One of those bands that really caught my attention at the 2008 Deep Blues Festival was The Pack A.D. I was already a fan prior to the fest but after seeing their set, I was gung-ho.
The band has just made a video and shipped it off to MTV and everything. So, hopefully it’ll get a chance to be one of the three vids MTV plays one day. Since the odds of that are about as good as Arizona’s chances of winning the Super Bowl this week I figured I’d post it here: Read the rest of this entry »
Something Planet is a weekly podcast featuring a troupe of funny men talking about not-so-everyday things. David the Day John J, Stuey B, Endless Mike and Corporate Jared offer up 90 minutes of music, laughs, cries, trivia and even horoscopes. Something Planet usually plays and interviews local and regional bands. The guys also have released some Web videos that are freakin’ funny. They are celebrating their 1st Birthday in May with a huge concert at Gasoline Alley in Largo.
Hey everyone. Here’s some shit I wanted to get to or saw this week that I wanted to pass along:
Ever heard of $5 Cover: Memphis? Yeah, me neither. Apparently, it’s a faux-reality show that’s gonna be airing on MTV. The cool thing is that it will feature ninebullets.net faves Lucero. Looks like that major label deal is already paying off. You go boys! Here is the trailer:
Some good news has come down the pipe from Virgil over on Suburban Home Records. In the coming month, we’re gonna see a new release from Drag The River, Bad at Breaking Up, a collection of 7″-only tracks, B-sides, and tracks from their split LP with The Dents. If that wasn’t cool enough, Jon Snodgrass will also release his first solo effort, Visitor’s Band, which features guest spots by Two Cow Garage, Chad Rex, Joey Erg, Chris Pierce, Eric Powers, and others. Here are some tracks from those releases:
Finally, the folks over on Twangnation brought it to my attention that famed New York blues guitarist, Popa Chubby, is gonna give this whole country music thing a try with his wife in a project called Vicious Country. Out of the gate, they’re covering Hank III’s song, Straight To Hell. Not a bad way to start Popa! Here is the video:
Mohawk Bomb Records, the award-winning, Clearwater-based independent record label, announces its release schedule for spring 2009.
Soulfound “Live at Zen Recording”: features 5 songs performed live at Zen Recording from their “Is a Rock Band” album, released in September 2008. There are 5 video companions to the songs available on Soulfound’s YouTube channel. The EP will be available as a digital release on February 17, 2009.
No Lip Vol. 2 Compilation: This 14-song eclectic mixed bag of Rock music anthems is the second release in Mohawk Bomb’s No Lip series. Although leaning towards Punk and Pop Rock, No Lip pulls samples from the Florida, California, Texas, Ontario (Canada), UK and Australian music scenes as a survey course of the caliber of independent music. Profiles on each of the contributing bands will be posted on the label’s Website at www.mohawkbomb.com over the next month. The compilation will be available for sale online after February 24, 2009. Physical CDs will be passed out as free giveaways and sent to music press around the USA.
Mohawk Bomb Records is a new kind of record label, focused on sharing all music with the World using social networking and Web 2.0 technologies.
Remember when MTV played nothing but videos and shows showing videos? Looking for a place to actually watch some new music videos and kick ass live performances? Music lovers can now check out some rockin’ Florida bands on GulfStream.TV, the new online television network. GulfStream.TV’s CEO/camera man Mike Young produces all of the site’s original content by going to concerts all around the state. Also, the site features a 24/7 music stream so you can listen at work or at home.
I am glad someone finally got this off the ground.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is compiling a list of 49 Canadian-made songs to demonstrate to our new President-elect what Canada is all about. That’s pretty neat. Here’s a re-post of what they aim to accomplish:
“Beginning Monday, January 5, CBC Radio 2 invites Canadians to help select the top ‘49 songs from north of the 49th parallel’ that would best define our country to the incoming U.S. President Barack Obama. His playlist could definitely benefit from some Canadian content, especially given the depth of our musical offerings – spanning a wide variety of genres and representing our culture from coast to coast.”
Attitude is an important component to keep in check as your band starts to have some pull. Acting like a whiny diva is a surefire way to get yourself banned from venues, overlooked by promoters and despised by local media. If you are an unsigned or independent act, you have no place thinking that you are better than anyone else by making other’s lives annoying. Just because you have some catchy tunes and your friends like them doesn’t mean jack squat.
People in the music business have enough ego on their own and will not want to put up with yours, unless you truly are God’s gift to music and are selling lots and lots of records. If you are hassle to deal with or have too many demands, chances are they won’t want to work with you. The rule of thumb is: unless you have something that they need, don’t act like it. If your band brings 400 people to a show, then you have grounds to demand from the venue. If your band brings 10, you don’t. So don’t be a jerk about no sound check, bad on stage sound or crappy pay outs.
I woke up with a bug this morning. Something heavy. Something fuzzy. Something hazy. None of the pop-tinged alternative in my music collection seem to satiate this thirst. Then I stumbled upon these Sludge Rock gems. Sludge Rock (aka Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Heavy Metal) is a down-tuned, thicker-than-molasses branch of heavy metal that focuses on sexual/drug-related topics, thumping drum patterns and guitar tone engulfed in Big Muff fuzz. I went on a quest on iTunes and ended up spening $15 amassing a nice Sludge playlist. Here are 7 recommendations if you are feeling dirty like I was:
Hey! In case you care about what we liked this year, here’s our Top 10 for 2008. Enjoy!
