I am managing “Band A” this year – because I believe in “Band A” and because I’m interested in exploring the current music business world. The goal is: 1) get “Band A” onto a minor label, 2) get “Band A” to play a music festival, and 3) to get “Band A” a hundred people at a show. I want to be clear this isn’t a joke and I am grateful to all the people who intersect with this project. If “Band A” plays on the radio, if a publication writes about “Band A” – I have nothing but the most honest gratitude. (I’m saying this because “Band A” is being played on the radio and it is about to get it’s first press.)
Honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m tangentially involved with a couple of bands. I run the instagram for “Band A” and it is going nowhere. The other band has an instagram and a radio station started following them… 
So this blog is my honest assessment of how the music industry works. And this is what works: Pickled Eggs.
On Sunday “Band A” was set to play at a local brewery, except it didn’t have enough band members. So they joined up with another band, met at 1pm, and figured out 12 songs they could kind of play. One of the band members made pickled eggs: hardboiled eggs, brine, jalapenos. Why not? And, at 4pm, the pickled eggs were displayed prominently at the front of the stage. This is for real. I’m not making this up. The guitarist, who is a bit of a wimp, ate an egg at the end of the second set and nearly threw up. Then a member of the audience went up to the stage, put an egg in his beer glass, and drank it down. Everyone cheered.
So the surprise twist ending is that after the show the guy from the audience went up to the band and said: “Hey, I own a bar in Morganton. Can I book you to play at my place?” 
This is how you get ahead: pickled eggs.

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!!!