KTRU News Roils, Saddens Local Music Community

It’s filled with impassioned responses from Houston music aficionados and those who have in the past and continue to contribute to our patchwork quilt of an arts community.

I missed the deadline while still on vacation. But based on the temperature of responses I would like to offer my own comments regarding the sale.

No one will argue that this situation is an incredible tragedy for independent music in Houston, for college radio in the nation, for the creative community of Houston. Even more sad is that we have to acknowledge at this point that students and the community at large hold very little power in reversing the decision to sell KTRU. This was punctuated by Rice’s choice not to include any of the stakeholders in the sale of the station. This decision is being viewed by those both inside and out of the Rice community as a betrayal of trust from an institution that prides itself in taking into account student needs and input for the improvement of their education and the university itself. Viewed from the University’s standpoint though, this was a well thought-out business decision to finally capitalize on an underused resource, and to finalize the deal at a time when there were few people around to raise objections.

The history of KTRU is as a terrestrial station, something people listened to in their cars, at home, with friends; the future of KTRU as an online-only station is an ersatz one at best. The polarized public outcry, retelling of stories of how KTRU shaped lives and careers and passions is a celebration of those terrestrial memories and of the way KTRU has changed lives.

We are about to lose a valuable asset to the Houston creative community. But this outpouring of public support is something that should make people surrounding KTRU happy, knowing that they made a difference. Furthermore, instead of remaining reactionary we can quickly turn this situation into an opportunity to galvanize our musical community to build something better. Pirate radio stations, more avenues for the exposure of live music in Houston, more local music programming in non-traditional areas. The celebration of the things that KTRU gave us in our lives and our passions doesn’t need to end, merely re-focused towards something greater.

The music business is changing. The way you as an artist craft your message and direct your career is now at your fingertips and fully in your control. While some might see this as an incredible opportunity, most see it as overwhelming and stifling to creativity and career enhancement. Questions such as “where do we start?” or “what should we be doing to get more ___ or promote our ___?” always seem to have answers but something’s missing, the actions don’t seem to tie together and build to something bigger.

Enter Goals and Strategy
You’ve all heard this before: What’s Your Goal? Well, you’re not hearing it enough and you’re also assuming it’s rhetorical. It’s not a rhetorical question. What’s Your Goal is the most important question you can ask yourself because the answer illuminates the answers to those other questions, like “where do we start?” or “what should we do to increase our promotion of…?” More than that, setting goals also lets others know where your resources and time is being spent and how they can support you. Music writers know whether you are serious about your music or whether it’s a bedroom project. Fans know that you want to get to the next level and need their financial support or just to give it a listen and enjoy it.

At this month’s Bandcampus, we’ll help you to figure out what exactly you are striving for with your music. Whether it’s fame, financial wealth, wide-spread recognition, or simply creative output, all of these goals have measureable steps associated with them. The session will begin with an overview of the difference between tools (like social media), goals (like financial security), and strategy (like a college radio campaign). Following the naming of parts we’ll dive into examples of each and how you can adopt specific parts for your own goals and strategy. We’ll highlight the difference between long and short term goals and how both of these are important for forming a strategy. We’ll showcase a couple strategies that leverage your exisiting properties and resources to vault you towards your long term goal.

Every attendee of this month’s Bandcampus will walk away with set goals for the coming year, a long-term goal and the beginning of a strategy for their musical career.

WHAT: Bandcampus: GOALS and STRATEGERY
WHEN: April 11th, 2-4pm  (Rescheduled for 4/18/10 b/c of Fiesta Movement party featuring Caroline Collective)
WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline Houston, TX
WHY: Set measurable goals for yourself and your band ]]> http://matthewwettergreen.com/2010/04/09/bandcampus-goals-and-strategery/feed/ 0 http://matthewwettergreen.com/2010/03/10/bandcampus-sxsw-prep-recap/ http://matthewwettergreen.com/2010/03/10/bandcampus-sxsw-prep-recap/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:05:12 +0000 matthew http://matthewwettergreen.com/?p=1018 Last Sunday, Bandcampus held it’s second SXSW PREP where we collectively prepared and reviewed band’s digital and physical toolbox in an effort to prepare them for playing SXSW.  Over 15 bands were in attendance with a range from seasoned SXSWers to new bands that had never played the conference.

