Should’ve mentioned last time (but there wasn’t room, and I forgot anyway) I have sent off another song to a publisher. I’m on the mailing lists of a couple of publishers, one in Nashville and one not, and they’ll occasionally send out a call to the mailing list for songs for an artist, or for a film or TV show, if they don’t have something in The Catalog that fits. I try to respond if I can; I want these guys to remember who I am.
In this case, they wanted a “not too pop” love song to be sung by a teenage girl, and I happened to have one. Not one of mine, of course—my material mostly isn’t what you’d call “mainstream”—but I’ve musicated a lot of mainstream-ish material written by others. I sent them “About Love,” a Marge McKinnis song I’d musicated and recorded a few years ago; I had the demo done in Nashville, at a “demo derby” at the Pineyfest songwriters conference in 2007.
The lesson, I think, is the old Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared.” If you’ve got something that’s good—and I think I’ve been in music long enough to tell when something’s good—grab the opportunity when it happens to have a commercial recording done. It positions you to take advantage of opportunities. Note that this one happened more than four years after the song was recorded. One should accordingly not be making a big investment in the demo—payback may be a long time in coming, if it ever does happen. And I have no idea if anything will come of this submission. I simply know that I’ve given it my best shot, and my best shot was pretty good.
Also on the plus side, there’s a bluegrass band called The Crazed Weasels that may end up performing one of my songs—“Armadillo on the Interstate.” They heard it at the Rainbow Lotus, performed with 45 Degrees North’s trademarked Heavenly Chorus, and they got given the lyrics. We agreed songs about armadillos were in short supply—particularly songs about dead armadillos in love.
Theme song for the “Cinderpiggy” play is done, I think—short, simple country music, one verse and one chorus. Hight “My Happily Ever After.” Should come out about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes with a lead break—ideal for rolling credits (except I don’t know if this one will get filmed—it’s at Garibaldi City Hall, not the Arts Center). However, people have requested the sock-puppet band “play” again, and I do like to deliver what people want.
Merle Haggard wrote quite a few short songs like this; it’s very “old school”—back in the early days of recorded music, one couldn’t fit much on a record because of the limitations of the primitive technology. It’s not a bad “box” to work in—I seem to be able to do them pretty fast—and it forces one to be really concise. Not a lot of room for character development, but since this follows the play, all it’s got to do is recall some of the imagery from the play. The audience can (and no doubt will) fill in the details.
The song could use a good country-blues female voice (Princess Leah will be “singing” it on stage), and I’d like to tap Candice for that, if she’s willing. Either “Doc” or “Chippewa Bob” on blues harp, and either Charlie or me on lead guitar. The sock-puppet band has (besides Leah) Yoda on harmonica, Luke on washtub bass, Chewy as the drummer (and Darth Vader as the drum), and Hansolo on guitar (I’d like to borrow the the miniature Les Paul again).
Joe
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
THE NEXT PUPPET SHOW (&C.)...
In Shakespeare mode… Draft script for the next Great Intergalactic Puppet Theatre performance is done—“Cinderpiggy,” a retelling of the Cinderella story by the cast of “Pig Wars.” Darth Vader in the title role, Luke and Hansolo as the evil stepbrothers, Chewy as the evil step-Wookie, Leah as the airhead princess desperate for a boyfriend, and Yoda (with his cute little wings) as the Fairy Whatever. (Got a Magic Mirror, too—obviously robbed from a different fairy tale, but poor Leah, alone in the castle, needed somebody to talk to. And like Nietzsche said, sometimes when you talk to the furniture, the furniture talks back.)
Yes, had to do some gender reversals, because our “troupe” only includes one girl, Princess Leah (though Yoda and Chewy, being aliens, are of rather indeterminate—or indiscriminate—gender). At least this script is way better than Jerry Lewis’ “Cinderfella,” which was a real turkey. And it includes several plugs for reading, since this is a performance for the county library’s summer reading program. Friday, June 17, 1 p.m., by the way.
Next step: a song. People have requested a reprise performance by the sock-puppet band, and I do like to give people what they want. Need another one-verse, one-chorus “Southern Pigfish” original—with a Cinderella motif, of course. Last one was rock ‘n’ roll; could we do country music this time?
The Deathgrass CD is selling—slowly. Of the sales (11 so far), two have been through two of the Retail Outlets, two online through CDBaby, one by mail, and the rest in person to people I know. There are three Retail Outlets now, and I might sign up a fourth and fifth after the holiday weekend.
Message has gone out to the “joelist” telling them the CD is available, and how to get it. Haven’t scheduled a CD Release Event yet (my previous favored date, June 4, is one when drummer Chris is going to be out of town), and when the Event happens, it’ll be late enough that we’ll probably have to call it something else. The CD is Out There already. Got to recover those production costs.
However, the purpose of the CD Release Event (whatever we call the thing) is still important. It’s an opportunity to promote and sell the CD. (And as usual, I’ve got an ancillary purpose in mind; I want to stream (or podcast, or both) the concert, because I don’t think anybody’s done that before, at least not around here. And that’s an opportunity to multiply the listener base.)
Notice to the “joelist” for the Thirsty Lion performance June 14 is done; so is the Rap. I should do something similar for 45 Degrees North (our concert in Ilwaco is June 18, after all); I do have a poster done, but don’t know if everybody likes the logo yet. If not, re-designing the logo is one more thing I have to do. The advertising needs to get out—we have less than three weeks before the Big Gig in Ilwaco.
