News of the Week

Tokyo Police Club Heart Housewives
From the “who said who to what?” file, Tokyo Police Club will be appearing on an episode of Desperate Housewives in November. Huh? Where’s the connect here? Do people who like TPC like that show? Does anyone like that show (besides Mr. Eva Longoria)?
I understand market synergy. Veronica Mars and the Dandy Warhols made sense, since the show and the band have similar audiences and would cross-promote well. Feist on Sesame Street is a bit more of a stretch, until you consider that she appeals to 25-40 year olds, many of whom have small children. Imagine what this cross-promotion can do! I can’t wait until my next TPC show so I can rub shoulders with velour-tracksuit-havin’, large-jewelry-wearin’, faux-martini-drinkin’ moms. IT WILL HAPPEN. THE TELEVISION WILL MAKE IT SO.

Noel Gallagher Hearts Bono, Hypocrisy

Noel Gallagher probably talks trash in his sleep. The most recent victim of the mouthy Briton is Keane, whom he branded “shit” in a recent interview.

Know who he does like? Bono. "People will not accept that Bono is sincere - in this cynical age, they think he's really just a cunt. But he's not."

You damn skippy, Noel! Screw cynicism! Screw people who say stuff about Radiohead like “Thom Yorke sat at a piano singing ‘this is fucked up’ for half an hour. We all know that, Mr. Yorke. Who wants to sing the news? No matter how much you sit there twiddling, going, ‘we’re all doomed’, at the end of the day people will always want to hear you play “Creep”. Get over it”. Or people who say stuff about Bono himself like “play “One”, shut the fuck up about Africa.” Or people who are all cynical about stuff like Live 8:

“‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but are they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing “Sweet Dreams” and thinks, “Fuck me, she might have a point there, you know?” And Keane doing “Somewhere Only We Know” and some Japanese businessman going, ‘aw, look at him…we should really fucking drop that debt, you know.’ It’s not going to happen, is it?”

Wait, who was that cynical bastard? Oh, right, it was Noel Gallagher. Oh yes it was. Hey Noel, how many faces do you have again?

Tom DeLonge Hearts Not Talking (Finally)

Tom DeLonge, currently of Angels and Airwaves and formerly of Blink 182, has made a rare trip on the logic train. On the subject of Barker’s horrific plane crash and subsequent burns, DeLonge said: “Everyone wants to know what I think and it’s not about me. It’s not about Tom at all. It’s not about Blink at all. It’s about Travis and his family, you know, so stop worrying about what I feel or what I think or what I say because at this point it doesn’t matter.”

I once read a great interview with Mark Hoppus on Blink’s breakup that made DeLonge come off like a total space cadet. I then read a rebuttal interview with DeLonge, where he STILL came off like a total space cadet. This quote is one step towards restoring my opinion. Which I’m sure is important to him.

News of the Week

Item 1: Chris Martin Hearts Nickelback, But Not Coldplay
You read that right. I’ve been hating on Coldplay for years, a stance which I’ve softened a bit over the last little while due partially to my cheerful, sunny disposition and due to the fact that my fiancée loves them. Fortunately, Chris Martin has done me a solid by admitting in an interview that his band is “less shit” than they used to be, proving that there is a shit-to-not-shit ratio in effect in Coldplay currently, and it used to be higher. I’ll guess somewhere around the 200:1 mark, but that’s just hypothetical.

In the same interview Martin admits to liking Nickelback, giving me further proof that he knows very little about music. It’s too bad it’s to late it’s too bad it’s too WHOOOAAAA-OOOOOHHHHH.

Oh, AND he proved that he’s a bit of a jerk by saying that people who don’t like Nickleback have done “fuck-all” with their lives. We can’t all be in the Nappies, Chris.

Truthfully, Chris Martin seems to be a nice enough guy and I'm sure he was just standing up for a band who get trashed by everyone. Saying that Nickelback haters haven't done "fuck all" with their lives, however, is pretty nasty. I like to think I've done a lot: I started this blog, I once saw'r a blimp, and I started this blog. But even I cannot lay claim to travelling backwards in time to the mid 90s to buy my wardrobe and get my hair cut:

I bow to your superiority, Chad and co.

