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Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]
News Bytes Twitter Next Week's New ReleasesLonghair Illuminati is a local Southern California based record label started by former A Static Lullaby bassist Phil Pirrone. In anticipation of the label having the whole front room to themselves at the Knitting Factory tonight, I asked Phil a few questions about the label to better acquaint myself and you dear readers with what is going on over at the Illuminati.
IfAN: What was the catalyst for starting Longhair Illuminati?
Phil: I spent a few years on a major label with my previous band and didn’t like the way things were done. People at those companies have their heads so far up their asses it’s sad. I decided I was smarter than they were and had no other choice than to start my own label.
IfAN: How did the label mushroom from being an imprint for Casket Salesmen releases to working with the bands you do now?
Phil: Well, it never started as just an imprint. The intent was always to give sincere and talented artists a community to release their music.
IfAN: Can you tell us a little bit about some of the bands on Longhair Illuminati and those set to perform at the Knitting Factory this
coming Monday.
Phil: We have nine bands on the label. Four bands from the label are playing Longhair Illuminati Night.
Casket Salesmen (CA - experimental stoner rock)
Auditory Aphasia (CA – Spacey, Jammy, Atmospheric. Jam Band)
Mythmaker (CA – Atmospheric, Moody, Trippy, Expansive)
Mongoloid (CA – Crazy Rock Music)
Your Highness Electric (KY, OR, CA – Classic Rock / Riffy Jam Rock)
Ride The Boogie (CO – Great songs. Some rocking. Some orchestral)
Sway Lindy (CA – Blues. Rock. Beautiful song writing)
Kring Crobra (CA – electronic. Vocal. Weird.)
Umbrella Tree (CA – Blues. Reggae. Jam Band.)
Casket Salesmen, Auditory Aphasia, Mongoloid, and Mythmaker will be playing Longhair Illuminati Night with friends and non-label bands MOD and Cosmonaut.
IfAN: How are Longhair Illuminati releases distributed?
Phil: Our releases are distributed through an independent distribution company called ICON from New York City. Casket Salesmen’s “Sleeping Giants” was the first release from my label and we shipped 9,000 copies to retail. Every retail chain purchased it except for Target, Walmart and Barnes and Noble. Pretty good for the first time around.
IfAN: What is your take on the decline of CD sales, the rise in digital purchases, and how both have directly impacted Longhair Illuminati and or Casket Salesmen?
Phil: I think it’s great and not so great at the same time. It’s great because it cuts down on manufacturing costs for me. It takes power away from the big record labels. I like to see them scramble, fuck em.
But at the same time its not so great because it means no one is buying music, which is terrible. It keeps getting worse too. Pretty soon, a music cd will not be a sellable product. For a very long time now, artists have really made the bulk of their money on the road….but now it will become the one and only place to make money. The road is getting more expensive too, so its only a matter of time before bands start breaking up because they simply can not afford to do it. Only ten or so bands are making tons of money in the world right now doing it the old fashion way. We all need to adapt.
It’s kind of a good thing if you think about it. It means a lot of shitty shit will get weeded out. But, at the same time, some good shit that the world really needed artistically will be gone, which is terrible to think about.
We started Longhair Illuminati so that we make sure some really great music gets put out there, regardless of marketability or other shit like that. If the band can play and is saying something with their songs then I want this troubled world to hear it.
IfAN: Do you plan on pressing vinyl of the Casket Salesmen release and future releases from Longhair Illuminati artists?
Phil: Yes.
IfAN: I’m sure you saw the news that Sonny is closing the doors of GSL. Does that news dishearten you and bring heed to how difficult it has become to operate an independent record label that releases music “from the fringe”?
Phil: It’s discouraging to hear such a great label close its doors. I hadn’t heard about it actually. It’s a new era right now. It’s a time of change. We all need to adapt. G7 went all digital. We are starting off small in 2008, it doesn’t make sense to waste money on manufacturing and shipping. In my opinion, the bands on Longhair Illuminati are great, they just need their music out there and they need to tour and that’s it. In a year or two they will draw a good crowd and make good money on the road….times are changing, I don’t really expect to make money running this label…I just feel like a big toe holding the door open just enough for these great artists to sneak in, and once they’re in, they’re in…
We bit off more than we could chew with the first Casket Salesmen release. We manufactured way too many cds. Retail wasn’t totally fucked yet, it was fucked but not totally fucked just yet. Tower still purchased “Sleeping Giants”, that should give you a gauge of where things were at. Now, Tower doesn’t exist. The one on Sunset in LA is GONE…it’s kind of creepy. Point is…if the world needs the band the world will keep it, like Tool, like Radiohead, like Umphrey’s McGee, like King Crimson, like String Cheese Incident or all those other jam bands.
But, I guess I need to mention that all these bands are smart. You need to be smart. Most bands are dumb as shit. Bands need to be smarter, they need to adapt as much as the record labels do. The world won’t know about great bands unless those great bands put the music out there and tour on it. Those have always been the main principles of doing this. Not marketing and stupid amounts of wasted money. And the internet is a great tool for established artists, but if you are one of the million others making music out of your grandma’s basement, that’s not gonna be good enough. You gotta get out there. People have to see you live, get out there and play. If people like you they will keep coming to see you and tell their friends, and it will come to the point where they can’t help themselves, they will want to buy your t-shirts and cds because they love you. If you suck, no one will come to see you. But, that’s not entirely true, play in LA and some douchebag from Warner Brothers Records might come down and think you have something they can sell. Then plenty of idiot Americans will buy your records in malls and you can start a shitty genre/trend and make all the kids in the US think they wanna cut themselves and you can sign your stupid face on your stupid poster in a Tower Records in a mall near them all…or wait, not at Tower…that one’s gone. What will the bands with the hair and jeans do when all it comes down to is how you play? Lucky for them it probably wont get to that point, ever. But it’s getting closer because record labels can’t sell as many of those records as they used to. Labels gotta keep their overhead low and having smart artists and working together as a community makes it easier.
IfAN: Are there any labels past or present that you look up to or stride to emulate in how they ran their business?
Phil: I think there are a few labels that seem to know what they are doing. I think Ipecac and Sub Pop seem to have a good idea of how to adapt and keep good music in the underground and mainstream. But that’s just an outside point of view and my opinion.
Longhair Illuminati night is TONIGHT (Monday) at the Knitting Factory: 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028 - Tickets are $8, the show is All Ages and starts 7:30pm
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