Here in the Product department, we’re always busy building cool stuff to make life (and business) easier for our clients. This time, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of a brand new Accounting section. Please, everyone, calm down. Excuse me, sir, can you put your shirt back on? This …
Videos are by far the most engaging form of social content. This isn’t exactly a new discovery, but there’s a lot of missed potential by bands that claim to have a YouTube presence. The common misconception is that your music videos go up on YouTube and you’re done. Although MTV …
Plugging — it’s a word we often hear in relation to promoting something, recommending it, giving it your stamp of approval. iPluggers does just that for your music, and it does it all around the world. With a 100% airplay guarantee (or your money back), iPluggers provides the platform for …
Meet our latest partner: Conduit Mobile. The mobile app creator is getting all kinds of press these days, and it’s not without good reason. Their sexy app offers every function you could dream of with the ease of use you’ve always wanted. What’s more, they’re compatible with all major mobile …
To all Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings fans, we’re sad to announce that plans for the band to tour and release their upcoming album in 2013 have been postponed. Unfortunately, the Queen of Soul, Sharon Jones, has been diagnosed with stage-one bile duct cancer. The silver lining is it has thankfully been caught early and hasn’t spread. Sharon is getting ready to go into surgery, but because of its complex nature, she will naturally need some time to recover.
Even though Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings will be out of commission for a while, you better believe they’ll be back on the road to promote their new album, Give The People What They Want before you know it. Sharon is very anxious to get back on her feet, and she wants all her fans to know that she is “down, but not out!”
Everyone here at The Orchard wishes her a speedy recovery, and we cannot wait until she and the Dap-Kings are back in top shape sharing their awesome music! Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, enjoy the first single from the album so far, “Retreat.”
May was another good month on the charts for our clients, with the inspirational bump in sales of Zach Sobiech‘s song “Clouds” and album Fix Me Up, both of which benefit the Osteosarcoma Fund in Zach’s name; the appearance of promising new talents like Emma Louise; and international acts topping their local charts like Antonis Remos. Congratulations!
WEEK ENDING May 26, 2013
Billboard Top 200
#20 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up EP [Rock The Cause]
Billboard Hot 100
#26 — Zach Sobiech: “Clouds” [Rock The Cause] * Hot Shot Debut
#82 — Hadouken!: “Levitate” [Hadouken Partnership]
Billboard Current Albums
#20 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up EP [Rock The Cause]
Billboard Heatseeker Albums
#13 — Emma Louise: Vs. Head Vs. Heart [Frenchkiss Records]
#19 — Lenny Cooper: Mud Dynasty [Average Joe's]
#22 — Dirty Beaches: Drifters / Love Is The Devil [Zoo Music / Revolver]
#27 — Burning Rain: Epic Obsessions [Frontiers]
#49 — Charles Bradley: Victim Of Love [Daptone Records]
Billboard Independent Albums
#4 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up EP [Rock The Cause]
Billboard Digital Albums
#9 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up EP [Rock The Cause]
#15 — Mike Stud: Relief [Electric Feel Music Group]
Billboard Folk Albums
#1 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up EP [Rock The Cause]
Billboard Top Regional Mexican Albums
#1 — La Energia Nortena: Sin Restricciones [Azteca Records]
Billboard Top Latin Albums
#3 — La Energia Nortena: Sin Restricciones [Azteca Records]
iTunes Top 200 Albums
#3 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up (feat. Zach Sobiech $ Sammy Brown) [Rock The Cause Inc.]
#91 — Emma Louise: Vs Head Vs. Heart [Frenchkiss]
#96 — Mike Stud: Relief [Electric Feel Music Group]
#142 — Ugly Heroes: Ugly Heroes [Mello Music Group]
iTunes Top 200 Songs
#1 — Zach Sobiech: “Clouds” [Rock The Cause Inc.]
#83 — A Firm Handshake: “Clouds feat. Zach Sobiech” [Rock The Cause Inc.]
iTunes Pop Songs
#1 — Zach Sobiech: “Clouds” [Rock The Cause Inc.]
iTunes Rock Albums
#1 — A Firm Handshake: Fix Me Up (feat. Zach Sobiech $ Sammy Brown) [Rock The Cause Inc.]
iTunes Rock Songs
#2 — A Firm Handshake: “Clouds feat. Zach Sobiech” [Rock The Cause Inc.]
