Jordan Kurland (born 1972) is a founding partner of Brilliant Corners Management, a music and artist management company with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle.[1] He is the co-founder of the Treasure Island Music Festival and a partner in the independent music festival, Noise Pop.[2]
Career
editMusic management and festivals
Kurland moved to San Francisco in 1995 to work at David Lefkowitz/Figurehead Management where he assisted with Charlie Hunter, the Melvins, and Primus.[3][4]
Kurland’s Treasure Island Music Festival ran from 2007 to 2018 and was nominated several times as the Music Festival of the Year by Pollstar magazine.[4][5][6] The Noise Pop festival has featured many musicians including, Death Cab for Cutie, The White Stripes, Spoon and The Flaming Lips.[7][8]
Political activism
In 2004, helped to curate and produce the Future Soundtrack of America CD and “Future Dictionary of America” with author Dave Eggers featuring REM, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Tom Waits.[9]
In 2012, Kurland and Eggers founded the website 90 Days, 90 Reasons, which featured opinion pieces from contributors including Anne Hathaway, Shepard Fairey, and Ben Stiller who gave their opinions on why they thought President Obama should be re-elected.[10] Using a similar idea, he and Eggers collaborated during the 2016 presidential election to organize the 30 Days, 30 Songs campaign, which was an effort to bring together musicians to produce protest songs against Donald Trump. A new song was released each day in the last month before the election.[11][12]
In 2020, Kurland and Eggers organized two digital fundraising albums, Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy - Volumes 1 & 2, that raised over $550k for Voter’s Rights organizations.[13] During the 2020 presidential election, Kurland collaborated with Nick Stern for an online concert series called Team Joe Sings in support for Joe Biden.[14]
Kurland was a member of the entertainment advisory committee for Barack Obama's 2012 and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaigns.[15]
Boards
editKurland currently sits on the boards of the Stern Grove Festival, McSweeney’s and The Lab.[4][16][17] He previously served on the boards of the Independent On-Line Distribution Alliance (IODA), 826 National,[18][4] Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Bay Area chapter of NARAS.
Representation
editBrilliant Corners represents Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, She & Him, Toro Y Moi, Pup, Soccer Mommy, The New Pornographers, Best Coast, Real Estate, Josh Ritter, Squirrel Flower, Jimmy Tamborello, and Gilligan Moss.[1] Past clients that Kurland's company has worked with include the Estate of Elliott Smith, Bob Mould, The Head and the Heart, John Doe, Feist, Dan Deacon, Rogue Wave & Grizzly Bear.[19][20]
References
edit- ^ a b Aswad, Jem (5 December 2017). "Zeitgeist, Lever and Beam, Barsuk Unite to Form Brilliant Corners Management (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
- ^ "Jordan Kurland". Bandwidthconference.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ LeBlanc, Larry. "Industry Profile: Jordan Kurland". Celebrityaccess.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d "Pollstar Live 2016". Pollstarpro.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Vaziri, Aidin. "Treasure Island Music Festival's decade of surprises". Sfchronicle.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Li, Roland. "How an old naval base turned into a $15 million music festival". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Hardwick, Dakin. "Spinning Platters Interview: Jordan Kurland of Treasure Island Music Festival, Noise Pop, and Zeitgeist Management". Spinningplatters.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ "The Noise Pop Festtival". noisepop.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ "Elliott Smith, Tom Waits and More on Powerful Political Album". Epitaph.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Yamamoto, Michele. ""90 Days, 90 Reasons" Kicks Off with Ben Gibbard and Roger Ebert Dave Eggers and Jordan Kurland Want to Remind You to Vote for the President". Undertheradarmag.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Galbraith, Alexx. "Meet The Man That Rallied Your Favorite Artists To Write Donald Trump Protest Songs". Uproxx.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Cillizza, Chris. "Famous musicians are writing 30 anti-Trump songs for the final 30 days of the election". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ Aswad, Jem (7 October 2020). "Voters' Rights Benefit Album Featuring Pearl Jam, David Byrne Raises $300,000". Variety.
- ^ Baltin, Steve. "How The Music Industry Got Behind Joe Biden For The 'Team Joe Sings' Series". Forbes. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Burke, Dylan (30 October 2020). "How Musicians Are Shaping the 2020 Presidential Election". All Things Go.
- ^ "Official website". McSweeney's.
- ^ "BOD Information". The Lab.
- ^ "Welcome to New Board Members!". 826national.org. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ "Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger raises concerns for Spaceland, indie promoters". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ "Jordan Kurland: San Francisco's music impresario talks business". Boingboing.com. Retrieved 14 February 2017.