Practice with 45 Degrees North Friday night and Sunday; we’re doing it again Tuesday. Jane’s done a setlist, and I edited it. I think it’ll be good. Now to practice. We need quite a bit of practice. We’re not good yet. (I’m not good yet. I need to know for every song exactly what I’m going to do, so the finger movements are automatic. I’m not there yet, for most of our songs.) Standard to hit for, I think, is to have every song come off as perfectly as the group does “Armadillo on the Interstate.” That Heavenly Do-Wop Chorus is just beautiful. (Works really well on “Writer’s Block Blues,” “Pole Dancing for Jesus” and ”No Good Songs About the War,” too. Tried those last two at the Rainbow Lotus Sunday night.)
45 Degrees North has been tapped to perform a 2-hour show at the Rainbow Lotus Sunday, July 24. That’s a week after our (and Deathgrass’) performance at the Wheeler Music Festival, and a week before Garibaldi Days. The summer is definitely filling up.
Joe
Yes, had to do some gender reversals, because our “troupe” only includes one girl, Princess Leah (though Yoda and Chewy, being aliens, are of rather indeterminate—or indiscriminate—gender). At least this script is way better than Jerry Lewis’ “Cinderfella,” which was a real turkey. And it includes several plugs for reading, since this is a performance for the county library’s summer reading program. Friday, June 17, 1 p.m., by the way.
Next step: a song. People have requested a reprise performance by the sock-puppet band, and I do like to give people what they want. Need another one-verse, one-chorus “Southern Pigfish” original—with a Cinderella motif, of course. Last one was rock ‘n’ roll; could we do country music this time?
The Deathgrass CD is selling—slowly. Of the sales (11 so far), two have been through two of the Retail Outlets, two online through CDBaby, one by mail, and the rest in person to people I know. There are three Retail Outlets now, and I might sign up a fourth and fifth after the holiday weekend.
Message has gone out to the “joelist” telling them the CD is available, and how to get it. Haven’t scheduled a CD Release Event yet (my previous favored date, June 4, is one when drummer Chris is going to be out of town), and when the Event happens, it’ll be late enough that we’ll probably have to call it something else. The CD is Out There already. Got to recover those production costs.
However, the purpose of the CD Release Event (whatever we call the thing) is still important. It’s an opportunity to promote and sell the CD. (And as usual, I’ve got an ancillary purpose in mind; I want to stream (or podcast, or both) the concert, because I don’t think anybody’s done that before, at least not around here. And that’s an opportunity to multiply the listener base.)
Notice to the “joelist” for the Thirsty Lion performance June 14 is done; so is the Rap. I should do something similar for 45 Degrees North (our concert in Ilwaco is June 18, after all); I do have a poster done, but don’t know if everybody likes the logo yet. If not, re-designing the logo is one more thing I have to do. The advertising needs to get out—we have less than three weeks before the Big Gig in Ilwaco.
Practice with 45 Degrees North Friday night and Sunday; we’re doing it again Tuesday. Jane’s done a setlist, and I edited it. I think it’ll be good. Now to practice. We need quite a bit of practice. We’re not good yet. (I’m not good yet. I need to know for every song exactly what I’m going to do, so the finger movements are automatic. I’m not there yet, for most of our songs.) Standard to hit for, I think, is to have every song come off as perfectly as the group does “Armadillo on the Interstate.” That Heavenly Do-Wop Chorus is just beautiful. (Works really well on “Writer’s Block Blues,” “Pole Dancing for Jesus” and ”No Good Songs About the War,” too. Tried those last two at the Rainbow Lotus Sunday night.)
45 Degrees North has been tapped to perform a 2-hour show at the Rainbow Lotus Sunday, July 24. That’s a week after our (and Deathgrass’) performance at the Wheeler Music Festival, and a week before Garibaldi Days. The summer is definitely filling up.
Joe
Monday, May 23, 2011
ABOUT THAT RAPTURE (&C.)...
Saturday at 6 p.m. was supposed to be The Rapture. I didn’t go; it doesn’t appear that anyone else I know went, either, but I haven’t checked with everybody. I’ll pass on a comment, though: “People disappear every day. And 144,000 people” (that’s the number in the Book of Revelation) “isn’t very many, compared to the earth’s population. How do you know it didn’t happen?” The qualifications for being one of the 144,000 are a little vague, after all.
There was a bright side. One of my songs, “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?”, hit #6 in Traditional Country on the Soundclick charts—apparently it got played a lot. Over 100 new people watched the music video. The Fintons’ cover of the song (they’re in Colorado) got attention, too. And Scott Garriott at KSKQ-FM in Ashland played the song as part of a 3-hour set of Rapture songs. So I’m topical—seven years later. I may not have been Taken, but I got Played.
Draft setlist for the Thirsty Lion performance June 14:
Pole Dancing with Jesus—slow two-step
Selling Off My Body Parts—fast bluegrass
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You—fast bluegrass
Crosses by the Roadside—slow two-step
Naked Space Hamsters in Love—fast bluegrass
Three slow, three fast; we start with something slow, sleazy (because it’s a tavern) and attention-getting (with luck, they’re all attention-getting, however). All work well without lead breaks (though three of them are kinda short). No dead animals—I’ll have to apologize for that—but there are some live (and oversexed) ones, and some dead people. One serious song, but it gives me the excuse to promote the CD, and maybe sell a few copies. And we finish with something raucous, memorable, and also sleazy.