iTunes Greece
#1 — Antonis Remos: I Kardia Me Pigeni Emena [Heaven Music]
iTunes Russia Top Albums
#4 — Okean Elzy: Земля [Nikitin]
#6 – Grigoriy Leps: The Best (Deluxe Version) [Nikitin]
#7 — Basta: Basta 4 [Gazgolder]
#11 — Chaif: Кино, Вино и Домино [Nikitin]
#12 — Assai: Задеть за Мёртвое [Studio Soyuz]
#14 — Slava: Одиночество [First Music Publishing]
iTunes Turkey Top Albums
#2 — Şebnem Ferah: Od [Pasja Muzik]
#13 — Taksim Trio: Taksim Trio 2 [Dokuz Sekiz Müzik]
#15 — Fahir Atakoglu, Aytekin Ataş: Muhteşem Yüzyıl Vol.1 [Orijinal Dizi Müzikleri]
iTunes Brazil Top Albums
#5 — Fernando & Sorocaba: Homens e Anjos [Som Livre/Globo]
#7 — Jorge & Mateus: A Hora e Agoro (Ao Vivo) [Som Livre/Globo]
#13 — Michel Télo: Sunset [Som Livre/Globo]
Introducing Mike Drake, VP of Engineering
I grew up in Lakeland, Florida, which — according to Wikipedia — is well known for citrus, cattle and phosphate mining. I moved West to attend Stanford University and stayed in the Bay Area where I played guitar in bands (Oranger, The Aquamen, Overwhelming Colorfast, Hot Fog), started an indie record label (Amazing Grease Records) with Spiral Stairs from Pavement and built software (The Mckinley Group, Excite@Home). I helped found the SF-based digital music distributor IODA, where I was VP of Engineering. Some of you may also know me as Bearded Guy #3 from The Orchard 2012 Holiday Party Battle of the Bands also-rans The Beardy Wigs.
I recently relocated to Brooklyn to work with everyone at The Orchard and experience something called “seasons.”
A few months ago, my colleague and I profiled some of the most “unique” albums in our catalogue. Since then, we have acquired a fair number of other albums that would have fit the bill, but perhaps no artist comes with as unusual a backstory as Yahowha 13, and their various other permutations, Father Yod and the Spirit of ’76, Yodship, and Fire Water Air.
These revolving groups were, in essence, the house band for The Source Family, an L.A.- and later Hawaii-based commune / cult whose strange story is the subject of a new critically acclaimed documentary: The Source Family.
Their leader, a man born Jim Baker, was a decorated WWII veteran and former Judo champion who later became a health food pioneer, a Verdantic monk, a devout student of the Yogi Bhajan, and finally, at least in his own mind, God. Now calling himself Father Yod, he began recruiting acolytes based around a relatively benign philosophy centered around yoga, health food, kindness to animals, cotton clothes, “the sacred herb,” nudism, fairly hedonistic tantric sex, and a panoply of other hippie / Aquarian notions. Yod and his followers ran a series of highly successful health food restaurants, the most famous of which, The Source, lured celebrity patrons like John Lennon, Steve McQueen and Earth Wind & Fire. (It’s where Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer orders his plate of “mashed yeast” in Annie Hall). The Source also served as a key recruitment center.
Like most cult stories, the story of The Source Family has its share of troubling aspects — Father Yod had 14 “spiritual wives” and not all of them were of legal age — but what separates them from many of the contemporaries is their musical legacy. Father Yod and his followers released nine albums between 1973 and 1975, and evidently recorded enough material for over fifty others thanks to a practice of recording just about everything with no rehearsals and no second takes. Released in miniscule quantities and largely sold at The Source, these records are now among the ne plus ultra for rare psych collectors, and original copies fetch thousands of dollars when they can be found at all. Thankfully they’ve since been reissued by The Source Foundation, a group run by several of the original members. These recordings run the gamut from scuzzed-out stoner skronk, to schmaltzy hippie folk hymns, to some of the greatest and most mindbending outsider psych of the era.
Father Yod, who later changed his name to Yahowha, (hence the band name Yahowha 13), died in a 1975 hang gliding accident not long after the group decamped to Hawaii due to legal troubles in the mainland. At least initially, this tragedy did little to curb the band’s creative output. Members of the group, which at one time included the late Sky Saxon, former lead singer of The Seeds, have continued on his name. In the late ’90s, there was a renewed interest in the group, helped in part by a lavish (if somewhat insane) 13-CD box set issued by a Japanese label, and surviving members have, in recent years, issued new music and performed with likeminded weirdos like Acid Mothers Temple and No-Neck Blues Band.
With the release of this new documentary, I expect that Yahowha will gain a few more followers interested in exploring his sonic legacy. Check it out now.
This week, I’m very happy to warmly welcome a brand new label to The Orchard family. Their name is PiL Records (PiL for Play it Loud) and they come from Lille, in the North of France, near the Belgium Border, which could be seen as the French Manchester (which means even worse weather than in Paris).
Here are 10 questions to introduce you to them and their main artist, the French Trio, We Are Enfant Terrible, whose 1st album Explicit Pictures was released in 2011 on the Canadian label Last Gang (home of Metric, Chromeo, Crystal Castles…).
Is it reasonable to make music with a Game Boy?
Definitely, and even in your attic.
Is it reasonable to have a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr…?
Only if you have enough content and creativity to regularly post great and appropriate content on each of them.
Facebook: 12,5 K Fans
Twitter: 1,527 Followers
Instagram: 228 subscribers
Is it reasonable to do a rockumentary when you play at SXSW for the first time?
