10 posts tagged “indieboy presents”
Hello,
Fox Cubs in Camden
Overall a fun-packed weekend, had a visit from the Foxcubs....well.... I went to see them first at the Purple Turtle on Saturday and they came over to Tommy's afterward. I was at Tommy's to see how the refurb had gone and I'm really impressed. The stage is great, as is the PA, house backline/kit and the new area around the back.
The gig was great, heard some new material that I was impressed with and I like the new direction the band seems to be taking.
If you're interested they're headlining my night on Saturday.
Final Lineup for Saturday Night
I'm getting this finalised today, one band couldn't make it and the venue manager has made room for one more slot, so that'll be five acts on.
I got loads and loads of responses to my appeal for acts, I've forwarded on a shortlist to the venue to help me decide. Thanks to all those who've contacted me.
It's Not Free :-(
As of Saturday I've found out that I'm not getting the venue for free as I have to hire backline and get an engineer in. I'd engineer myself but I'm going to be filming this aswell. Plus I'll be mingling :-). To cover costs I'm going to have to charge on the door but will keep it low as possible. I'm thinking £2 should do it. If there's any profit I'll stick it back to the bands or charity depending on what I agree with everyone. WIll let you know. It should only cost me about £85/90 to run.
Digital A&R Scouty Bods
I've had a big response to those wanting to do my job, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! IT'S MINE, ALL MINE I TELL YOU!!! Actually, a little help is always appreciated as the best acts I come accross are usually on the recommendation of someone. I'm getting a core group of UK based people who I'm going to meet a few times a month. I will be contacting the person who is co-ordinating this today so further details later this week hopefully.
Beyond that, I want to build a small, possibly international network of those interested scouting.
You have to be really really passionate about new music as self-motivation is the key. If you spend all your time and myspace and youtube checking new stuff out anyway this is the sort of person I'm after. Have you been into a band and 12 months later they're huge? Happened more than once? Again, those are the sort of folks I'm after. I'll set up a group accordingly.
The way to approach me on this is:
Send me a PM entitled - RE: Digital Scout
Include links to two bands you know or have approached that you think are truely amazing and exceptional (that's actually quite hard). 'Sell' them to me as to why they would make a good signing. This would be very difficult without actually speaking to the band. Aswell as the music, what they're working on, who they're working with, radio/media exposure, current sales activity etc all count towards the desireability of a potential signing.
A short bio of yourself (100 words of less) so I know what music-y background you have.
Collaborations
Over the weekend I wrote my proposal for what functionality/interactivity I'd like to see between Vox and LastFM which I'll be forwarding on shortly. Again, as I have no real idea what I'm talking about when it comes to the more technical issues, I need to find out what's possible, how it works etc etc. I will keep you up to speed as things happen. I hope to have more developments by the end of the week.
Overall
I'm thinking about making some quite big changes to the community now I've got what seems like a good direction to take from the suggestions made. Ideally, I want a general facelift of the blogs and they way they are currently used. A lot more people will be publishing via them in the new year, which will mean a lot more posts rather than it being used mostly as a channel of communication for submissions. I see the central A&R 'group' being tied to, or becoming, the central portal for all submissions, and first port of call for artists, with a page directly attached to that to publish A&R-group-specific information.
The new year should be really interesting as regards what happens with this as as long as it's kept driven by the motivations and input of the community, I don't think we can go far wrong. If we do, I'm sure it would be sortable anyway. :-)
Hope all is well with you.
IB
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Gigs 26/11/2007
The Mattew Bennett are playing my hometown Stockport at The Venue. Starts at 8pm, maybe I'll ask my mum to go along.
I'm back after my bout of man flu and I'd like to share with the world the cure I have found for the common cold. Which is detailed below the nex bit.
Gig of Vox Acts
OK. THE GIG ON THE 1ST DECEMBER. LET'S GET THIS SORTED ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!
Through combinations of people cancelling then uncancelling acts telling me various dates they can and can't do I've been left totally confused. So, I will be emailing those who I think are playing on the 1st. If you are one of those bands, or think you are playing but not sure. Email me. I'm 90% sure of the 4 acts I have for the 1st but I want to get this sorted for the flyer and such.
The gig is definately happening and I have the headline set for the Foxcubs, truly a gig to attend. It's a small venue so should be a wondefully intimate, but loud, gig. SO keep the 1st free for much fun and debauchery.
Stuff to Do Today
I have a whole heap of jiffy bags to attend to (you remember the box?). Save some trees, and more importantly, my time and stop sending them. There are people in Vox who are still sending me stuff in the mail. Please, stop, can't, bear, any, longer, fingers, numb, from, opening.......:-s
I've got to mail over my concepts for what I see as possible integration of LastFM. Nothing is solid yet, just been having a chat really to see what the benefits are. But I will probably jump the gun as usual and come up with a whole scheme, complete with presentation and scale model with 5 year plan.
