Bob,

I’m the singer and main songwriter for the band Cartel that you so vehemently wrote off as another desperate band in a desperate time. I’ve got to admit that your recent letter got under my skin but I totally understand where you’re coming from and agree with most everything you said. I don’t really care about a response from you. I just want you to hear what the artist is thinking and not what a label/manager/ad agency or anyone else has to say about this.
First off, lets get all the things we agree on out of the way. Of course this is a marketing ploy and a huge one at that. There’s not one person who reads about this fan or not that isn’t going to see this as a stunt. Second, if I were not the subject of the matter I would whole-heartedly agree that whatever band was doing was being suckered in and hoodwinked and hijacked or whatever phrase we can think of. Lastly, the industry nowadays should be about the music and nothing else. The artist should feel that his or her talent and expression of which should be the only thing that matters and nothing more. With all that I agree.

Now, to address what assumptions you are making about us as an artist. Well, you admitted right off that you’ve never heard of us and we’ve been touring for 4 years and started on an indie label….yada yada. All that has a lot to do with why we did this. I’m 23 so most of the lifespan of the modern music industry has passed my mature mind by. 10 years ago I couldn’t tell you who sang most of the songs that I had stuck in my head nor did I care. now, things are different. For one, the industry and music for that matter is not one iota comparable to an era such as the 70’s….ever since all those bands became popular and started making labels the juggernauts that they are today it’s been a downward spiral to this point in time….with labels and agencies and managers at the helm. Artists who are selling records and in the spotlight for the most part have little to nothing to do with anything other than the songs and even then I’d make a guess the 90% of the big artists are having someone else write their songs or sample it from a greater era of songwriting.

Cartel is a band tha believes in what we do. We write the kind of songs that could be on the radio….we also write the kind of songs radio programmers would scoff at. When is the last you heard of a band that has a top 40 single on the radio that also had a 12 minute finale that went through about 4 different movements and turned 5 different choruses from the previous songs into a medley reprise at the end. If there is such an artist I haven’t heard of them and most people who have heard the first single on our last record didn’t know we were that kind of band either. That is precisely the point. People don’t know what kind of artist we are. All they see is what radio and mtv want them to see which is the songs that sell records nowadays. 12 minute epics have no place on radio or mtv….hell, the only show that plays videos on mtv anymore only shows about 2 minutes of each video…..AND THOSE ARE THE MOST POPULAR ONES!!!!

See, we only have one record. We’re about to record our 2nd. People don’t really know us from any other band on the radio or mtv. All that is about to change. This bubble shit is stirring up all kinds of dust around the music world. Its something people find ridiculous. People think we’re crazy, sellouts, whores and everything else negative they can think of. Some people see it as cool. (I would venture to say that most of these people don’t have their head up their asses about music in the sense that they don’t think they are the definitive source on music knowledge or "what’s wrong with the industry"). The big point is that people who have never heard of us are hearing about us now. I know that great bands get out there some way…..but how long does that take. Even the upstarts from left field don’t have a career long enough to even call them road tested…..shit, some of them have played less than 100 shows ever by the time they "make it".

The industry is crumbling. People are losing their jobs. Less established bands are being dropped from major labels everyday…..even ones that sold pretty decently but didn’t get the break everyone was looking for. We are looking at this as our make or break opportunity. If this bubble thing never happened we would release our next record to our 200,000 or so fans with a single to radio that would be negligibly pushed and we would just sit back and see what happens with our career as our tour schedule continued. It might have broke and we could be sitting on cloud nine by the end of the year and everyone is happy with no cred lost and no harm done. That’s best case scenario. What if it flopped in the labels eyes and only sold 300k or so…that’s not good enough for these people. We’d be shitting ourselves still calling it awesome and enjoying the modest loot we make on the road. Now here’s where you say "shouldn’t it only matter what you think…..that you did your best and did it without this whole mess". Well, it does only matter what we think. It really doesn’t matter what you or any other blogger in the world thinks. We think we fucking rock. We think we’re one of the best bands making popular or any other kind of music right now. Our producers don’t do shit to our songs and we don’t listen to our A&R…he just got fired anyway. We’d dropkick most of the top 40 artists right in the face if we were put up to the tests of live performance or songwriting ability. With that being said, there are artists who are up there who are fantastic and bust their ass and earned it the old fashioned way. We, however, feel we deserve to be up there too and just because pete wentz doesn’t tell everybody they should like our band doesn’t mean we don’t belong.

