While it would seem like the entire industry has descended to the Hajj of indie rock for the next few days, there are many of us who are arguably "music industry players" and who are gleefully holding down the fort here at 304 Hudson.
So without further ado, our first annual LIVE BLOGGING THE OFFICE VIBE DURING SXSW 2008. While we can’t possibly hang with the Rawkblogz, SteregumPartyPix and FaderFORTLiveblogginz of the world, we’ll be doing our best to capture some of the industry excitement happening right here at HQ. Any staff tips can be sent to me – I sit just outside Lesley’s office, next to Sonya.
10:01 am
Harmon is not in (slacker). Only 15 emails in my inbox, 4 are from someone from Rhapsody looking for me on 6th Street at 2:13am and one from Martin Mills looking for me to help him get into the Pitchfork party tomorrow (GOOD LUCK MARTIN, THAT LIST IS TIGHT!).
10:15 am
After an elevator ride this morning with our finance guy Adam, I’ve spent 15 minutes on eBay looking for a single speed mountain bike. The new Long Blondes is on the sales stereo – loud-style.
10:31 am
well, the weekly Matador marketing meeting is officially cancelled cuz, well, Matador is all in Austin.
10:38 am
Find this email in my junk box from Miwa. Photo of Shearwater at 1:30am.
Headlining bv show at 130am.Prob about 60 people there. New songs sounded amazing
10:50 am
MTV just sent me a link to some awesome video footage from SXSW that I can’t watch due to our ongoing UK-based IP address problem. Man, I feel even more left out than ever.
10:55 am
Harmon and I are starting to think about an extended lunch to Sunshine Market but I think I gotta bang out an AMEX report first.
11:02 am
Still haven’t started my AMEX report.
12:35 pm
Halfway through my AMEX report. See Lesley, this is why I never get around to these!!!!
1:07 pm
AMEX report done. Matt and I are heading to Sunshine. Pics of sushi balls and tofu wraps forthcoming.
1:41 pm
This, my friends, is what we call the "walk back snack". My sushi ball with plum and Matt’s brown rice ball with gooey stuff. So…good!
1:51 pm
Back in the office and this how I’m rolling – Onigiribox 50/50 grind.
1:58 pm
The new B-52s album Funplex is playing on the stereo. Sounds just like the B-52s.
2:15 pm
4 hours and 15 minutes left in the day and productivity reaches an all-time low here at Beggars Group. We can’t even get publicists like Sonya to get through a full game of Scrabulous.
2:34 pm
It’s 2:30 and that could mean only one thing – INTERN PYRAMID IN LOMBARDI’S OFFICE!!!
2:37 pm
Webstore manager extraordinaire, Dean, just sent me this video that once and for all proves that this election is all about race.
2:47 pm
i just got a flurry of IMs about the treatment of interns here at Beggars Group. you can all rest assured that all of our intern pyramids are volunteer-only.
2:58 pm
FYI – the Matador slip mats and Breeders LP bags are in for Record Store day. in a related piece of office gossip, Dan Gallo (our head of production) is rumored to be telling key members of staff "i am officially sick of Record Store Day."
3:04 pm
Speaking of blogging – XL’s new website is next level. but it is especially useful since we typically turn to Pitchfork, MySpace and the NME for updates on XL artists that we work with (and that is Richard Russell’s preferred method if y’all think I’m being all jokey).
3:10 pm
Frank from Chromewaves is bitching that i need to learn how to re-size my photos on this live blog because they’re taking too long to download on his iBerry or whatever. all i have to say is – i’m working here Frank. i’m not some kind of professional blogger who has time to travel and re-size photos. i’m busy reviewing marketing plans for yet to be announced film-related projects that is full of schemes to get you siked to blog about such film-related projects. give me a break and get back to your "fun little music festival".
3:12 pm
This just in from Blake, apparently it is his liveblog post from the future:
4:37 pm, year 2018: The office bot just arrived with Stellas and O2 hitters…that’s oxygen and weed. 20th anniversary record store day parade float coming along nicely.
3:31 pm
just had a quick "low clickthrough rate 911!!!" meeting and are changing up the Mountain Goats banners on fecalface.com. stay tuned for some new and improved animated gif magic!
