Chico, California’s The Shimmiesis have been gearing up to release a new EP, “GrowingUp Roanoke: Beloved B-Sides,” a companion to their last album To All Beloved Enemies recording sessions, featuring four of the 15 songs feverishly recorded duringthat withering 100+ degree Northern California summer of 2009.

The Shimmies (L-R):Stephen Galloway, Sean Galloway, Jack Gingerich, Jimmy Galloway. Photo: Caleab Noh.

Comprised of three original songs and one cover (of The Shimmies’best friend-band The Delta Mirror’s“And The Radio Played On”),the tracks on “Growing Up Roanoke”evoke the same thread of emotional chaos and vulnerability that has seen the band compared to The Avett Brothers,Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Jeff Buckley, and Sigur Ros.

The Shimmies sound and style that was established on To All Beloved Enemies was best exemplified in the band’s emotionally haunting song “Judas” and it’s accompanying video directed by Brandon Vedder, helmerof clips by Pearl Jam and Sleater-Kinney.

The Shimmies have a couple of California dates coming up including a couple with The Delta Mirror:

07/01 Sebastopol, CA @ Aubergine’s  w/ Samvega, Little Lost Boys
07/14 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite w/ The Delta Mirror
07/16 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar w/ The Delta Mirror

“GrowingUp Roanoke: Beloved B-Sides” was released yesterday.  It gets the Indie Band Guru seal of approval and should be heard by all.

Visit The Shimmies site to get a taste and find out more info at http://www.theshimmies.com

 
Other acts playing Festival for Humanity include: Amber Rubarth, Ansel Matthews, Bronze Radio Return, Caleb Hawley, CC Coletti, Chrissi Poland, A Clear Blurr, Coolie Ranx, Duwende, The Gallery, James Maddock Band, Kilby and Taylor, Lovebettie, Matt Lowell, Modern Science, Nicola, Open Book Trio, Quimby Mountain Band, Subcommittee, Swampadelica, The Drive, and more!
 
The Festival for Humanity is more than just great music though.  It is a cooperative effort of business, charities and artists both visual and musical to create an eventful holiday weekend that attracts fans to support the work of people dedicated to a greater good. With the partnerships of Woodfired Management and Mountain Creek-Crystal Springs Resort, this event was made possible to support and encourage charities from all over the U.S. to continue spreading their message.
 
Woodfired Management will share 33% of all Festival for Humanity related merchandise directly with the Kristin Brooks Hope Center and has pledged 10% of all Net Ticket Sales to the charities of Humanity Village. These shared revenues should accumulate into the hundreds of thousands as the festival unfolds. There is no cover charge for a charity to set up an information booth at the festival and they are still accepting applications. If you are interested in having your charity at the Festival for Humanity, please go to: http://festivalforhumanity.com/?page_id=61

Here is the lineup:

Indie Band Guru recommends everyone that can get to NJ make it out to this Festival to support not only great music but great causes. 

***Rock out and earn some good karma.  In fact we will be giving two free tickets away for each day of the Festival For Humanity.  Leave a comment here or on our facebook page and enter to win.  Spread the word and win!

If you are an independent artist or band and you have recorded an album and have it for sale, then in essence you are an independent record label. You have had the art work designed, the CD duplicated and packaged and it is out there. Also as an Indie band, you are more than likely doing all the marketing, promotion, and distribution for the CD. By doing all this and as I stated in the opening sentence of this article you are an Independent Record Label.

So, since you have done all this and actually have your own release under your belt, why not consider signing other artists and doing the same for their releases? However, as you might have figured out from your own CD release, you need money for the marketing and promotion end. By signing other artists and releasing their product, you will need far more money so you may want to take this into consideration.

Effectively and professionally setting up the business structure and marketing end of an Indie Label is not easy, but if you gain experience from doing it all with your own release, the idea of multiplying the income by signing and releasing other artists may be an attractive thought. If you have had some proven success with your own CD releases this could attract other artists to your label, not to mention some investment money from a business investor, which to really do it right, you will probably need.

