James Moore's Blog, page 111

Music Marketing And The Illusion Of Optimal

When it comes to independent musicians planning an album release or any kind of promotion efforts for that matter, artists often ask me about what the optimal situation or timing would be. It’s typically a major worry and the thought behind it is “If we coordinate our album release with a marketing/PR campaign, a radio promotion campaign, tour dates, licensing efforts, and a fresh music video, that will be optimal.”

Is that true? Yes and no.

Sure, if you can line up everything with people you trust all at the same time, that’s wonderful and it will certainly feed itself in a positive way. The other side of this way of thinking, though, doesn’t often get talked about.

To tell you the truth, most artists who I speak to who decide to wait until things are “optimal”…disappear. Their motivation fizzles out while waiting for a hypothetical situation to emerge, whether it’s finding the right venues or tour booking company, waiting for a crowd funding campaign to reach it’s goal (or else the album won’t happen), securing a credible director for a music video, or a common culprit…saving up for any of these things.

What’s the antidote for this way of thinking? Throw optimal out the window. Life is never optimal (expect in glorious moments of course, and this is never predictable or planned), and neither should the process of bringing your music to the world. If you work on your music all the time and consistently put your vitality and effort in, that’s your optimal and it’s perfect.

Of course, there are cases where waiting is a good idea, but you’ll intuitively know in these scenarios. Most of the time you should not put the brakes on and keep moving forward. We tend to think that most successful artists broke out in a very short time, when actually it was an extremely slow burn. Look at how long Imagine Dragons (6 years), No Doubt (11 years – something to seriously keep in mind), or Pretty Lights (6 years) were around before they became household names. This is reason enough to remove the “make it with this album” idea and think of it more as steps in a long staircase towards your destination.

People who stay in the same spot, frozen, often like to have a lot of analytics. Why? Because it’s easy to stay where you are, reading a bunch of data, and then excusing yourself for not doing anything because the data doesn’t guarantee you success (which it never will). I see this all the time in business. People ask me how to gain a following online, start a business, a blog, or anything related. In my case, I chose something I was vitally interested in and I didn’t go for optimal thinking. I just wrote what I was passionate about, was fairly consistent with blogging, invested consistently in advertising that most would never have engaged in because of lack of guarantees, built my contact list often by Googling any new blogs or publications that may feature my artists, learned more about promotion and SEO “as I went” (key words here), and reached out to more and more musicians as my skills grew. The result of all these things was that after about 2 years, Independent Music Promotions had become one of the more sought after PR companies around because word was spreading. It takes time, but it shouldn’t take pulling your hair out. That will only happen if you stay still and over-strategize.

Every example of people who were over-concerned with having a guarantee, wanting certain analytics before they took action in business or as a musician; none of them have progressed.

Every email you send to a club owner or music blog is a step forward in the now. Every music industry book you read and share with your bandmates is a step forward. Every photo shoot, every festival or licensing opportunity, every targeted advertising campaign, and every free single offered to your fanbase…all steps forward. The more things you can do now as opposed to putting off to some hypothetical future point, the more power you gain, and the more trust in your own unique process. The worst possible thing you can do is engage in mountain thinking and create an immediate leap that needs to happen for you to achieve success, because it’s always an impossible climb. Every musician who ever succeeded did so with a series of small achievements, so don’t forgo those for the imaginary major ones.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

Annie Clark does the hustle and bustle on St. Vincent

Love an album that steps right into it.

The self-titled fourth album from St. Vincent, or the girl also known as Annie Clark, picks up right where 2011′s Strange Mercy left off with opener, “Rattlesnake.” It surges ahead with grooves contorting and billowing from all angles. The beats are jacked-up and burbling as Clark takes her clothes off with no one around. Her voice is distressed and manic. She’s sweating, sweating and by the end of this album, so too will you.

With St. Vincent, released this week, Clark is quickly becoming a must-hear artist of any genre. She is joyfully weird with a voice broaching levels of ecstasy and devilment. She is frisky and sassy, but also a true master of the axe. Nearly everything on the album is enveloped in the light fuzz of distortion and it pinches the back of the neck until the drool flows.

