Our mobile Fanteraction™ platform is now in Beta

We are officially launching the Fanteraction™ platform as a beta today. To kick start this post, here’s some cartoon goodness.

This cartoon was created by Porter Mason. Check out Bassist Wanted for more comic strips about music »

What is Fanteraction?

Fanteraction is the name Greg gave to the band-fan interaction service for 3G enabled phones he is developing. The initial idea is to allow bands to share their lyrics and bios and other content before, during and after a gig with fans through iPhones and Blackberrys.

How does it work?

Click on the upper-half or lower-half of the iPhone to get a description for both bands and fans.

Can bands hammer us with suggestions, questions and feedback?

Yes they can. The should even! Fanteraction is a very new service. Feedback from bands and fans is very welcome. Please contact us at Fanteraction @ gmail.com for all your concerns.

Read Full Post »

How to grab the attention of key people inside the industry (part 1): Publicity and Press

A friend of ours, who prefers not to be named, attended the Cape May Singer/Songwriter Conference in New Jersey last week-end. He summarized some very interesting pointers discussed by industry professionals at the meeting and sent them our way.

Today’s post is about Publicity and Press, and what bands should take into consideration when attempting to promote themselves through local media, social networks and A&R scouts.

Enjoy!

Publicity and Press

How to stand out, and what you need to do to get and keep the attention of key people inside the industry

A note on “reviewers”

These are the folks with major and indie labels who ‘scout’ new music. It’s notable that many start-up web sites and companies make wild claims about getting their music in front of these reviewers. The simple fact is that, EMI for instance, records has just one reviewer employed for the entire east coast. Most labels have 1 reviewer per region (4 regions in whole country), and those reviewers aren’t hanging out in bars, waiting for you to show up. This is not necessarily as depressing as it sounds though, keep reading.

Advice from publishers, reviewers, writers, and broadcasters:

- First and foremost, you absolutely must have a hefty catalog, 50-100 original songs / jingles / whatever it is you do. Songs should have strong hooks, and AVOID all possible drug-out beginnings to songs. They want to hear a verse and a chorus (with or without a pre-chorus) with a good hook. They promised us, that they generally won’t make it past 7 seconds in a song if they haven’t heard any vocals yet, unless it’s the greatest intro ever… They admittedly have short attention spans and want you to get to the point, fast. Production value means almost nothing to them, it’s all in the vocals, musicianship, song arrangement, and HOOKS. Don’t send demos with instruments out of tune or bad vocal recordings. Make sure the performance is there, regardless of whether the production is there or not.

- Any contact with any communications industries (TV, radio, etc) is a GOOD thing. Build relationships. A publisher or licenser who knows who you are and has a “relationship” with you will always choose your music or project over any other artist who just sends emails and demos. Talk to them, keep it nice, don’t ever burn bridges (no matter how much you think they ignored you, or insulted you – often it’s a case of mis-read sentiments), send demos, press kits, and schedules of shows, live footage. ANY press kits or reviews, newspaper articles, TV/radio coverage and reviews are fantastic ways to get a publisher’s attention.

- Make sure to include contact information, especially your name and phone number. They are not going to bother digging through the internet to find you. They pretty much said “have your sh*t together”. Music reviewers and writers (many local and regional music magazines exist) should be a huge focus, many of them know TONS of inside publishers and even some reviewers, and if you blow them away, it can make all the difference. Develop personal relationships with them, and the people they know.

Embrace social networks

- Myspace bios should be:

• short, to the point
• factual
• address key points
• list accomplishments, use bullets to list and define them

!!Note!!: They also spoke about their hatred of these grandiose myspace pages that take forever to load, and how a simple and to-the-point page is far more positive than a page with dozens of videos, custom art, picture galleries, and widgets or whatever that slow it to a grinding halt. They pretty much said if it doesn’t load right up, they move on.

- Twitter:

• fans want MORE, you have to give it to them.
• keep them updated regularly
• If they get dis-interested, they will move on.

Have defined goals for yourself / band

• Charity events are media gold. You can’t do wrong by playing them.
• Anything else in the area of public interest that makes a difference
• Add these events, and write-ups to your press kits
• Always grow your press kits, show you have a history

A little note on digital distribution

-Tunecore was strongly recommended by several panelists and industry folks.

