[PREV - ZORN_ADVANTAGE]    [TOP]

LIVE_YOUR_OWN_DAMN_BOOK

Lurching toward a promotional 
checklist for bands:

First, read Eugene Chadbourne's 
"I Hate the Man Who Runs this Bar" 

Always have recordings
for sale at your performances.       Tapes, CDs, CD-Rs whatever.
                                                                
                                        How hard can it be to make 
Have flyers for upcoming                a few dozen copies of your     
events at every event.                  last performance?              
                                                                       
Put out a clip board to                                                
collect mailing list addresses.                                        
                                                                       
   Follow up: use your mailing list.                                   
   But don't over-use it.                                              
                                                                       
Never assume that it's someone                                         
else's job to handle publicity     This goes for *everyone* involved,          
                                   performers, events organizers, venue owners,
                                   for that matter, for fans of the music.     
Send out press releases,                                                       
*including photos*.                   Even conflicting, contradictory          
Hit the local weeklies,               publicity is better than nothing.        
but also the local dailies.
The local independant      
radio stations.                 Online stuff is good  
                                too, but don't rely on it.
One more time: you need              
publicity photos on file.           Don't forget the Squid List:
                                    The squids like things big  
Distribute your flyers in           and whacky, so if you think 
music stores, book stores,          big and whacky, don't think 
cafes. Post them on                 twice.  
telephone poles.                                       

When possible, play for people
who've never heard of you.

   *And* who may never have
   heard anything like you: 
                                                    
   Consider the fact that most people
   are so grossly ignorant they'll
   give you credit for things invented
   a century ago.


If you're running a venue:

   get the doors open on time (if not ahead of time).  

   put up big, colorful signs (at a minimum, a placard out
   on the street).

   Think about the environment, at least a little bit, e.g. 
   light the stage, keep lights out of the eyes of the
   audience.  Think about heating/ventilating/air-conditioning.

   Supply decent chairs (metal folding chairs need cushions).
   
   Provide food and drink to the limit the licensing nazi's 
   will let you get away with.


Learn to write grant proposals.

Form partnerships with the other arts. 
Dance, theater, painting, sculpture.

Do some organizational work for other performers 
(they'll scratch your back later). 
   

         (If any of this advice sounds too   
         cyncial for you, go find someone         By the way: this is 
         else to rephrase it so that it           a long list of stuff 
         sounds more postive.  Not my forte.)     here, and you won't 
                                                  get to all of it all 
                                                  the time. 
If it all works out, and you                      
bust the obscurity barrier,                         Don't waste any 
remember that you can look                          energy feeling 
forward to being throughly                          guilty about that, 
disgusted with most of the                          huh?  
people in the audience.
                 
   "Goddamit, in the old days the audience 
   was small but they understood the music, 
   half of the people here tonight showed 
   up just to show how cool they are."
      

--------
[NEXT - NOISE_ABOUNDS]