Tag Archive for: band mangement

Band Management: Blog 43: Album Release Party!

Band Management: Blog 43: Album Release Party!

Holy Crap Records has become a label – and we have released two singles. One from the notorious “Band A” and the other is “Pipe” from The Styrofoam Turtles. (You can check us out over at bandcamp.com at the Holy Crap Records Label page.) And on Thursday night The Styrofoam Turtles had an album release party at The Mothlight with Tongues of Fire and Sane Voids. Gawd – I LOVE the TOF live show. Quality beer drinking, stage diving, and overall rock star moves. Just a great show. A ton of people showed up. Tristen Colby made fun of Holy Crap Records and the fact that he tricked us into being a label – which is perfect. And the single “Pipe” sounded so good – totally catchy and true from the stage.
So what now? What does a label do with some high quality music? And a total grifter who runs the label? Well, on Thursday, I sent off the song to 31 college and indie radio stations – which is where I had surprising success for “Band A.” Belter Radio got back in touch and asked me to upload a mp3, but then they sent a follow up email that said – resend after October 15th – because they were on some kind of hiatus as they move from internet radio to real radio.
And then I decided to research what Asheville bands were having success in terms of publicity? Secret Shame has had great success with their publicist. Crooked Ghost works with Shameless Promotion PR – and so I wrote down all the publications and podcasts and radio stations that Crooked Ghost has been promoted and played. And Melted Magazine did a great Q&A with Kitty Tsunami – and then followed up with a great piece of photo journalism with Eli Raymer. I think Eli is an amazing musician – playing with a ton of great bands, touring all the time, making his own great music as Good Trauma.
Anyway, I’ve made that list of platforms and publications and I will send them “Band A” and The Styrofoam Turtles. Let’s see what happens…

Band Management: Blog 31: Bandcamp

Band Management: Blog 31: Bandcamp

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“Band A” is back from a summer hiatus and has four shows and some recording in the next month. That’s what a band manager should do, right? It was nice to be back with the band. For the first three months of band management there’s been a certain caution (maybe annoyance) from the members toward my management style. But that seems to have receded over the break and now they’re all ready to go again. 
In terms of the wider world, I use this blog to ask questions to anyone I want about the music industry – and I want to explore not just the underground music scene but also the underground music media scene. I suspect there are 100s of podcasts covering the underground music scene, 100s of underground zines, comics, mini-online publications that would love to talk about “Band A.” Who else is supporting the underground music scene? – this will become part of the blog in the coming months.
Still, if you want to talk about the underground music scene you have to talk about Bandcamp. The Moby Dick of the underground music scene. The great white whale. At the start of the Holy Crap Records Podcast we were listening to at least 50 bands a week on Bandcamp to find new music. All the bands we played this past week use Bandcamp as their platform. “Band A” was found on Bandcamp by Kafadan Kontak Recordsand by Divide & Conquer Music magazine.
So this week on our “4 Questions in 5 Minutes” video interview section I get to chat with Joseph Edward Keyes, the editorial director, at Bandcamp.com. (We had some challenges technically, so the sound is a little wonky and you may have to turn it up – but this series is totally lo-fi on purpose?) I always wanted to know how Bandcamp works and what I can do to help “Band A” gain a bigger audience… Also, Joseph Edward Keyes is super nice and a totally legitimate music nerd… Thank you… The combination of the collapse of the music industry, of affordability of good recordings, and Bandcamp make the underground music scene possible… 
(Really, this was recorded using FaceTime and my computer recorded it on a really low volume – so I had to turn it up and the sound is not great…)

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 22: On the cusp..

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 22: On the cusp..

I am managing “Band A” for a year – I like them and I have free reign to use them in my exploration of the music industry. But I want to be very clear – I am not making claims that “Band A” is better than other bands we play on the podcast or other bands I know from the Asheville scene. Quite the opposite – I am making the argument that if “Band A” is getting any traction in the music industry, any radio airplay, any music publications coverage, any interest from labels – then f******ck, your band (you know who I’m talking to here – ahem – ahem) should get even more attention.
So “Band A” was invited to release an EP with Kafadan Kontak Records out of Istanbul, Turkey. For the sake of transparency these are the questions I asked KK Records:
1) Where/how are you releasing these EPs?
2) Do you get coverage in the music media for your bands? What regions and markets do you have connections?
3) Do you work to the the music played on radio, online radio, on Spotify playlists?
4) How else do you promote the music?
5) What is the label/artist split on the EP sales?
Also, for the sake of transparency, when people heard that “Band A” was going to release an EP on KK Records there were various suggestions about album covers, shown below. If you hadn’t guessed the band by now – these images will make it very clear. Obviously “Band A” is extremely sexy…. really sexy… sooooo sexy…. (thank you Scott Sturdy…)

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 9: The Happening

Experiment: Band Management: Blog 9: The Happening

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!!!