| Sunday, September 30, 2007 |
| People love free stuff |
Brain: There is a mysterious power that no human can resist, Pinky; a thing so great, that the strongest of souls bend, and surrender to it instantly!
Pinky: GASP! You mean... the Ark of the Covenant??
Brain: No, Pinky... the most tremendous force in the cosmos... FREE T-SHIRTS!!
Sue adds: Free CDs are almost as powerful.
One of the things I've learned over the years I've spent on the fringes of the record biz is that it's darn hard to promote an unknown artist. That's especially true when said artist is (1) something of a recluse, (2) shy, and (3) lives 7,000 miles away from the record company HQ. No longer do I say, "Why, that won't matter -- I'll just get people to listen to the music and they'll be won over!" Yes, I'm smarter now. But moments of cock-eyed optimism still poke through from time to time.
Last night, my pal Bradley organized a killer free show at Berkeley's Starry Plough, featuring his own ensemble, the Bye Bye Blackbirds, as well as the Family Arsenal, Statuesque, Gil Ray, and Scott Miller of the Loud Family. Statuesque is basically one guy, London's Stephen Manning. I happen to believe that he's an unsung pop genius. I was turned onto his music by Bradley. Between the two of us plus Sarah Gordon, who maintains Stephen's MySpace page, you've pretty much got the sum total of the world's Statuesque true believers. 125 released a Statuesque CD called Choir Above, Fire Below a couple of years ago, and it got rave reviews ("Manning's stuff stands up alongside your favorite Smiths, Morrissey and Radiohead records, while sounding totally unique and individual," said The Big Takeover) and sold, like, in the high double digits. Nevertheless, it holds a special place in my heart and may be my personal fave in our entire catalog.
Manning, who had flown across the pond to attend Bradley's wedding to the lovely Gina, was battling some horrible throat ailment (unfortunately, he got ill on his last visit too -- I guess international travel just doesn't agree with some people), but managed to perform a strong set, including numerous heretofore-unreleased tracks. Since it was a free show, and one to celebrate a wedding with loads of friends & family in attendance, Joe and I decided to bring a box of 50 Statuesque CDs and give them away after Stephen's performance. I am hoping folks were intrigued by Stephen's song stylings and wanted to hear more; I suspect some just heard the word free and reflexively grabbed a copy, but my hope is that at least five or 10 of those people will listen to Choir Above, Fire Below and become diehard Statuesque fans. Unfortunately, I don't think it's financially feasible for 125 to do full-fledged releases of Stephen's new albums, Calling Nature's Bluff and The Grape and the Grain, but I have offered to put them out digitally so at least people can buy them on iTunes or eMusic. I hope that will come to pass later this year.
Anyway, I figured I'd make the same offer, exclusively available to the readers of The Conical Glass. I can't afford to ship them for free, but if you send $3 via PayPal (U.S. addresses only, please) to info125@125records.com, I'll mail you a copy of Choir Above, Fire Below. Offer good while supplies last, or until I decide I've given away enough CDs, so act now! |
posted by 125records @ 3:45 PM  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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What am I, the chopped liver who owns every released Statuesque recording then? Count me in the Statuesque true believer club!
Actually it's fun to check such things out at last.fm's playlists. At one point, I was its no. 1 Statuesque fan (didn't take too many plays!). I haven't looked to see if I'm still ranked - but actually I haven't listened to Statuesque in a while on my computers. I should rectify that oversight...
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Name: Sue
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What am I, the chopped liver who owns every released Statuesque recording then? Count me in the Statuesque true believer club!
Actually it's fun to check such things out at last.fm's playlists. At one point, I was its no. 1 Statuesque fan (didn't take too many plays!). I haven't looked to see if I'm still ranked - but actually I haven't listened to Statuesque in a while on my computers. I should rectify that oversight...