Somewhere out in America its raining.

I'm up way too early (for a college student on Friday May 20th particularly) - There is too much on my mind! Galactic sent me the re-mixed tracks from the new cd yesterday. It sounds amazing. Travis, Kent, and Curtis made the tiniest of changes, but they bring out a clarity and depth that was lacking before. When I listen to the tracks I just know.. it won't be too long until we are playing a sold out show at Webster Hall.

Deadlines. That was the name of a song I wrote for my ex-girlfriend about leaving for New York from Fort Worth and, damn, look at the symmetry. I'm leaving again and there are only 2 weeks left in the big apple. Our first show is May 29th, and we HAVE to get the cd ready by then (or else lose a WHOLE lot of money). And what is left to do? Mastering. CD Art. Pressing.

Cross my fingers that it gets done!

Moses

Don't Fear!

I guess I owe my ballooning fanbase an apology for my absense! On top of my other jobs, I'm a blogger - the cosmos will most certainly frown if I continue this infrequent update schedule. Well howabout this:

The summer tour is almost locked and loaded. We have our Dallas date set: May 29th at The Cavern. That will make May 29th the first time that our next (still unnamed) cd available. Speaking of the new cd, Travis and company are nearly finished mixing it! We will be sending it to a professional mastering company, as opposed to our last cd, which Travis "gerry-rigged" through Reason. HINT: Reason is not a mastering program!!!!! 

I'll give you guys some details soon! Just know that The Frontier Brothers are shooting for space.

Moses

Its Gravity

A classic band responsibility: Book a tour. 

But how? There aren't any books that help, unfortunately. (I've checked out several that claim to) The mission is simple. Convince booking managers who have never heard of you and could replace your band with five to six others that you will put on a popular show. Note my vocabulary - popular. A talented show, an entertaining show, a groundbreaking show - those are all good and well, but what clubs really crave is a band that can bring humans. That explains why that tween-screamo band gets the Friday night spot at Oilies. They have about two-thousand tween-screamo fans. And those fans pony up 12.95 each week to see the same show. So The Frontier Brothers have two responsibilities that sometimes seem at odds. 

1. Protect and foster our artistic integrity. I am first and foremost an artist. The sounds that Travis, Marshall, & I write are my proudest creations and I want to develop as a band. I believe in our vision and would like to leave behind a song canon of value, rather than a generic dumb-pop songbook. 

2. Ensure that venues are packed. Part artist / Part entrepreneur. We promote, call fans, put up posters, stand outside venues handing out cds, etc. Packed shows are good business. And good business means we get to play another night. 

So planning a tour is a big deal. We are currently in the process of begging, negotiating, and seducing. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Moses

Look at the view up here!

Ready?

Moses

Somebody told me if you live this way,
then its a long long haul. - Voxtrot

Had a moment of doubt the other day. Woke up to rain on my window and a certain shadow of uncertainty. Yes, my life has a spine up here in New York. I have specific goals for Monday, Tuesday, this week and the next. There is work to be done - I have a research paper on the horizon. And what about next year in Austin? Lets see.

Do I have a place to live?
no
A job?
no
Concrete plans of any sort?
no

But I called it a moment of doubt, and that - I assure you - is exactly what it was. So I decide to stay at NYU and pursue the classic life. Could I really live with myself knowing a passed up the greatest opportunity I've ever had? I am involved in one of the most exciting musical experiments I've ever seen! Let me see this thing through!

And then good things happen to perk me up. Travis hit me up with the news that we have found a licensing agency to work with! Maybe you'll first here about us on MySpace or maybe you'll hear us in the soundtrack to the next hit movie?

The possibilities are exciting, right?

Moses

You can't hear it on the radio!

The Frontier Brothers are going to be playing a headlining gig (unlike the one pictured above) in support of our upcoming ep! The show is June 1st at Fort Worth's The Aardvark. I'll keep you guys up-to-date.

So here's a question. What do you do in the lull-time in between new releases and tours? I think the key is to build buzz. I need to figure out how to make The Frontier Brothers into a phenomenon. Lily Allen did it via myspace - perhaps that is the direction we should take. On the other hand, a grassroots campaign may be more effective. Paper New York and Austin with posters and fliers - litter copiously. Or what about a street team? I imagine 100 friends and fans playing our cd for their friends, handing out stickers and cds, calling local radio stations, building a BUZZ.

