State of the Union Volume 2

I was very surprised to see the response to the first volume of the State of the Union. I guess the most surprising aspect was that there were plenty of people that read my entire rant on all the things in my head. In the instant gratification/fast food culture we live in, it really seems as though fewer people care to read, but to those of you who took the time, thanks. Here goes volume 2.

This Friday is the final day for Marshall, one of our employees at Suburban Home. Although I had asked everyone to stick with me for the duration of April, I guess I don’t blame him for leaving earlier. He is in a band that have been working hard on recording a new album and between that and being a full time student, he said he just can’t work at Suburban Home for the rest of the month. He has, however, agreed to help us move out of our office during the final weekend of April. That will be appreciated. I guess the reality of us downsizing and moving is setting in. As much as having a young staff can be frustrating, the new relationships I have made as a result of having interns and employees has always been something that I have cherished. I recently got an email from our 2nd ever intern, Audrey, who interned for us in 1999. She is traveling throughout Europe and studying abroad. She dropped me an email recently explaining her sorrow for the downturn in music sales and said that she could not imagine a world without small, indie labels that help introduce underground acts. The future is definitely scary for us indies, but I somehow remain confident that things will work themselves out.

I have been thinking about having a Garage Sale on our final weekend at the office. I at one time ran a record store called Bakamono and during our last weekend, we had a big sale. If you brought a beer, you would get a dollar off your purchase and that entire weekend, we drank a ton. I was thinking about doing that if we had a garage sale, but instead for a dollar off, you would get a free CD for your beer. I thought that this might be fun, but the more I think about it, I just might get everything moved and organized and nix the idea. We will see.

I just got the fully mixed, not yet mastered recording of Josh Small’s debut album for Suburban Home, “Tall by Josh Small”. I am really excited for this album and think the world of Josh’s songs. He is such a talented musician and songwriter and with luck, we will be able to help spread the word. It truly helps to have Tim Barry on our team who has been instrumental in getting this album done. Tim will also be taking Josh out on an East Coast/Mid West tour this June so make sure you check for dates as the tour gets confirmed. Tim and Josh will also be touring with Virginia’s, the Wading Girl, who are no slouches either. The album should be in stores on June 26th, 2007. Once I get it mastered, I will be posting an mp3. We will also be releasing Tim Barry’s “Laurel St Demos’ around that same time, but we have decided to only offer it to indie distros and on our site. This might be something we do more of in the future.

Drag the River news, where do I begin? There is a lot to cover. You have no doubt heard that Jon left the Rocky V tour. I will shed a little bit of light on the circumstances leading up to this event. You see, Jon was the only member of Drag not in Rocky’s backing band causing Jon to feel a little left out. Rocky and Dave from Drag had also decided to be sober on this tour and if you know Jon and Chad from Drag, those guys definitely party which if you have ever been in that situation tends to cause some strains. These factors and a few others caused Jon and Rocky to bump heads and it all came to a head on one particular night. Jon and Rocky had heated words and then Dave and Jon had words and throughout all of this it was decided that Jon would just leave. Where does all of this leave Drag? Not quite sure. I do know that Jon and Chad have been in regular communication. They were offered a number of dates with Matt Skiba and Chuck Ragan, but they had to pass on them which is a total bummer. It does look promising that the band will tour with Chuck Ragan for a different leg which would also include some dates with Flogging Molly. I remain hopeful that things will work themselves out after this tour. I would hate to see this be the beginning of the end for a band just starting to pick up some serious momentum.

In more exciting Drag the River news, the band had Rick Steff (of Lucero) play piano and accordion on some new Drag recordings and let me just say that it sounds spectacular. One of the songs, “The Bad Side of a Good Time” is easily one of my favorite Drag songs. While in the studio with the Lucero dudes, Jon recorded a cover of “Old Sad Songs” with Rick Steff and John Stubblefield playing with him. Listen to the song on the band’s myspace page. It sounds so good. It looks like while Jon is at home, he has been tying up a few loose ends when it comes to releases. The often mentioned Drag the River / Dents split will be happening and it looks as though we will press a limited run on CD and LP. Jon also put the finishing touches on an Armchair Martian discography that is clocking in at around 77 minutes. I can’t wait to hear that one. Armchair is Jon’s band before Drag and it kind of sounds like a more punk rock Drag the River with some serious Replacements/Husker Du leanings. Armchair’s drummer, Paul, now drums for the Street Dogs which is pretty neat.