The Songwriters’ Showcase still offers prizes, but I’m not expecting any—I’ve never won anything there yet. I just enjoy performing at the Thirsty Lion—it’s a nice performance space, Eric John Kaiser is a good host, and there’s a generally appreciative (and sometimes large) crowd. It’d be nice to sell enough CDs to pay for the gas—in fact, it’d be nice if some of the people I know in Portland came—but I’m not expecting miracles there, either.
The Coventry Songwriters, the British writers’ group I’ve been working with, have a CD out—and it includes “In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You.” The album is selling for 5 British pounds (which I think is around $10 US), and you can get it from http://www.coventrysongwriters.org. No money in it for me (there might be some for the group); it’s just nice to be able to say there are records selling overseas with my material on them. And breaking into a market overseas is potentially easier than doing it in the U.S., because the music industry overseas isn’t as tightly controlled. Both Jimi Hendrix and Billie Holliday (no, I am not in their league) were hits in Europe long before their existence was even recognized in the United States.
One more Retail Outlet has the CD in stock—the Rainbow Lotus in downtown Nehalem. (I need to get them a poster.) Recording with 45 Degrees North (the name is official) Thursday afternoon, music Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and maybe even Thursday night—on top of everything else. It’s going to be a busy week.
Joe
There was a bright side. One of my songs, “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?”, hit #6 in Traditional Country on the Soundclick charts—apparently it got played a lot. Over 100 new people watched the music video. The Fintons’ cover of the song (they’re in Colorado) got attention, too. And Scott Garriott at KSKQ-FM in Ashland played the song as part of a 3-hour set of Rapture songs. So I’m topical—seven years later. I may not have been Taken, but I got Played.
Draft setlist for the Thirsty Lion performance June 14:
Pole Dancing with Jesus—slow two-step
Selling Off My Body Parts—fast bluegrass
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You—fast bluegrass
Crosses by the Roadside—slow two-step
Naked Space Hamsters in Love—fast bluegrass
Three slow, three fast; we start with something slow, sleazy (because it’s a tavern) and attention-getting (with luck, they’re all attention-getting, however). All work well without lead breaks (though three of them are kinda short). No dead animals—I’ll have to apologize for that—but there are some live (and oversexed) ones, and some dead people. One serious song, but it gives me the excuse to promote the CD, and maybe sell a few copies. And we finish with something raucous, memorable, and also sleazy.
The Songwriters’ Showcase still offers prizes, but I’m not expecting any—I’ve never won anything there yet. I just enjoy performing at the Thirsty Lion—it’s a nice performance space, Eric John Kaiser is a good host, and there’s a generally appreciative (and sometimes large) crowd. It’d be nice to sell enough CDs to pay for the gas—in fact, it’d be nice if some of the people I know in Portland came—but I’m not expecting miracles there, either.
The Coventry Songwriters, the British writers’ group I’ve been working with, have a CD out—and it includes “In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You.” The album is selling for 5 British pounds (which I think is around $10 US), and you can get it from http://www.coventrysongwriters.org. No money in it for me (there might be some for the group); it’s just nice to be able to say there are records selling overseas with my material on them. And breaking into a market overseas is potentially easier than doing it in the U.S., because the music industry overseas isn’t as tightly controlled. Both Jimi Hendrix and Billie Holliday (no, I am not in their league) were hits in Europe long before their existence was even recognized in the United States.
One more Retail Outlet has the CD in stock—the Rainbow Lotus in downtown Nehalem. (I need to get them a poster.) Recording with 45 Degrees North (the name is official) Thursday afternoon, music Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and maybe even Thursday night—on top of everything else. It’s going to be a busy week.
Joe
Friday, May 20, 2011
A MUSIC FESTIVAL IN WHEELER?
A new music festival is being organized for the Coast this summer; if it comes off, it’ll be in Wheeler, in mid-July. Successor to the old Crab Festival—with the price of crab headed for the same stratosphere as gasoline (in this case, because of overseas sales—and one can’t complain, since local boys are getting the money), and the bar that spearheaded the old event out of business, they want to do something different. Both Deathgrass and The Impromptus (who are determined to get a better name—I think they’re leaning towards “45 Degrees North”) are on the agenda, and the bands are intended to be paid.
Seven sales of the Deathgrass CD in the few days since copies arrived. A record company with that kind of sales record would be firing everybody, but on our scale, it’s exciting. Worth noting that every one of the sales (including the one yesterday through one of the Retail Outlets) was to somebody I know personally. Two retail outlets—Office Only in Wheeler and the new music store in Tillamook (which is in the old Economic Development office on Third St., just south of Main, next to the Muddy Waters coffee shop)—have the CD; I’ve got leads on three more (in Garibaldi, Bay City and Nehalem), and am still looking for willing outlets in Pacific City, Rockaway, and Manzanita.
The schedule is starting to fill up; I’ve been invited back to Eric John Kaiser’s Songwriter’s Showcase at the Thirsty Lion June 14 (I do like playing there); the puppet show is in Garibaldi June 17; Ilwaco with 45 Degrees North on June 18, the Wheeler music festival (if it comes off) with both bands in mid-July, Garibaldi Days with Deathgrass end July, and the Manzanita Farmer’s Market Friday, August 12. The Rocktoberfest, too—that’s Sept. 18 & 19 (I’m not sure which day Deathgrass is playing). All that, and it’s only May. I should expect to be fitting a job in with all of that, too.
