Vinnie Minnie:

What if after 1994 rock music got systematically catchier and more fun instead of more counterfeit than mundane? The Power come from that alternate reality and moreover I think that Asheville’s local rock music is the answer to the question. In a world of Shannons and Black Lips, sometimes present day Rock and Roll seems like a trip to the nostalgia store to get your kinky boots and murky reverb. A reach for a time and a sound found in the hidden corners of the last independently owned record store that closed down when you left for college. That’s what’s great here and obvious: love for old records and costumes hastily pulled from the dress up box. Paintings made with brushes with few hairs permanently stuck with paint from the last. At the same time it doesn’t sound like the same regurgitated garage rock meant to sound exactly like the Troggs or early Kinks. The lyrics come from an honest place and that place seems to be the feeling you get when you realize you’re over 30 but you don’t ever plan on growing up but you want to grow up because you’re tired of feeling like a failure in the eyes of your immediate family. That age where you realize what you want, who you want and the proverbial “who you are.” I feel so fortunate to hear this recording of songs by 3 multi-instrumentalists who’s abilities at playing punk blisters and pop dreams are only dwarfed by their ability to create songs that get you pogoing with their catchy hooks and fun melodies. I mean let’s face it here dear readers, THE POWER is the only band that Vinny Minnie, yours very truly, would want to spend his hard earned dubloons on seeing every weekend and I’ve seen and heard it all before my escape from cartoon land. Not since Alvin and The Chipmunks have I heard 3 punks sing together so well. The short songs are punchy and the long songs get along swimmingly. Unfortunately WEIRD VIBES is not just a clever name as THE POWER may never play together again so let’s show our gratitude by listening to their album front to back and maybe singing our favorite selections from it to them when we see them at the grocery store or post office. But what do I know I’m just a cartoon that escaped from television.

Vinny Minnie – Thank you my dear QPOG
2019

I am managing a band for a year – “Band A.” I am attaching photos just so there is proof of this next part of the story: How I had toothache and how “Band A” got on a label… 
Fact 1: A few months ago I got smacked in the face with a soccer ball and I chipped my back, left, upper molar. It was irritating and made me especially irritable on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. (I went to the dentist on Monday and he said I’d lost half my molar and this morning he sawed the remaining molar in two pieces and yanked it out – photos included.) 
Fact 2: “Band A” played at a brewery on Sunday afternoon. One member was out of the country, two members were interested, and two members were not so interested. I went to the Saturday practice and no one wanted to play drums and no one could agree to a set list. There was no center to the band. So on Saturday evening I sent a text around saying my tooth was hurting and I wasn’t going to show up to the brewery show on Sunday either. Then the two members who didn’t want to play – suddenly did want to play. I guess I was being annoying AF. (Derek Allen and Derek Frye can speak at length on this subject.) 
Then on Sunday morning, when everything seemed bleak and painful, and I was being a total drama queen, I received an email from KK Records wanting to release an EP by “Band A” – image of email also included. 
I checked them out – they have good bands on their roster. (I’ll post the redacted correspondence between me and the label on instagram.) For example The Painkillers are great – check out their song “Tomorrow” – https://kafadankontak.bandcamp.com/track/tomorrow. We’re playing The Painkillers guys on the Holy Crap Records podcast this week. (Funny, cause now I’m on painkillers.)
The label is Kafadan Kontak Records out of Istanbul, Turkey – for real – and they’re putting out a roster of garage rock bands. They said they can book us a tour in Turkey. And they’ve asked for four songs to release on an EP. Check them out: https://kafadankontak.bandcamp.com/..
Anyway, whatever happens, I will be documenting it…

“Band A” had their album release party on Thursday night. I inflated 99 helium balloons. I actually inflated about 50 balloons, made the band blow up 25 balloons and toss them around, and that was it. It looked like a demented kids birthday party – especially as the bass player, who resembles a grumpy Bilbo Baggins, wore a floral frock and combat boots. The stage dynamic is based on the bass player trying to steal some attention from the much more glamorous lead singer – and failing. The drummer is a total maniac. And the two guitarists roll their eyes at this foolishness. But it works. 
“Band A” is a pop band. That’s how I describe them now – new wave, garage rock, as catchy and as poppy as anything from the indie 80s scene. An updating of the 80s underground, like The Strokes or Sharon Van Etten’s latest album. I handed out cards with codes to download “Band A’s” first two albums. The singer made buttons to pass out. A few friends jumped up on stage with them. It was the best show in months. 
So what now in terms of band management? Well, sending out their single to college radio stations has worked. I sent out emails to 25 stations and it is on rotation at 2 stations. The music director of the largest indie radio station in NYC has shared the song with her DJs. The first album review will be out at the end of June. And then I take this information to more radio stations, to get more reviews, to get them to play at festivals, onto an indie label, one million dollars… I’m ordering 50 CDs because some radio stations actually ask for CDs.
So what now in terms of this blog? I was talking about this with Cinnamon Kennedy on the way to see Wyla and Fantømex show at the Sly Grog Lounge on Saturday night. Musicians/artists are no good at this. Interacting with radio stations, publications, labels. Management is the opposite of creativity. But I’ve worked with the New York Times, sat at meetings with them. I know how to speak their language, to tell them a story they want to hear. This is what I want for my favorite bands – you know who you are – I want you to just be artists, to just make music, to beat the system and win. I am going to take screen shots of my emails to the radio stations, a list of the stations I approached, their responses, my interactions with publications, put it all up on instagram and the website… Someday Holy Crap Records may be a label – and this year long investigation into management may lead to that – but in the meantime I want to give you everything I have done, if you want to copy it, or not…