TRANSMISSION CONFERENCE TO TAKE PLACE DEC. 5-8 IN VANCOUVER -- Ever hear of this one? It's a really well-thought-out new conference (in its second year) ...it's invite-only, it costs $1000 to register (keeps all the riff-raff out), they cap the attendance at 250, they feature about 20 export-ready artist showcases, and it's in a helluva city. This year's attendees include KCRW Los Angeles MD Nic Harcourt, Nettwerk's Terry McBride, IODA's Kevin Arnold, Mog's David Hyman, EMI Publishing Canada's Michael McCarty, Maple Music GM Allan Reid and NBC/Universal TV Music's Alicen Schneider (among a host of other international industry players).

Showcasing export-ready artists include Canadian acts Apostle Of Hustle, Attack In Black, Dan Mangan, Die Mannequin, Hayley Sales, Les Breastfeeders, Mother Mother, Patrick Watson, Plants And Animals, Pride Tiger, Shout out out out out, Sweet Thing and The Acorn. Also showcasing are Australian singer/songwriter Clare Bowditch, U.S. artists Eleni Mandell, Meiko, and Smoosh, and Finnish band Rubik.

Have a look at www.transmitnow.com for more info.

UPCOMING LOS ANGELES SHOWS OF NOTE:

Nov 23 -- Kelly Dalton, NK Band (acoustic) -- Hotel Cafe
Nov 28 -- Meiko, honeyhoney (form. Zanzibar Lewis) -- Hotel Cafe
Nov 29 -- The Hedrons -- Spaceland
Nov 30 -- Buddy -- Hotel Cafe
Dec 3 -- Matthew Moon -- Hotel Cafe
Dec 3 -- The Binges -- Spaceland
Dec 6 -- Del Castillo -- Temple Bar
Dec 11 -- 2nd Day Crush -- Key Club

A&R UPDATE -- Label talks have heated up over the past few weeks for TALENTfilter artist Meiko…Rumor has it the labels leading the derby include Atlantic, Universal/Republic, Sire and Glassnote…The L.A.-based singer/songwriter recently finished up a U.S. tour with Mat Kearney (Aware/Columbia) and will perform a few hometown shows throughout November. With her debut self-release reaching #35 on the overall iTunes Top 100 Albums chart while holding the #1 Folk Album spot for over a month, two prominent song placements in this season’s “Grey’s Anatomy”, successful tours with Brett Dennen and Kearney, it’s no wonder the buzz is so strong.

Another TALENTfilter-affiliated artist, Ingrid Michaelson (first mentioned on our blog six months ago) will be a VH1 “You Oughta Know”-featured artist beginning next week. While Michaelson hasn’t officially signed a label deal, her physical CD is now being distributed by RED.

From the looks of his MySpace page, it seems it’s official – Brendan James (first mentioned on the bliggety blog back in June) has signed on the dotted line with Decca Records. Please check out the song titled “Green”, currently featured on his MySpace page. Big fat stupid hit. Let’s see if Decca can break this. Fingers crossed.

The Raveonettes, dropped from Columbia, will release their new album through Vice.

Denver-based band Meese has signed with Atlantic.

Indianapolis band Margo & The Nuclear So And So’s, who were label-less when V2 folded, have signed with Epic.

Murder By Death’s new album will be released through Vagrant.

Brian Wright And The Waco Tragedies have structured a creative licensing deal with a new label called Breakout Music…

San Diego’s We Shot the Moon has signed with the Militia Group.