1. The Roots – Rising Down
2. Metallica – Death Magnetic
3. Soulfound – Is a Rock Band
4. The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath
5. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
6. Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
7. The Sounds of Animals Fighting – The Ocean and the Sun
8. Anberlin – New Surrender
9. Thrice – Alchemy Index Vol. 1-4
10. CSS – Donkey
Once your band gets some songs written and well-rehearsed, it is recommended that you focus on creating a demo. A demo serves as both your product and your business card, so having a the highest quality demo possible makes sense. Fans form their opinions quickly after they hear the first note of your first song, so why not make it bad ass?
Song List and Pre-production
The first step is to decide what the final product will be. A 3 song EP? A double album? Whatever it is make sure you determine the song list before spending money. This helps keep the project on-budget and gives you a scope. After determining the songs, rehearse and pre-produce the crap out of them. This will save you time in the studio. For my old post on pre-production, click here.
Setting a Budget
You know what you want to record, now you need to get the cash to pay for it. Setting a recording budget can be a chore and may scare you a bit, but it takes money to make money. There are three parts to a solid recording budget:
Yes. Even though you can host your files on a free site like MySpace, I recommend you spend the $40 per year for a domain and hosting for your own dot com Website. Here’s why:
Do you remember a Website called MP3.com? Before MySpace and before Napster brought the industry to their knees, MP3.com was THE website to upload your songs to and many bands used it as a surrogate for a real Website. One day (and abruptly), MP3.com closed down their free service and all the bands were out of luck, many missing out on thousands of fans that they failed to point to their own Website. They have since resurfaced, but it was too late for thousands of bands and music lovers. You never know if MySpace will power down their servers in favor of something else. Be safe.
Here are the basics you need to know and some reasons why:
Recording can be very expensive for inexperienced musicians on tight budgets. Unless you have spent dozens of hours in a recording studio, it can be tough to envision how long things can take and how different recording to regular-old practicing in the garage. After spending 8-12 hours in a dimly-lit recording studio, you can easily lose perspective and damage your songs in the process.
One thing bands can do on their own time is work out their songs during “pre-production” before going into the studio. Pre-production entails recording rough demos of the songs you will be recording to make sure all the parts are where they are supposed to be. Doing this will in turn yield shorter recording sessions and will keep more money in your pocket for either more studio time or for promotions.
After getting your band together, coming up with a name and writing a few songs, the first thing you need to do is make sure everyone is on the same page by defining your goals as a band. There are two main types of goals: Overall Band Goals and Tactical Goals.
I came across an ad in Rolling Stone about slotMusic.org, a new music “format” that is being hyped by major labels as “a versatile new physical music format for the 21st Century”. In short, the new slotMusic format is a 1 Gig microSD card preloaded with DRM-free mp3s (properly tagged and 320 kBPs) and videos that consumers can load into their phones, mp3 players and computers without limitations, passwords or access to the Internet.
On their Website, www.slotmusic.org, you can read more about the limited numbers of artists they have available (Keane, MIA, Akon, Rise Against, Hendrix, thenewno2, Weezer among current artists available) and if yo ur Mobile device is microSD compatible (my cell is not). Currently, the only way to purchase slotMusic is online or at Best Buy and Walmart.
SlotMusic comes across to me as a beta program by a technology company to see if its sticks and an attempt for major labels to re-control the music distribution channel that the Internet took away. Will it make an impact? Probably not. Musicphiles and bloggers everywhere have been panning this idea since late September.
I have been reading this book about online PR for bands called “Music Success in Nine Weeks” and it rules. At 143 pages, its a quick, workbook-style read that anyone can benefit from. In this how-to guide to self-promotion, cyber PR guru Ariel Hyatt gives bands a step-by-step guide to supercharging your PR efforts, building your fan base and earning more money (getting paid to play music? Hogwash.)
One thing bands must understand that it is not enough anymore to be talented or have good songs. You need to take steps to build your own brand and make your band appealing to labels… Read the rest of this entry »
Artists are always looking for “what people think” about their music. This really translates to “tell me something positive so I don’t freak out”. If this is the intended purpose, why ask in the first place? I had a band send in a demo and ask me to tell them what I thought of it. After listening to it 2 or 3 times, I crafted a long email pointing out what I thought were the strengths and points to work on, plus asked for some clarification on certain things, as I was interested but not sold. I never heard back from them.
The Bombardier Manifesto is a blog for bands, clubs and related industries about music, marketing and technology. Learn how to use these tools to develop a healthy and profitable music scene.
Hello World! Welcome to the first entry of the Bombardier Manifesto. Having spent the last 10 years trying to build my music cred and professional arsenal, I realized that my attempts have not failed, but have been victims of bad timing, lack of knowledge and downright stupidity. I had to figure things out the hard way and that takes a toll after a while. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes.
That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to be able to share with you some of the very useful tools available to bands and businesses everywhere who want to increase the visibility of and awareness for their wares…Read the rest of this entry »
Remember when MTV played nothing but videos and shows showing videos? Looking for a place to actually watch some new music videos and kick ass live performances? Music lovers can now check out some rockin’ Florida bands on 
I have been reading this book about online PR for bands called “Music Success in Nine Weeks” and it rules. At 143 pages, its a quick, workbook-style read that anyone can benefit from. In this how-to guide to self-promotion, cyber PR guru Ariel Hyatt gives bands a step-by-step guide to supercharging your PR efforts, building your fan base and earning more money (getting paid to play music? Hogwash.)