That’s it for today’s post on Publicity and Press. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post on Protecting your Music where we will have a look at what assets bands must preserve to shell themselves from legal issues.

Read Full Post »

The art of promoting gigs – part 1

A few months back, browsing through MySpace as usual, on the look out for an amazing band to post in our daily vids, I encountered this promotion company called Diehardz 4 Diehardz (D4D Entertainment). At the time I felt like I wanted a fresh new post on band promotion or booking – a promoter’s perceptive on the dos-and-not-dos bands should respect in order to get some gigs. So I thought to myself “What the hell. I’m gonna contact these guys, and if they don’t answer like most of the promoter/booker types I had previously sent emails to, I’ll just pass on to the next guy”. Well Rob Escamilla from D4D did respond, and after a couple of emails he sent me the article bellow – a thorough examination of D4D’s inner workings on how they set-up gigs and work them out with their bands.

This article will be separated in two just to make it a little shorter. Today’s post relates how D4D:

• Organize their gigs

And tomorrow’s post will center on how D4D:

• Set-up their bills
• Apply the right ‘formula’ for the line-up
• Cope with band work ethics
• Work out the last details after the gig

Enjoy!

- Organizing the gig -

First things first: venue and date.
Some venues only allow certain types of genres whereas other venues are wide open and accept all genres however will only play certain styles on certain nights.  Also another important thing to mention concerning date: we need to allow enough time to properly plan and promote or “push” the show.  It does no justice for the promoter to take a last minute show and try to rush to fill it.  It also does you no justice to accept it.  Based on these two factors, venue and date, allows us to determine what type of show we can put on.  Luckily we have a large network of various genres to choose from so finding the right “style” for the night is not an issue. Message to bands:  don’t get all bent out of shape if the promoter/booker you are working with will not give you a prime night at any particular venue.  Chances are it’s not in their control.  Or if it is, then that just means you have not “earned it” yet.

How much time in advance do we usually start the promotion process?
This depends on which bands we have booked to perform. If they are local bands then a minimum of 1 month would suffice here in the states. The farther they are you may require a little more time. Also, if we are bringing down a big name which we know will draw a crowd, we may need an extra 2 – 4 weeks. Also depends on how big our show is. As a rule of thumb, you could say that the bigger the venue, the more time we will need to promote. The smaller the venue, the less time.

So now we have a venue and a date locked down, the next thing is expenses.
How much does this specific venue charge the promoter?  Thats right bands, the venues charge the promoters, not the bands.  Expenses may include lights & sound, security and may offer a “bar tab” to the bands which in some cases is picked-up by the promoters.  Once we have established the budget we have to work with, we then start calculating other expenses such as printed tickets, printed fliers, web fliers, design work, event shirts or banners, online or radio commercials.

Here’s a rough breakdown of what these expenses may look like:

Venue:
Sound – $100
Security – $10/per hr. each

Promotional Material:
300 printed tickets – $60
Design Art work – $75 100
High gloss printed fliers/Posters – $175
Radio Commericals (15 air plays – 50 seconds each) – $150

Some venues will let us keep the full door, ticket sales and some percentage of liquor sales.  What this means is the promoter is now responsible for having someone run the door, stamp, give change, check I.D’s etc.  Another expense to the promoter.

A note on pre-sale tickets and on how bands usually work it out with the bands on the bill.
This all depends on the budget you have to work with and your total expenses. Don’t let your expenses be a surprise to you! Know exactly what you are willing to spend. This will help you determine what is a “reasonable” cost for people to come out and see your show. You don’t want your price point too high or you’ll scare people away, at the same time, you need to be able to makeyour money back too. At our last show, the pre-sale ticket price was $7, or $10 at the door. We were able to allow the bands to keep $2 from each ticket they sold. As long as we received $5 per ticket, we were happy and the bands were happy to make their own money. We sold out this show with a maximum capacity of 285, we had about 350 people thorugh the door! This is one way to help motivate them to push their show and get heads through the door.

A note on radios.
All radio stations will be glad to take your money to get you and your event broadcasted over the airwaves. One of the DJ’s we work with has a show who showcases a 1 local band each week. If you have anything like this in your area, try and use this as an opportunity to showcase one of the bands on your show plus announce your event! Other than that, you will just have to work out a deal with their sales people on air time.

