The simple mission

A Few RCRD LBL tings

Some exciting stuff has been going on w/ RCRD LBL lately

1. Our weekly podcast that I host is now avails on iTUNES. Click here to add it.

2. We released an incredible RCRD LBL exclusive Santogold bonus track yesterday. It's called "your voice", and it is a beauty of a dub-tinged ballad. Click HERE to grab it for free.

3. We started a weekly Top Ten list so you can keep track of our most downloaded releases. The new one goes up tomm, but last week's is here.

That's it for now!

New RCRD LBL Podcast is up

Just a quick update. The RCRD LBL podcast is now dropping every week. Yours truly is the host.
Grab the latest one here. Or cut 'n' paste this into your iTUNES to subscribe.

RCRD LBL is hiring

Via the big cheese:

It’s true, I’ve been a little light on the updates here, but I have a decent excuse: RCRD LBL is keeping me busy. So busy, in fact, that we’ve decided it’s time to expand the team, which means we now have a position we’re looking to fill. The official description is pasted below:

RCRD LBL, a new ad-supported online record label based in New York City, is on the hunt for an Operations Manager.

We’re looking for someone super-organized and hardworking, who doesn’t need to be micromanaged and can take the job and run with it. We’re a startup, which means that you’ll need to be able to deal with a very fluid environment — there will be a lot of work, but you definitely won’t be doing the same thing every day. There are the usual perks to being in the music industry, but we’d rather find someone who is more excited about changing the game than getting backstage passes.

Responsibilities include:

Helping manage partner label relations and business development
Assisting with content acquisition and management
Advertising and sponsorship support
Events and marketing coordination
It’s a great job for someone smart and talented who is looking for a chance to break into the online music world. Experience with online advertising is a plus, but not necessary. Please send resume, cover letter, and salary requirements to peter at rcrdlbl.com.

I'm Now A Proud Parent

So, as fun as it's been doing this blog on a (somewhat) regular basis for almost four years, I think the posting is going to slow down since my newest project/company RCRD LBL is now up and running. Thanks to everyone who dropped me a line during this crazy week and said they dug the site, found out about a cool new band or just generally supported what we're looking to do—it means a lot.

And in the event any of the bands we've signed or the labels we are partnering with are reading this, thanks to all of you for being on board since day one, before we even had a BETA of the site and it was just a far reaching idea I chatted you all up about over summertime lunches and late night beers.

For the foreseeable future, you can expect for me (as well as the great writers we're going to be working with) to be blogging at RCRDLBL.com from now on, so drop a line and say hi. You can add our RSS feed here and also download any of our widgets and embed them on your site, computer, etc to stay in the loop about what we, as well as all of our artists and labels, are up to.

Really excited!

DFA/GHOSTLY HALLOWEEN BASH. WIN TIX. BE AWESOME.

Good people, sorry I haven't been posting too often lately. I've been super busy with my latest project. More news on that soon.

BUT—to reward all of you for tuning in, I have a really special contest that my bros at DFA and Ghostly International hooked up. I'll spare you the editorializing and just let you check out the info below. I mean, dudes, Matthew Dear (with his live band Matthew Dear's Big Hands), Tim Sweeney, Tim Goldsworthy, Magic Juan, Morgan Geist, the awesome Invisible Conga People— this is going to be nuts! And maybe someone will play "Hybrid Moment"! 

I've got two pairs of tickets to give away. All you need to do is email me (elliot at the simplemission dot com) with HALLOWEEN BASH in the subject line and cross yr fingers. Winners will be chosen at random this Sunday, 10/28. Good luck!

 STUDIO B PRESENTS:

GHOSTLY/DFA HALLOWEEN BASH
WEDNEDSAY,  OCTOBER 31st 2007
@ STUDIO B, BROOKLYN, NYC

Presenting the first ever event collaboration of Ghostly International and 
New York's DFA Records, Studio B is hosting a Halloween Bash devoted to dance music and featuring a line-up to DIE for: Juan Maclean (DJ), Morgan Geist, T&T (Tim Sweeney and Tim Goldsworthy), Derek Plaslaiko and capping-off the 2007 Asa Breed Tour, Mathew Dear's Big Hands.  A new resident of NYC, this will be Dear's debut performance at Studio B and a perfect finale to his Asa Breed Tour.