If you are serious and want to consider taking your label to the next level, here are some important things to remember:

• You Will Need to Trademark a Label Name and Set Up the Business Structure
• You Will Need to Explore and Find Good Music Distribution Channels
• You Will Need to Align Your Label With Radio Promotion People
• Your Record Label Should Utilize The Services of a Good Music Publicist
• Have Good people to Do The Music Marketing and Promotion
• You Should Have a Good Music Attorney On Board to Address Legal Issues
• Align Your Record Label With a Good Graphic Artist and CD Manufacturer
• Work With Talented and Well Know Music Producers For Your Artists
• Set Up a Publishing Arm of Your Label for Performing Rights Issues
• Form Licensing Alliances With Other Record Labels and Music Distributors

The items mentioned here of course is just a very brief summary of some of the things you will need to do, just some ideas so to speak. If you are really serious and ready you should consider engaging the help of an experienced music business and record label consultant. One that can assure that your label is properly structured, functional, and can actually succeed.
 
©2009 Ken Cavalier  All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Major Lazer at Pitchfork Fest 2010

We were able to obtain a schedule of the bands announced so far, broken down by day of performance:

Friday, July 15:

– Animal Collective
– James Blake
– Das Racist
– Curren$y

Saturday, July 16:

– Fleet Foxes
– The Dismemberment Plan
– Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
– Woods
– Sun Airway
– Kylesa

Sunday, July 17:

– TV on the Radio
– Cut Copy
– Deerhunter
– Destroyer
– OFWGKTA
– Yuck

Tickets for the festival just went on sale exclusively through Ticketweb.  I am glad to see Ticketmaster and their ridiculous fees will not be involved.  Single-day tickets cost $45, and three-day passes will run you $110. Last year, three-day passes sold out in only five days, so don’t procrastinate, get your tickets now.

These Magnificent Miles: On the Long Road with Red Wanting Blue is a new documentary about Red Wanting Blue, a rock band from Ohio that is known as one of the top independent, yet unknown, bands in the country. The film follows the band as they record and release their eighth album in the hopes of finally getting a record deal — more than a decade after forming.  I always love watching war stories from the road of indie bands trying to make it.  They give everyone motivation and show what true dedication looks like.

  
Directed and produced by internationally known theater producer Ken Davenport, These Magnificent Miles is a powerful and gritty rock documentary about the big dreams of an underdog band. Critics have called Red Wanting Blue “the best underground independent rock band in the United States of America,” “one of the top unsigned bands in the country,” and a band that embodies “a commitment to career that many bands only hallucinate about.” But no matter how many records they sell, how much their fans love them, how many accolades from critics they receive, or how much they accomplish; it never seems to be enough. The film is an honest portrayal of the struggles that musicians go through to compete as the music industry changes, and it sheds a whole new light on Red Wanting Blue’s own metamorphosis from a group of small-town musicians to a well-known band with thousands of fans.
 
These Magnificent Miles: On the Long Road with Red Wanting Blue is available on DVD at www.redwantingbluemovie.com. The film features never-before-seen concert footage, as well as interviews with the band members who have put their heart and soul into making music. This DVD is a must-have for music lovers, documentary enthusiasts, Red Wanting Blue fans, and anyone who has ever rooted for the underdog. It is also a great watch for other indie bands to gain inspiration and see the perils of life on the road. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

As an upcoming band, it’s so difficult to gain any attention or exposure. Yeah, you have your local shows, your local zines, and your local support, but where do you go to broaden your fan base beyond the local scene? Where do you go to gain more national exposure?  MySpace had it’s day in the sun, and even Facebook has brought more exposure to the table for artists within the last year or so. One social networking site we believe that has reigned supreme in reaching out to the fans, other bands, and even record labels is Twitter.

