Recently I stumbled on a great blog: For Those Who Tried To Rock.

"A Where Are They Now? for those who never were"

Great stories from people in bands who never quite made it big. Very recognizable for anyone who ever played in a band. Photos and (downloadable) songs complement most of the entries.

The only sad thing is it's only aimed at American bands, so no stories of bands from other countries.

As mentioned earlier on this blog, I play in a Nederbeat band. Nederbeat was the dutch answer to the Mersey Beat of the 60s. (Think early Beatles, Kinks, etc). We're called the Mieters, from the dutch word 'mieters' (swell/neat).



We started recording some of our songs. Prepare for some oldschool rock 'n roll fun and download the first two:
The Mieters - 8.15 naar Alkmaar
The Mieters - Geen Mannen voor Suzanne
The Mieters - Kom Nou Toch Online

MySpace: myspace.com/themieters

Last thursday was the first show of Violent Demise, a new metal band with members from Purmerend and the Zaanstad area. While I'm not a big metal fan, we had to go as their bassplayer Daan is also the bass player of my girlfriend's band Paralyzed (btw: check out their new video).



While Paralyzed has some metal influences, Violent Demise is his all out metal outfit. I'm no metal subgenre expert, so I have no idea what their exact subgenre of metal is, but it's somewhere between death metal and metalcore.



They played a very tight set. One of the better first gigs I've seen. They certainly have a great potential. While I'll never be one of their biggest fans (I like my vocals at least semi-comprehensible) I wouldn't be surprised if they're gonna be one of the big metal names in the Netherlands.

A lot of the posts I write lately are aimed at people in bands trying to promote their music online. I'm curious about the people visiting this blog.
How many of you actually play in a band?



I'll answer the question myself too. I'm currently in one band, and I'm trying to get another one together.

The first band, The Mieters, plays Nederbeat, the dutch answer to the Mersey Beat of the 60s. (Think early Beatles, Kinks, etc). We're not performing yet, but we started recording our songs. Expect them online soon!

Besides that I'm trying to get a garage rock/punk band together. No name yet, as there isn't even a complete line-up. I hope to have more news on that project soon. (Interested people can always leave a comment or mail me).

What band do you play in? Leave a link to your webpage or myspace in the comments!

Just like your biography your logo is one of your main tools for promoting your band.

The logo of your band is one of the main impressions people get of your band. It's on your website, your MySpace, your biography, your merchandise, etc. A great logo gives people information about what kind of music a band plays or what a band stands for without them hearing a note.

It can be just your band name in a pretty font, but it really needs something to make it special. There's quite a few rules a logo must satisfy. It must be recognizable. It should be readable (unles you play in a death metal band). It should be scalable: you want it to look good on a button, on a t-shirt and maybe even on a banner or backdrop.

This article contains some useful resources for people that want to create their own band logo.


Getting some inspiration

First it's time to get some inspiration by studying the greats:

Top 10 Rock Band Logos shows some classic rock logos with background information. (See image above)

Another top list: Best Band Logos shows 25 great band logos.

Rock Band Logos - Brand Upon The Brain is a blog completely dedicated to band logos. More than 200 posts with each post about one logo. Like David Cotner, the writer of the blog, says "By the time you're done, you'll never want to see another skull, cow, or peace sign ever again."


Also try and collect some logos of bands that play similar music as your band. Ask yourself the following questions: do the logo and music of the bands fit together? Is there a common style between the logos?


Getting a great font

There's a enormous amount of free fonts available on the web, just google for free fonts and you'll find more sites with fonts than you'll ever need.

A lot of these fonts, though, are overused, cliché or just plain ugly. You could find the font you need, but you'll have to wade through loads of crap.

Luckily sites like Urban Fonts and dafont.com do have nice, modern fonts.

Smashing Magazine is a great website aimed at (web) designers. They post a lot of the newest and most beautiful fonts in their font category.


The real work: Designing it

There's a few simple things you can try. Play with the letter spacing, play with the letters placing, add one or more symbols, there are no limits.

Don't limit yourself to what you can to do NOW with your drawing tools: if you have a great idea, search the web for a tutorial explaining that idea. There's so many tutorials out there, there's bound to be one explaining just what you want to do.

Just like font sites, there's loads of sites with tutorials on creating cool logos. Again, Smashing Magazine is a great resource for Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials, just check the tutorials section.