Item 2: Thieves Don’t Heart Elton John
According the the CBC, a bunch of cars were broken into during an Elton John concert in Newfoundland. Two men were arrested for theft and “malicious damage”, which leads me to believe that there was some serious hate-on for Sir Elton that went beyond simple "let's see if we can get a copy of Candle In The Wind 2001 for free" thievery. I’m guilty of Elton John hating as well, but I didn’t break into any cars when he was in Kitchener.

Music confounds me sometime. I find Sir Elton’s songs to be banal at best, annoying at worst, but to read the comments of concertgoers as they left the venue you’d think that God hisownself had stepped down from the clouds to play “Rocketman”. I guess it takes different strokes to move the world.

Item 3: People I Kind Of Know Heart The Polaris Prize
The Polaris Prize was decided this week, and two artists I have very slight connections to were nominated. Shad, who I opened for last November, was up for The Old Prince. Caribou, who is friends with my ex, was up for Andorra. Ultimately Caribou won, proving that the closer you are to knowing me the more likely you are to win Canadian music awards. Or something.

Item 4: New Kids Heart Meaningless Words
The New Kids On The Block (yes, THOSE New Kids On The Block) have released a new album called The Block. Is it the same Block that they are on? Or is it a different Block altogether? No one’s quite sure.

It’s getting diced up in reviews, and having listened to some of the tracks I can see why. At the end of their run in the 90s they tried te be more sexually explicit to appeal to the most desperate members of their fan base mature, which got them laughed out of the industry for a decade. Have they learned? Noooooooo. The Block is rife with sexual innuendo, imagery and out-and-out audio foreplay. My favourite track (read: track I laughed at the most) is “Sexify My Love”. Sexify? I may hate myself later for asking, but what does it mean to sexify something? Can anything be sexified? Sandwiches? Lawn rakes? Stress balls? (OK, maybe that one…)

Not content with putting a ridiculous non-word in the title and chorus, in the first verse the Kids reveal that they want to “conversate“ before getting’ it on. You know, instead of conversing.

Man, those hats are so....sexified.

Somebody misses me...

So I was hanging out last night, minding my bweeznass, when it was commented upon that I haven't updated this blog in a month. And I had actually been kind of OK with that. I felt like I had said a lot of stuff I wanted to on subjects of interest in the music industry, and musically nothing very exciting has been happening to me personally lately. Not a lot of shows, no recording, no jamming. Blame it on having a Clark Kent job, school, and not a lot of desire to search out bands to play with.

So maybe just some random musings on music and something more coherent later this week:

* Thank goodness chartattack has revamped their new-look site. I used to love CA because I could go and there were news pieces right in fornt of me, headline after headline. They changed about a month ago and it became really frustrating trying to sort through tiny, tiny thumbnails and story previews to find, you know, stories, so I gave up. Now they've tweaked again and you have only to click on "news" to get some headlines. They're still running pieces on Amy Winehouse, which devalues them a bit, but you can't have everything.

* The Police apparently cleared $115 million with their reunion tour this year, and that doesn't include what they're going to make from the associated CDs and photo books that are coming out. I can only hope the Token Glory reunion tour does the same bank if we ever get back together. I'm guessing not.

* Mitch Clem, my favourite web cartoonist/internet celebrity, has started a story arc about music piracy. Click here for the first installment. Currently there are three chapters available. Quality~!

Bye for now.

The RIAA Took My Baby Away II

Part one was last Friday (just below) talking about why the RIAA's continued legal action against private citizens is ridiculous. According to a semi-succesful drummer who's never worked full-time in the industry but cares about it, here's what they should do.



CD prices need to PLUMMET. CDs are now an outdated medium and their price needs to reflect that. No one should EVER have to pay more than $15 for a CD, and if it's one disc with a two-page insert it shouldn't be over $10. CDs started their rise to popularity in 1985, and by 1993 they had overtaken tapes; this with everyone having to buy new equipement to play them! If MP3s move that much quicker, why hasn't the price of CDs dropped more? Because the industry is holding on to their money card instead of trying to develop a new one.

After CD prices go down, hopefully CD sales will stabilize and even climb a bit. Sure, the industry will still lose money, but at least people will be buying from the industry again instead of just file sharing. The assumption here is that people would rather buy in physical form rather than online, which isn't always the case; but even as a show of respect for the MP3 and a sign of deference to the customer, it helps.

