Animator Nicolo Bianchino provides a wonderful cartoon accompaniment to the Giorgio Moroder interview featured in Daft Punk’s track Giorgio, brilliantly illustrating moments from master of disco’s formative years.
Giorgio from Nicolo Bianchino on Vimeo.
The British kids’ TV show Tiswas had a live studio audience filled with young fans and The Pretenders. In 1981 Chrissie Hynde, Martin Chambers and Pete Farndon had the pleasure of participating in a skit called The Phantom Flan Flinger Challenge. Not sure if any rock band would do this now…
On The Howard Stern Show, Dana Carvey did a bit from his new Netflix special, Straight White Male, 60, in which he imagines a spot-on conversation between Paul McCartney and John Lennon where Paul tries to explain Kanye West.
Musician Travis Netzer shows how a few effects pedals and the right technique can make an ordinary tuba can sound like an fuzzed out electric guitar. For proof, check out his cool version of The White Stripes’ Catch Hell Blues from the 2007 album Icky Thump.
50/50 gives the 10,000 year history of women + power — from setbacks and uprisings, to the bigger context of where we are today. Using her signature, cinematic-thought-essay style, Emmy-nominated filmmaker & founder of The Webby Awards Tiffany Shlain brings us on an electric ride to explore, where are we really on the greater arc of history of women and power? And what’s it going to take to get to a #5050 world — not just politics and board rooms, but truly shifting the gender balance to be better for everyone.
50/50 premiered on Oct 27, 2016 simultaneously live at #TEDWomen and 275 TEDx’s globally, online on @Refinery29 and on TV on Comcast’s Watchable. It is the most viewed long form film Refinery29 has released with over 4 million views to date. It then became the centerpiece film for the first ever 50/50 Day, which happened May 10th, with over 11,000 events across the globe all talking about what it’s going to take to get to a more gender balanced world across all parts of society.
Iann Emmeson plays the worlds smallest ukulele accompanied by Phil Dolman at the concert night at the Cheltenham Ukulele Festival of Great Britain in 2013.
Ariana Grande has re-released “One Last Time,” originally released as a single in 2015, as a benefit track on iTunes. All proceeds from the song’s sales will go to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.
Daniel Glass had no idea a recession was right around the corner when he launched Glassnote Entertainment Group in 2007.
Ten years later, Glassnote has become one the world’s leading indie labels. Much of that has to do with the quality of the recording artists signed to Glassnote – including Mumford & Sons, CHVRCHES, Childish Gambino and Phoenix.
SoundExchange: You also signed some great bands that just killed it, and that helped. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took a while for Mumford & Sons to gain traction in the U.S. With Mumford & Sons, was it a matter of developing a strategy, putting that strategy into play and then being patient?
Glass: The strategy was simple. What hooked us was their live show. It was these four, passionate people who were playing American music better than many Americans at the time.
All we had to do was invite people to see them live to convince them that this was something different, something fresh and something that could work for their radio listeners.
Then the momentum started.
The industry was scratching their heads thinking, “What are these four English guys doing with a kick drum and a banjo singing alternative folk rock music?”
People had a hard time with it, which usually happens with big records. A few years earlier “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” came out of nowhere and sold millions of copies. No one saw that coming. It was different, and it was great.
With Mumford & Sons, it was a great band that was great live, and their records were made exquisitely with emotion so they resonated. If you look at every success we’ve had, each one of them took a long, patient path.
Not one of those trajectories was a huge spike. People think these things are overnight successes, but it was a long haul and the band worked very hard. I think patience and persistence were the keys.
SoundExchange: What’s the takeaway for executives at a young label? Is it all about good A&R? Is it about having and implementing a good plan?
Glass: I think A&R is the most important part. You’ve got to sign great talent. You’ve got to have hits. I believe in having the best producers, the best mixers and the best engineers.
After that you have to decide what game you want to be in. Do you want to compete? Do you want exposure? Do you want to try to get on Saturday Night Live and the Graham Norton shows of the world and KROQ and KIIS-FM?
Then you have to spend money and hire the best people.
We’ve had some wonderful moments here, and it doesn’t happen overnight. We work really hard to get the feature stories written and the artists to play Madison Square Garden, Lollapalooza, Coachella and Bonnaroo. That’s what we aspire to, but that’s also what we project.
We want to be number one on radio and we also really love headliners. So the band has to have ambition. I look at them before they sign and say “Are you sure you can do this? We’re kind of intense.”
All those bands have the same DNA – they’re great live.
The takeaway for a young executive is great A&R, but you’ve got to work hard and you have to get out of the office and meet with people in person.
Vasyl Lomachenko shows off his freakish accuracy with this cool tennis ball technique. Me? I’d just be scared to enter a boxing ring.
12-year-old Darci Lynne uses ventriloquism to overcome her shyness stuns the America’s Got Talent crowd with a surprising singing act. See her wow everyone and get a Golden Buzzer from Mel B.
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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