One more application to finish, and I’ll have four city-manager applications in the pipeline; three are cities that have problems (I do seem to be attracted to those—I don’t know if it’s hubris, or if I think I’m just not employable by anybody normal). A local job to apply for, too (and I’d really like that, and have told them so); a friend of mine has been praying for me to get a local job, and her prayers just might get answered.
With the shortage of time in mind, I need to organize the setlists for the 45 Degrees North concerts; two of them will be 3-hour shows, we are not well-practiced, and it would be good to have the setlists overlap as much as possible. The solution is probably to sit down with each of the performers and record their material, arrange it in order, and give everybody CDs. I can do this with the Tascam; I have work-arounds for the one-song-at-a-time limitation and the can’t-record-instrument-and-voice-at-the-same-time limitation.
StuartLittle, the “portable” computer, adapted to the Tascam right away—no special drivers needed—and that may be true of other PCs, too; if not, Stuart can travel. And the old 6-channel mixer lets me record guitar and voice together. (I do have to experiment and see whether the output from the mixer should be characterized as “voice,” “guitar” or “line.”) Everybody’s got roughly 45 minutes of music they lead; ought to be able to do the recording in a few hours apiece.
Setlists to do for the Deathgrass performances as well, but I expect that will be easier; I have setlists from our past performances at Garibaldi Days and the Rocktoberfest, and they may not need a lot of modification.
Joe
Seven sales of the Deathgrass CD in the few days since copies arrived. A record company with that kind of sales record would be firing everybody, but on our scale, it’s exciting. Worth noting that every one of the sales (including the one yesterday through one of the Retail Outlets) was to somebody I know personally. Two retail outlets—Office Only in Wheeler and the new music store in Tillamook (which is in the old Economic Development office on Third St., just south of Main, next to the Muddy Waters coffee shop)—have the CD; I’ve got leads on three more (in Garibaldi, Bay City and Nehalem), and am still looking for willing outlets in Pacific City, Rockaway, and Manzanita.
The schedule is starting to fill up; I’ve been invited back to Eric John Kaiser’s Songwriter’s Showcase at the Thirsty Lion June 14 (I do like playing there); the puppet show is in Garibaldi June 17; Ilwaco with 45 Degrees North on June 18, the Wheeler music festival (if it comes off) with both bands in mid-July, Garibaldi Days with Deathgrass end July, and the Manzanita Farmer’s Market Friday, August 12. The Rocktoberfest, too—that’s Sept. 18 & 19 (I’m not sure which day Deathgrass is playing). All that, and it’s only May. I should expect to be fitting a job in with all of that, too.
One more application to finish, and I’ll have four city-manager applications in the pipeline; three are cities that have problems (I do seem to be attracted to those—I don’t know if it’s hubris, or if I think I’m just not employable by anybody normal). A local job to apply for, too (and I’d really like that, and have told them so); a friend of mine has been praying for me to get a local job, and her prayers just might get answered.
With the shortage of time in mind, I need to organize the setlists for the 45 Degrees North concerts; two of them will be 3-hour shows, we are not well-practiced, and it would be good to have the setlists overlap as much as possible. The solution is probably to sit down with each of the performers and record their material, arrange it in order, and give everybody CDs. I can do this with the Tascam; I have work-arounds for the one-song-at-a-time limitation and the can’t-record-instrument-and-voice-at-the-same-time limitation.
StuartLittle, the “portable” computer, adapted to the Tascam right away—no special drivers needed—and that may be true of other PCs, too; if not, Stuart can travel. And the old 6-channel mixer lets me record guitar and voice together. (I do have to experiment and see whether the output from the mixer should be characterized as “voice,” “guitar” or “line.”) Everybody’s got roughly 45 minutes of music they lead; ought to be able to do the recording in a few hours apiece.
Setlists to do for the Deathgrass performances as well, but I expect that will be easier; I have setlists from our past performances at Garibaldi Days and the Rocktoberfest, and they may not need a lot of modification.
Joe
Sunday, May 15, 2011
FIRST CD SALES (&C.)...
Well, we were supposed to be Internet-less for four days, while the phone company sent a crew from Florida to fix some big, mysterious piece of equipment that failed… It’s back, after less than a day—with no explanation, of course. (I wonder if the repair crew is still en route from Florida.) Life Without Internet did interrupt a couple of typesetting jobs—the SOSA newsletter, which I’m already late on, and one for the square dance club; on the other hand, I did get other work done, and figured out work-arounds for a lot of Internet-dependent stuff.
Income taxes are done for the Bay City Arts Center; doing the taxes has been my job for the past two years. It wouldn’t be so bad if the IRS didn’t keep changing the forms. More paperwork this year; I loved the Paperwork Reduction Notice (part of an inch-thick sheaf of instructions) that said it would take me only 11-1/2 hours to fill out the forms. (It actually took about half that. I’m not sure whether that means I’m good or not.)
CDBaby should have their sales stock of Deathgrass CDs by now, and more CDs have gone out by mail to DJs and the like. Two stations are getting their CDs delivered personally. One CD went to England, to the “WriteLink” outfit that ran the “Can you write like Dylan?” contest we won in 2009; I wanted them to have a copy, so they could see what we’ve done with “No Good Songs About the War,” the song that won first prize in their contest. I have a short list of people to send CDs to, including Bobbie Gallup and “Tampa Stan” Good, who were co-writers on “Dead Things in the Shower” and “Un-Easy Street,” respectively. (They also get checks—small ones, because not many CDs were pressed—for their copyright royalties.)