I've also started a new project to recruit some online scouts. This is in response to the suggestions that I spawn more indieboys to cope with the expansion of the Vox community. On being rejected by several female colleagues with my suggestion of carrying the next generation of digital A&R people, I released I needed to be a little more sensible with a more immediate plan. This will consist of two types of scout. The first, are people who I know directly or who are highly recommended for the task who are connected to the industry in some way, with whome I will meet a few times a month to have a digital A&R meeting. The second type will be an entirely remotely placed affair which is open to anyone who is interested and has ears for that kind of thing. More details to follow.
Heaps of tracks to listen to. In my absence loads has been submitted so I know what my Friday night is going to consist of.
Flu Cure
The ingreadients are as follows:
Bacon & cheese baguettes
Chicken and sweetcorn soup
&
The Steven Segal Box Set!!! Yeah!....
8 DVD's of the finest 90's Martial Arts cheese you can get. I loved it. Forget get the whole Chuck Norris internet thing thats gone on, Steven Seagal is the new internet legend. Did you know that he's touring?!? Ah... well he plays guitar check this.
Anyway, enough of my net geekyness. Wifi + ill = hours on youtube.
Gigs This Weekend
Saturday:
Shortwave Fade are playing http://www.nottinghillartsclub.com/, it's 4 till 8pm, so a bit of mid-afternoon gigging for you. I'm going to try and make it down before I head to the Foxcubs gig.
Foxcubs are playing the Purple Turtle in Camden, 8-11pm, will try and make it down for fun and shennanigans.
The Beetroot Kings are at the Red Lion in Walesby in Nottinghamshire. Kick off at 8pm
Scottie dazzlers Lady Mercedes are playing Maggie May's in Glasgow. Some rock n roll fun for those north of the border. Another 8pm start.
Enough waffle, more work....
Hope all's good with you.
Just had a look at my hit counter that I stuck on here in August and it's over 10k now! Gosh. Though I do think a large
percentage of that is probably mum as I know she reads my blog to see what I'm up to.
Had another fun packed weekend though that will probably be my last for a while as I need to economise on the lead up to xmas.
I was out at Calvados in Clapham the other day. I've started to really like the areas. Might try and live there at some point. Apart from dancing like and idiot and stealing my mate Deb's hat (which is risky as she lethal at jujitsu) the evening was quite civilised in the most part and had a really good one. I was speaking to a young scottish lass and she was asking me about bands I'd been listening to and I mentioned Lady Mercedes. "They're sooooo brilliant!" she squeeked and insisted that I go to see them some time soon. She was only visiting London for a couple of days before heading back north and couldn't recommend them enough. If you live up in that part of the world be sure to go see them. I hope to head to Scotland eventually but I don't see it happening before Christmas. I've never actually been up there which is unforgivable I guess considering I could just take the train or something.
I haven't heard back from my US A&R counterparts as yet so I'll be sure to chase that up this afternoon. I'll chase up our suggestions to Vox aswell as I want to add stuff to my list. Also I've started investigating other options such as reverbnation who have very powerful syndication tools for social media sites. Plus it seems they're still in their early stages which always presents good opportunities for mutual development.
It looks like I've got the gig on the first of December sorted as regards line-up. I'm now looking at the 28th aswell. So far I've got a band called Helene who, shock horror, are outside of Vox currently. Though I intend to change this. Maybe have a look at their Myspace, see what you think.
Vote Show Pony are playing tonight at 93 Feet East. Plus it's a free gig I believe to there's no reason not to attend if you're nearby. Well worth checking out as I imagine they're quite fun live. I'm going to try and make it down. This is going to be my first test of not drinking. I'm going teetotal for a week or two as part of the whole trying to be healthy thing.
I still have about 2 tonnes of demos to go through. They still come in so I open em up and mail them back to tell them to get a blog set up instead. Don't know what caused the sudden influx last month. Tell your mates, spread the word that we don't want CD's dammit. I'm going
to start the day with Era Vulgaris at teeth trembling volume through my headphones. I love this album. Songs for the Deaf was my favourite QOTSA album, but I think this maybe taking over. It's quite like JH's Eagles of Death Metal stuff on our label but I still prefer QOTSA. I still haven't seen them live either. :-(
Apart from VSP I don't know of any other Vox gigs
happening tonight. So add em or comment on this post to update. Especially if there's anything happening in East London as I'm over that way anyway.
Hope all is well with you.
IB
Howdy,
All in all not a bad evening last night but I have important things to talk about. Namely getting you wonderful people playing. I'm all excited again at the prospect of putting on a gig using Vox people. There have been loads of suggestions regarding this on mine and the most recent Columbia post (thanks to those that have contributed so far).
