Esteemed fellows of the downtuned persuasion,
I'd appreciate your input on the following situation. I'm currently looking for ways to promote an upcoming full length by my two-piece band without having the option to fall back on a pre-existing, the local scene or any gigs to speak of. Which means, online only, since we're what I would consider a studio band.
My current plan is to send in the record to various review blogs and youtube channels. The whole thing will be available for free on Bandcamp anyway. So, here's a few questions for you:
- Can you recommend any blogs with a somewhat sizeable visitor base that take send-ins?
- Besides the mentioned Stoned Meadow, are there other genre-specific YT channels I could send our record to?
- Any message boards worth mentioning?
- I've never used social media for anything. What would the most viable outlet be? Without anyone to address specifically, that means a fanbase, I have no idea.
- Any other ideas are greatly appreciated!
What we do and why gigging is problematic: We're only two people. I compose all the songs and do most of the heavy lifting on all the instruments. My bandmate is a freelance musician that's new to the whole doom thing, and he has handled the occasional guitar track and the whole recording process so far. However, our arrangements would call for a lot more personell: at least a drummer, a second bassist, and either a pianist or a guitarist. There's no way two people can cover all the bases of a 5-piece live. And let me tell you, finding people that are into this stuff is hard! Especially because we're closer to downtuned prog than full-on stoner and doom. Which means tracks that are mostly carried by either the piano (like a classical jazz trio), or bass (think Talbot), odd meters, arrangements heavily influenced by jazz fusion and post-metal alike, and a generally minimalist aesthetic that occasionally devolves into ambient. This is nerd music. Think Bohren and the Club of Gore meet Hauschka, and both decide to record a doom LP together.
The only other band in the genre I know can't help us much, because they can barely decide how to play a song live. And for the next record, we're going down the path of a small jazz ensemble (~8-piece, with horn section). Which will make finding musicians infinitely harder still. But I'm not about to give up my musical visions to the harsh conditions an obscure band in the middle of nowhere faces.
