The City Veins

Aaron wrote on our MySpace last week about the pleasures of small victories. Today was a day filled with them for me personally. As I’ve written on this here blog about the necessary evils of marketing and MySpace (and the general idiosyncrasies of being in a band), it’s important to enjoy it when such efforts pay off. Even in small doses.

First, out of the blue On Tap gave us a great review (see it here), including us as one of the four bands that should be “on your radar, calendar, and iPod” along with DC-scene heavyweights The Sketches and Bellman Barker. We sent On Tap a press kit a little while back but this was a nice unexpected surprise.

Second, I sent out what amounted to MySpace spam e-mails to random people in a “I support DC/Baltimore local music” type group yesterday. I do these things with little to no expectations, but I figure if even one new person likes us than it’s worth the ten minutes or so at a time it takes me to send them out. But basically I fully expect everyone to ignore these. However, today someone took the time to write us back, say that she liked the stuff, and even offer us a gig. Ah, MySpace, you surprise me sometimes.

Finally, there’s the case of life sometimes just working out. We sent a press kit to someone in Baltimore who runs a radio show at Loyola College. It gets to the radio station, no one knows what to do with it (the station apparently doesn’t run in the summer), and someone there gives it to their friend Beth, our new favorite Baltimore local music guru. Beth contacts us and very kindly offers to give our kit to several reputable places around B-more. Beth rules.

It can’t be said enough that it’s days like this that make this crazy venture worthwhile.

As I think I’ve written about before, as part of a band only about 2-5% of your time is spent on actually playing/rehearsing music. The other 95-98% is “business time.” And not business time in the fun way described in the Flight of the Conchords song (though I’ve had that song stuck in my head for the last week). No, I mean the really fun business stuff such as designing web banner graphics then re-sizing them 17 times so that they fit the formats needed by various websites. And making daily trips to the post office to mail CDs to the people who sign up for them (side note: do that now if you have not, the link is on the right of this page). And racking your brain day and night to figure out how to increase your MySpace friends by 100.

The almost universal problem with being in a band is this: we join bands because we love to make and play music, and everyone thinks that their band has music that would/should be enjoyed by the masses. There is a delusional musician fantasy that tells all of us that “if just the right person hears our stuff, we’ll be huge”. In other words, we tend to think that if we take care of the music, the rest will magically work itself out.

That’s only partly true, and (sadly) increasingly less true in this day and age. There’s very few thriving live music scenes left anymore. I was reading about the 60s when The Doors were playing the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in LA. Back then, people used to just hang out there on a regular basis to see what new bands were any good. If you had good music, you built a buzz, like the Doors did.

Maybe it’s like that in some markets still, but more and more you have to bring your own crowd. People don’t take chances on going to music bars to hear a band they’ve never heard of; original music is seen as an annoyance to most bar-goers. Cover bands rake in cash because drunk people like to sing along to stuff they know; but original music is relegated to places where people go specifically to see a particular band. Thus, your music alone doesn’t cut it anymore; you need to bring a crowd; you need to build a following.

That’s the point we’re at. We have this product called “The City Veins,” and we think it’s a great product. The people who’ve tried our product have raved about it. But we need more people to want our product. We’ve got a ton of supply of “The City Veins,” but to be successful we need to build a demand. We’ve built a slight demand and some buzz in the past 3-4 months, but we want more.

So, that’s the mode I’m in - marketing. We’re about to launch a Web advertising campaign and MySpace blitz to drum up some more interest in us. I check out our “buzz indicators” like MySpace visits, number of CDs ordered on a given day, and number of hits to our blog several times a day, sitting on pins and needles as I nervously look to see how popular we are that day.

I never thought when I took up drums at 8 years old that I’d some day be describing my music in terms of basic economics, but in a sick way I’m glad I do. I’ve seen too many incredibly talented bands never make it anywhere because they don’t pay attention to these kinds of things. Likewise, I know of a lot of horrible bands that do very well thanks to smart marketing sense.

One day I want us to achieve so much success that we can just be musicians and make the art that makes us happy. But to get there, we’ve got to go through the “business time.”

One of the particularly defineable features of my drumming is its volume. I am told, and have always been told, about its general loudness. It’s not something I particularly strive for; I just hit the drums hard. I pay attention to and regularly practice proper technique and have for the better part of 17 years now. So I’m not sloppy, but I am loud, and so are some of the world’s greatest rock drummers, the John Bonhams, the Dave Grohls, the Danny Careys. (Side note: I also probably doesn’t help that I use fairly large drums and cymbals but fuck it - I love the presence they bring to the table).

