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Guess I’ll Go Eat Worms I didn’t have much experience with the “music biz” when I formed The Plural Males; marketing (as much as we indie folk hate to admit it, it IS marketing) myself to labels, clubs and newspapers was completely foreign to me. When I decided to send our demo to Carl, owner of Porkless Pie Records, it was largely a “Hey, check out my new band” gesture, rather than a “Listen to our demo and put out our cd” gesture. I’d met Carl two years earlier when he signed Doohicky, and had maintained a fairly friendly relationship with him even after I quit the band to move to Portland, so I wanted him to hear my new stuff. A month later when I replied to one of the “family” emails Carl sends out to all of his bands before posting updates to the PPR list, I’d almost forgotten that I had sent the demo. Two hours after I emailed him, however, I got this reply: “What up, cuz? Yo, I ain’t listened to that demo you sent me until just now. Damn, bitch! That shit is HOT! I mean, you bitin’ some from Ronny and all, but that shit is HOTTTTTT!!” Well gee, wasn’t that easy? I figured, while I was on a roll, why not drop Gerard from Zestyrecords a note? Gerard had worked for Captain Powell’s first European label, Slicey Tuna, back in 2000. I met him while we were in Belgium and he’d asked me to let him know about any future projects of mine. Immediately after sending Gerard an email link to a couple mp3’s, I heard back from him: “Why, Mr. Indie, I find your latest musical endeavor quite tantalizing! I believe this ensemble to possess considerably more “je nes sais quoi” than your SOLO STUFF. Quite smashing, old boy; quite smashing indeed.” Two for two! Apparently this label stuff was easier than I’d thought. From there, we set to work on our cd and the rest is history. I finished my solo album eight months ago. Since then, I’ve sent copies to thirteen record labels. One of them emailed me and seemed to be quite interested, but was never heard from again. The other twelve didn’t bother to respond. I know I’m not the first person to ever have to deal with this; I can practically hear all you punk rockers asking, “Why don’t you stop whining and do it yourself, you pussy?” and I’ll admit that some of it is ego. Here I am, a guy whose last band got picked up immediately by two record labels; a guy who has been playing with some of the “biggest names” in indie-rock on and off for the past seven years; a guy who plays drums for a band who’s signed to one of the biggest independent labels in the country, and I can’t get my fucking album released. And it’s good! It’s not some substandard collection of demos that sounds exactly like my band, as so many solo projects are these days. So c’mon, can you blame me for being slightly agitated? But I don’t expect anyone to sympathize. Hell, if I was someone else reading this I’d be thinking, “That’s probably because your album sucks, so get over it.” But that’s not the point. The point is that I have an album on my hands that I know is good, and I can’t find a way to release it. So what do I do? I’m sending out cd’s to increasingly smaller labels, hoping I’ll get a bite. If that doesn’t happen within the next few months, I’m going to have to swallow my pride and do it myself, because I’d rather my album be self-released than unreleased. Self-release would mean that people would have to buy it directly from me rather than from a store, and it wouldn’t have the push of a label behind it, but I suppose I could deal with that if need be. For now, though, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Guy in his Bedroom with a Shrink Wrapper and No Distribution Records will show some interest. -Mr. Indie. Most names have been altered to protect the privacy of persons/entities involved. Any similarities to actual persons or events are probably pretty accurate, but you can't prove anything. |
Diary of a Portland Musician