Bands Archives - Page 3 of 4

January 2, 2013October 15, 2018

Goodbye 2012, 2013 – A New Year of Music And Production

Happy New Year to you all. Welcome to 2013. We’re very excited for this new year and have been preparing for a bigger year. We also want to thank all our staff, friends, and partners for an amazing 2012! Special thanks go to Focus In Digital for all the great photography work. And a special photography mention goes to Aaron Kershaw of Studio On Main in New Rochelle for supplying some amazing artistry!

Our Wedding crew ended the year with some exceptional receptions. Hurricane Sandy threw a curve ball at one reception. We got that ironed out and the music was pumping afterwards. It’s always fun to see one of our DJs getting people involved and moving with in a reception party. The performance production side has been continuing to upgrade the systems we use for live music. November/December saw a series of new upgrades to our concert system and monitor system. If you’ve been to the NEXT Music Charity Concert Series in November/December you would have noticed a bit of change in the subwoofer system. The Stationary Set and Deadbeat Darling really enjoyed the improved monitors systems. We have always gotten great feedback from the bands about our monitor systems but it is important to us to continue to improve and expand the systems we use to make the band’s performance easier. The better the stage sounds to them, the better they’ll perform for you! This year we worked with some amazing bands including The Attic Ends, The Modern Electric, My Pet Dragon, Black Taxi, Fifth Nation and others.

The promotions side did some great things through 2012, especially the Matt O’Ree Band double-header in Stamford, CT. A night of acoustic blues on Wednesday, then a full throttle performance on Thursday in front of thousands of people attending Stamford, CT’s Alive at Five Concert Series opening for classic rock’s Foreigner. This was an exceptional part of the year! We especially enjoyed watching the younger crowd really getting into the band. We will have more shows coming into the area around spring 2013 with fun being a priority. Info will be posted here soon.

Eric Safka of The Matt O'Ree Band signs an autograph for a new young fan. — Eric Safka of The Matt O’Ree Band signs an autograph for a new young fan.

The last 6 months of 2012 saw a major change to the NEXT Charity Concert Series which we have enjoyed working with for so long now. A move that added to the fun of the show and the challenge of the production! The venue changed to the Captain Lawrence Brewery in Elmsford, NY. Performances are held inside the brewery in a large space, with exceptional craft beers and food. The sound is big! The dancing is big! If you haven’t made it out yet to one of these shows make it part of your 2013 plans. Chris Bro of allthingsnext.com and the NEXT Music Radio Show/Podcast deserves a lot of praise for also constantly trying to improve his concert series and getting new music to the people of Westchester and Fairfield Counties. After all, this is an award-winning concert series and for obvious reasons! He has raised thousands of dollars for various charities. He has brought great live music to people throughout the area. He has improved people’s lives simply by the joy and love of music. We look forward to continuing to work with Chris and the NEXT Music crew through an exciting 2013.

So now we move into 2013. We have a series of goals to meet. The main goal is to improve the sound of life around you! We will make your weddings and parties more fun, your speeches and seminars more effective, and your concerts more energetic and moving! There is already a series of great performances scheduled starting with New York City’s greatest band Black Taxi on January 24th at Captain Lawrence Brewery. Our current small format (100-250 people) and medium format (250-500) systems will continue to be upgraded while we do have plans in place to build a newer larger format system that will match the sound clarity and dynamics we look for. Keep an eye on our blogs for more news about 2013!

Remember, music needs to be experienced. Live music is the only way to experience it. Make a resolution this year to get out and see more live music and new bands.

Be Effective this year! Hire us and be heard!

December 13, 2012December 13, 2012

Behind The Board – The Stationary Set (Pics)

Last month we worked with The Stationary Set at the NEXT Charity Concert Series at our favorite new venue Captain Lawrence Brewery. After a well worked sound check these guys performed one set that was like waiting and finally seeing the space shuttle launch. An incredible show that built up and took off with orchestrated and melodic rock. Check out a few pics below from Focus In Digital our photography partner.

Don’t forget Thursday December 13th at the Captain Lawrence Brewery NEXT returns with Deadbeat Darling!!! Show starts at 8pm…you could be home by 10:30 and had an awesome evening!!!

Listen to NEXT!!

December 10, 2012December 10, 2012

Behind The Board – Updates and December’s NEXT Charity Concert

The holiday season is in full swing. Parties, shopping and all the madness that goes with it. This is a very musical time as well with many different types of music events from school plays to Christmas concerts. It’s a fun time for production companies like ours between winter weddings, Christmas parties, and music shows.

