May 2019 Archives

Song We Like: The Rupture by the Unsatisfied

He was a hostage of Looooooooove! Make an appointment with the Unsatisfied for that kind of rock that you want to play really loud from the stereo of a pre-1995 car. But don’t let this band near your wife

Song We Like: Talking by the Styrofoam Turtles

Songs We Like

Legendary Asheville rockers get unplugged a little, emoting rhythmically in this little singalong number. It makes us excited for the upcoming album.

Song We like: She Sings by Daddies

Songs We Like

A band whose recordings suggest a big, big live presence. These chords and melody are very Right Now, and Daddies pulls it off with so much style and ease that we think maybe all the other very-2019 bands are copying them.

Song We Like: Serious Child by Sean Barna

Songs We Like

He has a high country kind of yodeling voice and the kind of sincerity that only someone who was once a serious child could muster. We’d be the belles of the ball if Jesus were queer 👍

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 8: Jordan Duttinger, Godless America Records

Artist Interviews, The Music Economy

I’m in the business of band management. I have one-year to move “Band A” onto a label, get them on the festival circuit, invited by KEXP to play live at their studio… Hey I’m not the smartest, but I pay attention and follow trends through Holy Crap Records and the The Asheville Rock Collective. What are the best local bands doing to take those first steps to recognition and infamy? Godless America Records puts out an annual mix-tape of the best songs/bands submitted to them during the year. Tongues of Fire is on their mix-tape. Bubble Boys are on their mix-tape. It’s how we find a bunch of bands for the Holy Crap Records Podcast – by listening to this excellent curated mix-tape. So I have to get “Band A” onto one of those mix-tapes. And I totally had to interview Jordan Duttinger for the “4 Questions in 5 Minutes” section. I fucking love hanging out with someone smarter than me. Like Sean from BURGER RECORDS, Jordan started Godless America Records because no one was representing and promoting underground music. Godless America Records is basically Jordan – and finding the sustainable model of putting out great mix-tapes and releasing bands on cassette is what works for him. Yeah, I will be submitting “Band A” to Godless America Records, but I’ll use my second email and see actually what Jordan thinks of the band. Thank you Jordan.

In other management news. F*ck. I busted my ass. I sent of “Band A’s” latest release to 20 college radio stations. I figured out the emails and the DJs most likely to play this type of music. I did it right. F*ck. Let’s see what happens.

This is the email I sent:

Thank you for being a champion of indie and underground music. I am the manager for “Band A,” an Asheville-based new wave / garage rock band. I am sharing their lead single from their latest release for your consideration.

“Band A” have been around for 6 years in the Asheville indie/underground scene. They were voted the number 1 punk band by Mountain X-Press in 2015. (And then Mountain Xpress stopped that category – who knows why? ) Their sound has evolved from raw garage punk to that indie new wave sound of bands like Blondie, Talking Heads, and B-52s. These songs are a catchy ear worm in your brain. “Band A” are recreating and updating the 80s sound like The Strokes with “You Only Live Once” and Sharon Van Etten with “Comeback Kid.”

Please enjoy “Band A” – “Song A”: ***********************

JP Kennedy
Band Management

4 Questions in 5 Minutes: Jordan Duttinger, Godless America Records

The Music Economy

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 9: The Happening

The Music Economy

John Cage staged the first happening – an immersive art experience at Black Mountain College in 1952. This happening led to Andy Warhol and Lou Reed’s “Exploding Plastic Inevitable,” Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests,” and the world of performance art.
“Band A” – the band that I am managing – will be playing at one of the major breweries in the Asheville area on June 6th. The idea is to make this a large splashy event, an album release party, a happening on stage, performance art!!!
“Band A” has been playing in the scene for 5-6 years, and most times they do dress up, have streamers, a smoke machines, and maybe a giant tarantula hovering in the air. So they could pull it off. They also have – Andy. Andy lives on a street in Black Mountain where all the kids go to trick-and-treat. And for years Andy has decorated his house as a haunted pirate ship, or a haunted circus, or a haunted rocket ship. The current plan for “Band A” is for Andy to bring all the halloween decorations he has created over the years and fill the brewery and the stage with them. You gotta love the enthusiasm of “Band A.”
In the meantime my idea for a music video – sticking each of the band members’ heads in a box – is not working out. Two of the band members are out of town for two weeks. Two band members have exactly zero interest in this plan. One band member loves to stick his head in the box – but he’s got a few screws loose. So I’m on my back up plan. I have collected photos of every show, of every costume, of everyone they’ve invited up on stage with them – and I put all those image together and made a music video. Hopefully it will go viral – and if not, maybe, it will remind all their friends and fans how much fun a live show is and they will all make it to the brewery on the sixth and jump on stage with “Band A.” It’s happening!!!

Ep 53: The Cannonball Jars, Jacques Le Coque, Guerilla Toss, Dirt Bike, Zip-Tie Handcuffs

Podcasts

Live from the Bronx. Glockenspiel. Cinnamon’s trip. EMF. (Follow us on Facebook! Instagram! Twitter! And lots of stuff about these and other bands, including artist interviews, is at www.hlycrp.com.)

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 7: Autograph My Chest

The Music Economy

So this actually happened last night. “Band A” was playing at a dive bar on Saturday night, and the bass guitar player was singing about “your mom” (the song is actually called “your mom”), and two women approached the stage. One of the women lowered the top of her t-shirt, suggestively and slightly inappropriately, but not a full flash, and asked him to autograph her chest.
So the question is – if “Band A” has captured this lightening in a bottle, if the band is actually sexy, if each stage show results in at least a couple of inappropriate offers (usually to the drummer and the lead singer) how do you reach a larger audience?
It’s hard to differentiate a band in an extremely strong local scene, at a time when the underground is producing some truly amazing music. Buying likes on social media sucked and didn’t work. I’m still booking the band a ton of shows – that’s the easy part.
So I got two new things going – 1) music video. People will watch a music video. It’s a format and a framing people can get their head around. Oh, I need a 3 minute mental health break at work? I’ll watch a music video. All I have to do is make the world’s most interesting music video.
And 2) – time to place “Band A” on the radio. Full disclosure: I’m getting most of my marketing wisdom from an article written by John Richards of KEXP. It’s the first time I read some insider explaining how to get on the radio. https://www.kexp.org/about/getting-airplay/?t=1557070416188. One big take-away is that college radio is still extremely influential, and college radio still actually listens to the slush pile. It makes sense. You’re a super dorky freshman at a college radio station – and you love listening to new submissions, rather than some fat, bored radio exec in L.A. doing coke. So I’m going to send “Band A’s” latest single to: WERS (Emerson College), WFUV Public Radio (Fordham University, WRSU – Rutgers Radio, WCRW (Santa Monica College), KUTX 98.9 (University of Texas), 92 WICB (Ithaca), etc….
Anyway, John Richards of KEXP says I can send in the song – and then I can actually call them up and bother them about “Band A.” Oh yeah….

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