sampfeifle's Blog

Film project looking for bands

Hell everyone, the PMF received this request today. Follow up as you see fit:

We are looking for local Musicians to share music for this
documentary. If you Have interest or know of people that may be
interested please pass our information along. The film will be shown
at film festivals world wide followed with showings on public access
television and the usual internet peppering. What we can offer in
return is listings in the credits and a great big thank you.
Thanks for your time.
John

For Immediate Release

TATTOOS FOR CHARITY!  A 21 SUBMARINE SALUTE SPONSORED BY JOHN BISWELL
TATTOOS AND TRIPLE BEAGLE PRODUCTIONS.  IN HONOR OF THE LATE JOHN
BISWELL SR.

Portland, ME - "21 Submarine Salute" on September 12, 2009 all
proceeds to benefit the Maine Children's Cancer Program.  Triple
Beagle Productions will film the event and compile the footage into a
documentary. Cancer survivors and their families  will be encouraged
to  share their   experiences to the camera.

“J. Rodney” Biswell Sr. a Senior Chief in the Navy worked on Diesel
Boat Submarines and was a decorated high powered rifleman and also
retired from Bath Iron Works. He passed away last year for cancer at
the age of seventy-two.  In the honor of his passing his son and
tattooer John Biswell is sponsoring the tattoo charity event.  With
the help of friends Kapten Hannah of Squid and Whale Tattoo and Matt
Wallace. They all will be tattooing submarine tattoos from 11 am to
close.  Their goal is to tattoo one hundred submarine tattoos with a
suggested $100.00 donation each.  Yes a goal of 10,000 dollars in a
single day of tattooing!

Tattooing will be done on a first come first serve bases. Additional
details will be posted at www.biswelltattoos.com.

The Event Location: 24 Exchange St. #213 Portland,ME 04101 (207) 822-9914
The Day:  Sat. Sept 12, 2009
The Time: 11 am to close

John’s intentions for this event will be “a way to say goodbye to his
dad” and let younger people and tattoo lovers get conscience about the
people around them.  He hopes this will be a jump off point to inspire
people to create their own event or charity.  “Not only will they be
just be making a donation, but they will be putting a mark on their
body.  It is a sign of solidarity.”

“People that our effected by cancer, this should be a fun energetic
healing process.  They will be saying I am effected by cancer, but I
am here doing this to make something positive.”

Contact: John Biswell

Tel. (207) 822-9914
Email: jbiswell@gmail.com, triplebeagleproductions@gmail.com

www.biswelltattoos.com

If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an
interview with John Biswell, please call Michael Thompson at (856)
313-0133 or e-mail Michael at triplebeagleproductions@gmail.com

Re: Booking shows in portland

Well, it can't be that different here in Portland, Maine, as it is in the other Portland. Easiest way? Open for someone else. If you can draw a crowd to a show you're opening, you'll get another gig on your own. Further, if you can add a few hundred names to your email list after opening for someone else, you'll be able to get another gig on your own. 

If you can't find a more established band that's willing to give you an opening slot, then that should tell you something about your music. 

Re: interesting blog posts on Portland Point

Just added the Tony Smokes blog to my google reader. Well done.

Re: Jango- Pay for Play

Hey Dan - I finally went and checked this out after having meant to for a while. Very interesting, if a little disturbing. One commenter notes that if the process is transparent, payola is fine, and I think I agree. 

Imagine if WCYY told you up front: all songs here are here because someone bought the space. You would enter that experience with a totally different expectation. As it is, people were under the impression that they were being presented with the music they were most likely to like, and instead they were getting paid ads. Hence the fraud charges and Spitzer involvement, etc.

