Week 8. Off to LA for a Few Days
Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:09 pm
MONDAY DECEMBER 5, 2004
Really, we'll be back Wednesday Afternoon
It's not a big deal... well, I dunno if it is or isn't; Other bigger artists will
do their thing as well. Chauntelle, Sherri, Stacy are doing an acoustic set
(2 songs) for the WB Town Hall meeting... I guess it's like a business
meeting. Everyone at the label (US and worldwide) will be there; there'll
be this presentation on Eisley, they'll play the lil' video I did...(trust me,
it's no big deal) and yak about their record, etc. and then (drum roll)
"vwuallah...here they ARE!!..Eisssssslleeeeyyy!) Or, part of Eisley.
(snap!) I don't really know what to expect; I've never been to one of
these. That night, there'll be a big WB party. I guess it'll be fancier and
there'll be hob knobbing. Should be nice getting to meet people. I like
people. (no, not just the rock stars... i especially enjoy meeting like, A&R
guys for other bands, or publicists, photographers, the people that make
things happen...managers, producers, engineers. They're the best.)
I will totally take my video camera and film the event whilst attending to
the soundguy in case there needs to be any adjustments during their set.
So, at the very least, I'll be bringing you live pics of the girls show. If the
audio is decent and it's worth the doing and I have time, I'll put a clip up.
The cd cover is mostly finished... I spent all afternoon/eve on the 85
layered (that included adjustment layers), 200mg ps document. No, it's
not what you think...not some over-decorated bag of photoshop tricks. I
think I'd use words like atmospheric, romantic, magical, whimsical...
classic. Yeah, you're gonna love the picture of them dressed up in cheer
leader outfits while galloping thru the rain forest.
I have to pack. What are ya'll up to? It's been rainy and coldish here.I'm
not feeling so great...fighting something but amn't sickly. Talk to you
from LA. bd
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Later That Evening
We landed. 1:25pm LA time. It was weird. Some guy with a DuPree sign
was waiting... who escorted us into his stretch Limo. Fresh, huh? We've
never been in a Limo. But it seemed wrong... and now we're in this ritzy
hotel feeling strange... so, since we were starving, we did the only
normal thing: walked to a Burger King and ate frenchfries and milk
shakes.
Anyway... then we walked a block over to the place where the "squares"
are - only to find there was a Premier at the Chinese Mann Theater. AND
WE GOT TO SEE KURK DOUGLAS. dude, that dude is old, dude. He
received some award or something... I'm not sure. I want coffee but we
have to eat dinner first.
Someone wanted to know what songs those girlie-girls were doing...
Lost At Sea and Golly Sandra. That was their choice.
Woah, SONGS are up
As mentioned, this is part of the e-merge effort; the player will be out
soon and it looks like WB went ahead and posted a the same ones that
will be on the player on the e-merge site. (first page, bottom...under
something about "Laughing City". (typo or brain skip...should be Room
Noises).
All of these songs were played exactly like the records on the Snow
Patrol tour, so you might not be too surprised if you heard them live.
Telescope Eyes - as mentioned many times, quicker. perhaps more
radio. not too slick. butt-rock guitars dead on chorus, nice overlay of
keys and guitars on intro before verses; the band probably wished the
song could have gone away, but...here it is; the sacrificial offering. My
guess is - slated for a single. If you're an old eisely fan and are sick of
this song... ignore it. The rest of the world won't know anything about it.
Actually, in case anyone is interested, the band is pretty ok with it.
Golly Sandra - If you listen to the live clips, you've basically heard this
song. It has Casey's sweet lap steel guitar (from Hot Rod Circuit), the
catchy, hooky, verse/chorus/bridge's... etc. Eisley tracked and produced
this right here...i mean there cuz we're here...in Tyler, Texas. WB really
likes it. So does the band.
Lost At Sea - The enigmatic song... if you like the lo-fi, cassette tape
recorded with the Wurly version, so be it. We all do. This version is
somewhere in between that early version and perhaps what WB
wanted...which was something with a big beat. The beat has been
neutered; all that's left is a tinkling of cymbals and scattered off
rhythms...all ambient. The song is still very striped down... with a bit of
beautifying.
L.A.S. is one of those songs that might coult be produced any number of
ways. One example is "the remix" of L.A.S. - done by Beck's piano
player.(sorry, I'll try to get his name). He added some weirded out
reggae and all kind of digitalia. Pretty cool actually. It's not on the record
or anything, as far as I know, but...it'll be around.
Remember...these songs were jerked out of a line up. They're really part
of an album. Ok. gotta go for now.
bd
-------------------
i feel really sick now. shouldn't have gone out in that wind. great.
anyway, we had these amazing WB vouchers to eat out so...it was
a sweet meal. Now i'm gonna cuddle up on the floor and get some rest.