On “Birth In Reverse,” the first released song, Clark’s guitar does the Slip ‘N’ Slide. The tempo is locked into a rushing run, like a frantic, cinematic chase sequence through New York City. She’s slipping over the hood of a taxi cab, diving left towards David Byrne’s house, bursting the ambling crowds like flocks of pigeons. Like most of this album, it’s very busy, but never overcrowded.

As a lyricist, Clark trades comfort for mischief, unafraid to bend a sentence around the sound exterior. “Remember the time we went and snorted / That piece of the Berlin Wall that you’d extorted,” she sings, pure of heart, on “Prince Johnny.” Her voice goes off on flight, reflecting on a smitten, but lost and deranged lover.

Since her last album, Clark snuck in a collaboration with Byrne, the full-length Love This Giant. The pairing was perfect. The rhythms of St. Vincent are a direct trickle from the Talking Heads’ reservoir. “Digital Witness,” could have stemmed from those same recording sessions. It’s a solid piece of funk with flatulating horns and a mind-tugging chorus.

“Huey Newton” starts with a space-rock shuffle, then becomes a fractal explosion. Clark sounds like Alison Mosshart fronting Black Sabbath two hits out of the crack pipe. Some of the crustiest, filthiest, wubbiest guitar ever break down the walls between the right and left speakers. The closer, “Severed Cross Fingers,” is as lush as it is triumphant, the perfect lolling end to a bustling modern classic.

Not only is Annie Clark, without any doubt, one of the great guitarists making current music, but she puts her talent to the most creative of uses, never settling to go straight. She loves to throw her sound into total disarray just to pick it back up. She nearly melts the recording studio down on “Bring Me Your Loves” with an onslaught of scuzz.

Her penchant for experimenting with metallic textures and psychotic song structures gives her music a desperate need for return. She pushes the limits of what’s expected in a song and for that her name deserves to roll off the same tongue as Bjork, PJ Harvey, Erykah Badu, Laurie Anderson, the beautifully supernatural women of rock.

On “Digital Witness” Clark sings, “I want all of your mind / gimme all of your mind.” With St. Vincent it’s already in her lap.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

Chino Moreno puts the haze in the chamber for ††† debut

The ghosts of Chino Moreno’s new-wave past have floated into the present for his newest project dubbed, ††† (“crosses”). The Deftones frontman linked up with old friend Shaun Lopez, from Far, and Chuck Doom for their self-titled, debut album–a collection of songs both hazy and guttural.

Each track is kicked along by crisp, pricking hip-hop beats, but every noise around it is from the gallows. The opening track, “†his is a †rick,” strikes the speakers with an incessant trap beat while Moreno sings tenderly against loops of feedback growl. The groove of premonition on “†elepathy” is darkly funky and so good it hurts. Lyrically, Moreno is prowling with his usual obscurity, dealing with shape-shifters, witchery, ghosts and demons like it’s just another walk through the graveyard on a foggy evening.

The Deftones relation is never lost. The songs exhibit the same groove and crescendo of Moreno’s prime-time act, but without the thrash-metal and punk bursts. Instead, the release is consumed by a thick layer of electronic atmosphere and distorted vibrations, something always leaking in the cracks of Deftones’ music, especially on songs like “Cherry Waves,” “Digital Bath,” and “Lucky You.” Here, though, it’s the focal point, not merely an embellishment.

††† first started constructing songs in 2011. They released EP †, in 2011, and EP ††, in 2012, each consisting of five songs and each one appearing on this 15-track debut. The previous songs are subtly remastered with some added sonic flourishes, but they’re basically the same. Unfortunately, the anticipation was dimmed somewhat to learn only five songs were actually new.

The big surprise–and mild disappointment–here, is the real lack of experimentation. Given that this is Moreno’s third project outside Deftones, there was an expectation of something beyond the folds of his previous work. It’s sharper and more focused than his first non-Deftones outing, Team Sleep, and less expansive than Palms, his project with members of Isis, but, in the end, it’s not a great departure. 

Many songs are centered on choruses chock-full of rock-and-roll grandiosity, not too dissimilar from the single “Minerva,” off Deftones’ self-titled album. The big pummeling drums on “†hholyghs†” rise like oncoming waves before dissipating into haunted house sound effects.

