If you’re in Chicago, The Prairie Cartel is DJing upstairs at Schuba’s tonight, and one of their crew (Scott Lucas, who is also in a little band named Local H) is pulling double-duty as a guest bartender for the evening. For a bunch of rockers, they actually turn out some pretty fun electro-lite. It should be a hell of a blast — I actually pulled the flyer from Cynthia Plaster Caster’s archives so who knows just what the hell is going on — so I urge you to attend. Deets are below.
Promoting and Marketing Music: Part I DIY Marketing to the Public
Monday October 30, 2006 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center Yates Gallery 4th Floor 77 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL
Build relationships with your audience to create fans, and do the marketing yourself. Panelists will advise on the growing array of direct marketing tools artists may find effective to gain fans and attract new audiences. Panelists will discuss their experiences making the best use of internet sites like MySpace, Email newsletters, Music Downloads/Podcasting, self-distribution and sales of music as well as managing your website as the hub for all of these activities. In addition, the panel will discuss how to integrate the new methods with traditional marketing such merchandise, street teams, flyers, posters, cds, performing live, attracting media coverage and commercial music distribution.
Moderated by: Mark Roth, Chicago Music Commission and Centerstage Chicago
Panelists: Jim Kopeny, donewaiting / Chicagoist / Tankboy Productions Jay Prasad, Pure Entertainment Micah Taylor, Direction Marketing Doug LeFrak, Feisty Management
All forums include post-forum networking.
It should be interesting to see how my views stack up against those of a few of my peers on these subjects. I think this particular topic is ripe for some great discussion given the speed with which the underlying structure of said topic keeps changing.
Plus, what better do you have to do on a Monday evening just after work?
You probably have never heard of Flosstradamus. Hell, most folks outside of Chicago most likely were first exposed to them during their super-packed, bursting-at-the-seams (crowd-wise and music-wise) set in the Biz3 tent at this year’s Pitchfork Festival. Pretty much all that’s been available to the listening public have been a few remixes/mash-ups via MySpace, some of Kid Sister’s stuff, and their recent set on the Market Frenzy podcast.
Well, take a gander at what they’ve done to Bloc Party’s “Helicopter.” It’s not so much a remix as it is a total re-imagining of the tune … but it is a good approximation of what they can do live.
I’ve been an unabashed fan of OKGo (and apparently was the only Chicagoan to even pay any attention to their sophomore effort pre-”A Million Ways” choregraphy) for quite a few years now. With that in mind, I thought, yeah, that first dancing video was cute, but it got annoyng awfully quickly. It didn’t help that it was paired with what I thought was a) the weakest song on the album and b) an obvious Cardigans rip-off.
They totally redeem themselves with this one though. I am awestruck.
July 31, 2006 – 11:54 pm | Written by Robert Duffy
We took a pretty relaxed approach to the festival. Spent most of the time at my friend Clint’s booth in the Flatstock area where it was shady and you could still hear the music. Bands were good, the vibe was great. Food was reasonably priced, bottled water was only a buck and there was a big fountain to refill water for free.
The only thing I didn’t realize was that I was supposed to wear my gym outfit from 1987. Other than that, I got nothing bad to say at all. Good job, Pitchfork.
