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| From | "Michael Bennett" <mrhonorama@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: audities-digest V5 #47 (13 msgs) |
| Date | Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:55:59 -0600 |
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Joe --
Based on this e-mail, I'd still much rather read Amplifier than Alternative
Press or Blender. I can see where you're coming from, but I can also see
where Brad was coming from -- in the past couple years, whenever I picked up
a copy of Amplifier, it's obvious that the focus has broadened, which,
depending on one's point of view, may or may not be a good thing.
You also demonstrate that there are artists featured without ads in the
magazine. And I think a lot of people would agree that having an e-mail
exchange made public to the world is somewhat unfair. However, that's why
people have to be extra careful with e-mail (and as Mark Foley now knows,
IMs too). Could you, if you are willing, clarify your side of the story
regarding the e-mail exchange?
Mike Bennett
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/mrhonorama
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
Find out about Chicago shows:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagopopshowreport/
>From: Amplifierj@aol.com
>Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
>To: audities@smoe.org
>Subject: Re: audities-digest V5 #47 (13 msgs)
>Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:42:05 EST
>
>
>
>In a message dated 1/21/2007 9:08:40 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
>audities-owner@smoe.org writes:
>
>Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:25:46 -0600
>From: "Brad Harvey" <billionbrads@att.net>
>To: <audities@smoe.org>, <audities@smoe.org>
>Subject: Comments from a former Amplifier writer
>Message-ID: <200701212231.l0LMVGNm029863@smoe.org>
>
>Kerry Tucker of Einstein's Sister turned me on to Amplifier ten years ago.
>I
>loved the magazine's power pop/pop rock niche--I did the occasional
>article,
>reviewed CDs (all gratis), and even got another writer a gig there.
>
>I'm a huge fan of Johnny Society. Being altruistic towards deserving
>bands,
>I wrote a piece on spec. Joe at Amplifier balked--nicely--but agreed to
>print my article after I convinced the band's label to purchase an ad and
>donate CDs for Amplifier's 'free CD with subscription' offer. Had I not
>been
>so passionate and willing to hustle on behalf of both sides, this never
>would have happened.
>
>For over five years I was editor/publisher of OIL magazine, a free music
>monthly in western Illinois/eastern Iowa. If an artist had a good review
>(or
>bad) we would contact them ahead of deadline and ask if they wanted to buy
>an ad. Whether they did or didn't, the review would run, as is. It was
>simply another means of squeezing revenue from a limited resource.
>
>To be frank, struggling musicians are a pretty invisible demographic when
>it
>comes to having the financial clout to support a magazine. We relied more
>on
>car dealerships and restaurants to keep our bread buttered--having the
>corporate muscle of a co-publishing deal with the local daily helped too.
>
>(Most alt-weeklies make their real money off 1-900 ads which they run for
>free in exchange for a percentage from the number of calls said ads
>generate.)
>
>I'm sure when Joe took Amplifier national, it was for reasons of
>survival.
>Unfortunately, the further into the mainstream you venture, the blander
>you
>get--you start putting acts in your pages that alienate your original
>fan-base and if that strategy doesn't attract those prized national
>advertisers (and new readers), well, you've sacrificed your identity for
>nothing. Tread water or roll the dice, it's the entrepreneur's dilemma.
>
>Joe's biggest enemy is technology--why shell out newsstand bucks for info
>that's already months old when you can get it free and immediate via the
>internet? For me, the sage opinions of Bash, Bennett, Borack, Brodeen and
>Mason are just a mouse-click away on Audities.
>
>Brad Harvey
>NR: Ugly Things, Big Takeover
>
>
>Generally, this is the kind of tripe that I don't usually respond to
>because
>it's all based on memory, recollections from year's ago, or, in the
>current
>situation, an act of extrapolating what I thought was a personal business
>exchange as gospel truth. One thing I'm guilty of is being naive....never
>would
>I have thought that a conversation between myself and someone else would
>be
>used as fodder on a Blog to denigrate me and besmirch my reputation. But
>that part's between me and Matthew at Birdman and we've already spoken and
>said
>our piece to each other.
>
>But to say that Amplifier has become blander and more mainstream Brad?
>Let's see who the features are in the current issue:
>
>Badly Drawn Boy
>Bettie Serveert
>Joan as Policewoman
>Over the Atlantic
>The Changes
>The Winnerys
>The Bottle Rockets
>John Borack's Rave On column (man, how could it get any blander or more
>mainstream than Chris von Sneidern, Jeffrey Simmons, Fresh Mowed Lawn, The
>Fire
>Apes or the Handcuffs....oh wait, take them out, I think they're opening
>for
>Justin Timberlake now.)
>Jens Lekman
>Gomez (I think they're on Virgin but I just dig 'em.)
>Lloyd Cole
>Pere Ubu
>Andy Partridge (anybody on Audities dig him....heard of him?)
>
>and how about reviews....let's see, Gwen, Justin, ...who do we have?
>1090 Club
>Annuals
>Shane Bartell
>Beach House
>The Black Neon
>The Black Watch
>Brian Wilson (one of my greatest days is seeing Dave Bash's cover story
>with
>Brian effing Wilson!)
>Califone
>Bon Savants
>Lindsey Buckingham (how mainstream but the guy's a pretty good songwriter
>and guitar player)
>Shawn Colvin
>Graham Coxon
>The Curtins
>The Decemberists (backlash be damed; they're still aces in my book)
>Dog Age (from the brilliant Rainbow Quartz stable)
>David and the Citizens
>Drydin
>Earl Greyhound
>El Pero Del Mar
>The Fags (and The Figgs in the same issue!)