I have one retail outlet selling the CDs thus far: Office Only in Wheeler has the CDs (and a “They’re Here!” poster). And I sold five, just the first day I started carting some around with me. (Traded five more for a little PA head, too. It needs speakers, though.)
It would be nice to do the CD Release Event on Saturday, June 4; the Bay City Arts Center is having an “Artist of the Month” reception 5-7 p.m., so we’d have a potentially captive audience. That’s about three weeks out, so there’d be time for publicity. Tommy at the radio station says it’s definitely possible to stream the concert—all it takes is WiFi in the building, and the Arts Center has that—and Tommy’s got that evening free, too. (It would be nice if the telephone company’s DSL lines were working for the occasion.) John and Charlie are in; still have to talk to “Doc” and Chris.
I ran into a musician at the Tsunami Grill (a drummer) who asked, “Are you Joe? People keep asking me if I know Joe.” Apparently I have a reputation now (though I’m not sure for what). I decided if anyone was going to ask me to sing, I would, so when they did, I did; they got “Pole Dancing for Jesus” (a consistent hit), “She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself” (co-host Aaron’s favorite), and “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” I don’t get to go there that often, but I think when I do, they’ll remember me. Bar owner got a CD—the bar has a CD player.
No music on Friday night at Garibaldi City Hall next two weeks because the hosts will be out of town; I’ll ask if The Impromptus would like to use that time for practice. Music still at the Library Saturday afternoons. I’ll miss the jam session at the Rainbow Lotus this week, I think (release party for the DVDs of the play I was in); I’d like the Lotus to be the Deathgrass Retail Outlet in Nehalem, if they’re willing, but I’ll have to go see them in person.
Joe
Income taxes are done for the Bay City Arts Center; doing the taxes has been my job for the past two years. It wouldn’t be so bad if the IRS didn’t keep changing the forms. More paperwork this year; I loved the Paperwork Reduction Notice (part of an inch-thick sheaf of instructions) that said it would take me only 11-1/2 hours to fill out the forms. (It actually took about half that. I’m not sure whether that means I’m good or not.)
CDBaby should have their sales stock of Deathgrass CDs by now, and more CDs have gone out by mail to DJs and the like. Two stations are getting their CDs delivered personally. One CD went to England, to the “WriteLink” outfit that ran the “Can you write like Dylan?” contest we won in 2009; I wanted them to have a copy, so they could see what we’ve done with “No Good Songs About the War,” the song that won first prize in their contest. I have a short list of people to send CDs to, including Bobbie Gallup and “Tampa Stan” Good, who were co-writers on “Dead Things in the Shower” and “Un-Easy Street,” respectively. (They also get checks—small ones, because not many CDs were pressed—for their copyright royalties.)
I have one retail outlet selling the CDs thus far: Office Only in Wheeler has the CDs (and a “They’re Here!” poster). And I sold five, just the first day I started carting some around with me. (Traded five more for a little PA head, too. It needs speakers, though.)
It would be nice to do the CD Release Event on Saturday, June 4; the Bay City Arts Center is having an “Artist of the Month” reception 5-7 p.m., so we’d have a potentially captive audience. That’s about three weeks out, so there’d be time for publicity. Tommy at the radio station says it’s definitely possible to stream the concert—all it takes is WiFi in the building, and the Arts Center has that—and Tommy’s got that evening free, too. (It would be nice if the telephone company’s DSL lines were working for the occasion.) John and Charlie are in; still have to talk to “Doc” and Chris.
I ran into a musician at the Tsunami Grill (a drummer) who asked, “Are you Joe? People keep asking me if I know Joe.” Apparently I have a reputation now (though I’m not sure for what). I decided if anyone was going to ask me to sing, I would, so when they did, I did; they got “Pole Dancing for Jesus” (a consistent hit), “She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself” (co-host Aaron’s favorite), and “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” I don’t get to go there that often, but I think when I do, they’ll remember me. Bar owner got a CD—the bar has a CD player.
No music on Friday night at Garibaldi City Hall next two weeks because the hosts will be out of town; I’ll ask if The Impromptus would like to use that time for practice. Music still at the Library Saturday afternoons. I’ll miss the jam session at the Rainbow Lotus this week, I think (release party for the DVDs of the play I was in); I’d like the Lotus to be the Deathgrass Retail Outlet in Nehalem, if they’re willing, but I’ll have to go see them in person.
Joe
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
THE DEATHGRASS CDS ARE HERE!
The Deathgrass CDs are here! Opened one up and listened, and yes, DiskFaktory really did record it, and they did their usual very good job. We got a salable item, here. Next step (well, a few steps from now)—sell this puppy. Got to make back production costs.
Today, copies go out to some radio station DJs that have expressed interest in listening to it (and maybe playing it on the air), and a music publisher and a record distributor I’m in touch with who have also deigned to listen. I’m sending off as well the “sales stock” to CDBaby—I signed up yesterday for their online sales. They’ll get a 40% cut ($4 out of $10), but they’ll take care of the shipping—and it may be an easier way for folks out of town to buy it, especially if they’re using a credit card. If they order it from me direct, they’ll have to send checks, and I will tack on $2 for shipping and handling (which won’t completely cover it, but it’ll help).