Next, understand that "copyright" is not the same as "ownership". Copyright is meant to encourage the creation of new, original works while simultaniously affording some protection for the creators of said works. It is NOT meant to give you unending rights to everything you make forever. Once I bought my car from Ford, it's MINE. Once I bought my shirt from Old Navy, it's MINE. RIAA, please stop trying to tell me what I can do with something once it's mine.

OK, I am now off my high horse. Something funny about musicians or something on Friday, promise.

The RIAA Took My Baby Away

Yup, a Ramones reference. I'm sure old!

Found this blog today. It provides updates on current file-sharing lawsuits the Recording Industry Associaton of America (RIAA) has launched against private citizens who uploaded music onto peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, allegedlly infringing on the copyrights of the RIAA. As you might have guessed from the title, Recording Industry vs The People (RITP) is very anti RIAA.

Most people who know me know that I'm not a big fan of P2P downloading. Yes, I make CDs for friends, and I receive CDs from friends too. Word of mouth has always been a necessary component of the industry, one that the record companies can't eveer seem to get their heads around (remember the attempted levy on blank cassettes in the mid-90s?).

Now, had somebody gone ahead and created 4,000 tapes and distributed them to anyone he or she could find, I would have had a problem with that. And we all know that there are at least a couple of more than 4,000 people downloading not only entire albums but entire discographies every day, with not a whit of money going to the companies that, as much as it sucks to say it, deserve the money.

Believe it or not, that's not what I wanted to discuss today. I'm actually pretty tired of arguing the ethics of downloading (SUPER SECRET HIDDEN MESSAGE: NOT INTERESTED IN THAT TODAY, SO LET'S MOVE FORWARD, MMMMMMMMMKAY?). What I WANT to talk about, and have hopefully provided adequete background for, is what I think of the RIAA's lawsuits.

Would you believe me if I said I thought they were a bad idea?

Please note that I didn't say I thought they were unjustified or even illegal (although some of their tactics are pretty frightening, according to RITP). What the lawsuits are, however, is a bellow and a swipe from a dinosaur going down into a tar pit: a scary and potentially damaging threat, but one you know can't last too long. (Oh, and the dinosaur part shows that the RIAA is behind the times. Wanted to make sure that's obvious.)

For one, let's look at general perception. Even before the lawsuits, record execs were considered to be evil parasites digging their claws into the backs of the artists, altering records to attract more sales and signing and dropping artists on a whim. You never, EVER heard someone outside speak well of execs: opinions from the general public were either neutral or negative. And it wasn't even the public they were screwing (much; when average CD prices climbed above the $20 mark in the early 2000's, the protest was so great that one company marked all their new product back to $15, and the rest followed suit. Only know that 'cause I was working at a record store at the time).

So now, already holding (at best) a -25% rating with the people, the RIAA is going after the people. Yep, that's going to encourage a LOT of people to stay on their side and keep paying them for music. My favourite was this case , where the RIAA accused a private citizens of file sharing a few songs. Not many, just a couple. Turns out the person was a disabled single mother who, through the untraceable wonder that is an IP Address, was registered as downloading/uploading such family friendly tunes as "Hoes In My Room" despite the fact that nothing was on her PC indicated she had EVER shared ANYTHING. So of course, the RIAA pressed forward, of course, the case got thrown out, and OF COURSE, the mother is countersuing and the RIAA looks like a demon. An incompetent, foolish, somewhat amusing demon. The RIAA looks like a demon played by Curly of the Three Stooges.

Wow, maybe I should get back to the dinosaur simile from before before going to a demon metaphor. OK, so why a dinosaur? The RIAA is acting just like the recording industry always does when faced with something it can't control immediately; grinding its heels an calling foul. It did it in the 90s with blank tapes, too. And as long as it keeps this up, it's going to be behind the 8-ball.

Think about it: the first MP3 encoding program came out in 1994, creating a fourth media family for audio (vinyl, tape, disc and digital). Difference is, the industry does not control the device needed to play the medium: everyone already has a computer. Seven years later came a file sharing program, Napster, that took control of the MP3s right out of the industry's hands. Where was the industry in those seven years? Why were they not the ones developing and testing this BRAND NEW MEDIUM, making it work for them, creating a SALES system that they could control? Searched the interwebs, couldn't find an answer. I guess they were boosting CD prices, signing boy bands and girl singers, and thinking that everyone was going to have CDs forever.