“Nine†een Eigh†y Seven,” “Prurien†” and “†rophy” move like a snow drift on a slow-wafting breeze. The album finishes in hushes with “Dea†h Bell.” Moreno’s voice sails from the next room over, while a meek piano plays against a gear-cranking drum pattern.

The best song, “Bi†ches Brew,” was released with a video late last year. The pulse of a wavering bass moves with a lock-step drum groove through the shadows against the moonlight. It’s one of Moreno’s most haunting melodies with whispers looming from the corners. For pure metalheads, not exactly keen on the lightness of movement, there’s a quick dash of Deftones unrelenting at the end.

Moreno may be one of the fiercest screamers in all of metal, but Deftones have always been more than a metal band, fusing melody and atmosphere with crushing riffs. It’s a formula that has kept them ahead of their grouchy, nu-metal counterparts and that lies squarely on Moreno’s early inspirations and his persistence in staying out of the mold.

He’s made no secret about his admiration for the emotion behind early Eighties new-wave and groups like Depeche Mode and The Cure. This new project takes those first musical awakenings and blends them with the modern day equivalent of moody, down-tempo acts like Burial, the xx, Zomby, even Massive Attack. †††, then, is a worthy extension of Chino Moreno’s musical mind.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

Has Prince revolutionized the way artists market their music?

This time last week in a little flat in East London, something magical was in the works; the return of pop legend Prince.

The 55-year-old had previously dropped hints of holding a press conference in his friend and fellow musician, Lianne La Havas’ residence. Well come February 5th, he’d done just that, allowing just a couple of journalists in to cover the event and playing to them, before moving onto an impromptu gig at London’s Electric Ballroom, billed as a ‘sound check’.

Well it was one of the most popular sound checks the city had seen as fans were queuing for hours to get a glimpse of the man, who was charging just $10- a distinct difference to the last time he had played in the city 7 years ago, when he held a residency at the 20,000 capacity 02 Arena.

With a three-piece backing band in ’3RDEYEGIRL’ and an incredible show to kick off promoting his upcoming album, is this a style of marketing and promotion that we’re going to become familiar with?

Sure, it’s a clear regression, restricting yourself and your product to just a handful of superfans who happened to be in the right place at the right time (oh and be living in London!), but this type of guerrilla advertising and banding together increases hype and anticipation. You can be sure that long-standing rumours of Prince headlining Glastonbury ’14 and perhaps a couple of Hyde Park shows have reignited due to his few small London shows, which would allow the masses to see what all the fuss is indeed all about!

With very little YouTube footage and pictures available from the gigs at present, it is a method that has captured the imagination of the public, in a world where everything is planned out, tours are announced months in advance, with ridiculous pricing and booking fees that music fans take as a given. It’s refreshing to see such spontaneity and a seemingly genuine passion for the music, that Prince and his band seem to have. Whether it’ll catch on or not is another thing completely, but who wouldn’t love to be able to see their favourite artist for the price of a night down at the pub?!

Below is some recent footage of the show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, put out by 3RDEYEGIRL, we see the crowds of people and happy faces, alongside a Hendrix-looking Prince and the band themselves. It looks like a magnificent event to be a part of, one of those ‘I was there’ moments, and with tweets being put out by Prince’s manager, enticing fans about further mystery shows, it appears the show is not yet over!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk_9tCBDHtE

It’s debatable whether or not it’s actually been a wholesome success for Prince; sure had he announced a UK-wide tour starting at £50 apiece he would’ve been making millions rather than thousands, but has he not won the respect and admiration of his loyal band of fans and gained a few along the way at the same time.

I for one am intrigued to see what actually comes of his latest album, as the tasters sound amazing and you can expect the legend to expand his tale yet!

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

Girl from the North steps into the sun on “Little Sway”

Little Sway, the newest album from Crissi Cochrane, could be named after the movement of early budding flowers in spring’s first breezes. The music is bright and eloquent, splashed with the colors of a botanical garden. It mixes modern American jazz with pop music structures in line with Nora Jones or Corinne Bailey Rae.

