A&R COMINGS AND GOINGS... Sadly, this is less about comings and more about goings. Several A&R staffers were let go this week as part of a major restructuring at Epic Records US -- Andy Gershon, Jeff Wooding, along with young guns Daniel Werner and Seth Cassel have exited... Keith Naftaly is also rumored to be leaving before year's end. At MySpace Records, A&R exec Jon Pikus has exited... Rumorers are rumoring that there will be a shakeup in the Atlantic Records A&R department soon as well, as new A&R chief Pete Ganbarg could soon trim the fat from a rather large A&R team. Also, what's up at Downtown? On a happier note, Brad Aarons just joined Warner Chappell as VP A&R.

(*More news - Jeff Aldrich has been let go from Warner Bros. Rumor has it he'll head to NY to take a position with Jive. Are there more layoffs ahead at WB? We hear there will be more before the end of the year*)

CHLOE LEIGHTON (unsigned) -- 22 year-old singer/songwriter/pianist Chloe Leighton has become the #1 Unsigned Jazz Artist on MySpace. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Chloe has spent time living in Paris and now calls Los Angeles her home. It's still very early days for Ms. Leighton, but she's got a number of really well-put-together songs ...Norah Jones-meets-Sara Bareilles. Standout tracks featured on her MySpace page include "Chocolate Cake" and "If You Only Knew".

Chloe will spend the rest of the year updating her MySpace page, getting new photos done, and will continue to write and record. She's got a publishing deal with HoriPro, but she's available for worldwide signing and licensing.

DIANA POPS (unsigned, unpublished) -- This 23 year-old singer/songwriter/pianist hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her MySpace page lists her as sounding like "Tori Amos and Norah Jones' art-pop love-child", but we also hear a stiking similarity to one of her big influences, fellow Canadian Sarah McLachlan.

Diana recently completed an album with Juno Award-winning, Grammy-nominated producer Adrian Bradford and mixer Bryan Cook. Her MySpace page features a few of the tracks from the offering (faves include "Light My Cigarette" and "Las Vegas To New York") - we have to say this is one of the most promising new artists we've come across in quite some time.

ANOTHER TALENTFILTER ARTIST SIGNS A LABEL/PUBLISHING DEAL! Our super-snoops inside the Nettwerk Records offices tell us that Terry McBride has signed Australian TALENTfilter act The Hampdens to a recording and publishing deal! We first wrote about The Hampdens EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO! Kudos to Terry and to the band for getting a deal done - it's about time someone helps create awareness of their material outside of Oz!

Terry, where can we send an invoice for our finder's fee? ;)

TALENTfilter 'SIGNED ARTIST' UPDATE

There are many other 'tipsheet’-type blogs out there claiming to have helped a million bands get signed – well – you can get a million bands record deals, but if none of them break, who cares, right? Here’s an update on some of the artists who have been signed or published since being tipped to you by Team TALENTfilter:

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, featured in February 2007 and now signed to The Firm’s record label, have ‘Scanned 239,111 copies of their debut album The Way Of The Fist, and have had several chart-topping singles at Active Rock radio in the U.S...

JESSIE BAYLIN, featured in March 2007, has since signed with Verve Forecast (and Sony/ATV Publishing) and has ‘Scanned 11,470 copies of her debut Fireflight LP. Baylin will tour in support of Mark Broussard in January 2009.

ANDREW PAUL WOODWORTH, also featured in March 2007, has signed a European licensing deal with Rodeostar Records in Germany and has toured mainland Europe several times in 2008 in support of his debut Eddy Ate Dynamite LP (available in EU). Woodworth remains unpublished and is available for licensing outside of Europe.

KATE WALSH, featured in March 2007, has since topped the iTunes UK Albums chart without the help of a label, signed with Mercury in the UK and Verve in the U.S., and has scanned about 10,000 copies of her album Tim’s House in the States. Walsh is currently working on a new album.

INGRID MICHAELSON, first featured in May 2007, is our most-successful TALENTfilter artist, sales-wise, to date. You’re probably very familiar with her accomplishments – but you should also know that she’s ‘Scanned 246,362 copies of her Girls & Boys LP and 32,295 copies of her latest Be Ok album. Ingrid still owns her masters, and is still unpublished.