What I would really like the RIAA to do is stop trying to scare us. RIAA, you can't get it back. You just can't. It's like holding sand: yes, some is going to slide through your fingers, but the harder you squeeze, the more you lose. So what do you do?

I'll tell you on Tuesday.

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?

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.

Hommephobia

Some random stuff happening in music. For example, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age was caught on tape calling a show-throwing concert attendee the f-word (the homophobic f-word) and of course later had to post a statement about how he's not homophobic (whilst making sure everyone knows that he didn't say anything wrong, everyone else interpreted him wrong). You can read about it here.

I'm consistently shocked when I hear about this kind of stuff because I always expect artists to be more progressive in their thinking. If Homme had come out and said he made a mistake that would be one thing, but check out part of his response: "see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong, but apparently, based on your outrage to my flu-infused rant, you do!"

I'd like to know what Homme intended the f-word to mean there. Because what it seemed like he intended to do is infer that since this person was cowardly assaulting him, that person must therefore be a homosexual. I'm sure in Homme's mind his use of the f-word is different than a gay-hater's use, but is that really helping the cause? No, it's reinforcing stereotypes and creating excuses for using words that reinforce them.

What also surprised me was that no one seemed too upset by Homme's use of the p-word as an insult as well.

OK, honestly, I don't think Homme had thought through his comments that much before he made them. He'd just taken a shoe to the face (which sucks) and was understandably more than a little pissed off about it it. But what he did do was resort to childish name calling and reveal what is ultimately a grade school mentality.

IN OTHER NEWS!

_________________

So that really wasn't music related. I'll also add that I'm currently at a bit of a crossroads. I've been pursuing music for around 10 years right now and it's gotten to the point of either needing to poop or get off the pot, so to speak. I'm on the verge of doing something I think could be great, but I'm not sure I can do it with my current schedule. So I'm thinking and planning and planning and thinking and wondering if I can be happy being a full time something else and doing music as a permanent side thing, or if I need to go into this full blast so that I'll never wonder what might have been.

Stay classy!

Promoter's Commandments II: Thou Shalt Not Expect People To Come Just Because There's A Show

Hey, kids. Due to getting back late on Friday from a day trip I didn't do the post I thought I would. So this is the second in my “Promoter’s Commandments” series. Yep, I have a series. drummerthoughts is epic, I tells ya.

Unless you’ve booked Elton John because there are a lot of tasteless people in the world (that’s for fans of the other blog…kidding!), chances are you won’t be able to just throw up a couple of posters and wait for the crowds to start rolling in. Most lay-promoters are people who are either in a band or who love music and aren’t in a band, so it makes sense that they are friends with musicians and want to book local talent. This is great. But you have to realize that unless your goal is to get the ten or fifteen people in your scene to show up (HINT: It shouldn’t be!) then you need to do more.

You’re the promoter: your job is PROMOTION. That means hand fliers, posters, and cold-calling every newspaper, radio station, magazine, etc. you can think of. I did some promoting for two Runaway gigs, one in Hamilton, one in Kitchener. I had to call six newspapers to get mentioned in one, and I called five radio stations and got mentioned on none of them. This is a very crappy and demoralizing part of the job, because most people will treat you like dirt for bothering them. If it’s a pretty underground show look to your local alternative weeklys, as they’re usually apt to cover any show that’s happening (and you have a good chance of getting an article rather than just a mention in “Upcoming Events”). No point in not trying the majors, but don’t be surprised to get stonewalled.

The age of cyber-networking has made things a lot easier to advertise, but there’s a false sense of security in this sort of thing. Like I said in my first Commandment, a good general rule is to use your own experience as a measuring stick for setting up your show. How many group/event invites do you get on Facebook or Myspace that you ACTUALLY read? And of those that you read, how many do you ACTUALLY respond to? For me it’s in the 75% region, and that’s only because I don’t get many. Don’t get me wrong, definitely set those things up as a “hub”, but that’s not enough. You should personally invite as many people as you can via email, messages, phone or talking in person (weird, I know).

