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KIDDO (unsigned, unpublished) -- REALLY diggin' this girl's music.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.

TALENTFILTER ARTIST UPDATE -- Figured it was high time to catch you up on the happs of some of our favorite TALENTfilter artists...

L.A. indie-popsters Colorforms, who recently signed with the boutique label Orphan Records, finally realized that The Colorforms Corporation might have a lil' issue with their band name. So they've changed it to Obi Best. Peep their MySpace page to hear a few new songs...

Jessie Baylin, now signed to Verve Forecast, will see a release of her debut Firesight full-length on June 24. Los Angelenos should go check her out at the Hotel Cafe that night to help us celebrate the album release!

Andrew Paul Woodworth, whose Eddy Ate Dynamite album was recently released in Europe through Rodeostar Records, posted a pretty funny EPK on YouTube... Chaggadout here:
Eddy Ate Dynamite is still available to be licensed outside of mainland Europe. Check out the video for his remake of the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right" here:

Ingrid Michaelson is out on a headlining tour of the U.S. through mid-July. She'll then jump onto the road as the opener for the Dave Matthews Band. No biggie.

NON-COMMVENTION - A SUCCESS! -- First off, kudos to WXPN Philadelphia's Dan Reed, Bruce Warren, Roger LaMay, and Jim McGuinn for being fantastic hosts - this was a really enjoyable conference. Gotta say, the Non-Comm and AAA radio programmers are some of the nicest folks in the biz - no one is 'too cool for the room' - and they're all REAL music fans! So refreshing, considering we're come from the Alternative world where EVERYONE is too cool for the room. Anywhoo -- to check out some photos, check out the piece that Media Sponsor FMQB posted on their website.

Some of our highlights included daytime performances by Nicole Atkins (we had no idea she has such a great voice not ever seeing her live before - her album leaves a little to be desired, though, perhaps something a bit grittier next time around?) and of course one of our regular faves, Ingrid Michaelson. The nighttime shows were all pretty great too -- our faves included The Hold Steady, Dr. John, L.A. kids Carney, Back Door Slam (can't BELIEVE how YOUNG these dudes are!) and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.

The daytime panels were ...well ...panels. Always entertaining, but not much is REALLY learned from them.

Overall, a great experience and we're definitely gonna go back for next year's event!

TALENTPHILADELPHIA -- Team TALENTfilter will be representin' in Philly this week at the 8th annual NON-COMMvention ...While we won't be there to spot unsigned talent, we'll be shaking hands with some of the most forward-thinking and adventurous radio programmers in the U.S. The Non-Comm guys are really the true music fans in radio and they can get away with supporting and championing up-and-coming talent...

This is where labels should be sending their A&R reps. We're going on our own dime 'cuz we know how valuable these relationships are.

Hey, that being said, we'd love to entertain conversations with labels looking to put some 'scouts-in-the-know' on the payroll -- we'll gladly sell out -- have a look at the list of acts we've featured prior to their signing (to the right, in red) -- we've done good so far, huh! Hit us up at TALENTfilter@gmail.com

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE:

May 27 -- Brendan James -- Hotel Cafe
May 27, 28 -- Aushua -- House Of Blues Anaheim
May 28 -- Meiko -- Hotel Cafe
May 28 -- Sonia Leigh -- Room 5
May 29 -- Matthew Moon -- Viper Room
May 31 -- My American Heart -- Troubadour
June 1 -- Brian Van Der Ark -- Hotel Cafe
June 7 -- Medusa -- Fais Do Do
June 9 -- Aushua -- Viper Room
June 10 -- Jeremy Enigk -- Spaceland
June 12 -- Meiko -- Hotel Cafe
June 17 -- Buddy, Parson Redheads -- Boardner's
June 18 -- Jaymay -- Troubadour
June 19 -- Meiko -- Hotel Cafe
June 23 -- Rebekah LeBeau -- On The Rox
June 24 -- Mighty Six Ninety -- Troubadour
June 25 -- Astra Heights -- Viper Room
June 26 -- Meiko -- Hotel Cafe
June 30 -- Iglu & Hartly -- Viper Room

CAVES (unsigned, unpublished) -- Portland, OR quartet Caves has been around for a few years - they self-released their debut album, Get On With It, late last year. We were recently turned on to them by our friend, former KNRK Music Director Jaime Cooley (who is taking over the manager's wheel for the band). If you like your Alt-Rock sprinkled with The Clash and Wire, you'll really like Caves. Hot Hot Heat-ish, if you will. Peep the title track from Get On With It on their MySpace page (where they've got some upcoming west coast dates posted as well). Good stuff!

PEREZ HILTON PIMPS OUT TALENTFILTER ARTIST -- BOOYA! Our fellow music-loving blogger Perez Hilton has been hipped to Brendan James, an artist we've been following and rooting for since even before our first posting about him way back in June of 2007...

Yesterday, Perez posted this nice little piece on Brendan, and today he's got the #1 Folk single on iTunes and over 12,000 MySpace plays. You seriously can't deny the power of that dude's blog -- and we've gotta say - he's got some great ears!

Don't be surprised if you start reading about more TALENTfilter artists on Perez' pink pages, wink wink...

SIGNINGS AND RUMORS, RUMORS AND SIGNINGS...

Minneapolis band Camera Cant Lie signs to Atlantic Records…

'Tween TV star Miranda Cosgrove (star of Nickelodeon’s "iCarly") signs to Columbia Records…

Is the publishing derby just about closed up for L.A. rockers (and TALENTfilter faves) Five Finger Death Punch? The band, signed to The Firm in April of ‘07, has sold over 120,000 albums and is currently touring with Disturbed…

Mercy Mercedes signs with the Militia Group…

Massachusetts punkers Energy have signed with Bridge Nine…

Santa Cruz, CA Cookie Monster Rockers Decrepit Birth sign with Nuclear Blast…

Brooklyn glam-rock revivalists Semi Precious Weapons sign with Razor And Tie…

Las Vegas hardcore act Anthems signs with indie Cavity Records…

Is Interscope leading the derby for Eli “Paperboy” Reed?

Is Roadrunner the frontrunner (heh) to sign TALENTfilter artist Dommin?

Multiple labels and publishers were at the Hotel Cafe this Saturday to catch Atlanta singer/songwriter Sonia Leigh -- we expect ALL of them to see her again on May 28 at Room 5 in L.A. -- she and her band put on a HELLUVA set. Very much in the vein of early Melissa Etheridge / Lucinda Williams / a younger, country-fried Joan Jett even...

LEEDS OUT AT NY TIMES -- Just saw on Idolator that NY Times Music writer Jeff Leeds has been let go. Hey, Jeff, if you'd like to contribute to the TALENTfilter blog, we'd love to have ya!

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE:

May 14 -- Simon Lynge -- Hotel Cafe
May 15 -- South and Johnny Lloyd Rollins -- The Echo
May 16 -- Joe Purdy, Quincy Coleman -- the Roxy
May 17 -- Sonia Leigh -- Hotel Cafe
May 19 -- LoveLikeFire, Eli Paperboy Reed-- Spaceland
May 27, 28 -- Aushua -- House Of Blues Anaheim
May 28 -- Meiko -- Hotel Cafe

AS HINTED YESTERDAY... -- (From HITS): Veteran A&R exec Michael Goldstone will leave his post as President of Sire Records to join Q Prime, where he’ll be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the management company’s soon-to-be-named indie label.

***LATE-BREAKING WHISPER OF THE DAY!***

What happened at Sire Records today?! We were sworn to secrecy, but crazy crazy!!

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...