We have early meetings.
btw. I wonder about all of this song posting and early critiques. I hope it
won't breed jealousy and cause a bunch of forum troubles... we'll see. It
just sorta sucks that the record can't be heard instead of piece-mealing
the songs out in random chunks. But, this is the price of promotion. Don't
listen to me. It's my temporary illness talking. My throat is a devils
playground... a firehole of pain... and this upper chest/lower throat
cough. I need a pick axe and a can of Bart Oil. I'd best turn in. That floor
with the blanket looks inviting. nite.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2005
What a Scary ...Important Day
I wish I had about 2 hours to craft out a few really good paragraphs to
describe the day because it really deserves the detail. But I don't. We
have to head over to this party in half an hour.
The morning started out with a great breakfast that supported a meeting
with a video team about possible treatment. Management and several
label peeps were there... but I think the tone for the day was set when
we walked in the restaurant downstairs. There was a stark sense of
excitement as WB executives were dashing around, smiling and high
fiving. Woah...what was going on?
Immediately Tom Whalley, the president of WB motioned for Craig
Aaronson, (eisley's A&R) over to his side to tell him something... which
we soon found out about. It seems that early reports were coming in...
WB had raked in tons of Grammy nominations; Everyone was majorly
pumped...what perfect timing for an international corporate meeting
which was basically to rally support, talk about vision, the successes of
the past year and what to strive for in the coming year.
All of this good news played into Tom's inspiring state of the union address
today. I was blown away. I don't have time to get into it right now, but I
might chose to bloat about how amazing Warner Music Group is. They're
kicking boo-teh and scraping face. This is verifiable industry-wide. But,
more on that topic later.
The crescendo leading up to Eisley's lil' we're-a-new-band-with-a-new
record performance was, for them.....an adrenalin pumping, palm
perspiring, butterflies-in-their-stomach time of anguish. I was wrestling
with the same shrinking feeling as the fanfare of rock stars and bands
were being blasted on the two gi-normous video screens with a speaker
system to give Jurassic Park's T-Rex a run for his decibals.
By the time they're moment came about, there had been enough sizzling
bands and triumphant success stories from so many bands, from every
WB imprint, from ever genre', from veteran artists like Eric Clapton to
Josh Grogan... from the smash success of Green Day's new record to
emerging bands on Record Collection - it felt like an uphill battle...an
untimely moment for Eisley. And the waiting had, perhaps, taken it's toll.
The Eisley girls confessed that they were more nervous for this than
ever. That includes their initial showcases for all the labels and for
opening for Coldplay at the scariest venues in the US. That's the context
for a performance that, as far as I can tell, was a sweet success.
We actually left after their set, so it's hard to know how the label will
react, but several exec's stopped them on the way out the door - paying
them huge compliments. I think the band feels like it wasn't their best
performance and contribute the 7-8 out of a 10 to nervousness. I thought
is was beautiful.
To me, the vulnerable edge is what makes Eisley real... it's what
separates them from their pop star contemporaries on the label. It's what
differentiates them from the testosterone-laced GothGuyRock bands who
raise the rock sign, catch air and spew spit on stage... They sounded
dreamy, emotive...and guys, they looked stunning under the beautiful
spray of magnificent lights (lights that nobody else had). They were
100% indie, 100% beauty. (what is that...200%?) I can't define this in
new terms... they are who they are...magical. I believe that was the take
away. They're unique, they write amazing songs, they have a broad
reach in an untapped market. This is the beginning.
We're heading out to this hob-knob party, where, I'm told, many of the
WB artists are going to be at. Eisley has an entirely different, stunning
wardrobe on and it's time to go feel entirely weird. This is fun, but it feels
fake. I know we're already missing the warmth of home.
I'll try to check in later....you know, as a reporter. bye.
----------------------
Hey... It's later. Actually it's morning and we have 15 minutes to be
downstairs. The magic limo is hauling our Texas boo-tey's back to LAX.
The party was great, we met lots of people... saw Mandy Moore and
some of the Muse guys and various other bands, but the highlight was
hearing "Mute Math"'s showcase for the label. (yes. they' played for the
party along with some other bands)
I'd been tipped off by a friend to be watching for them. Turns out, Collin
has this band on his ipod, which doesn't surprise me. Anyway, they were
stellar. After their show, Chauntelle and I made a b-line to the stage
where we grabbed the attention of the guitar player.
Anyway, we ended up spending several hours with them, yacking and
trading stories for hours. They're from New Orleans and have a similar
background as Eisley. In fact, we talked for so long, we missed eating...
they'd put up the food so we all blew the joint and were blessed enough
to have our good friend, Eddie call us (out of the blue from somewhere in
Hollywood) and bring us all California's famous "In and Out" burgers here
at the hotel. good times.
