Inside the Process….(Part 1)

    Let’s talk about booking.  How does this process work?  Well, in a city inundated with unsigned indie bands, the process is two-fold. We’ll discuss this in 2 parts….
1.   Dive Bars
    In order to get a gig playing music in a dive bar, it’s fairly easy. The only things you need are an e-mail address and a Myspace profile.  Most bars that fit in this category range from creepy to moderately nice.  They’re  places that are looking to bring in more people with the promise of “Live Music.”
    When you first start out as a band, these kinds of venues are good to get your feet wet - get used to playing in front of people, get free drink tickets, and expose, (generally), your close friends who make the trip out to see you.
    Most people booking these bars are pretty easy to contact via their e-mail address/web page, etc… If your band has a Myspace profile, (or better, your own website), that has some of your music posted - you just e-mail’em and give’em some links with a small amount of persistence, and they’ll probably give you a Tuesday night.
    Now, night’s you ACTUALLY want to play are Friday and Saturday nights, or maybe a Thursday…. But generally the other nights are harder to get people, (“fans” if you will…), out to see a show.
    So, you start out on a Tuesday night - get your friends out, and then hopefully you get the chance to do a gig there on a Thursday or Sunday night in another month or two. There are plenty of bars that fit in this category, so it’s pretty easy to schedule out at least a show or 2 a month.
            However, the major cons of playing dive bars are this:

    1.  You’re paid with drink tickets, and not much else… You may get a cut of the bar, but don’t expect much. If you get $20, you’ve made a killing.
    2.  Crappy sound systems….  Nothing can make your folk-rock band sound like an atonal Sonic Youth feedback jam, than performing through a junky sound system.
    3.  Friend exhaustion…  No matter how wonderful your friends are, sooner or later they’re going to get tired of seeing your band play at dive bars.
    4.  And finally, dive bars are a vicious cycle that pretty much sucks the dignity from you and slowly wears down your joy of playing in front of people.

    You may ask, “Isn’t it enough to just be out there performing?”
    Well, yeah… To a point.   It’s great at first, but do it for nearly 2 years and you’ll see that you’re really playing for the regulars at these places, (who generally could care less about your music), and for 1 or 2 friends that you guilt-tripped into coming out on a Wednesday night. It gets really discouraging over a period of time.
    As gloomy as that sounds though, it is a process that every DIY band has to go through. At first, you actually NEED to play these places, cause they’re the only places that’ll book you, and they’re also useful to get to know other local bands and to get your name around town.
    But what you have to be careful of, is to not get caught in this cycle permanently.
    The process of breaking out of the dive bar scene and playing better venues gets a bit more complicated…  (To Be Continued…..)

The Song of the Week is:   Peter, Bjorn, & John’s “Objects Of My Affection”
Why? Because it sounds beautiful, and who doesn't like whistling?

Soapbox #1

So I heard Broken Bells on the radio and thought of two things:

1. Ian Brown
2. The Dandy Warhols

    “The High Road” sounds like a pretty standard song from Ian Brown’s solo career, (but with better song-writing). And “The Ghost Inside” sounds like an outtake from the Dandy Warhols’ 2004 album “Welcome to the Monkey House.”
    Upon these comparisons, my initial reaction is- “Well,  it’s not bad, but I’ve heard other bands/artists do it better.”
    However, I thought about it a little bit more. Really, James Mercer and Brian Burton have some good music here - (honestly, I think it’s 75% Burton, cause this guy seems to have the Midas Touch nowadays)……{cue production credits of Danger Mouse}……. But I’ll also say that James Mercer’s song-writing is a near equal in this collaboration.
    But why that reaction of “I’ve heard this before from another band that did this”?
    Well, it’s simple…….  There’s nothing new. Everything is a rehashing of influences.
    Now, this isn’t exactly a bad thing.  The thing that frustrates me is that people fail to see/hear the history of the music they’re currently listening to. When people listen to a song they really love and fail to realize that it’s clearly derivative of another band from 10 years ago, it seriously irritates the crap out of me!
     Now, there are casual listeners who wouldn’t understand this, and that’s fine. But I’ve known people who have the same love of music as I do, who don’t even comprehend this concept. Every piece of music we listen to has some form of history behind it.
    Example:  Muse has a distinct Queen fetish and they clearly listened to a lot of early Radiohead, (if you haven’t noticed this, then chances are you’re probably deaf).  Now, Muse sounds derivative  of both of these comparisons, yet they don’t sound the same as them. That’s the beauty of those influences, maybe you haven’t listened to Queen or early Radiohead - then Muse can be your gateway-drug to some other amazing music…
    More Examples:

