press officers and publicists

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how do you like them to act/do their job?
do they annoy you?
do you like them?

― PO, Friday, 21 January 2005 14:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

PR people? I like them well enough. It's tough when you're with an online mag and they don't acknowledge you at times. It's an uphill battle with a lot of majors, but some minor labels are hardasses at times, too.

Most of the time, they're cool, though. The worst experience I had with a publicist was when I shot down a band on a message board and the bass player read it and whined to their manager, who whined back to the label rep. She called me up screaming on the phone. Nice.

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Friday, 21 January 2005 14:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

My only gripe with publicists is when they take the "let's throw all the pasta against the wall and see if anything sticks" approach. There was one several months ago who sent me every single thing he was working, including one that was almost Shaggs-like in its amateurishness and inappropriateness.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 21 January 2005 16:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

i understand equating the shaggs with amateurishness, but imappropriateness? who on earth SHOULD you send a shaggs-like thing to if not a rock critic? that seems exquisitely appropriate to me.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 17:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

sometimes you have to throw all the 'pasta' at journalists to try and get the maximum coverage. i doubt press officers are browsing their databases wondering for hours on end if they should send each journo such and such CD and fretting whether it may or not be to their taste!

― sunil (sunil), Friday, 21 January 2005 17:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

The only publicists I don't like are ones who call me at home. Don't call me. Send me the CD, send me an e-mail so I know where to reach you, and let me do all the work of maintaining contact from that point on. If I successfully pitch a review or a piece, I'll let you know, I promise.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 21 January 2005 17:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

most are cool, some are annoying. i can't say that i have blanket hatred for calls... some of the folks i really like chatting with, however, there are some incessant callers with whom i just immediately come up with excuses to get off the line. definitely prefer email/...

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

Depends on whom they represent and how big is your publication/show/whatever. My experience tells me that when they are representing somebody big and you are small they sometimes feel like you owe them coverage, while those representing smaller acts are infinitly nice and try to accomodate you in every way possible. There are exceptions to either cases...

― blawa, Friday, 21 January 2005 18:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

i hope people name names on the classic & dud publicists on this thread. im in a gossipy mood today.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

Classic! I think they're terrific. Every one of them. Great stuff, guys: I'm so excited about every one of your new releases. Please send me lots of good CDs. Thanks, much love, and keep up the good work.

(Also if you have really crappy releases -- you know the ones -- just send them to any local used-CD buyer, c/o the Help Nabisco Eat fund. Thanks, much love, and keep up the good work.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

C: jon berry @ regenerate industries, ben goldberg @ leaf, brock/judy@ motormouth, david@ forced exposure, brendan@ tagteam, all the girlies... that's just off the top. sorry, no Ds from me.

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

these ppl, btw, are the ones i *do* like getting phone calls from

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

actually, id rather see the classics!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

john at bad moon (these are all UK, natch) was a top comedy funster who always came up with the goods. and the lovely woman who was at domino in the mid-90s ... can't remember her name, but she was ace. these days i'm sadly out of touch.

o yeh, and tones at creation. tones at creation! how could i forget? ah, happy days.

god, i never thought i'd get nostalgic for my commissioning days. ever. coo lummee.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

somebody big and you are small they sometimes feel like you owe them coverage,

Mostly, they all, at one time or another, feel you owe them a favor. It's the way of the business. Publicists have been trained in a corporate culture that views entertainment writers as, at best, stenographers. It is not entirely their fault that many publications have worked for decades to reinforce this notion.

Often, you can feel the standard aggrieved tone leaking out of e-mail entreaties to provide a review.

Also heaven forbid, sometimes, if you write a good review in unusually colorful double-edged language.

― Fleischmann Hilliard, Friday, 21 January 2005 18:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

Ken Taylr - Ben Goldberg, formerly of Matador? Does Leaf have a website?

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

utter fucking dud

the last one killed my record stone dead

― john clarkson, Friday, 21 January 2005 19:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

Great things about publicists:

1. They can be great conversationalists when none of your friends are online and you crave real-time chatter about some event, band, what-have-you and you don’t wanna get into these things with co-workers (Marie V at Susan Blonde, Amber at K).
2. They can turn you onto great bands you never would have heard otherwise (everyone at Fanatic).
3. They can be stunningly courteous and helpful, swiftly sending promos and press materials, tracking down needed info you can’t find (everyone mentioned above, plus Girlie Action staff, plus Tag Team staff, plus tons of people I’m forgetting now).

Horrible things about publicists:

1. Calls at home. This almost never happens, but I’m not a big fan of it. E-mail’s fine, folks.
2. Emailing me three months after you’ve already sent me something and asked me if I was going to write about it and I already said probably not and I didn’t contact you about seeking any info, then sending me ANOTHER email after I replied to that one.
3. Getting belligerent with me when I say I’m writing a review, demanding to know why it isn’t a feature. This happened just the other day, as a matter of fact, with a promotions person for 50 Foot Wave. But I played it off legit.
4. Saying “I can’t send you a promo copy til after the record comes out, is that okay?” then proceeding to ignore every one of the 2,000 replies I sent to that message, including the one I sent to the other person in her promotions department (who forwarded it to her). God, that pissed me off. Never got the promo. Then the editor gave the review to someone else. I wish I could remember the lady’s name; but the record was America’s Sweetheart and the label was Virgin.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

brett-- yeah, that's the same ben. i think leaf's site is hosted at posteverything.com

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah, they can be very helpful... especially folks that actually work at labels. mute, matador/beggars, sub pop, all have great PR teams.

