TicketsNow Forced to Surrender All Broker Information
By Heidi Vanderslice on 04-07-2009
Looks like the good times might be over for brokers of Ticketmaster subsidiary TicketsNow – their records are as good as public, due to “special interest” and subpoenas from the ongoing governmental investigation of the ticket giant's shadiness. Brokers (an awfully generous term) will have no choice but to surrender records regarding individual tickets sold and even provide copies of their contracts with TicketsNow.
It's an interesting turn of events, as brokers have always been the money-making lapdogs of the ticket behemoth but now appear to be grade-A dirty laundry. Just taking a stab here, but perhaps investigators might be interested in exactly how many tickets never make it anywhere near the individual consumer for direct sale, resulting in absurdly quick sell-out times and, yes, scalping by brokers on the internet.
The text of the e-mail sent to brokers is as follows:
As you are aware, recent events have resulted in a heightened level of interest in Ticketmaster's and TicketsNow's businesses. One by-product of this heightened interest is that we have received a number of subpoenas and demands for sworn information about TicketsNow and its broker clients. These include formal requests for information and/or subpoenas from, among others, the United States Department of Justice, the New Jersey Attorney General's office, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Canadian Competition Bureau. The purpose of this letter is to inform you that we are now required to hand over certain information about TicketsNow's broker clients and their sales activities. In particular, we are required to identify: (i) information regarding any seller of tickets on TicketsNow for the May 21 and May 23, 2009 Bruce Springsteen concerts at the IZOD Center in New Jersey; (ii) the names and contact information of all ticket brokers with whom TicketsNow does business; and (iii) copies of TicketsNow broker contracts.
We are taking steps to protect the confidentiality of these materials once produced but feel we are required to provide these materials in response to lawful demands. Therefore, please be advised that we will respond to these subpoenas and demands for information one week from today. We appreciate your understanding in this matter. Any questions should be directed to legalinquiries@ticketmaster.com.
Ticketmaster Legal Department
Ponytail Hit the Road; Not One of Them to Actually Rep a Ponytail
By Jon Lorenz on 04-07-2009
Baltimore's newest obsession Ponytail have hit the road and are coming to your town (if you're lucky!). They are touring in support of their highly acclaimed second record, Ice Cream Spiritual (TMT Review), which came out on We Are Free in June of last year. If you haven't had the chance to see the band before, here are some words: "It's a release, a party, a cathartic getaway from the life around you. I have laid witness to Ponytail over and over, and the feeling never dwindles and the sounds never dull. Their faces are always illuminating and it transfers to your heart and grins. Your world is the now and it feels amazing. It's the sheeeezbaum!" Sounds amazing, right?! Well go check it out!
"Lookout weekend/ 'Cause here I come/ Because weekends/ Were made for fun":
04.23.09 - Washington DC - DC9
04.24.09 - Wesleyan, CT - Eclectic House
04.25.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg*
04.26.09 - Northampton, MA - Iron Horse
04.27.09 - Burlington, CT - Monkey House
04.28.09 - Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
04.29.09 - Toronto, Ontario - The Deleon White Gallery
04.30.09 - Detroit, MI - Pike Room
05.01.09 - Mt. Pleasant, MI - Rubble Bar
05.03.09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
05.04,09 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot+
05.05.09 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
05.07.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
05.08.09 - Boise, ID - Neurolux
05.09.09 - Seattle, WA - Vera Project
05.10.09 - Portland, OR - Holocene
05.12.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
05.13.09 - Visalia, CA - Howie and Sons
05.15.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
05.16.09 - Irvine, CA - Acrobatics Everyday
05.17.09 - Phoenix, AZ - Phix Gallery
05.19.09 - Lubbock, TX - Bash Riprocks
05.20.09 - Austin, TX - Emo's Chaos in Tejas pre-party
05.21.09 - Dallas, TX - The Cavern
05.22.09 - Brimingham, AL - The Bottletree
05.23.09 - Atlanta, GA - 529
05.24.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
05.25.09 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
* Marnie Stern, Think About Life
+ Vivian Girls
Kill Rock Stars Sign New Distribution Deal, Continue Killing Rock Stars
By Kid Midnight on 04-07-2009
OH MY GOD!
TOUCH AND GO RECORDS STOPPED DISTRIBUTION FOR A BUNCH OF OTHER INDIE LABELS!
NOBODY TOLD ME!
Just joking, I read the website that I work for; and even though there were initial rumors of T&G completely shutting down (it won’t), the label is mainly just discontinuing distribution for other labels and won’t release new music for awhile. But now most people are wondering: “What’s going to happen to all the labels that used T&G as a distributor?” I don’t know about most of the labels (like Merge, Drag City, Suicide Squeeze, or Jade Tree), but like the headline read: Kill Rock Stars has moved on and found a new distributor.
The venerable Northwest indie label announced on Monday that it has signed a new deal with independent distribution company, Redeye. The entire KRS catalog will now be carried by the indie firm ensuring that records by Elliott Smith, The Decemberists, Bikini Kill, and Sleater-Kinney will still be available to emo kids and riot grrrls everywhere.
Redeye distributes labels like Barsuk, Warp, Luaka Bop, Daptone, and Yep Roc and also ensures that releases by artists like Public Enemy, The Faint, The Donnas, Lisa Loeb, and Cake make it to store shelves.
The first Redeye-distributed record from Kill Rock Stars will be the new album by The Thermals, Now We Can See, expected for release on April 7.