Anyway, I bring this up because in a little less than 2 weeks we’re playing the Galaxy Hut in Arlington. A very cool venue noted for years of great live music, but which might be most accurately referred to as “intimate.” And by intimate, of course, I mean about the size of a large living room. Not exactly the kind of place well suited to our particular style of music and especially not to my style of drumming.

However, one of the (few) very fun things about being in a band is putting your creativity to use and we’re doing so with this gig. While Adam was off shitting in the woods somewhere (literally; he’s on some nature trip) Charles, Aaron and I had an awesome practice last night in which we began re-imagining some of our songs, stripping them down so to speak and making them something more suitable for the Galaxy Hut. This doesn’t mean going unplugged or anything, but it does mean finding new grooves, melodies, harmonies, and instrumental parts for existing songs that are more suited to an intimate atmosphere. I’m really excited about where this stuff is heading and I can’t wait to see the reaction of some people who’ve seen us in the past. It’s a difficult but hopefully successful thing we’re working on. The Galaxy Hut show either has the potential to be a very special gig or to embarrass us with our misfired attempts at doing something new; either way, it’s something different and when you play the same 10 songs the same 10 ways every day, sometimes that’s all you need to refresh your creativity and enthusiasm. (Three months in and I’m starting to understand why rock stars always try to come out with weird new side/solo projects, and it’s to keep their own sanity).

The only negative to doing something like this is that we’re doing it before we really have any sort of sizable fan base that knows our songs well and would most appreciate the new stylings. However, dear reader, (HINT HINT) you could always click that banner to the right, order a free CD, get to know at least those four songs, and then come see us try something new with them on August 5th.

Some footage of one of our recent concerts was recently uploaded to YouTube. The picture and sound quality leave something to be desired; but I have seen worse. This is our first YouTube clip, so I thought I would present it in this post. So Ladies and Gentlemen… Toe the Line!… really fast.

While this video might not seem like much to you, it is always valuable from a performer standpoint to see and hear yourself. For example, Spencer can’t watch this clip because he hates how fast he started the song. It just drives him nuts. As a result, we have been focusing on our tempos in recent practices.

The title of this particular blog will likely send Charles running to the bathroom in tears. Get out of the stall, wiener, and go get your boss some coffee: it’s just that I forgot how to blog on our cityveins page again. For a band that wants to operate at 2.0, a couple of us are going to have to be at about 3.5 because I’m still a 1.0 (I understand that none of that makes any sense). I love getting involved in all of this on-line band stuff, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t understand how to do any of it.
So the band has now moved beyond its summer slump, its bickering about song-writing and general creativity, and (I believe) is now ready to make some real strides. We’re working on new songs without completely blowing up at each other, I at least think I understand where Spencer is coming from (This was a problem for a while, but having talked a lot recently I think we’re on the same page), and people are actually ordering our free CD! I know, ordering something that’s free doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if it was me I wouldn’t take the time to fill in my address (for someone else’s music I mean).

I know I’ve been yapping about this for a week or so, but I think having the band Lights Resolve around helped me a lot. When Charles and I were in Roosevelt Roosevelt, we were all great friends who really loved playing music together. These guys are the same way. Having them reminded me of what it was like sleeping on couches, being away from home for several days at a time (which does get tiring), and trying to haul your big van around small streets in a city. It’s an odd process to promote in a city you’re nopt from: you have to be extremely outgoing, just go to a well-populated area and talk to everyone. It hardly ever works, but if you don’t do it you’ll never gain any ground in a new market.

Those guys are hard-working for sure, but what I loved about them the most is the effort they put in to get along with each other. I’m sure it comes fairly easy, but even among friends you can find things to fight about in a band setting. But their attitude is almost completely devoid of that dynamic. It’s like in “Say Anything” where Lloyd Dobler turns to his sister and says “Get in a good mood. How hard is it to just decide to be in a good mood?” Well, the fact of the matter is that these guys have just decided to be in a good mood all the time, with each other and with other people. It may be that they know there is utility in being openly happy when you’re trying to attract new fans, so they just try to do it all the time. They have a great division of labor, primarily that they all just work to get things done.

Frankly, it made me want to quite my job, live in my parents basement and do everything I can to be a successful band. Right now, while Spencer and Charles are working (and I go back to work in two weeks) we are falling behind Lights Resolve and every other band that makes being a band their 40+ hour a week job. I don’t know if that’s necessary in order to succeed, but it makes you feel like you’re falling behind, regardless.