Indie Band Guru

We came across a great new music festival to kick off your summer of concerts.  The brand new 4-day music and art Festival For Humanity is taking place at Mountain Creek Resort in Vernon, New Jersey over Memorial Day Weekend. Festival headliners include: Third Eye Blind, Good Charlotte, John Popper and the Duskray Troubadours, From Good Homes, The New Pornographers, The Misfits, Sister Hazel, Cracker, Soul Asylum, Rebbie Jackson (sister of Michael Jackson) and many more! The festival has been created and aims to benefit charities of suicide prevention, health and nutrition. For tickets and more information, please go to: www.festivalforhumanity.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!

It is only early March but the summer concert festival season is already taking shape.  The Pitchfork Music Festival returns to the friendly confines of Chicago’s Union Park during the weekend of July 15-17.  More than 40 artists will perform on this year’s eclectic bill.  In addition to the three stages of musical performances, the festival will feature 50 individual vendors, as well as specialty fairs to satisfy the huge crowd expected to attend.  The Pitchfork Festival not only supports local businesses and the local economy, but also promotes the Chicago arts community as a whole as indie music lovers descend on the city.

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.

Our Press badge for CMJ 2010

Ok, It’s time to catch our readers up on the CMJ 2010 experience.  It has been a crazy week with no extra time to do anything.  I attended a bunch of great panels and learned of some great new tricks for independent bands.  They will all be shared in the coming weeks as I have time to sit down and transcribe my chicken-scratch notes.  Prepare to learn so many new ideas to get your band to the next level that your head will spin.  But just relax and take it 1 step at a time.  If you put even some of these techniques to use your fanbase will grow.

We also made some great contacts throughout the music business and discovered some great new websites and services that can really help out your band and your career.  I will introduce some great resources to you in upcoming posts.  We also spoke to a lot of bands to get their take on CMJ 2010 as well as their experiences.  They told us ideas that they have used that worked, and some that didn’t.  All bands should share knowledge and help each other out.  We are a community that will be stronger than the sum of our parts.  That was an integral lesson of CMJ.

The other obvious great part of CMJ is all the great music.  I got to see a ton of interesting bands playing at all kinds of venues.  Some great shows, some not so great.  It is always great to see a live performance though of a band you have heard but not seen.  Sometimes the energy of a band will make me love them more (The Drums) but other times seeing a boring stage presence will reduce me to hardly even wanting to listen to a bands music anymore.  The shows were exhausting though after a day of classroom panel learning, and left me no time to write, and barely enough time to sleep these past 5 days.  Time to recuperate but keep on the lookout for great reviews, resources, and introductions over the next few weeks.  Follow us now!

Yes it is that time of year again.  A great time to be a resident of the greatest city in the world, New York, NY.  I recently told you about the Royal Flush Festival, which looks great, but then comes the behemoth that is The 30th annual CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival.  In a span of only 5 days (Oct. 19th – Oct 23rd) there will be over 1200 live performances in more than 75 of New York City’s greatest venues and theaters.

Here is a small sampling of the bands playing:

Phoenix, GZA, UNKLE, Black Sheep, John Vanderslice, Cute Is What We Aim For, Justin Townes Earle, Black Label Society, Corin Tucker Band, Dan Black, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Freddie Gibbs, Frankie and the Heartstrings, Adam Haworth Stephens, Cults, Oberhofer, Baths, Blood Red Shoes, Extra Lens, The Bogmen, Clutch, Francis and the Lights, Screaming Females, Franz Nicolay, Children of Bodom, Wild Nothing, Dom, Marit Larsen, Good Old War, Reggie Watts and BRAHMS.

as well as:

DeVotchKa, Surfer Blood, Two Door Cinema Club, School of Seven Bells, Bad Books (feat. Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra), Four Tet, The Drums, Ghostface Killah, Greg Dulli, Helmet, Lissie, Foreign Exchange, Kristen Schaal & Friends, Dean & Britta, Bayside, Senses Fail, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Salem, The Blow, Small Black, Big Freedia, Dominique Young Unique, Angus & Julia Stone, Frankie and the Heartstrings, Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, and Langhorne Slim.

