For Those Who Can't Sleep On Hip Hop

I Fight Dragons: Indie Marketing and Building Success In The New Era of The Music Industry

August 23, 2011

Here’s the first part of Insomniac Magazine’s interview with Brian Mazzaferri- frontman for I Fight Dragons. This distinct band’s niche is Nintendocore, music that uses sounds reminiscent  of  Nintendo’s original NES 8-bit game system. During our talk, Brian explains how his band broke into the spotlight and eventually landed a deal with Atlantic distributed label Photo Finish, the record company that signed 3OH!3. The nature of I Fight Dragon’s music allows the band to differentiate itself by playing gigs and appealing to audiences that will probably gloss over other indie rock bands. Their unique approach creates opportunities for headlining spots at Nerdapalooza and Geek Kon, conventions for those who are proud to be categorized as nerds. This band’s story can provide valuable insight and lessons for artists of any genre seeking to break into the music industry.

(Story and interview by Israel Vasquetelle.)

Tell me about the interesting way you sold music to your fans.

Brian: Our first tour we kind of found ourselves out on the road opening up and we needed a way to fund it because we’re an opening act and so we’re selling merch, but we weren’t making a lot of money.  There were six of us at the time on the road so we have a lot of costs. The idea was that we sell these USB drives. We had these custom USB drives printed up in the shape of business cards kind of that flipped out to be a USB drive so you can keep it in your wallet. They had I Fight Dragons logo on them, but more than that, they were lifetime membership so the people on them basically got free digital copies of I Fight Dragons music for life and free access to I Fight Dragons shows for life. We sold them for $100 a piece and we thought we’ll hopefully sell them by the end of the tour or maybe have some more to go, but they all went within 48 hours. It ended up really helping us on the tour to keep things going. It ended up being really cool too. Those 100 lifetime members have been an awesome resource that as we have released music and they’ve come to see shows all over the nation. Actually, 10 of them were international so they haven’t gotten to come to any shows yet, but maybe someday.

How did you sell those USB drives. Was it mainly online? Was it at live shows?

It was 100% online. It was something I’d come up with and actually, they were all sold through our email list which was kind of something we started with the band and especially in the very beginning. The idea was if people sign up for the email list then they get a free digital copy of our first EP which was 5 songs. People signed up and then as we kept going on, we would release covers, or free tracks or remixes to the email list for free and it was kind of a cool way for people to get more I Fight Dragons music and so it ended up growing pretty fast and that was basically the only place that we put out the news that they were on sale and then pretty quick they were all gone.

So that mailing list, did you build that from collecting names at shows?

Yeah, it was a combination. Especially in 2009, we played a ton of Chicago shows and people would sign up at the shows, but more than that, it was just online. It was a service that we used called Constant Contact which was a really simple mailing list service and they’ve got a really easy sign up form and for the first year that we were a band we didn’t have a website. We did have a website, it was IFightDragons.com, but it was just a one page sign up form for the email list saying if you sign up for the email list you get the free EP. So then it was a form and when people signed up, in the automatic welcome email there was a link to download the EP. And that’s the biggest way that it grew was just through awesome, supportive blogs and podcasts at first sort of liking music and sharing it. It was the biggest way that more new people found out about the email list and if people liked what they heard they told other people and that was the biggest driving factor at first for sure. And then Chicago shows too. We played at least once a month around Chicago and just try to go as crazy as possible and put on the best live show that we could.

That was an interesting story; a fairly unknown, very niche band making $10,000 off of interesting merchandise in a matter of 48 hours. That’s newsworthy in the music industry. What happened after that?

It was definitely our first actual real attempt to monetize the mailing list at all. Up until then it was very much just giving people music and then after that too. We’ve continued to as much as possible to give free music, and bonus tracks, and exclusive things. That definitely helped us fund the tour, but something like that I thought it was a really cool idea. It’s a great trick, but you can only do it once. The thing I like about the lifetime member thing was that we sold something that was theoretically limitless because it’s free shows for life and digital music. In one sense, obviously it’s easy for us to give people digital music, but it’s tougher when you start talking about free admission shows. It’s not things that are costless to give to people. So it was a really cool experience and one that taught a lot and brought us closer, and pretty soon after was the time when we first started talking to Atlantic and Photo Finish, who is currently our record label. We were talking to them during that tour and then after that was when we first started talking about signing with them and then making the full album and everything.

