john

i'm a music industry weasel. i do marketing & artist development at a very cool indie label - bluhammock music and also do the artist management thing (via mood indigo entertainment - on a limited basis) under the bluhammock umbrella, as well. i have somehow managed to only work with genuine REAL people on the business side (for the most part) and people who's music I LOVE (on the artist side). so I'm pretty damn lucky professionally - i'm happy doin' what i'm doing and feel like I'm doing some of the best work of my career at present. feels right...i'm also striving to have a personal life...i have a son (aka a mini me) who is in 6th grade for 2 1/2 more weeks. i have him alittle more than half the time - so there's a lotta juggling of schedules/life. he's alotta fun to hang out with 99.8% of the time. that .2 % is usually when he's rebelling against me being parental. he's a good kid - it's his job to push boundaries on occassion - keep me honest. we live in harlem now - we just moved from brooklyn (ours will be a life of boxes for at least a month). had to move closer to his school to make life work better...i want more poetry in my life. want to be healthier - get in better shape (across the board) - find balance. i tend to drift towards extremes. not always a bad thing, not always a good. i fall in love too easily (sadly more so with ideas & ideals than people these days). trying to live with an open heart, see what happens. i guess i've been hiding in dadhood and work too much to have a healthy or successful releationship. but i can and will make time when i meet the right person. i'm just hard on the process. i've been lucky enough to know unconditional love and am not so good for settling for anything else I guess. maybe if i stop looking? yeah, right, sure - the hopeful romantic in me won't stop. just less successful in this area than in others i guess. but that can (and will) change...i am LUCKY though. i have great friends and people in my life i truly love & care about who (for the most part) are supportive of my various quests. sadly, most of them are scattered about the country - but that makes traveling all the more fun. the people i'm close to - we catch up where we left off in mere minutes. that's kinda nice...anyway, i'm working on trying to figure out how to make my personal life work better. under the illusion that once that happens everything else will be better too. work stuff will creep in alot just cause that's the nature of what i do - but, the personal stuff will never again be on the back burner. learning that if i don't take care of me i kinda suck for others. simple lesson i've finally learned (a little late, i know)...Pardon me for getting on my soap box and talking some about work now. I have some AMAZING music to work with this year. First up is Patty Hurst Shifter's new EP Coma La Grava. Only 4 songs, short & sweet. They'll have another EP and a full length album out later this year. Still working the Cary Brothers record (mostly setting up UK stuff now). There's also a cool re-mix of "Ride" by Tiesto that's moving up the Billboard dance charts at the moment (go figure?). He makes an appearance with Tiesto at Bonnoroo on June 13th. He will be back in the UK again in July or August (with his band). It's fun to build stuff internationally too! Our first new release THIS year was Virginia Coalition - Home This Year. They've grown up and delivered a great record of SONGS. They are doin' some scattered Southeast dates in June, then teaming up with The Alternate Routes for Northeast dates in July. Great guys, a great record. Not gonna let it drift away quietly in the night. Will work it all year! Setting up their second single (the title track) now. KaiserCartel recorded their new album with Matt Hales (aka aqualung) producing. Matt mixed it with Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros). Pretty cool company for two school teachers from Brooklyn, huh? KaiserCartel have a College radio/digital only (physical at shows only) EP called "Okay...and a few other things we feel" out now (KEXP and KCRW are playing it already!!!!) with a full length album to follow June 10th. Right now the EP is floating around getting blog LOVE. Wait til people hear the album!!! A national tour begins July 3rd. Go to their myspace page to check out the "Okay" video - they are charming as hell. The first single/video from the album is "Oh No". It will go to radio in late June. That's it playing now. These guys will be an artist development success story on the management & label side this year. You heard it here first. sOuth (a very cool UK based band) have a great new album, You Are Here that came out in late April. The "Better Things" video just went out - has already been added to MTVu - check it out on their myspace page! It feels like the kinda record that could very well just become the soundtrack to the year. They'll be back in September to play in the US (and Canada) again. Jim Boggia's new album, Misadventures In Stereo will be released on August 5th. There's a birthday song on there I will be sharing with people on their special days for years to come. My favorite track is "Listening to N.R.B.Q." (he got Big Al to play on it!!!). Very cool album art hopefully signals to all this is a LISTENING experience! Carrie Rodriguez will release her second solo album, She Ain't Me - on August 5th (too). It was produced by Malcolm Burn (Emmylou Harris, Kaki King) and is MAGICAL. She wrote or co-wrote all of it - so proud of her artistic growth. She has come into the type of artist i always knew she would in such a short time. If we do this right - she'll have the type of career Emmylou or Lucinda has (I kid you not). In early June, she'll be part of Alejandro Escovedo's band for a few special weeks. Al is opening dates for Dave Matthews! Carrie will be doing some dates of her own in late June and July to set up the new album. Taping an episode of Austin City Limits on July 8th! More great stuff to come as we start to get advance music into the world. Her band/her live show - is dynamic and a thing of beauty right now. Don't miss seeing her live. Kristoffer Ragnstam's amazing new album, Wrong Side Of The Room will be released on August 19th. No one kicked more ass live at SXSW this past year than Kristoffer! The first single will be "Shake That Tambourine". The video to it is in post-production now and is amazing. Looking for touring ops for him now. the break & repair method album, milk the bee will be released in early September. It's not just a Matchbox 20 side project. It's Paul Doucette being so much more. Just a great GREAT pop record. I LOVE IT!!! And lastly this year (but not leastly) we'll release, Little Daggers the new album by Val Emmich on Sept 30th. Setting this puppy up right. We just signed Martin Luther! His new album will probably be coming in early '09. Swati is going back into the studio soon. Putting together a cool live EP for digital release only now so more people can discover her between now and when the new record comes out. Then there's the One Percent For The Planet album that's being but together. Just lots of cool stuff on my plate. How can I not LOVE my job working with music & people like this? Can't. I do...that's me (and my world) as of this writing (5/16/08), from Brooklyn.