Music 'journalists' and band publicists have always co-existed in a precarious balance of passive aggressive opposition. On the one hand they bitch about us because we never reply to their barrage of slush pile queries unless it's to ask for tickets to a super high profile gig last minute that they don't need us to write about in the first place, while we don't like them because they can actually afford to live on their salary and are basically spammers with a 5% success rate. Just how it's always worked. Also we got the job they wanted, while the bands got the jobs the journalists wanted, and the bands wish they were ever going to be able to be employable in any sort of job at all after their 2-5 year viability cycle. The circle of life I think that's called.
Somewhere along the line in the last few years however, the job of band publicist changed a lot. Now it seems to be comprised more and more of people who maintain an email list and copy and paste your name to the top of the same release they send out to a thousand other people. Not to mention that the hyper-inflated pace of the internet news cycle, and the exponentially vast deluge of shit to wade through, ankle-deep in a tepid pool of also-rans, has made standing out in a journalist's email box harder than ever.
That makes for more and more press releases about less and less important 'news' sent to more and more bloggers and writers, all of whom are vying for the one story in fifty that anyone might actually be interested in. It's a recipe for mediocrity, to which most of us, myself included at times, are more than happy to relax into like a beat up thrift store sofa of vocational indifference.
For example, did you know that some other blog/magazine/radio station/podcast/late night tv show/international thing I've never heard of is really into The Shit Burgers this week? I do, because I just got 12 emails about it. Every time a band happens to garner some other form of press we've somehow decided that this qualifies as news that another outlet should then pass along again as their own news? I don't really understand the end game here.
Ultimately, from the publicity end, the goal is to get the writer to go see your band. Doesn't matter if they like it or not, when you turn in your billables to the artist, you can put down that you got some dickhead from Boston to go stand in a room and look at something for 15 minutes.
So I'll often get emails like this:
Need guest list for The Shit Burgers upcoming Boston show?
Often times they will go ignored, because there are simply too many shows, and too many emails to respond to. If I responded to every email pitch I got, my job would be Guy Who Responds to Emails. Sometimes I will be into it though. Like with this recent one where I responded to the third or fourth invite:
Luke O'Neil wrote:
Hey man, put me down for the show tonight if you can, thanks.
PUBLICITY JONES wrote:
I'll try... who should I say you're covering it for? Their manager likes details before confirming list spots.
Luke O'Neil wrote:
Haha, you sent me like 3 emails asking me to go. No direct plans to cover, say the Phoenix or Globe if you want.
PUBLICITY JONES wrote:
Well, I can't lie to her... do you write for them anymore?
Luke O'Neil wrote:
Wait, is this the unknown regional indie band show at a small venue I'm trying to get on the list for here or the Kanye stadium tour? What an odd question, of course I write for them both still. Anyway, never mind, I'm all set.
PUBLICITY JONES wrote:
Well, to turn the tables, it's not like you're Mark Richardson, Ann Powers or Bob Boilen asking for guest list... ; )
Sorry to have offended you by asking who you wrote for.
Luke O'Neil wrote:
Haha, in Boston I am.
I had to Google who all those people are by the way, (via I don't respect music journalists.) I have no illusions of grandeur I should point out, because wow, what kind of shit-heel would I be if I thought any of this was important. But still, not to get all Willy Loman here, but "I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England."
The real point is this, Jesus, dude, sorry to respond like you intended me to to the multiple emails asking me if I wanted to go to this thing I don't care about. You a publicity professional over there or a guy who hits send on an email list, throwing shit up against a wall hoping some of it slides down into the correct shit hole? And now I have to submit myself to some TSA-level identity screening to get $8 off at a club I could probably get into anyway?
Long story short, we both apologized for being kind of dicks, and I'm going to check out the show anyway, but this whole thing just goes to point out the real reason band PR and music journos don't get along in the first place: none of us are very professional people, and we probably couldn't get work doing anything else anyway, so we're stuck here in an eternal stalemate, staring each other down forever. See you in the VIP tent broskis.
