I just got back from the Independent Label Festival in Chicago and read Peter Margasak’s dis of it in the July 26 Reader [Post No Bills]. I’m a Cleveland-based music journalist who is a veteran of many conferences (including the biggies he mentions: CMJ, SXSW, and the late NMS). It seems to me that Margasak has set expectations for the conference that its organizers aren’t arrogant or unrealistic enough to set for themselves.
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Austin’s South by Southwest is now completely useless for any band that isn’t at least on the verge of signing with a major. Novice musicians can rarely participate in the high-level industry business going on there. That’s why grassroots events like ILF are badly needed. What I’m seeing, though, is that many such small conferences have grandiose aims, hoping they’ll become the next SXSW in a year or two.
But I wonder if Margasak even knows what he wants from ILF. He opens his piece saying criticism is warranted because “major labels predominate, rather than the indie labels the name suggests,” then later complains that it “includes a spate of locals, a deluge of mediocre and largely unknown out-of-town bands, and a handful of significant acts–Polara, the Frogs, Southern Culture on the Skids, and Menthol.” These acts are all on majors or near majors, yet he’s complaining because there aren’t more of them!
