http://www.hazmatmodine.com/sounds/bahamut.mp3

I really enjoy this line, EJ, for a number of reasons…but it comes down to the idea that by promoting ideas or sounds that don’t necessarily appeal to yourself you are in fact selling out your own intelligence. I’ve done my best to be honest in terms of what I’m posting and why I’m posting it over the last year especially as I found myself slumping, feeling some sense of debt to those including me in their blanket campaigns. There are most definitely times that I am introduced to something by various companies but I cannot discredit the thoughts I have about that song, band, whatever simply because it was introduced to me from a source other than another blog, zine or friend.

When it gets down to it, I’m going to typically write about stuff that I enjoy…or write about why I hate it and others enjoy it…but it’ll be because I want to write it.

However I am disillusioned…and I post newsy type posts sometimes on a whim… Rarely do I do this because of a third party ‘hint’ but rather the idea that by not having X posts a week/day anyone interested will lose that interest in my site because of those blog for which “it has become the focus of a business based on posting press releases and blurbs from everyone who happens to hit your inbox”. I rambles – sorry. Nice to see you back.

For the PR folks out there who read my blog, I’m not beating you down. I’m asking you to make your jobs easier. I’m asking you to take the time up front in order be considerate to both the readers of blogs and to the artists you represent. Spamming me with press releases makes this a job.

And to my many readers, if you read this blog at all, why would you send me Klezmer? All due respect to the guy who sent me his Klezmer record, it’s okay and everything. Am I gonna write about it? Probably not. There, there’s my mention.

me and my li’l old blog are feelin you here. i guarantee you i get much less traffic than you do, and i get all kinds of crazy emails from weird bands.

i also happen to work in the ad agency world, and i can tell you from the inside that these people really believe they can blast out emails to bloggers and get the “word of mouth” rolling. basically, they done lost they minds.

keep doin ya thing, whenever you feel it. some of us out here just want to read what you think about music.

g

ps – haven’t posted to my blog in weeks. musta been too many mai-tais!

Confession: I myself am in a bit of a slump wondering about the current state of affairs with music and blogs. I got into doing promo for a small company because I love music—the same reason many bloggers get into blogging. It has been thrilling to work with artists I care about and I have the luxury of being part of the process in actually picking the artists with whom we work.

However, my fun with blogs is diminishing a lot. As the music business gets more pressurized and as bloggers themselves are being buried under all kinds of promotional pitches, I find my interaction with blogs and the relationships I have established to be a pain in the ass, frankly, as I imagine bloggers feel as well. And while I try, out of courtesy, to answer any inquiry, I find it frustrating that the roar of this machine is resulting in people, even folks I have a long-standing back-and-forth with, to completely ignore anything I send to them, even it it’s personal.

So, don’t feel bad about your current malaise. It’s all over the place. I still read your blog dude …glad you’re back.