At November’s NEXT Charity Concert Series at Captain Lawrence Brewery we worked with a really cool band. The Stationary Set out of New York City. The show went super well and was a lot of fun. Their music is very melodic and dramatic. There can be a lot of pieces to an orchestration by them, well placed to add to the effect. We highly recommend you check them out.

Chris Bro of NEXT posted a video of the sound check on YouTube after the show. It was a quick peek during the monitors check (so don’t expect super sound!). Gives ya a nice view of the settings at these shows. Take a look:

This month’s NEXT Charity Concert is one of our favorite bands. Deadbeat Darling brings their surf/indie rock to the brewery! The last time we worked with Deadbeat Darling was last year (October 2011) in Pleasantville, NY when the series was at Paulie’s Bar. You can listen to some of that show at the NEXT Soundcloud page if you need a reminder (link). We are extremely excited to get to produce these guys at Captain Lawrence. The sound is going to be big! If you dance then be prepared to move this night! The show is Thursday December 13th at 8 PM (Doors at 7 PM). You can buy your tickets in advance here.

Remember, Captain Lawrence is easy to find right off Exit 2 on I 287 in Elmsford, NY. The beers there are amazing and it’s proven to be a very good sounding event hall with plenty of room for dancing!

Have you noticed your favorite pages on Facebook don’t post as much? If you have there is a reason for that. Due to changes with Facebook you can not see all posts from your favorite pages unless you either a) contribute to the page by commenting on posts or b) set up an interests list. To do a list – hover cursor over pages “liked” button – click add to list – create a list (if you don’t already have one) – click list you wish to add them too.

We do have some availability left for the month of December. If you are looking for DJ’s or need production for band or voice at your holiday parties or weddings, send us a message at the contact page.

August 20, 2012August 22, 2012

Sound Advice – An Open Letter to Bands Pt II

Today the music scene is awful for young original musicians. The music industry has failed to survive the internet thus far. The record label behemoths have fallen. Popular commercial radio is consolidating to very few stations and formats in the big cities. Clubs would rather hire DJ’s and some cover bands than the original bands. Potential fans attentions have moved away from the new musicians coming up, and the DJ is the new “Rock Star”. Bands today must work harder, for far less money for a long time building up a following that will raise their value to potential venues. Fortunately there is the tools of social networking out to help you do this. If used properly and consistently, a band can still build up a huge following.

A proper social marketing program for any band should include Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Google+. They’re all free. They all have millions of users, meaning if used right, millions of potential viewers. Bands also should have a Sonic Bids, Reverb Nation, MySpace and last but not least their own web page. Your own web page will be your hub. All these social media pages will center around this webpage. It should also contain your “Press Kit”. Direct them to your page by putting out content that is on your page, but linked out to the social media world. For example, host a video of one of your songs on your web page. Post a link on your Facebook page with a preview and statement saying check out our latest performance (or similar). Viewers of your page will then see this on their news feeds, click on the link, and be taken to your page to listen to the music.

You must post at regular intervals. Not every 5 minutes, but hourly would help. The more you post, the more you show up in news feeds. The trick is to find the interval between presence and annoyance that makes sure people see you out there without hating you! Using insights on your Facebook page will help you decide the right interval by seeing when people are most likely to see your posts.

Content is vital! What all these sites do is help you get content out to people. What is content? Content is pictures, audio clips, video clips, and little fun blurbs about the band. All of this must be of the best quality you can afford to get, so spend some money and invest in yourselves! If you’re going to put out lousy videos with awful audio, you’re going to give people a bad impression. BNK Productions is one of many companies that are able to help you with this. Load your pages with 3 or 4 pieces of music/videos to be rotated in a regular rotation. Post on your Facebook and Twitter pages links to the new content. Companies like ourselves come out and record a multi-track audio recording of your show, a bunch of photos, and some videos that can be mixed with the audio recordings. Now you have new content for your pages. as you write new songs, or refresh old ones you can get more done.

Again, the quality of the content is vital. Fuzzy audio, pixelated video, and blurry pictures are absolutely annoying. You will lead people away with that kind of content. If you want to be taken seriously you need to appear serious! I’m sure most people who read this have gone on to Youtube to see a video only to find it was from someone’s phone and you can’t see or hear anything! It’s annoying. Do it enough and people will avoid your band and that will defeat all this effort!

For a great example of using the social net to market yourself, find yourself on Daria Musk’s Facebook , Google + and webpage . She is a perfect study of how to market yourself in the Social Music biz…and could be considered the music queen of the Google Hangouts.

For information on bringing us out to build your portfolio of content email us using the contact link above. We offer all kinds of marketing/promotional help for bands.