Also at Bandcampus: SXSW PREP we announced the winners of the community voted contest to select bands to play at the second annual Houston@SXSW party. Over 1000 votes were cast over a 72 hour period. We are all very impressed with the work that bands put into contacting their community to get the vote out. If these Houston bands are working that hard in other spheres we’re going to be hearing many more about them in the near future.

The bands that were selected, the bands that will be representing Houston at the Second Annual Houston@SXSW party will be:

Peekaboo Theory

Southern Backtones

Runaway Sun

Kenneth Scott

The Snake Charmers

Here’s the remainder of the recap in mostly bullet point form for your skimming pleasure:

Tips for Bands playing SXSW (contributed by everyone in attendance)

The first agenda item of the day was to discuss what you could get out of SXSW by playing or even just attending. The overarching tip that should be considered when planning anything is to Cut Through the Noise. Too many people are at SXSW and you need to think about ways in which you can connect with these people in a substantial way. That does not include overplaying, that does not include talking to everyone you meet. It does include thinking about effective ways to communicate your message. It does include novel ways of getting the word out.

• Biggest tip: Cut Through the Noise!
• Don’t overplay
• bring extra equipment
• Make a game plan
• Playing is half of the goal
• Networking needs a goal

Digital and Physical Preparation for bands

No matter what level a band is at, they should have a digital and physical toolbox that they can use at a moment’s notice to get discovered, sell merchandise or showcase their craft. At the Bandcampus session we reviewed the basics of a digital and physical toolbox that bands can set up easily. The components

• Digital Toolbox
  • Central band email address (gmail or unique band domain recommended)
  • Pictures posted online
  • Videos (Live, Produced) posted online
  • Unique Band Domain Name
  • Music posted online in several locations
  • Testimonials/Writeups from press posted visibly on online properties
  • Booking information
  • Short biography of the band
  • A Home Base that is not Myspace, Facebook or any other online property not owned by yourself
  • Digital Outposts at places like Myspace, Facebook, ReverbNation, Bandcamp.com, etc.
• Physical Toolbox
  • Music for sale
  • Merchandise for sale
  • Business Cards (Recommended by Marie Angell of The Snake Charmers)
  • Elevator Pitch (Worked on at a previous Bandcampus, demonstrated by Insert Name Here)

Helpers

Several experts were on hand to give bands a review of their online presence and physical marketing materials. These people donated their time and deserve thanks and also should be considered for the future if you are looking for copy, marketing materials, or general direction for a band’s career.

• Grace Rodriguez
• Natalie Osborn
• Jeremy Osborn
• Joe Stone
• Meghan Hendley

Bands in Attendance

• Nosaprise
• I-45
• Golden Cities
• Vocal Polluter
• Alkari
• Espantapajaros
• Live Lights
• Darwin’s Finches
• Wayside Drive
• Inner Lights
• Peekaboo Theory
• Snake Charmers
• Prairie Cadets
• Joe Stone
• Solanae
• Insert Name Here

The last 60 hours have been a fog of sleeping, coughing, delirium, speaking in tongues, and changing out of soaked clothes because I sweat the bed again. Gross. The flu quarantine should be lifted by Saturday and the locks taken off the apartment doors at that time.

My apologies to bands who were looking for voting information yesterday. We will now close nominations and open voting for bands to play at Houston@SXSW on March 15th, 2010. Voting is open as of now and will close on Sunday, February 28th at noon. Please pick three bands to play, one voting session per person, per IP, just in case you were already thinking of gaming the results.

Please send this poll along to any of your fans, the link is: http://micropoll.com/t/KDrkEZBCok

There are still many very good reasons to attend SXSW and there are even more unexplored ways to maximize your impact at the conference. The fact that the conference is so close to Houston makes it worth your while to attend even without a badge or wristband. Many industry professionals are in Austin during the week of music and the setting provides a good opportunity to contact and meet them to talk about your career. Label, booking and promotional companies also attend and fruitful research can be accomplished by sitting down with them for meetings. Additionally, with the rise of non-SXSW-sanctioned parties running virtually around the clock, the need to play a SXSW showcase is significantly less important than it was several years ago.