This marketing scheme shows the world that we are a real band with real inspiration and real songs. Not some american idol winner or a label lottery contestant. People get to see us do what we do under intense pressure and scrutiny and still hit a fucking grand slam while in the meantime people in your position are hating like there’s no tomorrow on a band that they know little to nothing about.

Popular music is still the standard. Every legendary artist is the most popular at what they do and have accrued many platinum records……why? Because millions of people like their music….not the 500k or so indie kids who are too busy sucking their thumbs to realize that a really good band is being passed by because they "soldout". We’re even losing some of our fans by trying to play more technical and less "bouncy" rock. They think we’ve started to become boring to watch because we don’t encite mosh pits. That’s not what we’re about. We aspire to such bands as pearl jam and oasis and radiohead and the beatles and the beach boys and led zepplin….shit Yes is our lead guitar players favorite band. Steve howe is fucking god. Now how many top 40 artist could even name yes or steve howe for that matter.

All you guys think we’re just another dickless band with mediocre songs without even giving us a chance. That’s no way to find out about a band you might actually like. We will gladly accept all the fans that will have us even if they are of the generation that only listens to radio…..why? Because they just listen to music…..they don’t analyze business decisions or marketing ploys. They only care what’s coming in their ears and that’s what we’re about. Not some scene that’s too stuck in the past to do anything worthwhile anymore.

So we put our necks on the chopping block. We throw ourselves at everyone’s mercy with the belief that we wrote badass songs and that’s all that should matter. Which, as you say, that’s all that should matter. Not a bubble, not a gimmick, not a marketing stunt, not even mtv…..but the tunes. If we fail at that then that’s our mistake and ours alone. But if we knock it out of the park then we bypass all the lame fucks who are too full of themselves to take on opportunities such as this. Its not for everybody but its for us. Fuck selling records if that’s what you think this is all about. We want people to know that we will write rock songs and ballads and shit you probably haven’t heard before right in front of everyone’s eyes with no strings and no puppeteers doing the work for us. Listen to the record and decide then what to do with us.

Call this my manifesto but for one I’m sick of all the ninnies running around acting like they know anything about what it takes to create music. To all of them and you I ask……where’s your albums?

Thanks for your time if you actually read this. If you did I appreciate your attention and hopefully this shed some light on the darkness surrounding the bubble.

Take care.

–Will Pugh

 –www.cartelrocks.com–

How could he go on for so long and say so little?

In "The World Is Flat", Thomas Friedman says the future is based on imagination.  Once a company starts talking about the good old days, and fails to push the outside of the envelope, it’s toast.  What did Einstein say?  According to Friedman, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

What Lyor demonstrates in his "Forbes" editorial is knowledge of the past.  He gives us a history lesson, and then says the future is live.  Hallelujah, now our problems are solved!  If only the cavemen had played live, if only there was a live tradition.  Hold it for a minute, it’s RECORDING that’s late to the game!  Maybe it’s recording that needs to be investigated as a business, that needs to find its place in the twenty first century landscape.  Maybe Warner Music just isn’t prepared for changed business conditions.  But you won’t read any of this in Lyor’s words.  You just get an old wave strategist trying to appear to grasp the new world in a business publication that speaks to investors.  I wouldn’t quite say it’s a crock of shit, but very little insight into the modern music business is delivered.  So, the old system is broken.  We knew that eight years ago.  As the saying goes, what have you done for us lately?

Warner upstreamed some rap records…  Mmm…look at "Pollstar", rap is shit live.  Rap needs major labels and their marketing dollars.  But acts that can sustain themselves on the road, do they need Lyor Cohen to blow them up and eviscerate their credibility?  It’s Warner that’s burning out acts, not the other way around.

