Found a series of articles in the L.A. Times that I thought were interesting enough that if you are an artist looking for new ideas/what’s happening now and/or someone considering launching a label – these articles cover a lot of what’s happening – or at least from an indie perspective – presently via some snapshots of a few artists/labels.

So my label put out GGMU’s debut EP. It seems I should have maintained a working relationship with them (don’t worry we still have sleepovers all the time). Why, oh little reviews like the following for their debut LP, ZOMBIES!:

The Toronto Star wrote:

Arguably the most impressive indie pop band to come out of the East Coast since Two Hours Traffic

Ground Control had this and more to say:

ZOMBIES!!! marks Glory Glory Man United as a band to watch in the coming months. This album and the directions it takes combined with the overall sound of it seem destined to attract the attention and favor of Constantines, Sonic Youth and Mission Of Burma fans, but the record is made all the more exciting by the fact that Glory Glory Man United is only getting started; what they do next is anyone’s guess, but hopefully we won’t have to wait long to find out.

Herohill wrote:

ZOMBIES! feels like the remarkably polished and precise evolution…they firmly define their sound and have written a record that local slacker kids will cop and try to imitate in the years to come.

Wowzers!!!!!!!! Congrats guys!

RELEASE SHOW TONIGHT (Thursday July 8th)

Come join GGMU at Gus’ Pub this Thursday night for some electric mayhem. We’re releasing our very first (self-produced, DIY-recorded) [check those reviews again! -Rob] full-length album, ZOMBIES!!!, on CD and powder-blue vinyl, in kickass handmade silkscreened cases. The Toronto Star loves it. Herohill loves it. Ground Control loves it. You will too. You can stream the whole thing on our myspace!

With very special guest(s) Jon McKiel. We’re quite excited.
http://www.myspace.com/jonmckiel

http://www.myspace.com/ggmu

EDIT – Start time and cost

it is just the two bands, cover is 5 bucks. ggmu will likely start sometime between 11 and 12, depending on when people start showing up. people have to work in the morning and all that, we’re going to try to have a relatively early show and party down afterward so people can trickle home as they like.

on that note, anyone reading this and planning on attending should please be there for 10 pm. i hesitate to say it’s going to be amazing because obviously i’m in one of the bands but i’m psyched.

In the bleak summer of 09, three pals with some time on their hands formed a new loud rock n roll band…..

And made it one of my favorite new bands to come out of Halifax in a while. Dirty low-fi power pop punk that KICKS!! Thanks in no small part to Meg’s instinctual beat down on the kit. For a first time drummer she plays with enough confidence and raw ommph to convince anyone this is not a) her first band and b) that she hadn’t played drums before.

The band is fronted by KC Spidle – formerly of Dog Day and still Husband and Knife [with BV's bass player Evan playing there too].

This is the band’s first tour beyond the Maritimes, show them some love!
It is also Meg’s first tour ever + first time traveling across Canada, so show them a good time folks!

You can follow tour updates at:
http://badviben.tumblr.com/

Check out some music and keep an eye for their future return via their MySpace page. My current fav track of the moment = “We’re Dead”
http://www.myspace.com/bdvbes

Tour Dates:

• 6 May 2010 FRIENDSHIP COVE w/ DRUNK DIAL & OMAN RA II MONTREAL, Quebec, CANADA
• 7 May 2010 TERANGA w/ BAG TAG & SOUP CANS TORONTO, Ontario , CA
• 8 May 2010 TRINITY LOUNGE SARNIA, Ontario, CANADA
• 9 May 2010 THIS AIN’T HOLLYWOOD w/ SAILBOATS ARE WHITE & RATTAIL & TROPICS HAMILTON, Ontario , CA
• 11 May 2010 BABYLON CLUB w/ CENTRETOWN CRIPPLERS, KNIFEMARE OTTAWA, Ontario , CA
• 12 May 2010 P572 HOUSE QUEBEC, Quebec , CA
• 13 May 2010 THE CAPITAL w/ CURSED ARROWS FREDRICTON, New Brunsw, CANADA
• 14 May 2010 THE PARAMOUNT w/ THE NUCLEAR & THE ROBINS MONCTON, New Brunsw, CA

DETAILS:
Hello friends! Please help support Rocking4Dollars! Contrary to what you might think we don’t make a ton of cash every monday.
We need your help to fix up our hurtin’ drum kit. Drum kits is expensive!!!
On Saturday April 3 come check out:
Myles Deck and the Fuzz cover The Fat Stupids
Sleepless Nights cover Myles Deck and the Fuzz
Bad Motels cover Sleepless Nights
No Flyers Please cover the Bad Motels
Fat Stupids cover No Flyers Please.
It will be Insanity personified through the fucking roof. $5.
HAPPY HOUR DRINKS FOR THE WHOLE SHOW JUST LIKE EVERY SATURDAY. $2.50 shots/$3 beer.
9-11pm.

