Craig Robinson, who did the animated video for Giardini di Mirò’s “Given Ground”, has just released a new book. It’s called “Fun Fun Fun” and I’m sure that’s what it is. Also check out his first publication “Minipops”, a book every pop music nerd should own.
November 29th, 2005
Nice surprise in the mailbox: two copies of the recent issue of Glow In The Dark, a well-designed magazine from Vienna about skateboarding, art and music (mostly punkrock/hardcore), with a good sense of DIY ethics. Great mag! If you see a copy anywhere, be sure to pick it up.
And I am not saying this just because they wrote some nice words about our releases…
November 29th, 2005
I’ve recently written a little article about Stacs of Stamina for the German magazine De:Bug. The issue is now available as a free PDF download, my text can be found on page 8.
While you are at it, check the short review of Giardini di Mirò’s recent 7″ on page 73 (not written by me).
November 28th, 2005
We’ll soon have to throw away a couple of hundreds demos that have been send to us during the last years. It’s something we’ve tried to avoid for a long time, because we don’t like the idea of dumping all that music in the dustbin. But we have to make room someday and storing CDs that we will probably never ever listen to again, doesn’t make much sense. For sure we will keep some demos we’ve liked, but most of it has to go.
At least half of those demos are totally out of place on 2nd rec, and it would have been better for everybody (except postal services and CD-R manufacturer) if they would have never been sent to us. We do release a lot of different music, but for everybody who knows 2nd rec a little, it should be quite obvious that we aren’t that much into nu-metal or psych-trance.
Still we get tons of music, which doesn’t fit to our label at all, because a lot of people sending us their demos don’t know anything about 2nd rec. They have never listened to any of our releases and probably got our address from some label directory on the internet.
I’m always a little bit annoyed when we receive those demos, because it’s a waste of time, resources and money. Plus, I can’t really understand why so many artists want their music to be released by a label, they obviously don’t know, let alone appreciate.
I may write some other post with tips on sending out demos, but for now here are some examples of DON’Ts. It’s just a small selection of pointless demo submissions we receive all the time.
It’s flattering if people think that 2nd rec is a bigger company than we actually are. But even if we were twice as big (which would make it 4 persons), we still wouldn’t have an A&R department…
… and certainly we wouldn’t have a whole A&R department for just rock/alternative.
OK, so we can change the lyrics and the singer… how about the music?
Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
______ on Thursday, June 23, 2005 at 01:32:17message: Hello!
My name is ______.
I make the music at trance style.
I found your address in Internet.
And I thought releasing my tracks at your label would be interesting for both sides.
…
Thanks for you mail, we’ll forward it to our A&R Department, Trance Subdivision.
From: ______@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: 2 patricks and a wicked ted!!!!!!
Date: 14. August 2005 23:49:52 MESZ
To: info@2ndrec.comhey fuck wits,im from the band ______. i would honestly say im the most fucking intelligent producer song writer,out there in this sad pathetic weak and troubled world.
if you fucking pathetic fuck wits get of your stinking pretencious smelly fucking armchair arses,and go to this site,you will fucking understand what i mean.
i am not fucking scared of you twats,you will make from me as much as i will make from you,you fat fucking tits.
im not a fucking messer,and you poofs should take fucking heed in what i say,ill smack the living shit out of you gayphex twins,your poofy franz ferdinands,these twats stole my fucking style,i fucking swear,listen to my shit boys,it will make you fucking money,i look better,sound fucking better,and im twice as fucking dangerous.there aint one style i cant fucking do.(link to soundfiles)
dont be fucking muppets,one fucking listen,and you will sign me,bollocks to the pistols,they held back to much,noel liam are gutless deacons,fucking poncey eminem?
all fucking twats.
get back to me soon boys,my track goes out on xfm sunday,eddie temple…
he knows my shit is gonna be big,just takes someone with half a bleeding brain to fucking pick up on it…
now move your arse…
a mimimum of 30 grand should do the trick,and dont bollocks me about promotion,these are fucking instant fucking hits,mike skinner is fucking lame so dont bullshit me about fucking streets…
i know what the fucking streets are,i fucking scrapped,stole,pissed in dagenham lifts.
all this pathetic english fuckkkkkking rap is toot
speak soon
move quickly.