Interpol  =  Joy Division
The Strokes  =  Television/Velvet Underground
Pearl Jam  =  Neil Young and Crazy Horse

    I could make a longer list, but the point is this:  Whatever you’re listening to now, there are some really great artists/bands behind them that you should check out. Stop just listening to music and find out why you like it. Do a little research, and you’ll be glad you did.

(And this blog’s Song Of The Week is:     “The Killing Moon”   by Echo and the Bunnymen )
For all you Donnie Darko fanatics - like me…

The Guilty Pleasure

We all have them. Those things we enjoy that we wouldn’t tell our hipster Portland friends.

My top 5 Guilty Pleasure songs are:
1. “Mamma Mia”  -  ABBA
2. “Come On Eileen”   -  Dexy’s Midnight Runners
3. “Hot N Cold”  -  Katy Perry
4. “Semi-Charmed Life”  -  Third Eye Blind
5. “Don’t Stop Believing”  -  Journey

And for God’s sake, don’t get me started on movies… That’s a whole other hideous list.
    Now, you have to keep in mind that I’m a bit of a music snob, and that I take great joy in listening to/finding obscure bands, etc…  The “I Found Them First” Syndrome. Yes, one of those people who don’t like it when bands they love become successful and get radio-play.
    So, for those of you that know me, you can see how deeply confessional this list is for me.
    I suppose the question I pose is “Why?” Do I enjoy hearing these songs because I have some referential point in my past that has become completely associated with these songs?  Well, yeah. Maybe. I’m pretty sure that’s the case with “Mamma Mia”, cause I automatically think of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” when I hear it. - (See? Don’t get me started on movies….)
    Quite possibly, it’s just the catchiness of the song. In fact, I would say that’s probably 75% of the Guilty Pleasure. After all these years of hunting around for atonal, progressive, pretentious, indie-rock - Maybe I all I really want to hear is a good pop song. And I would say that qualifies as every song on this list.
    Now if I’m in a bar with my bandmates or (God forbid), other friends in bands, I’m not going to put a Katy Perry song on the jukebox and then proclaim to everyone that “it’s my jam!”  On the contrary, if one of these songs comes on overhead, I’m much more likely to sit there quietly and secretly enjoy it while finishing my beer.
    So what is the fine line between the Guilty Pleasure and Terrible Music?  Well, that would require another entire blog’s worth of discussion - and I’m not going to go into it here. What I will say on this point, is that you’ll notice nothing on my list, (nor in my entire CD collection), receives any airplay on CMT. And we’ll leave it at that…
    If I’m correct in my ponderings, I’d say that the Guilty Pleasure is an entirely subjective and individualized phenomenon to each person.  It also seems possible that we don’t have a choice in what becomes our Guilty Pleasure, being that it’s a combination of our past experiences and whatever we deem as ‘pleasing’ to our ears.

    So what do we do in this mass populace with crabby music snobs, (like myself), surrounding us? Well, suffice to say that even the most hardened music snob has some awful pop song that they dearly love, even if they won’t openly admit it.  So, I say turn up that atrocious Fergie song on your car radio and sing along at the top of your lungs…. Cause who really cares what the other drivers think?  They can’t hear you anyway. And believe me, I’ll probably be in the next car over, singing along with that irritating Third Eye Blind song….

Sorta Coming Soon...

So, yeah.... I'm gonna start a blog....  I wouldn't really consider this the first post... This is more of a warning shot, than anything, I suppose....
  At some point, this'll become my weekly rant/deep thought regarding.... well.... everything....