A FINE FRENZY, who was signed but unpublished when we’d first written about her, has since signed a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell. She’s ‘Scanned 228,637 copies of her debut One Cell In The Sea LP, and has had NUMEROUS song placements in film/TV and commercials. Her first single, “Almost Lover”, peaked at number 25 on Billboard’s Hot A/C chart in the U.S. Overseas, "Almost Lover," reached number eight in Germany, number ten on the Swiss Charts and number five in Austria. A Fine Frenzy (Alison Sudol) is currently working on a new album (and writing a children’s book!)

BRENDAN JAMES, first featured in June 2007, has signed with Decca Records and has ‘Scanned 11,305 copies of his debut The Day Is Brave LP.

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT, featured in January 2008 after KROQ Los Angeles added their song into regular rotation, has since signed with Shout! Factory in the U.S. and has 'Scanned 23,169 copies of their self-titled album. The radio story in the U.S. continues to grow, and the label derby has begun overseas for non-U.S licensing rights.

MEIKO, the very first artist we’d blogged about in February 2007, has signed to MySpace/DGC, and has ‘Scanned 25,283 of her self-titled debut. The album, self-released almost a year prior to signing, had sold over 25,000 copies without the help of a label. The Meiko LP is the top-selling album on Amazon.com this week, and she’s debuted at #26 on the R&R Triple A radio chart this week as well. She’s had 11 songs placed in U.S. TV shows, and she is still unpublished.

KATIE COSTELLO (unsigned, unpublished) -- Before reading any further, please go to Katie's website to listen to her songs - specifically "Kaleidoscope Machine". We'll wait.

................you back?

................You impressed?

Guess what - she's 17, maybe 18. Yeah. We felt the same way too. Katie has found some recent love from KCRW Los Angeles tastemaker Nic Harcourt - not only has he and the station's Chris Douridas played her music on the air, but Harcourt has also placed "Kaleidoscope Machine" in the "90210" TV show he music supervises. Katie lives in Hermosa Beach, CA, and her sound is in the vein of Zooey Deschanel. We think she's awesome. And we'll be at her show December 7 at Saint Rocke.

**BREAKING NEWS** Following Thursday night's prominent placement in "Grey's Anatomy", wicked sale pricing and ridiculous coverage on MySpace, TALENTfilter artist Meiko has the #1 best-selling album on Amazon.com. Boo ya.

CASTANEDA (unsigned) -- Castaneda is a five-piece L.A.-based band who recently completed their second EP titled This Is What We're Gonna Do. The good folks at Songs Publishing have been helping them to garner various film/TV and videogame synch licenses, and music from the EP is receiving airplay on KROQ Los Angeles' "Local's Only" show and Indie 103-1's "Check, One, Two" program. What separates Castaneda from the deluge of 'indie' Silverlake acts is that they write melodic songs with hooks, and the singer can actually sing! Now, both of their EP's could use some tweaking in the mixes, but the songs are certainly there - if you're a fan of The Killers, you'll like these guys. Castaneda performs at The Mountain Bar in downtown L.A. this Saturday at 11:30. We'll be there, as will a handful of smart label execs.

TALENTFILTER ARTIST STACY CLARK SIGNS WITH INDIE SHANGRI-LA! We're excited to tell you that Orange County-based singer-songwriter Stacy Clark, who we first tipped you to in January 2008, has signed with Shangri-La Music (The Duke Spirit, The Pretenders). She's also picked up a booking agent (APA) and has had several songs placed in TV shows including MTV's "The Hills" and The CW's "Girlfriends". Hooray Stacy! Congrats to you!!

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS TO BE AWARE OF:

Nov 20 -- Molly Marlette - Hotel Cafe
Nov 22 -- Castaneda - Mountain Bar (Downtown)
Nov 22 -- The Shore - Molly Malone's
Nov 24 -- Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - The Echo
Dec 1 -- Everything Is Energy - The Roxy
Dec 2 -- Holly Conlan - Hotel Cafe
Dec 5 -- Brian Wright & The Waco Tragedies - Hotel Cafe
Dec 15 -- Brendan James - The Roxy

GOOD NEWS!

