Electro-Rock in Tulsa this Saturday!

My Graphic for our March 7th Show

 

We have a really huge show this weekend with some of Oklahoma’s best Electro-Indie-Rock Bands. The Show is Saturday the 7th, at 9pm.

Stevedore (www.myspace.com/stevedore) is an institution, and no one quite knows whether it’s a joke or not, but who cares? It’s great music, and fun to dance to, even if its Devo-Esque. Seeing Jeff perform, and even in the good old days, with Jeff and Noah, is an experience that a Tulsa Music scene fan should not miss.

Guardant played our grand opening show, and I have felt a void in my life since, my life has been missing pounding beats and Casios galore.  Check them out, they are really coming up in the indie-electro scene. (www.myspace.com/guardant)

I mentioned Tip Top Secrets in a previous post, as one of 2009′s bands to watch. They are…inspired. Anyway, listen to them, all of them. Or just come out to the show Saturday, it will be a dancey-pantsy great time! 

 

The story with the graphics is, I did the robot, Denny did the X’s and O’s. I think its always good to have image recognition for a show, even if its more than one image. The X’s and O’s got printed, I ran out of time for printing the Robot, but I am using it for an online presence. Thoughts? I like them both and I think the creative process is so cool that two people, given the same information, can come up with two such different images. 

 

Signing out, see you Saturday!

Remedies for the Seasonal Slump

Like most college-driven businesses, we experience a huge dip in sales whenever classes are not in session. Over the holiday, we lost about half of our regular business. As a business owner, this is concerning. To me, it means we are really doing well with the University crowd, which is good. But it also says that we have maybe pigeonholed ourselves into the “college” niche, and will never be able to appeal to all groups. However, knowing is half the battle right? 

This being our first year in business, we did not know what to anticipate when the students left. Now we know, so the trick is to prevent it from happening again. Summer will be the next foreseeable slump, and it lasts for three months, not just one! Our recent ad campaigns have been targeted to young professionals, and people who are not temporarily tied to our location.

We have noticed that the crowd that comes out to shows are not tied to the University. So, from Mid-May to Mid-August, we are planning to book shows every night of the week, and open the bar every night. Currently we have shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the bar is open concurrently. The nice thing about our business model is our ability to weigh different aspects differently depending on how we want to be perceived. 

How do other college-dependent businesses deal with this problem? Adjusting staffing and scaling back on inventory is a given, but it seems like a passive way of accepting the slump, instead of preventing it. What do you think? We will see if ramping up live music works for us, or if we just have bands playing to an empty room 7 nights a week.

Signing Off.

Local Bands to Watch of 2009

Some of us find a few local bands we like, and just go to their shows and can be content with that. I would like to urge you, it being a new year and all, to step outside your local music box, and listen to some new bands this year. You will be amazed at the breadth and quality that Tulsa has to offer. Not to mention, how much fun it is to discover new bands! 

First, Lunar City Fireflies: I can’t quite put my finger on what’s so haunting and captivating about this band…maybe it’s the fact that Luke’s voice eerily resembles Jack Skellington’s, maybe it’s the size of Micah’s bass drum. Either way, they are worth checking out! (P.S. They’re playing at The Collective Jan. 16th, myspace.com/thelunarcityfireflies)

Norman’s Tip Top Secrets: Call me a sucker for Casio-Rock, but this band makes me want to jump up and down on the bed.  Give “Spacey Life” a listen, see if it doesn’t make you want to get out your old toy keyboard, and turn on the “bossa nova” loop. (myspace.com/tiptopsecrets)

Tops of Trees: People say less is more. I find that, in Tops of Trees case, less is way way way more. Simply beautiful. They make it look easy. (myspace.com/topsoftreesmusic)

The Televised: This  Killers-esque band describes themselves as “emo, garage, rock” but don’t be too quick to judge. In my opinion, Emo they are not. Their fluid, latin inspired hooks bring nothing but joy to their listeners. Dustin Storm’s vocals are fully committed without being over-bearing. As a whole, the band is enchanting, actually. (They’re playing the Collective February 7th, myspace.com/thetelevised)

Fiawna Forte: All I can say about Fiawna is, Where Has She Been All My Life? The femme fatale rocker chick void in the Tulsa music scene has been filled. Her energy and her voice combine to make a dynamite live show. She always leaves you wanting more, and the fact that she plays the banjo doesn’t hurt. (myspace.com/fiawnaforte)

 

So that’s it for me, I don’t want to test your attention spans any more than I already have. Thanks for reading, and support your local bands and businesses!