In personal communication with bands over the past couple years I’ve talked about how important it is to take control of your career and do game changing things to get noticed and build your audience. As a band working for itself, SXSW is the perfect staging grounds for this philosophy and the best way to accomplish this is to cut through the noise.

Don’ts:

• Don’t play 9 shows in 4 days; those last shows are going to be low on energy and probably not represent your band in the way you wish to portray yourselves.
• Don’t try and play the hottest party at SXSW; you probably don’t know what it is and if you did you’d already have representation working for you.
• Don’t expect to be discovered at SXSW and have everything handed to you from now on

Do’s:

• Look at what everyone else is doing and take a right turn from that
• Do play (at least) one show that will have the desired impact to get you noticed by any potential fans, not just that talent scout: a guerrilla show in the middle of the street, on the back of a flatbed truck while driving around, play your music blasting from a boombox while walking down the street, hang shirts of your band just out of reach on telephone poles near the convention
• Do your research beforehand to target the people you want to work with, write them beforehand, and get a committment to meet with them to talk
• Do attend Bandcampus: SXSW PREP at Caroline Collective on February 28th from 2-4pm to make plans to attack SXSW and get your digital and physical toolbox in order

That last part is key. This Sunday at Caroline Collective we will be holding the latest installment of Bandcampus, entitled SXSW PREP. Similar to last year, this will be a workshop pairing volunteers with musical artists working to get prepared for SXSW with the following goals:

1. Prepare press materials and basic online presence items for bands interested in attending SXSW.
Any band playing in Austin during SXSW needs to be prepared to promote themselves given the chance. Playing a show is just the start of that promotion. Artists need a press kit, songs hosted online, video posted online, booking and contact information somewhere as well as physical cds to sell to interested parties or to give to record labels or booking agents. Many bands are unprepared for this situation and are lacking many of these items. By providing musicians with creative experts bands can receive focused attention to generate or upload these items to a location on the internet that raises the artists’ visibility.

2. Announce the bands that will be playing at Houston@SXSW, a Houston focused party showcasing Houston musicians, filmmakers and technologists.
This year we will be holding the second Houston@SXSW party. Last year’s party, held at Gruv, sponsored by Kirtsy, Werkadoo, Schipul, AYNBrand, and Caroline Collective , was a locally focused party showcasing Houston talent in three areas: technology, film and music. The following artists showcased: Dave Wrangler, Western Civilization, Wayside Drive, Ben Wesley, Espantapajaros, Golden Cities, Liquid Kitchen, Tha Fucking Transmissions, American Sharks, Something Fierce, and Fat Tony / B L A C K I E.

This year’s party will again focus on the contributions of Houston’s creative professionals. Startups will present, films will be shown and musical artists will showcase. This year’s party will be held at Hudson’s (301 W. 5th), Monday, March 15th from 5pm-2am. Last year’s music was curated by myself selected from the bands who attended Bandcampus: SXSW PREP. This year’s showcasing bands will be selected by the community. That means you. And your community.

Pay attention because we are going to do this very quickly. Nominations are open as of now and will close on Thursday, February 25th at noon. If you are in a band, know a band or like a band, DO THIS NOW: nominate them in the comment section below.

Starting Thursday at noon, voting will open for all bands who were nominated. Voting details, site and rules will be given on Wednesday. Voting will close on Sunday, February 28th at noon. Bands who are selected to play the party will be announced at Sunday’s Bandcampus: SXSW PREP.

Sunday’s Bandcampus: SXSW PREP is for 1) Houston musicians attending SXSW as official selections, 2) Houston musicians interested in playing at the  Houston focused day party, 3) Bands looking to get their physical/online toolbox and online presence set up or checked by industry professionals, and 4) industry professionals looking to donate a couple hours to help bands generate/solidify these materials.

We need skilled graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, PR reps or any other creative professional which would be able to donate time and services for a couple hours to help bands prepare their online presence and press materials for SXSW.

