This is no way to run a business
New Album drops today
Hello Faux Friends,
I got a couple emails from the folks at Bandcamp this week. One of them reminded me gently that this Friday March, 4 2022 is “Bandcamp Friday,” the day on which they waive their fees and let the artists keep 100% of the revenue from their sales on the platform. I got to thinking, “Gee, I wish I had a new record or something to generate interest that I could point people to my Bandcamp page for and perhaps bathe in a tub of 20 dollar bills later as the result of…”
I snapped out of this dream vision and immediately went to the folder named “music” on my old 2TB hard drive to see if there was anything that could manifest itself as a viable release in a short amount of time. And lo, this top folder in the “iTunes 2010 back up and other gems” subfolder popped out at me:
That’s right! It was exactly 18 years ago today that I played a solo set at the Turf Club in Saint Paul, Minnesota. What better time to release this thing? Now is the time. It makes sense. It fits. It works.
Here is the blurb from the release that appears on the Bandcamp page:
18 years ago to the day of this release, I played this set at the Turf Club in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The line-up for the night was Ashtray Hearts, Faux Jean (me playing solo), Molly Maher, and then Richard Buckner headlining. First Avenue invited me to play the show. I'm guessing it was Sonia Grover who booked this event. (Thanks, as always SG!)
A couple days after the show, Jay Finder, who was a bartender at the Turf Club, came up to me and handed me a CD. He'd made a bootleg of the performance and wanted me to have a copy. I think it was a board tape, but there may have been room mics involved. I believe either Rich Mattson or Rob Rule were doing sound, but I can hear Matt Donarski's voice trying to determine the cause of the horrible sounds on the last track, so he may have been involved too. If you did sound and remember, reach out and I'll give you credit.
So yeah, 6,574 days ago, I made these sounds in a beautiful music club in Saint Paul, Minnesota, called the Turf Club. 6,570 days ago, Jay gave me the CD with all the tracks, and today, I am sharing them with you.
So yes, I waited 6,574 days to release this thing, and I also waited 6,574 days to promote it. As if to say, this is no way to run a business.
I’m pretty sure the way it works on Bandcamp is, you can listen to an album two or three times for free before they gently ask you “to open your wallet.” So please, go have a free listen to Faux Jean Live at the Turf Club 3/3/2004. It looks like this and will only be on Bandcamp for the foreseeable future.
The other email I received from Bandcamp was from the founder letting me know that Epic Games (who owns the Fortnite gaming world) has purchased Bandcamp. This is crazytown and a perhaps a little concerning. The verbiage was such that Bandcamp brass are happy because Epic, as you may know, has challenged the hegemony of Apple and its AppStore and are for a more free and open internet, which sounds nice. And maybe it will lead to all kinds of beautiful synergies (I may bathe in a tub of 20 dollar bills yet!), but I have this funny feeling the Epic guys are going to say “We gotta cut out this “Bandcamp Friday” thing, this is no way to run a business.” And if they stop doing the Bandcamp Friday thing, maybe I’ll stop spontaneously releasing records with zero promotion and, well, maybe that’s okay.
All of that being said, I think I was in decent voice on the evening of March 3, 2004, despite my pack-a-day habit at the time, and I would be very grateful if you’d partake of this slice of art/ideas that I have shared today. And thank you Jay, for the bootleg.
OX&C,
Faux Jean
P.S. Thanks to all the new folks who signed up for the Faux Jean newsletter, we certainly do appreciate it.
..
..
..
..
.