So, KEEP SATURDAY 1st DECEMBER FREE!!!! Yes that's right. I GOT THE DATE WRONG AGAIN! It's actually the 1st of December. I fancy a big night out and getting some great film of the bands. It's going to be a free night with 4 bands. How often does that happen eh? Those who contributed to the flyers a month or so ago, I NEED YOU AGAIN. To that photographer bloke who contacted me, please contact again. I get so many emails it's been lost in the deluge of recent emails (I've still got about 90 to get through)
So who's playing that night? Well so far I've asked the below. But as I've just found out the date is different I've had to ask them again. Nob.
I really like the above bands and have a list of loads of others I want to see. So it's going to be good fun.
I haven't thought of a format for the evening other than loud music and filming. I might try and get a compare. Any takers? Either pretty or funny and can engage a crowd for a couple of minutes at a time. :-)
We Got Radio!
I was speaking to a chap called Phil that Marc introduced me to today who has a regional new music radio show and wants me to contribute talent from here for broadcast. Possibly recording my own slot/introductions. It's an community FM station. There's about 150 similar community radio stations around the country. So if I can get something going there I'm going to try punting the same thing to other reigons. I've been thinking about doing a new music podcast for a while (hence the night in Camden). I've got a mate who I think I could do it with so we'll see how it goes.
I'm also starting discussions with other unsigned sites that have great online tools to move towards sorting out the models for the Artist Services concept that came up in the discussions
I realised with all this talk of development and such I haven't been talking enough about music. Take a look at Vote Show Pony. Something that tickled my fancy as it was quite different to submissions I've received recently. Reminds me in places of Goldfrapp but a bit pop-ier.
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Gigs - 30/10/2007
NOTHING APPARENTLY. Loads on this week though.
Hope all is good with you.
Hello hello,
Got a sore head this morning after my excursion to the Clapham Grand to see Trailer.
After dropping by a friends birthday do in Putney and getting a few wines down me I was able to encourage a mate of mine to guide to the venue as she lives in the area. The last couple of outings I've had in Clapham weren't that great so I wasn't expecting much from the venue. Though I was pleasantly surprised..
It was bigger than I expected, then again it is call the 'Grand' and I doubt you could have a small one of those. Apparently I was on the guestlist as Indieboy +1. On asking the girl on the door replied with "Oh, you're indieboy. I've been told to give you this" and handed me a sealed jiffy bag. The people behind must have been curious. I felt like a spy or something so I just gave a knowing nod and walked off in silence as if I had some dark purpose.
The Trailer gig was good fun. Not too many people there but a tight set nonetheless. I think they were let down a little by the sound as there's so much going on in the mix the only clear sound was the kick and snare. Sometimes the bass came through a bit too. I know some of the songs so was able to get by but probably need to see them again to appriciate.
Trailer would be far more at home playing to a field of ten thousand pilled-up, gurning lunatics with some spectacular visuals in the background. I can't decide whether this band feel their coming from the Kasabian crossover camp, or Orbital/Chemcial Brothers with instruments. I reckon they should take a look at the Infidels as to how they do it live. Could be a good reference. Have a look for Trailer yourself if they're playing near you.
Ok. Calling all bands who like to play in London (who are good). Indieboy Presents is back on track with the first date being Nov 10th in Camden. So, come on and step forward. Send me a message and I'll see what I can sort out. Looking forward to getting this going.
I got interviewed by LastFM last week as part of their nowformaband site. It's a really good site, there's only a few articles so far but they've got great input and links to other sites. I'd really recommend having a look around as I think you will find some useful info in there. There's also my bit where I unsuccessfully try to sound like an expert in A&R.
More input on what you'd like to see from a media player please! Scroll below the pics for tonights gigs!
Hope all is good with you.
IB
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Tonights Gigs - 25/10/2007
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Ashley Hicklin is playing, again. (He must be getting tired by now) and the Adelphi in Leeds. If you missed last night get down to that one as the band look really decent and I'm curious myself as to what they're like live. If you go let me know
- Runner are at Giddy Stratosphere's (?!?) tonight at the Trinity Bar in Harrow. I don't know too much about them but from listening to their stuff I'm thinking they may be a little like the Editors live. But please tell me if I'm wrong as I'm just guessing.
- Claire Toomey's back and playing at the Bedford in Balham tonight for all you female songwriter enthusiasts. Even if you're not that into they music it could be an excuse to go and stare at a girl with a guitar. ;-) She's on from 9pm I believe, got some good songs and I'd recommend a listen.
Looks like there's NOTHING ON tomorrow. I'm sure that's not true! Who's playing tomorrow? Come on, own up!
