Artists: Tips on Networking

One of the best skills for an artist to posses is that of networking. Networking can lead to an array of good things to come your way. Here are a few pieces of advice to keep in mind while on your next networking adventure.

Tip 1) Go see live music events. This is a great way to interact with people involved in the music industry. Big concerts, small club nights, thousand-seat venues, and small coffee shops. Anywhere with live music shows is good. You'll meet the bands, the production crews, band management and marketing teams, etc. Trust me, go to the music.

Tip 2) Always remember to follow up. Within a week of receiving a business card or contact info for a new industry contact, send them an email just as a reminder of meeting you. Be sure to mention anything specific said in your debut conversation with them to refresh their memory a bit. Keep it short and simple, just a quick hello. Don't try to sell them on anything right away. Establish the relationship.

Tip 3) Identify what you want to accomplish and determine who you really need to network with to help you achieve the wanted success. If you are wanting to tour, then try to network with local booking agents and show promoters. If you are wanting to create a buzz around your upcoming album, then network with publicists and radio promoters.

Tip 4) Never turn down an opportunity. And by opportunity, I mean the chance to increase your clout, if even by a small amount. If possible try to attend all events you are asked to attend if only as a favor to a new industry contact. This means personal appearances, live performances, or maybe even guest judging a contest. Any chance you get to increase your clout in the music world, take it. Until you can afford not to...

Tip 5) Try not to piss anyone off, at least nothing too serious that could last a long time. You never know what opportunities you could miss just because you were a hard a** to people on nights that weren't going your way.

Love Rage Comedy Collabs with The Woody Wood Sound "Childrens Dub"

Hails from Youngstown, OH. This the second time we collabed (was while I was in Love Rage Comedy.) The first track was titled "Evil All Over" (vocals under Sirius Thots) then the second was "Children's Dub" (The song below) which was an instrumental he produced (under The Woody Wood Sound) with AbandonLandon on guitars and then with myself laying down a heavy bassline. As well as James Suggs on trumpet.

Children’s Dub

Love Rage Comedy collabs with Fly Jay "Evil All Over"

Follow him @itsFLyJay

As you know LRC only recently began adding our own vocals other than movie samples into our songs. We're working at more becoming a band as we write these newer songs. Sometimes we dont always stay in our own comfort zone and we like to dabble in other musical "genres" we hate this word as it more "pigeonholes" a band than defines them. In that we made this hip hop instrument and we reached out to our friend in Youngstown, OH- Fly Jay (a.k.a. Sirius Thots) of "The Woody Wood Sound" When we received the finished product that you'll be hearing we were absolutely blown away! We hope you guys enjoy!

Love Rage Comedy Covers: Crimson & Clover

This is our cover of Tommy James & The Shondells original. Even though our cover is more mimiced from Joan Jett's version. 
***FREE "Covers" EP Download!!! 8 other tracks included!***
http://www.reverbnation.com/loveragecomedy
http://www.myspace.com/loveragecomedy
http://www.facebook.com/loveragecomedy

OR JUST DOWNLOAD IT HERE:

Bass Guitar Chords And Tips For Bassists

Bass tablature, or bass tabs, is probably one of the easiest ways to figure out your favorite bass licks. A lot of times, the bass guitar tends to get buried in the mix of a song, or in older recordings, the lower frequencies are especially harder to hear due to the recording technology at the time, so bass tabs can be a great way to quickly get your fingers walking up and down that neck. I will always recommend learning standard notation too, mainly because it can be applied to almost any instrument, but it is a bit more time consuming to learn, which doesn’t go over well when you’re a beginner and just want to start rocking.

When I first started playing bass 4 years ago, I really had no knowledge of music theory or notation. I knew I had to learn it, but I really was dying to be able to play some of my favorite songs right then and there. I purchased a few books on theory and notation, but I also picked up a Rage Against the Machine bass tab book. That one really got me going fast. Granted, bass tabs, and all tablature in general, don’t indicate certain helpful things, such as the duration of the notes, but only after a few minutes of listening and tinkering around, I was playing the song “Killing in the Name”. I’ve been hooked on bass tabs ever since. It wasn’t until years later that I dusted off those books I originally bought and finally learned standard notation. I’m glad I know it now, but I rarely use it unless I’m officially charting music.

Eventually, I reached a point, like most well-practiced musicians do, where I didn’t need bass tabs, sheet music, etc, anymore. I can now just listen to the song, and pick up exactly what is being played with minimal problems. However, I’m not a musical genius by any means, and there are still times when I’ll hear a bass fill, or interesting, “notey” bass line that is quite tricky. If I can’t figure it out by ear, you should bet that I’m going to look up the bass tab, and not the sheet music.

I guess the point is that unless you are planning on being a studio musician, composer, or something like that, you really don’t need to know standard notation. Bass tabs, and all tablature are easier to read, and can help get you to a pretty high skill level. However from my experience, once I fully learned theory and notation, things really opened up for me, and I felt good about being a well-rounded musician. There will always be a special place in my heart for bass tabs though! Here is a list of some great bass tab sites (no need for bass tab books anymore, right?)

Other Resources:
www.bigbasstabs.com
www.basstabarchive.com
www.basscrawler.org

Big Punisher R.I.P.

