Friday, July 24, 2009

why am i always so late for the party?

why am i just getting into dead meadow right now? i guess this means they are poised for a meteoric rise because that seems to be what happens whenever i get into a band- i get to see them once in a small place and then they take off and i can't see them for less than $50 (which i am rarely willing to do- there are exceptions). i've had people tell me that this just means that i'm always ahead of the pack. i'd say it puts me in the middle of the pack- i'd rather be a bit further ahead. again, exceptions- the vivian girls still seem to be relatively obscure in a sense. i'm planning on going to see grizzly bear in september because i'm pretty their next chicago stops are going to be at places like the vic or the riv or maybe even the fucking aragon. urgh.
i just remember seeing a vinyl copy of 'feathers' at the reckless on broadway back a few years ago that i always wanted to buy, but never got around to it. why is this? who knows. so i could get around to getting their stuff now- way late. it's the same with jessica bailiff. why didn't i just go out and try and get ahold of her stuff right when we were first compared to her? it don't make sense.
while i was listening to jessica bailiff yesterday (i absolutely love her stuff- not much of a surprise considering the similarities- dense droney stuff with sighing vocals mixed at an ambient level and also still slow beautiful songs) it became apparent to me that that is pretty much the most that shalloboi can hope for in terms of success- basically we don't have that much further to go. i am not sure if this is a good thing or not. the reason more people aren't into her music is because it's slow and beautiful and, quite simply, no one has time for that slow beautiful crap any more. probably never did. if something isn't uptempo, perky and catchy then it's not going to get on most people's radar. even watching grizzly bear at pitchfork i was thinking that it's kind of a phenomenon that they are where they are right now- i guess it can be chalked up to catchy, bouncy singles- people talk like crazy during the slow, fractured beautiful stuff. this was confirmed when i read some pitchfork report claiming they were 'boring' live.
this isn't necessarily a rant per se. it's just the way things are- for some reason i think that that's just fine. don't ask me why...
i think that depending on how many college shows we are able to procure i might even try to tack on a uk leg of a tour when we go to the east coast. pipe dreams i know, but i'm at the end of my rope here. if we're ever going to get anywhere we are going to have to do it on our own. if we're ever going to tour in europe we are going to have to get there on our own. no one's going to do it for us. no one's going to do anything for us- all i can do is buck up, realise that, quite whining about it and just do my best. we don't have that much in the way of 'commercial potential'- if we did we would be in a different place at this point, i'm quite certain of this- so it's best to get on with it and do our thing. next year is the year of the touring. i hope it works out. i shall MAKE it work out dammit! once august hits i think it's time to start sending out college fliers and stuff again- go ahead and get that going as early as possible. the idea is that if we get enough college shows to justify it then i'd like to look into the possibility of flying to the uk and playing shows as well as doing possibly paris and amsterdam or something like that.
i'd really like to figure it out and give it a go. if we can pull it off it would be quite the coup. plus if i'm going to go to all of the trouble to get this whole sole proprietor thing going then i might as well do my best to make it work. now is the time! look who's so gung ho all of a sudden!

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