most brilliant + relevant minds gather for two weeks of parties with alcohol sponsorship.
Many wonder if buzzbands will still make the commute into Austin and risk their lives’.
Will u still be making the trip to SXSW, or will you go to Mexican festivals instead, because Mexico is safer?
Just read some interview with some one who is widely regarded as ‘the most influential person that you don’t know about in modern indie music.’ His name is Daniel Gill and he is some sort of Public Relations Agent for ‘every important indie band of the last 10 years.’
This is a ‘list’ of some of the authentic indie artists that he has worked with:
Force Field PR, one of the most reputable music PR firms in the business, provides national, tour and specialized publicity campaigns for artists such as Panda Bear, Neon Indian, Dan Deacon, Real Estate, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Ariel Pink, WHY?, Deer Tick, Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Woods, The Fresh and Onlys, Field Music, The Strange Boys, Papercuts, The Rural Alberta Advantage, and the list goes on. In the past, the company has helped to launch the careers of a long list of established names, including Sufjan Stevens, Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, YACHT, Blitzen Trapper, WAVVES and Beach House. Force Field's website is set-up like a music blog, that features tour info, band bios, and free MP3 downloads from their roster.
We cannot confirm that Public Relations Agents and firms are legitimate forces in the modern internet music sphere. It seems like a ‘chicken vs egg’ type of argument when it comes to coverable artists. What came first, a ‘good product’ or some sort of sculpted brand that websites feel the pressure to ‘cover.’
Daniel Gill claims to be ‘the ultimate music blogger’, since he finds new buzzbands before blogs even know about them. He only selects bands that can produce memes which relevant music sites will ‘eat up’:
I think it goes back to the idea of picking the bands I think people are actually going to care about. You have to have really good foresight in picking the bands that you work with – either picking bands that already have some kind of a name or, if I'm picking a band that's brand new on their first album, I have to basically beat all the bloggers and magazine writers in finding out about stuff that's good way before anybody else. I try to talk to these bands about six to eight months before their records even come out to try to convince them to work with me. I think it's a skill that I've honed – being able to find stuff that I think is going to take off and putting that on the roster and not the other stuff that people aren't going to care about. I think it's all about the roster, really. If we have stuff that enough people are talking about or responding to, people are going to keep coming to us asking, "What do you have next?"
In the interview, he delivers advice for myspace bands and how to create a product that a relevant firm like his own would represent. He seems to market his skill as something that no one else on the Earth can imitate, since he is the ultimate content filter that cherrypicks the bands that music blogs will cover in 4-12 months.
Insiders say that Forcefield PR is successful at turning a blog darling into an acclaimed Pitchfork band, but does not have an established track record at generating crazy album sales + booking premium late night television slots. His firm also has a high turnover of successful artists when they sign ‘major label deals’ and label representatives no longer trust his boutique agency.
Are PR agents only important because they broker opportunities for major coverage based on ‘unfair’ personal connections? Do yall wish Daniel Gill just had a free mp3 blog and did it ‘for the love’ of music? Did PR agents ‘invent’ AnCo hype / chillwave? Who are other important ‘behind the scenes’ figures exist in the indie music scene? Blogs = PR agents? Blogs = PR puppets? Can n e 1 sell a ‘good product’? Do PR agents ‘control the blogosphere’?
In one of the most interesting developments of 2k10, MGMT decided to ‘debut’ their album art on boingboing, one of the largest generalist blogs in the world. As opposed to ‘debuting’ the album art on a mainstream music site such as SPIN, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, or Pitchfork, their strategy was to reach out to a massive amount of new fans. It will be interesting to see how hard the Sony marketing machine pushes MGMT for their new album Congratulations. Most likely, we will see them packaged as a Killers-type band.
Graph showing the massiveness of boingboing. So many readers who are probably only ‘casually’ into music, purchasing it from the iTunes music store.
Some are theorizing that Sony paid boingboing to feature it on their site:
The Boing Boing debut was disguised as a meaningful interview with the artist Anthony Ausgang in which he explained his ‘concept’ behind zany cartoon doodles.
How did you get hooked up with MGMT? I met Andrew and Ben from MGMT through the experimental musician Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum, for whom I had done album cover art in the past. MGMT was recording “Congratulations” at a mansion in Malibu so I went there a couple of times to hang out and watch the process unfold. Not being a musician I was occasionally left to my own devices so I would sit around and draw on pieces of paper then leave them there when I went home. I got along well with the band and gave them copies of my book, Vacation From Reality. Later, Josh Cheuse, the art director from Sony, contacted me once the recording was finished. The most important thing was that MGMT wanted the “look” of my style of painting and gave me only a few points that I had to hit. Naturally the process took some time but they were always cool with the criticisms. A lot of people who commission a painting only know what they don’t want; fortunately MGMT knew what they wanted and let me do it my way.
We cannot confirm that they did drugs together and formed some sort of deep bond.
Will the album be ‘critically accepted’ or will it become music sites’ opportunity to ‘pan’ one band that is trying to go too mainstream in order to send the message not to abandon them? We can assume that music websites will grow bitter since they will be ’shafted’ for larger outlets as the album release process/meme release cycle evolves.
Was KIDS the #1 song of the 2k0s? Did this album art launch ’succeed’ in reaching the mainstream? Will indie / alt / mindie music sites be neglected in the future as their biggest memes will be debuted at places like Perez Hilton, Gawker, and the Huffington Post? Will MGMT’s album be more commercially successful than Vampire Weekend’s? Is MGMT the power house band of 2k10? Will ‘Congratulations’ be a terrible album? Are album art blurbs the most ‘low level’ blurbs in the music blogosphere?
This video gives internet users an ‘all access’ pass to one alt broad taking ‘artsy’/pornographic pictures of some other alternative slut. We see the photographer implementing her artistic vision, capturing the alternative skank from a domineering point of view. We cannot confirm if these pictures came out ‘artistic’, or if they look like a misguided youth showing off her alternative body.
Does alt porn turn u on? Do u feel bad 4 alt girls who ‘get naked’ for the sake of art/lifestyle? Do yall know how to write an effective craigslist ad to convince girls 2 get naked on camera? Have yall ever drugged up a girl to the point that she got naked and ‘rolled around’ like a beached whale 4 the camera? R u an exhibitionist?
