Create Digital Music » alcohol

Getting Publicity: Start With a Good Name for Your Project

Josh Jancourtz — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:15:17 +0000

Stuck for a band name? You might just need a stroke of inspiration, like combining quantums with gazelles. (Don’t try at home, or holes in space-time could result at your local zoo.) Gazelle photo: Andrew N. Solid-state quantum-bit computing: NASA Ames Research Center, and fully awesome.

You can be making incredible music, but if no one knows about it you probably won’t be making it for very long. Having a good project name is the first step to getting publicity and having your music heard by a large amount of people.

Don’t be difficult. It has to be easy to pronounce and say over the phone. Try to avoid using numbers for letters (leet speak) since it will confuse people. Yes, there are exceptions like “!!!,” Î¼-siq, and whatnot, but the object is to make it easy for the press to write about you and for people to talk about you. While you’re welcome to choose a difficult name, it’s only going to make the rest of your publicity efforts that much harder.

Steer clear of profanity. While James Fucking Friedman has a somewhat high profile, whenever he gets listed in local papers that don’t allow profanity they star out either the entire middle word or just use stars after the F. People will get confused–”Did they star out ‘Faggot,’ ‘Fucking,’ or ‘Fellatio’? Should I Google for James Star Star Star?” Also profanity limits the types of publications that will feature you. While XLR8R and URB are magazines that are pretty laid back about their language, you might one day discover that your music has an interesting crossover audience (be it mountain climbers or acoustic engineers) and you want to make it easy for those types of journalists to approach you and write about you and your music.

It sounds good. Pick three of your favorite names. Say them out loud. Ask some friends what they think and notice how they respond. Do they laugh out loud when you’re aiming for a super serious image (“Abfahrt Hinwil” might cause some giggling)? It may sound obvious, but electronic musicians who tend to work alone and communicate through their computers could use some IRL human feedback once in a while.

We’d probably go hear Liz play if she called herself Liz McLean Knight, but now she has an easy-to-remember alterego that obeys the rules here. (Well, until she starts a new band called Galacticide.)

No one else has it. While I wouldn’t say you should register for a trademark just yet, you should research as best you can if anyone else is using your name. You don’t want to shell out money for a domain name and spend years growing your project and fan base just to be hit with a cease and desist or worse, a lawsuit (look at Dan Snaith’s Caribou (formerly Manitoba) debacle.) Do some web searches to see if you can determine if anyone’s using your name. The US Patent office has an online search engine called TESS where you can search for trademarks in use. Search for all the words in your desired name, and then search for each one alone and see if they return anything similar. If you’re considering trademarking your name, it’s a very good idea but it will cost you a few hundred bucks. You can file online and read more here: http://www.uspto.gov.

It can be you, as long as you’re not already in use. You can use your own name as long as it’s not in use already and you won’t be confused for someone else. Can you imagine being the second Derrick May in Detroit? You might get a huge turnout for your first gig but the promoter and venue will hate you after the riot of pissed off people who thought they bought tickets to see one of the godfathers of Detroit techno. This second Derrick May in question used his middle name instead to avoid confusion, resulting in Derrick Michael.

Webify it. Get a domain name when you’ve settled on your choice. Although you might just want to use Myspace as your website, Myspace is not press-friendly, and if you adopt that early-90s bad-website look with repeating graphic as the background or garish colors it’s going to be unreadable (and incredibly annoying). Plus, with your own website you have total control over your image and don’t have to worry about deleting comments and photos posted by jerks. Then check to see if your choice is a domain in use already. I got lucky because mine is a completely made up word (Quantazelle) so the domain was available. If it’s not, see if you can add “music” “sounds,” or something else to the end of it and then grab it. If not, you might consider finding a different name, but it’s not a deal killer. While you might want to opt for something clever as your domain name, you want to make it easy for people to find information about you. A web search for your project name should return your site as one of the first results because your name is in the domain itself.

Some ideas for generating project names:

Take a passage from a favorite work of literature or a poem,. For example, “Joy Division” is from The House of Dolls by Karol Cetinsky.

Use an anagram. Aphex Twin relied heavily on this to name many of his songs. “Acrid Avid Jam Shred” on I Care Because You Do is an anagram of “Richard D. James”. Here’s an online anagram generator to experiment with: wordsmith.org/anagram.

Try playing with this emo-band name generator: www.bandnamemaker.com

Check out this tool for generating band names: www.greatnameforaband.com. On my first try I got “Galacticide” which is actually really cool.

Here’s another one: www.bandlookup.com. I put in “bandpass’ and got such gems as “Bandpass Disorder” and “Half-Ass Bandpass.”

