The Henry Clay People Sign to TBD Records, To Tour With Drive by Truckers

It's great to see the bands we love get the recognition they deserve. In January The Henry Clay People opened for Olin & The Moon's residency at the Echo and their set consisted of their entire unreleased new album, played front to back. If you've seen HCP play anytime over the past 6 to 8 months, you've already heard a lot of the songs. There's multiple winners on it, including "End of an Empire," and two of the four new songs they wrote for their April Spaceland residency. The album will also include re-recordings of "This Ain't a Scene" and "Working Part Time," which appeared on their previous release, For Cheap or For Free. I do lament, though, the omission of "The Switch Kids" (CER's subtitle is taken from that song).

We now know when we'll see the album, and on what label. And we also know that HCP will be playing 10 sets at SXSW, which should be a record (Local Natives only play a measly nine. Time to step up your game, guys). From the band:

TBD Records!

Hello friends, strangers, loved ones, and whoever else cares to read this-

We are extremely pleased to announce that we will be releasing our new record "Somewhere on the Golden Coast" in early June of 2010 on TBD Records (Radiohead, White Rabbits, Port O'Brien). The record was recorded mostly at The Ship in Eagle Rock, CA by Aaron Espinoza and at Rollercoaster in Burbank, with David Newton. Aaron's new imprint The Ship Records is also helping with the release.

The idea was to track the record as live as possible onto tape, leaving that dirt under the fingernails kinda feel. So yeah, there is a good amount of dirt, but hopefully other stuff too. We threw a couple of tracks on the ole myspace. Check back in case we decide to throw a couple more on.

We're also happy to announce a whole tone of upcoming dates, kicking off with 10 shows at SXSW in Austin, an LA show with Admiral Radley (Grandaddy/Earlimart super band), and some dates with Drive by Truckers (more to come too).

More later!

Love,
The Henry Clay People

upcoming dates;

SXSW Schedule

3/17 Wednesday
12:50 – QuinnStorm & C3 Presents @ Lamberts
2:20 – LittleRadio @ Red Eye Fly
Night – Stubbs inside between outside sets for NPR showcase, two sets

3/18 Thursday
2:00 – Roky Erikson’s Ice-Cream Social @ Threadgill’s
3:45 – Aquarium Drunkard @ Lamberts
8:30 – Billions Showcase @ Club Deville

3/19 Friday
3:30 – Buddyhead @ Annies on 6th
6:00 – Pure Volume @ 504 Trinity St

3/20 Saturday
2:30 – Pianos NYC @ Kung Fu Saloon
5:15 – The Ship & WOXY @ Homeslice
_____________

3/24 - Bootleg Theatre - Los Angeles, CA w/ Admiral Radley
5/5 – Rialto Theatre – Tucson, AZ w/ Drive-By Truckers
5/6 - House of Blues - San Diego, CA w/ Drive-By Truckers
5/7 - Avalon - Los Angeles, CA w/ Drive-By Truckers
5/8 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA w/ Drive-By Truckers
5/12 – In The Venue – Salt Lake City, UT w/ Drive-By Truckers

For an "inside" perspective, check out Mouse's take over at Classical Geek Theatre.

Local Natives Finally Sign a Record Deal in the U.S.

The circle is now complete: Frenchkiss Records for the U.S. (side note: Frenchkiss also recently signed the excellent Freelance Whales -- LN/FW tour in 2010?), Infectious Records for the rest of the world, and Universal Music Publishing for those lucrative publishing rights. Gorilla Manor, Local Natives' debut album, which was released on November 2 in the U.K. (and I'm sure is all over the internet), will be released on February 16 in the U.S.

My initial thoughts about the three month gap between a U.S. and Worldwide release date for Gorilla Manor was that this was clearly stupid. I have a hard time believing there was a shortage U.S. labels that wanted to sign the band and release their album like they wanted to in the fall.

But when I think about it more, I really like the idea of spacing it out. First, the album was completely self-financed by the band, which means that LN is not thousands of dollars in debt to a label. This definitely takes the pressure off record sales (also helped by not signing to a major label), and I'm sure the band knows that their meal ticket is their phenomenal live shows, not some eternally fixed translation of their songs onto a record. (Taylor is quoted in Pop & Hiss saying “We’re proud of our album, but we’re at our best when we’re live.”)