Just added is the feted Invisible Conga People (Italians Do It Better) and the side room now opened with Ghostly DJ Jeffrey Sfire, and resident T-shirt maker takes over the back room for spooky cosmic italo vibes.

18+ | 10PM
ADVANCE TICKETS $12 / $15 DOOR
AVAILABLE @ TICKETWEB, OTHER MUSIC & SOUNDFIX

OPEN ABSOLUT BAR FROM 10-11
CASH PRIZE FOR BEST COSTUME

Studio B

259 BANKER STREET
BROOKLYN, NY
http://www.clubstudiob.com

TK Webb: Brand New Song, A Show

Same as it ever was, urban bluesman TK Webb is still the TRUTH good people. Lately, Webb's been moving towards becoming a full on rock and roller thanks to the help of his fantastic "backing" band, the Visions. If you can imagine what would happen if J Mascis fronted a Midwestern version of the Bluesbreakers, that's a pretty good entry point into TK's current stylings.

I think where he's headed with all this is pretty fucking great.

Take a listen to this brand new song (thanks to the Social Registry for the hook up) and if you like what you hear, check out TK and Visions on Friday night at Mercury Lounge. They are supporting another excellent blues dude, Dax Riggs, for the show and it's sure to be a good one.

Click here to grab "Chee Chee Beach", a brand new jam featuring members of Love As Laughter.

Support real people doing real things. 

LCD and PiL

 

This has been out for a few days, but since I was at the shoot I figured I would post the new Doug Aitken-directed video for LCD Soundsystem's "Someone Great". 

 

 

Also, just because, here's the video for PiL's "Rise".

Two Things That Happened Since My Last Post

(Photo Cred)

1. Saw Vampire Weekend at 8PM an at emusic event to promote audiobooks. Now that you know that, you can guess that their set was pretty quick and pretty basic. Nothing more than the dudes playing their songs in front of some people. Of course, that they write great songs helped things. They played a new song tonight that was really pretty. 

2. Went to the Black Lips show at Bowery at 11PM with a heavy head. My mood improved and I got lost in a song or five, just bobbed my head and jammed the fuck out. I gotta say, if there's anything still subversive about white boys playing twangy R&B in 2007, it's that these four bros have the BEST time just being their skinny little degenerate selves. They are a band in that way that to picture them doing normal things just doesn't compute. They are Rock and Roll in the present tense. All the time. At least they were last night for 50 or so minutes. 

Two Weeks Of Tings

Some things that have happened since my last post:

1. I listened to "Houseclouds", the second song on the new Liars record, about fifty times and thought to myself it sounded more ’90s than actual songs from the ’90s. Some real ringer-T rock there, my friends.

2. Watched Rain Man, Unzipped, Stardust Memories and liked them all. Watched the two new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and was not too impressed. B- work at best. The funniest bits in both episodes revolved around dick jokes, or playing with dicks. We can do better, really. 

3. Kicked it with Knox and heard all about this dope new group he is working with, BLK JCKS.

4. Copped the excellent London Is The Place For Me compilations from a buddy, after I spent months looking for an easy way to buy them online and had zero luck.

5. Put in some major grind time with RCRD LBL. Good stuff!

Battles: One Of The Last Jams Of The Summer

First things last, Battles' show this past Friday was one of my ultimate jam fests of the summer. It's taken me a while to come around to navigating all the pitches and shades of their LP Mirrored, but that's more a personal thing than anything else.

 

What you need to know is that when these cats play a show, it's no joke. Actually, it's more of a robotically-enabled rock and roll concert with real people making real music that happens to be technically astounding.

It's not in a condescending way or anything, but they play for the audience. They want to rock you. And they do. You don't have to know where the sounds come from, you just have to let them hit you. Friday was the first time I've been able to see them play up close and after checking out how much WORK these dudes put in behind the buttons and on the floor (via pedals), it's amazing how the end result of all that tech and prowess is just great sounds.