“So what’s up with you? Three months and you’re already missing updates?”
Yep. Much like a squirrel saving nuts, I had saved up a bunch of random posts to get me through the droughts of nothing to write about/no time to write. But I ran out of nuts. And posts. And since I can’t buy posts at Zehrs, my readers (both of you) are the ones who must suffer. But not me. I bought more nuts.
ANYWAY!!! I am back, and I should hopefully have some good stuff to write about in the coming weeks.
For example, last Thursday the Runaway Jam played Maxwell’s Music House in Waterloo. Maxwell’s is a new venue owned and operated by Paul Maxwell, who you may remember as the keyboardist for the Tyler Schwende band. It’s a really cool concept and you should check it out.
ANYWAY, it was a great show. Titus was our first opener, followed by Relic, and then we hit the stage. It felt like we were a little under rehearsed: I finally got to spit my own lines in a verse and I messed them up, and there were a couple of other small not-necessarily-noticable-to-the-crowd-but-noticeable-to-us snags, but it went well.
We now have a big push towards August 14, which will be a huge show in Milton featuring ourselves and some very special guests (due to some necessary discretion we can’t say who will be there but trust me, you won’t want to miss this). It’s happening at 7 PM at 200 Main St. in Milton. You should come, and bring everyone you love.
I’ve also been in contact with a band called Black City Ruin and they’ve asked me to fill in for their recently departed drummer on their upcoming album. Sounds like fun, so I’m going to do it.
I also recently did my first photo shoot as a musician. My friend Blythe is a fantastic photographer and she was kind enough to do a shoot pro-bono for me (pro bono means “for the public good”, so maybe it’s not as appropriate as just saying “free” but I’d like to think pictures of me sitting on a train with a guitar case benefit the public). I’ll post some of them later and you can choose which ones you like.
I think that covers it for now. I still have a bunch of reviews I haven’t done yet and they’re getting so old as to be pointless, but what the hey. See you Friday.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Promoter's Commandments III: Thou Shalt Not Book More Than Four Bands Per Show
hey all!
This was set to run on Friday, but for some reason didn't. So here it is. I'll update again THIS Friday, for realsies.
This is the third in my “Promoter’s Commandments” series. Click here for the first and here for the second. All caught up? Good!
So let’s assume that you’ve accepted losing money, and gone ahead and promoted yourself silly to get a crowd in the door. You haven’t won yet. You still have a lot of room to screw the pooch with your show. And in my experience, nothing does it better than Band Overload.
There are a few reasons I think people shoose to turn what should be tiny shows into the NEXT-next coming of Woodstock. Sometimes people are googly-eyed running their first shows and want to include as many of their favourite bands as possible. Other times, people think that by booking the most acts possible they’ll draw more and make more cash. Both semi-logical theories, but ultimately ridiculous.
My housemate Luke has an awesome story about this. He used to play with a band called A Moment’s Embrace who did reasonably well in the indie Christian screamo scene. They once got booked for this huge show where the promoter had done everything right and there were around 500 people there, and AME were headlining. The only concern was that the promoter had overbooked and made a massive beast of the show, with seven (!) bands on the bill. Of course the openers went waaaay over their time allotment, so AME didn’t get on until well after midnight, when the crowd had dwindled to maybe 100 people. To add insult to injury, one of the openers sold out all their merch, while AME, who were supposed to be the “stars” of the show, were forced to pick up the scraps after their truncated set.
So to review: EVEN IF you book a band people actually want to see, and EVEN IF you manage to pull enough people to make money, and odds are they’ll leave after the third band of 10. There’s no better way to piss off your headliner than by thinning the ranks of the audience before they get on, and even you’re paying them a handsome fee to be there it’ll be tough for them to justify coming out for you again when you delivered an audience to someone else at their show.
Now, some people will undoubtedly say that if the headliner is big enough people will stay to the end. You’re right, but generally they won’t be there for the beginning. I know that if I see more than two openers on a flyer I make sure to get to the venue an hour and a half after doors. I’m all about finding new bands, but I’m also about seeing what I paid for and not wasting my time. If people show up late and miss the opening acts nobody gets the exposure that you (presumably) wanted them to have. A good general rule is to think about your own concert experiences before making decision about your own show. Does anyone enjoy hearing more than two openers before the headliners?