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EDIT: Kind of pussying out here I suppose, but I want to point out that this person in particular is fine, and I generally have no problem with him or her or any of the professional PR people I interact with all the time, most of whom are very good at what they do in a hard field, but that doesn't make for such a great blog post now does it?
A related problem, as points out on Facebook:
"Honestly, a massive problem is the rise of the blog/blogger, which is touched on in there. The complaints about publicists aren't unfounded, but when you're getting hit up by 50-60 bloggers a day, who think they're writing for the NY Times and act like it, shit can get ugly."
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17 comments:
That's just a shitty publicist. Why are they inviting you and then being a dick? Maybe they should actually pay attention to the list they are sending to.
good points being brought up here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=213170518758033&id=837599184
Goddammit wish I could figure out how to intergrate Facebook and Blogger comments. Anyone work PR for a guy who knows how to do that?
Psyched for that Shit Burgers show, though.
LOL, you get their latest too? RAD AS HELL.
This is great. Also, coincidentally, I'm really into The Shit Burgers this week.
I was starting to wonder how you could afford fine dining, all the while making 3 posts on this blog a day and giving a personal response to every comment. Also it's a bit sad to see the best/funniest journalist in America go to waste all on this little blog (no homo). So I'm glad you're big in Boston. Damn it if I've ever heard of the Globe or the Sphinx or the Enterprise or whatever.
Hey thanks broski, I appreciate you saying that for real. I make words about bands and/or restaurants for the most part. Not as fun as dick jokes/yelling about things that make me mad however.
Ironically, I think journalists are pretty professional. The deadlines are real. As someone who works in corporate America, I can tell you that nothing compares to sundown on a deadline day.
I honestly have no idea what any other profession is like besides writing and working in a restaurant, so I can't say, but you're right that there is a lot of pressure and professionalism required of writers, even arts and entertainment losers like us. I have never once been able to call in sick for a deadline, never missed a deadline, and only made a handful of (minor) mistakes in print in ten years that I nevertheless felt like I was going to lose my job over.
PR people have to have thick skin, I suppose. I mean, they’re accountable to their clients, and on the other hand they’re like a much better paid version of street canvassers. I used to horribly write music reviews for a minute about seven years ago and still have an e-mail folder (1500 currently unread) dedicated to music PR stuff. I like to dig into it to find the occasional gem, once in awhile. I have not replied to a single one of these e-mails in over five years, but they still take the time to do little stupid things like address me personally with their canned cut-and-paste whatever, I’m sure, but still. I feel bad for them sometimes. So, it makes sense that when they get a bite they want to relay it back to their client in the most grandiose way they can. It also makes sense that it can be easy to set them off, I suppose.
Jesus, that you’ve managed to get Vegan Jules over here with his self-aggrandizing form of dick-riding. The price of fame, eh?
That's kind of the perfect example of what I'm talking about. You haven't written about anything in five years and you're still getting looped in.
Haha, I am happy to have anyone over here, and VJ is fine by me. (because he complimented me.)
whatev dudes. Alex James (Blur) says Boston is the scariest city for bands because it's the place they always go to after New York. There are 20 colleges there supposedly and it's where a band (and a record company) gets an idea about how they'll do in the college market.
Bet you fuckin losers didn't know that!
I understand. This is why I stopped.
As for integrating comments. Blogger is weird. Google doesn't like FB. I know with Wordpress there are plugins that make that happen. I found this, you probably already found it though. I don't know if you are coding person, it's easier usually than it looks.
http://www.allblogtools.com/tricks-and-hacks/exclusive-integrate-facebook-comments-box-for-blogger-in-very-easy-and-simple-steps-full-guide/
thanks. where did your long comment go? blew my mind that someone would do that.
I don't know where it went but I put it back. I have Lazarus. If you dont have that plug in you should get it. It saves everything you write in a field.
I thought maybe it was too long, but I had to comment on this, I know this shit well. You probably know more about it. But ughhhhh
Ah it keeps going away. Oh well. I wonder why. At least I got to share that story with someone who knows what I'm talking about.
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