SIGNINGS AND SEGUES -- Sire Records signs Canadian Norah Jones-ish singer Meaghan Smith - they'll release her album Stateside in August...Universal/Republic signs Nashville singer Erin McCarley...Capitol A&R gunslinger Louie Bandak segues to Interscope for similar duties...Chrysalis Publishing's Sara Kapuchinski makes a move over to Stage Three Music to take a Creative Director position...Universal Publishing's Brad Aarons moves over to David Massey's Liberal Arts Publishing and will work as the company's GM...are changes abound in the Epic Records A&R department? Stay tuned!

SICKEST SHOW WE'VE SEEN SO FAR THIS YEAR:

C-Mon & Kypski (unsigned, unpublished) at the Roxy in Los Angeles. Watch this new DVD trailer to get an idea - and know that there was only ONE A&R rep from ONE major label in attendance at last night's L.A. show:

KATE TUCKER & THE SONS OF SWEDEN (unsigned, unpublished, no legal representation) -- This is the first time we've received a tip from a reader that we liked enough to share. See? We read your E-mails! The band is based in Seattle, WA and their self-titled debut was produced by Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Redhead, Metric, The Gossip). They put the record on sale about six months ago, and songs have since been given Indie Spotlight features on iTunes and regular-rotation airplay in Starbucks stores nationwide.
Our friends at tastemaker WXPN Philadelphia say: "Tucker sounds a little bit like Beth Orton and Neko Case...and her self-titled debut is a confident collection of multi-textured and colorful rock based songs. We say: keep your ears on the lookout for Kate Tucker!" Very very cool. New York TALENTfilter readers should know that the band will perform at Piano's on May 17.

LIVE 105 ANNOUNCES FESTIVAL LINEUP, COOL LOCAL BANDS SPOTLIGHTED -- Tastemaker Alternative KITS (Live 105) San Francisco has announced the lineup for their “Live 105 BFD ‘08”concert – it takes place June 7 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre …Cypress Hill, Pennywise, Everlast (no, it’s not the BFD ’98 lineup - we swear - keep reading) Flobots, The Whigs, The Kooks, Alkaline Trio, MGMT, Atreyu, Airborne Toxic Event, Flogging Molly and Middle Class Rut will play the main stage…

Live 105 also hosts, in our opinion, the best local music stage of any commercial radio station festival. Playing this year’s “SoundCheck Local Music Stage” are the following bands (with four-word descriptions to save time…yes we’re douchebags):

The Phenomenauts – new wave rockabilly garage

Love Like Fire – Female fronted indie rock

Here Here – Cool sound, iffy vocals

Magic Bullets – Echo And The Bunnymenish?

Apside – Sylvia Massy producing album

The Hundred Days – See Magic Bullets description

The Federalists – MySpace friends: Wilco, Spoon

The Action Design – Former Tsunami Bomb singer

RUMORS, ETC. -- Did Los Angeles band The Airborne Toxic Event turn down a hefty deal from Columbia to stay true to their indie roots? Is TALENTfilter artist Stacy Clark (tipped in Jan. 08) thiiiiis close to doing a deal with a new, well-funded indie label? Has our most-written-about unsigned artist FINALLY decided on which label he/she will be signing with? Is iTunes close to figuring out the word Folk scares away potential music buyers and that they should change the genre name to Singer-Songwriter? Which Greenlandish artist we first tipped to you in June 2007 is currently being talked about in several major label A&R meetings? (hint - click here)...

91X-FEST IN SAN DIEGO SPOTLIGHTS GREAT UNSIGNED ACTS -- Alternative 91X San Diego announced their “X-Fest” lineup today…this year the concert will take place May 16 at Concerts on the Green at Qualcomm. Mainstage headliners include, well, exactly who you’d expect – Offspring, Pennywise, Jimmy Eat World, Ludo and My American Heart…

The Revolt Magazine-sponsored "Loudspeaker SD Side Stage" features some quality local talent worth checking out:

The Material -- Female-fronted rock ...not as squeaky-clean as Paramore, but not as dark as Flyleaf. What we've heard could be spun on any Alt-station out there.

Weatherbox -- Signed to indie label Doghouse, these guys sound a bit like they were part of the Cold War Kids' fraternity.