I blew my voice out and eventually couldn't talk last night... I'm a little
better this morning, but am still hacking and coughing, like many of you.
I got loaded up with more work...revisions and changes and tweaks to
everything I'm juggling: front page of eisley.com, the pop up, stuff with
e-merge, the media player and, of course, I have to have the entire rest
of the cdinsert/traycard finished by Monday....which, I don't have copy
for yet and I just got digital scans from the WB shoot. yikes. I may not
be talking much on this forum in the coming few days, but I'll enter a few
brief paragraphs daily. This stuff is extremely urgent.
Well, time to head home. bdout
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9, 05
Home again, home again jiggedy-jigg
We made it home. Life has returned to normal...I'm working like a sic
dog (and did all day on the plane and in the van and while the women
went into malls and stores in Dallas), Stacy is banging out some complex
diddy on Erik Nicholsons' grandmothers old piano, a friend came from
Sacremento to stay for a week, Kim is asleep, and the rest of them are
upstairs doing who know's what... I'm too sleepy to type. zzzzzzzzzz....
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9,2004
Scenes from the 2004 WB Town Hall Meeting
Hey. This is really all I had time to do - other than edit/make changes to
the media player, convert quark templates to indesign for the inlay
6panel inserts + photo selection. Conference call in a few minutes with
New Media. (they're a hopin' bunch of zingers...) Enjoy pics from the
ordeal...and a few frivoulous ones I slammed out from our hotel window.
Take care and...have a happy-new-holiday-year-Christmas time in the
city...a boad-ee-oh-boadee-oh-doh... Get the sound track to Elf. bye.
There are two big flanking screens.
Sherri had the one camera on her.
My fuzzy camera zooms in from way back in the room.
Stacy was blown out... bright lights mess up crappy camera's.
You can see the nice lights here.
The lil' clip I did...hey! They played it. I Wasn't Prepared boomed the room.
In case you didn't know who Warner Music Group was and how Eisley
fits in.
Capitol Records building... what a classic edifice.
I hate people who photograph this sign. But the mist...it drew me in. I..
I...couldn't help myself.
These are the some places. Some important, some not so important.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10,2004
ROOM NOISES COVER THUMBNAIL
Well, I can't keep this undercover any longer since WB has
asked me to put the the pic on the splash page of the site. I figured I
might as well post it here at 3:00am on December 10th for all to see... to
take pot shots at, rellish in, to bite me with sharp teeth, to e-mail, to use
as a bug tarp, etc. So... with all intrepidness: here it is:
wait for it........
This is it. For real. I'm not joking with you now. See my face? I'd love to
have kept it hidden...unveiled only on the shelves of retail stores on Feb.
8, but I can't stop the wheels of marketing... it's too important that this
record is set up for that day - only 8weeks from now.
This really is on the .com splash page also...and shortly will be on the
media player as well, so - I hope, I hope, I really hope you like it cuz it's
really finished. approved. sent out. put to bed. It's done. Complete.
Al Fin. The end. Goodnight. I have more work to do. (4:00am!) bd
----------------------
Hey. wow-woah. thanks for the sugary complo-mints. I'm dead-alive
serious. It's helping my day. I'm SO glad...so very glad-glad that you
guys are cool with the cover. Honest - besides Eisley, you are the most
important of earthlings. Sure, I respect management/label, but they're
not going to buy the product. They're guessing based on hunch. But each
of you have an eisley shaped target on your hearts.
Someone asked for a bigger clip so I thought I'd zero in on each band
member very, very carefully. Now I have to go. I just wanted to lob out
a big ole greasy, slobbery, sinewy, smacker (gross) to say Thanks.
btw. Those are like... sticks or twigs from some forest vegetation that
Weston and Jon picked up. Totally not staged. They were just being
themselves and I snapped it. Sherri?! She's totally crashed. Not joking.
She is out cold on that couch. That's what makes it for me... the dream-
state persona of their band is actually happening on this cover. Stacy
decided to make that lil' heart shape with her vintage gloves... and
Chauntelle has this revealing expression...interpretive. Not sure. I think
she's the mona chauntelle or whatever. I GOTTA GO!!!
Vinyl, ehh? hmmm... I might have to change the design. The art is
300dpi, of course. Unless we're using a 150 line screen for the big boy,
we're not gonna get there. I'll probably use this but build out an extended
version with new design elements. Not sure.
ha. ha.
p.s. The video is up on emerge. Streaming sucks sometimes...but that's
the medium right? I have other developing news but it's not out of the
incubator yet. bd
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