“Sleep In The Wild,” the opener has a crisp chorus with horns embellishing Cochrane’s every vocal movement. The album celebrates a carefree existence, never getting too bogged down with heavy emotion. “I don’t listen to the news no more / I just ride my bike to the liquor store,” she sweetly swoons on “Be Around.”

Cochrane is from Windsor, Ontario, but has since found her place in Detroit, Michigan. Little Sway, the 10-song album, is her third full-length. It follows Pretty Alright, from 2011, and Darling, Darling, from 2010. A lovely constant of the album is the surging, billowing horn arrangements. They are controlled, undulating brushstrokes to her musical canvas.

Obviously, here, the main highlight is Cochrane’s voice. It remains front and center, breathing both innocence and assuredness, hitting the scale somewhere between Mirah and Victoria Legrand, of Beach House. I imagine the fibers of a dandelion escape her mouth with the pronunciation of every vowel.

On “Look Away” Cochrane is contemplative, singing of heavy clouds and the absence of companionship over a shuffling beat and a tranquil sax. Bassist Mike Hargreaves and drummer Stefan Cvetkovic, a reliable rhythm section, keep an interlocked groove on “A Damn Shame.”

“Pretty Words” abandons the drums for a somber, meandering guitar strum. “If I’m not a fool for you / then I’m just a fool,” Cochrane sings, allowing the emotion of the line to inflate on a stream of horns. The only song not penned by Cochrane is “The Man I Love,” formerly by George and Ira Gershwin. Her voice carries the classic over a stable, poking drum machine. She plays the wounded notes of a flute. It is most sublime.

Little Sway is perfect listening for when the snow melts and the days begins to stretch. Cochrane looks to the future with a glint of positivity in her eye. Her spring and summer may be very bright indeed.

Little Sway is available on Cochrane’s Bandcamp and on iTunes. Her album release show is this Saturday, Feb. 15 at The Phog Lounge in Windsor.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The End Men Work It Off With “Toys”

Play With Your Toys by The End Men may have been recorded at Brooklyn’s Well Rounded Hoodlum Studios, but often, it sounds like it’s coming from the back room of a rickety old wooden boat where a single dimly-lit bulb swings with the waves.

The album opens with woozy, ship-wrecked chanting on “Cleaning Your Mind,” before lifting off with the psychedelic swirl of “Run Away.” The song then spittles into a steady grinding blues riff–The End Men’s long suit.

The Brooklyn group are only a duo. Matthew Hendershot mans the guitar and growls, while Livia Ranalli drops an anchor with her drums. Their music exhibits all the trappings of the most basic blues, but with a more chiseled slant. “Into The Mines” flows like a sea shanty before Hendershot leads the listener into a dark soot-covered hole in the ground. The blues crunch of ZZ Top is heard on “The Ballad Of Billy Polk” and “It’s All Wrong” is a tough, bare-knuckled stomp. 

The songs are simple enough. Between the two of them, they use every bit of meat on their instruments. Hendershot challenges you up front, dares you to cross him. His voice is equidistant from Billy Gibbons’s garble and Mark Lanegan’s low-tide moan. 

Ranalli has a pile of percussion before her. She remains in lockstep with the boozy guitar, but splashes, pokes and prods every piece of hardware between Hendershot’s riffs. Her backup vocals are ghostly and subtle, sliding right in next to the grime.

They do plenty with such a lean set-up and create an atmosphere worthy enough to stretch over the 11 songs on Play With Your Toys. The swift accordion drifts of “Play With Your Toys Pt. I” and “Pt. II” are like mist teasing into the heavier tracks. On “Mental Trapeze” Hendershot trades a sack of nickels for sticks and seeds with a blind man on 27th Street. Later he makes a batch of chocolate brownies and descends into a creeping carnival waltz.

The End Men are here to shake all the strange from your soul. Play With Your Toys was released digitally last February and is available for download and stream on The End Men’s Bandcamp. Their newest release is the two-sided single, “Work,” from last September.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The Top 5 Up-and-Coming Brooklyn Bands

The following article is a guest post by Nicolas White of Rukkus. Rukkus is a concert discovery platform that helps you better stay in touch with your local music scene. They provide personalized concert recommendations for you based on your musical taste. In addition, they bring dozens of primary and secondary ticket vendors into one platform so you’ll always get the best deal. 