Create an alias by generating combinations of male or female names with last names: kleimo.com/random. An example of this in action is “Malcom Kipe” who is actually Nautilis aka Skyler McGlothlin.

Take a hint from the Dada-ist poetry methods of William S. Burrows and do a “cut-up.” Grab a newspaper or any other sliceable piece of literature and cut out a bunch of words from it. Then toss them on a flat surface and see what interesting combinations happen.

Make a portmanteau. “Devo” is a concatenation of “de-evolution.” “Quantazelle” is a combination of “Quantum and Gazelle.”

Create a phrase that congers up imagery of what your music sounds like, such as “Explosions in the Sky.” It’s a little difficult if you’re not a poetic or literary type, but you can ask other people for help. Just say “If you could think of an image that sounds like my music, what would it be?” Gathering a group of people in a room together along with some alcohol or other relaxing substance is a very conducive environment for name generating.

So now that you’re better equipped for the first part of your publicity efforts, why don’t you get started on that brainstorming? Good luck!

Synthesis + Booze: Moog Bubbly, Moog Beer, Toasting Little Phatty Serial One

Peter Kirn — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:58:44 +0000

Lift your glasses and toast your synthesizer, because evidently drinking and synthesis just go together.

First up, the folks at Moog Music have put out a limited edition bubbly with their new Little Phatty synth on the label, as pictured here from the Moog Music newsletter. They have reason to celebrate: the Little Phatty synths are on their way out of Moog headquarters. Keyboard Magazine evidently got serial number 1; I don’t know who nabbed it (Steve?), but I look forward to the review.

I don’t know what was in that bottle, but I learned last week from a friend of Charles Dodge that the pioneering composer and inventor is now running a vineyard in his spare time, in Vermont. (Dodge was once based in New York but now teaches at Dartmouth.) It’s not called Dodge Vineyards, but whatever it is I’ll find out more about this wine from one of the world’s great synthesists.

Lastly, if you like drinking delicious beer while you work at your synthesizer, this TV ad by The Price is Right theme composer Edd Kalehoff demonstrates that nothing goes with your Moog modular quite like a nice, cold Schaefer beer. It’s the beer to have “when you’re having more than one.” (Brilliant beer slogan, second only to what I presume they rejected — “Schaefer, for when you’re planning on getting totally sloshed and want something cheap!”)

Brilliant; thanks to Tom from Music thing for the scoop. If you enjoy this, don’t miss the Moog Movie that featured it.

I sure know I like to have a cu-hold one at my side as I work away at the synth. (Oddly, WFPK Louisville is playing “I’m Not Drunk Enough to Say I Love You / So Won’t You Let Me Buy Another Round” as I write this. What is this, alcohol abuse day?)

Our friend proem, meanwhile, comes to the defense of laptop musicians smoking in a controversy over on the forums. Got a favorite vice you want to let us know about? I mean, synth-related vice? (Other than overusing presets.)

Sexohol Releases First-Ever Widget Album

Peter Kirn — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 05:00:00 +0000

First vinyl, then 8-track, then tape, then CD, then MP3, now . . . Dashboard widget?

Yes, you heard that right. Sexohol is releasing its album Enjoy as a Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X. It’s free, and includes pictures of the lovely couple in the band plus lyrics. Only downside is you have to be connected to the Internet to listen to the music streaming. “But, Peter!”, you say, “I need to feel the hot loving of Enjoy even when I’m not connected to the Internet!” Sexohol hears you; US$9.99 buys you a Widget you can listen to anywhere. (Music without a live Internet connection? Who wouldathunkit?)

Sounds like the best way to enjoy this band is at their Bacchanalian performances, but if you can feel the love on your Dashboard, more power to you.

The press release is hilarious, so I’ve broken with normal CDM policy and posted it after the jump, along with a picture of bassist Logan for those of you who like young bass-playing boys (Shedonists, Gay/Bi Hedonists, etc.). Just promise you’ll pretend to act surprised when you find out this band is from L.A.

Disclaimer: CDM prints press releases only when they make me laugh out loud. Thanks, Trina!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: L.A.-Based Band, Sexohol™, Releases World’s First Widget Album

BEVERLY HILLS, California—August 15, 2005—Digital music innovators Sexohol™ today released their debut album, “Enjoy!” as a free Dashboard Widget for AppleÃ‚Â® Computer’s revolutionary Mac OS X Tiger 10.4. The free “Enjoy!” Widget Album lets music fans listen to any of the 12 songs from “Enjoy!” whenever connected to the Net, while providing lyrics and photographs from the CD. The full version, “Full Enjoy!ment”, lets fans listen to the album without an internet connection for just $9.99.