This was set to run on Friday, but for some reason didn't. So here it is. I'll update again THIS Friday, for realsies.
This is the third in my “Promoter’s Commandments” series. Click here for the first and here for the second. All caught up? Good!
So let’s assume that you’ve accepted losing money, and gone ahead and promoted yourself silly to get a crowd in the door. You haven’t won yet. You still have a lot of room to screw the pooch with your show. And in my experience, nothing does it better than Band Overload.
There are a few reasons I think people shoose to turn what should be tiny shows into the NEXT-next coming of Woodstock. Sometimes people are googly-eyed running their first shows and want to include as many of their favourite bands as possible. Other times, people think that by booking the most acts possible they’ll draw more and make more cash. Both semi-logical theories, but ultimately ridiculous.
My housemate Luke has an awesome story about this. He used to play with a band called A Moment’s Embrace who did reasonably well in the indie Christian screamo scene. They once got booked for this huge show where the promoter had done everything right and there were around 500 people there, and AME were headlining. The only concern was that the promoter had overbooked and made a massive beast of the show, with seven (!) bands on the bill. Of course the openers went waaaay over their time allotment, so AME didn’t get on until well after midnight, when the crowd had dwindled to maybe 100 people. To add insult to injury, one of the openers sold out all their merch, while AME, who were supposed to be the “stars” of the show, were forced to pick up the scraps after their truncated set.
So to review: EVEN IF you book a band people actually want to see, and EVEN IF you manage to pull enough people to make money, and odds are they’ll leave after the third band of 10. There’s no better way to piss off your headliner than by thinning the ranks of the audience before they get on, and even you’re paying them a handsome fee to be there it’ll be tough for them to justify coming out for you again when you delivered an audience to someone else at their show.
Now, some people will undoubtedly say that if the headliner is big enough people will stay to the end. You’re right, but generally they won’t be there for the beginning. I know that if I see more than two openers on a flyer I make sure to get to the venue an hour and a half after doors. I’m all about finding new bands, but I’m also about seeing what I paid for and not wasting my time. If people show up late and miss the opening acts nobody gets the exposure that you (presumably) wanted them to have. A good general rule is to think about your own concert experiences before making decision about your own show. Does anyone enjoy hearing more than two openers before the headliners?
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Why I Love: Five Iron Frenzy
Welcome to another edition of Why I Love. Today we’re going back deep into the recesses of my musical mind and unearthing one of the first bands I was totally geeked on: Five Iron Frenzy .
I’m still kind of puzzled as to how I got into FIF in the first place. Here are the facts: When I was 18 I started going to Waterloo MB church. I was from a Catholic family and didn’t know much about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), but had gotten into a little bit thanks to some of the people I was hanging around. I remember early favourites being Audio Adrenaline and Johnny Q. Public (who, according to the best searches the Interweb can offer, disappeared sometime in 2000). Sometime during winter of 1998 I was in the Carpenter Shop (now the Gospel Lighthouse) in Waterloo and I saw this CD:
Before I knew it I walked out with the disc. I have no idea how I knew who they were, or what they sounded like, or why I thought I would like them: I just bought it and stuck it in my discman (ten years ago, gimme a break).
At the time I had just started listening to ska, so it was the right time for me to jump on board. FIF started as a “pure” ska band, all upstrokes and quickness and horns. But over the course of their career they branched away from ska, rooting themselves in rock sensibilities with an edge.
FIF is among the few bands to successfully swing between manic, silly humour and serious introspection and anger. They wrote an entire rock opera based around losing their pants (this is on the tail end of Quantity is Job #1 ) but also explored the nature of grace, personal failure before God, and more. Most importantly, they were attuned to many social issues, most notably native rights (“Banner Year” from Our Newest Album Ever is still one of my favourite songs).
Quantity is Job #1 was, is and continues to be my favourite FIF recording. I especially love “Dandelions”. It’s written around a metaphor that’s simple to the point of childishness: God sees us the way little kids see Dandelions. That is, He sees flowers where everyone else sees weeds.
