That Thing You Do: First Radio Spin

The first time That Thing You Do is on the radio.

One of the best scenes in the movie.

Faye is dropping off a letter in the public mailbox on the street, listening to the radio on her headphones, when she hears the drum beat and That Thing You Do starts playing.

She freaks, picks up T.B. Player at the Army/Navy store, they run down to Guy’s appliance store, Lenny and Jimmy show up (leaving their car parked in the street), and everyone runs around celebrating, laughing, Lenny smooching the lady cardboard cut out.

Even Guy’s mom does a little sitting-down-mom-dance towards the end of the scene.  

Magical.

A real, honest moment.

This business is draining.  There’s always a new problem, the next thing, another email, another crisis.

The one big celebratory moment used to be signing a record deal, because that meant you were going to become super famous (right?) and make lots of money.

I’m not sure if that particular moment/reasoning exists anymore.

But you have other moments worth celebrating.

Hearing your song on the radio.  Still awesome, especially for the first time.

Releasing a new single or record, even through TuneCore.  You put something out into the world, take a few mins or a dinner for that.

Playing a gig where everyone in the band thought it went really really well.  Call it out, say something about it.  Why? Because life doesn’t owe you another show like that.

When you get a heartfelt email from a fan expressing real love for your band.  Read it out loud with your band and appreciate the reality that you made a difference.

When you get a song on TV.  It’s ok to have everyone over and watch the show!  Goodness sakes, it’s a song you wrote on the edge of your bed in your undies and now it’s being heard.  Make a night of it.

I don’t care what you celebrate along the way, but don’t forget to celebrate.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

That Thing You Do: K.O. Bailey

“The portly gentleman sniffing his stogie is K.O. Bailey.

He’s Columbus’ second most popular disc jockey…well, he’s the biggest cootie I ever saw.

If he likes what he hears, he’s going to play That Thing You Do tomorrow morning with 50,000 watts behind it.

It’s very important you don’t stink today.”

- Mr. White

(or if you are a hardcore fan, you’d know it’s Andy White…When Sol Silar is stuffing his face with a sandwich he says “ANDY, what in the bloody hell is this?”)

If it’s not K.O. Bailey watching then it’s someone from CAA  or the president of the hip indie label, or an attractive hot babe, or Vince Gill, or your ex lover.

There’s always something or someone there to take you off base.

It’s also important that you don’t stink today.

Every show you play you’re raising the bar for what the baseline quality of you show is (I hope so anyway).

That’s one of the reasons it’s important to play lots of shows.  You want your worst possible show to be as best as possible.

The experience you’ve built is your fail-safe.  Even when your hands are shaking, your throat is dry, a guitar string breaks and then K.O. Bailey shows up, there’s no need to freak.

You won’t stink today because now you’re not the type of person who can stink.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

A Week Of That Thing You Do

That Thing You Do.

I watched it again this weekend.  

I could probably write every blog post for the next year based on insights gleaned from this movie.

But I’m not. I’m just going to do a week.  This week.

Even if you haven’t seen the movie, or haven’t seen the movie in a while, you’ll still be able to follow along.

But you’ll be able to follow along better if you go ahead and watch it tonight.  

A man in a really nice camper…

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Michael Jackson Pictures

Michael Jackson still makes headlines.

Something that is very interesting about his news stories is that you can tell what the tenor of the article is going to be by looking at which picture they use to go along with the headline.

Michael Jackson’s career has such a wide assortment of photos to choose from, but depending on the slant of the article, different photos from different periods get used.

If it’s a positive article, praising his melodies and performing, chances are the picture is from vibrant and from the 80’s. (or Google “Michael Jackson is good at music”, mostly flattering pics)

If the article is negative, they use one of those “just got out of the plastic surgery clinic” pictures. (or Google “Michael Jackson is weird”, mostly unflattering pics)

If the article is just a normal article/neurtral, it’s usually a mid 90’s picture (or Google “Michael Jackson”, pretty normal)  Like most of the pictures today with the related article about him wanting to play Jar Jar Binks.  Crazy.

The corresponding picture to a story helps frame the context story.  It’s easy to tell with Michael Jackson because he’s an extreme example and he has extreme pictures.

What story are you telling? What context do your pictures help frame?  Do you do anything extreme?

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Serial vs. Undisclosed

Remember Serial?

A lot of people cared about the Serial podcast.

It caught on.

The story got the spotlight for a season.  And then went away.  Nobody’s talking about it.

Why?

It’s not because there wasn’t more story to tell.  The Undisclosed Podcast is doing an excellent job of uncovering new facts and probabilities relating to Adnan’s case.  It’s fascinating and infuriating and confusing and fast paced.

It’s also not because people believed justice was served.

So we have an unfinished story in which there’s a good chance justice wasn’t served.

Why isn’t Undisclosed (and carrying on the story) as famous as Serial?  Why aren’t more people demanding justice?

Because the predominant question Serial listeners were asking was simply “does this entertain me or not?”  And the answer was YES for tons of people, myself included!

Serial ended up being for the masses.  Serial was the hit.

Undisclosed provides the album cuts…for the hardcore who want to go from mere entertainment to meaning.  To dig deeper and ask “does the outcome of Adnan’s trial line up with my values and definition of justice?”

You need the hit to get a mass, you need the great album cuts to create attachment.  

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Stage Comfort

Being comfortable on stage is not the be all end all.

Your audience expects you to be comfortable.

You started out having played zero shows and being super uncomfortable, and now you’ve played a bunch of shows and your comfortable on stage.

So you feel good about that.  And you should. That’s growth.

But so what if you’re comfortable on stage?

Comfortability is not the goal.

Please please don’t stop there.

The goal is impact, not comfort.

The hope is that you gain general comfortability and in turn it allows you to show more of your character, your personality, your uniqueness.  More of who you are.

More than that, the hope is that your character and who you are has grown you into a person who is confident in what they have to say, the impact they have to make.  

A person who is comfortable enough with the spotlight to actually DO something with it…beyond just being comfortable with it.

If you’re uncomfortable, grow in comfort.  If you’re comfortable, grow in impact.  If you’re making impact, we’d all like a ticket to the show.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com