Southpaw Jones

CRUELTY is now available!
Order the CD now at southpawjones.com.
Purchase MP3s at cdbaby.com or .
Grab a copy in real time at Waterloo Records or End of an Ear in Austin.
Or buy one from me any Thursday at Flipnotics @ the Triangle.

My friends, I have been officially rejected from the rotation at my favorite hometown radio station, KUT 90.5 here in Austin. It came like this:

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for checking back with us. Unfortunately, we have decided to pass on the album CRUELTY at this time. Thank you for your submission and please keep KUT in mind for future submissions. Thanks again for your interest in and support of KUT. Have a great afternoon!

KUT Music Department

Out of spite, I only allowed myself a decent afternoon.

Now, I’m not sharing this because I want a pity party, or because I want you to call their request line at (512) 471-2345 to demand Southpaw Jones tunes. I’m sharing because I want this site to become a somewhat transparent look into the struggles of getting CRUELTY out into the world. It isn’t easy to run an artful micro-business, but I have learned to love every challenge and every obstacle along the way. Here is my response to the rejection notice. I’m not sure if I’m going to send it or not:

Thanks for the info, KUT Music Department. If you can shed any more light on the situation, I would appreciate it. Is this a content or a sound quality or an “it factor” or a song length or a political decision? What can I do to get my February 2011 release in the rotation? This is perplexing to me, because KUT has been so instrumental in raising my local profile during the last 6 years. I just assumed our relationship would only grow when I professionally recorded my songs. I am certain that this record will be rejected by hundreds of stations around the country in the coming months, but I can’t help but take this potent pass particularly personally. (I alliterate when I’m sad.)

Paw

It is true that I am taken aback by their big NO. After all, KUT was my only support the local media when I got to town. I remember hearing my first Austin Music Minute while driving around downtown. I remember being extremely nervous to appear on-the-air for the first time with John Aielli (thanks to Spike Gillespie!). I remember the second time. I remember an afternoon appearance with Jay Trachtenberg, recording a Sonic ID about nacho bars, and even recording some personal pledge drive comments.

Now that I have completed my radio-ready masterpiece CRUELTY, I’m suddenly persona non grata over there. What sucks additionally is that they only book artists for on-air appearances if said artists are included in the airplay. So I gather that until I release a CD that fits their mysterious criteria, I won’t be able to appear on any of the shows I love so much. It’s sad, but how sad, really?

Did appearing on KUT ever help me sell a CD?
I’m not sure. I can’t prove or disprove such causality.

Did appearing on KUT help me impress my lady?
Well, yes, I’ll miss that.

Did I fill the legendary Cactus Café and sell a record number of CDs without an ounce of help from the station on the same university campus?
Yes, I did, thanks for asking.

Is KUT still the best station in town sans Southpaw?
Yes, I have to admit I will always love it.

Since there doesn’t seem to be much hope for a Southpaw appearance on KUT in the immediate future, perhaps you’ll enjoy revisiting my appearance from April 3, 2007.

And here is audio from December 4, 2007:

Click here if you can’t see the audio player.

If you have a copy of CRUELTY and are familiar with KUT, do you think they belong together?
If you don’t have a copy of CRUETLY, you should really remedy that.
Again, I must ask that you DO NOT call the KUT Request Line at (512) 471-2345 and request Southpaw Jones.
It just wouldn’t do any good, would it?
Seriously, don’t call (512) 471-2345.

as reported in The New York Times

August 14, 1908
CENT A DRINK BY THE SEA.
Long Branch Railroad Patrons Must Now Pay for Water.

One clue whose answer consists of two rhyming words:

The former Secretary of State can’t endorse Obama quite yet. He’s busy marketing his new line of post-shower body-drying cloths. You’ll cross your heart and hope to dry when you reach for a…

Highlight here for answer: [Powell towel]


Blindfolded Cartoonists

The gold rush changed California, it changed the whole west, and it changed America’s sense of itself because for the first time the United States of America, in the minds of the American people, fulfilled the dream of Jefferson, which was a continental nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific. No one thought about America stretching from Chesapeake Bay to San Francisco Bay until fathers and sons and uncles and brothers and fiances were out there.
J. S. Holliday

EVERY DANG THURSDAY
8:00 PM
Flipnotics at the Triangle
4600 Guadalupe
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 380-0097
www.flipnotics.com
________________________________________________________________

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008
Matt the Electrician & Southpaw Jones
8:00 pm
Wyldwood House Concert
4205 Wyldwood Road
AUSTIN, TX
wyldwood.startlogic.com
________________________________________________________________

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
Celebrating the lyrics of CRUELTY!
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 472-5050
www.bookpeople.com