Waking Lions

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now take some time and write up your own description of your music.  Memorize this and be able to recite it word for word whenever someone asks about your music.  Use a similar description on your website as well.  Make people want to take the time out of their day to listen to your music and come see a live show.

Let me here some of your descriptions. Why would I listen to your music?

Let me introduce you to MOG.  MOG is a company conceived and run by true music fans who share one simple goal: to create the perfect destination for music lovers to learn about and discover music. They recently won top honors as the “Best Music Streaming App” at Billboards Mobile Entertainment Live Music Summit beating out some other ‘music streamers’ with more well known names.

Due to this, I gave it a try recently and was blown away.  I had a lot of trouble trying to find a legitimate band that wasn’t available on their servers.  They have everything!  If a band’s music is digitally distributed, it is most likely available on MOG.  They take the best aspects from all the other services out there and combine a music streamer, a download service, and music discovery in one easy to use application.  MOG is commercial free, allows unlimited skipping, and allows the user to pick and scroll through songs to their hearts content.  Another feature that really interested me was how you can choose an artist and then adjust a slider to add in how many additional similar artists you would like in your mix.  It is also extremely easy to use and download music to your smart-phone through their app.

They are offering a 2 week free trial now that I strongly advise you take advantage of.  If you love music as much as we do, I am sure you will fall in love with their service too.  Check it out and let me know what you think, or if you know of any service that comes close to comparing.

Dan: Ok, let’s get started.  Jay you recently finished a stretch of 30 shows in 30 days.  How tired are you?

Jay: Pretty tired, man.  I’m catching up now, it’s definitely getting better in terms of feeling more rested but… I’m pretty happy with it.  It was the most fun as a band I think we’ve ever had in New York, so it was pretty awesome.

Dan: And you’ve never done anything like that before?

Jay: No, not that extensive.  We did this thing last year called pop up shows, where we’d just show up randomly and do a show.  It’s similar to what we did this year but it was a lot less frequent.  We went to Times Square and played, Bryant Park, Washington Square Park, by Astor Place, we performed with a bunch of people in Star Wars gear, with those long plastic things that people in the death star wear. But this one, this was a lot more intense.  Just every single day, doing something crazy, and at least 15 of the shows were full band shows.  The rest were either a couple of us or small groups doing crazy things, top of the Empire state Building was pretty nuts… it was fun.

D: Did you play a different set every time?

J: We would change little things in the set, but it depends.  The full band shows, it was a similar set, but a solo would be different, or we’d throw in a cover… just change different things.  We actually had two fans of ours from Argentina who came to every single show.  It was pretty crazy.  I took them to a jazz show, and we all went out to dinner at the end of the month.  It was just insane! I mean they came to every show, we felt pretty lucky about that.

D: You need a lot of stamina as a fan to pull that off too.

J: Yeah man, it was pretty intense.

D: So what were some of the highlights and lowlights of the tour?  The best shows, what you enjoyed the most, things you struggled with, or anything that just didn’t work out?

J: Well I’d say the two best things were… the Rockwood shows were amazing.  The last show at Rockwood, there were like 120 people there on a Wednesday night at 10:00.  It felt really good to hit the end of the month and know that even after we played for so long people were still coming out.  As an up and coming band it was great to see that if you put the effort in, if you go out there and meet new people and play for new people, people will come and see your band, which we weren’t quite sure about.  This was literally the second to last night when we had that Rockwood show.

Some of the low points… let me think.  I think there was a Sunday show, the last Sunday in September, we had a show earlier in the day on Long Island, and there were six people at the show.  At this point we had to book shows that to a degree we didn’t have to promote, we could just show up and play.  We definitely had one day when we drove all the way out to Long Island and played for pretty much no one, and then came back and did another show that night in the city, so that was pretty crazy.

D: Yeah, that sounds really tough.  You mentioned you had those two fans from Argentina at every show… Did you find that a lot of the shows were attended by old fans, did many other fans come to repeat shows?