So it is official, we have “signed” On Guard. I put signed in quotes because we really never sign acts. We have more of a conversation/handshake deal. I realize that it isn’t the best business practice to agree to release a record over the phone, but my thoughts are if a band doesn’t want to work with me, they shouldn’t be committed to. I want to have good relationships with all of my acts and I never want to hold them back from opportunities that can help them out. Jason, of On Guard, will continue to record his debut album and with luck, we will have it out this Fall. I do admit that I am supremely stoked that I will be working with the vocalist of Kid Dynamite and None More Black. How frickin cool is that?

It looks as though we will soon be adopting a band. The band is called Two Cow Garage and they are fantastic. What do I mean by adopting? Well, you see, the band already has a label, their own and we worked out a deal to distribute their record which will be in stores on April 24th. The band is good buddies with Drag the River and it was Jon of Drag that convinced me to work with them in the first place. Anyways, we recently got a copy of their album and let me just say, it smokes! If forced to draw comparisons, the band is a good mix of Lucero, Drive By Truckers, and maybe a little Drag the River. I had this idea, why not adopt the band and help spread the word? My thought was that I will make an official press release and announcement next week and will put the band on our website as one of our bands, post mp3s, and right before their album is out, put their record up for streaming on the Suburban Home Listening Station. I think this band has a lot of potential and I hope that our adopting them will help get some people to check them out. Great band!

We have been posting new Suburban Home sales weekly and this week we posted one that I plan to implement for life, the pick any 5 Suburban Home releases for $25.00. In the music retail climate we live in, I still think that people are willing to buy music if the price is right. I am readjusting my prices on my releases at every level – wholesale, retail, and direct to customers. Although I have always considered our releases to be inexpensive ($8.99 on our website), you really can’t compete with FREE. I am hoping that 5 for $25.00 will allow people to check in periodically with us and feel comfortable about supporting us by paying these low prices. The response from the sale has been really good so far and I hope it convinces people on the fence to pick up some new music. I think that if we can sell enough sales and copies at the lower wholesale price, we might be able to keep things going at Suburban Home. Even at $5.00 per album, I think I can work it out to cover expenses and pay our artists’ royalties. That is if I can keep my overhead low. I am bringing back everything I learned from the D.I.Y. ethics I learned from punk rock and will be applying these ideas to every aspect of Suburban Home. Stay tuned!

I saw the Static Age play last weekend. Have you heard this band? They are great! Imagine the singer of the Jealous Sound/Knapsack singing for the Cure. Their latest album, “Blank Screens” is so good and seeing them live absolutely blew me away. Unfortunately, the people there to see the local opening acts left leaving me, a handful of friends, and a few other folks as the only people to witness Static Age’s greatness. The band recently started getting booked by Leave Home so hopefully they will be getting some decent support slots soon. They deserve it. The old punk in me really gets pissed when people show up for their friend’s band and then leave before the show is done. That almost never happened in the 90’s when I was booking shows so when it happens today, it bums me out. If you attended a show back in the 90’s, you stuck around and supported all of the bands that played. Music has become so disposable and people just don’t care. Fuckers!

In Vinyl Collective news, we got the nod to do the upcoming Minus the Bear “Ice Castles” vinyl. This is so exciting as I have always been a fan. I can’t wait to hear the new material and am excited to be doing a limited pressing of one of my favorite bands. We are going to do 2,000 copies and depending on how many tracks the band puts on the album, we will be doing it as either a single or a double LP. In either case, we have it planned to do 4 different colors, 500 of each variety. It also looks as though we will be doing the new Poison the Well on vinyl. I am waiting to hear from one of the band members, but hopefully we will get that rolling soon. We got the Fear Before and Limbeck vinyl in this week and everything looks rad. The only downside is that the pressing plant forgot to press the inner picture sleeves for Limbeck. We have been holding onto all of the preorders so we can package the inserts in with them which will be a pain in the ass. Hopefully we get a decent credit out of this mistake as this is not a favorable situation. The Portugal the Man vinyl had some issues with the artwork, but as of this writing, everything is now in motion. I hope to hand deliver copies to the band when they come to Colorado on tour with Poison the Well and Fear Before. Cross your fingers!

