After nearly three great years in Minneapolis, I’ve moved to New York City and taken 808 with me. I’ve been taking my time getting settled into my new gig, but keep in touch for a new string of exciting projects from several NYC-based artists and labels in the coming month.
And if you’re in the area, send me an email and let’s catch up.
Onward,
Zach
Cover by Brock Davis
The Minnesota Beatles Project, now in its third installment, is set to be released this week. Presented by 89.3 The Current, the compilation features fresh takes on 15 Beatles recordings as chosen by the artists. Featuring performances from Cloud Cult, Solid Gold, Motion City Soundtrack, and 808′s own White Light Riot.
Available in CD, digital and 2xLP (limited-edition red vinyl) at Target, Target.com, Electric Fetus and other retailers where fine music is sold.
1. Cloud Cult – Help
2. Solid Gold – Love You To
3. White Light Riot – Hey Bulldog
4. Charlie Parr feat. Nicholas Mrozinski – Rocky Raccoon
5. Motion City Soundtrack – Here Comes the Sun
6. The Fiddle Heirs – I’ve Got a Feeling
7. Me and My Arrow – Don’t Let Me Down
8. Red Pens – Helter Skelter
9. Dark Dark Dark – Long Long Long
10. The Honeydogs – Dear Prudence
11. Tapes ‘n Tapes – I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
12. the 4onthefloor – Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
13. The Arms Akimbo – You Won’t See Me
14. Cantus – Got to Get You into My Life
15. Anoka Middle School for The Arts – A Hard Day’s Night
MaryBeth Doran, vocalist for Milly Beau, was featured in this month’s issue of Italian Vogue in a section dedicated to up-and-coming US singer/songwriters.
The Farewell Circuit have been hard at work in the studio with Bret Bullion (Dark Dark Dark, Tarlton) on their forthcoming record, and just released the first hint to Bandcamp yesterday. Stream it below, and become a fan to get more tracks in the very near future.
Each year, South by Southwest lets its attendees – past and future – decide which panels and events will be best for the next year’s conference. This year, we’ve decided to throw our name into the hat, and put together a panel called Building Your Band’s Digital Ecosystem. We know that a band can’t use digital tools to its advantage without thinking about the big picture – so we’re hoping to share our thoughts. The workshop will center around how you can change your band’s online presence (website, social media, distribution, streaming, and more) from a burden to a benefit. Vote Here, or read the full description below:
Does your band have a Facebook page? Of course it does. But does it generate results, or is it just kind of…there? If you’re like most bands, probably the latter of the two.
A spot-on digital strategy can be the difference between being heard and being ignored, and the devil is in the details. This advanced-level session will focus on constructing an audience-driving set of digital tools that will work hard and generate results.
Yes, I know you’re good at using Facebook, and nobody needs to tell you how the internet works. Instead, we will look at some of the most effective independent digital music campaigns of the last year, and dissect what makes them tick. I’ll let you in on the punch line: it’s more than just having a website, Bandcamp page, and Twitter account. It’s an ecosystem.
We’ll talk about how to use these tools to leverage your audiences against each other; from web traffic, to Facebook likes, to listens on Soundcloud and Spotify. In the end, empowering you to build a digital ecosystem that helps you move from “just doing it,” to raising your band’s digital visibility.
Click here to vote for our panel at SXSW.com! We’ll see you there.
The new WhiteLightRiot.com.
When White Light Riot set out to release their second full-length album, we decided to develop a brand new digital identity for the oft-adored Minneapolis band. Their new album, 2 years in the making, left their brit-rock heritage in favor of a darker, more difficult – and imperfect – sound. As a result, we decided to start from the ground up.
Art by Brock Davis
Branding was developed in coordination with Brock Davis, a creative director and designer known for his eccentric work for Wired Magazine and The New York Times. He interpreted the album’s message in a clean, minimal, and articulate visual language, which carries through their entire set of products; from website, to album art, to download widgets.
