Blog 53: Band Management: When Management Fails

I manage “Band A.” Or maybe they manage me. I had a plan to make them famous – and I was like a dog chasing a car. I couldn’t quit. Until I was run over. Sometimes things are so obvious – and I get run over.
2020 started with grey skies and damp weather and every member of “Band A” is running a side project band. I am affiliated with two of these other bands, so I take a moment to step back from “Band A.”
Witnessing these two other bands is a learning experience. They are both going great. Bad Banker – band – a weird synth, violin, drum machine, anarchist band – where I play rhythm guitar – has a crowd of people singing along to our final song at The Odditorium. And this is the first time we ever played the song! “I don’t care what you do – this punk rock show – is better than – nudes!” (A friendly homage to The Deathbots.) To be clear – this response isn’t actually a surprise. The positive energy of the band is unbelievable. Band members show up and show off – you want sexy disco dance beats? I have sexy dance disco beats for this song.
A second affiliated band – Rosie and The Rats rolls up to the El Rancho Morbido Studios, after being in existence for only three weeks, and records a beautiful five-song EP. I can sense the electricity in the air. The creativity is there, and the heightened listening is there, and the space takes on an ultra high def intensity and everything is saturated with meaning. Everything is new and also like it has been around forever. Ahhhhh…
Oh I loved it and I was jealous. I was run over. I think my management is inhibiting joyful creativity. To be clear, a band member did crack a joke about how “Band A” is over managed. These six individuals of “Band A” are star athletes. I want all that wildness and joyfulness and thoughtfulness. I want them in the studio this spring and I want them for one more season, one more ride. Maybe I’m an idiot – ummm – but I do know when the spirit is in the room…

Blog 52: Band Management: Compilation Album Release

I am managing “Band A” for one year. One of the nicest aspects has been meeting up with Kafadan Kontak Records and Tolga Ozbey. “Band A” is on KK Records, and the label invited us to be part of a compilation album, called “Let’s Commit Suicide” – which they put out on Christmas Day, which is also funny as hell, if you like dark dark humor.
It’s a compilation album of songs by Suicide, the earliest of the punk and electronic bands from the downtown NYC art scene in the early 70s. (Thanks to Edward Madill for producing/engineering/mixing – he’s got that magic.)
It’s been a nice end to 2019. “Band A” also made it onto the Asheville music scene’s “Year In Local Music,” compiled by Loose Fit on Asheville FM and DJ Ernesto Yermoli. As the year comes to a close I want to appreciate these curators – like Ernesto and Tolga. I remember 5 – 6 years ago on the Asheville scene when it seemed like Eron Rex was out every night, taking photos, video, connecting bands, putting out his zine – ThrAsheville zine. Curating is an art. Eron got the whole Asheville scene rolling. He helped to tell the story of the early years. Tolga is connecting these garage rock and punk rock bands across the globe through his label. Loose Fit understands the significance of the local scene happening right now. And Holy Crap Records will be running our end of the year top 10 – next week on the podcast. It has been the best year. DIY underground music is the best art form. So rich in attitude and guts and creativity and beauty. Thank you. Thank you.

Blog 51: Band Management: Band A, Band B, and now Band C, Band D….

For half a year I’ve managed “Band A” as an art project / investigation of the music industry. Band A did pretty good – played on 4 radio stations, reviewed by two music journals, on a minor minor minor label, and had two songs on compilations. Then The Styrofoam Turtles announced that they were releasing their single “Pipe” on our label – Holy Crap Records – and as we love Tristen Colby, Josh Davis and Colm McKeon so much and think so much of their music we released their single and sent it around to radio stations and music magazines. The Styrofoam Turtles became “Band B” in this narrative.
During this time Cinnamon and I started thinking about how much we care about and love all you bands and musicians, that we have seen live, played with, and played on our podcast. And we launched Musicians For Overdose Prevention to get narcan in all bars and music venues.
Now we are collecting songs about use/abuse/recovery. We’re still working this out – but we want to create a space for these songs on our podcast and we want to find a major minor label (Rough Trade, Merge, Third Man…) to partner with us and release an album of the best underground music songs on this theme.
In the meantime, we want to collect all your songs and put them out as a massive compilation on Holy Crap Records, adding to the collection as we get more songs. It would just live on bandcamp and every five songs (or so) we’d do a media blast about this project and these bands and these songs. We’re still working this out, but this is what we’re thinking for 2020??? As usual we’re just fumbling forward in the darkness, making it all up as we go along… If we screw anything it’s due to stupidity not malice… Here we go Band C, Band D….