OK - Good news - after taking about a month off (and slacking a bit in the few months prior), we'll be back this week with a fresh crop of unsigned unpublished talent. We'll also give you a report card on some of the acts we'd discovered prior to their signing - we can help a million bands get signed, but if none of them break - who cares, right? We'll tell you how they're all doing this week.

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE

Oct 9 -- Lex Land, Gavin Castleton -- Hotel Cafe
Oct 9 -- Dynamite Walls -- Viper Room
Oct 10 -- Meiko -- Hotel Cafe
Oct 10 -- Graveyard -- Spaceland
Oct 10 -- Restiform Bodies -- The Echo
Oct 13 -- Kenan Bell -- Spaceland
Oct 15 -- The Atma -- Silverlake Lounge
Oct 15 -- Obi Best -- El Cid
Oct 16 -- Bumblebeez -- The Echo
Oct 23 -- Tina Dico -- Hotel Cafe
Oct 23 -- Slaughter (!!!) -- Key Club
Oct 29 -- Spinnerette -- Spaceland
Oct 31 -- Helmet (!!!) -- Viper Room
Nov 3 -- Mother Mother -- Silverlake Lounge
Nov 5 -- Jim Bianco -- Hotel Cafe
Nov 8 -- Letters To Cleo (!!!) -- The Roxy

ANOTHER TALENTFILTER ARTIST SIGNS LABEL DEAL! Congratulations to TALENTfilter act Elizabeth & The Catapult -- the band has announced that after two months of negotiating, they've signed with Verve Forecast. We first wrote about Elizabeth & The Catapult EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO. Woo hoo!

The group will head to Chicago in a few weeks to begin recording their major label debut with Brian Deck (Counting Crows, Iron And Wine).

NEW SIGNINGS, ETC. -- Female-fronted Florida five-piece Hey Monday signs to Columbia Records (there is literally ZERO difference between Hey Monday and Paramore) ...Joshua Radin, who left Columbia (and took his new album with him), signs with newly-launched Q Prime Management label Mom & Pop Music Co. (no relation to Mom & Pop Records or Mom Pop Records) ...Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights signs to Atlantic Records ...Boston rockers Therefore I Am signs with Equal Vision ...Death metal outfit The Crimson Armada, who have over 1.2 million MySpace plays, sign with Metal Blade...

NEW LOS ANGELES SHOWS OF NOTE:

Aug 24 -- Obi Best (formerly Colorforms) -- Silverlake Lounge
Aug 26 -- Buddy, Michelle Featherstone -- Hotel Cafe
Aug 29 -- Joe Purdy, Meiko -- The Roxy
Aug 30 -- Holly Conlan -- Hotel Cafe
Sept 3 -- Mother Truckers -- The Roxy
Sept 4 -- Emily Wells -- Hotel Cafe
Sept 5 -- Once -- Spaceland
Sept 8 -- The Henry Clay People -- The Echo
Sept 13 -- Just Off Turner -- Viper Room

MY MORTALITY (unsigned) -- New York's My Mortality is a four-piece formed by former Type O Negative / Life Of Agony drummer Sal Abruscato. Since April 2008, the band has been garnering regular airplay on tastemaker Active Rocker WSOU South Orange, the SIRIUS Satellite Radio "Octane" channel, and specialty spins on New York Classic Rocker WAXQ. A four-song EP is available on iTunes and the group recently posted two new recordings on their MySpace page. New York label geeks should know they've got two upcoming shows in your area (August 23 at the Backstage Rock Bar in Groton, CT and August 30 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ).

This is down-the-middle hard rock that's RADIO READY for the "red states." A no-brainer, people. TKO is booking them. Get on it.

(side note: why do hard rock bands ALL take the same played-out press photos? Damn!)

WEQX ALBANY'S "LARKFEST 2008" SPOTLIGHTS LOCAL TALENT -- Alternative WEQX Albany will present "LarkFEST 2008" on Lark Street in Alabany, NY on September 20th... Signed acts including The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello), Eric Hutchinson, Oppenheimer and Val Emmich will be joined by local acts The Sense Offenders, Maggie Mayday, and two of our upstate-area faves Saving Atlantis and Aficionado...

