I am a band manager this year. It was a slightly “Murray” experience this weekend. Murray is the band manager for “Flight of the Conchords.” Someone who believes in the band – and then sets them up with shows in aquariums and elevators. I believe in “Band A” – and I stood with maybe a dozen people at the brewery, watching the band, which dwindled to a single family by the end of the second set. But it was great. Two sets of great garage rock. The bass player split his pants. Highlights include addition of synth sounds. Good lead singer and good drummer. The rest of the band could work on their stage presence, but they were loose and having fun. And they have songs. So, the point of this year-long blog is to take this band, “Band A,” and take this music, and propel it toward a much larger audience. After the show “Band A” sat down with the management (me) and wanted to know exactly what I was up to….So first I’m going to buy some “social media” likes. There – I said it. I know a bunch of bands frown on this gauche and obvious behavior. But I’m the manager – and I don’t care. Social media has changed. It used to be that you had a chance at building an organic following. Or something like that – but now social media curates your feed. (That’s why liberals only get liberal news and conservatives get garbage.) Nowadays you basically have to pay to share content, to get those likes. I asked all my friends to like “Band A” – and “Band A” has 242 likes. I am going to buy 5,000 likes. Because I believe that 5,000 likes will make it easier to reach my three goals: get on a label, play at a festival, and draw an audience of 100 people. Let’s see how much it costs and how this goes… Also I need to get their latest album on iTunes and SKYPE…. In other blog news – as you know this blog series is matched with the Holy Crap Records video series “4 Questions in 5 minutes” – when I talk to people in the industry about how to make a band more successful. So I’ve reached out to: Jessica at Co-Sign (Artistic Development Agency), Sean Bohrman at BURGER RECORDS, Godless America Records, Father and Daughter Records, and John Richards at KEXP… (I will also be interviewing Tristen Colby about the scene and touring.)