The Burning Of Rome -- This band intrigues the shit out of us - they're a seven-piece outfit, and while they might live on the same sonic block as the Polyphonic Spree, they leave you with a lingering feeling that at any point, they're gonna launch into some crazy death metal jam-session and light the stage on fire. Or, they're gonna drop it down a notch and sing you to sleep with a lullaby. Remember the feeling you had when you started delving into some of the deeper solo material that Mike Patton was putting together in his early post-Faith No More days? Not as ENTIRELY carnival-wacky as Mr. Bungle, but close? THAT'S what The Burning Of Rome reminds us of.

The Sess -- We've only heard one song from this band -- good stuff if you like noisy, trebly melodic punk

Shark Attack -- DJ duo Patrick Heaney and Mike Delgado bring it to ya ala MSTRKRFT, LCD Soundsystem and Justice.

A&R WANKFEST - TWO HOURS TOO SOON -- It was a 'who's who' (or should we say 'snooze snooze') of record biz geniuses lined up in the way-back of L.A.'s Hotel Cafe tonight to see Erin McCarley (seriously, like, even the CFO of one particular company was up in that place on his Crackberry) ...But they were, of course, about two hours too early, as the show they should've seen was from Cali girl Lex Land ...Yes, Erin is talented, and hot, but her songs aren't relatable. It's simple psychology - girls won't like Erin because she's hotter than them and her songs won't hit that special place in their soul that makes them listen over and over. Guys will like her, but they sure-as-shit won't buy her CD. Lex, on the other hand, is kinda like the girl you work with in your college cafeteria who happens to have an absolutely AMAZING voice and writes songs that you listen to, by yourself, at home - over and over and over again. Hey maybe we're wrong, here, but if labels are shooting for a 'Sarah Bareilles only hotter', then they REALLY need to re-assess.

WE'RE ON LINKEDIN -- SO ...ERM ...LINK UP WITH US!

BRETT YOUNG (unsigned, unpublished) -- Brett Young is a Newport Beach, CA-based singer/songwriter in the vein of Gavin DeGraw/John Mayer/Dave Matthews/Brett Dennen -- If Colbie Caillat had an older brother with model good looks and the voice of a man who has experienced more than his years allow, Brett Young would be him. Seriously -- this is another easy one, label peeps -- get on it!!

THE SNOW (unsigned, unpublished, no management, no legal) -- Here's another recent fave of ours - although we haven't seen them live yet... KROQ Los Angeles has been supporting them with airplay on their "Locals Only" show - "We Want It All" is a big fat no-brainer Alt-radio hit. The Snow is a band that comes from the ashes of another group called Hayes that was floating around from 2004-2006... Their debut album isn't available on iTunes or CDBaby yet, but the band plans on getting it up for sale soon (you CAN, however, find it on AmieStreet.com). L.A. label geeks can check The Snow out on April 17 at Safari Sam's. If singer Aaron Smart can pull it off live, The Snow will be a force to be reckoned with.

JOE PURDY (unsigned) -- We've been fans of Mr. Purdy for quite some time, but we haven't written about him because, well, he's been so successful on his own that he hadn't felt a need to even deal with a label (side note: he's published by Warner Chappell). Here's a quick run-down of his accomplishments: Sold over 400,000 iTunes downloads on his own... he's written, recorded and released TEN albums to date...he's currently got a song running in a national TV ad for Kia...about ten songs placed in big TV shows like "Grey's Anatomy", etc. Anyway, Joe is a prolific songwriter (obvz) and isn't looking for a label to own his masters -- HOWEVER -- he's happy to talk about licensing them (we're sure he'll want to keep digital rights as it looks like he's got a pretty good handle on that!) ...Our sources tell us that Universal is interested, as well as a yet-to-be-announced new Warner Bros. j/v label...

IGLU & HARTLY (unsigned, unpublished) -- If you're an industry weasel based in Los Angeles, you've probably seen / heard about Iglu & Hartly a trillion times by now. We here at TALENTfilter have certainly heard about them, but had never seen them -- until last night at the Viper Room. We can officially confirm that this shit is REAL. Not sure what the holdup is on the label front, but somebody needs to close this with the quickness.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE A&R DEPT. AT CAPITOL MUSIC GROUP? Our TALENTfilter moles are hearing of a mass exodus over the next few weeks...stay tuned!