The Unlikely Prince of Indie

Posted on 20. May, 2009 by refe.

1

Greg Kot, in his new book Ripped, focuses on the story of an unlikely but high profile independent artist – Prince. While the diminutive 80’s pop star and his music may not seem relevant to many of you, it turns out he is actually an interesting example of an artist bucking the traditional system [...]

Continue Reading

Danger Mouse Releases ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ As Blank CD-R

Posted on 16. May, 2009 by refe.

1

Danger Mouse – real name Brian Burton – was a relative unknown until he produced the Grey Album, which took the vocal tracks of Jay-Z’s a capella Black Album and laid them over beats that he created using samples of the Beatles’ White Album. The Grey Album couldn’t be sold commercially, but quickly spread across the [...]

Continue Reading

Can’t Live With the Major Labels, Can’t Seem to Get Around Them

Posted on 13. May, 2009 by refe.

5

Right now the whole music industry is caught in a Catch-22. The major record labels are bleeding money and lack the capital to invest in real talent. Real talent is usually risky, and right now the majors can’t absorb any risk. Yet, the ones who would rise up and bring the creative deconstruction have their [...]

Continue Reading

Mates of State’s Diaper Run

Posted on 28. Apr, 2009 by refe.

1

I have been following the husband and wife pair Mates Of State since I first saw them at the (now defunct) Fireside Bowl in Chicago. They were opening up for Appleseed Cast. It was a strange pairing - both bands hail from Lawrence, KS but that’s about where the similarities end. So when the first riff growled out of [...]

Continue Reading

5 Steps to Building an Online Following and Turning it into Gigs

Posted on 16. Apr, 2009 by refe.

0

I’ve been talking a lot lately about a band’s first gig. The first gig can be one of the most difficult milestones in a band’s career if they don’t already know a few of the right people. It’s a vicious cycle: you have no following because venues won’t book you, venues won’t book you because [...]

Continue Reading

Bands Finding that the New Music Business is Not What They Signed Up For

Posted on 15. Apr, 2009 by refe.

1

There are huge opportunities out there for independent artists to find an audience and build a successful career thanks to free digital distribution, but it isn’t without a catch. Because things have changed so much, many artists are entering the music business without any clear idea what the career they’ve chosen actually looks like. The [...]

Continue Reading

Bands Offer to Pay Fans to Download New Album

Posted on 10. Apr, 2009 by refe.

1

Those who believe that free downloads have devalued music are going to love this: In an effort to stand out from the flood of free music pouring onto the Internet these days, indie band Officer Roseland recently offered to pay fans $1 to download their new album Stimulus Package. At MyStimulusPackage.org, fans can either take [...]

Continue Reading

Latest Rock ‘Supergroup’ Boasts Unlikely Lineup

Posted on 10. Apr, 2009 by refe.

0

New band Tinted Windows I first found heard about this via Windy City Rock, a great Chicago music blog, and I had to mention it here because, frankly, I think it’s pretty amusing. Former members of the Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, Cheap Trick and Hanson (yes, Hanson) have teamed up to form the rock ‘Supergroup’ [...]

Continue Reading

First Gig is all about Who you Know – On MySpace

Posted on 06. Apr, 2009 by refe.

5

I was talking with an artist this weekend about his career, and he told me about some of the trouble he’d been having getting that first gig. Although he had previously been part of a band that played out on a regular basis, it has been a few years and most of his connections have [...]