The next night, we performed at Viento y Agua Coffee Shop in Long Beach. Kevin Ng, our buddy and former bass player, joined us for acoustic guitar!

On Sunday, Kevin’s band, Sad Comedian performed at DiPiazza’s. In the spirit of camaraderie, Chris returned the favor, joining the band on bass.

Being a musician has its challenges. Choosing music as a career is even tougher. Any music scene thrives on the support of fans and the willingness of the musicians to help each other out and work together.

We’ve had 2 different fans send us awesome art, and we’re very flattered. We’d love to see more! Do you have any cool pics from our shows? Send ‘em our way, and you’ll get a photo credit.

Do you guys own OSB CDs, hats, or T-shirts? Send us pics of you with your Oak Street swag, and we’ll give you a shout-out. Join the mailing list, and we’ll send you free stickers!

Since we have so many shows coming up, we would dig some feedback. What’s your favorite Oak Street Blues song? What’s your favorite cover song? Is there a cover you want to see us do? Who is your favorite OSB character? Do you have a favorite YouTube video? Request your fave, and we’ll post it on Video Wednesday!

As always, we’re grateful to have you guys as fans. Thanks for coming to the shows, listening to the tunes, and watching the vids.  You rock!

With three new songs (“Don’t You Know,” “Dance Song,” and “Damn This Chick”) in the can, we set off on our trip to Reno over the weekend. We’ve been looking forward to this trip, and it totally was a success. Next week’s blog will be solely devoted to OSB’s tour adventure.

We’ve been keeping busy with lots of shows and recording, and now things are really starting to come together. With a new album comes a new chapter. We can’t wait for you to see what we have in store!

It was also Jenny’s birthday! The large crowd who had gathered around to watch us perform joined us in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” to our loyal bass player.

If you noticed that we were missing a member at our last couple of gigs (The Park Bar & Grill, Northridge Farmers’ Market), it’s because Stephanie just returned from a trip to Vegas. We hope she had a restful vacation, and she’s ready to rock ‘n’ roll with us once again!

On Saturday, before we drove out to Ventura for our show at Peirano’s, we gathered at our drummer Alejandra’s house for a band photo. The band is rarely together in daytime, since most of our gigs are at night. We wanted to take advantage of the good lighting, as well as have a new picture featuring Stephanie, our newest member.

Alejandra had just purchased strawberries at the farmers’ market the day before, and she was nice enough to save some for the whole band. Perhaps there is some truth to the idea of the starving musician, since she was still snacking on them as the photo was taken. (That’s a strawberry in her hand.) Maybe the fruit at the Simi Valley Farmers’ Market is really that good.

Warren has produced and/or engineered Aerosmith, The Fray, Korn, Better Than Ezra, and Eve 6, among others. Though he’s really accomplished, Warren is super-nice and humble. His assistants were incredibly knowledgeable in attaining the perfect drum sounds. They sounded great! We’re excited to get back in the studio this week to finish the bass and guitar parts. We can’t wait for you guys to see what we’ve been working on!

Here are some of the unique ways of promoting the band while also helping the local community at the same time:

1. Working with a Local Restaurant
Band members can offer a local restaurant owner their own band recipe which they can include in the menu. They can promote their band’s name as well as the restaurant whenever they have some upcoming gig. The band may use well designed flyers or business cards plus the social media sites to tell about their band and the restaurant to their fans.

2. Teaming up with Bar Owners
Aside from offering to sing once in a while even for free, the band may team up with the bar owners in promoting both the establishment and the band. The band members may provide some of the small items that are used in the bar like coasters or ashtrays. They may also think of some give away items for those who frequent the bar especially if they are scheduled to have a performance.

3. Car Wash Fund Promotional Campaign
One of the things that band members can do is to raise money through car wash. They may ask their fans over their social networking sites to come and have their car washed by their favorite band members. People from the area would also want their cars cleaned and gladly buy their CD or make donations for the band and for the car wash owner.

4. Making Connections with Different Stores
Music can be sold or bought anywhere. Band owners who know some store or shop owners may ask them if they could put some of their merchandise in a corner. They may offer some percentage on the sale of every item. In return, band members can also promote the stores and perform for their customers as well.

5. Community Involvement
Fund raising activities for the community is a great way to get noticed. Band members may perform for free for a cause. They may also make money if they like especially if they make use of online fundraising campaigns not only for themselves but for a particular group of people who need help from others.
There are still various ways to promote a band offline and online. The use of the internet may be very effective and may cost less but the band members also need to interact with their fans in person. The band’s music can influence their fans and other people to like their music but they have to be noticed first through the things that they can do through their creativity and resourcefulness.

1. Although music promoters will discover talent whom they can book for concerts, music artists on the other hand may exert an effort in finding promoters as well. They can do this by asking people around or by checking publications, directories or concert venues to know who is working with the music artists. If you’re a band trying to grow, be proactive about this. It will do you a lot of good.

2. After finding music promoters, the agent or the manager of the music artist will have to get in touch with them to let them know about the band. They may discuss the genre, the background, music experiences as well as to present a demo CD for the promoters to watch and to listen to. This is also your chance to express the band vision. What does the band want to be when you grow up? Headlining stadiums all over the world, or playing the local pubs in a specific region.

3. Before getting into formalities such as contracts, music artists should make sure that the music promoters are serious in doing business with them. There are some promoters who only let music artists do an opening number. In the end, they are left with only a small percentage of the actual profit made during the entire event. So make sure that whomever you interview has connections to apparel makers, commercial producers, film producers, venue operators, record labels, the works.

4. Once the artists receive offers from the promoters, they will need to go through all of the provisions in the contract. Some of the things that they have to pay attention to include promoter’s expenses, ticket sales, billing rights, equipment, crew, dressing rooms, security as well as catering, travel and policies in case of cancellation. Have an attorney review this.

5. Music artists should also be aware of some issues like date, venue, accommodation, and other problems that may arise. They need to discuss and to clarify everything with their promoter. They may also seek legal advice before signing the contract.

6. Music promoters usually take charge of promoting the upcoming gig but the music artist or the band members have to provide information about themselves and their music. Promoters and artists will have to discuss who will make the posters that will be used to inform the people about the concert event.

7. It will be helpful if the band members or the music artists provide information about the kind of audience that they have had before. This will make promoting the gig easier if it is geared toward specific groups of people. Music artists also have to do their part if pulling in as many people to come to their concert.

8. Music artists who are just starting their careers may not expect much in terms of big earnings for their musical
gigs or concerts. In case they do not make money, they will need to figure out how to keep their music promoters happy. There are instances when even big stars do not make any money at all after all the hard work of all the people involved.

9. Music artists who are new to the business side of their careers may also help their promoters especially in cutting on expenses like hotels and meals. If there is no money for accommodation, then they will have to learn how to sleep in their vans for example or ask some fans if they could crash in for the night.

10. Fame is not achieved overnight neither does it come after a one night gig. It comes through hard work, perseverance and it may take years to attain it. So those who are still at the bottom trying to be recognized, they need to learn to tighten their belts and learn how to leverage a promoter’s talent to help you speed up your success.