You know what my press releases are lacking? Balls references. And ironic quotes. I love how “shows” is written here, like, allegedly that’s what they’re promoting but who even knows. “Eric Owens makes his Carnegie Hall ‘recital’ debut this April.”
Courtesy of a blogger friend:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/25/09
** Das Racist – Backpack Trap Rap to Dance To! **
Lacing electronic, dubstep, and hip-hop beats with worldly freak folk lyrics, Das Racist kicks your balls into outer space. Influenced by rap duos like Kid ‘N Play, Bert ‘N Ernie, and Ghost ‘N Raekwon, these dudes are here to make hilarious topics like race relations, American consumerism, globalization and postcolonial-ass shit, fun again. Queens-born Himanshu Kumar and San Francisco-born Victor Vazquez do for music what smoking Kool cigarettes do for 14-year-olds in Pennsylvania. They have a great deal of street credit, as well. Ask about them.
While the everyone was breaking their bones at SXSW, Das Racist have been writing rhymes in a Crown Fried Chicken somewhere in Queens or Brooklyn and preparing to perform “shows” in Brooklyn and the Northeast.
Check out “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”. Perfect for when you’re wilding.
Also, “Ask about them”? The press should be asking…whom…about..whom?
Wilding means to act crazy or outrageous. Usually done in a social setting. In some contexts wilding can mean going on a crime spree (again it implies a spree with your homies, so it’s somewhat social).
“Ask about me” is a common phrase in rap and in the streets. From urban dictionary:
“ax about me”:
informing someone to inquire about your reputation
also infers that you’re well known
makes it so you don’t have to explain your actions, words, tell people your name etc. effectively eliminates most communication between two people
commonly used “down south”
person 1
“why did you do that?”
person 2
“hey, ax about me”
All good to know. Thanks! -AA
Whoever wrote this cheeky vomit should be given a thorough ass-beating. Or a medal.
The press release does not make me want to listen to their music. The “kick your balls into outer space” line is a reference to the cinematic masterwork Short Circuit 2. The whole thing sounds unbearably precious, like rap for people who compulsively use quotes around the word “rap.”
It would be nice if classical press releases (that I read) had any style at all, though.
My classical releases are exactly the kind of boring drivel that Lindemann refers to. They’re well written and terribly information, but they are dry and even put me to sleep. I feel guilty about this, but I look around and don’t see any other PR shops at the big arts orgs churning out anything different. My fear is that if I try to be different with a release, it will be smacked down before I even hit the send button. Or worse, a critic will forward it to a blog and I’ll be the laughing stock of the industry.
Amanda, I imagine you get lots of releases….any fine examples coming out of Carnegie, the Met, etc.? Or are we big arts orgs doomed to be lame forever?
Forget interesting: I’m just thrilled when classical music releases aren’t filled with typos! I don’t think classical publicists or organizations need to go out of their way to be interesting or unique. Once we start trying too hard to be…anything…disaster ensues. In life and press releases. The key is having interesting concerts and artists to write about, not being especially interesting yourself. My client Gabriel Kahane was called “An NPR programmer’s wet dream” by Pitchfork, and while I know it was said for a snarky purpose, I pulled the quote and put it at the top of one of my releases. Was that release going to people at NPR? Did I think it would get their and possibly other journalists’ attention? Yes and yes. Was I trying to be funny or clever by including it? Not especially. It was simply an accurate and interesting description of my client. -AA
Please let the record show that I do not think classical press releases are all boring drivel, though they are sometimes that. They are almost uniformly style-free, though. As someone who spends all day at my real job trying to scrub the last traces of style from the prose I write, I know the deal.