Band Management: Blog 38: Online Radio

I am managing “Band A” for one year, because I want to understand the current music eco-system, post implosion of the larger music industry, where we now have this mass produced corporate kick-in-the-balls awfulness (oh but I do like Taylor Swift’s Shake-It-Off) and then a post-apocalyptic landscape with all the cockroaches creating basic communities to survive. Well, us cockroaches are making the greatest music ever, greatest art explosion ever, greatest music scenes ever.
I’ve been kinda successful at getting Band A played on college and indie radio stations: if I send out 20 emails to stations then Band A will get played or put on rotation somewhere. And then I had the idea that there are tons of great online radio stations – also flopping around in the wilderness and dust and ashes. I started digging around and found Karen’s Indies and Belter Radio over in Scotland. Sure enough “Band A” got played…
In other “Band A” news – they headed back to El Rancho Morbido Studios for another morning with engineer/producer Edward Madill to finish their cover of Suicide’s “Johnny” for the Kafadan Kontak Records compilation release. Somehow “Band A” has turned the original 2-minute electronic blues drone about “Johnny” into a 4-minute blues drone about “Johnny.” Well, it doesn’t sound like musical soup and the vocals are catchy as all hell. Still working out with Ed how much we want the vocals in the foreground. But I love early REM and Nirvana when the vocal’s aren’t so clear… But maybe that is dumb because Band A is like early Blondie, that punk/new wave/garage rock, and those vocals are way in the front of the mix…
Also, “Band A” just played The Grey Eagle and the singer is real excited about being on their TV sets…