Band Management: Blog 50: The Scene

Holy Crap Records is based in Asheville, NC – and this is where we see our music, local bands or bands coming through, this is where we hear our music, and this is where we get our recommendations of music to check out.
There’s been a bunch of online discussions about what makes you a professional musician – and I feel like there needs to be some acknowledgement of the absolute greatness of the Asheville scene – and the challenges.
This is a great scene. We play more Asheville bands than any other bands (except maybe the Melbourne scene). This scene is rich and wonderful and full of incredible bands, songwriters, photographers, videographers, artists, designers – this is the BEST art scene since Black Mountain College.
I can tell you two dozen bands you should all see right now. The venues are fun as hell too.
And… yet… this scene is still deep in the underground. No one is paying attention. (Yeah there’s been press about the tourist music scene – but not about the artists who are vomiting up their soul.) What does it mean to be a successful artist? I suppose the answer is to go on tour after tour and push out your next EP on bigger and bigger indie labels. Or the answer is to sit in that woodshed and write 50 songs or 500 songs and emerge as a beautiful transcendent butterfly.
My gut tells me that this scene will be recognized for it’s richness and beauty at some point. It needs a catalogue, a curator. Someone needs to be the collector. The Holy Crap Records Podcast is at number 81. Maybe when we get to 100 I will reconnect with all the local Asheville bands that we have played and create a spotify or bandcamp list. It’s a start. It’s important to document the mad genius of the Asheville underground. On this day – thank you, thank you, thank you for all the badass wild joy.

Ep 94 – `Chad Nance vs. The Hackers’ FEAT: White Oak Splits, Louder than Death, [pseudonym], Ghost Funk Orchestra, Rubber Band Gun, Bedon, Foot Gun


This week we played:

Back Seat White Heat by the White Oak Splits

ABCs of Old Berlin by Louder than Death

Modern Scene by Ghost Funk Orchestra

On Your Face by Rubber Band Gun

Untitled by Bedon

Nothing Left Over by Foot Gun

Best of the underground, week of Feb 25, 2020: John gets weak at the knees, and also reaches enlightenment. Plus: is Chad Nance sexier than a trombone? Yes the hell he is!! Also, SEVEN fantastic songs, one of which is a bonus. (All podcasts and reviews are on our newly-unhacked website, www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.) Artists! We like you, good work. February chugs along. Still.

Haze by Grace Joyner

Falling for a song is just like love. You can just be happy in its presence and listen to that tune over and over. Cinnamon figures that I’m a little dyslexic or something, and I can’t recall words or melody – so I have to listen to a song over and over to imprint it on my conscious. I have listened to this song five times in a row and I’ll probably listen to it another five times.

My mother warned me not to fall in love too many times – you have to walk so many miles to be able to have this as an opening like. Grace Joyner is just unbelievable. Her vocals are so easy, so unhurried, so restrained. Her voice has a timeless quality. This is both old and folky and at the same time totally modern. She walks with us and just casts off this beauty.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #91 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

https://gracejoyner.bandcamp.com/

We Are The Night by Cold Choir

This dance song rolls out like a classic Yaz, Depeche Mode, Human League, Japan synth hit from the 80s. “Were Are The Night” drips with attitude and moody cool. The icy synth washes against the hypnotic beat. This is beat, synth and voice. All the choices are right. The synth chord progression is immediately hooky. The vocals are sexy and hold this truth – that Franky and Mario Martinez are the night. They cast the spell that they are the coolest and wherever Cold Choir is playing is the coolest scene in the city.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #91 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

https://coldchoirmusic.bandcamp.com/track/we-are-the-night

Wysteria by Nordista Freeze

Staff Writer: Drew Burgess

An on the road song, a poem about losing your grip, through romantic longings in harmony, the metaphorical personification of wysteria through romantic outings and hand-holding, I come to the conclusion that Nordistra Freeze is in love, though what with, I have no idea.

Wysteria has a similar vibe to 1960’s pop vocal groups, but with a clean aesthetic that distinguishes it from previous acts. This sound is hard to pull off, how do these guys make it so effortless? Restraint prevails, and the open space of the song is as captivating as its organ, jangling guitar, and 3/4 rhythm section.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #91 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

https://nordistafreeze.bandcamp.com/track/wysteria

Female of The Species by The Flytraps

Staff Writer: Drew Burgess

In their tune The Female of The Species, The Flytraps begin with a back and forth punk bass riff that completely explodes when the throwback style drums kick in. The guitar riff  next jumps in to create a creepy organ-like octave effect. This is a cast iron cauldron full of all the creepy and cool things I love. The snarling vocal over the top welds the whole thing together as a true rocker. Pure mojo… its the type of punk/garage/surf that borders the rockabilly scene, (on the dark side of course) its all dirty, amazing, and raw.

I love it.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #91 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

https://theflytrapsband.bandcamp.com/