J: I’d say… we had a lot of fans at the Rockwood shows, then we did a residency at the Ace hotel, which was really, really awesome.  Just a great vibe, good people, the room was really nice, and we had a lot of fans come out to that.  But I would say the first two shows were more old fans, and then by the last week of shows, we had one in Spike Hill, Brooklyn, where over 100 people came, new people there, and new people at the Ace Hotel show, and then at the last Rockwood show, I had never seen at least 30 people at that show.  And they were singing the words, they knew the songs.  So yeah, it was a mix, but by the end there were definitely some people we picked up along the way.

D: That’s great.  What did you use to promote this tour?

J: We did a few things… we did some pretty hard core online promotions, with the obvious stuff; facebook, myspace, and twitter.  And we had a sponsorship for the month, a Silly Bandz sponsorship.  You know, those bands that you put on your wrist.  So Silly Bandz sponsored our tour, and that was our big promotion for the month, it was basically like “come to a show and you’ll get free silly bands”.  And then I actually did find more help, the last show was sponsored by Budweiser, the show on the 29th at Rockwood, so that brought a lot of people out.  So basically our approach was to tell everyone we knew, and then pushing it on blogs, and we would talk to whoever we could get to talk about it.  We were mentioned in New York Daily Magazine, Pop Matters talked about us.  Then we just pitched the fact that you’d get free Silly Bands and cheap beer when you came to our show.

D: Not a bad selling point.  Tell me a bit about how Julius C came to be.

J: Julius C started… well the name came from my grandfather, his name was Julius Charles Willett, and he died about a year before I was born, and his mother actually died the day I was born.  So my parents named me after him, but people called him Jay.  So as opposed to Julius, they call me Jay.  So I’ve had that name for a while but didn’t really have a band much at all.  And then in college I met the bass player Mike Tuccillo at NYU.  Basically in high school Mike had had a band so… the beginnings of Julius C were really me coming in with a bunch of songs and the band name and meeting up with Mike and a band that he had grown up with since he was in elementary school. Jason, the keyboardist, and Mike had been playing together for over 20 years now.  And pretty soon we started writing our own songs all together… it was a very explosive four or five years.  Within 5 years we toured… had to be at least one 50 day tour, played South by Southwest, played up in Montreal, got some people to sponsor a tour for us to go out to LA, then we drove up to Mammoth California, two tons of snow piled on top of our van, totaled our van, we had to get a new one.  We’ve done a lot of stuff… then we ended up moving into a house together to record one album and that didn’t work.  So we almost gave up, then decided to give it one more shot, moved into a new house in Staten Island, and we wrote the most recent album and came out alive.  It started out as a college band and quickly became something professional and full time.  We got kinda burnt out, almost broke up, then gave it one more shot and it happened.  That’s the Julius C story in a nutshell.

D: So are you guys all full time musicians?

J: Yeah… I mean we all work full time in music. I work privately with people that are interested in writing songs, helping them with songwriting.  Some teenagers, some adults.  The other guys play in other people’s bands, everyone does a little teaching here and there.  Mike does production, he produces bands and artists.  We’re all doing stuff within music, and then we do Julius C as well.

D: Very cool.  From what I’ve heard, your style is very diverse.  You go everywhere from rock, to funk, to pop, and you hit every other genre along the way.  Was there a conscious effort to do this, or did you start with one style and just kind of branch out?