But why isn't WCYY all paid at this point? It actually seems like an interesting idea for a radio station, much like Jango. If you were told that, each hour, you'd be presented with 10 songs that were paid placements, in exchange for zero advertisements of the normal kind, wouldn't you listen? I would. Who would bother buying song placement for utterly crappy songs that didn't fit? Well, maybe some people, but in large part the music probably wouldn't be that bad, and it would subsidize the DJs to choose songs they liked instead of having of having to fit into a particular mold in order to satisfy advertisers, etc., and make ratings. 

Actually, that's probably a bad idea. But it's kind of interesting.

Re: Neko Case - Live at Port City Music Hall - August 4th On sale 5/29 @ 9AM

This is excellent.

Re: interesting blog posts on Portland Point

I guess it depends on your definition of interesting. He/she's being over the top on purpose (and admits to such), which is how the Internet works nowadays. With so much clutter out there you need to get people angry to draw interest. The blog wasn't getting any attention, so it ripped (in an over the top manner it apologized for) a band that a lot of people like. The band sent that to their friends. Their friends sent them mean emails. Now the Point matters. Great. 

Feeling bad, the Point then put up a nice post about how great Portland is because the town supported to "cool" shows it didn't really deserve on a rainy Wednesday. Great. 

I'd like for there to be more people commenting on local music, the Point included. More opinions and voices is better for everyone. 

Dylan was doing a great job here (http://soloudinhere.wordpress.com/), but seems to have stopped posting. Where'd you go, Dylan? 

I wish Chris Gray used his local blog more: http://ofmaine.wordpress.com/

And, of course, Bryan is doing some great work here: http://hillytown.com/

Except, I guess, they don't just rip people, so a lot of you have never heard of them, I guess. 

But, anyway, let's see if the Point maintains its momentum. Is it something where he/she's going to take a bunch of pot shots, get bored with it, and then bail? Or is this something that's going to continue for a while and build some institutional memory. 

College of the Atlantic is looking for bands

Hey everyone,
We received this query from CoA this morning:

"GREETINGS FROM COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC    Message: The Student Activities Committee from College of the Atlantic is trying to find some really good bands or other types of entertainment for next year so I thought you could be interested in coming to perform or do a workshop at our small college located in Bar Harbor, Maine.

this is what they asked: 
Do you have a favorite group?  Know someone in a band?  Or better yet, have you actually been to see a band in concert and know how they perform??
the student activity committee needs suggestions

FYI: Bands/groups/comedians/puppeteers that are in the $200-$2000 range are most likely to be within the SAC budget.  Also, we\'re looking for performers that will be appealing to a large range of students because, remember, this is everyone\'s STUDENT ACTIVITIES FEE that brings these acts to campus.
PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PLANNING SOMETHING FOR NEXT YEAR."

Contact Jose Merlo at jmerlo@coa.edu

48-hour music festival documentary

Hey folks, this is a cool new movie that's coming out June 4, documenting the recent 48-hour music festival that went down at SPACE. 

Check out the trailer:

Success stories for Maine Arts?

Hey folks, the Maine Arts Commission is feeling the budget pinch just like everyone else. Since they're our granting organization that makes our educational series possible, we'd like to help them retain their funding. 

To make their case that their funding is worth it, they need to show "return on investment" - basically, success stories that show communities are stronger and more healthy because of their arts investments.

If you have a success story from something the PMF has done or helped you with, please share it by sending it to info@portlandmusicfoundation.org. Have you formed a band or picked up a member by using our mixers? Have you sold more of this album than the last one because of marketing tools you've learned at our ed sessions? 

Any story of success will help Maine Arts make their case and by extension help us continue our programming thanks to their funding. Help out if you can. They're looking for stories by the end of May.

Cheers,
Sam Pfeifle
Secretary, Portland Music Foundation

Re: Song of the Day project

Sounds exhausting. I can barely make sure I take a shower every day...

Re: The State Theatre rumors

Just spoke with Toxic Audio's booker Ron, and he says they're not playing the State Theatre in July. 

