Shortly after midnight on January 1, 2008, Ned sauntered up to me at the bar.
“Chris,” he said, “2008 is going to be the Year of the Ned. I’m making it happen this year. I don’t care if it’s just one of my songs on a commercial for the local Subaru dealership – it’s goin’ down.”
So I wasn’t terribly surprised, then, when Ned started recording his EP late in the spring. I’d known Ned long enough to know that, for better or worse, Ned gets what Ned wants. It’s an endearing quality and, I might add, more than a little inspirational for me as I set out on this venture. Ned soon announced that he was planning a bicycle tour of upstate New York. It was going to be something like 300 hundred miles by bike, and was originally planned for something like nine shows in two weeks. Ambitious, to be sure, but 2008 was The Year of the Ned. Who was I to argue?
Wanting to get on this Bandwagon of Ned Success, I offered up posters and other support materials to help the cause. This was the result:
These were my first venture into vectorized illustration, and on the whole I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Upon reflection, they’re a little too subdued. I was trying to capture Ned’s crunchy indie spirit. I think I succeeded there, but I wish the posters were a little more eye-catching.
Yet, as we said in the press release:
“There’s a couple of reasons why I’m doing this,” Brower explained. “First and foremost, it’s about getting my music out there to a broader audience, but it’s also about healthy living. It’s about independence from so many things – the music industry, fossil fuels, corporate food mills, greenhouse gasses, and all the things that can tend to hold us back in our day-to-day lives.
“Things are changing, especially in the music industry” he continued. “The whole thing is kind of turned upside down right now, and there’s an opportunity for good music to be heard thanks to the democratization of the listening process brought about by technology. Bands and musicians are putting their music online for free. People are finding fewer and fewer reasons to burn the gas to go to the mall and the music store. This is a really exciting time to be a young musician.”
Well put, Ned! In the end, the tour was scaled back slightly, but I think it’s safe to say it was a smashing success, and the EP is awesome. You can check out Ned’s music here and his blog (primarily about the bike tour) here.
Back in the spring, an idea was born at poker night that had me quivering in excitement. Well, maybe not quivering, but damn excited. A bunch of my pals were firing up a cover band. A Mike Patton cover band. This meant they’d play Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Tomahawk, and more. I was psyched. I didn’t think I’d ever get the opportunity to hear a lot of this stuff live, let alone played by some of my buddies.
The Sultans were born.
Before the band even had a name (let alone had held a rehearsal), I was making posters. There’s a few designs I’m fond of that we never ended up using, but I’m keeping them in the can for an applicable project. Anyway, The Sultans soon booked their first gig, opening for “The Townie Band.” As you might expect, these guys had been gigging around town for a while. Local chaps, good fellas all, playing balls-out rock & roll for their friends.
It came out that their name for this gig would be Krisco Fist, and I thought immediately that I’d love to do a Constructivist-inspired piece for the big gig. So I did.
This remains one of my favorite pieces. It’s far, far from original, but I think it made an impact, and if nothing else it was a huge boost for my confidence to pull off a higher-concept piece like this. It also didn’t hurt that the guys in Krisco Fist loved it, and weren’t shy about saying so. Sean in particular became a big booster, and never hesitates to stroke my ego. Being the swirling funnel cloud of self doubt that I am, it’s been a huge benefit to have these guys supporting me, as clients and as friends.
As a post script, the name Krisco Fist has stuck with this band. Sean says it’s in part because of this first poster, which is humbling. I’ve continued to use that same fist in future projects for them (as we’ll see in future posts), and it’s become something of a logo. It’s also an awesome name, so there’s that.
For the same show, I put together a number of what I’m calling e-flyers to announce the arrival of The Sultans, as well as one printed handout. The e-flyers were low-resolution, low-concept, but hopefully high-impact pieces that were sent out via e-mail and Myspace to advertise the show. I like this concept, and like to think it was effective, though I haven’t repeated it to really get a sense of its usefulness as a marketing tool. Kids these days.
Long live The Sultans.
p.s. They’re now defunct.
UPDATE: Orion writes "The Sultans are getting back together with Joel on guitar..." Wheeee! You heard it here first. More on this Orion character in a future post.
[this is good] very, very cool stuff.......
Posted by: m | 11/26/2008 at 09:52 AM