Music Sketchbook, Houses
For a long time, I left rogerroll.net/music open. That is, there was no index file on there, so it defaulted to the Apache file list, which let everyone peruse through the mp3s I uploaded there. Usually, I would upload an mp3 there and link to it (on some other web page, on a forum, a MySpace, in an IM to someone I want to hear my new recording, etc.).
Over the summer, I wrote a script that automatically scanned that directory, and spat out a list of mp3s in the RSS/Podcast format, in order of when I uploaded them. It automatically sets all of the required iTunes and XML attributes based on id3 tags, so all I have to do is upload the mp3 to the directory, and all of the information is formatted properly.
With this new system, I no longer have to actively put my music onto webpages and send links out to individuals. I can just upload the file and, if you choose to subscribe to the podcast or RSS feed, it will automatically push it to you. If you're interested in the things I do musically, I would love it if you subscribed. I've decided to use it as something of an audio sketchbook. (I've also added it to the free mp3s page of this website, for those unfamiliar with RSS feeds and do not use iTunes or other podcast-capable music service.)
In other random news, I've joined another local band called Houses. Lots of familiar names, there (Andy Hamilton, Stephen Brookes, Matthew Till). I play electric piano. It's "good time upbeat rock music that [has] traces of both current indie rock and whatever was in your parents record collection." It's nice to be able to play music that I didn't write.
Revival, Random Podcasts
The Blackwell Gate is still for sale. I swear.
Those of you paying close attention will recall that after our most recent show (toward the end of April of this year), Roger, Roll as a live entity kind of dissolved. Mostly, Patrick moved to Boston [and came back, and then went back]. But! He's back. And it seems he's made Denver a more permanent home. We've been talking about music, us, the future, and whatever the amalgamation of those three things may be. We've decided to take what we made of Roger, Roll between last August and this May and re-focus our energies. Put in a little more focus. See where it takes us.
Since then, we've had a couple of rehearsals, and it's sounding very good. Officially on board at this point are myself, Patrick Kelly, Kevin Bell, and Lucas Johannes (whom you may know from Action Packed Thrill Ride). Still others are slated to participate. I'll try to keep this updated as details unfold.
In Random Other News, some Roger, Roll tracks have been making the rounds on the podcasting circuit. Plays on shows ranging from general indie to Italian culture magazines to a show dedicated to knitting. Here's a short list of shows and episodes including R,R tracks:
Amici Amici - Featuring "d=rt"
Belle of the Ball - Featuring "Into the Pavement with Light"
Radio Orphans - Featuring "Knowing Your Place"
Warszawa Pozytywne Zacisze - Featuring "In the Between"
The Sixty One
On a whim, I decided to upload a few Roger, Roll tunes to The Sixty One, and I'm extremely impressed by what's going on over there. I feel like the user interface is a little much, but the site delivers more than any other service to which I've put R,R tunes in the past.
Basically, TSO turns listening to music into a sort of game. It's a little bit like digg, where you listen to a song, and then if you like it, you "bump" (read:digg) it. However! You only have a certain number of points, and bumping songs costs points. You, in turn, regain points if a song that you bump continues to be bumped by others. I'm sure there's a bonus for being the one to "discover" a song. And you also get points if you invite your friends to join. The only part I think is kind of stupid is that it costs a significant number of points to bump a song in the very beginning (when no others have bumped it), which I feel kind of encourages people to go after popular songs. But whatever.
What threw me off was that within only a few minutes of uploading the tracks, users had discovered my songs, and they began to be bumped (in fact, as I write this, I've just broken through as a "level 2" band, with two songs being bumped more than 25 times, a comment on each, and a comment on the band wall).
Services like Garageband promise similar futures. (Unite fans and musicians, free promotion, etc.), but they fail for any number of reasons. I feel like they put extremely heavy restrictions on artists (you are required to review fifteen songs for every song you upload, which leads to extremely poor-quality feedback), and there's just no place, really, for fans. Purevolume is similar, but worse, because it lacks even the poor quality feedback that GB offers.
Last.fm is nice because it's much more listener-oriented, and is beneficial because there are a number of ways to promote yourself and be promoted (via recommendations and powerplay campaigns), but I feel like it's still a very passive environment and works really more as a repository/library for artists than a discovering ground (the recommendation engine generally fails at the long tail aspect inherently).
MySpace and Facebook are mediocre-to-good for communication with existing fans, but are really pretty useless for promotion.
Whether or not these bumps are just from initial hype or if they'll continue is yet to be seen. But so far, I'm extremely impressed with the site.
Additional Promotion
In addition to the video promotion for the album, I've done some other, smaller bits around the campus here at DU. Smallest, of course, are the stickers which were designed by Nick, and simply point people to The Blackwell Gate website.Another one was a giant poster made up of a grid of 64 8.5"x11" sheets (made with the help of Courtney) which just points people to this website. It's large enough that I was able to hang it up in my window, which faces High street just north of Iliff, and it succeeded in convincing one person to visit the site and become a fan. As a result, I decided it would be worth a try, moving it to someone else's room. The above photo was taken at its current location directly next to the entrance of the building. If you're here because of that, feel free to comment in.
The Blackwell Gate
The Blackwell Gate, our first album, will be up for sale beginning May 1st. You'll be able to pick up the album right here. $10 for the 9-song vinyl edition, or name your own price for the 5-song digital version.
To promote the album, our friend Kevin Bell put together a (mock) documentary about the band and the album, featuring interviews with band members, as well as band manager and spiritual guru Rutherford "Rusty" Coynes. View it below.
While most of the video is fictional, it is true that Patrick Kelly moved to Boston about a week ago. Pamela Gilpatric and Nicholas Cox also dropped out for other (amicable) reasons. They didn't marry, though. But! Don't fret. Courtney Strauss remains on board, and I've invited many others to fill out the new sound which, as the video indicates, is completely danceable. Details on this change will come after the new record has settled a bit!
