FISTFULAYEN

What a week. Last Saturday we saw Torche at Spaceland then jammed downtown to see Earthless officially bury my ears in Chinatown. Then I traveled to SF on a steady diet of Earthless’ latest live record (HIGHLY recommended), hosted a Topspin meetup, met with friends Erin (of ATC) and Jon (and their lovely boys), Steve and Dalton (who named his kid after me, which is rad) from iMeem, and Ali from iLike before heading back home. Then early this morning we saw a great Web design company in the UK called Outside Line push live a slew of options to purchase the new Paul McCartney/Youth collabo, The Fireman. Yeah, Macca on Topspin! Crazy! Album is good. Get over and buy yours now.

Torche – Healer [Buy]
Earthless – From The Ages (excerpt) [Buy]
The Fireman – Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight [Buy]
The Fireman – Dance Til We’re High [Buy]

Oh and I almost forgot, I finally posted my keynote presentation from the Grammy Northwest MusicTech Summit. I admit I’m surprised at the amount of interest it received, but I appreciate everyone caring, taking notice, taking the time to comment (even the haters), etc. Some of the comments were off-base IMHO but many of them were dead on, particularly the ones asking for more specifics about how you market a band who doesn’t yet have a brand. The truth of the matter is while you can point to a few success stories many more need to be developed. This is what we’re working on every single day at Topspin and we’re definitely not there yet. I won’t be happy until incredible records like Imaad’s and White Denim reach everyone who would like them, no more, no less. That doesn’t mean the albums will be “huge” and they’ll be “huge stars”, but there’s no question that more people would like these records if they knew about them, and the market isn’t terribly efficient just yet. But I do think things are moving in a positive direction and it was great to hear so many people responding to this positivity. Thanks much.

White Denim – Heart From All Of Us [Buy]
Imaad Wasif – Halcyon [Buy]

Lucinda is waking up from her nap, time to stop typing. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Personally, I could use a bit more sleep.

ian