I was lucky enough to see FIF twice, both times in Michigan. Their live shows were phenomenal, and their two live albums (Proof That The Youth Are Revolting and disc 2 of The End Is Here) are testament to that. Nobody could walk away from an FIF show in a funk – they were too much fun. It’s interesting to see how the Christian youth music scene is dominated mostly by screamo bands these days. There’s not the same sense of joy fused with reckless abandon there that there used to be, and I think FIF were one of (if not the last of) the generation of bands that embraced that side of culture.
FIF broke up in 2003, which still feels like it was yesterday for me.
I’ll admit that by the end of their run I was buying albums more out of completism than I was out of love for the band. There were a lot of tracks I liked on The End Is Near/The End is Here , but none that I abjectly loved. If you want to look up what I think reflects the best of FIF, here’s my top ten list:
1. Dandelions -- Quantity is Job #1
2. Handbook For The Sellout (live) -- The End Is Here (Disc 2)
3. World Without End -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
4. Every New Day -- Our Newest Album Ever
5. On Distant Shores -- The End Is Here (Disc 1)
6. Pre-Ex Girlfriend -- Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo
7. Banner Year -- Our Newest Album Ever
8. All That Is Good -- Quantity is Job #1
9. Oh, Canada -- Our Newest Album Ever
10. Giants -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
I’m still kind of puzzled as to how I got into FIF in the first place. Here are the facts: When I was 18 I started going to Waterloo MB church. I was from a Catholic family and didn’t know much about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), but had gotten into a little bit thanks to some of the people I was hanging around. I remember early favourites being Audio Adrenaline and Johnny Q. Public (who, according to the best searches the Interweb can offer, disappeared sometime in 2000). Sometime during winter of 1998 I was in the Carpenter Shop (now the Gospel Lighthouse) in Waterloo and I saw this CD:
Before I knew it I walked out with the disc. I have no idea how I knew who they were, or what they sounded like, or why I thought I would like them: I just bought it and stuck it in my discman (ten years ago, gimme a break).
At the time I had just started listening to ska, so it was the right time for me to jump on board. FIF started as a “pure” ska band, all upstrokes and quickness and horns. But over the course of their career they branched away from ska, rooting themselves in rock sensibilities with an edge.
FIF is among the few bands to successfully swing between manic, silly humour and serious introspection and anger. They wrote an entire rock opera based around losing their pants (this is on the tail end of Quantity is Job #1 ) but also explored the nature of grace, personal failure before God, and more. Most importantly, they were attuned to many social issues, most notably native rights (“Banner Year” from Our Newest Album Ever is still one of my favourite songs).
Quantity is Job #1 was, is and continues to be my favourite FIF recording. I especially love “Dandelions”. It’s written around a metaphor that’s simple to the point of childishness: God sees us the way little kids see Dandelions. That is, He sees flowers where everyone else sees weeds.
I was lucky enough to see FIF twice, both times in Michigan. Their live shows were phenomenal, and their two live albums (Proof That The Youth Are Revolting and disc 2 of The End Is Here) are testament to that. Nobody could walk away from an FIF show in a funk – they were too much fun. It’s interesting to see how the Christian youth music scene is dominated mostly by screamo bands these days. There’s not the same sense of joy fused with reckless abandon there that there used to be, and I think FIF were one of (if not the last of) the generation of bands that embraced that side of culture.
FIF broke up in 2003, which still feels like it was yesterday for me.
I’ll admit that by the end of their run I was buying albums more out of completism than I was out of love for the band. There were a lot of tracks I liked on The End Is Near/The End is Here , but none that I abjectly loved. If you want to look up what I think reflects the best of FIF, here’s my top ten list:
1. Dandelions -- Quantity is Job #1
2. Handbook For The Sellout (live) -- The End Is Here (Disc 2)
3. World Without End -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
4. Every New Day -- Our Newest Album Ever
5. On Distant Shores -- The End Is Here (Disc 1)
6. Pre-Ex Girlfriend -- Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo
7. Banner Year -- Our Newest Album Ever
8. All That Is Good -- Quantity is Job #1
9. Oh, Canada -- Our Newest Album Ever
10. Giants -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
Friday, July 11, 2008
Bigger, yes. Better...?
