Day 112 - July 1st 2009
As an almost balancing out of the start of my week I knew today would be a long one. I just didn’t knw exactly how long it would be.
I spent my morning in heavy discussions with various people over music business related issues. Mainly from bands wondering how to get on shows. I’ve also been fielding a lot of questions from fans who bring bands to my attention. When asked by a fan about anything related to the HYPE! My answer is always the same. “I only talk business with talent and/or their official representative.” This keeps me from engaging in arguments with people that don’t really have a clue about how I operate.
With July and August locked up at Lickety for the most part I can turn my attention to getting Philly Rising back on it’s feet, the downstairs show at World Café Live I’m playing, getting with these folks in Minneapolis about promoting the show, and possibly trying to secure some other stuff in that area to really make that trip worth something. With all the booking and the hosting and the Mcing I can’t loose sight of the fact that I’m an artist first. My primary focus is making and performing music.
Around 4:30 the mad scramble would start to accomplish all tasks set before me. First I had to help Teremeh and Josh with their move from Center City to Germantown. I hadn’t been there all but got there in time to lift some heavy stuff and put it in the truck. I was sweating like a pig (as I often do) so it was a good thing I had a change of clothes in my back pack can’t show up to Cream stinking to high heaven.
Tonight would be one of the rare occasions that I’m double booked I had to hit the Cream Show (which had been moved to today from yesterday) first. Cream is the monthly competition for our open mic, where all of our weekly standout performers for a particular month play a show to determine who the standout performer for the month is. Tonight we had the monthly competitions for April and May.
April saw Average Soul (Folk/Smooth Jazz Group) Jubel Jenkins (Experimental folk band with seven string players and a guy playing the typewriter) and Jason Min (The lead singer in Miss Vintage doing a solo thing with loop pedals and such. At the end of the night Jason emerged the standout performer for April, I thought he had a real mastery of his effects and used them to properly service his songs. There’s gotta be a real rush being able to produce lush layered guitar and vocal sounds by yourself. Bands are awesome but to be able to do that alone and not have it be in the way of your music is definitely an awesome thing.
When April was over we moved to the May competition which involved Tayon Malik (Funk/Hip-Hop), 2mas (A tall skinny white guy that works as an English Teacher during the day), Michael West (A solid singer/songwriter) and City Line (Featuring Mike formerly of Just Six Spaces a guy that I started out with, the rare good Philly Pop/Rock group) This was a close one but 2mas eeked out a victory. I was happy for him he’s been a regular at the open mic, borught a whole bunch of people to see him, and delivered a great performance. For me it’s the juxtaposition of him being so dope and yet so very, very, white. As we were deliberating I got some calls from some of the Bands at Lickety Split (where I also book and host on Wed Nights) about who goes on when. I put out the fire and got goin over there.
As I was walking towards the train I thought about all my experiences over the past few months working and touring with all these bands and artists who are successful in their own right the common thread seems to be that none of them are currently signed to a major record label. It’s a really exciting time to be a musician, digital media and social networking sites have allowed anyone to put their music out there and find a market for it. The major labels seem to have their head in the sand and for the most part ignoring an entire facet of the music buying public, that may be why their losing money. They are still the best at marketing and promoting recorded music but that may change in the next five years as old guys who don‘t know anything hire young guys who don‘t know anything.
I arrived at Lickety Split around 11:30. The place was packed. I had added old HYPE! Regulars Uncle Waldo to the show last minute. They were one of the first bands I booked with any kind of regularity. A bratty garage band with the attitude of the Sex Pistols and a draw like U2. I swear every time they played a show for me there were a million people there. I’ve known two of them since they were 14, it’s been kinda weird watching them become beautiful, drunken young women. Good band, good people, I seem to be finding that combination at an alarming rate these days. Dani Mari and the staff at Lickety Split were pleased for the second week in a row.
After the show was over I went home and threw on Hancock. I didn’t plan on sleeping cause I had a plane to catch at 7 AM
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