Eddie and The Geezers

 

Be sure to check out Eddie and Geezers!

Suicide Hotline is a small group of Chicago Studio musicians writing catchy and clever storysongs about the darker sides of life (and death). Please give a listen. Thanks!

The jar is open.

Suicide Hotline Reverbnation Store

Gene Simmons' Hacker Gets 15 Years

The Smoking Gun ran an article about a Connecticut man who hacked Gene Simmons’ website because of public comments he made about illegal file sharing.  In October of 2010 Kevin George Poe participated in a denial of service attack against Mr. Simmons’ website, www.genesimmons.com. 

This apparently was because Gene called on entertainment figures to “sue everybody, take their houses, their cars. The music industry was asleep at the wheel and didn't have the balls to sue every freckle-faced kid who downloaded tracks.” ("Connecticut man facing," 2011)

I found interest in this article because I’ve been a bit of a Kiss fan since high school, and I’ve been following the career of Gene Simmons lately as an example of an entrepreneurship and marketing guru.  I’m also keenly interested in the whole file-sharing-is-bad-how-are-we-going-to-make-money side of the music business these days.

I think Gene is a bit over the top with his comments, but that’s his job.  It’s what he does best.  And I’m afraid I have to agree with his sentiments.  Having said that, he’s not doing himself or the cause any favors (see Lars Ulrich/Metallica).  Suing your customers has proven to be a bad business model.

An inspired artist works very hard and spends many hours on his craft.  He/she is no less a journeyman professional than the carpenter or electrician, but seems to be worth much less in the current economy.  Art has to be worth something.  To have someone “steal” it and pass it around to all his friends for free can be a bit disheartening. 

Something must be done, but it remains one of those unanswered questions.  We have to find a way to fairly compensate our artists or there will be no more new art! Where’s the motivation?   If you don’t want to pay for my product then I will simply keep my songs to myself.  I’ll give them as gifts or something.  Go make your own music if you don’t like it.   Everyone else is.  Too bad most of it isn’t very good.  You’ll be back when you are ready.  Then I’ll simply charge more.

References

Connecticut man facing 15 years in prison over gene simmons web site attack. (2011, December 13). Retrieved from http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/gene-simmons-ddos-arrest-987612

How Am I Different? Reinventing Oneself

Why on earth would anyone listen to me?  What makes me an authority?  What makes me different?

These are the hard questions one must contend with when creating your own "brand".  More questions than answers, because there are no easy answers.  I'm very good at what I do, but so are a million other guys (and gals).  The hard part is finding that one little thing about what you do that makes you unique--and run with it.  If you don't have a "thing" then you gotta invent one.  Yeah, right.

"Reinvent yourself."  I'm familiar with the phrase.  Artists like The Rolling Stones and Cher have done it.  A lot.  Madonna comes to mind.  Johnny Cupcakes just told me so--in class.  No, really. 

But what about a guy like me, what do I reinvent myself as?  I'm not sure what I was in the first place.  Don't you need to know where you were to know where you are going?  This is going to take more than a blog post and some chin rubbing to figure out.  Gimme some time and I'll share some new ideas.  Promise.

I'm going to start by sprucing up the ol' blog a bit.  Maybe a new background or a module or something. 

Baby steps.

What's YOUR Draw, Mr. Generic Irish Pub Owner?

What’s Your Draw?

God, I hate those three little words.  If you are a musician, and you are in a band, and you have attempted to book said band at your local bar, you have undoubtedly heard these words.  These days it’s the club owner’s best friend and the working musician’s worst enemy.  It’s their weapon to get us musicians to play for less and less money.  Some booking agents (aka “promoters”, who do anything but) are even pitching “pay to play” gigs, although they won’t call it that.  How do you compete in an environment like that?  Yeah, I know.  “Get off my lawn, ya brats.”

But seriously folks, the cat’s outta the bag and there’s no turning back.  Pandora’s box has not only been opened, it’s been blown to bits.  In short, I believe the explosion of the computer age has completely devalued many of the creative arts.  The explosion of inexpensive instruments and other gear has put all this stuff in the hands of way too many folks who delude themselves into believing they have talent and muddy the water for the rest of us who actually deserve to be seen and heard.

But I digress.

At what point did it become the band’s job to draw the ENTIRE crowd?  I’m sorry to break it to you, Mr. Club Owner, but if the draw isn’t to your satisfaction maybe it’s because your club SUCKS or maybe you don’t do your part and ADVERTISE your business once in a while.  Geez, maybe you could write a press release or something.  Hey, here’s a novel idea: clean the fucking bathroom once in a while.

You won’t even put up the cool new full color flyers that we gave you.  Those things cost money, dude -- money that you just took from me because we didn’t draw.  Sorry man, you have to do more than just open the damn doors and collect the money.  It’s a two-way street.

“Oh, we only made $600 at the bar, so we’re only going to be able to pay you $300”.  Excuse me, if we didn’t play at all you wouldn’t have made squat -- because you don’t have any REGULARS.  Your place was EMPTY until me and my friends showed up.  How do you make money during the week? 

How about you make your place different from the rest of the millions of pubs out there?  What’s your draw, Mr. Club Owner?  You do your part first -- then we’ll talk about “our draw”.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but the article linked below really inspired me.  Apparently, I’m not alone.

http://www.reviler.org/2010/09/21/bars-have-bands-to-bring-in-customers/