Racer Records Captain's Log - May 10, 1996

Lots of people have asked about the day-to-day workings of an indie label, so I thought I'd start giving a little running commentary of just exactly what it is I do around here.

Captain's Logs are written sporadically and tend to get skipped if I'm insanely busy or am doing a lot of computer consulting (and hence very little Racer work).

I'll try to post this as consistently as possible until I forget to do it, I run out of time, or I find out people think it's incredibly pretentious and boring.

Comments and questions are heartily encouraged.

Summary

Computer consulting work took up a lot of my time this week; I also continued to work on making retail calls in addition to the usual load of radio calls. The Potato Eaters show on Thursday night was definitely the highlight of the week...

Cast of Characters

Russ: Russ Osiecki of Big Umbrella, their lead singer and guitar player, and my main contact in the band
Bayside and Caroline: these are the two distributors Racer works with

Captain's Log, Saturday, May 4, 1996

Things I Accomplished:

* backing up my hard drive

* lots of work on my consulting project

Captain's Log, Sunday, May 5, 1996

A couple of people who saw Big Umbrella in Tacoma and Seattle this weekend called about their shows.

Other Things I Accomplished:

* CMJ Dialog

Captain's Log, Monday, May 6, 1996

Radio Phone Calls:

Made 138 radio calls

Other Phone Calls:

* Spoke with the guy at Bayside who deals with my invoices; he called ME to tell me he's sending me a check for some of what they owe me. It made my day.

* Got and filled an order.

* Called a buyer for Musicland to tell him about the places where Big Umbrella is getting airplay.

* Talked with a guy in a band that has sent me a demo before, and wanted to know if I wanted their latest demo. His band is really active, playing all over the place - they're about to tour Europe. I told him I definitely wanted to hear their latest tape.

* Talked with a consulting client.

Other Things I Accomplished:

* preparing retail calls - put together a list of stores I could call to encourage them to stock the Big Umbrella CD

Captain's Log, Tuesday, May 7, 1996

Radio Phone Calls:

Made 84 radio calls

Other Phone Calls:

* Spoke with a friend who might have some consulting work for me.

* Talked to the West Coast manager at Caroline about what's going on with their warehouse consolidation, and about the problems with getting Big Umbrella's CD to show up in Caroline's computers.

* Talked with a couple of buyers at one-stops who are customers of Caroline. I offered to start sending them our weekly fax showing where we're getting airplay, and to let them know when I call record stores and encourage them to order the disc.

* Got and filled an order.

* Talked with one of the Caroline sales reps.

* Talked with Russ about sending packages to a couple of clubs he wants to play and about a possible contact in the LA press.

* Sent an e-mail to a club in Sacramento where Russ wants Big Umbrella to play.

Other Things I Accomplished:

* online work - answered a bunch of email

Captain's Log, Wednesday, May 8, 1996

Radio Phone Calls:

Made 94 radio calls

Other Phone Calls:

* Got and filled an order.

* Got a message from a guy who had seen Big Umbrella in Tacoma and talked to the guy who does the new music show on KISZ, who now would like a copy of Big Umbrella's CD for consideration for his show.

* Talked with Russ about his calls to the press in LA (he's helping me out with LA press to take a bit of the load off of me)

* Made plane reservations for my trip to LA next week

Other Things I Accomplished:

* online work - answered a bunch of e-mail

Captain's Log, Thursday, May 9, 1996

The highlight of the day was seeing the Potato Eaters live at the Paradise. It was their first show in a very long time, and almost certainly their last show together.

Lots of people came to see them, and after a really long and trying day, it was just wonderful for me to get to see this band, the band that made me want to start a label - they sounded so good, they seemed to enjoy themselves, the sizeable crowd had a terrific time, and it was just a perfect evening.

Radio Phone Calls:

Made 110 radio calls

Other Phone Calls:

* Got and filled an order.

* Got a message from a consulting client about getting a new version of their project from me.

* Left a message for the buyer at Wherehouse Records who wants to order Big Umbrella CDs, asking if he could help with getting things straightened out with Caroline.

Captain's Log, Friday, May 10, 1996

Radio Phone Calls:

Made 66 radio calls

Other Phone Calls:

* Spoke at length with a consulting client about an upcoming project.

* Spoke with another consulting client about their current project.

Other Things I Accomplished:

* weekly radio fax

The Captain's Log is an inside look at the day-to-day operations of an indie label. Contents may have settled during shipping. Questions, comments, ideas, and thoughts are encouraged (whether or not they're related to the log).

Grinning,

Kristi

Racer Records

This page was last updated on March 3, 2004 by Kristi Wachter.