As you can tell, building a band is nothing like a typical career. It is dangerously open-ended - there are no rules, no mentors, no sure-fire strategies. One thing is certain, however. I need to work my ass off while I'm still living in New York. There are blogs to contact,(BrooklynVegan can you hear me?!) radio stations to seduce, and managers to recruit. To be a band, you need to be more than be a band (ugh). You need to be a hype-machine.

Moses

Shivers down my spine

Theres a constant sense of uncertainty involved with being a musician. No matter how hard you rock on stage, there remains the fear that its simply not enough, or worse, that it sounds bad. Marshall, Travis, and I wrote these songs - its hard for us to see them clearly and without the weeks of work it took to create them. And when you hear your work coming through stage monitor speakers (the band hears a different mix than the crowd and it is usually unbalanced) you can't help but get nervous. So you do the best you can and hope. 

Last night Marshall Galactic sent me a near-final copy of our new cd. We recorded in a real studio for this one, at Curtis Rousch's Skybear Studios in Austin, TX. It was a fucking stressful weekend, culminating in one particularly disturbing meltdown between Travis and myself. Naturally, I was worried about the final project. Until last night. Lit by Washington Square Park outside and trapped inside the sonic field of a pair of monitor headphones, I finally heard the results of our labor. 

Friends, we are going to make it 

Moses

Wilco CD Preview

One of my favorite bands is previewing their new CD online right now (until midnight). Check out Wilco's Sky Blue Sky . In a world of copycats, Jeff Tweedy gets it done.

Moses

Rockstar To Do List

So you wanna be a rock'n'roll star?  Well listen then to what I say. Just get an electric guitar, take some time, and learn how to play. - Adam Duritz

I always feel like we are two steps away from success. Take our show at Austin's Red Eyed Fly two weekends ago, for instance. We packed the place - there were over 50 Frontier Brothers fans in the audience - and played with an electricity that I had never felt before. Being on stage is the greatest high imaginable. It makes me wonder why so many rockstars get hooked on drugs when they could just step on stage. We finished our set and were encouraged by the manager and crowd to play an encore. It may be common place for big touring acts to come out after their set for a traditional encore (is it even an encore if its planned out beforehand?) but its pretty unusual for local bands to do this. The vibe at the Red Eyed Fly after the set was incredible. For a few brief moments, I knew what it felt like to be My Morning Jacket, Spoon, or Of Montreal (read. pretty fucking good!). 

If we want a real chance of breaking out, we have to constantly be in the public eye. Some of our goals - 

Play some shows with Soundteam, a phenomenal Austin indie band that has made waves. 

Plan a US Tour, focusing on the South and Northeast (the two areas where we have a fan-base)

Get reviewed in some newspapers (editors, are you reading???) 

I feel like its crucial for us to find a band to intern with. We need to play shows to new crowds and establish a much bigger fan base - you can't rely on your core fans to come to a show ever two weeks (thats not really fair). If you know the bassist for The Decemberists or the backup singers for The Arcade Fire, let me know!

Peace

Moses

We're on BBC America!

Big news for a little band. The Frontier Brothers are mentioned on BBC America! Check it out

Okay - so its not the gushing review of our epochal next album that I was hoping for, but this is pretty cool. Its a shotout from my boss, who I'll be talking more about soon.

I'm planning a big post later tonight, so hold tight!

The Future is Near

Sleeping has gotten progressively hard these past few weeks. New York is warming up for spring and my mind has working around the clock - I'm constantly imagining the band and how we can push it over the top. With artists dancing on treadmills, launching international blog campaigns, and producing increasingly impressive and polished records, originality is a must. I can't even begin to tell you how many bands we have played with that have a solid sound and great musical talent but zero image - zero buzz. (There are some extreme exceptions to this - bands such as Stella Rose, Calhoun, & Three Leaf are shaking up the local scene) My uncertain future lies ominously on my desk in the form of a one way plane ticket to the lone star state. Sleep, it lately seems, is a waste of time - I have to crack the rock star code.

Street Noise

I can't wait to escape the street noise from my fourth floor room. Its like someone tied a small jackhammer to my ears.