Ehhh… yes.
Despite all those pointless demos and the huge amount of awful music that comes with them, we love to check out new music and we listen to everything that is sent to us. There’s always one good demo that makes it worth going through 10 bad ones. So if you really think that your music fits in with our catalog, we truly appreciate if you send us your demos.
November 19th, 2005
Amanda left us a few copies of her self released CDs, which you can order from our mailorder:
“Here and Nowhere”
Amanda’s very first release. She wrote most of the songs when she was just 15 - 16 years old and recorded them in 1999.
“The Grant Sessions EP”
7 songs recorded in winter 2000.
Both CDs are not available in any stores, but only directly from Amanda at her shows. We’ve got very limited quantities, so if you want a copy, don’t wait to long.
November 18th, 2005
Every Thursday we present one MP3 from our catalog (additionally to the ones you can find on the release pages on our website). These MP3s are only available on our server for a week, after that they are gone and will be replaced by another one. This week:
Noah23 “Imhotep (Orphanite Coffin Remix)” (MP3, 4.2 MB) (removed)
This remix by Orphan is one of the four bonus tracks on the “Quicksand” double-vinyl (yep, vinyl only, not available on the CD version). Turn up your speakers and enjoy.
November 17th, 2005
Pitchfork picks the worst record covers of all time. A fun read/watch.
Which brings the Australian music magazine Cyclic Defrost to my mind, because they have a great column called “Sleeve reviews”. In each issue art director Alex Crowfoot writes about album artworks and packagings. It’s good to see that elaborate and thought-out artworks get some attention there. More music magazines should do that, I think. Sure, the music is what it’s about, but to me the artwork as an important part of each release. And in these digital times it might become even more relavant for certain people, because while your MP3-player may look sexy, your files do not.
You can find Crowfoot’s sleeve reviews in the PDF-version of the latest Cyclic Defrost issue on page 43/44. Older issues are also available.
November 16th, 2005
Seems that more and more labels are offering MP3s with vinyl records (read more about it here): The LP version of the latest release by Type, the amazing album by Deaf Center, also comes with a code that enables you to download hi-quality MP3s of the album. Perfect.
We are working on something similar. If all goes right, we too will offer free MP3s with the vinyl version of our next album release (coming early 2006).
November 16th, 2005
Seems to be a rough time for US print mags these days. Another favourite magazine of mine, Punk Planet, is in trouble, because their distributor is experiencing financial difficulties (read more about it here).
I really hope that Daniel Sinker, the man behind Punk Planet, is able to continue his amazing work, because his magazine has always been a huge inspiration for me.
When I decided to start fiction.friction (the 2nd rec predecessor) about 7 years ago, I didn’t have any idea on how to run a record label (I’m still figuring out) and - living in the countryside in the middle of Germany - I didn’t knew anybody who I could have asked about it.
But there was this US fanzine I’ve regularily ordered from a music mailorder, that did not only feature interviews with bands, but also with people “behind the scenes”, like label owners, independent book publishers, fanzine editors etc. I devoured these interviews and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next issue. At that time I actually got most information and (even more important) inspiration on how to run a label from these insightful interviews. Who knows what I would be doing now, if Punk Planet hasn’t existed.
So do yourself and Punk Planet (and me) a favour and order something from their website, e.g. this book, which I can highly recommend.
November 14th, 2005
We’re looking forward to Amanda’s show tonight at the Astra Stube in Hamburg. It’s the last concert on her European tour, after that she will stay one more day at our place and then fly back to New York (where she’ll start a US tour with her band Jupiter Sunrise right away).
Lots of people have already seen her performing live in the last few days, some of them have blogs and wrote about it (all in German):
Krähe was unlucky, he/she wanted to see the show in Braunschweig, but it was already sold out. Supersonic met her at the merchandising stand and described her as a “beautiful hippie”, Stede76 thought Amanda’s show in Würzburg was OK, but seemed to be more impressed by the japanese punk band which played with her that night (photos here). The3rdEyeCrawling had tears in his eyes and Paperheart says it was “the most wonderful concert of his/her live”.
November 14th, 2005