Lyor goes on about networks.  Saying you need two, one to find the acts and one to market them.  That fiber-optic cables are irrelevant.  But they’re wholly relevant.  They flatten distribution.  They allow the tiniest of indies to compete with worldwide behemoths.  Yes, now you can get your music heard on the Web, and you can even get paid for it, you can even choose to give it away for the promotion involved.  All those entities major labels control…physical retail, MTV, terrestrial radio, they’re irrelevant.  A new indie act can sidestep them.

And stunningly, Lyor goes on about his muscle.  Bragging about manipulating Charles Koppelman is like Tony Soprano reciting the history of a hit.  Demonstration of a brutish way of behavior that is passe.  Code doesn’t manipulate.  And Web statistics don’t lie.  Oh, the ones on YouTube and MySpace can be manipulated, but is iTunes hiding pressing reports?

And the fact that social networking numbers can be faked only speaks to the underlying point.  Is what is being exhibited any good?  So, Tia Tequila is a massive star online.  Does that mean she’s going to sell records?  Ditto on the Sick Puppies.  Why in the hell did Virgin sign them?

And the problem is not that record companies suck up the talent, but that they’re only interested in multiplatinum, so they only sign pap.  The fact that lawyers sell you an act has no bearing on how fast you have to develop it.  Oh, maybe the deal is too expensive, but can’t you say no?  Can’t you be like Chris Blackwell or the Chrysalis guys and find what nobody else wants, something new and innovative, and pay fairly for it?

The problem isn’t music discovery.  The problem is Lyor and his ilk are part of a decaying system.  It’s not like talent is hidden.  If anything is good, it bubbles up on the Net.  But, if the act isn’t pretty and moving units already, if the major can’t figure out how to get to platinum on the first record, the company doesn’t bite.  The way out of this?  To sign more acts at a lower price and let them percolate.  But I don’t read this in Lyor’s words.  He’s just crying that the old system isn’t working for him and it needs to be reinvented.  It is being reinvented, but by people outside the decrepit edifice, who are not burdened by decades of crap that holds the music back!

Really, I don’t get it.  It’s not like music has lost its power, it’s not like people don’t want tunes.  Hell, more people possess more tracks than ever before.  The fact that the majors haven’t figured out a way to charge them for this acquisition, and instead are suing those assembling collections, is not addressed here whatsoever.  You’ve got incredible demand and you refuse to fill it and you say the problem is managers and lawyers?

And forget that competition for the entertainment dollar.  All that competition is not reducing the number of people having sex.  It’s not like someone says no, I’ve got to kill more people on Xbox before I screw my girlfriend, I’ve got to flip through Craig Ferguson and Conan and Jimmy Kimmel before I pay attention to your caresses.  Music has a unique power absent from all other entertainment media.  But rather than harness this power, the major labels have abdicated and are promoting laughable hip-hoppers and cotton candy like the Pussycat Dolls.  This is the majors’ choice.  No one forced them to go in this direction.  They see the path to riches as an easy one.  They just say they’re giving the public what it wants.  But that doesn’t appear to be so.

People want music that touches them.  If they get turned on live, fantastic.  But Steely Dan never toured in its heyday, and that didn’t keep me from purchasing and loving their albums.  And most of the bands in my collection I’ve never seen live.  And some of my favorite acts are shitty live.  If you’re selling records, live isn’t the end all and be all.  But if you’re involved in all revenue streams, it’s an important component.

Warner’s got more than record revenue with My Chemical Romance.  But most managers won’t give up road or merchandising income to the major label.  They see this request as a land grab, with very little given in return.  What is the label going to do to help sell tickets other than to squeeze traditional gatekeepers for exposure?  Major labels are not in the career development business.  They can’t wait for cash.  Hell, look at Warner’s stock, the company is desperate!  Yup, I want to hear Lyor refrain from releasing another single from a hit album, fearful he’s going to burn the act out.

Lyor takes no responsibility whatsoever in this editorial.  He admits no mistakes, he blames the lack of revenue on bad business conditions.  Hogwash.

Why not be like Steve Jobs at the turn of the century?  Taking a dollar in salary and saying Apple’s going to innovate its way out of the tech slump.  Oh, you didn’t believe it back then, you thought Macs were an island, that iPods were too expensive.  Hope you weren’t too stupid to buy stock.