(I highlighted a few shows that I will not be missing)

Another awesome feature that I love about CMJ is the panels.  It is great to sit in a classroom setting with ‘teachers’ that are some of my idols in the music business teaching lessons that I am excited to learn.  (If only school had been that way).

Some of the Panels at CMJ 2010 are:

A Camera And Some Balls; How To Shoot Rockstars
American Hardcore and the Rise of Modern Rock
Combating Audience A.D.D.
Controlling the Pipeline; Net Neutrality and the Level of Access
Creative and Engaging Campaigns Around Your Live Show
Curmudgeons of Rock
Follow The Spot; The Music Industry’s Madmen
Get It Together: Real Life Strategies for Artists and Songwriters

How to Start a MovementHow To Sell 500 Tickets In 5 Markets
International Rational
Kickstart Your Email Marketing
L.E.S. Music Means More Indie Rock
Location Is Everything
Love What You Do; Never Work A Day In Your Live
Managing Without Borders
No Conflict No Interest
Reality Killed The Video Star

So You Want To Be A Music Blogger; Who Cares?

Start Me Up
Take a Left at the Label: D.T.F.
The Future of the Music Business? Really?
The Lean and Mean Label Machine
The Mindset of the Venue Booker
The Modern Day R.O.I. Rogers
The Power and Possibilities of Interactive Audio
The Zeros and Ones of Music Creation
Who Brought The P.A.?

In addition to all that there will be over 120,000 music fans crowding the city as well.  This is a great chance to get out there and meet the people that will come to your shows and an even greater chance to promote to them all in one place.  You should be there if you are reading this blog and have a chance to get to NYC.

Get in touch and let us know what shows you will be attending.  Maybe we can get a drink together.

For more info on the CMJ Music Marathon and updated lines and schedules go to www.cmj2010.com

Yes, yes, we know there is some fantastic music festival coming to NYC at the end of October.  But definitely don’t miss out on this one first.   The Royal Flush Festival returns with another highly anticipated and eclectic lineup of independent films, live rock performances, and underground art events taking place October 11-18 at Knitting Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and other venues throughout the city.

Named after Royal Flush Magazine, (the nationally-distributed rag that celebrates underground music, art, video games, pop-culture and indie movies), the Royal Flush Festival offers great value for a festival in New York.  The full week of events are at a fraction of the cost of some other festivals. During the festival, Royal Flush Magazine will reveal Book 7 featuring on its two covers, rock superstar and horror movie director Rob Zombie, as well as the cast of FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, respectively. Zombie will sign copies of Royal Flush Magazine Book 7, and the bonus edition of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 at Forbidden Planet in Manhattan on October 11.

Most of the events will be at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.  I love that venue. “We’re really psyched to be taking over Knitting Factory this year. It’s the perfect spot to present our collection of both indie film and rock & roll,” said Jim Muscarella, Royal Flush Festival Film Programmer & Co-Director.

The film everyone must see is being screened at The Knitting Factory on Wednesday, October 13th.  Downtown Calling, narrated by Deborah Harry, takes a look at NYC and the economic turmoil in the late 1970′s during which the underground music and art scene exploded.  Here is the trailer:

As for Music, Thursday, October 14th will feature an event we do not want to miss.  The Royal Flush Indie Music Showcase at Brooklyn Bowl.  Featured bands will be Black Taxi, Kid Savant, and Lifted Crew all for only a $5 cover.  You can’t beat that anywhere in NYC.

For full details and to find out about all the other events that are part of the Royal Flush Festival check out the official site at www.royalflushfestival.com  See you there!

I came across this article (not written by us) and wanted to share it with you.  Do you think this is a good introduction to the indie music scene for an outsider that doesn’t know anything?

Indie music is a type of alternative rock, which exists in the independent music world. The word is periodically used to refer to all underground music, and is the opposite of indie pop music.Indie rock music places an emphasis on electric instruments such as guitars and drums. Musicians in the genre are also known for using abstract sounds.The term indie rock is used because musicians work under smaller record labels instead of the major record companies.

Though indie rock is not technically a genre, it is considered to represent the underground culture in many aspects.Indie artists are known for demanding a large amount of creative control over their music, and this is something, which often alienates them from larger companies.Indie artists will strictly rely on word of mouth, tours, and independent radio stations in order to promote their music. Many of the popular artists will end up becoming popular with mainstream audiences, and may be signed by large record labels.

