Posted: August 7, 2008 11:10:35 am
I've noticed some cool things happening with the KC music scene that I haven't seen in 15 years!!! Bands this is your chance to do something with your music and you probably better take advantage of it before the window of opportunity is no longer available. Several things seem to be happening so I'll kinda just spit out things in this blog in a random order w/o prioritizing any one particular event, venue, media outlet, etc.
The Riot Room- The old Hurricane vibe from the early 90's is back…but wait…why is it even cooler now than then? It's general manager is Tim, lead singer and founding member of National Fire Theory, a great local band with a long spanning career. Tim takes care of the bands and is just all around a cool guy! His brother, Dallas works the door often times and is making sure he collects a cover so that the bands get paid. If several people make it past the door w/o paying, your band's take is shit at the end of the night. Dallas makes sure that doesn't happen- so you can thank him at the end of the night when you go home with more cash in your pocket than you expected for your efforts. Artie, Keenan, and Brit are all bartenders at the RR and are also all KC musicians who will help spread the word about your event and they all seem to take pretty good care of the bands! The rest of the staff seems cool too- however these are the people I happen to know there. They're doing a great job with that venue and we need to support it so that they can continue to do business and the KC area bands can continue to have a great venue to play. Oh- and the sound rocks there too…thanks Jeff!!!
Local X- ummm…local music on the FM airwaves 6 nights a week? Fuck yeah!!! That's what I'm talking about. If you haven't already you should write Karsten and Newman and thank them for their efforts! They're out of Larryville, KS and at 92.9 FM on the dial. The station also has a website of course, look it up…I don't want to right now. You can even submit your music via the website!
The Pitch- The Pedaljets are on the cover this week! Yep- and the ABC's were on the cover not too long ago. Nice to see bands making the cover again. AND Danny Alexander is writing for them again. Danny is awesome and TRULY loves local music. Man… that Pedaljets article in this weeks pitch is like 4 FULL pages!!! Hell yeah! So kudos to the Pitch for giving up 4 full pages of their magazine this week to a local, unsigned band. Keep it up! Also INK...I see more and more going on with music here- even though things seem to be "in construction" still. I think the way they're working this website is super cool!
Band photographers- I like photography, so I'm biased but has anyone noticed how incredible some of the band photos are getting out there? Michael Forester, Phil Peterson, Aaron DeMent, SLIMM and Todd Zimmer all come to mind as some of the best in town. There's also a guy I've just recently heard about named Gary Zimmerman that seems to be getting some good stuff. Hire these guys to shoot your shows! Their excellent photos will help to market your band. I think they're pretty reasonably priced too…I know Aaron is because we just worked with him and he's great to work with. Thanks to Forester who donated some shots from our last performance just because he happened to be there! He's an incredible talent and a cool guy!
I'm not gonna talk much about the bands. Everyone knows we couldn't have a music scene w/o them and we have quite a few great bands in this area right now!
Anyway…I could go on and on here and I'm not trying to leave anyone out- so I'm just gonna stop. BUT good things are happening. When you see people digging in to help our local music scene thrive…THANK THEM!!! Nobody deserves success to be handed to them. There are a lot of people out there right now that are putting forth extra effort to make things happen around here and we need to make note of it, appreciate it, and put our best foot forward to keep everything in motion. The music scene is kind of a circular whirlwind and when it's pumping…people get excited!!! This helps the scene to thrive. ALL of the bands out there should be helping in any way they can to encourage the "whirlwind" effect and keep shit going strong! Take care!
--Jon Freeman
Vocals and Bass
The Shaker Hoods
Last edited August 7, 2008 11:11:54 am
The Riot Room- The old Hurricane vibe from the early 90's is back…but wait…why is it even cooler now than then? It's general manager is Tim, lead singer and founding member of National Fire Theory, a great local band with a long spanning career. Tim takes care of the bands and is just all around a cool guy! His brother, Dallas works the door often times and is making sure he collects a cover so that the bands get paid. If several people make it past the door w/o paying, your band's take is shit at the end of the night. Dallas makes sure that doesn't happen- so you can thank him at the end of the night when you go home with more cash in your pocket than you expected for your efforts. Artie, Keenan, and Brit are all bartenders at the RR and are also all KC musicians who will help spread the word about your event and they all seem to take pretty good care of the bands! The rest of the staff seems cool too- however these are the people I happen to know there. They're doing a great job with that venue and we need to support it so that they can continue to do business and the KC area bands can continue to have a great venue to play. Oh- and the sound rocks there too…thanks Jeff!!!
Local X- ummm…local music on the FM airwaves 6 nights a week? Fuck yeah!!! That's what I'm talking about. If you haven't already you should write Karsten and Newman and thank them for their efforts! They're out of Larryville, KS and at 92.9 FM on the dial. The station also has a website of course, look it up…I don't want to right now. You can even submit your music via the website!
The Pitch- The Pedaljets are on the cover this week! Yep- and the ABC's were on the cover not too long ago. Nice to see bands making the cover again. AND Danny Alexander is writing for them again. Danny is awesome and TRULY loves local music. Man… that Pedaljets article in this weeks pitch is like 4 FULL pages!!! Hell yeah! So kudos to the Pitch for giving up 4 full pages of their magazine this week to a local, unsigned band. Keep it up! Also INK...I see more and more going on with music here- even though things seem to be "in construction" still. I think the way they're working this website is super cool!
Band photographers- I like photography, so I'm biased but has anyone noticed how incredible some of the band photos are getting out there? Michael Forester, Phil Peterson, Aaron DeMent, SLIMM and Todd Zimmer all come to mind as some of the best in town. There's also a guy I've just recently heard about named Gary Zimmerman that seems to be getting some good stuff. Hire these guys to shoot your shows! Their excellent photos will help to market your band. I think they're pretty reasonably priced too…I know Aaron is because we just worked with him and he's great to work with. Thanks to Forester who donated some shots from our last performance just because he happened to be there! He's an incredible talent and a cool guy!
I'm not gonna talk much about the bands. Everyone knows we couldn't have a music scene w/o them and we have quite a few great bands in this area right now!
Anyway…I could go on and on here and I'm not trying to leave anyone out- so I'm just gonna stop. BUT good things are happening. When you see people digging in to help our local music scene thrive…THANK THEM!!! Nobody deserves success to be handed to them. There are a lot of people out there right now that are putting forth extra effort to make things happen around here and we need to make note of it, appreciate it, and put our best foot forward to keep everything in motion. The music scene is kind of a circular whirlwind and when it's pumping…people get excited!!! This helps the scene to thrive. ALL of the bands out there should be helping in any way they can to encourage the "whirlwind" effect and keep shit going strong! Take care!
--Jon Freeman
Vocals and Bass
The Shaker Hoods
Last edited August 7, 2008 11:11:54 am