There must be something in the water in Brooklyn, NY―a strange force that permeates brick and concrete. Though the name for this energy sits just out of reach from the top of your tongue, some call it inspiration. This common bond links many artists who flock to the New York borough, as if dragged by some unseen force.

Brooklyn has become a presence much in the way that Seattle emerged as a breeding ground for the alt-rock of the ‘90s. The opportunities of this music and culture hub know no bounds, since there’s always a place to gig and a captive audience waiting for the “next big thing.” Of course, as expected, Brooklyn culture must absorb the knocks against the “hipsterdom” that it fostered, yet while mainstream America consumes the manufactured image that the scene inspired, Brooklyn music keeps chugging along. It’s an environment so unpredictable, you never know what’s going to catch flame.

If you’ve paid attention to music the past few years, you’re surely familiar with the Grizzly Bear’s and Dirty Projectors’ of the world, but this list provides new insight into a scene that continually recreates itself. With the nation’s spotlight shining down, Brooklyn has become so driven by originality, that bands must search for what’s new, or else face the risk of achieving dreaded self-parody. Here are 5 bands that are making noise in the city that never sleeps.

 

Oneohtrix Point Never – The electronic project of Daniel Lopatin is born out of ambient drone and sounds plundered from obscure sources. It all congeals together to form a sound collage that’s really quite unlike anything else. His debut with Warp Records came out last year to critical acclaim. Remember this name, however it’s pronounced.

 

Parquet Courts – These upstarts are one of the first in Brooklyn’s gurgling “second wave.” Their slacker-friendly punk is a battle cry against the gluten-free minutia of a culture that’s become too tame. Parquet Courts is here to shake things up.

 

DIIV – DIIV’s sound is bathed in watery reverb that originated in frontman Zachary Cole Smith’s bedroom. The project finally caught the attention of fans with their debut, Oshin. Be on the lookout for a new album coming early this year.

 

Beach Fossils – With Beach Fossils, the intention is to create atmospheres as much as music. The thick shoegaze fog immerses listeners in everything that the lo-fi Brooklyn movement has become known for—laid-back vocals, washed out synths, and prickly guitars.

Small Black – After the tides of chillwave hit the shore and washed away, Small Black is what remains. They’re a hybrid of bouncing synths and dreamy vocals that are best heard stumbling through the half-lit streets of Brooklyn late at night.

 

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The New Xiu Xiu Album is Hell (of course)

Godhead of Xiu Xiu, Jamie Stewart, wants to bang on your eardrums with whatever scrap metal he’s got lying around and moan, closely, in your ear while he does it. Angel Guts: Red Classroom, the group’s ninth, is a tortuous, carnal art-rock listening experience.

The odd title is shared with the Japanese erotic film by Chūsei Sone–the inspiration for the album. The plot of the film, from 1979, follows a love affair between a writer and his subject, a troubled pornstar. Sounds about right. Thematically and musically the album throttles the usual dark melodies and incantations Xiu Xiu (and, really, only Xiu Xiu) has come to be known for. The key difference here is the noise, noise, noise.

It’s a lowly simmer to start. The first song “Angel Guts:” sounds like wind recorded through a cheap microphone, barely hovering above audible. “Archie’s Fades” evokes desperation with its lurching drone and Stewart’s low-registering ache. On “Stupid In The Dark” raw driving drums keep the pace while Stewart jaws manically, shushing the sound around him when he wants your full attention.

The Xiu Xiu formula is perfectly assimilated here. The palette of sound is very lean. Only analog synthesizers, drum machines and a drum set were used, making it much more sonically straightforward than past albums. With Angel Guts, the racket is the emphasis, the crushing weight of Stewart’s tumultuous thoughts. Twisted, alarming, industrial scrap sound blankets every song and sometimes overtake it to the point of devastation. It’s not always the best. Mostly, it lacks the songs that make a listener quiver with an unredeemable sadness (see: “PJ In The Streets…,” “Clover,” “Sad Pony Guerilla Girl”).