“We’re big fans of widgets,” says Roger Quickly, lead singer and guitarist for Sexohol™. “We’ve tried thingamabobs, doohickeys, and whatchamacallits, and frankly, they’re over. Have you tried to code a thingamabob lately? The dealybop syntax is so twentieth century.”

Sexohol’s co-lead singer and bassist, Golden Delicious, sees Widget Albums as the wave of the future. “Our Enjoy! album was added to the iTunes Music Store just over a week ago, but online buyers say they miss the full CD experience. Our attempts to squeeze a physical CD through an ethernet cable failed, so we did this instead.” She then adds, “And, oh yeah, with our tradition of innovation we thought it important to be first.”

Roger describes the innovative technology behind the Enjoy! Widget Album: “If you don’t own any of our songs, the widget streams them from the Net. But if you’ve bought our songs from iTunes, or copied them from your Enjoy! iPod shuffle or CD, tiny widget elves find and play the local copies. It’s all done by widget elves.”

Apple’s easy-to-use Dashboard environment let Roger and Golden create the widget themselves. “Usually, I’m not attracted to Unix,” explains Golden. “Something’s, you know… missing. But it’s a real pleasure working with Tiger’s tools. Rrrowwwrrrrrrrr.”

Pricing & Availability
The Enjoy! Widget Album, which streams songs on demand, is a free download. The Full Enjoy!ment Widget, which bundles the 12 songs into the widget, costs $9.99. Both are available immediately at the Sexohol website (www.sexohol.com) and require Mac OS X TIger 10.4 for Macintosh.

About Sexohol
Sexohol first achieved international recognition with the groundbreaking release of their album Enjoy! on iPodÃ‚Â® shuffle. Sexohol is an innovator in the exploding field of digital music technology and is dedicated to providing high-quality hookup music for America’s Hedonists and Shedonists. Sexohol appears exclusively on Satyrrific Records.

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Peterson Beer Bottle Organ: MIDI + Keyboard Control

Peter Kirn — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 05:00:00 +0000

CDM’s round-the-clock beer bottle organ coverage continues! Yes, in addition to the Gulbransen Beer Bottle Organ, there’s yet another MIDI-controlled organ. This one comes out of Chicago:

Peterson Tuners Beer Bottle Organ (Thanks, Charles; great find!)

Best of all, there are sound samples of the Peterson, demonstrating that this more or less sounds like a calliope. (I think there might be some unique timbral qualities to the beer bottle organ, and I’m absolutely positive you’ll hear additional timbral differences if you were helping drink the beer bottles for the organ.) Like the Gulbransen, it features MIDI control, but it has the thoughtful addition of a keyboard and wheels. These guys are actually bona fide organ component builders and tuners.

And, if you can’t afford the $23 grand you’d need for the Gulbransen, US$16.95 buys you a CD of bottle organ hits played on the Peterson. (Suggestion: get your buddies blind drunk, line up the bottles, and secretly start the CD. They’ll never know the difference.)

Ah, Gulbransen versus Peterson. It’s like Steinway versus Bosendorfer. Or it more like great taste vs. less filing?

MIDI-Controlled Beer Bottle Organ

Peter Kirn — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 05:00:00 +0000

There are times when I can say something wittier than the manufacturer’s ad copy. This is NOT one of those times:

The Bottle Organ is a real showstopper! It plays by blowing across the tops of real beer bottles, which are permanently tuned. And the music is so lovable! Driven by contemporary MIDI technology, the Bottle Organ is ideal for pubs and restaurants with a reputation for fun, where the past is respected, and where patrons appreciate the rare and unusual. Custom fabrication assures quality of the highest standard.

Sing along everybody: Take one down, pass it around, and there’s 99 MIDI-controlled singing bottles of beer on the wall . . .

Of course, you could get 100 drunken friends together to blow on beer bottles and save the $22,900 price of the bottle organ, but I betcha it won’t be permanently tuned.

The company also makes player pianos, nickolodeons, and, when you need to ask God for forgiveness after a particularly wild night of MIDI-controlled beer drinking, the Digital Hymnal. Best of all, they also make a MIDI-controlled, self-playing violin (Thanks, LeMel!)

Updated: This organ has a better-known rival (mentions on TapeOp, Boing Boing) from Chicago, which also features a keyboard and has downloadable sounds and for-sale CD

For more odd stuff, see Oddmusic’s Instrument Gallery