WHAT: Bandcamp: SXSW PREP
WHEN: February 28th, 2-4pm
WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline Houston, TX
WHY: Prepare for SXSW, find out who’s playing Houston@SXSW; a free showcase of Houston creative professionals

Two recaps of this were posted about this meeting the next day, by Brittanie Shey of Houston Press and Jeremy Hart of Space City Rock. Brittanie’s piece provides a good flow of the conversation that was had about the local music community, especially the hot topic of staying up on local bands and why so few bands send in music or make any attempt to contact the press. Jeremy’s post gives a run down of those in attendance and his kind comments about how great the event was were shared by everyone in attendance. You should check those out as a companion to this post.

The most heated point of discussion related to Houston’s music press not being contacted by local musicians enough to keep them updated on their careers. I am squarely in this camp with the press and feel that there is too much apathy and reactivity (vs. proactivity) in Houston musicians and that musicians should be in better contact with their press. This was a topic that was directly mentioned by Craig Hlavaty at the last Bandcampus, re-addressed with a series of posts on this site and echoed with comments and other statements by Brittanie Shey and Sara Cress of 29-95.com.

On this topic Joe Mathlete had the most prescient comments. Joe said two things that deserve to be repeated, keep in mind I’m paraphrasing his quotes but attempting to conserve the ideas:

1. Music writers need to be doing a better job of getting out into the community and finding out what bands are doing.

2. Some band’s goals are simply to put out good music and have fun.

I’m happy to cede the first point and to share the burden of proactively contacting bands to keep tabs on them. As for the second point, it is both true and contributing to the problem of not enough contact between musicians and press. The issue is not that bands want to have fun and put out good music because that’s something that we can all get behind. The issue is not the additionally agreeable statement from Joe that some of these bands don’t care if they get written up because that’s not part of their success metrics. The problem is goals.

There are not enough bands who have goals to be financially/artistically successful telling the public this. There are not enough bands who have goals that include making good music and having fun telling the public this. These goals are neither mutually exclusive or in opposition of each other. But they are ideas of a path and a direction and hone in on what they bands want/need to achieve them. And that’s what’s really missing: there are not enough bands in Houston with goals. This is not the first time I’ve personally mentioned musician goals. The real problem with bands not having goals is that it creates confusion for the local music press who do have stated goals: to chronicle the Houston music community and write about it’s related media products.

There are a lot of places we can go from here. We could talk about the effect of an entire community of bands operating without stated goals. That this leaves the music press questioning 1) why they’re not hearing from musicians more and 2) whether they should write about the musicians or whether the musicians want them to write about them. Or we could talk about how band’s definitions of success may not include caring whether the music press writes about them at all or if it does they want to be sought out by the music press. That this creates a vibrant cottage music community driven by parties and self released albums and fan driven interactions.

…

I’ve tried to write up my thoughts on the previous paragraph’s topics and have stalled out with something long, getting longer, and requiring considerable editing. I’m just going to take a right turn and just say I’m super fucking proud of Houston’s music press and the hard work they put in every day. At this point it’s not clear where we’re going to go from here; it’s up to the community to continue to the discussion. In one short meeting we got a discussion started in person that then flowed back to the web through a couple posts and some good comments. That’s as good a start as any.

Every show is an opportunity to build your career. That opportunity spans the entire day, not just the 45 minutes where you’re on stage.

Assuming that you’ve been able to book yourself a one-off show in a surrounding city you have a great reason to spend the entire day in that town maximizing the impact and making it into an event. There are a number of things you can do over the course of the day that will help your show and contribute to creating/solidifying an audience in that market down the road. Below are some preliminary notes of some career building activities for day of show. Some of these ideas require very little planning, some of the ideas build off of each other. Notice not one of them mentions playing the show itself. This list is for all the other time you have, outside of the setup through the break down.  I’ve separated them into four categories and I recommend  you try and do one from each category each time you visit a city to play a show. Over the next several days I’ll dive into the specifics of how and why these actions can be beneficial in both the short and long term for your band’s financial solvency, audience size, and presence in any city.