Design a Logo - The Ultimate Guide is not specifically about band logos, but contains some really great ideas.

Last wednesday I went to see Velvet Revolver. As it turns out now it was the last show of Velvet Revolver with Scott Weiland.

Sons of Albion was okay, but not quite ready yet for the big league. They should hit the smaller concert halls first.
They played alternative rock/metal in the style of Jane's Addiction and A Perfect Circle.

Too long pauses between the songs really messed up the show. The stage seemed too big for them. A bit too much slow songs too, if you ask me.


Velvet Revolver was okay. They played a decent set, and Scott Weiland was audible which has been different at previous gigs I went to. There seemed to be a weird sound effect over his vocals, could be his wireless mic fucking up the sound.
The rest of the sound was good. You can tell these guys are veterans by the way they make the stage their own.
A decent show all in all.

The day after the show I read it was their last in this line-up, which made it more legendary then it really was.

Another bunch of articles that tell you how to promote your music online:

KnowTheMusicBiz.com is a great online community for emerging artists, musicians and music executives. It's certainly worth a visit, for anyone interested in online music promotion. Some article picks:

Build It and The Music Biz Will Come
"New bands often spend a tremendous amount of time, energy and money to find a "team" only to be disappointed when they get no takers."

Crowdfunding - Arts Patronage For The Masses
"Today's consumers are no longer passive recipients of brand messages. They've become active participants in co-creating the brands (and bands) they love."


Ariel Publicity is a professional music promotion and publicity company. Luckily they're not only in it for the big bucks, but also because of their love for music. On their website you can find great articles on how to do your own promotion and publicity.

How Do I Get My Music On Blogs?
"If 40 or more blog posts were made before an album's release sales ended up being three to four times the average for both independent and major label releases."

How To Be Your Own Publicist
"Music publicity has changed drastically in the past few years. Gone are the days when just having a CD was considered a shoe-in, and gone, too, are the days where staying on the road for 6-10 months a year guaranteed a good living."


Other great articles:

Can I avoid the internet and just stick to what I know?
"Of course you can. You might even make a very good living at it. The chances are increasingly slim, of course."

Create Validate Sell
"Up until recently, and in a caveman sort of way, I divided the tasks of building a music business into two rock piles: a pile of things related to creating music and a pile of things related to selling music."

Previous posts:
Band promotion links I
Band promotion links II

A while back I posted an article about 10 great Dutch underground bands. Those 10 were just the tip of the iceberg. There's a sea of bands out there, a lot of them bad, but luckily there's also some good rocking going on in the Netherlands.

Here are five of the hardest rocking underground bands in the Netherlands.




The Goods

The Goods are one of the younger bands from Eindhoven Rockcity. Like all their fellow bands, they rock hard, but where Peter Pan Speedrock is a modern take on Motörhead, The Goods take their inspiration from 80s and 90s hard rock and hair metal.

Balls out hard rock!

MySpace: myspace.com/therealgoods


The Heavens Devils

Their name inspired by the notorious bikers, they sound like a perfect band for a biker meeting. AC/DC meets Danko Jones. Some riffs seem to be taken a bit too directly from Danko Jones, but as they actually sound better than the latest Danko album, I don't consider that a bad thing.

Download a song: The Heavens Devils - House of Love

MySpace: myspace.com/theheavensdevils


Mustango

Amsterdam music veterans from Jewel in the Mire and Rubber united to play some hard rock. They remind me a lot of Velvet Revolver. That's probably not because they copy them, but because they've got a similar mix of grunge and hard rock as Velvet Revolver.

MySpace: myspace.com/mustangomusic


The Bloody Honkies

Dirty rock from the east of the Netherlands. Hard rock with the swagger of bands as the Stones and the Black Crows with the urgency of the Stooges. Vocalist Lawrence sometimes sounds like Eddie Vedder without sounding like the countless Pearl Jam clones of the late 90s.

MySpace: myspace.com/bloodyhonkies


Tank 86

Instrumental stoner metal. While I still expect the vocals to kick in any minute, it doesn't get uninteresting. If you like Karma to Burn, you'll love this.

This is some heavy shit.

Download a song: Tank 86 - Flame

MySpace: myspace.com/tank86rock

After my last post with links about promoting your music online I found another batch of great articles.

