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Gig on Friday, August 25





Veronique Diabolique and The Experts and Blackstrap on August 25, at Joe and Jo's Downtown Durham. That's a Friday night. Veronique are our gothier Gallic kindred spirits, and Joe and Jo's shows always seem to sound great.

Veronique Diabolique - Spleen

Spleen was my introduction to VD- they've got a punky take on darkness. And when I first heard it on local radio it totally jumped out at me. The Experts are straight forward enough to call themselves southern rock.

We're on a new 307 Knox compact disc of local music and so is Veronique. It's free if you stop by you favorite area little record store, and it's at Joe and Jo's too.

Our track is the song "City of Meds" which has been through a lot of permutations, dropped and revised from the set several times. This latest version comes from a recording we remixed ourselves, making it into a sort of dub. Now we got to learn to play it that way love. I'd post the song, but since the comp is FREE, you best track that down. 'Cause you'll hear a whole bunch of great bands from around Durham. Out-of-staters and other foreign types should contact 307 Knox and tell 'em you're interested.

So here's a excerpt, and an excerpt from a 2003 recording, so you can see how much it's changed.

Blackstrap - City of Meds (2006)


Blackstrap - City of Medicine (2003)


We chose the name "Blackstrap" 'cause at the outset, we thought the band might be a bit twangy and country-ish, like molasses. But our sooty black hearts took things in the more strapped up direction.

posted by bendy @ 8/01/2006 02:10:00 PM [permanent link]

We love your sooty black hearts. And if you don't start playing City of Meds soon we just might have to cover it

said d diabolique, at 8/22/2006  


Could you cover it en Français?

said bendy, at 8/22/2006  


and thanks to Jean-Luc Diabolique for the amazing gig poster

said bendy, at 8/26/2006  


OK, we're going to learn it by ear. Blackstrap tabs are hard to find!

said d diabolique, at 9/22/2006  


Voila! Send us a copy!

said bendy, at 9/22/2006  


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Blackstrap is a rockpunk band that was formed in 2002 by several disgruntled music fans. Some had played in bands for years, some had never been involved in music.  All of us were upset with the direction the USA was moving. As you can tell, our impact on all that has been overwhelming.

We broke up in 2004, just before releasing a debut EP. We still feel bad about messing up 307 Knox Records like that. We got back together in 2005.  We might drive each other crazy again, so no promises.

We're a band that doesn't have many options as far as money and time and touring and all those other thing that could make a band be your life. The web is the main way we promote ourselves. We figured out we should share what meager knowledge we have obtained.

RESOURCES

or "Promoting Your Music as the Music Industry We Know and Dislike Dies...."

Websites are a lot of work to figure out, and don't work any magic on their own. Most people who view your website are already going to know you exist. Just having a website doesn't mean anyone is going to visit. So don't worry about securing an Internet domain right away.  Stick some music on MySpace, and then participate in sites that might actually drive interested listeners to your music.  Blackstrap gets more hits from our link on ncpunkonline.com than from higher-profile sites where we get lost in the shuffle.

There are advantages to having your own custom built website and domain name, but it's only as useful to the extent that it gets linked to.

Here are some sites that are important and help to get noticed. They aren't all music sites, specifically. Alot of them require participation. But hey, you wanted to be on stage, right?



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