I mentioned before that I had bought an 80GB iPod. This has allowed me a certain amount of freedom in uploading. With my 4GB Nano, I had to weed through albums, find my favourite four or five songs and upload those. That meant that I had to predict which 400 songs I wanted to listen to in any given day, which sounds easier than it was. Like two weeks ago, when I wanted to listen through Tokyo Police Club’s Elephant Shell but couldn’t because I had only picked my top five songs. Or those random times in July when I really want to listen to Christmas music, but can’t because it didn’t make sense to load Christmas songs on my iPod. The most irritating thing was having two or three album’s worth of material that I have to learn for a freelance gig taking up space from music that I actually want to listen to.
Now I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum, where my iPod is filled with songs I haven’t listened to in years (or in some cases, ever). For example, there’s an artist I met a few years ago who gave me his CD and asked me to send it to whoever I wanted in hopes that he could score some shows. I dutifully uploaded it onto my compy (and therefore my iTunes) and sent it around and haven’t listened to it since, because it’s not the best (I won’t give you the name because this person has since released an excellent album and is doing well in Toronto right now, so you don’t need to know that they sucked once upon a time. Also, I don’t want them to think that I thought that even though I did). This album is now on my iPod, even though 60% of the songs have a play listing of zero.
There’s also a bunch of songs I found on there from a years-old attempt to make a 90s mix for my friend Amanda (did I ever finish that, Manders?). I’ve got I Mother Earth, Glueleg, Sandbox, Tea Party ( Edges of Twilight and Transmission era, a-thank you very much), Smashing Pumpkins (no Zeitgeist) Moist, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, and so forth. It's actually quite fun to listen to all of this stuff next to the new music I've been listening to and see how my tastes have progressed and how music itself has progressed, but I won't lie: it's kind of depressing that my iPod spans 20 years. Anyone's go longer?
So now I think I have to do a music-buying moratorium. If I have roughly 20 songs on my iPod that haven’t been heard in years, I should weed those out before I get onto anything new.
Now I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum, where my iPod is filled with songs I haven’t listened to in years (or in some cases, ever). For example, there’s an artist I met a few years ago who gave me his CD and asked me to send it to whoever I wanted in hopes that he could score some shows. I dutifully uploaded it onto my compy (and therefore my iTunes) and sent it around and haven’t listened to it since, because it’s not the best (I won’t give you the name because this person has since released an excellent album and is doing well in Toronto right now, so you don’t need to know that they sucked once upon a time. Also, I don’t want them to think that I thought that even though I did). This album is now on my iPod, even though 60% of the songs have a play listing of zero.
There’s also a bunch of songs I found on there from a years-old attempt to make a 90s mix for my friend Amanda (did I ever finish that, Manders?). I’ve got I Mother Earth, Glueleg, Sandbox, Tea Party ( Edges of Twilight and Transmission era, a-thank you very much), Smashing Pumpkins (no Zeitgeist) Moist, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, and so forth. It's actually quite fun to listen to all of this stuff next to the new music I've been listening to and see how my tastes have progressed and how music itself has progressed, but I won't lie: it's kind of depressing that my iPod spans 20 years. Anyone's go longer?
So now I think I have to do a music-buying moratorium. If I have roughly 20 songs on my iPod that haven’t been heard in years, I should weed those out before I get onto anything new.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A$hley MacI$$ac
Saw this article on chartattack and thought it was very interesting. Ashley MacIsaac posted an ebay auction for half of his own musical income over the rest of his life. The auction has since been removed due to an eBay terms of use violation, but I thought it was interesting to think about.
As I hope has been made clear throughout the course of this blog, most artists spend 50% of their professional time making music and the other 50% trying to figure out how to make money from doing it. Since most record deals screw the artist horrible in terms of CD sales (more on that in a later blog) merch is traditionally the way to do it. I’ve seen bands sell everything from the more traditional T-shirt and hoodie to bracelets, necklaces, shoelaces, shoes, and so on. I once even saw a band selling email addresses based on their domain name.
