IVANA VISITS THE DENTIST
Writing This Column Is Like Pulling Teeth, as Lenny Gets Oral Surgery
WE USED TO VACATION: There’s that adage, “I’d rather have root canal than spend another day doing (fill in the blank).” This week, Lenny (my fearless leader) would rather subject himself to oral surgery than spend another deadline writing this column with me…
Speaking of rewarding ventures, rather than spending his day, as we all do, leaving messages on programmers’ voicemails, Virgin’s Bill Carroll DROVE 3500 miles, covering 16 markets in seven days. This week, 30 Seconds to Mars’ “From Yesterday” is #1 Most Added at PoMo, so I guess the road trip had its desired impact! I have this mental picture of Bill in a Lance Armstrong Tour de France outfit, driving from PoMo station to station, as Howard P. maintained “command central” in NYC. It has definitely inspired me to take the Cadillac out for a similar journey in the near future. Maybe I’ll even get as far south as San Diego and possibly even up to Santa Barbara!…
I can’t fathom any way I won’t be in San Diego on Nov. 11 for KBZT’s 4th Anniversary celebration at 4th & B, featuring OK Go, Sparta and the also-genius The Hold Steady (bug Sean at Vagrant for a copy of the new CD)…
Also on the agenda is a quick jaunt to Chapel Hill next week to hear the new Arcade Fire record (yay!), which Merge will be releasing in early 2007. Around the same time, Sub Pop will be enchanting the masses with new music from The Shins (who I believe will be previewing new material at KNDD and Live105’s Xmas shows this year!). Sub Pop’s Band of Horses continues to build momentum as a “programmer fave” with every new spin of “The Funeral.” Delve deeper, friends, there are many gems to be found on this CD!…
Belated congratulations are in order for Jeff Sotolano, who has now segued from WZNE to WYSP, where he will learn to love cheese steaks and the Phillies. Also worthy of being hailed is Jenni Sperandeo, who has returned to Astralwerks to do Triple-A promo and marketing. Welcome back! The Astralwerks promo team has already landed WEQX, WGVX, CD101, Sirius, KNRK and other “tastemakers” on Placebo’s “Meds,” while setting up the Kooks CD for the format’s benefit…
We hear that Kim Monroe will be joining Apple in a “content development” capacity—good for her!…
Jacent Jackson is enjoying his tenure as PD at WLUM. Since his arrival, the station has gone from a 2.0 to 3.2 12+ and from #9 to #3 18-34 adults!…
Label execs are responding to PoMo radio diminishing the number of “currents” on their playlists in a variety of ways, including: 1) freaking out, 2) yelling, 3) combining the PoMo and Active promo depts. into one person, 4) going to Active first to start records, 5) delaying the radio campaign until the “base” has been established in the marketplace through other means of marketing, like touring, Internet, press, etc., or 6) continuing to release songs to PoMo 6-8 weeks before the release of the CD in the hopes that the airplay will “create” a big first-week in sales (which inevitably leads right back to “freaking out”). There is the rare occasion where a song is “magic,” like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” (which some of you STILL over-thought), but otherwise, breaking bands in this climate is a long, slow, strenuous process. Maintaining focus and conviction is the only way to proceed—artists like Sparta, Saosin, Say Anything, Army of Anyone, Pete Yorn and Plain White T’s, among others, WILL break this year—there are too many early signs pointing towards their ultimate “success” to think otherwise. Although radio promotion often resembles “immovable objects meeting impenetrable forces” (on a good day!), somewhere deep in a programmer’s core still resides a music fan (or at least someone who can still get excited by picking a hit!) So I’ll keep preaching the gospel of artists I love, like Lily Allen, Cold War Kids, IV Thieves, Jim Noir and the aforementioned Sparta, because, well, it gives me a sense of purpose in the seemingly futile pursuit of pushing the boulder up the hill…