Brian Long
Brian Long's career began as a producer for Spin Magazine's syndicated radio shows. He did radio promotion at the venerable SST Records; started his own Ringers Lactate Records; founded Astralwerks Records and was General Manager at Caroline Records; did A&R at Geffen Records and MCA Records and set up Australia's Modular Records for business in the US. He's worked closely with Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Firehose, The Descendents, Negativland, Opal, Bad Brains, Das Damen, Velvet Crush, The Moles, The Chemical Brothers, Future Sound of London, the Excursions In Ambiance compilation series, Seefeel, u-Ziq, System 7 (777), Spacetime Continuum, Tranquility Bass, Idaho, Walt Mink, Bracket, Lida Husik, Pitchshifter, Robbie Fulks, Sunny Ledfurd, Merlin, Wolfmother, Cut Copy, and The Presets.
Long spearheaded the re-release the catalog of revolutionary Afrobeat artist Fela Kuti on Knitting Factory Records. Subsequently, he was behind the release of FELA! Original Broadway Cast Recording and records by Seun and Femi Kuti.
Long has been a featured speaker and panelist at the New York University Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, Harvard Law, South By Southwest Convention, CMJ Convention, New Music Seminar, MIDEM and BI:Larm. In October 2007, a Business Week article on the transitional nature of the manager/band relationship featured Yes Know Management and excerpts of an interview with Long.
Yes Know Management was founded in 2002 by Brian Long. Over the course of seven years, Yes Know developed an eclectic roster featuring Louisville's VHS Or Beta, Sweden's José González and his band project Junip, and New York City's O'Death and The Juan MacLean. Its first client was Radio 4, whose song "Dance To The Underground" was just starting the dance-punk party.
Shortly after starting the company, Long collaborated with Chris White to compile the definitive early 2000s NYC music scene document, Yes New York, featuring The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Secret Machines, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, etc. All profits were donated to Musicians On Call, a nonprofit that brings live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients in healthcare facilities.
External links
- SST Records http://www.sstsuperstore.com/
- Astralwerks Records http://www.astralwerks.com/
- Modular Records http://www.modularpeople.com/
- Knitting Factory Records http://www.knittingfactoryrecords.com/
- Business Week, "Leaving Record Labels Behind" https://web.archive.org/web/20090308055632/http://www.businessweek.com:80/magazine/content/07_44/b4056094.htm