The new WhiteLightRiot.com focuses on email-for-download widgets powered by Topspin, which (for all of you analytics nerds out there) show a full 15% engagement rate. That’s right – 15% of site visitors download the music. A very high level of engagement, from a web marketing perspective.
The experience continues across music blogs and other outlets, which have featured the email-for-download widgets and a full-album stream from the sponsor of the CD release show, 89.3 The Current.
All traffic from these sites are driven to WLR’s Facebook page, which has a fan gate built from Wildfire Interactive and Topspin. New fans can download a copy of the debut single with a single click.
Custom-built Facebook fan gate
Sound complicated? It isn’t. Every person that visits the band’s website has a clear path to downloading the music for free, and the same goes for anyone who finds us on a blog, external site, radio station, or Facebook. And it has all resulted in a massive uptick in Facebook fans (30%), email subscribers (400%+), and, well, fans in general. Want to know more? Contact us.
Hot on the heels of supporting shows for Bobby Long and, of course, their various other musical endeavors, Madison Square Gardeners stopped by the Daytrotter studios in Rock Island, Illinois to lay down a few tracks and talk about their latest EP, Teeth of Champions.
The Brooklyn band, made up of lead singer/ guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan, bassist Mark Stepro, pedal steel player Rich Hinman, drummer Ramblin’ Rob Heath, guitarist Johnny Kengla and piano player Bryn Roberts, taps into the very things that make us wish for endless summers, for those humid nights that are just right for falling in love and staying there. It’s a band that believes in those qualities and in a fountain of youth that will keep us feeling those timid, but true vibrations that come from first kisses and hands in hands. They bring us into the wonderful clutches of summertime, of water balloon fights, legs being shown, dewy grass and the longest days imaginable, days that seem as if they could hover for months.
Click here to read more and listen to three live-in-studio tracks.
808 Management helps Madison Square Gardeners keep their digital presence in tune with their band-on-the-run approach to recording and touring. To learn more about our capabilities, drop us an email.
After an extended hiatus, White Light Riot will release their self-titled second LP in late Spring 2011. The album will be available Tuesday, May 3rd, with an album release show scheduled for Saturday April 30th. Venue and special guests will be announced in the coming weeks. Like their page on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest.
Following two impressive chart runs on 89.3 The Current in 2010, a live-in-studio version of The Arms Akimbo’s You Want To will be featured on Local Current Volume 1, a compilation of the best studio performances collected over the last few years (according to their website). Here’s a recording of their entire performance from January 8 2010:
The album will be available online soon.
If you live in the Twin Cities area and don’t live under a rock, you may have heard that Eric Lovold’s home and studio were ransacked and burglarized late Friday evening (that’s right, Christmas Eve). Thanks to those at CBS, KARE 11, KSTP, The Star Tribune, The Pioneer Press, and others that spent part of their Christmas day getting the story out there.
In addition to over $25k in gear, hard drives with ten years of Eric’s recordings were snagged in the burglary. Insurance will cover some of the hardware, but the files on the stolen hard drives are truly irreplaceable. The only copies (and backups) of yet-to-be-released albums by Kicks and Spurs and Brian Deremer were among the lost files.
Below is a list of the gear stolen from Eric and his roommates. At least three laptops were also stolen – I’ll update the page when there is more specific information.
If you see anything on Craigslist, in pawnshops, or elsewhere, contact Eric Lovold or the St. Paul Police at (651) 291-1111 or via email.
• Mac Pro tower, serial number H00290G620H
circa late 2009. 12 GB RAM, 1 TB HD.
• 20″ Apple Cinema Display, serial number 2A6292A0UFZ
• Nord Lead 3 Keyboard (look out for a white and black Alarmists sticker on the back)
• Neumann TLM-103
• Two Western Digital Hard Drives: one 500 GB, one 1 TB
Also stolen:
Keep those eyes and ears open! We will catch the bottom feeders that did this.