Second, spacing out the releases allows Local Natives spend months solely focusing on Europe, since it's the only place they have label support and the only place where their album is available. And LN is taking advantage of the opportunity. They've already done two tours in the UK and will be spending two months there early next year. With the band being in Europe, and the album exclusively on Infectious Records, Infectious has a tremendous incentive to support the band.

Then, with momentum coming from the UK, Local Natives can continue making waves in the U.S., where they're almost surely destined for success (and just a pesky Pitchfork review away from 2010 domination). The momentum and potential will encourage Frenchkiss to put their full support behind the band.

Who knows how much of this was planned. Nonetheless, Local Natives and their team have assembled a very smart group of business partners:

• Two indie labels on the recording side, which secures indie cred and frees up more money for them (2 is more than 1). Splitting up their label commitments geographically allows each label to focus on the territories they know, and should allow more efficient use of their resources.
  

• Universal Music Publishing Group for that always needed advance money, not to mention the clout of the world's largest music publishing company in the only way bands make money now besides touring: placements in TV and advertising.
  

So, in all, kudos to the band, its management (Phil Costello of Red Light Management -- Red Light also manages to Dave Matthews, The Jakes, and a ton of others) and most importantly (in my eyes) their attorney, Richard Grabel, who's known to be one of the best indie lawyers around, if not the best.

For CER, LN's signing comes during a time of reflection on the past year and thoughts about what the next year will bring. The first time I ventured to the east side for a show was to see Local Natives for the first time almost one year ago, on December 8 at the Silverlake Lounge. Since then I've had the privilege to see them 9 additional times, and set #11 will be at the Echo on December 22. That's a lot, I know, but every time I'd go to a LN show thinking this would be the last time before taking a break, I came away from their sets always wanting more. Their explosion in 2009 has been deserving and remarkable and I see no limits for them in 2010.

The Jakes Sign to Roadrunner Records

A big congratulations (and good luck) to The Jakes, who have signed with Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. The band has long been represented by Serling Rooks & Ferrara, a very experienced music law firm located in Union Square in Manhattan.

Signing with a major is not always the best step a band can take (there's no need to recount the numerous tales of successful indie bands who fall on their faces once they jump to a major, or the tales of those who join a major and are then forgotten) and the move is especially interesting in today's climate, where the importance of record labels is fading fast. Nonetheless, hopefully these words from The Jakes regarding their signing turn out to be accurate:

After six months of deliberation and lawyer babble (respectfully, Reid, Mike and David) we have finally signed a record deal with Roadrunner Records, a branch of the Warner tree. To those of you acquainted with Roadrunner’s illustrious past, our signing might come as a bit of a surprise. After decades of multi-platinum success with Music’s rough heavy metal greats such as Megadeth, Dream Theatre, and most recently, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and radio titan Nickelback, one may beg the question; why The Jakes? What do we have that likens us to such metal-mongers? The answer is—nothing! A new approach from within Roadrunner A&R department has quelled the steep desire to tread a new musical path in the road of modern “indie” rock, and although such a classification is always ambiguous, it is clear that Roadrunner has no intentions of likening us to their heavy-metal, or contemporary greats. On the contrary, Roadrunner will provide us with a unique blend of artistic license and indie label coziness with Major-label professionalism and distribution, and is unafraid to take the path of innovation. Most importantly, Roadrunner is very passionate about us, and has accepted us into their tight knit family. We are excited to see the products of our pairing, and are looking forward to see our relationship grow. ​

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=4100845&blogId=507415421

The band also announced that keyboardist Ehson Hashemian is no longer with the band. I really enjoyed his live energy.

The Jakes are currently writing their new album. Their next show is at Spaceland on September 7, where they open the first night of Saint Motel's residency. To my knowledge, it's the band's first ever show at Spaceland (and perhaps their first ever in Silverlake/Echo Park). I will undoubtedly be in attendance.