But if you buy stock in Warner today you are stupid.  Because the managers of this once-revered company have raped the company for their own personal wealth enhancement, and have loaded the enterprise up with debt.  Fine if you’re making widgets that people need for the next twenty years, but nobody needs crap music on CD.  The catalog?  A fucking gold mine.  Close down new music and say you’re becoming a catalog company and watch the stock rise.  That makes sense.  Not spending millions to market the next wannabe platinum act that nobody wants anymore.  Yup, in a niche world the mainstream that the majors function in is losing breadth and depth.  Fewer acts selling less music.  Do we see Lyor address this?  Of course not.

I’m not vindictive.  I’m not the "Hits" guys on a vendetta, pissed Warner won’t pay them.  Rather, I’m disappointed.  That these great engines of quality, Warner, Atlantic and the dearly departed Elektra Records, are now shadows of themselves, that they no longer purvey life force, don’t sell what I need, rather are trying to coerce me into buying what’s easily digested and soon forgotten.  I’ll come back to the major label system when Lyor and Jimmy Iovine and Clive Davis relinquish their power to the acts, where creativity truly resides.  When artists testing limits truly rule.  When SoundScan numbers are secondary to artistic and listener fulfillment.  Greatness sells records, not marketing.

But greatness has been left out of the equation.

Great artists don’t like to be told what to do.

So great artists are now going it alone.  The music landscape will be ruled in the future by a completely different coterie.  People who are trustworthy, who aren’t into winning through intimidation.  They’ll gain their toehold via the Internet that still has majors scratching their heads.  They’ll use the new systems to deliver desirable music to niches however small.  They’ll realize we’re living in a golden era of opportunity.  Yup, Lyor is all doom and gloom, but there’s never been a better time to be a musician, or an entrepreneur.  And stunningly, they’re often one and the same.  And, those working at the long in the tooth major labels are usually neither.

I’m going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender

I don’t start early.  Nighttime is too exciting.  It’s when the phone and e-mail quiet down and the world is my own.  Obligations are history and I get to choose my course.  Winding down is almost impossible.  Do I want to surf the Web, read the newspapers or flip through the hundreds of channels?  The lack of interruption allows me to mellow out and marinate in my selected activity.  Pompous assholes say my late night lifestyle leaves me out of the loop, a day behind, but really, I’m a day ahead.  The "New York Times" goes live at 9 P.M.  As does the "Wall Street Journal".  And I can read the L.A. "Times" online at midnight.  While you’re sleeping, I’m getting a jump on you.  But the end result is I miss the sunrise, the early morning hours.  Actually, the morning scares me, the hustle and bustle, but today I had to get up to go UCLA Medical Center for a kidney scan.

The light is different in the morning.  It’s full of promise.  It’s not fading, but getting brighter, the sun is ascending.  It gives one hope.  And as I pulled out of my garage, I heard "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".

I’m beginning to believe Sirius sounds better than XM.  It’s rich in a way that the D.C. service is not.  There’s bottom, the music breathes.  Maybe that’s why "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" sounded so good.  Then again, everything sounded good on my way to Westwood.

After entering the Peter Morton building, I was surprised to experience efficiency.  I was out in twenty minutes.  And flipping through the Sirius stations as I ascended the ramp I heard James Taylor’s "That’s Why I’m Here".  Which I don’t think I’ve ever heard on the radio.  But then came "The Pretender".

I didn’t want to go to law school.  But I went for two reasons, my father paid and I was in a bad spot, I needed a change in my life.

Richard Nixon said the only thing you need to get through law school is a lead butt.  I’d like to tell you the law is an intellectual pursuit.  That the cases you read are masterpieces of literature.  Rather, it seems minor minds rule, hashing out the differences.  Oh, a few intellectuals are peppered in.  But if you’re looking to be stimulated, don’t go to law school.

But contrary to common wisdom, law school wasn’t tough.  My college education was much more difficult.  Oh, there was the drudgery of the reading, but I was dedicated to something else, music.

The highlight of my law school experience was driving downtown every day listening to the radio.  And I remember that first fall of ’76, hearing Hall & Oates’ "Rich Girl", hearing Jackson Browne’s "The Pretender".

