This one's for the bloggers (or anyone familiar with the contrivances of this often-gross industry). Now, we just wanna start by saying that we stand by White Flight's music; we spun it and liked it. But a week ago, we received this email:
Hey! MY name is [redacted] and I read Stereogum everyday!. I live in LA doing music supervision for films and TV and slave work at the music venue [redacted].There is this band that I can't get enough of and I don't know why they aren't getting any attention. It blows my mind. I don't think the CD is out, but it is on ITunes. I mean, I really think this band is the real deal and it is so mysterious. Please listen, do it for a fan of your blog.
...
I hope to get involved somehow with this band, let me know how you feel and maybe we can bring him to life.
Thanks for the great taste and writing! Let me know if you ever need LA things, sneakings into shows etc.
The email also contained a link to MySpace, to the record label, and to a video. So, obviously a bit thorough for a "fan." But now we're hearing that this has gone around to more than one blogger -- verbatim -- and that's a problem. PR people, come on. It's not like we aren't gonna listen to the songs you send us! Why lie?
For the record, we listened to the MySpace page last week as a "reader tip," and weren't that impressed. It was only today, when we simultaneously received a promo CD and an email from the true publicist, that we had heard enough to write (as stated in the original post). We like White Flight. Grab his tracks and enjoy. "The Condition" and "Obsidian" are other stand-outs.
But how many of you guys got this "fan email"? A few of our friends in blogging have already chimed in, and we wanna separate discussions; we're assuming Justin had nothing to do with this, so leave that post to talk about his music. This is where we talk shop. So ... what the fuck?? What other horror stories of publicists pulling the wool are out there?
We give this one credit, though. At least it got our blog's name right.
UPDATE: The email's author has a message.
Woah woah.Dude my email was sooo genuine. I do read stereogum everyday, i worked really hard writing an email to make it thourough and helpful with Links, information, etc.Everything i got. I got all the information by becoming a fan. I found White Flight through an old roomate of mine who was from lawrence KS. I don't know whyt they have gone undiscovered and i contacted the label in order to see what the deal was, how i could help, why wasn't he coming to LA. There is very little for me to do except try to spread the word. I thought sending out an email to the handfull of blogs i read daily would be a good way to focus efforts and maybe bring light to this artist. My only experience in PR is through random events i do around town. I only hit up 8 blogs and im sorry for not altering my language. In all honesty i really am being genuine and i want only to share this band with people.brooklyn vegan, old kentucky, stereogum, robots, dream of horses, gorilla vs bear, tiny mixed tapes, gramophone were the ones i emailed. I don't really don't want to post this because its too many words and i don't think anyone cares but me and i would like to seperate this drama from the good band.but i just wanted to let you know where im coming from. I wish i could get paid to promote this guy.
We're sorry for the confusion, and we're not angry with her; we know that publicists draft "personalized emails" and change the "Dear ____" part everytime -- we've come to expect it. So how to differentiate between fans and publicists? It's getting tricky out there.
And attention, PR firms: Hire this girl!