J: It’s really funny, we get asked that a lot actually.  The reason the record sounds the way it does is kind based on the story I was telling about the formation of the band.  As a band we had gone through a lot of different sounds on our own, we had started off I’d say as more of a singer songwriter pop music sound because it was just me bringing in songs and the band arranging them.  Then we started writing together and it became more of a funk sound, then as that developed and we went on the road. We must have played 150 shows in one year as a way more heavy funk band.  And it just got more and more aggressive to the point where it was almost like Led Zeppelin funk.  At that point we were having a lot of fun but we weren’t really satisfied with the music we were writing.  It was a lot of fun to play, but it wasn’t necessarily what we wanted to be putting out to the world.  So by the time we went to write the album we’d been through so much that the approach we took was “look, if anybody is extremely passionate about a song, bring it into the group and we will support you and your song and take them as far as they could go”.  And the majority of the songs were brought in by myself and Mike.  We had both just gone through really intense break ups with girls and had a lot of songs.  And the reason the music sounded the way it did… like the song Party and Dance in Manhattan is a straight up funk pop song.  It has modern lyrics but sorta sounds like early an Michael Jackson, off the wall Indie song.  That’s because that was the vibe I had for the song, and I brought it in, and we took it as far as we could based on what the song needed.  Then a song like Don’t Want Anybody, a rock/pop Indie song, that’s just where it started and we thought, “alright, let’s just go wherever the song takes us.”  So there definitely wasn’t a thought of an overarching musical style for the album from the beginning.  It was more here’s what all the songs are about and this was the story of what’s going on for us emotionally throughout the song, and the music is just gonna be whatever we’re most inspired by.

D: It’s refreshing to hear that you guys write without being so obsessed with one style; and the music ends up as a great eclectic mix of genres. Too many bands are very, very set on writing just one style of music.

J: Thank you so much.  You know it’s definitely a challenge because the majority of music listeners want to be able to classify something.  Not to say our music can’t be classified, but it’s not something we try to do.  It just is what it is and we just hope that people enjoy it.

D: Absolutely. Tell us a bit about what you’ve been using to help fund your album release… Kickstarter I believe it’s called.

J: Kickstarter.com is a really cool site where artists get a page, similar to a myspace or facebook fan page.  It’s not particularly a social network, but something like that.  Basically what the site is… an artist has a page and makes a video to present a project that you’re looking to get funded.  And it’s not like you’re just raising money for nothing, you give prizes for every pledge.  So if you go to our site and you pledge $250… for $250 Mike would come to your home and cook you a private meal, or you could come with me on a private bike tour of New York City.  For $500 I have a ping-pong table in my apartment, we’d bring it to your place and have a ping pong party. For I think $2000 we’ll come with a full PA and throw down a concert for you and whoever else you want.  There’s a bunch more prizes, you could check it out at kickstarter.com. There’s a ton of artists who have raised a pretty impressive amount of money through the site.  The cool thing about the site is that you only get money if you reach your goal. So our goal right now is to raise $5000 to support the release of our album.  We’re doing pretty well, within a week we’re almost 50% there.

D: That’s great.  I’m all out of questions… anything else you want to say?

J: There’s one more piece I haven’t mentioned that’s pretty awesome.  I think it’s been one of the most interesting things that we’ve done so far, and has also funded the creation of our album and our music video.  We do a program in the summer, where we have a summer camp touring company.  We go to summer camps and work with kids, teaching them singing and music.  Then at night we put on a concert where we’ll play Julius C Songs and then the kids will come on stage where they’ll play some cover songs with us.  So the show will open Julius C plays some songs, kids will come on and rock out, then we close with Julius C.  Last summer we had 32 dates, and we’ve had some pretty big sponsors in the past, we’ve had Crocs, Polaroid, and Puma.  It was on the summer camp show we got the idea for the Silly Bandz sponsorship.  I think as a business we’ve learned that we really have to go out there and make whatever it is that we want to happen, happen ourselves.  And in the meantime we’re also making connections to other people in the music industry, to eventually bring on other business partners, you know managers, booking agents, labels, all of the major players in a bands’ career.  But for us it’s been primarily about pursuing whatever dreams we have for the band and just going after them as a unit until… either we achieve them or realize well maybe we shouldn’t be focusing on this.  It took us a long time, but that really sums up the business of the band and how we work as a unit.

-interview by Dan Schwartz of Indie Band Guru