Day of Show Career Building Activities for Your Band:

1. Increase Attendance for that day’s show

• Play an impromptu  live set
  • Outside a Coffee Shop
  • On a Street Corner
  • On a College Campus/College Radio
  • Outside a Thrift Shop
• Promote
  • Pass out flyers on a college campus/coffee shop/thrift store/record store
  • Drop in a college radio station
  • Drop by a college campus
  • Drop in local taste maker locations (in Houston I’m talking about Coffee Groundz and Caroline Collective)

2. Grow Your Audience

• DJ an afterparty
• Hold a happy hour for fans
• Hang out with fans after the show

3. Solidify Your Presence

• Take a music writer out for a drink before the show
• Get a drink with other bands in the city
• Visit another venue to get booked for the future
• Pick up all the local publications

4. Make Money

• Drop off your music/merch at a local Record Store
• Sell music/merch @ a coffee shop
• Sell merch/music while busking

What are some other things that bands can do day of show to help their careers?

Yesterday’s post began with the provenance of this list: the need for local bands to be contacting their local press more often. Then the  first half of Houston’s music press was listed, including links to their outfits and samples of their work. Today’s post finishes that list with the second half of Houston’s Local Music Press. Make sure that you check out both posts and remember the additional homework assignment of actually writing the press to tell them about what you’re doing.

Here’s the rest of your local music press (in random order thanks to random.org):

David Sadof, Houston Examiner
David Sadof has been a member of the Houston Music Community since the 80′s when he was Music Director at Rock 101 KLOL and The Buzz KTBZ. Kerry Melonson of Satin Hooks openly blames David and his radio show “Lunar Rotation’ as the reason he is a musician. David is now a regular writer for the Houston Examiner; read his post on Spoon’s Transference and notice that every post David writes includes a video clip.

Craig Hlavaty, Houston Press
Craig is Assistant Music Editor at the Houston Press and works closely with Chris Gray to cover everything about our music community. Craig writes an unbelievable number of pieces regularly, probably due in part to his firm adherence of the “everyday is a workday, every night is a weekend” mantra. You can catch him tweeting about every show he sees and everything that happens in his very busy nightlife. You  also might want to read his actual writing; here’s coverage on February 5th’s Justin Townes Earle show.

David Cobb, Houston Calling
David is a one man show covering all forms of musical expression in Houston, from benefits to live shows to news about local bands, artists, and concert posters. Every year along with partner blog Done Waiting they compile one of the best curated SXSW music lists. Read his post and commentary on Derek Webb’s recent Haiti Benefit.

Rob Delossantos/Joel Hughes/others, Indie Houston
These guys are living the kind of life where you don’t get the deposit back. Staging most efforts from the IndieHouston House, this group hosts regular shows but also have a blog that covers the goings on of bands that makes their way through this city. One difference between this site and most is that guest contributions are welcome and invited. Here’s Joel’s post on an upcoming Roky Moon + BOLT show and here’s Rob’s call for submissions from the community.

Joey Guerra, Houston Chronicle
Joey is a music critic for the Houston Chronicle and “absolutely loves it.” He’s clearly living life to its fullest, regularly abusing twitter with laughter and commentary on all things pop culture. Personally, his tweets crack me up regularly. Joey’s love of pop culture makes its way into his writing so as a band looking to contact him, better be able to discuss your music in the context of anything from Madonna to Jonas Brothers to Solange. Read Joey’s honest assessment of the latest Jonas Bro solo album.

Adam Newton, DryveTyme Onlyne, Houston Press
This guy gets hustler of the year award. Previously with Houstonist, now seriously focused on his own blog DryveTyme Onlyne which has daily content in various forms and has also recently started doing some coverage for the Houston Press as part of Chris Gray’s master plan. Also plays in Prairie Cadets with Marc Brubaker. Witness Adam’s weekly feature, Media Monday, where he offers up free music and video from the web.