FACEBOOK:
Event Page

A WARNING:
Come on and show the love you fucking jerks. Anybody who plays Rockin4Dollars, especially only on $1000 nights, and misses this show will be automatically hit by food the next time me or Adrian see you. – Craig Hamlin, R4$ Overlord

http://www.myspace.com/rockin4dollars

Hope you like Steve Miller………

Tickets on sale now at ticketpro.ca or Ticketpro outlets ($21.50adv/$29 day of show).

FYI: Every Thrush Hermit show will feature a different opening act, sorry I have no details on the others right now.

www.mypsace.com/mylesdeckandthefuzz
www.myspace.com/thrushhermitrox

Complete* Reunion Dates
8 Mar 2010 The Manhattan Club Moncton, New Brunswick
19 Mar 2010 The Paragon Theatre Halifax, NS
20 Mar 2010 The Paragon Theatre Halifax, NS
23 Mar 2010 Starlight Club Waterloo, Ontario
24 Mar 2010 Red Dog Tavern Peterborough, Ontario
25 Mar 2010 Capitol Ottawa, Ontario
26 Mar 2010 Lee’s Toronto, Ontario
27 Mar 2010 Lee’s Toronto, Ontario
* might be missing an all ages show….

Thrush Hermit – Complete Recordings- 7 DISC BOX SET-  to be released on New Scotland.  An epic project.  Scrambling madly to get it together for the Hermit reunion tour in March (fingers crossed!).

Disc 1- Clayton Park

Disc 2- Sweet Homewrecker

Disc 3- Smart Bomb and The Great Pacific Ocean

Disc 4 – All Technology Aside – 22 songs – outtakes, b-sides and unreleased

Disc 5 – Hits and Giggles – 23 songs – early singles, eps and unreleased tracks

Disc 6 – Embarrass Ourselves Awake – hodge podge of really early material from Nabisco Fonzie, The Hoods, The Hermit and The Tim Robbins

Experience.  Truly embarrassing stuff to keep you awake on long drives

Disc 7 – DVD consisting of Learn to Party documentary (1999) and lots of extra never before seen footage from 1990- 1999

Will also include a 24 page booklet with lots of photos and liner notes written by Rob Benvie.

From Here To There Wrestling presents:

* Sensational Main Event*

Myles Deck and the Fuzz
http://www.myspace.com/mylesdeckandthefuzz
vs.
Cuban Assassins
http://www.myspace.com/cubanassassins

the Nuclear
http://www.myspace.com/thenuclear
vs.
the Dead Pinkertons
http://www.myspace.com/deadpinkertons

Bell Time 10PM

Facebook Event page
——————————————————————————

This Friday is the official release of the Fuzz’s new 7″ split with the Cuban Assassins!!! This will be a limited pressing hot red vinyl piece of magic you should get your hands on!!! Have a listen:
01 – Myles Deck and the Fuzz – Lights Out Electric Co
02 – Myles Deck and the Fuzz – The Healing Power
01 – Cuban Assassins – Money
02 – Cuban Assassins – Dead Dead Dead

You’ll be able to catch the Fuzz and Assassins in Halifax and Moncton this week:

• Thursday Nov 26 THE PARAMOUNT LOUNGE  Moncton, New Brunswick
• Friday Nov 27  GUS’ PUB – Split 7″ release! w/The Nuclear + Dead Pinkertons Halifax, Nova Scotia

He also encouraged folks to take any email that you come across and put it on your band’s mailing list and followed that up with “Let them decide that they don’t want to be on my list.”
- Discmakers Product Specialist Sydney Alston

One of my pet peeves as of late has been the number of band newsletters – and mailings from music publicists – I have had my email addresses added to unwillingly. For whatever reasons, since the summer there has been a noticeable increase in such happenings. Now I know the majority of those folks were not at the conference referenced below but they appear to be following a similar train of thought.

The following is from Bob Lefsetz’s email newsletter. You can find his archives online but not everything makes it there. It is worth signing up for the newsletter directly [and that's the only way you'll ever receive it, as it should be]. There are plenty of emails and responses that do not get posted to his blog that make the emails worthwhile, since this is one of those responses I have posted an email response in full from a reader of his regarding some very disappointing advice staff at Disc Makers is spreading.

The email below represents what not to do in growing an email list. For advice on what to do check out Seth Godin’s blog. He coined the term Permission Marketing: “delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them…It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention”. If you have never read anything by Seth Godin and are responsible for marketing your band or someone else’s you should plan to spend sometime reviewing his ideas.