In the US indie music is considered to be a spin off from alternative rock. The movement is believed to have been started during the 1970s or 1980s. The indie rock music of the 1980s had sounds, which were described as being heavy and distorted. By the 1990s, indie music groups such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam became a main stream, and the genre became more widespread. Once the genre became popular, major record companies begin investing large amounts of money in it.

Once this happened, the term “alternative rock” became more of a misnomer. Traditionally, many musicians who have signed with major record companies were considered to be “sell outs” by their hardcore fans. My Original Music is an indie music site located at myoriginalmusic.com. Here you can find music by independent artists from all over the world. Today, indie rock is a term which has come to describe a wide variety of music. The term indie rock has been applied to psychedelic folk, synth pop, and post punk.

Sometimes the term indie rock becomes blurred, and some believe that the word will soon disappear much like alternative rock did. Mainstream artists such as Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys have been known to reach high levels on the indie music charts, especially in the United Kingdom. Some mainstream artists have even been signed to independent record labels.Many popular indie music artists become a main stream, and once this happens, they are no longer independent.

Despite the fact that many indie artists become main stream, this is not always the case. In fact, most independent artists are not mainstream, and do not wish to be. Money may be a motivating factor, but many artists play their music for the passion and not the money. Many major record labels exert a large amount of control over their artists, and the music which is sold is more often the product of the record companies than the artists themselves. Because of this, many artists have fought with the major record labels over creative control of their music.

The writers of this article have their own interesting site.  www.musicjuice.net  Check it out

And let me know your thoughts.

Trying to put the pieces of our weekend at Coachella 2010 back together. Here is a very fun part of it. If you have any small children you will know this performance well. If you don;t just sit back and enjoy!

As you can tell, fun was had by all in attendence at this show.  I am no longer embarassed to watch Yo Gabba Gabba with my 1 year old.  It seems as if I am not alone.  Even though a few drinks and maybe some other substances might have been helping this crowd out.

Hope you are enjoying Coachella if you are out in Indio, California. If not here is the full lineup with some music samples of some of the great bands there this year. Enjoy!

Let us know which band you think will be the breakout star of Coachella.  We really love and need your input.

We see many actors try to crossover into the music world, especially in the pop genre where they can have their voice so overproduced that nobody will notice that they can not sing. That is why I took notice when Zooey Deschanel entered the indie music world with M. Ward to form She & Him.

She had shown some singing chops in her movies before, most notably in Elf with Will Ferrell and The Go-Getter where she met M. Ward.  Now She & Him have released their second album Volume Two back on March 23rd and it seems to be another good one, I believe even better than the first. 

She & Him have announced tour dates for the spring of 2010.  They dazzled at SXSW again and will perform at music festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, Savannah and Sasquatch. 

Above is a live recording of She & Him at the Sirius XMU studios from a couple weeks ago.  Stripped down i think her voice sounds even better.  It reminds me a little of June Carter Cash which is always a good thing.  She is living up to the new ‘Omaha Sound’ label and I feel will be singing for years to come.

Bottom Line:  This cute chick can sing!

In our exhaustive, yet constant search for great new independent music to introduce you to, we came across another winner.  Lil Daggers, a psychadelic garage rock band from Miami, FL.  They are relatively unknown as of yet, but I don’t think that will be for too much longer.  And they are coming up to NYC this weekend to visit you and me. 

Listen first:

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Then get out to see them this weekend:

• -Friday, April 9th, ‘Midnight til Death Party’ @ Don Pedros- Lil Daggers -with- Medication, White Mystery, and Girls at Dawn
• -Saturday, April 10th @ Don Pedros- Lil Daggers -with- Brown Ghost, Naked Beach, Estrogen Highs, and Wild Yaks
• -Sunday, April 11th @ Glasslands – Lil Daggers -with- Dream Diary, White Mystery, and Shark?

These guys crowd the stage with interesting musicians, including an organist (something that always excites me a little), and work hard to put on one hell of an interesting show.  The Indie Band Guru will be there, will you?