Detroit Garage Rockers Tyvjk Remind the European Union of Motor City’s Real Chief Export (Hint: It Ain’t Cars)
By Kat Gardiner on 04-07-2009
....okay, there are the riots. And headquarters of the people responsible for all those Calvins we see peeing on each other. Oh, and there's that extreme poverty, racial tension, and economic collapse that surrounds the city like a horrible cloud of insidious smoke. There's that, too. But in spite of all that shit (or maybe because of it), you end up with a by-product unparalleled in cities larger, richer, and arguably smarter.
You get music. Killer amazing music. You get Motown. You get Iggy and The Stooges and MC5 (that's Motor City Five, by the way). And then there's John Lee Hooker, Parliament-Funkadelic, Sonny Bono, Question Mark & the Mysterians, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, and Alice Cooper; The Gories,The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs, The Von Bondies, J Dilla, and Eminem. See what I'm saying? Besides New York, Chicago, and LA, can you think of anywhere else that has given us so much and so varied a musical retrospective?
Now, enter Tyvjk (a.k.a. Tyvek a.k.a. TVK), and think messy garage art punk. Think hammers and nails eeking out a melody and four-tracks recording sporadically. These guys take that Detroit molten lava, throw it against the wall -- not in anger, but in pure joy -- just to see how it settles. They've been compared to The Velvet Underground and MC5, as well as Times New Viking and The Vivian Girls. I just think they're good old fashioned punk rock from the days before "punk rock" was a thing you needed to scream through or dress up as. They don't have a website yet (beyond their MySpace page); they've only released 7-inches (most notably on Sub Pop's singles club - TMT News). Hell, even John Waters is a fan.
Sounds like a good time to catch a show, if you ask me. They play tonight at the Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery in Pittsburgh, then it's off to Europe with Cheveu
04.10.09 - Düdingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
04.11.09 - Torino, Italy - Asilo Occupato
04.12.09 - Rome, Italy - Locanda Atlantide
04.13.09 - Italy - TBA
04.14.09 - Italy - TBA
04.15.09 - Zagreb, Croatia - Spunk
04.16.09 - Graz, Austria - Forum Stadtpark
04.17.09 - Praha, Czech Republic - TBA
04.18.09 - Hamburg, Germany - Beat Club
04.19.09 - Göteborg, Sweden - Utmarken
04.20.09 - Helsingor, Denmark - Musikhuset Elvaerket
04.21.09 - Germany - TBA
04.22.09 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Occii
04.23.09 - Tournai, Belguim - TBA
04.24.09 - Paris, France - Fleche D’or (Pheromoans)
04.25.09 - Ris Orangis, France - La Ferme De La Justice (Aeroflot)
Flowered Up! Petal Pushers Bill Callahan, Scout Niblett, Devendra Banhart, Josephine Foster, and Mark Kozelek Pay Tribute to Kath Bloom
By David Nadelle on 04-07-2009
We should be grateful we live in this age of insane mass commercial availability, but rehashing the pointless and unimportant can get a bit sickening. However, some reminiscences are no-brainers, and a gentle rekindling of appreciation is required. Take, for example, Loving Takes This Course: A Tribute to the Songs of Kath Bloom, which eases into life by Chapter Music today, April 7.
Apart from the formidable Ms. Bloom, who gets a full disc to herself, the collection will feature some big-name admirers taking on her best and beloved songs. Hot-blooded men like Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Mark Kozelek, The Dodos, and others have recorded tracks for the project. The female contingent boasts absolutely no slouches either: Josephine Foster, Meg Baird, Scout Niblett, Mia Doi Todd, and Corrina Repp all give props to the sad-voiced lady of the lowlands (of Connecticut?).
Bloom is mostly known for a number of lovely avant-folk, small-label records and limited CD-Rs she recorded with guitar guru Loren Mazzacane Connors in the late-1970s/early-1980s, but after returning to the recording arena in the 1990s, her too-few solo albums have garnered a great deal of praise as well. And no, while you will notice two versions of "Come Here" on each disc listed below, it is not because the song gained popularity after being featured in the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy film Before Sunrise. It is simply Bloom unleashing her inner Neil Young, who is a master of the duplicitous double song shots on some of his rekkerds. For Kath Bloom, it’s better to always burn brightly than to fade away.
Disc One (The Covers):
1. Marble Sounds - "Come Here"
2. Bill Callahan - "The Breeze/My Baby Cries"
3. Laura Jean - "When I See You"
4. Mark Kozelek - "Finally"
5. Mick Turner & Peggy Frew - "Window"
6. Devendra Banhart - "Forget About Him"
7. Scout Niblett - "I Wanna Love"
8. The Dodos - "Biggest Light of All"
9. Josephine Foster - "Look at Me"
10. Mia Doi Todd - "Ready or Not"
11. Corrina Repp - "Fall Again"
12. Marianne Dissard & Joey Burns - "It’s So Hard to Come Home"
13. Amy Rude - "In Your School"
14. Tom Hanford - "If This Journey"
15. Meg Baird - "There Was a Boy
16. The Concretes - "Come Here"
Disc Two:
1. Come Here
2. The Breeze/My Baby Cries
3. When I See You
4. Finally
5. Window
6. Forget About Him
7. I Wanna Love
8. Biggest Light of All
9. Look at Me
10. Ready or Not
11. Fall Again
12. It’s So Hard to Come Home
13. In Your School
14. If This Journey
15. There Was a Boy
16. Come Here
Bloom recently completed a small handful of dates in California, playing with the likes of Little Wings, Mia Doi Todd, and Be-Gulls, but she will be sticking closer to home for a couple shows in the next couple months. Come here, no, below here, to see the sites of her shows.
05.02.09 - New Haven, CT - Café Nine
06.21.09 - Litchfield, CT - Haight Vineyard
