dungeons and dragons camp

time for a music round-up....

this friday i am going to see my friend alana kurtis play at holy joe's.... she hits the stage at about 11 and it should be a lot of fun. she's a doll of a person and writes quite beautiful songs - they are a bit on the country-flavour for my tastes - but she's still worth seeing.

chris koster, one of my favourite, if unknown artists, signed recently to the orange record label. i hope it is a good move for him... i've heard some not so favourable things about the folks at orange... but chatter is useless, right? a woman i greatly respect (and until now, i've never heard her say a bad word about anyone) thinks these folks are less than savoury (to put it mildly). whether they are dicks or not - we just need orange to finance and promote a kicking video for one of chris' songs and hopefully give him his proper introduction to the masses. or at least the clumps who are able to appreciate interesting artists.

and another uh-oh... checking chris' website i noticed that he is now managed by jake gold.. *le sigh*. oh well. might just be some sour grapes on my part... the whole the song corp venture and all.... whatever. jake and his partner allan gregg and their egos ending up driving 3 great indie canadian companies into the ground. and i'd been working at one of those indies before it got swept up in the ambitious merger to create a canadian multi-service label. a dream that ended in bitter feelings, macho posturing and bankruptcy. a nasty chapter in canadian music, for certain. good thing maple music has gone on and done that very same thing in a much more civilized manner!

yes, i've been through it... bankrupt indie-labels, merging major labels, a boss who was a little too touchy feely, entry-level pay for a senior position, being pigeon-holed into the 'female' jobs in this male dominated industry and on and on and on. and why do i still want to work in music? hahaha. sometimes i shake my head and think i'm a silly-goose for still wanting this. oh well. there are shitty people and environments everywhere. at least if i'm working in the industry i get to deal with my passion every day. i still cling on the the hope that i can have a job that is both interesting and fulfilling - and one that helps artists in their expression and their careers. this is all i want. oh, and a paycheque.

regardless - nothing inspires me like the artists do... and believe me - they get treated far worse in this industry than i ever have been. it really is a wretched business! where you work at a label for a salary that you just KNOW is more than a lot of the artists signed to that same label make in a year. the reasons that an artist is dropped by a label, which often times deals more with the ego of the people at the label than it does with the artist themself. and then of course, the ever-blessed bottom line. where you can see a&r and marketing and promo spending so much money on an album that the artist has no hope of having a good p&l sheet. and if you don't have good p&l - well... see ya later bucky.

ok - this was less of a music round-up than it was a rant. but you know what... that's ok too.

[music | tool, "pushit"]