This is pretty long, but what I've read of it sounds pretty interesting.
I believe that Steve Albini is a record producer. At least I know of
a Steve Albini that does this. He is known for making pretty
raw sounding stuff. He was the producer on Nirvana's "In Utero"
disc. Perhaps what he says is similar to what happens with
movie productions?
The Problem With Music
by Steve Albini
excerpted from Baffler No. 5
Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major
label, I always end up
thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a
trench, about four feet wide and
five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny,
decaying shit. I imagine these
people, some of them good friends, some of them barely
acquaintances, at one end of
this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at
the other end, holding a
fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.
Nobody can see what's printed on the contract. It's too far
away, and besides, the
shit stench is making everybody's eyes water. The lackey
shouts to everybody that
the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract.
Everybody dives in the
trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end.
Two people arrive
simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each
other and dunking each
other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates,
and there's only one
contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey
says, "Actually, I think you
need a little more development. Swim it again, please.
Backstroke."
And he does, of course.
I. AR Scouts
Every major label involved in the hunt for new bands now has
on staff a high-profile
point man, an "AR" rep who can present a comfortable face
to any prospective band.
The initials stand for "Artist and Repertoire," because
historically, the AR staff would
select artists to record music that they had also selected,
out of an available pool of
each. This is still the case, though not openly.
These guys are universally young [about the same age as the
bands being wooed],
and nowadays they always have some obvious underground rock
credibility flag they
can wave. Lyle Preslar, former guitarist for Minor Threat,
is one of them. Terry Tolkin,
former NY independent booking agent and assistant manager at
Touch and Go is one of
them. Al Smith, former soundman at CBGB is one of them. Mike
Gitter, former editor of
XXX fanzine and contributor to Rip, Kerrang and other
lowbrow rags is one of them.
Many of the annoying turds who used to staff college radio
stations are in their ranks
as well.
There are several reasons AR scouts are always young. The
explanation usually
copped-to is that the scout will be "hip" to the current
musical "scene." A more
important reason is that the bands will intuitively trust
someone they think is a peer,
and who speaks fondly of the same formative rock and roll
experiences.
The AR person is the first person to make contact with the
band, and as such is the
first person to promise them the moon. Who better to promise
them the moon than an
idealistic young turk who expects to be calling the shots in
a few years, and who has
had no previous experience with a big record company. Hell,
he's as naive as the band
he's duping. When he tells them no one will interfere in
their creative process, he
probably even believes it.
When he sits down with the band for the first time, over a
plate of angel hair pasta, he
can tell them with all sincerity that when they sign with
company X, they're really
signing with him and he's on their side. Remember that
great, gig I saw you at in '85?
Didn't we have a blast.
By now all rock bands are wise enough to be suspicious of
music industry scum. There
is a pervasive caricature in popular culture of a portly,
middle aged ex-hipster talking a
mile-a-minute, using outdated jargon and calling everybody
"baby." After meeting
"their" AR guy, the band will say to themselves and
everyone else, "He's not like a
record company guy at all! He's like one of us." And they
will be right. That's one of
the reasons he was hired.
These AR guys are not allowed to write contracts. What they
do is present the band
