Elbows Music Blog Community

Force Field PR is the best in my opinion. Great line up of bands, well written press releases and just overall great people.

Merz - I feel the same way, but a lot of labels are switching to digital promos only to cut costs. Often if I request a physical CD, I'm told that's not even an option any more. Not only do I prefer a physical CD, but my current internet setup makes digital albums a hassle (and that's when I can successfully download them). I guess I understand why it's easier and economically wiser for the labels do it, but I don't like it.

I'm another one that prefers CDs, but I can see the cost-saving of going digital.
CDs always go to the top of the "to review" pile though, which I state clearly on the contact page.

I get a few CDs (and can request more obviously), but they are more like a drop in the ocean compared to the digital side of thing.

Unless it's a record I've really been looking forward to and I'm going to buy anyway, I'm probably happier with digital. I'm only going to listen to it on my computer anyway, it saves people money on post, it saves money on padded envelopes, and saves space in my apartment by reducing the padded envelope pile. If I'm given the choice, I almost always ask for an email.

That said, it is always nice to get an unexpected cd in the post that you can't wait to listen to. 4AD are especially awesome at this.

I get the guilts something rotten when people post me CDs, mostly becuase 90% of them are unsolicited and turn out to be awful, so the only place they are going is the bin.  I always tell promo folk not to send me anything real unless I specifically ask for it.  Otherwise it's almost certainly a waste.

I agree, I really prefer to have something tangible in my hands and it beats the hell out of these low quality 128k mp3's that these promo folks send. At last count, and I keep a running record, I have over 1,500 CD's in my collection. Right now most of them are in storage since I have been living out of a suitcase for a few years. But I view it as something rather important and when I pass from this world I will give that CD collection to my children as a legacy. Plus, I have a huge vinyl collection that is probably worth a few bucks now if I were to try to offload it (which I won't). And the kids will get that too. This digital shit is the future, I know, but man it really lacks substance. I can't get my hands around a bunch of bits and bytes like I can with the real thing.

LOL at the Squashed comments. Some things just never change............

Oh yes, that's a good point there. The digital stuff that is done right, is very much worth listening to. No insult intended at all, and of course, let's save fossil fuels and not make the fuckers all wrapped in plastic anymore, xoxo

Shain and Anika at Fat Cat Records do a really good job, and they're nice to talk to as well.  Kudos to both of them.

I did and I checked their roster just in case but was total crap imho.

i'd tell you not to give them your address, but it seems you already got that covered.

my guess is it is really a clueless pr person. in some ways, it would be less pathetic if the guy was actually trying to scam you.

Oh, and could you also please imagine I said 'Get a PO Box' in a slightly less terse manner than it appears.  Sorry!

There is nothing wrong with or offensive about this sentence from a PR email I got last night, but it is nevertheless absolutely guaranteed to make me delete the email without ever listening to the track:

"This radio-friendly epic track contains heartfelt lyrics and a powerful up-beat melody which complements the singer’s sensitive and emotionally prominent vocals."

I've found some of my favourite bands from some of the most abrupt, terse, uninformative emails. If they're written by the band rather than a PR person, then it seems to be a good omen.

My new favorite:

"I have been checking your blog for a minute and figured it would make sense to reach out with some of my material..."

For a minute? Really! Well then it's no wonder you think I like electro-hop, whatever the hell that is.

Had a string of fantastic submissions from Bridget at Planetary Group over the last few months.

Also I can never resist a submission with a BandCamp link for some reason!

FOLLOW UP! Got this email from Stunt today in response to this post:

While I don’t understand how you can call yourself a fan and still tear apart the band you support, that is your own choice and a subjective one at that. My concerns lie in the factual errors you made in your post. I’m not sure if you misinterpreted an email blast for a personal pitch, but the only personal email I ever sent to you was regarding the removal of an unauthorized MP3. We did not directly pitch you an album review, and why would we? You wrote a negative album review on 7/20. As for the email blast, the bottom portion is a quote sheet. We did not editorialize, it was a pull quote – that explicit wording is in the review. While this review in particular from Pitchfork did not give a high number rating, the reviewer did say some nice things about the band, which we used as a quote.

As for the rest of the quotes, allow me to include direct links below where you can read firsthand the praise they wrote. See below.

*list of review links*

If you prefer not to receive general press updates regarding our artists, please let us know. We can easily remove you from our list. Hopefully, you’ll take another look at your post and realize that we have presented the facts in an honest manner, while you have taken a convoluted approach which has misrepresented our company and the band.

==========================

Here's my response:

I'm confused... I love this album & I love this band, this album is, at the moment, my album-of-the-year, beating out many other blogger faves by a long shot. Re-read:
via http://tsururadio.com/2010/07/im-off-the-phone-im-listening-to-light-chasers-by-cloud-cult/

---

Okay, when this first showed up on the intertubals I was out in about western Canada on vacation with my Baby. The initial word was that it was beautiful but with a big BUT… something was going on with the vocals that was tweaking out a few friends.