I from time to time think about dream vinyl releases and I have one I want to share. I love Lucero and from what I think I know, they never released “Tennessee”, “That Much Further West”, or “S/t” on vinyl. How badass would it be to put out these albums as a triple LP box set much like the one we did for Every Time I Die? Man, I get goose bumps just thinking about it. I know that the band plans to release Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers on vinyl, but I really don’t know why it hasn’t come out yet. Every time I email their management company about it, they keep telling me that it isn’t done yet. That triple box set would house all of my favorite Lucero albums and that would be so cool. In a dream world, this will happen!

With IndieHQ, we started a consistent series of interviews with labels. So far we have published interviews with Ray Harkins of Abacus Recordings and Ross Siegel of Reignition. We have two for next week, Chris Wrenn of Bridge 9 and Greg Ross of Go Kart. I sent out a ton of label interviews and I hope to publish them on Mondays and Fridays. They have been really good reads so far as it is always interesting to hear the take of another label on topics such as file-sharing, what they look for in a band, and what one release they would want every person on the planet to hear. We are also working on a series of band interviews which I am excited to start publishing. Sean Klassen has been finalizing a new design of the IndieHQ site and it looks really sharp, simple, and clean. The new site will also have the ability to stream full albums and we hope to bring you kick ass records from the past, present, and future. We will also be sharing mixtapes with you on the new site which will be a lot of fun. I am working on a mixtape of my favorite tracks of 2007 so far. With luck, the new site will be up and running by the end of the month!

I will share my thoughts on Itunes lately. If you don’t keep up with the latest headlines, Itunes recently announced that they will be offering DRM free downloads and EMI will be the first label to offer their catalog this way. I read that EMI received a 5 million dollar advance from Itunes for having Itunes be the first digital retailer to offer the first major label content DRM free. I think that this is a good step overall in the right direction, but honestly, the majors are like 5 years behind. Who gives a fuck that their songs are DRM free? And who wants to pay more money for the DRM free tracks? I don’t know if Itunes or EMI got the notice that peer to peer sites have been offering DRM free major label content for years and guess what? It’s free. I have read a lot of commentary on the EMI/Apple news and I just don’t think this is going to make a big difference. Now if Itunes would have said that 1. Songs will be DRM free and 2. Songs are now only 50 cents, that would be newsworthy. One day and I hope that day is soon, I really hope that the majors get their heads out of their asses. Charging more for tracks is not the answer.

I watched the Pursuit of Happyness the other night and although the movie could have been better executed, it really hit home with me as a father. Here I am trying to make a living and support my family selling something people get for free. I wonder if watching that movie was a sign to do something different. I still have faith that there is a future in music sales, but I am not sure that I am willing to bet my family’s future on it. I will be sticking things out for some time, but I really hope that things get better. I had the idea of making a shirt that says “Suburban Home – We Sell Things That you Get for Free”. I don’t know if it would sell, but maybe I will make one for just me.

I picked up the new Jarvis Cocker album from Emusic. Jarvis is the singer of one of my favorite bands, Pulp. “Different Class” by Pulp is one of my favorite albums. Jarvis has gone solo and upon first listen, I am not stoked. On my Itunes, Jawbreaker followed Jarvis and that was a nice surprise. “24 Revenge Hour Therapy” is one of the greatest punk records and my 2nd favorite Jawbreaker album, next to Dear You. Dear You just can’t be touched! I think that every body should be forced to listen to “Dear You” in high school as required listening. If that happened, there might be fewer shitty scene bands that look like clowns. One can hope!

It is 4:46 pm and I am drinking a Leffe, my third beer of the afternoon. Tonight, I am going to see Neko Case for my 2nd time and I am absolutely pumped. The show is sold out and luckily I got on the guest list through a a good friend. I LOVE Neko and am glad to see her doing so well. Tonight is going to be amazing.

Til next time. Thanks for everyone’s support.

Your friend through music,
Virgil Dickerson