I don’t even know what kind of Bentley this was.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than it was white, had four wheel drive and 660 horsepower.<\/p>\n
Jamie Kitman.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you know him?<\/p>\n
I do.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s the irascible dude in "Automobile" magazine.\u00c2\u00a0 The contrarian who occasionally opines on the Op-Ed page of the "New York Times", about the fallacy of both hybrids and SUVs.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been reading Jamie for years.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew he was a rock manager?<\/p>\n
Dude called me a couple of years back.\u00c2\u00a0 About his new band OK Go.\u00c2\u00a0 They had this video featuring treadmills that was getting traction…<\/p>\n
Ever speak with a manager on the phone?\u00c2\u00a0 Hard to get a word in edgewise.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re gonna plow through your consciousness like a plow on I-95 in a snowstorm, they’re gonna leave an impression, they want you to know that whatever their band is doing is important and you’ve got to pay attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if the manager represents nobodies or somebodies…\u00c2\u00a0 Get Tony Dimitriades on the line, he’s represented Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers for decades, still, he’ll sell you, he’ll do his best to close you, it’s in his DNA.<\/p>\n
Which is why all those schools that try to teach you the music business are bullshit.\u00c2\u00a0 Managers aren’t taught, managers are BORN!\u00c2\u00a0 They just don’t fit in anywhere else.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got no option but to fend for themselves, make their own headway promoting the latest and the greatest.<\/p>\n
Jamie went to law school.\u00c2\u00a0 Even had great work.\u00c2\u00a0 But after driving a Lotus Esprit Turbo cross-country for a magazine article, he quit.\u00c2\u00a0 You just can’t beat music and cars.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, ask Billy Gibbons!<\/p>\n
And after meeting Tom Werman as an adolescent, Jamie got the bug.\u00c2\u00a0 He took the leap.\u00c2\u00a0 He started managing They Might Be Giants.<\/p>\n
And there the adventure begins.<\/p>\n
They Might Be Giants was headlining Largo this evening.\u00c2\u00a0 Which, ostensibly, is why Jamie is in town.\u00c2\u00a0 A kids’ show at 2, and then an adult performance in the evening, and then they do it all over again tomorrow.<\/p>\n
And being a big macher in the car world, Jamie can order up a machine for a demo.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is how he ended up picking me up in this Bentley behemoth.<\/p>\n
A work of art.\u00c2\u00a0 With a stabilizing bar made of graphite where the rear seat should have been.\u00c2\u00a0 And bucket seats.\u00c2\u00a0 Real buckets.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a race car.\u00c2\u00a0 Where your tucas barely fit.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t own it, my hips were too wide!<\/p>\n
But I’m not in danger of owning what Jamie called "The World’s Most Expensive Volkswagen", yes, VW owns Bentley, I’m not that rich. But I was king for a day.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I mashed my foot on the accelerator you’d think we were blasting off for the moon, it was just that powerful.<\/p>\n
We took Sunset to the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 And then into the Valley via Malibu Canyon.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is where I took the wheel, for the ride into Echo Park, where OK Go was shooting its new video.\u00c2\u00a0 In an abandoned warehouse just off Glendale Boulevard.<\/p>\n
Fascinating story.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all Damian’s idea, a semiotics major at Brown, he wanted to construct the world’s biggest Rube Goldberg contraption.\u00c2\u00a0 So he went online, to a geek board, advertising for a couple of helpers.\u00c2\u00a0 He ended up with rocket scientists.\u00c2\u00a0 Twenty of them. Just about all of them doing the work for free.<\/p>\n
Not that the video is free.\u00c2\u00a0 State Farm Insurance is paying.\u00c2\u00a0 All 160k.\u00c2\u00a0 Welcome to the new music business.\u00c2\u00a0 Capitol may not have any cash, so it’s using its connections.\u00c2\u00a0 You just need to put the logo in the video.<\/p>\n
It was like the eighties, but with a twist.\u00c2\u00a0 You had the excitement of video, in a world where video no longer rules.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, video broke OK Go.\u00c2\u00a0 Could they do it again?<\/p>\n
Damian walked us through all the contraptions.\u00c2\u00a0 On two floors.\u00c2\u00a0 They were going to shoot it all in one take.\u00c2\u00a0 Wednesday and Thursday are the days.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re gonna do it over and over again until they get it right.\u00c2\u00a0 Should rival "Sledgehammer" when it’s done.<\/p>\n
The music?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got the benefit of NEVER HEARING THE MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 So I can’t render an opinion.\u00c2\u00a0 But, I will say that Damian was charismatic.\u00c2\u00a0 I got his sex appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 If I was a girl, I’d fall in love.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we’re selling.\u00c2\u00a0 Charisma.\u00c2\u00a0 Attractiveness.<\/p>\n
And then we ventured to Largo to see They Might Be Giants.\u00c2\u00a0 Appearing in a sold out show.\u00c2\u00a0 Where the fans were so rabid, you’d have thought they were the Beatles.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, the muckety-mucks pooh-poohed the Giants, although they were signed by Sue Drew to Elektra and had a tenure on the major.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, the Giants are the future.\u00c2\u00a0 A hard core of fans who will see you every time you come through.\u00c2\u00a0 You can live off this. Someone will come to see the flavor of the moment perform their hit once.\u00c2\u00a0 Twice?\u00c2\u00a0 No, not unless there’s another hit.\u00c2\u00a0 And it ain’t easy having another one.\u00c2\u00a0 Not since Haircut 100 and that Rico Suave dude…<\/p>\n
Now I don’t think the Giants are rich.\u00c2\u00a0 But is that what you got into it for?\u00c2\u00a0 I hope that’s not the case.<\/p>\n
Anyway, very fun day.\u00c2\u00a0 The way rock and roll used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Breaking the rules.\u00c2\u00a0 Testing the limits of our creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 Believing that we’re not part of the system…\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, we got into this to stay OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM!<\/p>\n
And music will only flourish, will only drive the culture once again, when it realizes it can’t be synonymous with the man, but must chart its own course, of freedom and limit-testing, the American Way.<\/p>\n
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