Howdy,
Bit stiff this morning but my elbow survived the class last night. Did plenty of fun stuff including escaping from garotting?!? Was excellent though, felt like James Bond for a brief moment or two. I'm sure I could do a better job than Daniel Craig, (maybe if I was a bit taller).
Anyhow, I got to have a proper think about the suggestions made of late. Although I like to think of myself as a bit 'tech-savvy' I do like to have things written down or set out in some non-on-my-screen way. So now I'm filling my wall with the concepts mentioned and working through them one at a time.
The obvious and (hopefully) easiest to start with is the better media player. The current one in all fairness isn't that great. It does the job though. It was something Vox had and I needed something fairly quickly.
With that in mind, what would you want to see from a media player? Has there been anything out there that you've seen recently that you think is applicable here? Obviously each track should contain a link to your blog. Should it also have a rating on each track? If so, how would we encourage rating? Would we have the player stop after 15 tracks and tell you to rate the next track playing to continue? What other links should it contain if any? Maybe a 'buy now' which passes the user through to your Snocap or CDBaby? Also, would it be beneficial to have the player embeddable outside Vox like a youtube player? If so, why would you want to put it on your myspace? Perhaps have a version where you control the playlist with your tracks at the top?
That's the easiest one. The biggie which I'm also looking at is what I'm calling an 'Digital Artist Services Model'. Although the concept does extend beyond an artist's digital activity. Both Silo's and Susie Wilkin's suggestions fall under this concept as do many others who have been talking about this.
The main question on how to do this is to what extent is it desirable/feasable. It could be left at simply setting up gigs and setting up an online storefront for your music. You could extend this further with distribution through something like our C-Connect project which is helping us establish relationships with record shops throughout the country.
You could keep expanding this further to encompass areas such as publishing or merchandise, but again, is that desitable to the artist? There's more to cover but this is quickly turning into another hefty post. More tomorrow.
In the meantime I'm heading to the Trailer gig tonight at the Clapham Grand which should be fun if you can make it. For those at the pointy-er end of the country maybe check out Ashley Hicklin who's playing at the Elbow rooms in Leeds tonight.
For those who were interested in doing a gig for me, they're back! Starting in November, more details to follow tomorrow. ;-)
Hope all is good with you.
Another fine work, I've got to get these made into posters, thanks Tim, apologies I got the post wrong the first time, brain wasn't working that afternoon.
This is fantastic, much thanks to KC/MK for this one!!!!!:
Didn't make it to my mates club night in shoreditch last night.
That's a shame because I really wanted to go. However, I did meet a songwriter who I think is one of the best I've heard in years. I'm getting him to set up a blog so I can listen to more of his music and share it with you and the labels, it really is excellent. He seems an exciting prospect to work with.
Anyhoo, three pints later the trek to the other side of London felt like it might aswell be the other side of the world. So I didn't bother. Feel guity now, but probably saved a lot of cash.
I was in the Prince of Wales pub next to the tube, but in the basement which has a strange little darkly lit bar. When hearing 'Wimbledon' I automatically think it's quite posh, because I'm ignorant and assume everything there will probably be tennis themed. Anyway, it wasn't, the bar was, clientelle not. There were clusters of drunken girls prowling outside the tube aswell. It was Thursday, maybe they get Friday's off around there.
Thanks for the various flyer designs and offers that have come through, it really underlined just how crap my attempts were. One of my favourites so far is:
I'm contacting a couple of others today to get stuff put together. I'm really into good artwork and meeting decent graphic designers for projects. I hope to use my night/day at TF's to showcase artwork with music at some point, some kind of day event I think. Though I haven't quite thought it through yet.
Off the see The Juice tonight. I'm seemingly cursed when trying to go and see this band as my past three attempts have failed. Will hopefully succeed tonight.
Hope all is good out there. Let me know what you're up to.
My neck STILL hurts. If anything it's worse, sympathise please.
Last night was spent not doing anything I should have done, in fact I'm probably worse off than yesterday as regards stuff to do.
I have the startling realisation that my first music event is just over a week away and there's loads to do. So I've been contacting bands and such today in the hopes of achieving a booking. I have one group that is keen which I will confirm today once I'm totally sure the night is running.
I've approached some old favourites of mine too such as Lightningtype and The Lost Levels, plus newcomers Fez. As a headline I'm gunning for the Underground Heros as they're good live, played the venue before and I really want to see them live too. :-)
I completely lack any artistic talent as regards graphic design. Any good artists out there? I would like a flyer designing. "Indieboy presents: The End of Camden @ Tommy Flynn's" "Entry Free" "Saturday 8th September" plus the band names once they're confirmed of course. Any concepts, graphics etc greatfully received and of course I would name drop you continiously for the contribution, fill you with beer if you attend or compensate you in some way.
Hope all is good with you.
