Fuelling music
p2pnet news | Music:- The Gourds, from Austin, Texas, “have never been much on sentiment,” they say, continuing:
“Since the band started defining Gourds Music, as it has come to be known, with Dem’s Good Beeble in 1997 and the quirky Stadium Blitzer in 1998, they have chugged through America fueled by music and a near-pathological need for a good time.”
But they’re powered not only by music. As a touring band, they also rely on more than just a little on fossil fuef and with that in mind, when it comes to bands surviving, there’s a new villain in town. And it has nothing to do with 12-year-old “massive illegal distributors of copyrighted music online” such as Brianna LaHara, one of the first children, and certainly not the last, to be singled out for attack by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA .
Like world banks, the oil companies are raking in truly obscene profits in the billions of dollars, at the same time hiking prices out of sight, claiming they have no choice.
The likes of Exxon, “may still be swimming in cash, but no longer in oil,” said the Telegraph in May, going on:
“Oil is expensive because oil is scarce
“Despite vast investment in exploration and production, these days they generally fail to replace the oil they produce each year with fresh discoveries, or even to maintain current levels of output. Shell’s oil production has been falling for six years, BP’s seems to have peaked 2005, and this week even the mighty Exxon was forced to admit its output dropped 10% in the first quarter of the year.”
Nonetheless, these enormous boosts in gas prices are making life very hard anyone who depends on gasoline to get from point A to Z, or in between, and for whatever reason.
‘Two-week tour here, a weekender there’
Thanks to the Net, artists and there music can go anywhere, any time. For free.
But, offline, it’s a different matter.
“About a year ago, we first started to seriously consider how gas issues were affecting our touring,” Austin American-Statesman Keith Langford, saying.
He’s the drummer for of the Austin rock band the Gourds.
He figures the band is on the road about six months out of the year, says the story, saying the bands counts on a, “solid two-week tour here, a weekender there, all add up to playing 100 to 150 shows a year, closer to the latter in the past four or five years”.
“We’re going to keep going until there’s just no money left,” the Gourds’ Langford says in the story. “But Kevin (Russell), our singer, is like, ‘If we were starting now, I don’t know what we’d do.’ You used to be able to just drive to Houston and play a gig and not worry about making back the gas money. That’s not true for little bands anymore’.”
Gas prices in the US at close to $4 per gallon with, “no signs of decreasing” and, “many bands are taking losses on touring and soon might not be able to afford to tour at all,” continues Austin American-Statesman.
“Unfortunately, the distance between cities has not decreased.”
‘Flying is cheaper than driving’
Even if they’ve been fortunate enough to attract the eye of an independent label, most bands can’t expect much, if any, help from that quarter.
And the Gourds have no such support, says the story, going on they produce their own records, “and so have to plan every move. With two smokers and two nonsmokers, the band toured for years in two Ford Econoline vans, the workhorse vehicles of do-it-yourself touring. Gas prices have forced them to eliminate one van.”
“We’ve really found that flying is cheaper than driving,” Langford says. “One or two of us drives one van with all the stuff in it to wherever we’re going to start the tour. The other two fly as cheaply as possible to that location with almost no baggage. We rent a small car with really cheap mileage for the other two guys to drive in for the tour.”
How might gas prices might affect your favorite band if you’re in Texas, home many of the world’s wealthiest oil barons?
“Let’s say Band X is a four-piece that has been around for about a year and has built a bit of Texas buzz,” Austin American-Statesman, says adding >>>
The band is in the fortunate position of being able to command a guarantee of $100 for a show in Houston.
It’s about 165 miles between Austin and Houston, about 330 miles round trip.
Let’s assume Band X has a 1998 Ford Econoline E-250 van that gets about 14 miles per gallon on the highway. The number drops when towing a trailer, as bands often do.
This means the van’s 35-gallon tank can go 490 miles.
The band could probably make its Houston trip on one tank of gas if it’s lucky, doesn’t hit any brutal traffic jams and isn’t towing a trailer for gear and merchandise.
In 1998, this one tank of premium gas cost between $39.55 and $42. Band X’s $100 guarantee is more than double its gas money.
In January 2008, that same tank cost about $111; in June, $149. After one show, Band X is in the hole.
Cruel.
The picture is likely to be similarly bleak not only in George W. Bush’s home territory, but also across the border in Canada, as well as and in other parts of the world.
And it’ll stay that way until other reliable and sustainable sources of energy are developed and applied.
.
.Stumble It!
Brianna LaHara – RIAA goes after the Greubel children, May 24, 2008
Entertainment News – McCartney Defends Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair Pics, June 21, 2008
Telegraph – Oil is expensive because oil is scarce, May 3, 3008
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June 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 am
On top of the ever-increasing touring expenses, the record companies are now forcing most new bands they sign to cough up a portion of their concert earnings. Ostensibly so the executives can keep fueling their private jets.
Now that many US farmers are making a killing in the ethanol market, maybe they should return the favor and start up their own “band aid” charity effort to help needy musicians.