Exposition Part 2 : The Business

In a perfect world, bands would be comprised of proud artists - respectfully peddling their craft at intimate smokey clubs and music festivals reeking of B.O. (If you've ever been to Austin City Limits or Coachella you know what I'm talking about) The unfortunate reality is that of a cut-throat and relentless music business - tens of thousands of baby bands all climbing the same tiny pyramid toward success. As you can imagine, the pyramid can't fit too many bands at the top, so most of these younger bands get pushed off. Even the lucky few who make it may get pushed off anyway. (they're later labeled one-hit-wonders)

The savvy band realizes that they have to be far more than starry-eyed artists. We are entrepreneurs and critical element in any business is product. Apple sells computers, Dole peddles bananas, and we pimp songs. Heres how bands make money -

1. Concerts - The Rolling Stones can generate over 50 million dollars on a tour, charging blood-thirsty fans 150 dollars a pop to sit in filthy bleacher seats and suck on lollipops. Bands like The Frontier Brothers (us) ,on the other hand, need to develop a fan-base. We play small 50 to 250 capacity venues that charge 5 to 15 dollars a head. While playing club shows is more fun than you can possibly imagine, (the adrenalin rush alone is unparalleled) venues tend to invent payment schemes on the fly. I'll be blogging ALOT more about the difficulty with smaller venues as it is a big fucking problem.
2. CD Sales and T-Shirts - The main source of income for little bands, CDs and T-Shirts have the advantage of being built-in promotional tools. Unfortunately, CDs and T-Shirts are extremely expensive to produce. No matter, if you can somehow manage to sell ten thousand CDs, you can support your smoking habit for years.
   
3. Licensing - Licensing is the Holy Grail for indie bands. Cheaper than paying big record companies, reality tv shows, racing video games, and The O.C. all pay unsigned bands between thousands of dollars to use their songs. Licensing is hard-work however and most bands are unprepared to do the necessary networking and bullshitting to get their music on the silver screen. The Frontier Brothers have yet to license their music, but you better believe we're going to try! HEY! Isn't that Brett's band playing on that Tampon commercial???
4. Record Deals - Record deals are sinister. I'll tell you why later.
   
5. Other - Endorsements, philanthropists, you name it. Bands will try anything to make a buck!
   

So Electronic Progress (pictured above) was our first attempt to generate some buzz and some bread. Its a four song EP that we made on a very very tight budget (read free) We had 1000 copies printed, so even if we sell every copy (we end up giving away at least 1/3 of the copies to press) we will only generate about 4000 dollars. That might like alot but we have to spend that money on things such as

• guitar strings (6$)
• gasoline (25$ a tank)
  
• fliers for the next show (30$)
• a house for the band (1000$/month)
  
• alcohol for the after party (people expect an afterparty) '

As you can imagine - its pretty hard to support yourself in a band. Thats why you hear about members of big indie-rock bands hanging on to their day jobs. The safest advise you'll hear from industry musicians is to keep your job until the last possible moment, presumably the night before your world-wide tour opening for The Police. The safest advise also happens to be the least effective. One quick way to force yourself to work your ass off for a band is to give up all of your stability. Thats why I'm dropping out of school and giving up my parents' financial support. Sure, I may have to get used to Ramen noodles, but I'll have one hell of an incentive to spread the gospel of The Frontier Brothers.

In honor of this decidedly business-oriented post, hears a pitch. Buy our CD on iTunes and I promise to reinvest the $2.47 we get toward a kickass stage show!

Peace Out

Moses

Prologue - Making The Band

WARNING: This is a long-ass post.

Sitting at my disheveled desk (Tickets to CMJ Music Marathon 06 - didn't end up going, Ad for "The Kati Roll Company" on 99 Macdougal Street - delicious, Stub From The Who at Madison Square Garden - bleacher seats) located at 33 Washington Square West, its easy to forget my life 1,586 miles away. These days, I'm a student at New York University where I am majoring in (this is not a lie) "The Art of Becoming a Rockstar." NYU is part of a breed of lovely new wave universities that basically let you do whatever you want as long as you pay them enough money. Like Mary Kate & Ashley before me (proud college drop-outs from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study) my days at NYU are numbered. Come may 2nd, I will join the ranks of unemployed bum drop-outs infesting the otherwise beautiful city of Austin, Texas.

