Summer Festival Season

edited May 2013 in Everything Else
Summer festival season is upon us. It always puzzles me that JoCo seems to be
strangely not present in any of the go to festival lineups. What on earth is up with that?
It's possibly one of the best cross-marketing opportunities for independent artists possible.
We need to get JoCo to get down with the festival scene. It just makes sense.

Comments

  • Does anyone have any favorite summer music festivals and/or music series they think JoCo would fit well into?
    It's too late to book this year but maybe we could make it happen for next summer. If camping is an option, JoCo groupies can all arrange to camp together. It would be like the cruise, only way WAY cheaper. Plus you'd have the added benefit of possibly finding out about a whole bunch of awesome new artists as well. THOUGHTS HERE, PEOPLE? JOCO? ANYONE???
  • I guess he fits better in cons rather than festivals. I'm heading to a music festival tomorrow, but it's based around a tiny bar whose stage would be only just big enough to fit him and Paul and Storm on (though there will be other stages outside, and I can only assume they'll be bigger), so it wouldn't really be suitable.
  • edited May 2013
    Well, since JoCo has never once performed in the state of Wyoming, he might be interested in the Snowy Range Music Festival, which draws listeners from all over the region on Labor Day weekend and has quite a distinguished lineup of performers. Last year it included (copied from the Web site):

    Huey Lewis and the News
    Bobby Rush
    Mike Farris and The Roseland Rhythm Revue
    Tommy Castro
    Walter Trout
    Lil Bryan and the Zydeco Travler’s
    Reba Russell
    The Stone Foxes
    Basmati
    The Soul Rebels
    The Gloryland Pastor’s Choir
    The Carl Weathersby Band
    Another Kind of Magick
    Billy Branch
    The Steepwater Band
    Tony Lucca (Second Runner-up on this season’s The Voice)
    Susan Gibson (wrote the song “Wide Open Spaces” recorded by The Dixie Chicks)
    Michael Hurwitz
    BlindDog Smokin’
    Cleome Bova
    Big Jim Adam
    John Stillwagon
    Taylor Scott
    Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
    Rich Ackerman with Carl Weathersby
    Dr. John & The Lower 9 -11 featuring Jon Cleary
    Macy Gray
     

    ...and there are still a few slots open for this year.
  • All I saw was Huey Lewis and I was sold :)
  • Sorry for the delay in following up on this thread. I have been experiencing technical difficulties lately, to say the least....

    Anyway, I disagree very strongly with the notion that JoCo
    Fits into cons better than festivals. I come to JoCo's music
    From the singer-songwriter angle and, I can tell you that he
    Is one of the very best around today. There are numerous
    Festivals whose audiences would embrace JoCo and his
    Music. Frankly, they need to know about him.

    The way I found out about JoCo was by attending the Falcon
    Ridge Folk Festival in upstate NY, something I have done for
    Years. I caught Paul and Storm back there in 2005, I think.
    I really dug their stuff and followed their website postings for
    Awhile. They were just starting with JoCo so that's how I got on
    Board with him. However, I would nevereverevereverever attend
    A con of any kind. It's just not my thing. I have limited resources
    And what I do have I have to spend on music stuff. For this
    Reason, I would also never attend a JoCo cruise. Much as I'd
    Like to, I simply couldn't afford it.

    I feel very strongly that JoCo is limiting himself very much as
    An artist by embracing the "geek thing" too much. Sure, that
    Is where he has found kinship and strong support, but my
    Feelings are that this particular demographic is not wholly
    Representative of the only "type" of person that might
    Embrace his music. Fuck, I barely even passed pre-calculus
    In high school.

    So, while his current group of supporters might feel cozy and safe,
    If he is to grow as an artist and continue to encourage his career
    To develop, he is simply going to have to step out of his comfort zone somewhat, take some chances and learn to embrace
    Different situations, different venues, and different "types"
    Of people. Once he does, I think he will be warmly
    Embraced and both new and old fans will benefit, as will he.
    However, I really think it's time for him to start moving in this direction. But, that's just me....

    JoCo, if you're reading this and need some help with any of the
    Above, hit me up, okay?

    Any other thoughts??? Xoxo, b
  • Amanda, your comments remind me of some of the discussions that were had on this board about Artificial Heart. Sure, some of the complaints there were that JoCo had polluted his "brand" by making an album that wasn't so focused on Monkeys and Robots. 

    I "discovered" Coulton's music around that time. ("Who's this guy opening for TMBG? Oh, I guess I'll go buy all his music.") So I didn't have any expectations of what his music should be. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that his songs have always had a pretty broad range. Take Thing A Week. Sure, there were solid nerd songs like Code Monkey and Re: Your Brains. But in that year he also wrote some of my favorites, which have nothing to do with nerd culture (however you choose to define that): Town Crotch, When You Go, You Ruined Everything, and Make You Cry, for example.

    He has always written a whole bunch of different kinds of music. The stuff that you're complaining about, however, has resonated with the nerd crowd, because there hasn't been a whole lot of that kind of music of the quality that Jonathan creates. 

