Newsletter #5

Before we begin, I must inform you that Manhattan Murder Mystery is headlining a free show at the world famous Viper Room. Tonight, Wednesday, July 6. Starts at 9. MMM goes on at 11. Now, onto whatever was going through my head last night.

Hi. Mateo here.

I wonder if you know what it is like to have in your possession an album or a song that nobody (or almost nobody) has ever heard before. Seems kinda weird, right? What if you had something like that? What would you do? Well, that kind of thing happens to me all the time. What I do, is I send about 134 emails.

This month I am releasing an album by Host Eric called “Mr. Strauss Learns To Rock”, and I am currently in the middle of sending those 134 emails. (I took a break at #56 to write this newsletter.) After I finish that I am going to start again at number one because I am also releasing another EP this month. That one is by me. Most of those emails will go unopened. Most of the ones that do get opened will not be responded to. So far I get an average of 1.5 reviews every time I do this, and as far as I can tell, this is how the game of promoting to music blogs works if you run an upstart record label with almost zero staff, experience, connections, or business sense.

There are many good quotes and clichés about rejection. The first good one I found comes from Saul Bellow.

“I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, 'To hell with you.'”

A true sentiment from Mr. Bellow, but alas it does not quite describe the 132.5 non-responses. For here we have rejection's evil sibling: contempt. The stark emptiness of all those non-responses overflows my inbox and challenges my resolve.

So why do I do it? And then turn around and do it again? I do it for that 1.5 response. Somebody is excited enough to want to write about the music I've sent them, and that is all I need to forget about the teeming hoard of the too-busy or too-dumb, or even worse the ones who think it sucks and might be right. I do it because making that one connection makes a new friend, and that is worth way, way more than 134 emails.

I can't tell if this is inspiring or delusional. It is certainly not what I expected to sit down and write. I was just gonna write about researching blogs and making spreadsheets and stuff like that. In any case, this thing feels about done so I'm going to wrap it up. See below for a list of upcoming shows and releases.

Thanks for reading,

Mateo

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Shows:

Manhattan Murder Mystery @ The Viper Room: Wednesday, July 6 // 9pm // Free // 8852 Sunset Blvd. 90069

Manhattan Murder Mystery @ Harvard and Stone: Tuesday, July 19 // 5521 Hollywood Blvd.

Albums:

Host Eric // Mr. Strauss Learns To Rock: Temporarily available for free download on bandcamp

Mateo Katsu // White Men Don't Name Their Babies Jesus: Temporarily available for free download on bandcamp

p.s. Gibbons says "Hi."

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