Stewart’s absurdist erotic, oftentimes discomforting, lyrics still come through in whispers and wails and climactic releases. He’s the beast of his own work. His oddball clenching need for abject sex is still strong, especially on the song without a hint of metaphor, “Black Dick.” He snarls and orders for the expansive manhood of a negro male like he’s lying on his side and it’s the only cure to his anguish. It gets weird.

The last half of the album is all sonic combustion, Stewart’s voice growing more panicked. “Lawrence Liquors” is pure war. The enemy is nigh. Helicopter blades cut through the jackhammer beat and distorted owls coo. Shrieking feedback assails “Adult Friends,” as if the wires were splintered, barely functioning. Menacing organ swells with a blunted drum walk on “A Knife In The Sun” until it dissolves in torrential screams from all sides.

Every song on Angel Guts, from start to finish, morphs steadily into an urgent insanity. Play this loudly in your home and your guests will have heart attacks. People will shriek in their seats, maybe pull a gun on you. The final sound heard is a buzz-saw, plain, without effects, cutting right through your stupid head sideways. It is not pleasant.

Angel Guts: Red Classroom is released February 4 on Polyvinyl. It comes on the high-heels of Nina, a strange hushed collection of Nina Simone covers released last December on Graveface.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

Paying Tribute or Being a Parasite?

By Anne Iredale: I hate tribute bands – with a passion. Cover bands, I don’t have a problem with; I’ve seen some excellent ones, with accomplished musicians respectful of the music and bringing their own take to their versions. Even some so-called tribute bands don’t clone their heroes but simply cover the music. No, I’m talking about the ones that take it to extremes – the ones that sport the wigs and the clothes and practice every facial twitch, every vocal inflection, reproducing somebody else’s sound note for note. They stand in front of the mirror for hours…being ‘them’.

Tribute bands/artists are big business here in Britain, and as I go round my home town, I see countless banners advertising the coming acts outside venues, from small clubs to big theaters. Brochures from my local theaters come through my door and I excitedly open them to see which fantastic artists are scheduled, only for my heart to sink as page after page of tribute acts appear.

I don’t want to see a middle-aged ‘Rod Stewart’ trying to hold his stomach in, with enough hair product to blow a hole in the ozone layer the size of Texas. Nor do I want to see ‘Jim Morrison’; I have a vision of him trying to get his leather trousers off after the show, when he’s been sweating in them for two hours – it ain’t pretty.

I did once, inadvertently, come across a Rammstein tribute band. They’re from England and can’t speak German but sang in German nevertheless. Apparently, they learn the words phonetically. In other words, they don’t know what the hell they’re singing about!

One of the most successful tribute bands is The Bootleg Beatles. They have a big career. Perhaps, one day there’ll be a tribute band to them, in some kind of downward spiral to tribute hell. At least their ‘Paul McCartney’ plays left-handed. I once had an argument with someone when I complained that the ‘Paul McCartney’ in another Beatles tribute band was right-handed. “Well, what do you expect him to do? Learn how to play the bass left-handed?” he said. “Yes,” I replied! Not only does a right-handed McCartney look plain wrong, there is a significant point here. The fact that the real deal is left-handed meant that he and George Harrison could stand together at one microphone and do close harmony. It was a beautiful thing. Also, some Beatles tributes get to the ‘psychedelic/Sgt. Pepper’ part of their act and they’re still wearing their early Beatle suits. It looks ridiculous.

It’s true that you can’t go see The Beatles anymore or Freddie Mercury and countless others. But the most annoying tributes are those to artists that are still around and performing, and not all of those are ones getting on in years and past their prime.  Hell, there are tribute acts to One Direction and to Adele! Another phenomenon is original band members getting in on the act. Bassist Bruce Foxton, formerly of The Jam, plays in From the Jam, in what amounts to a tribute act to his own band. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any more annoying – up pop tributes to stand-up comics. Yes – comics! Peter Kay is a comedian with a huge following in the UK; he fills arenas and sells DVDs by the truckload. Can’t get a ticket to see him? No problem, you can go see his copycat. Come to think of it, hundreds of people line up to see fake versions of The Queen and David Beckham cutting the ribbon on stuff, but that’s another story.