They're actually in Brunswick at the Maine State Music Theatre, on the Bowdoin College Campus, on July 27. So, yeah, Pollstar can get things wrong sometimes. It was worth a call, though. 

Art gallery gig opportunity

SKG (Sylvia Kania Gallery) has been Voted Portland's Best Art Gallery in The Phoenix Best of '09! 

Our 1st Fridays have been a great success - Standing room only - Great Music being one of our gallery's highlights.

We're looking for bands to play 1st Fridays of each month. Sell your CD - you keep all the $$ and also keep all your tip!

Call Cat McKenna, 609-947-4424(cell)

Re: "Metal On Metal" - Free Download -

Thanks Mike - that's helpful. 

Re: "Metal On Metal" - Free Download -

Hudson Eakin, from The Way out Is Through, just registered his new, free, album through Creative Commons, but I didn't really understand what that meant. I just knew it could be downloaded for free. From what I could gather, it just offered some copyright protection? 

Re: The State Theatre rumors

I'm making the call.

Re: PCMH and WCYY welcome SALIVA May 21

Hey guys - show announcements should kind of be in the "Promotion" part of the board. News/Suggestions mostly refers to the PMF-related news and suggestions for the PMF.

When topics get removed

The Portland Music Foundation forum is an open one, and we encourage healthy debate and by no means try to censor anyone, but when a topic devolves into a he-said/she-said about a meaningful topic where the PMF moderators can see no quick resolution, and the debate becomes potentially libelous, it is our policy to remove the topic from public view. 

There is no hard and fast rule on this. It's like pornography: We know it when we see it (not that we've been looking...).

You can address questions on this matter to info@portlandmusicfoundation.org.

Re: Port City Music Hall, 504 Congress St.

Damn. I love Sara Watkins. Don't go teasing people.

Re: Is this good news or bad news?

More information on that Performance Rights Act. I don't have a link, but here's a very in-depth look at what's happening:

Bills Creating Performance Right for Recording Artists Are Reintroduced in Congress

By Matt Williams and Marc Mayer

On February 4, 2009, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orin Hatch (R-UT) and Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced bills -- S. 379 and H.R. 848, each referred to as the "Performance Rights Act" - that, for the first time, would require United States broadcast radio stations to pay licensing fees to performers of music. If passed, the bills would constitute a long-awaited change to the current broadcast licensing regime, in which broadcasters make payments to the owners of copyrights in musical compositions, but not to the performers (and record labels) that own copyrights in and/or contribute to sound recordings. 

The current bills are an attempt to bring the United States into conformity with the rest of the world. Nearly every industrialized nation other than the United States already requires radio broadcasters to compensate performers. However, because the United States does not provide compensation for foreign performers, many foreign broadcasters do not pay for publicly performing songs recorded by U.S. performers. Upon introducing H.R. 848, Representative Issa remarked that "we have a opportunity to show the rest of the world that the United States practices what it preaches in protecting intellectual property.... Our ignorance of intellectual property rights on this issue is a worldwide embarrassment and it must end now." 

The absence of a public performance right in sound recordings has inspired a long string of failed attempts to create parity among songwriters and performers. Ironically, in 1995, these attempts to obtain parity resulted in a more fragmented legal regime. At that time, Congress passed the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act, which requires digital "webcasters," but not radio broadcasters, to compensate performers. As a result, performers currently are compensated when their songs are played online but not over the radio, while songwriters are compensated in both instances. 

In their current form, S. 379 and H.R. 848 would amend sections 106(6) and 114 of the Copyright Act, which grant limited public performance rights to sound recordings and establish statutory licensing schemes to determine rates applicable to public performance of sound recordings, respectively. In order to curb criticism and opposition, the House and Senate versions of the Performance Rights Act contain provisions limiting the scope of the new right provided to performers. These limitations include: 

Available statutory (i.e., "compulsory") licensing with rates set by the Copyright Royalty Judges, who also currently set rates for online digital public performances of sound recordings, among other things.