D: publicists who don't actually read my personalized responses to their form emails, and then send me the same form email two weeks later

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:21 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Also heaven forbid, sometimes, if you write a good review in unusually colorful double-edged language."

I totally agree with this. It seems some publicist are against any kind of creative writing when it comes down to reviews. The prefered structure is:
-Quote the bio heavily
-Say that it is good in a sentence or two while producing something quotable for them.
-Finish with an exclamation, ie: "This ROCKS!"

Note again that I have dealt more than a few different from this.

― blawa, Friday, 21 January 2005 19:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

-Quote the bio heavily

I've been known to do this but with enthusiastic and unexpected embellishment. Let's face it, bios are all uniformaly horrible, varying only in degree. The way of things in the business dictates this. Everyone must shout ridiculous things in a very loud and easy for simpletons to understand way, and the louder and the more simpler you are taken for, the better. So it is only right that writers should take bios and superannuate or embellish them with elaborate and/or non-sensical fictions. It's good for everybody. Good for the mental health of the journalist, good for the artist's collection of clippings and fulfills the p.r. bottom line of getting the name correctly spelled and into print.

See here: On "jerking" the bio.

A direct result of intensive p.r. labor.

― Fleischmann Hilliard, Friday, 21 January 2005 19:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

Most of the current ones I know are through e-mail only, but they're a good lot. Mr. Day at FE is indeed a prince.

Credit as well to those label folks who essentially are their own PR person and handle it with aplomb. James Nice at LTM and Sam at Projekt top this list pretty well.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

I never read the bios...I have enough information going through my head, to have the obviously slanted opinion of a PR person in there would muck things up far more than they already are.

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

i at least skim the bios for pertinent factual info...

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

for that I use AMG. I just feel like I'll be tainted somehow if I read them.

The best ones are where, like the last Rolling Stones live album, they're like a book...just ridiculously long.

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

On the whole most are good people, but then you get idiotic people in every profession. All the PRs I speak to on a regular basis I like a lot.

o yeh, and tones at creation. tones at creation! how could i forget? ah, happy days.

Did you ever deal with Laurance? I'm a bit too young to have known her in her Creation days, but she's a lovely, lovely woman.

― Anna (Anna), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

Rock critics work for publicists! You just never knew

― chuck, Friday, 21 January 2005 20:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

even better:

Question for Music Journalists: Is doing "professional" press materials worth it?

― chuck, Friday, 21 January 2005 20:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

Publicists who spam you with daily emails about bands you don't give a fuck about after they didn't get you an interview for a band you actually care about suck wet and meaty unspeakables with moles and pimples.

― Shaun (shaun), Saturday, 22 January 2005 08:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

And the sense of entitlement is not very becoming.

― Shaun (shaun), Saturday, 22 January 2005 08:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

I have mostly good experiences with them. They usually send me the right CD and PR kit on time (i.e. before I have to do an interview), they set up the interview at reasonable time/place, they give me coffee, and they apologize sincerely when the talent is predictably late for the sit-down. Even though I've always written for pretty small publications, I've rarely gotten attitude or brush-offs. I don't mind getting the email pitches, sometimes they're useful and when they're not they're easy enough to delete. I don't envy their jobs -- seems like a lot of hassle.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 22 January 2005 09:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

agree fully. they *do* have a pretty tough job, considering the amount of shit they're up against when vying for tight page space.

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Saturday, 22 January 2005 10:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

I guess if I'm going to bitch about what I don't like I need to give credit when it's due.

Greg Cargill at Interscope has been helpful. Cynthia Connolly at Dischord is always gracious and non demanding, and I remember positive experiences with the people at Girly Action when I coverd the Napster trial.

― Shaun (shaun), Saturday, 22 January 2005 18:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

There's too much admiration and nicety in this discussion. It begs for disbelief. How 'bout MSOPR, tyrannically embargoing Velvet Revolver -- like it mattered? Or being angrily called stupid for declining to go to some bar in LA to see a terrific rocking and ruling, one of a kind, act? Or being forwarded a letter from a p.r. type, to an editor, suggesting one was forgetting to take their medication?

― George Smith, Saturday, 22 January 2005 22:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

george, who do you write for?

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Saturday, 22 January 2005 22:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

yep, i'm siding with bill hicks here.

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Saturday, 22 January 2005 23:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

C all the way! I've had some fun email exchanges with Betsy Palmer at Screaming Peach (topics include Sophie Tucker, Ying Yang Twins' lyrics to "Row Da Boat," Simon & Garfunkel); also admire the women at Girlie Action, who are appreciative when they see you've put actual thought into the music they're pushing. And Kate at Call Girl in Chicago. Of course it's their job to be likeable, and there's the danger that the likeability will make me overpartial to the bands they promote. But my being so nonprolific as a record reviewer mitigates that risk. Promoting must be a frustrating job, with little recognition and, on the indie level, not a lot of $$$.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 23 January 2005 02:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

7 years pass...

I'm wondering if other critics on this board are having difficulty securing early review copies/streams of major-label releases. I feel like in the last year or two, major labels have really cracked down on advances, and now most of the publicists I work with (even ones with which I have strong, longstanding relationships) are unable to provide review copies of most albums until they leak. Since these albums now usually leak only about 5-7 days before the album's release date, that's not nearly enough time to meet the deadlines for many newspapers and magazines.

It's clear that labels don't prioritize early press the way they once did, but I'm interested in hearing how other critics/freelancers/editors deal with this or work around this (or whether they're having the same experience).

― Evan R, Friday, 21 September 2012 15:50 (8 months ago) Permalink

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press officers and publicists - C or D?