The Emails

Subject:        Re: NewsChannel 5 Investigates

Great article Bob, per usual.  It’s the age of accountability and you’re doing your part.

I had an interesting thing at the TAXI Music Convention this weekend in Los Angeles and I thought you might enjoy it.  I’ll tell you the quick story and then tag on what I sent to TAXI’s forum about it – still waiting for a response.  Now first up – TAXI does wonderful things for independent artists but one seminar I went to was too much.  Briefly:

Class was “Acheiving Success with your Music” by Sydney Alston.
Sydney has numerous credits including being a Product Specialist for Discmakers and formerly of the band “Joyride”
He encouraged sharing email lists with other bands to grow your own and then use that to work corporate sponsorships by selling your email list.
He also said that Discmakers were the only company worth making cds with
He also encouraged folks to take any email that you come across and put it on your band’s mailing list and followed that up with “Let them decide that they don’t want to be on my list.”

That’s the gist of it but below is what I sent to TAXI.

Thanks for listening Bob – you are one of the beacons of hope in this “industry”.  I’ve learned so much from your newsletters that it has really helped me in my career.  Trying to figure out how to say – you’ve created a sense of concience and a moral code that I believed in before I even read a word you wrote.

I would love to know your thoughts on this.

–
Bobbo
www.thefallenstars.com

To TAXI:

I really struggled with whether or not to post this but I think it’s important. While I got so much out of all the classes I went to this weekend, I had some significant concerns about the Achieving Success with Your Music seminar with Sydney Alston. It wasn’t the fact that the session was a Discmakers “infomercial” disguised as a class, though that was certainly irritating. It wasn’t even the fact that Sydney clearly stated he didn’t write his own presentation, but rather it was supplied to him by the president of Discmakers, which was pretty surprising considering the general high caliber of TAXI presenters.

No, what bothered me was that I believe some of the information provided was misleading at best and downright unethical and possibly illegal at worst, and this is not the type of behavior that should be recommended as a best practice by the TAXI or any music community.

Sydney was talking about his time in his band Joyride and how he and other bands “shared” their email list with each other. This got him over 40,000 names on his email list. With this list he was able to secure endorsement deals with Jagermeister, Trojan Condoms and record companies’ interest – in return for giving these companies access to his compiled email list. He also said that he would add any email address that he came across, in any context – band-related or not – to his email list and “Let them decide that they don’t want to be on my list.” This sounds suspiciously close to email harvesting and spamming to me.

I treat my mailing list like family. I don’t share it with anyone else – I’ve been offered endorsement deals where they have asked for our mailing list and I have turned them down. I use an opt-in subscription based system to manage my list. Each email specifies that folks are receiving the email because they signed up with our band’s mailing list and provides an “Unsubscribe” option if they so choose.

After doing some research today into the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, I was surprised to discover that email harvesting is only illegal if the website provider has explicitly stated that they will not make that information available to other parties. As of today I will also be adding the following statement to my website and mailing list tools, “We will not give, sell, or otherwise transfer your email address to anyone else. Ever.”

It’s important to me that our fans know we value their privacy and believe that any violation of that privacy is a gross misuse of the trust they placed in us.

In summary bands: DO NOT DO THIS!!

Nov 11 TROIS MINOT     Montreal, Quebec
Nov 12 THE BOAT w/High Mother, Chang-a-lang and ‘It It     Toronto, Ontario
Nov 13 OSSIA w/Sons of Thor     Peterborough, Ontario
Nov 14 THE PHOG LOUNGE w/High Mother     Windsor, Ontario
Nov 15 MOON OVER MARIN w/High Mother     London, Ontario
Nov 18 THE LEGENDARY RED ROOSTER     Burlington, Ontario
Nov 20 THE MANSION     Kingston, Ontario
Nov 21 SCANNER     Quebec, Quebec

If you are curious about checking out the band, feel free to download their releases to date beforehand to help you decide:

01 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Beware! The Fuzz
02 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – California Man
03 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – I Love My Baby
04 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Thrill Seeker
05 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Filthy Addiction
06 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Master of the House
07 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Watch Your Job
08 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Ain’t Worth Tryin’
09 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – Halifax is Burning
10 – Myles Deck and The Fuzz – It’s a Long Walk

Police Cops cover art

01- Myles Deck & the Fuzz – Police Cops
02- Myles Deck & the Fuzz – Ayatollah
03- Myles Deck & the Fuzz – Boom Boom

EP as a zip

New 7″ Split with the Cuban Assassins

The weekend after they return from tour they are officially release their new 7″ split with the Cuban Assassins!!! This will be a limited pressing hot red vinyl piece of magic you should get your hands on!!! Have a listen:
01 – Myles Deck and the Fuzz – Lights Out Electric Co
02 – Myles Deck and the Fuzz – The Healing Power
01 – Cuban Assassins – Money
02 – Cuban Assassins – Dead Dead Dead

You’ll be able to catch the Fuzz and Assassins at the end of November in Halifax and Moncton:
Nov 26 THE PARAMOUNT LOUNGE w/Cuban Assassins    Moncton, New Brunswick
Nov 27  GUS’ PUB – Split 7″ release! w/Cuban Assassins     Halifax, Nova Scotia

And don’t they look excited!