Jeremy Hart, Space City Rock
Editor of Space City Rock which constantly amazes me with its unbelievably prolific posting schedule. SCR is also the best place to find a comprehensive readout of the shows going on in Houston every. week. Revelry Report still uses the show calendar for our weekely music events calendar. Jeremy is also an ex-KTRU dj which means he’s got a well steeped diverse musical background. See what I mean with Jeremy’s discussion of the Daniel Higgs show on February 5th.

Marc Brubaker, Houstonist
Carrying the torch for the Houstonist’s coverage of the local music scene. Has started something that has been needed for a very long time: a weekly news recap of things that happened in the local music community (the only other place I’ve seen a daily/weekly recap of local news is with Houston Press’ new feature: Magnolia City Mixtape, brought to you by Brittanie Shey). Marc also curates Xnihilo Gallery,  shoots live shows and events for a smattering of local papers and publications, and plays in Prairie Cadets with Adam Newton. Take a quick look-see at Marc’s H-Town Rock and his regular news recap Rock Talk.

Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle, 29-95
Houston Chronicle and 29-95.com music writer. Did his time at Rolling Stone so you know he’s legit. Still mostly covers nationally recognized acts but has been able to focus a little more on local artists thanks to a crack team of people who continually send him music,  hard working Houston bands who have started to write local press about their work and the hyper local focus of 29-95.com. Here’s a story from 2009 about the Wild Mocassins as they prepared to leave for their first tour.

Note: Some of these people are repeats from the 2008 post, some of these are new entrants to the field. Last time I compiled this list, I caught some shit for not including some people DESPITE mentioning that if there was anyone missing, drop me a line and I will add them. I cannot be in all places at all times. If I don’t know about you and your writing, I want to. Drop me a line at mwettergreen@gmail.com so I can add you to this post and start reading your work.

Back in 2008 when I first listed Houston’s music writers my point was that anyone who has more than a casual relationship with music should know who their local music writers are. These are the people on the ground grinding to make sure music in your community is covered, from the stadium shows down to the fledgling bands just picking up an instrument.  The list was both a love letter to these writer’s work and a required reading list for those inside the community. People on the support, management and service side should be paying close attention to what gets covered because these writers provide a barometer for the vibrancy and success of the local scene. More importantly though is that bands need to realize that local success includes an intimate understanding of the landscape that they inhabit.  And that means that these bands should be even more invested, knowing which writers to contact and when, based on their coverage, area of interest, and lead time.

That last part’s not happening.

Over the past couple years, I’ve heard two different viewpoints explaining the situation, one from music writers and one from bands. The music writer viewpoint is

“I’d love to be listening to more local acts and writing about more local acts. But, local bands aren’t sending me cds, giving me updates on their recording, forwarding press releases or really contacting me to tell me anything about what they’re doing.”

This viewpoint was punctuated strongly by Houston Press music writer Craig Hlavaty on Sunday when he stood up at Bandcampus: BOOKING PARTY and said something to the effect of:

“Bands: PLEASE send me your cds, music, information about shows and what you’re doing. I would LOVE to cover you but you don’t write us about what’s going on.”

The second viewpoint is the band’s viewpoint:

“I’d love to get written up in local press more // Why aren’t we getting written up in local press // I don’t know how to get written up in local press”

For bands, the question of who to contact and how to contact them has a simple answer. The how is: if you’re doing something that you think the music press should be talking about, write them. The who is: listed below.

This year carries an additional homework assignment: write these musicians and tell them what you’re doing with your music. If Houston music writers start complaining to that there are too many bands writing them because of this, then we’ll all high five each other and mark our calendars to remember the date.

Here’s the first half of your local music press (in random order thanks to random.org):

Jim “Eggs” Bricker: Breakfast on Tour
Jim and his crew are serious music fans. They started writing Breakfast On Tour as a creative outlet for the staggering number of shows they were attending and as a way to “encourage more people to experience the joys of live music events.” The blog covers mostly live shows and the culture surrounding live shows. Check out Eggs’ last entry from his tour diary with The Sour Notes.

Ramon Medina: 29-95, Free Press Houston
Writes for 29-95.com, Free Press Houston and founded NonAlignment Pact (a really insightful group blog about music you might want to check out). Ramon and his wife Rosa Guerrero are caring fixtures on the music scene and inspire many bands to keep on trucking. Check out a recent post from his two writing spots.