A note on press releases
The press releases we submit we keep short but informational. Just the details, such as what the event is, who’s performing, whats the date, time, cost for entry. At least 1 – 2 weeks in advance minimum will suffice. You can look into various sites in your area that allow you to post events for free. Sites where people search online for “things to do” in your area are great places to post your event.

And one last note on how we do all this for out-of-town bands.
What I explained above is how we normally work with local bands, however when we work with out-of-town bands or bands with a bigger name (i.e signed to a label who are on tour) the process is different. In that respect, we request a quote from their manager to see how much it’s going to cost us to bring them down to perform. This may include transportation, meals and hotel. Once a verbal agreement has been established, we then draft a contract, send it to them and have them sign it. Once we receive the signed copy back, we then move forward with the show. This is usually handled at least one month in advance.

D4D Entertainment is the biggest and strongest supporters of unsigned, underground music.  We are also your one stop shop for Booking, Promotions, Advertising and Marketing, Radio Commercials, Merchandising, Graphic Design, Printing Services, Music Equipment, Photography, Videos, Studio Recording, CD duplications and the strength of unity for Independent Musicians and bands.  Plus, there’s more.  Our relationships with experts in these various fields allows us to get you the best possible costs.  We are also proud to announce that we are currently working with various sponsors to make all of this a reality. You can visit us at www.myspace.com/d4dentertainment.

I”ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.   Also, if you know of a touring band who is passing through California, send them our way.  We are the biggest and hottest spot for live music in between San Francisco and L.A.  Central California Fresno is located just 3hrs south of San Francisco and 3hrs north of Hollywood L.A.

Please take a moment to visit my bands site at www.myspace.com/nativeburnlive

Peace,

Rob Escamilla

Thanks Rob for the great write-up. Tomorrow there’s more so stay tuned.

Mruff!

Read Full Post »

Promoting, booking, club owning and band membering: Chris Walker tells the facts about getting gigs

Woof!

Back in June 2008 we had stumbled upon a great article of some mystery-promoter dude that, instead of explaining how bands should promote and book their shows, explained on the contrary what bands should not do in order to get booked.  Suddenly out of nowhere in December, this mystery author revealed his identity and landed a comment on that post we did about his article.

The dude’s name is Chris Walker, living in Memphis and who’s got a doggy named Danger (mruff to Danger), and we got in touch after that on several occasions. I asked him if he would be up for a little interview, seeing how he’s been a booker, a promoter, a club owner and band member, and he gracefully accepted.

So this is his condensed story. He explains how he got into booking bands and how he got into owning a club that hosted weekly Jeff Buckley gigs (though he’ll cover those anecdotes more in detail in future posts I hope :)

Enjoy!

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into music

I have a big brother who is the best kind of brother to have. Instead of picking on me or resenting me for taking away my parents attention, he let me tag along with his friends and shared his passions with me like film and music and drawing. He gave me my first record, Destroyer by Kiss. He got into the punk/new wave scene around 1977. Being six years old, all I would do is sit in my brother’s room listening to Devo, The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Dickies and watch him draw crazy/hilarious cartoons and laughing the night away.

He took me to my first concert, Kiss in 1979 on the Dynasty tour at the Mid South Coliseum. When I got into punk rock as a teenager, not able to drive, he took me to the Antenna club, (the only punk club in Memphis at the time) to see Black Flag. I couldn’t get in, but they would let me stick my head in the door and catch a few songs. Kim (my brother) would go to punk shows and pick up t-shirts for me by bands like The Exploited and The Vandals. When I was able to drive, The Antenna started hosting all age punk shows. From 1985 to 1988, I frequented The Antenna.

How did you get into the music scene, and how did you manage to go from being in the band to becoming the booker and club owner.

I wanted to be in a band. I got into speed metal towards the end of high school and my friends from school and I started a speed metal band. We had never played a show but we had befriended some of the local punk/metal bands that we’d seen play around town. When we finally got up a 30 minute set with some originals and covers, we set up our first show by renting out the Southaven Jaycees building in Southaven, MS (a suburb of Memphis, thirty minutes south of Memphis) and inviting four other locals to play. We called it “The Thrash-A-Thon” and it was a smashing success. We ended up with 300 people at $5 a head and our expenses were around $800. We delightedly split the money up with the other bands and everyone had a blast. We made a whole bunch of new friends and we played local shows with the bands on that bill for years afterwards.

