I am managing a band this year. As experiment and story for the Holy Crap Records podcast/magazine, and because this intersects with two of my favorite subjects: 1) underground music and 2) the economics of being an artist. Cinnamon Kennedy pointed out that my blog is actually about “how to be famous” and none of my stated aims are about making money. So we’re gonna run dueling blogs – I’m figuring out fame and she’s figuring out money.

So how do you start? You hear about these starts, right? The Rolling Stones had three shows booked at the same London venue. First night they played. Second night they sold out. Third night there was a line down the block. The B52s played a show in NYC, and then came back a month later to play the same venue and there was a line down the block. That’s how you start!

I am doing an interview each week with bands, radio stations, publicists, booking agents, labels – this week I talked to Lowell Hobbs of Tongues of Fire. TOF are on Godless America Records, have played at SXSW twice, and tour across the south. How did TOF start?

“Our first show was at Tiger Mountain, when they didn’t have DJ nights,” Lowell Hobbs of Tongues of Fire shares. “There were probably 30 people there. It was a nice first show.” How did they get the crowd? “We actually walked the streets of Asheville and just talked to people and brought them in.”

The local music venue, that first venue who gives you your first show, not the The Orange Peel or Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, but the local dive bar – they are the heroes of the entire underground scene. In our area thanks to: The Odditorium, The Mothlight, Fleetwood’s, The Burger Bar, Sly Grog Lounge, The Town Pump Tavern… (For bands looking to book their first show – The Odditorium will sometimes book new bands on Wednesday night and The Mothlight will sometimes book new bands on a Monday night.) Venues like these are the heroes to all local scenes, but they care about two things: 1) the quality of the music and 2) the bottom-line, the size of the crowd.

Also, be nice. To the venue and to your crowd. Tongues of Fire show up to any venue – and the venue knows that a crowd of 20-30 kids will show up too. The kids will push up to the stage, the band will interact with the crowd, and Lowell will dive on top of them. The venues in town want to book TOF again and again.

Having that first packed performance and continuing to bring people to venues has great benefits – for touring and for getting on a label. Venues will book your band when traveling bands come through, and…

How did Lowell put together TOF’s first tour?

“I think we got somebody from Gainesville a show,” Lowell explains, “and since you gave us a show we’ll give you a show in Gainsville. It’s kind of how all our tours work for the most part. Almost all of the bands we’ve played with in different towns is someone we’ve helped out in Asheville.”

Tongues of Fire has that sense of danger, that anything can happen when they have a show. They play local basement and house parties – even getting two house parties shut down on the same night.

So I’m managing another band in the local scene – “Band A” – how do I create that buzz? That sense of danger? That consistent crowd? Band A is playing this weekend. They are playing at a brewery, mid afternoon, outside, and the weather is 58 degrees and blustery. Four of the five members can make the show. What am I doing? I put up one poster. I shared on social media. There was a change in event times – and now I’m literally texting friends to show up…. Also I bought some streamers to hang at the event…. Streamers!!!!

20 years is a long time to feel something, and think about something, and boil that thing down into some lyrics that have real emotional precision. Earleine brings all that here, with a delivery that matches. 

I read this somewhere – all an artist needs is a 1,000 fans who are willing to spend $100 a year on the art.

As part of the Holy Crap Records podcast and music magazine content, I am managing a band this year. As an experiment/investigation. “Band A.” The podcast and the magazine will not name the band or use our considerable media clout to promote the band. However, I will be interviewing other bands who are busting out of the underground, music magazines, radio stations, booking agents, publicity agents, and labels – and using their wisdom to promote this band. I will post of Wednesday and on Sunday. I will conduct one interview a week over SKYPE and record it – because I’m too lazy to edit the content it will be a short interview format: 4 questions in 5 minutes! (Gonna try to get Lowell to be my first interview. Lowell!!!) Then I will use all this wisdom to promote “Band A” – and you can use all this info to promote your band too.

The measurable targets are: 1) getting the band on a label, 2) playing at festivals, 3) audience of 100 people.

So who is this band? What are they like? (I’ll be using photos of my bands – so these aren’t clues. I’m sure Derek wouldn’t mind me using photos of him either.) What do they have going for them?

Um. Well they are not the most obvious bet for who will make it out of this scene. Do they have that look in their eyes? Are they hungry? Have they burned their ships? Actually, I’m not sure any of the members would be willing/able to hit the road and go on a sustained national tour, crashing on floors and living in a van. Two of the members have zero social media presence and the third just lingers around facebook to make snarky comments. Most of the members aren’t active in the local music scene, heading out to see live shows, hanging with other bands. (In a later post I will go into detail why being an active member of the local music scene is paramount to making it.) As a matter of fact most of the band has the insolence to believe that all they have to do is make music – and all the bookings and posters and social media is what naturally happens around them. This sounds like a knock, but artists need that self-belief and arrogance, that their art is so beautiful the world should welcome and treasure it.

So what do they have going for them? They have a decent live show. They have a following in a limited geographical area. If they play a hometown show then 20+ people show up every time. And, simply, they have songs. We would play them on Holy Crap Records Podcast. We listen to 50+ bands/songs a week, for five slots on the show, so if we play your song on our podcast we really believe in your song. “Band A” is catchy. They sound a bit like Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” album, that move away from garage and punk to a more pop sound. Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone” is the best pop song ever. And ultimately it all comes down to songs. If you have songs it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what you’re doing. If you have songs you have art. Art is the most beautifully reciprocal and harmonious giving relationship in the universe. Thank you for writing that song – it moved my spirit. Thank you for listening to my song. Thank you.

“Band A” – they have a song.