Saving Atlantis is a six-piece electronica-tinged pop act (Think Something Corporate-meets-Cut Copy)...

Aficionado is less mainstream, more progressive -- they're a ten-piece outfit including a flautist, two trumpets, and a visual director.

Good stuff worth looking into!

NEON HITCH (unsigned, unpublished) -- Yes, it's her real name. Yes, she was born into a family of gypsy circus performers. Yes, she sounds like the pre-Timbaland Nelly Furtado. And yes, she's Amy Winehouse's flat-mate. Seriously, we couldn't make this shit up if we tried. Neon is working with the production/management team Pilot Creative out of Brooklyn. It's fun stuff, and if you haven't heard of her before -- you're welcome!

KITS-FM (LIVE 105) SAN FRANCISCO SPINS LOCAL MUSIC THIS WEEKEND -- Tastemaker Alt-outlet Live 105 is running a "HomeGrown Weekend" on the air, featuring music from some of the best Bay Area bands that've emerged over the past few years. Props to Aaron Axelsen and the crew on the Live 105 programming staff - they've got their finger on the pulse of that market and it's nice to see them support these bands with airplay ...Acts receiving rotation include The Audrye Sessions, The Trophy Fire, Action Design, The Matches, Morning Benders, The Bruises, Hundred Days, Mister Loveless, Rogue Wave, Lovelikefire, Picture Atlantic, Immigrant, The Doobie Kids, and long-time TALENTfilter faves, Unjust. Peep their MySpace page -- the Unjust song that Live 105 is spinning is called "It's Not Enough." Alt-Rock radio SMASHAROO. Unjust is signed to a little indie called Koolarrow (run by ex-Faith No More bassist Billy Gould), but they could TOTALLY use a strong team behind them to market and promote.

UPCOMING LOS ANGELES-AREA SHOWS OF NOTE:

Aug 7 -- Resident Hero - Viper Room
Aug 7 -- Hockey - Spaceland
Aug 7 -- The Jane Doe's - Hotel Cafe
Aug 8 -- Karin Tatoyan - Spaceland
Aug 8 -- Platinum Pied Pipers - Echo
Aug 10 -- Ragsy (acoustic) - Hotel Cafe
Aug 22 -- Aushua - The Roxy
Aug 22 -- Building A Better Spaceship - Viper Room
Aug 29 -- Joe Purdy, Meiko -- The Roxy
Sept. 3 -- Mother Truckers -- The Roxy

FIVE TALENTFILTER ARTISTS TO PERFORM AT R&R TRIPLE A SUMMIT
Radio & Records, the preeminent ...erm...radio and record industry trade magazine in the U.S., will hold its annual Triple A Radio Summit in Boulder, CO from August 6-9.

This year, five of the twenty-some-odd showcasing artists were first tipped to you, before they were signed, on the TALENTfilter blog.

Jessie Baylin, Erin McCarley, Meiko, Ingrid Michaelson, and Brendan James will all perform for Triple A radio programmers from across the country.

For more information about the conference, click HERE.

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE:

July 8 -- Astra Heights - Echo
July 10 -- Castledoor - Echo
July 16 -- Meiko, Lex Land - Hotel Cafe
July 16 -- The Crimea - Tangier
July 17 -- The Henry Clay People - Echo
July 17 -- The Crimea - Silverlake Lounge
July 19 -- Emily Wells - Hotel Cafe
July 23 -- Inara George & Van Dyke Parks - Tangier
July 24 -- Riverboat Gamblers - Viper Room
July 24 -- Glossary - Echo
July 31 -- The Parson Redheads - Echo
Aug 7 -- Resident Hero - Viper Room
Aug 15 & 16 -- Benji Hughes - El Cid
Aug 22 -- Aushua - The Roxy

DOMMIN SIGNS WITH ROADRUNNER -- Over a year ago, we'd written about San Fernando Valley area goth/rock band Dommin (click here to read) and mentioned that they'd be liked by, "Fans of Type O Negative, Life Of Agony (basically any of the mid-‘90s Roadrunner Records artists)..."