I’m going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
I’m going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day

L.A.’s an ugly place.  Without irrigation, it would be a desert.  And in the harsh sunlight of the morning, you can see its dry dreariness.  I tend to ignore it.  By staying home, by leaving town so much.  But what if you’re stuck here?  It’s depressing.  I’m sitting on the 405 on-ramp, you’re always stuck in traffic in L.A., thinking how bad it would be to be a happy idiot, getting up each day to drive to a job more about money than fulfillment.

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening
I’ve been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it’s the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
You’ll get up and do it again
Amen

Sunday was my birthday.  Thank you.  It’s weird to get to an age where you want to put on the brakes.  For so long you’re looking to get older, so you can drive, and drink.  So you can shave.  But then your hair starts to fall out, suddenly you’re sliding down instead of climbing up.  And finally you reach a point where you realize this is your life.  That all your choices, whether conscious or not, added up to this.  Oh, you can still do a minor amount of steering, but big changes aren’t possible.  You’re not going to become a doctor.  You’re not going to be an ingenue.  You’re just going to be you.

Everything your parents said is now true.  That it goes so fast.  And that education matters.  And that you can get sidetracked spending time with losers.  But none of that counts.  All that counts is love.  Are you getting any?  Not sex, but intimacy, companionship?  And, if not, what are your choices?  Jettisoning the one you’re with?  Psychotherapy?  Crying?

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender

On the east coast, one pooh-poohed money, even though it was so important.  Whereas in California, the students said they wanted to become lawyers to get rich.  What is rich?  Is it money?  Is it possessions?  Or is it something inside?

Now we’ve got Intel inside.  People go to school to study business.  We revere hedge funders.  And our stars rail on how fucking good they have it.  The bigger questions, they’re not even asked.  But they were up front and center once.  In society and music.  The reason musicians could change the world, could raise money for political candidates and causes, is because their fans believed in them.  Come on, can you believe in John Mayer?  And he’s considered one of the good ones!

Time marches on, but people remain the same.  Nothing really changes.  Whether you light candles or flick on the fluorescent bulb.  Inside, you’re still human.  But how much of your thought process, your natural curiosity, lays dormant, is squeezed out by the community.

Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where corporations are seen as friends.  The same entities that pollute our air, that headquarter themselves offshore to avoid paying taxes.  Oh, they’ve got money to sprinkle over the arts.  But if we take it, we’re complicit in the conceit.  That everything can be bought and sold, that personal integrity never enters the equation.  What did your father tell you?  Stand for something, or you don’t stand for anything at all?  What are you standing for?  Money?  You want to work at CAA?  Or be a fat cat at  the major label?  At least Google has a mission, to make all the world’s information available at the population’s fingertips.  What is the mission of MTV, or Live Nation?  They’re the same corporations we decried back in the sixties.  It is any wonder it’s these same people who say taking the corporate money is a good thing, that it doesn’t hurt your career?  Music used to be an agent for change.  Now it’s just the carcass divided by businessmen for profit.

Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

Get old enough and you lose faith in institutions, in people, you can only believe in yourself.  It’s not only business, but government.  I mean really, what is Dick Cheney thinking?

Are you thinking?  What are your values?  What do you stand for?  Can you be sold to the highest bidder?  Do you ever say no?

These are the important questions.  It’s got nothing to do with cash.

I passed the bar exam.  Even practiced law for a few minutes.  But it wasn’t for me.  It was never for me.  I couldn’t relate to those people.  Used to be, I could relate to you.  But that was before you stopped being a fan and became interested in getting paid, a lot.  Before you believed that your riches and power made you as important as the act.

When did we stop believing?  Could be in that fall of ’76.  Could be that "The Pretender" was the last hurrah.  After that it was all corporate rock and disco.  And then we were all happy idiots in front of the tube, watching performers in spandex dancing for dollars.

Are you pretending?  Do your choices really make you happy?  All that money, all that groveling to get ahead, has it worked for you?  When you hear "The Pretender", do you think of yourself?

I’m sick to fucking death of the marketing plans.

That’s what’s wrong with the major labels today.  Fuck the product, that’s irrelevant, they’re more interested in how they’re going to SELL the product!