I got nervous. I loved Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-partying Through Tornadoes) a couple years back, loved it with all my heart. We waited two stinking years for this and I just wasn’t ready to not like this.

It went on the back-burner. I heard (and loved) “Running With The Wolves” but everyone was loving that, so no worries there….. Okay, enough of this, the Sprint story and telephone themed mixtape was up, it was finally and finally, yesterday, I gave it a whirl.

Wow.

First off… Is this a concept album? It feels like it. There’s a story going on, a story of a group of, well, light chasers. In that sense, it’s kinda proggy, it’s spacey, are they in space? Are they on a ship at sea? Are they in the wilderness, running with the wolves? Or is that a metaphor for just being free? What is the light? A new sun? Death? Happiness?

I’ve listened 6, 7 times, not sure, and each time I think I got it, it just gives you more.

The music is Cloud Cult, it’s also acoustic, tribal, electric, and even a hint of rap-rock (see “The Battles – Room Full of People In Your Head”). The album goes everywhere! Robotic autotune-like voices, whispers, yelling, to just lovely and pretty….

A happy and wonderful surprise! I really do love it! YAY!

---

I know my writing is not, uh, normal. I get that & that's fine (I write in a slighted edited version of how I think). But I did/do/will love this album and anything more than a cursory scan of my post would have made that clear.

On the reason for the season of the email pleasin'... I do think pulling positive quotes from a rather "meh" review from Pitchfork is pretty disingenuous. Sorry, but I do.

Re-read the p4k review, they said Cloud Cult is offering up "building blocks to epic millennial rock", hardly the same thing (a rocket on it's way to the moon and a bunch of scrap metal in my backyard are not the same thing), aaaaaand this was the ever so slight positive bounce back after calling the album full of "overwroughtness".

Ouch.

Anyone, like me, who follows up an "epic millennial indie rock" quote like that and finds a 5.4 from some kid at p4k would look back at Cloud Cult and wonder what kinda shenanigans they are up to...

SHENANIGANS I TELLS YA!!

But I get it. Pitchfork is king. Positive tag lines from a Pitchfork mention are worth their weight in iTunes sales gold because, as we all know, 99.9% of the people won't follow up on that quote. So, more power to ya! So many bloggers follow Pitchfork's lead that if they seemed to have liked it, maybe blogger #6,882 will like it too!

It's cool, and it's cool you called me out for calling you out. The circle of bloggerin' life!

*insert tear-jerker Elton John track here*

Cheers & good luck! I wish the album well and hopefully, come album-of-the-year time -- my, where does the year go?-- this album will get the love & high-rankings it deserves.

I don't pay any attention to any of the promo chat until I have decided that I like the music enough to be interested.  They could quote Tom Waits, Eric Cantona and my mum and it wouldn't make a jot of difference.

Just found it amusing & thought I'd share with my bloggerin' peers...

Though it's a rare day that I actually read PR emails, the only reason I clicked that email was because it was about Cloud Cult, which I like & was still kinda high on. I happen to scan the quotes, just out of vague curiosity as I scrolled. The pitchfork one caught my eye because I did just happen to read that review because, once again, I was curious how they would take it considering how much I loved it, and knew how they didn't like it.

It was a perfect storm of happen-tos!

The whole thing just really cracked me up. So.... as I tend to do.... I made a joke about it in my post when I saw the KEXP videos of CC floating around the intertubes! It's how my brain rolls.

Really surprised at the email I got from Stunt. One, they pulled a disingenuous quote from Pitchfork's review AND they completely mis-read MY review! If I didn't know any better, I'd think they don't really read reviews at all!

Anywhosaldoosal..... I thought bloggerin' ain't easy? Hell, PRin' ain't even easier!

"Hi, How are you? I came across your blog online and I believe I can give you some music that would suit the style of Cutlure Bully blogspot." Alyn Gawat, Media Manager, http://reesstreetrecords.com

Tiny follow-up to my little story..... I've not received a reply nor another Stunt Company PR email since I've written her back. Guess I'm off their list. On the plus side, no more Owl City news!

lol

@toad -- weird, I found your blog via fortune cookie.

Title: "Unreleased Radiohead song..."

Body: "Julian [Shah-Tayler] has recorded a tribute... (blah blah blah) ...A version of the unreleased Radiohead soon to be classic: 'Supercollider.'"

Though in all fairness, this wasn't a PR person... it was sent from the artiste herself. Either way - the email was so misleadingly enjoyable that I couldn't help but smile when opening it.

"CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email and any attachments may be confidential and protected by legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the e-mail or any attachment is prohibited."

yup.