The success of that show had a massive impact on me. I have no doubt that if that show had been a negative experience, my life would be drastically different.

After a few shows with my band around town, we got our first show at The Antenna and I made contact with the guys in charge of booking the club. Around this time, if I wanted to see most of the bands that I liked live, I would have to drive to St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta, or New Orleans. That got expensive and I started looking into how much it would cost to book the bands here. Memphis is what booking agents refer to as “a secondary market”. We get fill in dates in between the cities I listed above. When I started trying to bring bands to town, I would call The Antenna and try to set up a show with a bigger national act and I would put my own band in the opening slot.

This went on for a couple of years. I got tired of having to deal with the club so I borrowed some money and bought a little redneck hole in the wall named Barristers (it used to be a lawyer hang out) where I had started doing shows. I owned the place for 2 years before I had a child and had to get a real job. I opened another club a few years later called Last Place On Earth in 1999 and closed it in 2001. In that time, I managed to bring some really special shows to my hometown and I’ve been very fortunate to have parents and family support me in the way that they have.

What was the most satisfying job in your experience? (between being a band member, a club owner and a promoter)

That’s a hard question to answer because my whole adult life, I’ve been at least 2 out of the 3 of those at the same time and for a few years all three. I guess being a promoter would be the answer since I’ve always been that to this day and I’m not in a band nor will I be owning a club anytime soon. But if you ask the big time promoters around here, they would say “Chris Walker?…he ain’t a promoter!” which is the nicest thing they’ll ever say about me and I agree with them.

I pay bands or get someone else to pay bands to come here. It’s never about the money with me, it’s about the music. The music comes first. People who call themselves promoters are the same people who refer to musical recordings as “units”. Like “Yeah…this band is gonna be HUGE!…they’ve already moved 15,000 units!” When you were just discovering music, did you say “I wanna go down to the unit store and pick up some new units!” No! I do it because either myself or one of my friends likes/loves the band whether it makes money or not. A successful show for me is breaking even.

But booking a show that touches a lot of people and leaves a mark is always awesome. The Jeff Buckley shows would be a good example. GG Allin is also a good example.

Would you say their are more dishonest club owners or more monster-ego bands out there?

Just on pure numbers alone, I’d say there are more egomaniac bands just because there are WAY more bands then there are clubs. I don’t like to make broad statements like that though. Usually, it’s one or two band members who ruin reputations for bands and with the internet, dishonest club owner/promoters get weeded out after about a year or so just because word of mouth can spread so fast with myspace, message boards, facebook and blogs (like this one!).

What would be the best advice you could give to a band who just got a set together and is ready to play its first gig?

Have a plan. Set goals. Decide on what you all collectively want to do. Do you just want to play locally and put out the occasional recording? Do you want to make a living playing music?

My old band (Diarrhea Of Anne Frank) had no aspirations. The band was formed because I started running out of local bands to put on shows, yet we played The Knitting Factory in NYC because we thought it would be fun. We never practiced. We didn’t have songs. But because I know the psychology behind getting what you want, I pulled it off. If you just want to play your first show, go to the club that you frequent, make connections with the staff, then when you get to pitch your band to the talent buyer, explain to him why should he book your band. It would be a good idea to know why he should book your band by the way. Because most people aren’t used to candor, I get some dumbfounded reactions sometimes when I ask a band who is asking me to book them that question.

Sample conversation:

Band dude: “Hey man, I’m in a band called The Poo Flingers and we’d love to set up a show here sometime.”

Me: “Really? Cool. Will anyone come to your show if we do?

Band dude: Uhhhh….I guess….I don’t know….

Now what am I supposed to think? While your band is your passion, keeping the club open is the talent buyer’s passion and the show has to be economically viable. A lot of musicians think the club is responsible for these expenses but if the band wanted to DIY it and play a house party and get paid you still HAVE to have A) a P.A. system if only for vocals and B) someone taking money at the door. If you don’t think twenty people would come see your band play then you shouldn’t be playing in a club.