I would say the emphasis sort of shifted. By the beginning of 2010, for the past year we’ve mostly been working more in a label kind of mindset; working just all of the efforts going into the album we’re working on currently. It’s been kind of a crazy year with 50-60 songs I have written for the album and I’m not a super prolific writer so for me that’s a ton of songs because I tend to take a lot of time and work really hard on every song. It’s been a pretty interesting first switch too because being on a label, that sort of thing doesn’t work as well. There’s no provisions for that kind of off-base product like a lifetime membership. There is room for off-base marketing approaches. It’s just tougher to find them and to make them work because obviously there’s a lot more red tape and legal stuff whenever you’re dealing with a larger business entity.

For instance, right now we sort of launched in the past month this thing we’re called the Advanced Guard, which is our version of a community social network street team type thing. I think in the past month we’ve had more than a thousand fans sign up and it’s sort of an internal social network and quest system where fans put up posters and hand out free download cards for the band and get points and then get free stuff or ranks. It’s something that on its face has been done in a lot of ways, but I think the other fun thing about trying that is that it’s something that’s not like a street promotions vehicle that you hire. This is something made of fans and also the band goes on there a lot so we’re talking with them on there. There’s been a lot of ways that we’re trying to find cool marketing stuff within the new context. Honestly, the other challenge is that, especially for the past year, it’s been so much about writing and then the past couple months recording the album that it’s something that now as we’re starting to put our eyes on getting out there again as much as possible, it’s fun to start to bringing these ideas. 

Read part two of Israel Vasquetelle’s talk about breaking into the music industry with the record act’s front man here.

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A Tribe Called TES- A Must Listen!!! by C73

August 20, 2011

TES UNO- A TRIBE CALLED TES: MIXTAPE

Words can’t even begin to explain how much I love this release! This coming months before the recent documentary of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Beats, Rhymes and Life”, I forgot that I had this sitting on my comp waiting to be reviewed (my apologies to TES for the delay). For those out of the loop, TES has been around for a minute releasing a deep discography of ill music. I’ve been following TES since his first EP “Take Home TES” in 2000. Since then he’s released 2 full lengths (one being a freestyle collage CD) along with a gang of singles and cameos. You HAVE to hear this dude!

Anyway, ATCT is more than a homage towards the Native Tongues alumni, but a testament to TES’ skill as an artist. Basically take the illest Tribe beats selected by TES and the flawless DJ Teddy King (also supplying the cuts), and add some introspective lyrics and personal reflection by TES and you have a classic on your hands. I wish other artists had the balls to do this and remind everyone in this Hip Hop community there’s plenty room for expansion in this art.

This 12 track mix-tape starts with an intro to the manifesto by the father of TES in the form of “Pop A Top.” After that, you’re off on a musical journey of dope beats and supreme lyrics. Audible bliss is what I call it. Some of the topics covered are, issues within the music industry, spoiled trust fund kids and PIZZA!!! One of my faves is a track named “Payola” which covers the history of the term and a main problem that has and continues to saturate the music industry today. Back in the day, DJ’s were allowed to play whatever they wanted as long as they did not favor one particular artist. Apparently, one DJ named Alan Freed started the epidemic we know to exist now in the music industry where record labels pay DJ’s to play certain artists music. This track is supremely dope and informative. Hopefully what you’ve read so far has piqued your interest enough to give this a chance. If not, it’s your loss. Please support TES by hitting up http://atribecalledtes.com/. This is a must listen!!! Bless C73

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The Saga continues with Time Pieces: Part 2 by C73ETERNAL

August 20, 2011

B.C.- TIME PIECES PART 2: SURFACE PERIPHERAL RECORDS

“I thought I had returned home, but it seemed I am destined to be tossed back and forth at the whim of time. Falling asleep in Pop World, but all too often, waking up here with the cries of the surface dwellers and the sounds of sirens still in my head. Which one is the dream? I’ve recorded every voice on each side of my slumber in hopes someone will heed them. I can’t tell if living in the cause or the aftermath is more maddening or, just the deaf ears in between. But if you’ll listen, I’ll tell you the story of the surface…”

These lines permeate the insert of B.C.’s second solo release Time Pieces Part 2: Surface. It’s a short glimpse into the 11 track continuation of the Time Pieces series. While rappers are trying to make the most hardcore gangsta music, the catchiest commercial music, or the deepest or most different underground music, B.C. is simply trying to be himself. Time Pieces Part 2: Surface is like a throwback to the early 1990′s only in the sense that at the time, hip-hop had not become the divided and over-classified genre of music it is now. Had “TP: P2″ been released then, it would have been called a hip-hop album, with no unnecessary sub-classification.

