An Update… Response from John Richards
I asked John Richards how he felt about the story in the Stranger that I blogged about earlier.
His response was that he has gotten used to being attacked by the Stranger, claiming that the newspaper has printed similar stories attacking his integrity for the past few years.
“They wrote this same kind of article seven years ago when I started my label,” he said.
Richards says that this latest article doesn’t have a real story.
“[They say] John does this, and this isn’t wrong but they wrote it such a way to imply [that it] was,” he said. “They never mention I’ve never been paid a penny from the band and don’t have a contract with them for any future money. I was helping them get through the music waters.”
I asked him how he felt about the Stranger writing about Kexp DJs having conflicts of interest when the magazine’s writers seem to have some clear conflicts of their own. His response:
“Megan who wrote it is on 107.7 The End pretty much every week.
How is THAT not a conflict with her writing about us [Kexp]?”
Blood Brothers Call it Quits + M.I.A. to Play Seattle (Hopefully)
Last week Seattle band the Blood Brothers announced its decision to break up in this blog post on the band’s myspace page.
THANK YOU AND GOODBYE
Dear Friends,
After 10 years of making music as The Blood Brothers, we have made the collective decision that our time together has come to an end. We feel extremely fortunate to have spent such a deeply memorable and amazing part of our lives with each other. At this point, however, we feel it’s best that our futures move forward on separate paths. We’d like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to all the bands we’ve played with, individuals who have helped us make our records, and fans who have come to our shows and picked up our music throughout the years. Your friendship, support and love hold such a profoundly special place in each of our hearts. We hope that the memories you attach to our music are as fond as those you have given us. Thank you and take care, we’ll miss all of you.
Love,
The Blood Brothers
Over the past decade the Blood Brothers has been a front runner of the Seattle hardcore scene. The band has played such Seattle events as the Capital Hill Block party and has built a rather large following of fans across the country. The band has released eight records, as well as EPs and DVDs. The band’s latest release was 2006’s Young Machetes.
In other news the amazing M.I.A. is playing the Showbox SoDo tomorrow night. The Sri Lankan rapper has been banned from the United States in the past years. The past couple of times she was scheduled to play in Seattle the shows have been canceled, because she couldn’t get across the border.
Her new record, Kala, was released in August. This album was partially recorded in India and Africa and she blends her hip-hop style with native beats and rhythms.
Let’s hope she makes it across the border this time.
Beloved Seattle DJ Attacked by the Stranger?
A couple of weeks ago this article was published in the News section of the Stranger.
The story brings up the possibility of John Richards, KEXP’s popular morning DJ, being biased to The Blakes, a Seattle band that he is co-managing. While stating that this is not illegal, the article seems to attempt to lead the reader to believe that this so-called conflict of interest could be unethical.
The story quotes members of the Seattle music community, many of whom think that it is unethical for Richards to have a financial interest in a band that he plays on his radio show.
Most people will probably find it odd that people in the Seattle music community would be so concerned about this, considering how many people involved in music in this city have interests in different aspects. Record store owners and night club employees playing in prominent local bands, record companies employing, and sometimes being owned by local musicians, members of bands owning recording studios.
I find it interesting that the Stranger is so concerned about Richards’ apparent conflict of interest, when many of its own music writers are strongly involved in the music community themselves, perhaps even a little too much. Not only is Eric Grandy a popular DJ (as mentioned in the article) but Megan Seling is known to have friendships with members of certain local bands, and has even been seen around town and at shows wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts promoting local bands.
I’m just saying. It could be argued that biased journalism is much more unethical than a guy who hosts a morning radio show having financial interest in a band or two. People expect DJs to be opinionated about their music, and to have different relationships with the bands that they play. This is especially true with a radio station like KEXP, which is loved so dearly by Seattle music fans because of its dedication to playing and promoting local music. They also expect journalists to be objective, and it could be a conflict of interest, whether real or apparent, if a music journalist is friends with members of the bands (s)he reports on.
John Richards has been the owner of Loveless Records for years, so it’s odd that this is just now becoming an issue.