You say you booked the Knitting Factory with a band that basically never rehearsed. How did you convince them that you would pack the venue? if so, how? 9since you live in Memphis)

I booked us in NYC by booking shows in Memphis basically. Knitting Factory has (or had) a booking agency that books for the bands on their label. When they called me to book one of their artists, I told them I needed a gig in their venue for my band. When someone is asking for a show, it’s only fair to ask for one back. We played with a side project of the band, Oneida, which one of their members worked for the label. So NYC was probably the easiest show to set up.See…I didn’t have to convince anyone that OUR band would draw but I could put someone on the bill who would.

If you’re a band and you’re just starting, you’re probably not going to have the connections that I have. That’s why I was saying that you’re going to have to convince the talent buyer why he should book you.

Ask yourself: “How can I make it worth the club/talent buyer’s while to book our band. Will we make the club money? Probably not. I could let the talent buyer have sex with my sister. Or I could hook him up with some dynamite weed. Or I could tell him I thought his band/film/artwork/ass was awesome.”

If you know how to bullshit or kiss ass, you should be the one doing the booking for your band.

That’s really the only advice I can give but it’s worked for me like gangbusters. I call it “The Psychology Of Getting What You Want.” I’ve been pretty amazed at what I’ve been able to talk people into doing. If you want something from someone, you figure out what you can do for them and offer it in trade for what you want. You can apply this philosophy to your job, to getting into women’s pants, etc.

As a band member, what annoyed you the most with bookers and club owners, and how did you manage to deal with it?

I hate it when people (anyone…bookers, club owners, musicians, etc.) don’t do what they say they’re going to do. I try to have all the arrangements and details in email form so you can always go back to it and know what you agreed to. If you don’t get what you want worked out on the front end and have a written record of both parties agreeing to what you want, you have no place to complain (hence our gigdoggy gig-sharing platform! hehehe).

I agreed to pay Corey Feldman (yes, that Corey Feldman (the kid who acted in ‘Stan by me’)) $1500 flat for a show. When he sold out the venue and I didn’t give him one extra dime over $1500, he was quite irate and cursed me to my face. Truth be told, if he’d not been such a total and complete shit ass, I would’ve have given him some of the back end, but he was terribly rude and inconsiderate so I hit him with what we promoters call “Asshole Tax”.

Thanks a lot Chris. One last question: what presented the most work? the most stress? the most fun?

The most work: In this city, there is very little money and the people who attend the shows that I book don’t have it. That means less people which means less money coming in which means you have to cut costs which means you end up having to do everything yourself. There were a couple of shows at Barristers where I had to run the door, the bar, and sound for the show and clean up the place when it was done.

The most stress: I like rowdy bands. When I say “rowdy”, I mean bands who put on a somewhat violent show that interacts with the audience. See GG Allin, The Antiseen, Anal Cunt, and The Candy Snatchers. It’s very easy to like rowdy bands when all you have to do is pay admission, sit down, watch the insanity, meet the bloody/sweaty band members after the show and shower them with accolades while you buy their t-shirt but when you’re basically as legally responsible for whatever carnage they cause as they are, it’s nowhere near as much fun. I’ve booked everyone of those bands I listed and while I was sweating bullets when it was happening, I’m SO glad I did.

The most fun: I’d say the most fun is when I book one of my favorite bands who are not only outstanding musicians who put on a great show but top flight people and I know that the show is going to cover all expenses (if I made money…bonus!).

So there you are. A lot of bold truth in that interview. We send a warm mruff to Chris (and Danger), hoping to seeing him back on the blog talking about those Jeff Buckley and GG Allin gigs, and other doggy-band/music related things.

Bark.

Read Full Post »

Soundpainting and the art of conducting improvisation

Who here loves to improvise? If you do, how do you proceed?

Some people visualize improvisation as something very spiritual. Others like to see it as something very technical, where each note must respects the ones before and after it in order to create harmonious progressions. Well, if you are very well versed in the musical arts, improvising becomes more intellectual than, let’s say, if you’re just aware of how a couple of scales work and you know how to doodle around with simple melodies. For the soloist, and especially the amateur, it often has more to do with pushing his musical skill to the limits (often leading to showing off, even to thy self – we are all ego monsters to some extent) than with truely creating coherent melodic lines.

