Buzz Track: England Prevails

Matt Jaffe & The Distractions is an indie rock act based in San Francisco. The group formed after Talking Heads guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison discovered Matt performing solo at an open mic and was compelled to produce the boy’s music. Together, and with contributions from Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty) on drums and Nathan East on bass, they are working on Matt’s first album. The band’s first video features the song ‘Backs of Our Eyelids,’ which was named a winner in the 2013 International Songwriting Competition. Other highlights include winning the Marin County Battle of the bands, ‘Best Music’ at the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade, and debut performances in SoCal at the Roxy Theatre and in NYC at the CBGB and CMJ Fests.
Contact: mjaffe365@gmail.com

Taylor Swift has written an optimistic article on the music industry for the Wall Street Journal. Read the article below via Taylor Swift.

Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years?

Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, you should know that you’re reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it’s just coming alive.

There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace. Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently. CONTINUE READING

Buzz Track: At Least I

Singer-songwriter Katie Buchanan just released her new single “At Least I”. The track comes off her forthcoming sophomore EP Go, out August 5th, 2014. Originally from Kansas, Katie explores a vein of subtle guitarpop steeped in Americana and heartbreak. She plays around New York rock clubs, drinks too much whiskey, and combines Midwest honesty with the directness that accompanies living in the city. She spent lots of time learning from producers such as Bob Power (The Roots, D’Angelo), Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T-Rex), Nick Sansano (Sonic Youth), and Joel Hamilton (Sparklehorse, BlakRoc). Amazingly, she self produced and engineered these batch of songs.
Contact: katie@katiebuchanan.com, Natasha@ei-pr.com

Bad Suns who we featured and named a top 8 emerging artist just released a record that debuted at #24 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. The record was produced by Eric Palmquist (The Mars Volta, Wavves, Trash Talk). Bad Suns have performed their first single, ‘Cardiac Arrest,’ on Conan and the track has cracked Top 13 at Alt Radio, with a weekly audience of almost 5M and building. Watch the Conan performance here.
Contact: bryan@newcommunitymgmt.com

Buzz Track: Up In Smoke

Here is a new single from UK indie/folk outfit Volcanoes, called Up In Smoke. We featured them several months ago and have since released a successful campaign with their previous single When We Melodise, gaining attention from EMI, V2 and Fourteenth Floor Recordings, getting support from BBC 2 and BBC 6 Music, taking part in T4 Orange Unsigned, and having finished in the top 20 of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent contest.
Contact: james@mysticsons.com