Next step: scheduling and organizing the CD Release Event. I want to have it at the Arts Center, but will have to check dates and also make sure the band is available. I have some retail outlets in the area to talk to, too, about carrying the CD. I’d like to have an outlet in every little town in Tillamook County; we are, after all, The Local Band. It’d be nice to tell the venue owners having our CD in stock will bring customers in the door, but I don’t know that for sure. I can give them a fancy poster to hang in the window, though. If they act like it’s special that they have the Deathgrass CD, maybe others will think so, too.
I got to be in a reader’s theater at the alternative school in Tillamook (since it’s reader’s theater, no rehearsal, but I did get advance copies of the scripts). “We need an old guy,” I was told. “Would you be the old guy?” I was an “actor” in one play, narrator in two others; plays were written by the kids. What the drama teacher does is bring in “professional” actors from the community to read the plays, from TAPA and the Arts Center (and I’m in both). Edgy stuff (and very well-written): the plays dealt with child and spousal abuse, child abandonment, prostitution to make ends meet, gangs, and drugs. My favorite: two sisters who make a pact, one to give up heroin, the other to give up guns—so they plan their next robbery using grenades… One presumes a lot of the subject matter was drawn from real life—and if so, these kids have had quite a life.
Got word that Deathgrass is on the agenda for Garibaldi Days—Saturday, July 30, 3 to 4 p.m. That’s Gig #2 for Concert Season (we’re also on for the Rocktoberfest in September). Not too early to get the word out—I want to pack the place. (I’ve been asked if we’ll have T-shirts. I suppose we could. I have the ability to make them.)
Downloaded to the Arts Center’s Mac the open mike video from the older of the Arts Center’s two cameras. I haven’t touched the new camera yet—the older camera was doing “static” work (the new camera was doing zooms, and closeups, and the like), but the video and audio of The Impromptus’ set are pretty good. Candice’s rendition of Lange & Twain’s “Still the One” and Kathryn’s performance of her own “Desperately Sinking Into the Sea” both came out nice. On the two I did, my guitar is too loud (and it’s way too loud on “Pole Dancing for Jesus”), but I’d be tempted to keep “Armadillo on the Interstate” just for the “heavenly chorus” of Supremes-style doo-wop during the “tragic part.” And of course, the thunderous applause. (People do keep telling me how good we sounded.)
Joe
Today, copies go out to some radio station DJs that have expressed interest in listening to it (and maybe playing it on the air), and a music publisher and a record distributor I’m in touch with who have also deigned to listen. I’m sending off as well the “sales stock” to CDBaby—I signed up yesterday for their online sales. They’ll get a 40% cut ($4 out of $10), but they’ll take care of the shipping—and it may be an easier way for folks out of town to buy it, especially if they’re using a credit card. If they order it from me direct, they’ll have to send checks, and I will tack on $2 for shipping and handling (which won’t completely cover it, but it’ll help).
Next step: scheduling and organizing the CD Release Event. I want to have it at the Arts Center, but will have to check dates and also make sure the band is available. I have some retail outlets in the area to talk to, too, about carrying the CD. I’d like to have an outlet in every little town in Tillamook County; we are, after all, The Local Band. It’d be nice to tell the venue owners having our CD in stock will bring customers in the door, but I don’t know that for sure. I can give them a fancy poster to hang in the window, though. If they act like it’s special that they have the Deathgrass CD, maybe others will think so, too.
I got to be in a reader’s theater at the alternative school in Tillamook (since it’s reader’s theater, no rehearsal, but I did get advance copies of the scripts). “We need an old guy,” I was told. “Would you be the old guy?” I was an “actor” in one play, narrator in two others; plays were written by the kids. What the drama teacher does is bring in “professional” actors from the community to read the plays, from TAPA and the Arts Center (and I’m in both). Edgy stuff (and very well-written): the plays dealt with child and spousal abuse, child abandonment, prostitution to make ends meet, gangs, and drugs. My favorite: two sisters who make a pact, one to give up heroin, the other to give up guns—so they plan their next robbery using grenades… One presumes a lot of the subject matter was drawn from real life—and if so, these kids have had quite a life.
Got word that Deathgrass is on the agenda for Garibaldi Days—Saturday, July 30, 3 to 4 p.m. That’s Gig #2 for Concert Season (we’re also on for the Rocktoberfest in September). Not too early to get the word out—I want to pack the place. (I’ve been asked if we’ll have T-shirts. I suppose we could. I have the ability to make them.)
Downloaded to the Arts Center’s Mac the open mike video from the older of the Arts Center’s two cameras. I haven’t touched the new camera yet—the older camera was doing “static” work (the new camera was doing zooms, and closeups, and the like), but the video and audio of The Impromptus’ set are pretty good. Candice’s rendition of Lange & Twain’s “Still the One” and Kathryn’s performance of her own “Desperately Sinking Into the Sea” both came out nice. On the two I did, my guitar is too loud (and it’s way too loud on “Pole Dancing for Jesus”), but I’d be tempted to keep “Armadillo on the Interstate” just for the “heavenly chorus” of Supremes-style doo-wop during the “tragic part.” And of course, the thunderous applause. (People do keep telling me how good we sounded.)
Joe
Sunday, May 8, 2011
THE IMPROMPTUS' DEBUT...