Fortunately for these guys the “now what” part isn’t going to be hard to figure out.

First off – this weekend, Halloween night:
Live bands meet live burlesque on Saturday Oct.31st @ The Seahorse Tavern. Bang Bang Burlesque has put together individual dances for original music from The Broken Ohms, Gloryhound , Big Game Hunt and Myles Deck and the Fuzz. The stage will also be joined by Halifax’s own BLOODBATH. This night will be filled with Sexy , Dirty and Sweaty Rock n Roll with an efficient amount of gore and blood to fill all your ghoulish fantasies. Come out and be apart of this Halloween extravaganza!!!!!

Here’s the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=ho … 96&index=1

Nova Scotia Music Week – www.musicnovascotia.ca/nsmw
In a little over a week they will be performing two sets [at least, will see about some late night opportunities] at Music Nova Scotia’s Music Week (in Yarmouth this year).

Nov 6 Th’ YARC – Warped Tour BOTB     Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
This show is a performance before Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. He will be selecting one of the bands to perform on dates for the 2010 tour.  Set time will be determined by draw at the show. Also performing are Three Sheet, The Stanfields, Ricochet and last call Chernobyl. This show is all ages.

Nov 7  Then Saturday night they will be performing a 19+ showcase at the Red Knight [stage 2]. Their set is 10:15-10:45
As part of this set the guys will also be part of a fashion project conceived by the Argyle Fine Art gallery: Project Bandstand

Ontario Tour + 7″ Split with Cuban Assassins
They then have a couple days off before heading out to Ontario and back for their “Fuzz Goes Commando Tour”. Check out that post for MP3s for all their releases to date even if you can’t catch a show because the tour will also be in celebration of their new 7″ split with the Cuban Assassins which you can hear too.

New LP
But the guys have not been resting in anticipation of these dates. They have been gigging, playing after parties and most importantly: recording a new LP you’ll be able to get your hands on in early 2010.

Those sessions have been going great, sounding better and the band is excited about the end product. I will give the credit to the wonderful Mike O’Neil who has been producing these sessions [Mike just won a Gemini for his music work on TV, congrats].

So while the band is busy recording and performing I am working on a master plan for their 2010 conquests. 2010 will see their first journey beyond Ontario  and allow the western provinces a taste of one of our rock and roll secrets.

A new LP, maybe some Warped Tour dates….

And I will be using them on this blog as guinea pigs in a series of posts for developing digital strategies for bands. There are so many options, so little time and so much confusion – what the hell is a band to do? Honestly, not a clue. Well some clues. Half an idea. We’ll figure it out.

I might love these guys
The Fuzz were the first band my wife and I released on our label.  It is great to see them still giving it their all and winning folks over with every show. I am very excited to becoming more involved with them and seeing how far they can go. Hopefully you’ll stick around for the trip too.

P.S. In honor of all that is happening may I unveil the very first official Myles Deck and the Fuzz avatar [probably a good thing you can't make out the Fuzz logo there....]

P.S.S – First person that can name which album cover that is …hmmm…..paying homage too – gets a free copy of the 7″ split when they arrive.

Note speaks for itself:

Hello musical friends! This is just a quick call-out to see if some of you may be able to do a virtual serenade for my good friend Sandra Winter. This is as simple as recording yourself at an upcoming gig or in your living room on your phone, with a camera….whatever. Music is the best medicine afterall.

Who is Sandra Winter? She used to be heavily involved with the artistic community and music community in the Kempt Shore area more recently. The last two years she has been forced to live in Toronto, while she waits patiently for double lung transplant. The wait has been long and emotionally and financially draining to say the least, yet her strength and sense of humour remain. She continues to love living life despite the future that may lay ahead.

So…. I got to thinking… maybe some of you can sing a song to brighten up the days ahead. It’s pretty simple. Once you have a video or snippet of a song, simply email Adriana Afford at Argyle Fine Art at gallery@argylefa.com and I will give you our Youtube channel info and you can upload it or I can do that for you! THANKS! You could start tonight ….at Music Nova Scotia OPEN MIC! Make someone happy with your music. You’ve got the power.

- Adriana Afford