In Praise of the Big Town, the Small City

Today one of my favorite bands, Lohio, is setting off on tour in support of their brand new album, Family Tree. Taking a look at their schedule, you’ll notice a lot of small cities on the list– Louisville, Kentucky; Bloomington, Indiana; Ypsilanti, Michigan; Athens, Ohio etc, etc…

LOHIO TOURDATES:

Sep 22 :: Case Western :: Cleveland, Ohio
Sep 23 :: Rhumba Cafe :: Columbus, Ohio
Sep 24 :: WFPK Live Lunch :: Louisville, Kentucky
Sep 24 :: Zanzabar :: Louisville, Kentucky
Sep 26 :: Cosmic Charlies :: Lexington, Kentucky
Sep 27 :: The Union :: Athens, Ohio
Sep 28 :: Savoy :: Ypsilanti, Michigan
Sep 30 :: Northland College :: Ashland, Wisconsin
Oct 1 :: The Bishop :: Bloomington, Indiana
Oct 3 :: The Brillobox :: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Small cities and big towns can be the bread and butter of a touring band. There’s a thrill in playing New York City or Chicago, but there’s a loneliness too, and the knowledge that there are quite literally hundreds of other events going on at the same time as your lowly indie show. In a big town, you’ve got statistics on your side– there are probably only a handful of other events happening. People are more likely to be excited to see your band. You’ve got a better shot at getting excited high school kids out and sometimes you manage to avoid the blase, seen-it-all attitude of a bigger place. And becoming known as a good place for bands to play can be a real boon for a local music scene. All around, it’s a win.

Plus, it’s easier to build a following through old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Keep coming back to the same small city and it will treat you right.

Frontier Ruckus, a newish discovery of mine, is Michigan band that plays gorgeous, moving Americana type music with horns and some pretty gut-wrenching lyrics.  They’re on Ramseur Records, the queen of hard touring indie labels. They have the small cities thing down as well.  Here’s an excerpt of their (extensive) touring schedule:

FRONTIER RUCKUS TOURDATES:

Sep 23  :: Dante’s Bar :: Frostburg, MD
Sep 24 :: Thunderbird Cafe :: Pittsburgh, PA
Sep 25  :: Beachland Tavern :: Cleveland, OH
Sep 26 :: Birdy’s ::  Indianapolis, IN
Sep 28 :: Woodland’s Tavern :: Columbus, OH
Sep 29 :: The Southgate House Parlour :: Newport, KY
Sep 30 :: Cosmic Charlies ::  Lexington, KY
Oct 1 :: Subkirke :: South Bend, IN
Oct 2 :: Starry Nights Festival :: Bowling Green, KY

And have a listen to this incredible song as well:

Nerves of the Nightmind

The Fruit Bats are on the the indie powerhouse label, Sub Pop and have put out some incredible records. And their schedule includes a lot of not-quite-beaten path stops like Morgantown, West Virginia; Carrborro, North Carolina; Oxford, Mississippi, as well as the standard Seattle/Portland/Dallas kinds of places.

Check it:

FRUIT BATS TOUR DATES:

Oct 2 ::Garfield Artworks :: Pittsburgh, PA
Oct 3 :: WVU Creative Arts Center :: Morgantown, WV
Oct 4 :: Cat’s Cradle ::  Carrborro, NC
Oct 5 :: Orange Peel :: Asheville, NC
Oct 6 :: Workplay Theatre :: Birmingham, AL
Oct 7 :: Square Room :: Knoxville, TN
Oct 8 :: 529 :: Atlanta, GA

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Pittsburgh is shakin’.

The Pittsburgh music scene is making a lot of noise these days. Some notables:

Expansive indie rock boys Mariage Blanc have finished their new album. I’ve heard it and it’s awesome. It will be released into the world on October 8th at the Brillobox. Show up early kids, this one will sell out.

Indie folk pop act Lohio also has a new album coming out this month. And Lohio and Donora area also setting off on a tour next week, hitting up Cleveland, Columbus, Athens, Ypsilanti, Bloomington, Louisville, Lexington, blah, blah, blah, check out all the dates here.

Pittsburgh’s favorite 1970s rock band, The Harlan Twins, are recording a new album with Josh Kretzmer at the Mariage Blanc studio.

Nik Westman and the Central Plains are also recording, this time with Jake Hanner at Play On Recordings

AND Boca Chica is recording as well. 7 basic tracks are done, a few more to go….

Oh! Small Cities has become The Slow Reel. This is a new song, as played at Howler’s last weekend, captured on a shaky cam…

*photo credit: Square America*

An Ode to Transportation

There are a lot of iconic songs about getting from one place to another. Moving from place to place plays a larger-than-average role in the musician’s mind because musicians spend a hell of a lot of time getting from one gig to another.

Musicians are adaptable creatures. Here’s some varying ways the kids are getting around these days:

By jet:

Flying from gig to gig is not necessarily the provenance of highly-funded major label artists. Take indie Americana musician Emma Hill. She was just interviewed on NPR this morning for her enterprising use of the all-you-can-fly Jet Blue pass. The folksy Alaskan singer/songwriter is taking to the air for more than 22 dates this month and next in support of her brand new album Clumsy Seduction. Check out the NPR spot here. And then listen to this track off the new record: One Glass Too Many

By bike:

I’ve written before about The Steel Wheels yearly bike tour, but this seems to be an idea whose time has come. Kentucky indie folk cellist Ben Sollee is currently bike touring with a cello and a full drum kit. Ballsy!

By train:

There are a lot of songs about hopping freight trains, and I do actually know a small number of old timey and crusty types who do this for real, in 2010. But you do run the risk of mashing up your guitar on the dismount. And it’s not for the faint of heart. An alternative to that is that the mostly-reliable Amtrak train. Andru Bemis, Michigan folk artist extraordinaire, is the champion of cross-country Amtrak touring. Check him out, playing “Huck Finn”, a song about Huck Finn.