Debut performance for The Impromptus last night at the Bay City Arts Center, and it was good. They were good. I got numerous comments later saying how good we sounded. We did:
Pole Dancing for Jesus (me)
Still the One (a Mutt Lange/Shania Twain song, by Candice)
Desperately Sinking Into the Sea (Kathryn)
Armadillo on the Interstate (me)
--and two more songs later on, because there weren’t many musicians left for the open mike: Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” (because we know it, and we could make sound engineer Jim Nelson sing it, and Candice could harmonize), and “Dead Things in the Shower” (which we’d also practiced). With luck, there will be both video and audio of the performance; Jim recorded it, and Charlie videotaped it, and I believe I can use my editing skills to extract out the pieces (assuming the “base” recordings came out good) as separate songs. That will give us the all-important marketing tools a band needs for soliciting gigs—we can answer the questions “What does it sound like?” and “What’s it like when these people are performing?”
And of course, one can post the videos on YouTube, and the audio recordings on an OMD like Soundclick or ReverbNation, and hope they “go viral.” They probably won’t—but the free downloads are a good, costless (the way we’re doing it) and relatively effortless way to generate fans (and maybe some performance-goers) in places one hadn’t expected.
One consequence of the performance is the two bandfolks who weren’t used to performing in public are now energized and anxious to do more of it. (I had hoped that would happen.) We’ve got another paying gig, in Ilwaco June 18 (Candice arranged it), and I think everybody’s in, and we’ll get to do a “preview” performance at the same venue (an old theater) on June 12, a week before.
It is important to jump on this stuff, I think. I have seen some folks telling friends about the Arts Center performance—we have a bit of a “buzz” going, in other words. So we quickly get the performance videos out, and the recording of the performance posted online and turned into a quick EP. I want somebody to take a photo of all of us—maybe we can do that at practice tonight—that I can turn into posters. One advantage independents have in the music business is we can move faster than the Big Boys. It’s an offset—maybe the only one—to the “Star-Maker Machinery” the Big Boys have and we don’t. But that immediacy has to be used to be effective.
“Pole Dancing for Jesus” has now been done in taverns, libraries, a tea shop and a comedy club, among other things, it’s been one of my “debut” songs for audiences that have never heard me before, and now it’s actually been performed by a band. It has been a hit each time. That’s a signal that it’s album material. Does that mean The Impromptus should be thinking about an album? Not yet; perform first, I think, and get a reputation. Or more of one. Besides, whatever I do has got to be done with no money.
Played guitar at The Dutchman (Tillamook) on Saturday (library didn’t have music) and the Tsunami (Wheeler) Thursday night, and in both cases, I think people liked what I did. Becoming a better guitarist is another item for the Worklist (and playing with The Impromptus is an opportunity to play lead), and the more practice I can get, the better. Years ago, I played some with an ad-hoc band that did a lot of Beatles covers, and they wanted me to be their John Lennon—and I decided he was a pretty good role model: competent rhythm guitarist who could sometimes play lead, and who could write real good.
The Deathgrass CDs should arrive this coming week. Tempting to say “I can’t wait.” But I obviously will. Lots of work to do with them once they get here.
Joe
Pole Dancing for Jesus (me)
Still the One (a Mutt Lange/Shania Twain song, by Candice)
Desperately Sinking Into the Sea (Kathryn)
Armadillo on the Interstate (me)
--and two more songs later on, because there weren’t many musicians left for the open mike: Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” (because we know it, and we could make sound engineer Jim Nelson sing it, and Candice could harmonize), and “Dead Things in the Shower” (which we’d also practiced). With luck, there will be both video and audio of the performance; Jim recorded it, and Charlie videotaped it, and I believe I can use my editing skills to extract out the pieces (assuming the “base” recordings came out good) as separate songs. That will give us the all-important marketing tools a band needs for soliciting gigs—we can answer the questions “What does it sound like?” and “What’s it like when these people are performing?”
And of course, one can post the videos on YouTube, and the audio recordings on an OMD like Soundclick or ReverbNation, and hope they “go viral.” They probably won’t—but the free downloads are a good, costless (the way we’re doing it) and relatively effortless way to generate fans (and maybe some performance-goers) in places one hadn’t expected.
One consequence of the performance is the two bandfolks who weren’t used to performing in public are now energized and anxious to do more of it. (I had hoped that would happen.) We’ve got another paying gig, in Ilwaco June 18 (Candice arranged it), and I think everybody’s in, and we’ll get to do a “preview” performance at the same venue (an old theater) on June 12, a week before.
It is important to jump on this stuff, I think. I have seen some folks telling friends about the Arts Center performance—we have a bit of a “buzz” going, in other words. So we quickly get the performance videos out, and the recording of the performance posted online and turned into a quick EP. I want somebody to take a photo of all of us—maybe we can do that at practice tonight—that I can turn into posters. One advantage independents have in the music business is we can move faster than the Big Boys. It’s an offset—maybe the only one—to the “Star-Maker Machinery” the Big Boys have and we don’t. But that immediacy has to be used to be effective.
“Pole Dancing for Jesus” has now been done in taverns, libraries, a tea shop and a comedy club, among other things, it’s been one of my “debut” songs for audiences that have never heard me before, and now it’s actually been performed by a band. It has been a hit each time. That’s a signal that it’s album material. Does that mean The Impromptus should be thinking about an album? Not yet; perform first, I think, and get a reputation. Or more of one. Besides, whatever I do has got to be done with no money.
Played guitar at The Dutchman (Tillamook) on Saturday (library didn’t have music) and the Tsunami (Wheeler) Thursday night, and in both cases, I think people liked what I did. Becoming a better guitarist is another item for the Worklist (and playing with The Impromptus is an opportunity to play lead), and the more practice I can get, the better. Years ago, I played some with an ad-hoc band that did a lot of Beatles covers, and they wanted me to be their John Lennon—and I decided he was a pretty good role model: competent rhythm guitarist who could sometimes play lead, and who could write real good.