Well, it looks like the folks at Roadrunner agree, because they signed the band last week!

Roadrunner will do well with these guys. Lukas Banker, who has produced music for Five Finger Death Punch, Junkie XL, Ill Nino and Still Remains, is also handling management for Dommin.

Congrats fellas!!

KIDDO (unsigned, unpublished) -- REALLY diggin' this girl's music. Kiddo is a NYC-based artist who splits her time between NY, Miami and Copenhagen. A classically-trained pianist, Kiddo writes her own lyrics and melodies and her music is in the vein of Sneaker Pimps/Portishead/Massive Attack -- sexy, sensual vocals over loops, beats and electronic elements. Kiddo is working with Boots on material as we type this (You may remember Boots' former band The Getaway People). It's early days for Kiddo but we'll be keeping an eye on her (and helping to spread the word!)

TALENTFILTER ARTIST MEIKO SIGNS WITH MYSPACE RECORDS/DGC!

Los Angeles-based artist Meiko, the first musician we'd blogged about on TALENTfilter (all the way back in February 2007), has signed with MySpace Records/DGC, who will release her debut album later this summer in partnership with Lucky Ear Music (Meiko's own indie label). The much-buzzed-about singer-songwriter’s recent self-release was a #1 folk album on iTunes, with over 200,000 song downloads, regular airplay on tastemaker KCRW-FM, and had key placements in prime-time TV shows including the Emmy Award-winning "Grey's Anatomy."

Meiko was the focus of intense label interest with most of the US-based majors for the past 12 months and finally signed with Luke Wood (Interscope/DGC Records) and Jon Pikus (Senior Director of A&R, MySpace Records). Meiko's attorney Howard Sadowsky handled the negotiating.

In a blog posting on MySpace page, Meiko writes, "I went with these guys because I felt most comfortable with the people there, and also... I feel like I will be given the creative freedom I need to flourish. My reasoning for going with a label instead of staying independent was pretty simple by the end of it all... I wanna get my music to as many people that will listen. Having a label backing me will give me a better chance to reach the headphones of that girl in a tiny town (like me back when)..."

Meiko's self-titled debut will be released through Lucky Ear/MySpace/DGC. The album will be remixed and remastered, and will include re-recorded versions of fan favorites along with a brand-new track, "Boys With Girlfriends".

Meiko is still available for publishing, but we're pretty sure she'll be holding out on doing a pub deal for a while...

Congrats to Meiko and the team!

HELP STOP 'THE MAN' FROM SHUTTING DOWN THE KNITTING FACTORY IN HOLLYWOOD...

This letter was forwarded to us by an industry friend...check it out. If you're in Los Angeles on Thursday, July 17 and you're free at 10AM, do the right thing and help the cause:


Dear Friends of The Knitting Factory,

I’m writing this letter to garner support for an upcoming public hearing by the LADBS (Los Angeles Bldg. and Safety) against our venue on Thursday July 17th 2008.

The Los Angeles Building Department is aggressively trying to revoke our CUP (Conditional Use Permit), for those of you who don’t know, a CUP is the conditions that all Restaurants, bars, clubs etc must run under in order to keep their doors open, if you lose your CUP, you are essential closed for business.

After eight years in a crime riddled Hollywood corridor, the LADBS and vice, states that our venue is a “nuisance” and we do not comply under “upscale restaurant guidelines” (nonsense, food is always served and continues service and will someone please define “upscale” for me). They are also trying to say we do a steady stream of Erotica here, which is absurd, as we’ve only had 3 Adult Entertainment parties over 8 years and 10,000 shows.

Bar owners beware; the city is on a major crack down for what they deem CUP violations.

Knitting Factory was lured to this location and has served as the anchor tenant to re vamp this neighborhood. Suddenly, as the neighborhood has pushed the drug dealers out, the rents up, built condos and turned our complex from an Entertainment Center to a retail center, we are no longer wanted. When we moved into this location the crime statistics where 3 times higher than the city average, the corner of Hollywood and Sycamore sat only 1 block North of the 18th street Gang. In 2004, this corner was used as the first corner to install cameras as a test to stop crime.