Did you read that inane story about Epic’s band Cartel recording its new album in a huge transparent bubble on the Hudson, with the act entering said "biosphere" live on MTV?

Ever heard of Cartel?

Not me.  But I’m sure they can’t be making music I’m interested in.  Music comes from inspiration, not marketing plans.  Whoever convinced the act to be involved in this stunt, whether it be their manager or Charlie Walk or somebody else, should be exiled from the business immediately, made to live in said biosphere WITH the band, sans BlackBerry, sans dinners at Peter Luger’s, sans ANY of the creature comforts of modern society.

Better yet, Cartel still has time to back out of this misguided stunt.  Rather than become the David Blaines of music (and it’s not like Mr. Blaine gets any respect from magicians), Cartel can only save itself by issuing a press release REBELLING against such crap.  Would the Sex Pistols listen to their label?  Would they be playing it safe?  Would they be tools of the marketing machine?  Certainly not when they mattered, back in ’76.

Imagination.  That’s why the Ramones were so great.  In an era when we had classical virtuosos on stage in capes (yes, you Rick Wakeman), this band of boroughmen all donned leather jackets and made two minute ditties, in some cases with the stupidest lyrics of all time.  It was kind of like abstract expressionism…ANYBODY could do it, but nobody else could THINK of it!

That’s what kept rock and roll alive.  The constant innovation.  The unexpected.  Alice Cooper beheading himself on stage.  David Bowie on the cover of his album as a dog.  The artists were testing the limits, they were LEADING the company, they weren’t being towed around town on leashes by execs who couldn’t play a note.

Here’s a revolutionary idea for you, MAKE IT ABOUT THE MUSIC FIRST!

The music comes last today.  You’ve got to be pretty, you’ve got to be poised.  We’ll get one of the usual suspects to write a hit for you, and then we’ll promote you as the fuckable human of the moment all over the media.

Oh, you indie bands aren’t much better.  You sing poorly, and your material isn’t catchy, but you’re coming from the right place.  Not being sold out is not enough for anybody but a small coterie of people to care.  You’ve got to make music that works even if you’re NOT a fan!

Maybe you’ve got a good voice and a knack with a melody.  Well then you can twist the formula like Harry Nilsson or 10cc, so the obviousness of your music is leavened with humor.  Why the FUCK did you put the lime in the coconut and mix them both together?  And, a Beach Boys-esque number about a PRISON RIOT?  How did people COME UP WITH THIS STUFF!

That’s how you break through.  By surprising, by CONFOUNDING the public.  By making people stop and think, not bump their asses as you try to convince us you’re bringing sexy back when no one believes it ever went away.

And after you create your music, you don’t sell it with stunts.  Stunts are how you get the old wave media to pay attention.  A stunt is Lonelygirl15.  Heard anything about HER lately?  Now you’ve just got to put your stuff up on the Web, and wait for people to find it.  Oh, service music blogs, and provide your friends/family/fans with free MP3s and other goodies, but you’ve got to let the public do the marketing.  It’s cheaper, and if you gain momentum, it LASTS!

The foregoing is anathema to the old wave players.  They need insurance.  They worry about radio, they think about television, they’ve got to get a pass from the gatekeepers.  Hell, I’ve got to tell you, the only gatekeepers who even matter now are the authors of music blogs.  THAT’S where so many records get started.  But really, an act is now its OWN gatekeeper.  You have to figure out how accessible you are online, to what degree you pressure people to pay attention.  You’ve got to be available, but you’ve got to get others to PULL!  You need infrastructure, but you can’t fire up the machine until the public DEMANDS IT!

We haven’t got a new Frank Zappa.  And, even though Yes is oftentimes pilloried, their sound was a revelation back in ’69.  And it was sheer perseverance that allowed the band to break through  in ’72.  Their music got FURTHER OUT, they tested the limits MORE!  If you don’t succeed at first, you don’t compromise, you don’t do what everybody else does, you STAY THE COURSE!

EXPAND upon the music with your identity, don’t make the identity primary.  Yes, create a whole culture around your music.  Don’t come up with stunts/marketing plans, come up with enhancements of your ART!  Those last.  Marketing efforts evaporate.