The Deathgrass CDs should arrive this coming week. Tempting to say “I can’t wait.” But I obviously will. Lots of work to do with them once they get here.
Joe
Monday, May 2, 2011
UPDATES...
On the radio Friday for the Bay City Arts Center… A number of people apparently heard the broadcast; response I got back was “Wow—you sure have a lot of stuff going on there.” Yes, there is. One additional event I’d like to have happening there in May is the Deathgrass CD Release Event—we should have the CDs from DiskFaktory by mid-month (and hopefully they did everything right). Both radio stations got advance copies of the CD last week, and hopefully will play them.
It would be fun to do the CD Release Event a little differently (I like pushing the envelope until the envelope pushes back), and invite a bunch of musicians to bring their instruments down and jam with the band. The Arts Center’s auditorium can hold almost 100 people, and the performance space can accommodate a fair number of musicians; the soundboard has 15 inputs, as I recall, and if some people brought their own amps, there’d be room for even more. I do seem to know rather a lot of musicians in the area. And they are familiar with a lot of my stuff, too (since if I have to sing something, it will almost always be my stuff).
Funny, then, that one of the partners in the new little guitar shop in Tillamook (which opened right after the bigger one closed its doors) was complaining there didn’t seem to be any musicians in Tillamook. (I’d heard the same complaint from a blues harp player in Tillamook—who at least now knows the guitar shop guy.) The musicians are out there, and they’re slowly but surely finding each other. A key is having places to play informally, and there’s a growing number of those: I got to play four times this week, and will do so three times this coming week, and two of the places will even be different from the week before. And I don’t doubt that when I show up, somebody’s going to know who I am and what I can do.
(Speaking of which… I noticed four new people in the audience at the library on Saturday who had been at Garibaldi City Hall the night before. And they seemed to be watching me. I don’t know if they were, really—but they did seem excited when I mentioned the album coming out. Fans? Really?)
The next step—an important one—is getting those musicians paid. We get the musicians out of hiding, and give them places to play, and (important) get the venues accustomed to live music bringing customers in the door, and then we can assemble little combos of those musicians that are able to play other nights, and other places, for pay. Because I can do that, I assume others can, too.
Music this week at the Tsunami in Wheeler (Thursday), Garibaldi City Hall (Friday), and a tavern next to the music store in Tillamook (Saturday). Saturday night is the open mike at the Arts Center, and The Impromptus will make an appearance (minus Wayne, our bass player), doing one by Candice (“Still The One”) and three of mine (“Dead Things in the Shower,” “Armadillo on the Interstate” and “Pole Dcancing for Jesus”).
I try to enter a couple of song contests every year; one for this year is the Goodnight Kiss Music contest, coming up in August (I know this, because I wrote their initial press release). First prize (like I’m really going to win first prize) is a music video, and I’ve told Janet the publisher if I win I want to have a video done of a Southern Pigfish song. It’d be a challenge for the videographer, since the band doesn’t exist…
Joe
It would be fun to do the CD Release Event a little differently (I like pushing the envelope until the envelope pushes back), and invite a bunch of musicians to bring their instruments down and jam with the band. The Arts Center’s auditorium can hold almost 100 people, and the performance space can accommodate a fair number of musicians; the soundboard has 15 inputs, as I recall, and if some people brought their own amps, there’d be room for even more. I do seem to know rather a lot of musicians in the area. And they are familiar with a lot of my stuff, too (since if I have to sing something, it will almost always be my stuff).
Funny, then, that one of the partners in the new little guitar shop in Tillamook (which opened right after the bigger one closed its doors) was complaining there didn’t seem to be any musicians in Tillamook. (I’d heard the same complaint from a blues harp player in Tillamook—who at least now knows the guitar shop guy.) The musicians are out there, and they’re slowly but surely finding each other. A key is having places to play informally, and there’s a growing number of those: I got to play four times this week, and will do so three times this coming week, and two of the places will even be different from the week before. And I don’t doubt that when I show up, somebody’s going to know who I am and what I can do.
(Speaking of which… I noticed four new people in the audience at the library on Saturday who had been at Garibaldi City Hall the night before. And they seemed to be watching me. I don’t know if they were, really—but they did seem excited when I mentioned the album coming out. Fans? Really?)
The next step—an important one—is getting those musicians paid. We get the musicians out of hiding, and give them places to play, and (important) get the venues accustomed to live music bringing customers in the door, and then we can assemble little combos of those musicians that are able to play other nights, and other places, for pay. Because I can do that, I assume others can, too.
Music this week at the Tsunami in Wheeler (Thursday), Garibaldi City Hall (Friday), and a tavern next to the music store in Tillamook (Saturday). Saturday night is the open mike at the Arts Center, and The Impromptus will make an appearance (minus Wayne, our bass player), doing one by Candice (“Still The One”) and three of mine (“Dead Things in the Shower,” “Armadillo on the Interstate” and “Pole Dcancing for Jesus”).
I try to enter a couple of song contests every year; one for this year is the Goodnight Kiss Music contest, coming up in August (I know this, because I wrote their initial press release). First prize (like I’m really going to win first prize) is a music video, and I’ve told Janet the publisher if I win I want to have a video done of a Southern Pigfish song. It’d be a challenge for the videographer, since the band doesn’t exist…
Joe
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