Random musings of Jeromey Balderrama
I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that my band, Greenfoot is starting to record new songs for an EP we’re releasing this summer. We’ll actually be kicking off the sessions on Sunday, starting with m on drums!
We’ll actually be broadcasting the sessions live on UStream, so if you’d like to sit in and see us record come check it out! We’ll kick things off around 11am MDT, but should be going all afternoon. I’d definitely love for you to stop by and let me know what you think!
I came across the latest OK Go video, which made me miss the time when music videos had a great deal of creativity in them. I don’t mean to sound dated, but you really don’t see the diverse thought and efforts in music videos (if they even show them anymore) as you see with OK Go. If you remember, these were the guys that did the “Treadmill Video” (here it goes again) as well as some awesome choreography in “A Million Ways“.
All of these are worth a look. It’s too bad that these are more rare these days.
I ran across this great post a few days ago that I found to be very relevant as my band evaluates where devote on-line energy. This brings up the elephant in the room that all bands need to discuss sooner or later.
It’s no secret that MySpace is on it’s way out. The prominent rise of Facebook, coupled with our pain threshold for spam, flashing graphics and blaring noise has worn out MySpace’s welcome. Long ago have I abandoned any meaningful time spent at the spent for my personal profile. For my band’s profile, I still log into MySpace a few times per week, but the ROI has continued to decrease for our band and MySpace.
The biggest thing you can take away from the article is Reason #3:
Other bands are not your primary source of attendance
According to the statistics I’ve heard, there are roughly 8 million bands on MySpace, and you have 15,000 of them as friends! Unfortunately, those people are probably not buying your albums or attending your shows. While they may be good to do a show swap with, or bro down with for a tour some day-they’re not helping you pay the bills and put butts in your seats.
The 10% of users that are real people more than likely COMPLETELY ignore the “bulletins” that you can blast out to everyone. When was the last time you went to a show based on a bulletin you saw on MySpace? [Assault Blog]
I can’t tell you the last time I’ve interacted with an actual fan on MySpace. Almost every interaction I have is with other bands, and the ones that aren’t bands are booking agents/venues – which is really only the valid communication that goes on for us on MySpace. The collaboration is on MySpace is also a downside, because typically when these venues list you on their promotion, they link our MySpace, which isn’t our best web presence out there.
The article lists some great resources & alternatives to using MySpace. We use some of them including Twitter and Last.Fm. There was one omission which I think is starting to become unavoidable: Facebook. While I agree that it’s always best to own your own content and presentation, along with the concession that Facebook is a little harder for brand outreach – but you need to be where people are at – which right now is Facebook.
Until then, I think we’re going to start to wean ourselves off of MySpace. I don’t think we’ll ever stop posting music, pictures and show schedules there, but only because it doesn’t hurt to keep things updated for booking agents. However, I think it’s time for bands to focus their energies elsewhere.
Last night Bethany and I went down to Denver to go see one of my favorite bands in an amazing acoustic set. I wrote on Saturday on my excitement about seeing this show, and it definitely didn’t disappoint.
It’s such a treat to see singer/song-writers acoustically (or anyone acoustically for that matter), because they typically tell stories around their songs. It’s amazing to hear what inspired them to write, what they see as the meaning behind their words. John Ondrasik definitely delivered, elaborating on songs like “Freedom Never Cries”, “Tuesday”, and “Slice”.
The performances were raw and intimate – the atmosphere at the Soiled Dove made sure of that. We had the perfect seats, at the end of a long table on their “Silver” level. We were at the perfect height to see over the heads of the General Admission folks, and got a perfect direct view of the band. I wish I could have posted better pictures than this one I took with my cell phone, but it seems like I was the only one – including the Soiled Dove - that actually read the fine print on the ticket that said you couldn’t bring cameras in. I’ve learned my lesson and will ignore the rules.
I think my “Top 5” concert list is due for a refresh, but as great as that show was I’m not sure if it’s going to break into that list. The reason: the show wasn’t long enough. While he definitely put on a good show, he was only on the stage for a little more than an hour. There was an opening act – Angel Taylor – who was fantastic, so the evening was rounded out. It was a bit of a blessing in disguise as we got back home at a decent time on a Sunday night, but a top 5 show has to be a little longer.
I can’t wait until the next time Five For Fighting passes through Denver. I’ll definitely be there!
Tomorrow night Bethany and I are headed down to the Soiled Dove Underground for an acoustic evening with Five For Fighting, one of my favorite artists. As we thought about it, we realized that this will be the first concert we’ve been to since July of 2008. This will be a great show to quench our concert thirst. Looking back at a post I wrote in 2005 (coincidentally this post was triggered by my first date with Bethany) that ranked my top concerts, the Five For Fighting acoustic evening ranked #2 in my top 5 concerts list. I hate to quote myself, but it best summarizes why I’m excited about this show:
For those of you who haven’t heard Five For Fighting beyond "Superman" and "100 Years" – you’re really missing out. John Ondrasik is definitely one of my favorite musicians of all time, and I had been in love with Five For Fighting for almost 2 years at that point. So when I heard that he was having an acoustic show I jumped at the chance to get tickets (which weren’t selling very fast at all). I roped a few of my friends from church to come down to the show. My friend Fred and I ended up sitting in the 2nd row and we were like 8 feet away from John Ondrasik! I had never been to the Blue Bird before, but it is TINY! – 150 people, max. And he we were in an awesome intimate concert setting hearing all of these awesome songs and raw passion that John put into playing each of them. He gave us a little bit of piano, a little bit of guitar and a lot of amazement. I wasn’t sure how my friends were going to react to the show, but when we walked out they were blown away as well. Then one of my friends asked me "How did you manage to get tickets to that?!? To see someone acoustic and small as that – you have to know the band personally". I still find it funny [Back in 2005]
It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to bring a camera (which is a real bummer), but I’ll definitely offer my thoughts after the show on Monday.