Tribute acts even have their own festivals, one ingeniously called Glastonbudget. Now, I actually approve of this. For one weekend, they’re all in the same place and we know what they’re up to. In fact, I would go further than this. My fantasy is an island somewhere out in the middle of an ocean where all the tribute acts in the world could live, playing to their heart’s content. I would call it Tribute Island, and eventually it would sink under the weight of its own mediocrity.

Admittedly, there is one thing I do like about some tribute bands and that’s their names. Some of them are very inventive, my personal favorite being Oasish.

There is a serious point to all this. Surely the plethora of tribute acts must affect the ability of original acts to get a gig? I wonder how hard-working musicians and singers with original songs feel about it. Tribute acts bring pleasure to thousands of people, I know, but if there are any live music promoters reading this – I’m begging you; please, just every now and then, give someone original a chance. Just imagine if The Beatles had formed themselves as a tribute to…say, Buddy Holly and the Crickets or Elvis to Hank Williams….where, oh where, would be now?

 

 

 

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

Exclusive Interview with Author, Musician & Music Marketer Joshua Smotherman

Joshua Smotherman, a musician and one of the men behind popular musician’s website Middle Tennessee Music, has been a colleague of mine for years now, and I can’t say enough good things about him. Not only has he been a huge help to my artists as well as hundreds, possibly thousands of others; he does his work with humility and class. Needless to say, I was happy to hear that he recently co-authored a new music marketing book with C Bret Campbell entitled “Getting Your Music Heard Online“. If you’ve ever read the articles on Midtnmusic.com before, you’ll know that they are some of the most practical and easy-to-follow instructions available to independent musicians, and any artist interested in the vital nuances of everything from approaching bloggers to mastering social media should pick up a copy. I had a chance to ask Joshua a few questions and he dishes out some wisdom below.

You can buy the new book here.

1. Joshua, first off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started with what has become quite a popular independent music destination website, Midtnmusic.com, and what you do for musicians there? 

This answer could get really long but I will try and stick to the main points.

We are just some DIY musicians trying to help other DIY musicians figure out how to create sustainable livings with our passions for creating music.

The original idea for Middle Tennessee Music came from my childhood friend Joshua Grosch.
The core of MTM includes Mr. Grosch, C Bret Cambpell, and myself but we are actively looking for new people to work with to help grow our vision. We also moderate the Google+ community, Music Professionals of G+.
Grosch and myself were in a drama group as teenagers, began pursuing music in our late teens, and eventually became Hip Hop duo BUNKS. We began using the Internet to release and promote music in 1999.
C Bret Campbell had a small barn he had converted into a recording studio. After my Dad asked Bret to teach me guitar, I discovered Bret was an audio engineering mastermind and the only guy in Hillsboro, TN that knew anything about DAWs, VSTs, and making music for the digital era. You could say Bret set our young, creative souls free.
Things like kids, college, and life began happening. I moved to Murfreesboro in 2002 so distance became an issue but we used technology to keep the movement…. moving.
While still in college (after moving to Florida then Louisiana then back to Tennessee over a 9 month period), I started Middle Tennessee Hip Hop as a social networking site on Ning.com. That was 2007. By 2008, I was converting the site into a blog without membership.
I worked in the campus library so I spent countless hours consuming the works of Bob Baker, Ariel Hyatt, Derek Sivers, Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, and other content creators who focus on helping others learn about marketing, PR, and using social media properly.
I graduated MTSU in 2009 with degrees in Music Business and Anthropology. An internship I had with an indie publishing company on Music Row in Nashville turned into a job.
In August 2010, I quit that job to work from home as a freelance consultant and website designer for a group of small business owners in the Brentwood area.
In May of 2011, on a whim after a FB chat with Bret, I built and launched version 1 of MTM in a matter of 3 or 4 hours. We immediately began digging for content, contacting the bands we featured, and using their excitement and sharing of our articles to get ourselves out there.

One thing led to another and now here we are.

A lot of the informative articles we publish typically come from questions we have been asked by others or from experiences we have had using technology to turn our passion for creating music into a sustainable living.

As far as what we do for musicians… our main mission is to help those on the DIY path better understand the Internet and how to use it to promote music, find fans, and build a tribe.

