Category Archives: Boneslinky

Reflections on Q1

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At the beginning of the year I posed some pretty gawdy goals on this blog. The thing about goals is that they shift as situations change.

Let’s check in and see how we’re doing:

1. Obtain $10,000 in revenue for all three bands

The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad has been in the studio almost exclusively. We’ve managed to play 2 shows so far this year. These shows were both stellar (I don’t just say this about every show). We made $160 from both shows combined. These shows turned into promotional parties and we spent at least that amount of money to put them on (we give away and buy alot of shit for our fans, at this point I wouldn’t have it any other way.) So in ACTUAL revenue we gained nothing.

Wild Bonerz has managed to lock down $1500 in gigs so far. We’re super proud of this progression and have really worked out a really sweet 90 minute(+) set. We’ve revamped our description from “Bluegrass covers of pop songs” to “Old-timey cover barons.” The brand shift from bluegrass to old-timey is much more apt  Our(sub)goal for Wild Bonerz is to lock down a venue or an area of town as a recurring gig.

The Hilltop Hightops is on a brief hiatus. You can still buy our AWESOME album though. Super Galactic Space Banana will teach your kids a number of things about space, history, science, and math. But probably the best lesson it teaches is how to ROCK!(!!!!!!!!!!)

2. Finish and release The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad’s Bone Slinky!

As I mentioned, we’ve been in the studio a whole lot recently. It has taken alot of time away from the usual fucking around that we do on a daily basis. The results have been, well how can I put it, XAN-tastic! (scroll all the way down for the reference).


3. Create 30 posts specific to goal-setting for bands on this site

We are well on our way to achieving this with two minor tweaks:

a.) This site will be updated every Tuesday NO MATTER WHAT! On my calculator, that reads to be at least 52 posts a year. Periodically there will/should be additional posts, but the Tuesday post is one that you can set your watch to.

b.) Posts won’t be limited to goal-setting. I realized I don’t want to be obligated to talk about goal-setting all the time and that there are better and more helpful uses for this blog.

4. Obtain an official endorsement from Party City

This was my “wild card” goal for the year. I really don’t know how I am going to go about achieving this but I will try and see where it gets me.  It’s fun to try random shit sometimes. For example, we recently asked everyone from Benny Mardones to Tay Zonday to sing on our upcoming album (with hilarious results.)

I have made no progress on the Party City endorsement as of this point, but it seems like a good time to get to work on it.

5. Significantly build our mailing list

Sometime in January I realized that it was more rewarding, effective, and reasonable to believe that building our Facebook fan page was a better step than focusing on email marketing. It just makes sense for us to be able to interact WITH you, not just blast our bullshit AT you.

If you dig our music or blog, I’d love to get in touch with you via email. We will start to increasingly interact with our email community, but for now we are all over Facebook like sweat on a 7-11 hotdog.

Super Art Fight: Bitchmade! and TRAM

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Ok, two more videos from Super Art Fight VI and then we’ll move on. This has been a fun way to introduce some of the songs that are being recording in the studio for the next album, Boneslinky! So far I’m really siked about all of the new material.

Bitchmade!

“Bitchmade!” is sort of like the flip side of “Big Fist.” It started as an old man’s first person lament against the modern-ness of today’s male.  I get in these crazy moods some days and record demos that sound like this:

 

In the video, you’ll see that we’re launching kazoos out into the crowd. This gimmick spawned from our children’s band The Hilltop Hightops, and has ended up being a staple of our Flute Squad “office parties.” Mike “Cap’n Mediocrity” Bennett, confessed to me later in the night that he had accidentally nailed someone right in the face with a kazoo. So, yeah, if you come to a show HEADS UP.

TRAM

“TRAM” is one of a few genre-bending tracks on the new album.  It’s decidedly non-rock in an album full of pretty hard rock tunes.  What’s missing from the live version is this sweet Coldplay-meets-MIDI piano track.  TRAM is definitely a NEW new-tune, meaning we haven’t played it out for too long. We’re still working out some of the kinks.

Alot of people have already asked me what the fuck this song is about. I think it’s a bit self-explanatory. It deals with our obsession of Disney, Epcot, Dire Straits, and the phenomenon where wild amusement meets order.



Super Art Fight VI: Show Us Your Boobs

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Just wanted to share some videos from Super Art Fight VI with you guys , I’ll be revealing a few other videos on this blog this week. I’m taking this opportunity to explain some of the songs that will be available on the next album, Boneslinky! in a few months.

“Show Us Your Boobs (Buy Me A Beer)” is a song that’s been around for a while. It’s probably the one song that was worked out exclusively in and around the live setting.  Rather than our typical cheap idea demo–>play it live—>record it for real method, this song was actually written during the process of playing shows.  Like most of our songs, it is one that started out as a joke about the ultimate crowd participation. After repeated attempts at coercing the audience to either:

a.) Showing us boobs

or

b.) Buying us beer

we have ACTUALY seen like, I dunno, 3 boobs and have received the equivalent of a round of beers. In fact, most of this boob-flashing, and beer-giving happens after the show is over.  Many people, ACTUAL WOMEN, have told me they love the song, but feel a bit weird about actually showing their tits in a bar filled with 30 people.  The lack of beer is just laziness or cheapness I suppose.