June 13, 2007
Opening Riff
Shortly before offing himself, Kurt Cobain mused, "I wish there’d been a music business 101 course I could’ve taken."
Although it came along a little too late for Mr. Courtney Love, Drexel University’s music industry program offers students real-world experience in every aspect of the business from recording technology to artist and repertoire (A&R) to those pesky legal issues. The program is not only one of the most highly regarded of its kind in the nation, it’s also spawned Mad Dragon Records, one of only a handful of student-run record labels in the land.
Now in its fourth year of existence, Mad Dragon boasts an impressive roster of musicians, including the quickly rising Americana stars Hoots & Hellmouth and South African-born singer/songwriter Andrew Lipke. The label inked a national distribution deal with indie powerhouse Ryko Distribution in 2005, and has since been the subject of glowing reviews in Rolling Stone, CMJ and Billboard.
Next month Mad Dragon drops its fourth compilation—and the third in an ongoing series—Unleashed3, which contains a whopping 23 tracks by bands handpicked by the program’s A&R class.
Drexel professor and former Columbia Records executive Terry Tompkins instructs his students to scour music blogs for the "next big thing" and present their finds to the class each week. The class members then vote on each act in committee fashion.
A cursory glance at the track listing for Unleashed3 suggests this may be the best installment to date, with contributions by Ace Fu’s buzz-happy Annuals, Detroit’s newly crowned kings of dirty rock the High Strung, and Brooklyn’s hipster heroes Detachment Kit.
Several artists featured on 3—including RunRunner and Matt Duke—will take the stage at World Cafe Live Friday night as part of an early record-release party and a benefit for the music industry program. Get serenaded by a long string of 20-minute mini-sets and walk away with a complimentary copy of Unleashed3. Do it for Kurt.
Fri., June 15, 7:30pm. $10. With Andrew Lipke + Matt Duke. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. 215.222.1400. www.worldcafelive.com
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