Bands, always always ALWAYS make sure to ask the promoter what she or he plans to do to promote the show. This is, in my experience, the easiest way to separate those who are interested in having a good show from those who are content to set up a sound system and drink with their friends in the other band. And if the promoter is “looking for your help” with promotion, make sure you’re getting a flat rate AND a percentage of the door, because you are now doing two jobs.

Promoter's Commandments I: Thou Shalt Not Break Even

This is the first non-review I’ve posted here (as, you know, the second post) and I need to clarify something before I go further: I am not a music guru, nor would I consider myself such. I have never been full-time in the music industry and I cannot claim to have made a lot of money doing it. These are just personal opinions formed over playing shows and being around the industry for 10 years or so.

I played a show last weekend that I had been pretty excited about. It was a festival, and festivals generally mean lots and lots of people. I can’t say for certain that every musician thrives on getting up in front of large amounts of people to ply their trade, but I will say the majority of us love it for one reason or another. Some are extremely pragmatic: “The law of averages says one in five people will buy my CD after my set, and I counted twenty-five people here, so I’m goin’ home with $50, baby!” Most others, like me, are simply performers by nature and love the chance to entertain, interact with, and impress an audience (and even entertainers, the potential for $50 in sales doesn’t hurt. Band’s gotta eat.) So festivals = lots of people = band excitement.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at this festival just after noon (it had been going since 11) there were a grand total of three non-staff at the grounds. Three. There were literally more people on stage than there were in the audience. We went on around 7 or so and the crowd had swelled to 20, but it was still a bit disappointing. And hurtful financially.

This seems to be a common theme throughout my “career”: shows you think are going to be well attended that wind up barely drawing flies. I think a lot of this has to do with promotion, and why some people should never do it.

I appreciate people volunteering to put on shows and provide places to play, but I really don’t think people understand how music works and why promotion is possibly the hardest thing to do. As a promoter, your job is to sell the show. You have to generate interest and compel people to come out. I’ve only promoted 5 shows in ten years, mostly because after the first one I recognized what a time-sucking money hole it is. Not that being a musician isn’t a time-sucking money hole, but I enjoy performing. I don’t enjoy promoting.

So this is going to be the first in my series of Promoter’s commandments:

THOU SHALT NOT EXPECT TO BREAK EVEN

This is the very first truth you have to realize as a promoter: You are going to lose money. Fact, fact, fact. Get used to it, because everyone else in the lower-paid echelons of the music industry (roughly 90% of us) already have. Posters are expensive. Sound equipment, hall rental, etc. are expensive. And yeah, you can get some of it back by charging $15 - $20 at the door for four local bands and not paying any of them, but odds are most people will be turned off by the price tag, and having people out to listen is kind of the whole point, right?

As a band member you often hear promoters throw themselves at your mercy saying they “didn’t break even”. This may seem harsh, but that was not, is not and will never be the band’s fault. Unless you had an agreement with the band that they would co-promote with you (and what good are you then?) the band’s job is to show up to play. Yours is to get people out. If this freaks you out, then feel free to promise the band a percentage of the door in lieu of a fixed amount. WARNING: Most established bands will run fast and run far away at the mention of a “percentage” payday. You get what you pay for.

So how will you lose money? Let’s run a cost analysis:

SOUND SYSTEM RENTAL: Minimum $150
HALL RENTAL: Anywhere between $100-$1,000 depending on size and length of time
POSTERS/FLIERS: Minimum $50 ($150 if professionally designed, which everyone should do)
GAS FOR THE BANDS: If local, about $10-20 each, so around $30-$60
SOUND PERSON: $50

So even at the lowest end you’re looking at being $400 in the hole before you’re out of the gates.

This is especially relevant to fundraisers. Fundraisers can work if everyone from the band to the hall owner to the designer to the sound guy agrees that they will take no money. But you still have to make sure you do all the other stuff right to ensure you get a crowd, and therefore, you know, raise funds.

OK! So now no one wants to be a promoter. I’m still going to post some other “Commandment” blogs later.

IN OTHER NEWS!!!!!

My awesome girlfriend Krista just got back from Europe and she brought me a CD by a band called The Do. I like it enough to review, so I may post that next week. I think on Friday I’ll tell the story of the best show I ever promoted. Stay classy.