MacIsaac is definitely thinking outside the merch box, but it seems a little fishy to me. Either he’s in dire financial straits and he needs some cash fast or he just really wants others to share in his grand wealth.
My guess is the former.
Let’s not forget, this is the same Ashley MacIsaac that declared bankruptcy back in 2000, so you can be reasonably sure that he’s not super solvent to being with. And what does the fine print say on the eBay sale? Nothing is guaranteed. Not his $5,000-$15,000 per gig, not his royalties, not even the principle you put in. That is to say, whoever wins this bid wins the right to give Ashley MacIsaac their money and hope that they break even on the proposition. Doesn’t this sound like a record company’s job?
What Macisaac is really looking for here is someone to act as his record company without having a record company, which I can understand. It’s the lack of responsibility to the investor that turns me off. Record companies are set up as checks and balances, meaning that one artist can fail while another succeeds, so the company on a whole breaks even. Please don’t misconstrue that as saying record companies are fair or even helpful to the artists; that’s just how they are set up. MacIsaac wants some no-strings-attached cash that he doesn’t have to worry about paying back, and I think it’s ridiculous.
With MacIsaac’s history of “ironic statements” (accusing Asian women in his audience of spreading SARS, etc., etc.) there’s a chance that this is a goof and I’m playing into it. I’d say there’s a better chance of it NOT being a goof and MacIsaac labeling it as such when it fails, but that’s just my opinion (which is immunity from being told I’m wrong, or so Relient K says).
______________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Nope, nothing. My stupid palm pilot broke so now I have no idea when I’m playing shows in the next little while. I’ll let you know when I know.
As I hope has been made clear throughout the course of this blog, most artists spend 50% of their professional time making music and the other 50% trying to figure out how to make money from doing it. Since most record deals screw the artist horrible in terms of CD sales (more on that in a later blog) merch is traditionally the way to do it. I’ve seen bands sell everything from the more traditional T-shirt and hoodie to bracelets, necklaces, shoelaces, shoes, and so on. I once even saw a band selling email addresses based on their domain name.
MacIsaac is definitely thinking outside the merch box, but it seems a little fishy to me. Either he’s in dire financial straits and he needs some cash fast or he just really wants others to share in his grand wealth.
My guess is the former.
Let’s not forget, this is the same Ashley MacIsaac that declared bankruptcy back in 2000, so you can be reasonably sure that he’s not super solvent to being with. And what does the fine print say on the eBay sale? Nothing is guaranteed. Not his $5,000-$15,000 per gig, not his royalties, not even the principle you put in. That is to say, whoever wins this bid wins the right to give Ashley MacIsaac their money and hope that they break even on the proposition. Doesn’t this sound like a record company’s job?
What Macisaac is really looking for here is someone to act as his record company without having a record company, which I can understand. It’s the lack of responsibility to the investor that turns me off. Record companies are set up as checks and balances, meaning that one artist can fail while another succeeds, so the company on a whole breaks even. Please don’t misconstrue that as saying record companies are fair or even helpful to the artists; that’s just how they are set up. MacIsaac wants some no-strings-attached cash that he doesn’t have to worry about paying back, and I think it’s ridiculous.
With MacIsaac’s history of “ironic statements” (accusing Asian women in his audience of spreading SARS, etc., etc.) there’s a chance that this is a goof and I’m playing into it. I’d say there’s a better chance of it NOT being a goof and MacIsaac labeling it as such when it fails, but that’s just my opinion (which is immunity from being told I’m wrong, or so Relient K says).
______________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Nope, nothing. My stupid palm pilot broke so now I have no idea when I’m playing shows in the next little while. I’ll let you know when I know.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Bytes, Blue Jays and Bios
Long weekends throw me off. Not to say that I don’t like being off work for an extra day, but my body is used to a five-day rhythm and will invariably wake me up early on the Friday or Monday that I’m off. Never mind having a day of work BEFORE the holiday. Friggin’ Canada Day. So blame Canada for me missing the post on Tuesday. I had this whole thing worked out where I was going to write about the different versions of O Canada we used to play in the hallways before school, but without the actual songs it would seem pretty lame. So if I ever find them I’ll write that blog. But just for my own edification, would people know what I meant if I wrote “ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba DOO-DOO-DOO…DOO-DOO-DOO…ba-Ba-BAHHHHHH…O Canada”?