Big Pun, his wife, and children were staying at a hotel in White Plains, New York. They were there because their Bronx home was being worked on. On February 7, he experienced difficulty breathing and collapsed in his hotel room. His wife called 911, but emergency medical workers were not able to revive him. Only 28 years at the time, Big Pun died of heart failure, weighing nearly 700 pounds at the time.

The hip-hop and Latino communities mourned the passing of one of its stars. Thousands of fans attended his wake in the Bronx a few days after his death. To honor him, a local sign painting company, TATS Cru, painted a large mural about him on a building in his neighborhood. Famous friends also expressed their grief over his death. “He was a source of pride for the Latin community, a great artist and a great person,” Lopez told MTV. “I lost a brother,” Fat Joe said to The New York Times.

We became LRC a.k.a. @LoveRageComedy

Notice the 7-String Guitar!

So I may have mentioned Landon & I were jamming pretty heavily with Brandon "Fluff" Baker (a.k.a. King Of Stupity) & James Burkett (Drums) and well they wanted to take the band to a heavy sound and Landon & I weren't feelin it. 

Artwork: Landon Reidy & Rob Clark

So we started making tunes on our pc's with a program Fluff gave us called Cool Edit 96. We have "Mix Paste" everything in layers, but its fairly simple I wish it had multi-track like studios have! but we make due! We're working on our first album "A Trip Through A New Dawn" Its very techno-ish as were using loops we found on the web!

So we are no longer part of Point Blank, Thurteen, Project X, or whatever name we are this week! We are LRC! I still personally dug Guitarded-- but as a favor to Kevin --I won't steal his name. I'll still jam & play bass with Chelsea Clegg Jr. though! 

Notorious B.I.G. R.I.P.

His real name was Christopher Wallace, but he went by the names Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls.

In early 1997 there was a warrant for his arrest, stemming from an assault charge. He allegedly beat up a concert promoter. He was also ordered to pay over $40,000 to a man called Nathaniel Banks, who claims that he was sent to pick up Biggie from a cancelled show back in 1995. He said, and the judge agreed, that Biggie and his entourage beat him. At the time of Biggie's death, he was under investigation by the FBI for an alleged connection to a New York organized crime family.

On Saturday March 9th of 1997, Biggie was attending the 11th annual Soul Train Music Awards at the Peterson Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard in LA. Other guests included Busta Rhymes, Heavy D, Da Brat, Yo Yo, Sean "Puffy" Combs, and of course, Biggie.

The party really got going around 9:30 or 10:00. Biggie was sitting at a table near the dance floor. Findadeath.com friend Jackie Smith was there that night. Jackie met Biggie in the Peterson, and said that he was "high as a kite," and pretty cool. She also tells me that she was standing on Wilshire Boulevard "when we heard the "caps getting busted," meaning the shots were fired. Jackie says that everyone went apeshit, and scattered like roaches.

Just after midnight, the event was becoming too crowded, and the LA fire marshals were called in and shut the party down. By 12:45, the street was crowded with people leaving the event from the front doors. Biggie and Puffy came out in the back of the building, to the valet parking. They discussed going to another party, and their cars arrived. Puffy left, and Biggie and two friends got in to a GMC Suburban. They drove out of the garage and up to the light at Wilshire and Fairfax, just to the left of where this photo was taken. (Sorry, I should have done better research.) The light was red, and Biggie was in the passenger seat. While waiting at the light, a dark full size car pulled up to the right side of Biggie's car and shot 6 to 10 bullets into the car. The driver took Biggie straight to Emergency Room at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Thank you Terri Rios, for the photos.

The car remained at the hospital, until police impounded it.

At 1:15 Sunday morning, Biggie was pronounced dead. He was 24.

Eyewitnesses described the lone gunman as an African American wearing a suit and bow tie, similar, police say, to the attire favored by Nation of Islam members. (But why? They're so nice.)

Fans turned the sidewalk nearest to where Biggie was slain, into a memorial.

Biggie's body was shipped back to New York City, and received by the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home. He was dressed in a white suit and a white hat. Mary J. Blige, Celine Dion, Queen Latifah, Lil Kim and others gathered to pay their last respects. Okay, I'm kidding about Celine. She was busy.

Biggie's body was then taken via hearse to the streets of his old Brooklyn neighborhood, Fort Greene, giving fans a chance to say goodbye. It was going well until some onlookers got a bit too carried away in their grief. Supposedly prompted by the police and their use of excessive security, the onlookers began jumping on cars. The police used pepper spray and arrested 6.

The murder is still not solved and police suspect a former officer, David Mack, who is already in prison for bank robbery, for arranging the "professional hit." Supposedly this hit was based on a feud between East and West Coast rappers. Also arrested is Marion "Suge" Knight, founder of Death Row Records. Police impounded a vehicle at Knight's house, which matched witness' description of the shooter's car. The gunman is possibly identified as Amir Muhammad. He and Mack were classmates, and he disappeared shortly after visiting Mack in prison just after Christmas 1997.

Biggie was supposedly cremated. Rest in peace. Please. Jackie Smith tells me that Biggie's ashes were divided in 3. His mother, his ex girlfriend Lil' Kim, and his wife Faith Evans. At the time of Biggie's death, he was dating Chali Baltimore.