You see, I got this crazy idea stuck in my head last June that I could be a bona fide rock star. Sure, I had written some catchy rock songs with my songwriting partner, Marshall Newman. (hereafter referred to Marshall Galactic) True, my monthly improvisational piano gigs at Fort Worth, Texas's upscale Cafe Aspen were mildly lucrative. Nevertheless, I was light years away from playing a double-bill with Radiohead at Madison Square Garden, endorsing the latest Adidas kicks, or flicking off the camera at a Mavs game. I was an inexperienced pianist, an untrained songwriter, and a lousy singer - to some extent I still am. As time went on, however, something happened.

I kept up a charade - claiming to anyone with eager ears that I would be the next big thing in rock'n'roll. And why not? If the Clash can blow up with a bassist who barely knows how to play and Coldplay can rehash the same three chords for each of their increasingly famous hit singles, The Frontier Brothers can surely change the face of indie rock. I relentlessly asserted my status as rock-star-to-be and, strangely enough, people started to buy it.

Fast forward a little bit. Marshall and I recruited his brother, Travis, to play drums. We played a couple shows over the summer and then I left for school - the future of The Frontier Brothers was uncertain. Luckily, there was plenty to keep the band busy during our diaspora. We had recorded four songs in my living room the day before I left for school. I reasoned that a band doesn't really "exist" until they have been recorded. We set up shop at my parent's house and banged out some tracks. During my early months living in New York, I talked to Travis almost daily, as he was in charge of the mixing and mastering process. After nearly three months, we had a finished product. Finally, there was a real reason to put ourselves to work. We had CDs to pimp, one thousand dollars of debt to pay off for the cds, and I was coming home for winter break. The ELECTRONIC PROGRESS Tour ensued.

I feel like you guys should become familiar with the history of The Frontier Brothers before I start to fill you guys in on the future (the main focus of the blog) so I'm planning on finishing our history tomorrow. I would consider the release of our first EP to be our initiation as a "REAL" band so its a good place to stop.

As always, please email me with any feedback or questions.

Moses

Gear Report *Addendum*

I regretfully inform you that I forgot some serious gear for the report yesterday.

and


I'll post again later today - I want to tell you guys a little more about The Frontier Brothers.

Moses

Gear Report

What does a young keyboardist on the prowl use on stage, you ask?

Signing out

Moses

Exposition Part 1: The Band

You're looking at The Frontier Brothers: either the next big thing in indie rock or a footnote on the cosmic footnote of nearly-made-its depending on who you ask.
(photo by Janette Beckman, rockstar photographer)
On the left: Travis Newman - drummer/bassist/responsible one
On the right: Marshall Galactic - lead singer/guitar/visionary
And then theres me - short, semitic, & stylish

Together we are The Frontier Brothers, an indie-space-rock meets 60's pop meets new wave musical explosion. When people ask me who we sound like, I compare us to Modest Mouse, Electric Light Orchestra, or The Beatles (such an idealist I am!)

Heres how we are described by the press:
Travis, our drummer, happens to hate Ween. Anyway, I'll leave you guys with one of our songs.

“Take it for Love” by Frontier Brothers

The Art of Becoming a Rockstar

Any good story needs conflict.

Thankfully, this story is full of it. Unlike a movie, I can't promise a tear-jerker twist ending or a startlingly symmetrical resolution - however - I will certainly try.

This is the story of one young rock band among literally thousands. Like every band in the universe, we want to be famous, we want to play for wild crowds, and we want to do whatever possible to avoid sitting behind a desk for the rest of our lives. At least, I know I want to avoid that fate. We want to be Jeff Tweedy, Jim James, David Byrne, and George Harrison. And like every band of indie rock troubadours, we think we have what it takes... I think I have what it takes. (And you can be the judge)

As I mentioned before, this story is so laden with conflict, its hard to even know where to begin. Here's to a handy bullet list:

1. My band mates live in Austin, TX... I live in New York City
2. We have no money. (And what money we do have, we owe to our parents)
3. The venues have a chronic habit of underpaying us. (See problem 2.)
   
4. I'm an egomaniac (I have the unflattering tendency of claiming to own the band when I'm drunk)
   
5. Our tour vehicle is about two coughs away from breaking down.

And that is just a the short list.

Everyone - my parents, guitar guru Bill Rayner (fact: he once opened for Meatloaf), punk rock professor Vivien Goldman, & my friends (who are tired of hearing about the band) tell me to be realistic - "most bands don't make it. you're just going to have to get lucky."
Fuck it - I was born to rock and I'm going to take you guys along for the ride.

Moses