    I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here, but I think a really important thing to remember is that Jonathan Coulton is a nerd. He writes these kinds of songs because he likes games and the internet and monkeys and robots. The mix of songs post-Thing A Week might be a little more skewed to the normals, but I think that reflects the changes in his life, more than any sort of deliberate broadening of his audience. 
  • edited June 2013
    I've speculated before that JoCo used too many monkeys (as it were) in his work because he used to hang out at a joint called Gorilla Coffee, where it was nearly impossible to sit anywhere without seeing an image (sometimes many images) of a very large monkey. These things can affect one's thinking. ;-)

    But in any case, I'm not worried about Jonathan. He's gonna do what he's gonna do, and he's gonna try what he's gonna try. And neither we nor he will know for sure what will succeed brilliantly or what will fail miserably. Let's just give him some space to create.

    That being said, he might enjoy performing at a festival or two, so if you'd like to see this you should have the promoters of your favorite one give him a call. That's usually the way the process is driven: by fans asking for the acts they want.
  • Hey, Brett... Thanks for the reply.

    Yes, I usually recommend JoCo as a new featured
    Artist for upcoming seasons for most of the festivals
    I attend. However, it's possible that I might be the
    Only one doing this, in which case the likeliness
    Event management will book him is probably
    Pretty small. Ticket sales often drive these
    Events and they want to be sure they are
    Putting their money behind an artist with
    Enough name recognition within their audience
    That they will recoup their expense.

    Oftentimes, artists have to apply in advance to be
    Considered as a featured artist at any given
    Festival. This process usually takes place in the
    Fall and it is a very competitive one. Part
    Of the reason I posted here was to see if anyone
    Had any ideas of festivals JoCo might fit in well
    In so that maybe he'd consider throwing his hat in
    The ring for one or more of them for the festival season
    2014. As I mentioned before, it might make it an
    Easier way for some new fans to catch him live, he might
    Make new fans/friends along the way and beyond all
    That, it would just be fun. : )

    Here's hoping!

    Xoxo, AD
  • I get the impression that festivals are often tied in with label-based marketing efforts, and that JoCo, as an exceptionally independent performer, would mostly be left out of the loop.  Cons like PAX, which are more about the game business than the music business, allow someone with game industry experience, but without label backing, to stand out.
  • While not a summer fest (it's in November but it's Austin so it feels like summer), I think he'd fit in nicely at Austin's FunFunFunFest.  Weird Al played there a few years ago.  He'd be great on the yellow stage!

     

    http://funfunfunfest.com/artists

     

  • @AmandaDandy I'd be down with that. I'd love to see JoCo at some other music festivals and places not necessarily associated with geekery. I think it would raise his fan base a bit more and I gotta say, dragging his existing fans out where they can experience other music would not be a bad thing either. However, it is hard to go from being a big fish in a small pond to being a little fish. 
    When JoCo started he used a site called demandit where fans could tell him what cities they wanted him to come play at. That way, he knew he had an established fan base and knew he'd have an audience for a show. He rarely has had to play at a place where he wasn't already known and anticipated. 
  • The site is called Eventful; it just has a lot of buttons saying 'Demand It!'

    I'd be happy for him to play at other kinds of events and get a larger audience of less-geeky people; he sure has plenty of non-geeky songs. He already does this, I'm sure... all I can think of off the cuff is NPR's Ask Me Another (although they do imply that it's nerdy to listen to public radio quiz shows; I dispute that) and that concert for Obama's campaign, but I'm a little out-of-touch here in Europe.

    Personally I prefer to see bands I like on their own rather than at festivals; I enjoyed discovering new music and eating junk food and meeting a few other fans (fewer than I'd meet at a normal concert, though) at the three festivals I've been to (each to see one specific artist) but I like sitting down and I like being in the front row (especially if I'm not sitting down, since then I have something to lean on) and it's a tad inconvenient waiting through all the other bands in the front row, unable to really leave to go to the toilet or get a drink unless I've made friends with someone who can save my place and think I can manage to push my way out of the crowd and back. Also, there was one festival featuring one of my favourite bands (and conveniently at a time and place exactly in between two JoCo concerts) which I planned to go to but which was cancelled through no fault of the group I wanted to see. So I wouldn't be particularly pushing for JoCo to do festivals. But maybe he could open for some non-geeky, non-comedy bands? I don't know, it seems he gets enough gigs as it is, so there'd be no real need for it. But if he opened for someone in a place I could get to, I'd probably go. It wouldn't be the first time I've gone to a concert for the opening band.
  • The biggest problem with "Ask Me Another" is that his songs there are badly truncated.  Those of us who know the songs and can fill in the gaps easily will enjoy them, though we might get frustrated that we don't get to hear the whole song; others might easily be confused by the incomplete narratives and leave unimpressed.
  • "Leaves Me Unimpressed" is the name of my Erasure cover band
  • I wonder, though, if people are so tantalised by these incomplete narratives that they eventually look JoCo up to find out what happens next.
  • On another forum I follow, someone posted that their daughter now loves JoCo because of the show. Sounded like the poster was already familiar with his work, but the young daughter, not so much. I think the JoCo and Ask Me Another audiences overlap significantly. I'm more curious about any bump Paul and Storm got out of their time on the show. 
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