New Music at Interscope’s New Imprint
Interscope Records has a new imprint, but accounts vary on the name of the new label. An article in the Toronto Star (registration required) says it’s Cherry Hill. This one at the Boston Globe says it’s Cherry Tree. One thing’s for sure: It’s going to give Leslie Fiest a good opportunity to reach Americans. The multi-talented Canadian, now lives in Paris, released the album last year on indie label Arts & Crafts in Canada and Universal in France. (Arts & Crafts is also the home of the indie rock collective Broken Social Scene, of which Feist is a member.)
The new label was started by record executive Mitch Kierszenbaum. “We’d like to create an indie-major hybrid,” he told the Boston Globe, “an artist-centric environment that has heft and resources.” Kierszenbaum’s taste in music makes Cherry Tree a label to watch. He brought Brit-pop act Keane to Interscope, is using Feist as the new label’s flagship artist and at South By Southwest he was hot on the heels of English buzz band The Go! Team.
Feist—she goes by only Feist as a solo artist—is thus far unnoticed in the U.S. media—except for by bloggers. Her album, Let It Die , appeared on many bloggers’ “best of 2004” lists. Such music-heavy blogs as Stereogum, Chromewaves, Information Leafblower, Brooklyn Vegan and Tofu Hut have fallen in love with Feist’s sultry songs. By this fall, Feist may be the latest feather in Kierszenbaum’s cap.
Buzz + A Feud = Sales
The Bravery have succeeded in whipping the British press into an adoring, hyperbole-spewing frenzy. The band’s cover story in hype Bible NME has all the elements of rock stardom.
“How utterly, fuckably ‘right now’ are The Bravery? Limos ferry them between their tight schedule of TV appearances—MTV, The Friday Night Project, the opening slot of the NME Awards and CD:UK. As they do so strangers grab them in the street just to look at them. Fans are turning up copying their clothes and make-up. Gigs are ‘like Nirvana in ‘94 or something’; crazed mosh madhouses driven by their sexed-up synth-punk. In a thriving and vibrant post-Strokes landscape, The Bravery have crash-landed looking and sounding like a laboratory-designed crystallisation of these wide-eyed times: sexy and stylish, damaged and dangerous.”
Wow. On top of that adoration is a recent NME.com piece that appeared to set up a feud between The Bravery and The Killers, a band who share a similar love for ’80s new wave and rock. Brandon Flowers, singer for The Killers, tossed the first verbal grenade when he told MTV people would “see right through” The Bravery.
Here’s an interesting twist: Both bands are signed to Island Records. Ask any rapper if a beef sells records and the answer will be an unqualified yes. Ask someone at Island and you’ll probably get the same answer. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.
Podcasting: The Next Word You’ll Get Tired Of Reading
The next Internet buzzword: Podcasting. Though you’ll often read otherwise, many contend that the term pod is actually an acronym for “play on demand” (the ability to download the file and play at one’s convenience) and not a reference to Apple’s iPod.
Anyway, the folks at Digital Music News are talking about a Pew Internet report that says six million Internet users have downloaded a podcast. “Some 29% of the 29 million who own iPods/MP3 players have downloaded podcasts,” it says, later adding that “nearly half of those who own iPods/MP3 players between the ages of 18-28 have downloaded podcasts.”
What the study doesn’t address is the frequency at which the average podcaster downloader downloads and listens to podcasts. Knowing how often a particular podcast is downloaded, and how many podcasts the average user downloads per week, would give a better indication of the podcast’s penetration into Americans’ listening habits.
Still, 29% is a pretty good number for the young podcasting trend. At this rate, it should be at 50% in no time.
Glenn works in the music industry in New York City. He writes about the industry and music in general at his blog, Coolfer.