So random music stuff from this week!
* I bought an 80GB iPod Classic cause my tiny 4-gig Nano was getting pretty useless (unlike Relient K, who have told me through rousing song that they are a little more than useless). As it turns out, buying an 80GB after having a 4GB is like running out of room on a 100-CD rack and buying an ENTIRE OTHER HOUSE to store your CDs. I have 1200 songs and five videos on the thing and I’ve barely filled 20GB. I may have to start loading up some viruses or something just to justify it. The annoying thing is that if I want something with a more reasonable size I have to get a 32GB iTouch, which is twice as expensive as the 80GB iPod, which makes me pretty iPissed. The nice bit is the price tag, which was $272 after taxes. I’m told that the 30GB Classics were going for more than that two years ago. Considering this whole gas crisis thing is expected to drive up electronics prices by next summer I may have gotten a steal.
* I just finished listening to The Con by Tegan and Sara and will try to post a review next week. Suffice to say I really dig this album and am thankful to my friend Brielle for turning me on to it. Brille made me a “Sexy Dance Mix” with all these bands I really like, so you may see more of that soon.
* I went to see a Blue Jays game last week with Krista and thought it was cool that each batter gets his own theme music (one guy even used Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme, which would have been cool if he had a hit that night). It got me to thinking what my top 5 entrance themes would be if I were a baseball player (stick with me here, this is a flight of fantasy).
1. “Big Brat”, Phantom Planet (maybe it could be renamed Big BAT!!! HA…heh…um, right).
2. “It’s A Hit” We Are Scientists (so clever)
3. “So What’cha Want” Beastie Boys
4. “Time To Dance” Panic At The Disco (they dropped the “!”)
5. “Juicebox” The Strokes
* One of the best things about being in bands is writing your bio, at least for me. So I was tickled when I found my bio posted at Critical Mass’ website this week! Their main link is to the right, but click here for the bio section.
L8r sk8r b01z AND (at Steph's urging)GRRLZ
So random music stuff from this week!
* I bought an 80GB iPod Classic cause my tiny 4-gig Nano was getting pretty useless (unlike Relient K, who have told me through rousing song that they are a little more than useless). As it turns out, buying an 80GB after having a 4GB is like running out of room on a 100-CD rack and buying an ENTIRE OTHER HOUSE to store your CDs. I have 1200 songs and five videos on the thing and I’ve barely filled 20GB. I may have to start loading up some viruses or something just to justify it. The annoying thing is that if I want something with a more reasonable size I have to get a 32GB iTouch, which is twice as expensive as the 80GB iPod, which makes me pretty iPissed. The nice bit is the price tag, which was $272 after taxes. I’m told that the 30GB Classics were going for more than that two years ago. Considering this whole gas crisis thing is expected to drive up electronics prices by next summer I may have gotten a steal.
* I just finished listening to The Con by Tegan and Sara and will try to post a review next week. Suffice to say I really dig this album and am thankful to my friend Brielle for turning me on to it. Brille made me a “Sexy Dance Mix” with all these bands I really like, so you may see more of that soon.
* I went to see a Blue Jays game last week with Krista and thought it was cool that each batter gets his own theme music (one guy even used Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme, which would have been cool if he had a hit that night). It got me to thinking what my top 5 entrance themes would be if I were a baseball player (stick with me here, this is a flight of fantasy).
1. “Big Brat”, Phantom Planet (maybe it could be renamed Big BAT!!! HA…heh…um, right).
2. “It’s A Hit” We Are Scientists (so clever)
3. “So What’cha Want” Beastie Boys
4. “Time To Dance” Panic At The Disco (they dropped the “!”)
5. “Juicebox” The Strokes
* One of the best things about being in bands is writing your bio, at least for me. So I was tickled when I found my bio posted at Critical Mass’ website this week! Their main link is to the right, but click here for the bio section.
L8r sk8r b01z AND (at Steph's urging)GRRLZ
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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