Time Pieces Part 2: Surface as an album reflects and captures the essence of what hip-hop was and always will be: a voice for the World’s inner city. Just like rap’s pioneers, B.C. maintains a perfect balance between flexing lyrical muscle and addressing both the good and the bad of his respective topics. But there’s still more! B.C. does sample heavy music, dense music, with a lot of change ups in the details. An exhibition of this emcee just showcasing his enormous amounts of skills is “G Thang”, which really lives off of different flows and some change ups in the beats. Let us not forget that B.C. is a poet too, and makes that clear throughout the album through both word and sound, his obvious expertise with the former often mirrored by a subtle and intelligent touch when manipulating the latter. The presentation of B.C. as a lyricist ranges from being as abstract as Saul Williams (an artist he collaborated with on Part 1) to as direct as KRS ONE.

Not only does it not disappoint, Time Pieces Part 2, also manages to surprise with many twists on the abstract experimentalist’s template of analogue mayhem and lyrical filibustering. Given the depth of B.C’s discussion on relevant material, the heavy weight of the beats supplied by the likes of Miles Harris, Lazy, Aetoms and mostly Mudd Buddha, and the quality recording and mastering of the product; the total package presents an ambitious attempt to expand underground hip-hop while at the same time recapturing the more conscious aspects of the art. If you sleep you’ll miss the sickness of cuts like “ Bomb Shelter”, “Riot”, “Time to Make the Donuts” and the personal “I Prefer Whiskey”. Overall, the beats are awesome and the rhymes are off the chain. But this review cannot do justice to the emotion B.C. and the various producers conjure at the more gripping parts. Any talented emcee can flow, but it takes a whole other kind of talent to do it like B.C. Please support B.C. by checking out http://thepopworld.com/. Bless C73

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Sean Doegh reps with “Jade Dreams” by CyPhEr777

August 17, 2011

Sean Doegh-Jade Dreams

This is the newest offering from one of the members of the renowned Official crew out of Boston, Mass. Sean Doegh obviously has some strong creative ideas. Jade Dreams will please those who are hungry for tight lyrics and rhymes, as this 14-track album (few interludes!) is packed with a lot of them. The content within each verse show us it is possible to combine complex lyricism with accessibility. In other words, it’s good enough for the underground, but it’s also ready for the masses.

While this type of intensity could easily fade as the album goes on, Sean Doegh holds it up firmly right until the end. His flows are as modern as some of the top MC’s today, and regardless of Doegh’s age there is still an old school mentality that shows he’s been doing his homework. This is just one more side of the talent that continues to come from Massachusetts, and Sean Doegh has a gift that is difficult to pass up. He’s a deep thinker with an equally deep vocabulary and isn’t afraid to challenge listeners to absorb and review his rhymes. It’s as if he is testing them to see if they’re worthy of peeping his knowledge, a task that takes multiple listens to accomplish. Once listeners pass the test, they’ll see those verbal puzzles as evidence of his passion for lyricism and hip-hop in general.

He displays his passion for the culture on tracks like “The Entrance,” “Adamantium” featuring Frizwill and the raw “Seanplex.” [click to continue…]

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Bill Adler’s book on Def Jam’s history provides an inside look into the iconic record label’s legacy

August 14, 2011

From the book: Beastie Boys, Nelson George, and Rick Rubin backstage after opening for Madonna on the "Like A Virgin Tour." (Image courtesy of Rizzoli Publications.)

Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label tells the inside story of the first quarter century of the iconic record label’s existence. The book’s coauthor Bill Adler, Def Jam’s original publicist who also worked along side Russell Simmons before he paired with Rick Rubin to form the record label, does a phenomenal job of chronicling this amazing story. The book’s other author, Dan Charnas, recently made waves with his title The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop. (Read his interview with Insomniac Magazine here.) The authors conducted interviews featuring many of the original label players, including Simmons, Rubin, The Beastie Boys and Run DMC, just to name a few. These insightful stories are paired with a significant amount of amazing pictures. This wonderful book is certainly worthy of displaying on the coffee table of any true lover of music and its history.

During a recent talk with Insomniac Magazine, Adler shared his thoughts on the value of physical books in the current era of digital media dominance.

“…the future of books, per se, is very much in question. Having said that, I believe that there’s something to be said for an actual physical book and an image that is twelve inches square and is beautifully reproduced. I don’t think computer screens compete… If it’s a novel, go ahead to your ebook. If the story to be told requires beautiful pictures as well, then make an art book in the way that Rizzoli does and glory in that. It’s still the best medium for stories like that.”

The book’s shape and size is the same as the classic records that helped make the label a success. As the resurgence of vinyl has shown, people still crave physical media if it provides a significant amount of quality and helps to enhance the consumption experience. This book, which was designed by Cey Adams Def Jam’s original art director that was responsible for many of the classic images that have helped to make the label’s albums just as memorable as the music, is as visually impressive as the amazing story it tells. Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label will be released in October and is published by Rizzoli.
by Israel Vasquetelle

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