3:35 pm
stereo wars: Adam (the bearded guy who sometimes pays our bills) is pumping AC/DC from the finance office. Dave back in sales has responded with some UFO. if either of them busts out the Saxon, i might have to intervene for a truce.
4:10 pm
i just showed Steve from Rough Trade how to post news on the BGUS website. being so new to the family, we’re still not sure what kind of Web 2.0 capabilities Rough Trade has. so, i haven’t given him a login for the blog yet.
4:13 pm
okay, some guy over at Idolator just referred to me as "this guy". hey…that’s better than intimating that certain indie rock bands are just like Ted Danson doing black face.
4:15 pm
listen up. matt harmon is bitching about a lack of emails today. if anyone in brand and lifestyle music marketing is paying attention (and not too busy trying to hustle your way in to the BVegan day party at Emo’s Annex to see Holy Fuck blow minds at 5:20pm today), can you please throw some email his way? he is especially fond of fielding requests for free music and video for action sports apparel DVDs.
4:31 pm
Obviously, our video and college radio guy is feeling the effects of our IT director doing some IP blocking from RedTube.com.
5:15 pm
gotten pretty quiet around the office. either everyone is really getting work done (highly unlikely) or somewhere on the internet more Ashley Dupré photos have surfaced.
5:16 pm
UPDATE: now I know why it’s so quiet… Vampire Weekend is streaming on NPR right now from The Parish. Click to listen.
5:19 pm
woah, Ezra just said "fuck" on NPR.
5:21 pm
todd: if you are reading this. caius just texted me and he is looking for your cell phone number. he is stuck in a taxi off South Congress and only has £100 notes in his wallet. his text says "he needs to help me break 100 quid". that is like 250 american. call him asap.
5:35 pm
woomph! less than an hour to go in this whole live blogging mess and i’m beat. how do (or why) do you bloggers do this to yourselves and those unfortunate people who read your blogs? once i finish here, i will gladly resort to getting it out the old-fashioned way… snide remarks in the kitchen, passive aggressive emails and the occassional yelling.
5:37 pm
for anyone who thought that the only difference between The Teenagers and Back Street Boys is irony, this impossible observation just got a little closer to reality. Zach has put down the Playboy long enough to send a note to staff that their new video will be on TRL very soon.
5:58 pm
matt is totally frustrated with iMovie. his whole SXSW staycation has been the promo vid for the Gary Numan re-ish. putting together (according to him) a very sweet video though.
6:01 pm
as discussed above at 4:10pm, my latest protogé steve has posted his first-ever news item. peep it out, yo. he sticks just to the facts. as i should know, being effectively cutesy on the Internet takes years of practice.
6:05 pm
as blake says, if straight fire don’t up our clickthroughs on FecalFace.com….
6:13 pm
tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock
6:21 pm
gabe – a guy whose taste i implicitly trust – just told me that the new Hot Chip record is good. i will listen to that on the ride home tonite.
6:28 pm
This just in from the management here at Beggars Group (with the subject: "Adam – Don’t Put This On The LiveBlog"):
While it would have made me happy to have flown in a few racks of pork ribs and a barrel of Shiner Bock for those of you still here in the office "holdin’ it down" this week, it looks lokk we’re going to have to go Lombardi’s Pizza and beer style for lunch so leave the brown bagged lunch home.
Let’s say about 1PM and just be aware that any of your actions post beer-bong could show up on Farrell’s liveblogging site, so be careful.
6:30 pm
what a day. jesus christ. i’d rather go to SXSW as a member of the Cornerstone street team than to ever try this again. and with that folks… i’m down the back of the dinosaur and out like the gout.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
talk about pseudo-event…at least i got in on the intern pyramid…
March 13th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Is that an issue of Playboy for dyslexics?
March 14th, 2008 at 1:56 am
This is easily the best liveblog I have ever read. However, it is missing the part where you wander into a head shop and discover Minor Threat t-shirts for sale.
P.S. the Beggars interns are cute!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
alllllllll too familiar. gotta love the staycation.