Dan Joyce/Keaton Branch: AudioADD
These young upstarts launched AudioADD about a year ago and have been doing a great job covering the cult of the music addict. Appropriate from two guys who feel the same way about Apple. You can also listen to Keaton with his band The Figure Eight. Check out this post from AudioADD’s 12 Days of Christmas series: In Rainbows.

Anna Garza: Free Press Houston
Anna Garza is about to have the “best year ever.” She recently founded Girls Rock Camp, a non-profit that works to empower women through musical education and performance art. Earlier in the decade she booked shows for Hands Up Houston which gives her intimate knowledge of the Houston music community and makes it pretty easy for her to bang out post after post on Free Press Houston about art, the city, and local music acts. Take a look at her post about Sound + Movement.

Sara Cress: 29-95
Sara’s been writing about the Houston Music Community and its culture for several years now. She’s made the jump from the Houston Chronicle to 29-95 where she gets to have a bit more fun with her posts especially with list titles like “My Redneck Past”. Check out the cheeky side here and the more straight ahead reporting as published in the Houston Chronicle.

Chris Gray: Houston Press
Music Editor for the Houston Press. Writes several weekly pieces for the print version and also writes the Rocks Off blog. Chris Gray has a master plan to cover the depth and the breadth of Houston music that he’s been enacting over the past year plus. You can see his success by taking a look at the diversity of posts on the Houston Press website and the volume of daily writing coming out of that staff. It really portrays the music community as it deserves to be covered. A demonstration of his musical knowledge can be seen in his recent post about Lightning Hopkins receiving a Historical Marker.

Brittanie Shey: 29-95, Houston Press
Brittanie’s a freelance writer that has amassed an incredible number of accolades as a journalist in a very short time, covering everthing from food to travel to women’s issues. She is extremely literate but has a conversational style that makes reading a concert review seem like you’re hearing it from one of your friends. It also makes you wish you were there. Or that you performed better. ouch! Check out how she couldn’t stop running into Ralf Armin of Dead Roses the weekend of the last Free Press Houston Block Party.

Lance Scott Walker: 002 Magazine
Lives in New York. This fact doesn’t matter if you know that Lance Scott Walker is born and bred Texan. His book with photographer Peter Beste about Houston’s hustlers and rappers is set to be out this year.  Lance is reportedly “still paying off” Ojet Records, a little Houston label he had in the beginning of the century. Check out his monthly pieces on local musicians in the back pages of 002 Magazine.

Jeff Balke, Houston Chronicle
Writes Broken Record, a blog about the music industry from the perspective of a performing artist. He also plays in Orange Is In, which according to this tweet, is getting back together! If you are a band trying out a new business model in your career, you could write Jeff and tell him about it. Here’s his analysis of NIN continuing to reinvent their business model.

Stay tuned for the second half of Houston’s local music press tomorrow.

Note: Some of these people are repeats from the 2008 post, some of these are new entrants to the field. Last time I compiled this list, I caught some shit for not including some people DESPITE mentioning that if there was anyone missing, drop me a line and I will add them. I cannot be in all places at all times. If I don’t know about you and your writing, I want to. Drop me a line at mwettergreen@gmail.com so I can add you to this post and start reading your work.

Many of the ideas inside of here were developed through extensive discussions with bands and individual artists as well as the monthly Bandcampus sessions.  The venue listings were obtained through publicly listed information and a great thanks goes out to Katie Brown for helping to compile it all. All of the information contained within this ebook is something that I feel every band could use so I’m posting it for free.

Free eBook on Booking Your Band in Texas

If you like this ebook and find it helpful, please consider blogging a link back to this post so that peole know where to get the book. If you’d like to share copies with someone else, please point them to this post instead of the file directly so that I can make edits without concern.

Also, if this book makes you happy please leave a comment below this post. I’d love to know what you think about the work.

Thanks!

Booking Your Band in Texas (pdf format).

P.S. If you’d like just the venue listing without the helpful guidance on how to book your band, leave a comment below so I know how many people would like the venue listing in a google document format.