I’m sorry. But at the risk of over-emphasizing the facial hair theme so crucial to this band, I had to post the following, which is “not safe for work,” blah blah blah (why are you surfing the web at work anyway?):
[via Andrew Sullivan]
When Is It Too Much?
So I was reading this post by Jason Parker (@1WorkinMusician). Jason’s got a great new way to get people talking about his music and it requires (relatively speaking) little overhead. What’s more, it does seem to build in a bit of the sort of story that people will likely talk about with their friends as well. That, of course, is something worth its weight in gold – the opportunity to have people do your marketing for you by word of mouth.
It’s a great idea. It’s great marketing. It’s fun, and I commend him for doing it.
It’s also crap.
Ok – that’s not entirely accurate – let me rephrase: The fact that he needs to come up with something like this is crap. That’s a little closer to what I’m actually feeling right now. I don’t understand why it is that folks who are working as hard as he is have to find new and intriquing ways to ‘lure’ people in to listen to their music, or view their art, or see them dance, or…
You get the idea.
It’s exceedingly frustrating to me that I see people like Jason, or Andrew Durkin, or Joe Trainor struggling just to get people to get off their asses and to pay attention. These are craftsmen working for what? To create something for other people to enjoy! Then they have to drag them out just to have those same people enjoy those efforts!
Let’s do a little math here: Let’s say for a moment that Jason’s CD cost him $5/cd to make. Between recording costs, packaging, printing, rehersals, shipping, and who knows what all else, I’m betting it’s probably more, but let’s start there. That means that (for this particular effort) he’s spending $500 just to benefit others and have them hear his music. Those same people could have likely spent just a few bucks to see a show with Jason, his band, and likely at least one other act and benefitted him in return for his gift.
I know, I know. I’m probably getting a bit preachy here, but I can’t help but get frustrated when I see this sort of crap all the time. What will it take for us as a society to value our artists enough that they don’t have to have the cursed day job, or be their own marketing department, and allow them to just make their music, or paint their art, or just dance?
It’s only a mild concussion
Number of times I hit my head on this tour: 3
Number of times it was earth-shatteringly loud: 2
Number of times it was captured on video: 1
Number of times you’ll watch it on YouTube: 0
The big tour
Hi folks! We’re keeping this here tour schedule post on the top of the page until the tour is over next week.
To read about our follies on the road, just scroll below this entry.
Thanks! –The Mgmt.
Well, this is it. October 15-24 will be a week and a half to remember, as the Industrial Jazz Group undertakes the most ambitious tour in its history. Get ready for… Rocktober!
Thursday, 10/15, 5 PM: Pittsfield Jazz Festival (Pittsfield, MA)
Friday, 10/16, 7:55 PM: Green Line Café, Locust (Philadelphia, PA)
Saturday, 10/17, 8 PM: Galerie St. George (Staten Island, NY)
Sunday, 10/18, TBA: Mystery gig (NYC)
Monday, 10/19, 9 PM: The Bell House (Brooklyn, NY)
Tuesday, 10/20, 7:30 PM: The Space (Hamden, CT)
Wednesday, 10/21, 8 PM: Twins Jazz (Washington, DC)
Thursday, 10/22, 11 PM: Automata Chino (Jersey City, NJ)
Friday, 10/23, 8 PM: Time & Space Ltd. (Hudson, NY)
Saturday, 10/24, 9:30 PM: The Black Door (Montpelier, VT)
Yeowza! Makes me want to create one of those moth-eaten tour T-shirts with all the dates on the back. (You know, the ones everyone had in high school, back in the 80s.)
Hope to see you at a show! Please tell your friends!
Contest Mania!
In order to celebrate this mammoth undertaking, we are going gangbusters with two totally rad contests! You could win prizes, fame, and fortune!
First, the IJG remix contest: remix our tune “Howl” (from the album LEEF), and you could win a $50 prize. Plus, your mix could be included on our next album! Details here. Deadline: December 31, 2009.
Second, the IJG video contest: make a video for our song “The Job Song” (also from LEEF), and you could win $250! Details here. Deadline: January 31, 2010.
Fundraiser!
Fundraising for the tour continues. If you have been waiting for a good time to contribute, wait no longer: now is a good time to contribute! We need all the help that we can get! Details here. And thanks!
Rocktober Online!
As usual, all the antics from the tour will be posted online as much as possible. If you’re unable to make it to a show, feel free to follow the fun at the group blog, at this here blog, at Durkin’s twitter feed, at Jill’s twitter feed, or at (new!) Dan Rosenboom’s twitter feed.
And thanks, as always, for your support! We’re nothing without you. Eastward ho!
with much love,
The Industrial Jazz Group
Industrial Jazz Group: The Modern Day Biffit
Around 1980, my cousin Billy often used the word “biffit” to describe “10 pounds of x in a 5 pound y.” 1
Ever since our band broke the 10+ member barrier, The Industrial Jazz Group has had to figure out how to deal with the challenge of playing in smaller places. It’s fun to walk into a venue and do the mental tetris to figure out how we’re all gonna fit. Even though we have trombones and music stands and a keyboard and furiously gesticulating singers and dance moves and such, we always manage to make it work, and also to make it super-fun.
Friday (10/16) we played at The Green Line Café in Philadelphia and despite the teeny space, we ROCKED it. That was most definitely a biffit: 20,000 pounds of awesome crammed into a 5 pound bag… and by “5 pound bag” I mean an 80-square foot slab of floor that required the trombones to stand on the windowsill so they could play over the heads of the trumpets, and 9 tunes crammed into a 40 minute set. And by “20,000 pounds of awesome” I mean that our show contained booty-shakin’, hootin’ and hollerin’, audience-member smoochin’, and a big-time bangover the next morning. Or: to paraphrase Durkin: “On a 40-degree rainy night, we had the place rockin’ so hard that the venue had to turn on the air conditioning.” Oh hells yes!
On Saturday (10/17) we were invited to play at Galerie St. George, which is an old, huge, beautiful home on Staten Island that’s been turned into an art gallery. Despite the lipstick on this (absolutely gorgeous) pig, this show was still at its essence a house concert. You might be thinking, “How on earth can a 17-piece band play a house concert?” The answer is: With awesomeness, baby.
This event was another biffit: We stuffed 17 people, 15 music stands, a PA, a keyboard, and two mic stands into a 120-square foot center room of this house. Only the band could fit in this room, but the the audience sat in the surrounding spaces and they had a great time, goshdarnit. So did we! It was probably the most unusual setup we’ve ever had, and it was cool figuring out ways to engage the audience. I got to resurrect the signs by parading them around the house, which was good fun. I’ve missed those signs, and I plan on using them for most of our other gigs on the tour. Keep your eyes peeled!
Anyhoo, tomorrow (well, technically today as it’s 12:16am EST, despite what the header might say) we’ll be on a big, beautiful stage in Brooklyn at The Bell House. I’m very excited to share a bill yet again with Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, and to experience for the first time Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra. The show starts at 7:30, and IJG goes on around 9. Can’t wait to see you there!
But now: Sleep. Today was a full day of mystery-gigging and bacon-cookie-making, but I’ll tell you all about those at another time.
——-
1 Where x = dingleberries and y = bag.