We’ve endured tremendous hardship from 2004 to 2007 in this complex, whilst LA Fitness, DSW, Longs and Fresh and Easy were built around us (joy and thrill to be in a mall) and Galaxy Movie Theatre, Hollywood Ent. Museum, Tower Records all went out of business. We still have “no” visible signage from Hollywood Boulevard except for a banner hanging at the back of the plaza. CIM, the landlord, claims that our cueing is a problem to some of the retail outlets; of course there wasn’t a complaint while the jack hammers blasted for 3 years and our parking structure shut down for 26 weeks. Still, we are jammed to the back of the plaza, with no access to the Sycamore door (by law) and no where to line up our patrons.

Our Public Hearing is scheduled for Thursday July 17th at 10am @ 200 N. Spring St, room 1020. Zoning Administration. I would greatly appreciate anyone willing to get up on our behalf, just show up and be a part of this fiasco, or at least send in a letter to me, supporting the need for Knitting Factory as a live Music venue in the Hollywood corridor.

Warmest,
Morgan

PS
Please forward to anyone you think might be amendable to our cause.

Mr. Morgan Margolis | Knitting Factory Concert House
VP, National Operations | morgan@knittingfactory.com
Boise, Los Angeles, New York, Spokane

TALENTFILTER ACT SIGNS PUBLISHING / LABEL DEAL! Music Week in the UK reports that Los Angeles' Iglu & Hartly have signed a publishing deal with EMI. According to the article, the very next day Mercury Records signed them to their label.

Congrats, fellas! Crazy that it took industry execs from across the pond to get stuff done, but I guess that's par for the course, huh!

MUSIC BUSINESS BITS & BOBS...

From the world of music publishing: Katie Welle, most recently A&R at Epic (and responsible for bring rapper Yung Berg to the label), has segued to Sony/ATV Music Publishing ...Michael Pizzuto exits Stage Three Music Publishing and has joined the team at The Bicycle Music Company as a Creative Music Consultant ...Diana Turk has left Right Bank Music and starts at Primary Wave Music Publishing next week...

In label signing news: Jason Reeves has signed to Warner Bros. Records ...30 year-old singer Rachael Yamagata, signed to Arista six years ago, has also reportedly signed with Warner Bros. The Devil Wears Prada (the band) have signed with Ferret Music ...Brooklyn hardcore outfit Tombs have signed with Relapse... Oakland band The Matches have reportedly fulfilled their commitment to Epitaph and are 'exploring opportunities with other labels...

In TALENTfilter Artist Update news: Westchester, NY's Goot (first tipped to you in February 2007) has songs featured in the final four episodes of this season's "The Real World" on MTV ...he's now got 1.8 million MySpace plays ...he's still unsigned and unpublished. ...Meiko, also first tipped back in February '07, is in the studio with producer Greg Collins (Gwen Stefani, U2) working on new material ...high-profile drummer Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Tori Amos) has recorded drum tracks, and Bryan Cook (Aimee Mann, Melissa Etheridge) is mixing - expect to hear a label announcement in the weeks to come...
...Check out the piece that HITS did on one of our longtime faves, Joe Purdy...

HOLLY CONLAN (unsigned, unpublished) -- Keep an eye on this one. Holly's Bird EP was self-released in March, but we expect big things coming soon - including some nice real estate in the iTunes store (props, as always, to the music staff at iTunes for spotlighting great independent talent). Holly is based in L.A. and plays out regularly - usually at the Hotel Cafe where you can catch her slangin' dranks on the nights she not touring or on the stage. Peep her MySpace page -- her songs "OK" and "You Are Goodbye" are pretty fantastic.

MICHELLE FEATHERSTONE (unsigned, unpublished) - Featherstone, a British songstress now residing in Los Angeles, currently has some prime brickage on the iTunes Music front page. This unsigned singer/songwriter has had more sync licenses than ANY artist on your label. Seriously, go check out the song placement list on her website -- you'll shit yourself. And why a music publisher has yet to scoop this lovely lady up for her songwriting skills, we'll never know.