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