When one thinks of improvisation, one thinks of Jazz. But one must also be aware that the art of the impro originated a while back, like twelve hundred years back. That’s right, in the early stages of the Medieval ages, when polyphony finally started to arise; singers were instructed to add an additional improvised melodic element to the liturgical chant in a style called organum. It is in these most ignorant times, the dark ages of human kind, that it all started. Later, during the Baroque (1600-1750), the classical (1750-1830), and the romantic periods (1830-1900), improvisation thrived engaging music on a whole new playing field. All the greats such as Bach, Mozart, Litz, Chopin, Beethoven, Paganini etc excelled in this free-form discipline, called ‘extemporisation’ at the time.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dixieland Jazz gave it a whole new meaning as it symbolized one of the rare traits of freedom the black communities had over the whites, surpassing in very personalized ways their musical abilities. Now impro is very present in all musical spheres, driven by the many Jazz trends that embraced and defined it.

Anyways this post wasn’t meant to recap the history of improvisation more than it was to introduce its very first orchestrated body language. This language is called Sound Painting and was created by a certain Walter Thompson during the seventies to finally become an official musical discipline by the late-eighties. The story behind its elaboration is very interesting, and feeling I won’t be able to explain it in better terms than the man himself, here are extracts from Thompson’s website recounting how it all happened:

Woodstock in the 1970s was a very exciting time for  music. The Creative Music School (CMS), founded by Karl Berger, Don Cherry, and Ornette Coleman, was going strong. Great composers and performers such as John Cage, Ed Blackwell, Carlos Santana, Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, and Carla Bley gave 2-week workshop/performances with the students. The CMS was closed during the summers, but many of the students remained in Woodstock. Thompson organized jam sessions with these students. Out of these sessions Thompson formed his first orchestra and produced a series of concerts at the Woodstock Kleinert Gallery. The focus of the orchestra was on large-group, jazz-based improvisation. It was during these early days that Thompson began experimenting with signing improvisation. He created very basic gestures, asking for a long tone or improvisation.

Thompson moved to New York City in 1980 and formed The Walter Thompson Big Band (now The Walter Thompson Orchestra) in 1984. During the first year with his orchestra, while conducting a performance in Brooklyn, New York, Thompson needed to communicate with the orchestra in the middle of one of his compositions. They were performing a section of improvisation where trumpet 2 was soloing. During the solo Thompson wanted to have one of the other trumpet players create a background. Not wanting to emulate bandleaders who would yell or speak out loud to their orchestra, Thompson decided to use some of the signs he had experimented with during his Woodstock days. In the moment he made up these signs: Trumpet 1, Background, With, 2-Measure, Feel; Watch Me, 4 Beats. He tried it and there was no response! But in the next rehearsal, members of his orchestra asked what the signing was about – and he told them. The orchestra members thought it was a very interesting direction and encouraged Thompson to continue to develop the language further. During the next 10 years, Thompson developed Soundpainting into a comprehensive sign language for creating live composition from structured, jazz-based improvisation. In the early 1990s Thompson expanded the Soundpainting language to include gestures specific to actors, dancers, poets, and visual artists.

To date, Soundpainting comprises more than 800 gestures and is being used by many professional performers and educators worldwide.

Now Soundpainting is taught and exercised all over the world. If you are interested in learning these specific signs you can do so by buying Thompson’s educational book. A friend of mine recently bought it and learned some signs. He organized a session with 30 friends, most of whom aren’t musicians, asked them to all bring an instrument and instructed them the basics of the soundpainter’s code (because this code can be easily taught to others for rudimentary improvisation). Unfortunately I couldn’t make it but feedback was incredible. Everyone had a blast and my friend is perfecting his skills to reenact the experience.

Mruff to all the Soundpainters out there!

Here’s a performance conducted by Thompson with some musicians and painters. Sorry for those who don’t speak french but this vid gives you a pretty good idea of how it works.
To see another extremely cool Soundpainting video with proefessional musicians, click here. Unfortunately I couldn’t embed it.

Enjoy.

Read Full Post »

Some dirt on club owners

Some Anecdotes

“I once was house sound-man for a club in Toronto.
When I started, all of the wait staff kept asking me if I lived in residence. (I lived at home, quite close to the club). Finally I asked what residence was, it was employee housing (which $300/month was deducted from their wage to live in a craphole where everything you did was monitored). I was invited to a weekly after-hours staff party at another one of their clubs. They were charging $6/beer and more for mixed drinks.
I watched as the other employees lined up to get their wages (in cash) and blow every last cent of it right there and then, some advancing into the next week. This happened every week without fail. I was stunned.
I finally left after finding out their “peeler” clubs were just a front for a major prostitution ring. A few years later law enforcement dropped the hammer on all their clubs and owners.”