Why You Should Have Free Music on Your Website
"But it's just a download with no physical cost, so who cares? Give it away and don't worry about it."


On his blog Max Lowe has some great articles about using social networks to promote your music. Some picks:

The Top 10 Music Social Networks
"...ten of the best music oriented social networks currently on the Internet (that are not MySpace)."

Why Giving Your Music Away Through Social Networks Works
"First, the music of some multi-platinum superstar is not necessarily better than yours. You already know that. They just have better publicity and a built in fan base. What you have though is tools that the major studios are just starting to realize exist."


If you have a MySpace page for your band (which you really should have), this next article from New Music Strategies is a must-read:

Five mistakes you're probably making with your MySpace page
"MySpace may not have the best user interface in the world, it may be dreadfully coded and poorly laid out, and it may be owned and operated by the man who's mentoring Beelzebub himself on business management tactics - but you still have to have one."


Do you have any articles you think are essential for people promoting their music (both online and offline)?

A good biography is one of the most powerful promotional tools a band has. It should tell bookers why they should book your band, it should tell potential fans why they should listen to your music and visit your gigs and it makes the job of people who write about you a lot easier.

If you start promoting your band, a good place to start is your biography. This article offers some quick and simple pointers to improve your bands biography.

1. Off to a great start

A lot of people won't read past the first few paragraphs, so make sure they contain everything you want to say. You can tell more about your band in the following paragraphs, but the first paragraph should answer the most important questions:
- What genre does the band play?
- What's your hook? What makes your band special?
- Where does the band come from?
- Did members of this band play in other notable bands? (Don't include bands nobody's ever heard of).

People are lazy: if you write a good summary about your band, it's gonna get used. It will be quoted on the websites of the venues where you play. It will be in reviews of your demos/albums. It will be quoted by journalists writing about your band.




2. Spell check mandatory

Obvious, but important: make sure your biography doesn't contain any errors. A biography is your bands resume. If your biography is filled with grammar and spelling mistakes, people won't take you seriously. After writing your biography, always let someone else read it too before using it on your website or sending it to venues.


3. It ain't a band history

A biography should tell about the band, not about its history. Add a short history if you like, but don't bore people with a complete band history. People don't care about your past, they want to know about your current sound and line-up. Sure, mention when you started, mention how long your current line-up is together, but it isn't necessary to add long-winded stories about past band members.

The most important thing: if you do include the history of your band, don't start with it.


4. Keep it short, stupid

When sending out your biography it should fit on one piece of paper together with your logo, line-up and discography. People have short attention spans, so keep it short and simple. Bookers get loads of biographies and demos from bands: If yours takes forever to get to the point, it'll end up in the trash can.

On the internet the same rules apply. People don't read long texts on the internet. A few paragraphs is all they're going to read.


5. Got good quotes? Use them!

Got any reviews written about your band? Entered a band contest and got back a jury report? Search for good quotes in them and use them to spice up your biography. Don't be afraid to quote selectively, but don't lie. If the review said 'Great rhythm section, too bad the singer can't sing', you could add 'Great rhythm section...' to the quotes, but not 'Great rhythm section, great singer'. Try to pick the spiciest quotes and quotes from the best known sources.

Quotes have great marketing power, especially if they come from well known sources. Why else would advertisers use famous people for their ads? Unknown people are far cheaper!




6. Tailoring the biography for your audience

The biography you send out to venues to get gigs and the biography on your website or MySpace don't have to be the same. Use a general biography for your website, but adapt your biography if you send it out.

You don't even have to send all venues the same biography. Got a band member who first lived in city A, but now in city B? To venues in city A you mention you've got members from city A, to venues in city B you say you've got members living in B. Again, don't lie, just use the truth creatively.

Try to read your biography as if you are the person you send it to: what do they want to know about a band, and what qualities do they seek in a band?


7. Keep it up to date!

Every time something big happens with your band, update your biography. Even if no big changes occurred, check it at least every other month. If your biography mostly talks about something that you achieved a year ago, people might wonder if your band is still active.


Conclusion

Of course there's more to writing a good biography than just these 7 pointers, but these will take you a long way. The main question to ask while writing your biography is who your audience is and what they want to read.

How did you write your biography, what did you do wrong, and what did you do right? Which pointers would you give to someone writing a band biography?