>Tanya Donelly
>Form of Rocket
>Grey Does Matter
>Feist
>Jenny Lewis
>The Gurus (from the brilliant RQ again)
>Miho Hatori
>Heaven 17
>The Hold Steady
>The Horrors (what a fun band)
>Hot Young Priest
>Josef K
>L.E.O. ( ya know, Bleu, Mike Viola, and some other cool folks with all
>those
>platinum records)
>PJ Harvey (how boring is she?)
>Los Straitjackets with the World Famous Pontani Sisters and Kasier George
>(I
>think by reviewing this CD alone I got like 2,873 new subscribers alone).
>Matt Mays and El Torpedo (from the fine folks at 00:02:59 who brought you
>the last incredible Willie Nile album).
>My latest Novel
>Stephanie McKay,
>Mute Math (oh, oh, didn;t they have a video on MTV.....that one must have
>slipped by me....probably cause I loved the album.)
>My Morning Jacket
>Michael Nace & The Nace Family
>The Pernice Brothers (bet a lot of people on this list would like him)
>Pinback
>The Trolleyvox (gotta admit I think we were in early on this one)
>The Places (from that major label powerhouse High Plains Sigh).
>Eliot Popkin
>The Purrs
>The Rails
>Roman Numerals
>Sebastian Schuller
>The Shakes
>Smash Place (from my old friend Art Herman at Zip....is it okay if I review
>his stuff because I like and respect him as well as the material he puts
>out)
>So Percussion
>Some Action
>The Static Age
>Stefy (oops, what was I thinking....but at least we trashed it!)
>Yeah Yeah Yeahs live review (what a boring, mainstream show they put on)
>System and Station
>Tahiti 80
>This Day & Age
>The Tickets (Brewery Records Walter Clevenger)
>To Live and Shave in LA
>Tokyo Police Club
>Tristeza
>Turn Off the Stars
>The Winnerys (well we also figured we'd review the album as well as feature
>'em)
>Denison Witmer
>Yo La Tengo
>Pete Yorn
>Zoodrive
>
>I'd stop there but have noticed how this is the season for lists ....and
>because I do have to admit we're going big-time for the sellout next
>issue.
>
>Features:
>The Good The Bad and The Queen (cover story) - actually I feel pretty good
>about this as we got to talk to all four members of the band. Could become
>the
>biggest band in the world after one album in which case we'll be able to
>tell the whole world we told you so.
>Young Love - check out the 1/8th page ad they tood out in exchange for our
>article....oh, wait, they didn't return our emails.
>Daylight's for the Birds - check out the....oh, never mind.
>El Presidente - check out the.....oh, never mind.
>Hotel Lights - nope, not this one either.
>The Little Ones - or this one....how do these artists get articles without
>forking over ad dollars?
>Clinic - yeah, score....thanks to Domino for the ad!
>Colin Meloy (for the Mix It Up column....sorry still like 'em)
>Jesu
>Maps
>LCD Soundsystem
>Sondre Lerche (he's so cute we're trying to attract more female
>readers....thank God his album is excellent.)
>
>Reviews:
>All India Radio
>Apples in Stereo (only because they're on Elijah Blue's new label and I was
>hoping to meet him!)
>Arctic Monkeys
>The Autumn Defense
>The Blow
>Boyskout
>Broken West
>Coach Fingers
>Dead Rock West
>The Ears
>Ex-Lion Tamer
>The Frames (kinda mainstream and approaching popularity but Anti puts out
>such great albums)
>Patty Griffin
>High Llamas
>Honeydogs
>Locksley
>Of Montreal
>Outrageous Cherry
>The Scruffs
>The Silos
>Tom Waites
>Jaimie Vernon (only because he bought an ad....though I'm pretty sure I put
>that CD up for grabs to the writers well before advertising was
>mentioned.)
>Tom Waits (way mainstream but a lot of people seem to dig him)
>Willard Grant Conspiracy
>James Yorkston
>
>So there you go....sorry to bore you with such a long list of prominent,
>manufactured, MTV-nurtured artists that we cover within our pages but if
>that's
>bland and mainstream to Brad I only hope the surgery to remove his head
>from
>his ass is successful. I believe the identity of AMPLIFIER remains
>intact.
>
>No, if you really want to do your homework and not take everything you read
>as fact and then call me at home and email me with all sorts of seemingly
>impossible physical suggestions, make a mental note of all the artists that
>we
>cover in the next issue you read (actually, I don't think many of you are
>readers of subscribers, especially all you with so much to say about me and
>the
>magazine) and try to find ads for those artists. The synopsis of all the
>babbling is the assertion that Amplifier trades reviews for advertising.
>See if
>the facts bear that out and get back to me.
>
>And Brad, since you don't want to shell out newsstand prices give me your
>mailing address and I'll send you our latest issue so you can check
>yourself.
>And I don't think my biggest enemy is technology....it's people who treat
>private correspondence as worldwide blog fodder and pass of some one-day
>private
>(ha!) email exchanges as some sort of company policy.
>
>
>Joe Joyce
>AMPLIFIER MAGAZINE - AMPLIFIER ONLINE
>Indie Rock + Artists That Matter
>
>5 Calista Terrace
>Westford, MA 01886
>_http://www.amplifiermagazine.com/_ (http://www.amplifiermagazine.com/)
>AmplifierJ@aol.com
>
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