Exemptions for nonsubscription transmissions of services at places of worship or other religious assembly, as well as "incidental" use of sound recordings.

An annual $1,000 blanket statutory license for noncommercial (i.e., public, educational, or religious) radio stations.

An annual $5,000 blanket statutory license for commercial radio stations that generate less than $1.25 million in annual revenue (which the bills' sponsors believe will cover over 75% of the commercial radio stations in the U.S.).

Available "per program" statutory license rates for broadcast radio stations that make "limited feature uses" of sound recordings.

Provisions to ensure that songwriters and composers continue to receive fair compensation for public performances of their works despite the increased costs to broadcasters associated with paying performers.

Retention of a distinction between musical works and sound recordings such that venues that play recorded music (such as clubs and bars) would continue to pay songwriters but not performers.

Provisions requiring 50% of the royalties paid through statutory licensing of sound recordings to go to "featured" performers and "non-featured" musicians and vocalists rather than solely to copyright owners of the sound recordings. (The House bill would also require 50% of royalties earned through voluntary licensing of sound recordings for public performances on broadcast radio to be paid to "featured" performers and "non-featured" musicians and vocalists, whereas the Senate bill would not.)

The bills face some opposition, especially from radio broadcasters. The National Association of Broadcasters ("NAB"), an opponent of the bills, maintains that requiring radio stations to compensate performers "will harm your local radio stations [and] threaten new artists trying to break into the business." NAB also claims that the bills will undo the promotional "symbiotic relationship" that currently exists between radio stations, record labels, and performers. In the last Congress, such arguments inspired 227 members of the House of Representatives and 14 Senators to support Congressional resolutions (H. Con. Res. 244 and S. Con. Res. 82) opposing radio royalties for performers. However, organizations that speak for musicians contend that the promotional value of free radio play does not justify the absence of protection for sound recordings. For example, Ann Chaitovitz, the Executive Director of Future of Music Coalition, has argued that "the promotional claim is irrelevant. Authors often see sales spikes when their books are made into movies, but no one would suggest that the writer shouldn't be paid when their work is translated to the screen because the film is 'promotional'." 

The bills' sponsors have publicly stated that they are willing to work with all interested parties to see these bills through to law even if that requires amendments. So the final form of the bills may differ significantly from their current form. In the meantime, the bills have a strong base of support, and many believe that the bills have a strong chance of becoming law. 

Re: Is this good news or bad news?

Agreed - maybe someone who works at a radio station (hint, hint, PMF board members) could tell us what portion of a station's budget actually goes to paying royalties and how much of a burden it would be if that was increased by a third.

Is this good news or bad news?

Muzak, the company that makes music crappy for use in elevators and stores, has filed for bankruptcy. That's got to be a good sign, right? But maybe musicians make money off it. I'm not sure.

Re: New Member Introduction - Who are you?

Hey JWL - good to have you (and you, Jeremy) - and, yes, you can join at the door of the ProTools session. 

Take the Phoenix online reader survey

Hey everyone, 

The Phoenix is doing a reader survey that you can take at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228S7TFQM72 

If you happened to want to praise and recommend more of the local music coverage, I wouldn't object to that...

Plus, you can get free movie passes for taking it.

Re: The State Theatre rumors

Basically, the company that was renting it and managing it for $10,000 a month wasn't paying rent, so they were evicted. No one has rented it since because of the repair work needed (at least that's the public opinion).

The State Theatre rumors

Quoting detuned from the PCMH thread:

"on a side note, while waiting in line for the bathroom at the show, some dude started talking to me and saying that supposedly the state theater is going to re-open? has anyone heard anything? is there any truth to this?"



This is swirling around the music community. I've heard many different stories. Is this wishful thinking or does anyone have anything concrete. I don't even know whom to call to find out about this anymore. Someone point me in the right direction and I'll dig up the dirt. Meanwhile, I'm making calls.