Once playing a club in Tucson, AZ in the 70′s (On Speedway), “Max” the club owner had a red phone, complete with blinking light, installed on stage and would call the band to tell them when to play a slow song (so he could get the disco ball going).
It was the strangest thing ever, but he outdid himself. One night he was shooing out the customers and pulled a chrome plated 9mm from his waistband and ‘urged’ the remaining table to leave the premises.
Who knows what evil lurks in their minds. I know that dealing with them is treacherous and it is a weird symbiotic relationship between the ‘entertainment’ and the club management. Usually the manager is the cool go-between and the owner just wants to minimize his costs and maximize his profits. Another free beer…. I don’t think so.

Some advice

“The same can’t be said for all club owners.
There are a “few” good ones. Very little in my experience. But the one thing you really need to understand is that they are business men and having you play at their club is a business investment. Sooooo….. Be very professional when you deal with them, make sure to discuss responsibilities in detail (set length, start time, end time, PAYMENT!!), leave them with a card to reach you for a future gig (they won’t look YOU up cause their are a million other bands), don’t be late showing up, have your gear ready and in shape, don’t get drunk, and try your damn best to make a REALLY GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION. That’s means bring as many people as possible.”

“The “rules” kind of differ depending on the gig. If you’re a cover band you don’t wanna spend half the night playing originals. Just make sure you know what’s expected of you and try to deliver. If they don’t like it, you can’t help it. Look for another club. Just make sure you’re professional. They don’t care about your music or look at it as art. It’s money and business and you should handle it in that manner.
After all that’s said and done. Don’t forget to F###ING ROCK.”

“Club owners for the most part don’t care about you or your band, they are bottom line men. Either you are a known commodity or you invite everyone you know to come out and see you.
I played sessions where the club is not to packed and the owner comes out and tries to beat your price down,well am I there to play music or pack this club, it’s not my fault his club is a failure and most clubs are out of business in 6 months.
We sometimes split the bill with friends who have newly forming bands. They have higher enthusiasm and by using them for openers they bring out all their friends to double the crowd. If you think hard there are many ways to fill a club, just remember club owners are usually desperate because they made a bad investment and are looking to cut costs like bands pay.”

Read Full Post »

The indie band survival guide: the complete manual for the DIY musician now available in paperback version

The Indie Band Survival Guide just released their paperback  version through St. Martin’s Griffin publishing. The guide, which has steered a whole generation of indie bands in the Do-It-Yourself direction, originally started as a licensed Creative-Commons PDF document and quickly made a name for itself in the spheres of new upcoming bands trying to get past the traditional route of having a record label take care of all their music-business endeavors. You can download the original version at indiebandsurvivalguide.com for free, and you can order the paperback version here.

Covering topics such as the realities of traditional record label methods, managing your website and your online distribution, promoting your music offline and online, leaking your own music, putting on great shows, copyright and legal issues, the processes of recording an album and much more, this guide is aimed not only at bands but to all who have their foot in the door.

The authors Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan have seen it all as their band The Beatnik Turtle recorded 18 albums, released more than 400 songs, written music for films, and licensed music to the ABC Family Channel, all without the support (or interference) of a record label.

woof.

Read Full Post »

Touring by bicycle: follow the Ginger Ninja’s pleasant revolution

Many bands have decided not to tour this summer because of high gas prices and a general plummeting economy. Some bands on the other hand manage to tour by cutting driving expenses from their budgets. What’s the big secret? A mechanical two wheeler called the bicycle (wouhou!). Yep that’s right, some bands go on a 5000 mile road trip on their bikes fully packed of all their instrumental needs. Actually only one band did it without the help from a motorized vehicle: the Ginger Ninjas. This band has an environmental conscience to start with so why stop at just biking half-way through the country to perform your shows? Why not power your gear with your bicycles too! Watch the video and you’ll see I’m not kidding.

As someone who loves biking I think it’s a brilliant idea. You need time, a good pair of legs, an intensive 8h-a-day physical training 4 months prior to your trip, lots of steroids and your set.

Check out this other video on bicycle touring. Really puts thing in perspective.

