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Local Promo Fellas Hit
The "Three Year" Mark
/ ndependent promotion company Team
Clermont is a busy nest of music biz activity
housed in a neatly cluttered office space three
floors above College Square in downtown Athens.
The small, successful company operates mostly
behind the scenes, but provides a vital service to
Athens musicians and regional up-and-comers
alike.
"Basically, we wanted to strike out on our own
and do music that moved us, and that was three
years ago," states company president, Nelson
Wells.
As young entrepreneurs armed with a small
stack of office supplies, a cheap computer and a
keen sense of the burgeoning "alternative" music
world. Wells and Caroline Frye originally founded
Revolution Promotions in Athens in 1993. The two
started with radio promotion and conside r ed
expanding into management, booking and pub
licity, but stuck mainly with radio promotion.
In 1997, Frye relocated to San Francisco and
Wells teamed up in a downtown office with Jimmy
McLean (who managed Jason & The Scorchers,
Allgood, and Five-Eight), hired staffers Brian
Bowen, Bill Benson and Lucas Jensen and kicked
up as Team Clermont.
The company maintains relationships with
music directors and disc jockeys that create an
advantage for lesser-known bands. The crew cur
rently works over a dozen bands on its roster to
450 college radio stations and 60 commercial
"new rock" stations in the U.S. and Canada. The
Team mails out hundreds of copies of about 100
albums per year, assertively following them up
with phone calls, tour information and a little bit
of industry jargon.
Some of the roster's recent underground bands
of note include Super Furry Animals, Da Lata, The
Lofty Pillars, The Satyrs, Idaho, Trans Am, Skirt,
Tommy Guerrero, Brave Combo and Five-Eight.
Flagpole caught up with Nelson Wells and
Lucas Jensen this week and conversed about the
company's work and its anticipated anniversary
bash. Both young men were giddy with excitement
and merrily sarcastic:
FP: What's behind the name "Team Clermont?"
Nelson Wells: Two chickens, a vacuum cleaner
and a ballpeen hammer. At least that's what they
told us that night at the bar.
FP: How does the Team Clermont approach com
pare to other big promo companies?
NW: We try and limit the number of releases to
about half what the other promo companies out
there are doing so that everyone gets hands-on
attention, even Mike Mantione and Five-Eight.
Speaking of, did you know that more stations
added Five-Eight's The Good Nurse to thmr rotation
than any other record in the country?
FP: What does Team Clermont look for in a
band's new release?
NW: We have a strict "no Skynyrd" policy, no
offense to Rhiannon and Charlie Brusko. Seriously,
the further away from the mainstream a record is,
the more excited we get about piomoting it, with
the exception of an R.E.M. or Moby, artists who
cross boundaries and move us in some fashion or
another. We try to stay away from the more com
mercial-sounding stuff in favor of more exciting
and vibrant undergiound artists who college radio
also is excited by."
FP: What are some of most frustrating aspects
of working in rodio promotion?
NW: Most of the bands we deal with have no
name outside of our office, so we're starting at
ground zero with many of our stations and their
DJs. When faced with an excess of choices, music
directors often gravitate toward records that are
sitting in their faces or are familiar. It's our job to
have them look at the music that might fall out
side the typical radar screen and to "challenge
their listeners and themselves" which is what we
feel college radio was made for in the first place:
education. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth.
FP: How has the "alternative" music world
changed since you started doing this? What's the
next big trend?
NW: Electronica... wait, that was '96. And '97.
And '98. And '99. No actually it's 80's soundtrack
cover bands. That's where the money is. We're
wary of latching onto a trend of any sort because
you never know when you're going to get stuck
with a new ska. There is a huge rift right now
between what's called "alternative" and what we
and most of college radio consider creative music.
There are few artists who act as a gateway
between the underground and the mainstream,
making it very difficult for the average music con
sumer out there to actually discover the fantastic
underground music that's being created right now.
We've heard good things about this Brian Wilson
guy, though.
FP: Did you have any idea that Team Clermont
would become so successful? What's the trick to
that success?
NW: No, we had no idea our pockets would be
lined with gold and that we would be throwing
million-dollar balls. Bill hands people c-notes on
the street to let him poke them with a fork. The
trick is consistency and constant improvement. We
actually like coming to work every day.
FP: What's on the agenda for the next three
years?
U: Fight like we've never fought before,
dammit. We've never given up on anything in our
lives, so we can't quit on us now! Or we might try
out this "inner-net' thing or something. Nelson
seems to think that is where "it's" at.
Ballard Lesemann
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