We have worked with entrepreneurs in the music industry, health industry, business/life coaching industry, as well as a bed and breakfast but our passion lies with helping others {musicians} like us “figure out the Internet”.

2. Your new book is called “Getting Your Music Heard Online”, and it’s made up of a compilation of articles originally published on Midtnmusic.com. I found the book to be uniquely clear and practical in it’s instructions and advice. What do you hope independent musicians take from the book? 

Insight that hopefully leads to clarity.

I’ve wasted a lot of time learning, making mistakes, researching, trying again, making more mistakes, etc. Reading books from writers like yourself, Bob Baker and Ariel Hyatt really helped me take my online presentation of my music to the next level and I simply want to pay it forward by helping others just like me.

3. What are the 3 top things you’d recommend artists start doing now? 

1. Make the best music you possibly can with all the resources you have at your disposal. Not having money is not an excuse. I’ve been broke and making music for 15 years. I turn 32 next month and I’m just now receiving my first record contract to sign (possibly).

2. Get out and play shows, network with local acts, and use the Web to network with not local acts. Small tours can be built off gig swaps…  If you want to get paid on the back end make sure you are a member of a performing rights organization. BMI and ASCAP allow you to report shows when you perform and pay you performance royalties.

3. Learn how to properly present yourself to higher ups in the industry, get a website, get on social media, and start blogging.

4. When artists send their music for your consideration, what are the biggest mistakes they typically make? 

No information or not enough, just a link to a song or video.
“The hottest new artist out of Timbuktu….” – *delete*
Go listen to my new song, like my page, and I’ll return the favor OR the more clever…
I love your blog (knowing they have never looked at anything but the contact page), I was hoping to get featured blah blah blah…

5. How is an artist to break through in 2014′s musical climate? 

You have to be producing the best music you possibly can. Technology has created an over-saturation of people trying to live out their music dreams who believe the Web can make it happen.

There is a lot of blah blah music being pushed out by “great” publicists.

If you throw Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Twitter Ads, etc on top of this, all you need to be heard online is money. All you need to get 10,000 video plays is go pay someone selling views that knows how to make them count without getting caught by YouTube.

With this said, music fans know the real from the fake and the artist who will endure and persevere through the smoke and mirrors are the ones putting 1000% of themselves into the music first.

As a wise man I recently met once said… we need more “music with depth”.

6. You’re an accomplished musician yourself. Can you tell us a bit about how you speak from experience? 

I entered the online world in 1995. By 2000 I had already started releasing music and was involved in message boards and forums which provided the communities I could share with. Unlike the majority of artists online today, I have the vivid experience of a world that existed pre-social media.

I was promoting music online before Zuckerberg even graduated high school…

I think that speaks for itself but back to my music. I have been writing, producing, and recording consistently since 1999. I performed my first show in 2003 – 2004 but BUNKS was not performing on a regular basis until 2007 when we released Generica (our first album distributed digitally via iTunes, etc).

Next week I leave on my 2nd self-funded, self-booked tour across the Western side of the States. My first was in August of 2013. Like I said earlier, its 2014 – I’ve been pursuing music as a “career” for almost 15 years and I’m just now looking at my first contract to sign with an indie label.

I live what I write about on MTM and elsewhere. That’s the takeaway from these statements.

Also, the only ones who fail are the ones who quit trying.

7. What can we expect from you and C Bret Campbell at Midtnmusic.com in 2014?

Now that we have proven ourselves as a source of info for musicians trying to learn more about online promotion, we are interested in becoming a site for fans to discover indie music. This year we want music fans spending more and more time on our site discovering the 800+ [and growing] bands, artists, songwriters, and musicians we have interviewed and reviewed over the past few years.

Since I am getting more touring experience under my belt, my 2014 articles will focus on how we are finding venues, booking shows, funding it, and other related topics.

 

Joshua Smotherman short bio: Known as the fertile father of 3, Joshua is a music blogger, songwriter, and a WordPress junkie. Since 1999, he has been writing and performing as BUNKS. Middle Tennessee Music is his way of giving back to the independent music community. He currently acts as website manager and online marketing consultant for bands, indie labels, and small businesses.

 

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.