Read Full Post »

Gig promotion strategies with “Ain’t Yo Mama” (part 1)

Had a little chat John Wilder, guitarist of Ain’t Yo Mama, on his band’s gig-promotion strategies. This is how they do it.

How they deal with concert promotion:

I approach club owners different than most people. I’m not looking for a gig for a hundred bucks in their club. I’m looking for a venue to hold a show in. Most of the time I get the venues for the door. Some resist and I have to eat crow.

1. The first thing I do after getting a date at a venue is come there one Saturday night between 11pm and 1am and see who the party girls are. I get to know them and give them a couple of t-shirts, some stickers, and a cd. I tell them to wear the t-shirts to all the clubs they hang in particularly the venue we are playing in. I go in the men’s restroom and put stickers above all the urinals, and instruct the girls to do the same in the woman’s, and also to put them in any restroom they happen to go to.

2. weeks before the show I go visit the local newspaper and inquire about running some adds for the gig. Then I ask for a free story or writeup in the paper, if you buy a couple of adds they will do whatever you want and papers need special interest stories to fill space.

3. We make up large posters for the show and place them in Wal-Marts, grocery stores, high traffic mall areas and if we can get away with it around other clubs or venues.

4. We are developing an email list, and  everyone I see or meet I mention it to them.

5. I also call the local chamber of commerce office and inform them of what is going on.

6. The weekend before the show I take piles of flyers to my party-girls and have them plaster them on cars that are in the parking lots between 12-1am, I figure this is the peoples cars I need to get at.

You have to take a shotgun approach to getting people. If you are just starting you can count on friends, but over time no matter how good you are they will get tired of going to the shows. I catch a lot of flack about being a sexist on here, but I give 90% of my personal attention to the females to get the word out. Why cause if you can get the hot girls the guys will follow, did everyone read that? Bring the women and the men will follow.

I’m working on a bigger show for later this fall where we will start using radio ads, also I have some friends that own a furniture business that may, and Im keeping my fingers crossed, they may sponsor us and pay for advertising and provide us with a TV or Appliance to give away at the shows. In my case the Band is called Aint Yo Mama, before the last set we are having the AYM “HOT MAMA” contest, we pick 5 of the best looking women in the house get them on stage and judge them by crowd response with our soundman’s db meter. The winner would then draw a ticket out of the bucket for door prizes like the TV or appliance.

If you are in the music business somehow you have to separate yourselves from the pack. It doesn’t matter how good you music is or isn’t, what matters is getting attention to your band.

Read Full Post »

How should bands organize their tours? (1)

I toured a lot in the band that I was in from the mid 90′s to 2002. We were indie and everything was self financed and all of us were broke!

• 1st you gotta have a reason to tour. If you already have an album out and you want to promote it thats great but if you don’t have radio or other promotion in the places you want to tour you are wasting your time and money.

• Plan your tour at least 4 to 6 months in advance and promote the places you will be playing. Get a street team. Give kids some free stuff and have them flyer the crap out of national concerts in your genre of music constantly for a month before you play there.

• You gotta make real good friends with the bands you play with on the road because they will get you future gigs and let you stay at their house and use their shower. Don’t expect to live like rockstars. We were lucky to get a hotel room. Most of the time we slept on the floor of a band member’s house. There were many times 5 of us slept in our broke-ass 1977 GMC Vandura with all of our equipment at a gas station or truck stop. We even got to sleep on the stage at a club we were playing at once. For a tight budget load up on canned foods, bread and PB&J.

• To make money put on an excellent show, get in with a popular local band and sell as much merchandise as possible. It is very hard almost impossible to even break even if you are on a self financed tour unless you are extremely popular. Many clubs don’t pay that much (if anything) and you’ll be lucky if they feed you.
  

• We got a steady fan base by repeat touring. We went back every two to 3 months and kept them updated with (now the old school technique) mailed newsletters. We sent them stickers and other promotional things. Another way to get a steady fan base is radio/internet promotion.

The whole idea of touring when you’re an indie band is to broaden your fan base because self financed touring is not an easy thing at all. You have to be extremely dedicated and believe in your music to do it. If you expect to make a profit right away you better not bother. Getting a bunch of people really digging your tunes is a lot more rewarding than getting money from a club. It is a nice bonus though.

(Cliff – www.bandmix.com/cliff78)

Read Full Post »