...sucka what?

This is a story about how hard work pays off.

A while back, Focusin was offered a gig- I think it was at Harper's Ferry- and Glen got his coworker's newly formed band, Sucka Brown, on the lineup. Glen described it as a favor... it was a pretty decent club for a band that was just starting up, and their act wasn't really much to write home about. They were great guys, and their rhythm section was really tight- I think the guitarist, bassist, and drummer are/were Berklee kids. But their songs all sorta sounded the same and their singer had a tough time staying on-key. It all sorta sounded like an Incubus ripoff to me.

I forget if that was the only gig we played with them, but we kept in touch. They would come to our shows and we showed up at theirs. Glen would every so often tell us what he'd talk about with their lead singer at work... apparently they practice 4 times a week (we practice two if we're lucky, but that's another story entirely), they brought in some pros to help promote their music to radio stations and venues around the country, and they work their asses off promoting each of their shows. I think they even leased a van as a band for the heavy gigging they were doing.

The more you play, the better you get. There's no way around it. Through practicing and gigging together, you develop almost a sixth sense of communication with your bandmembers. All the parts of songs start to gel. Endings get tighter. Playing as a band becomes second nature and you can spend your time on stage having fun playing rather than worrying about the chord changes or if your drummer will remember the bridge. Well, Sucka Brown is getting their money's worth out of the van. While many 'local' bands will have maybe a couple of gigs in a month, the Suckas play maybe 3-4 a WEEK. And they're tapping into some very vital markets for aspiring bands- i.e. colleges and prep schools full of kids who are eager to part with their parents' money for an up-and-coming local band's t-shirt or CD. And it doesn't hurt that they're all tall and skinny.

At some point last winter I was talking with their guitarist, Todd. He told me they had been doing preproduction on their album at Q Division studios for a while, and the stuff was sounding great. Q Division is (as far as I know) one of the best and most important studios in the Boston area... I know Aimee Mann, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Pixies, and many others have been through there. I also hear it costs a pretty penny, too. So Sucka Brown somehow raised money to embark on a project that Glen and I have guessed costs in the realm of tens of thousands of dollars. I know their singer makes a decent living, and their guitarist works at Starbucks... but getting tens of thousands of dollars together between four guys is a serious investment. For reference, Focusin spent maaaaybe $2,000 on our album (maybe I'll tell you about the recording process in a later post), and 98% of that money came from me and Glen.

Last night Sucka Brown played the Middle East Downstairs. Yeah, Focusin's been there, but lately we've had more luck with the smaller and slightly less prestigious upstairs room simply because we never drew the numbers of people that they expect downstairs. I got a text message from Yuri as I was leaving my music theory class to head into Cambridge: "Looks like a promising show." I get in line (there was a line!) amidst a bunch of 17 / 18 year-old-looking kids fumbling for their fake IDs. Damn. Focusin has spent nearly four years playing for our friends, who in the most part are 25-30 year-olds. It takes quite a bit of cajoling to pull many of them away from their typical weeknights in suburbia, especially since more and more of them are 'growing up'- i.e. getting married, having kids, and other things that lead to not wanting to try to find parking in the middle of Cambridge on a weeknight to catch your buddy's 11-11:45pm set, especially when you have to be at work at 8 in the morning. But seeing those sweet sweet high schoolers lining up for the Suckas made me realize what idiots we were in promoting ourselves. High schoolers haven't got a care in the world! No wives, no kids, no lame desk jobs to get to in the morning-- all you worry about is looking cool and having a blast with your friends. And, as I mentioned before, what could be cooler than latching on to a band that you can bum a cigarette from after their set? We've been going about this all wrong.

So the Middle East was packed. Easily double (and probably more) what we ever brought playing down there. Paranoid Social Club opened- they've been sharing a bunch of gigs with Sucka Brown. If you don't know, PSC was formed from the ashes of the Rustic Overtones, a band whose name I've seen bring tears to Mainers' eyes. PSC put on a phenomenal set and they're releasing a CD on August 23 which I am planning on picking up. Plus Sucka Brown's guitarist told me PSC recently signed a record deal. Rock on.

So anyhow, the Suckas have been playing their cards right. They've been playing the right gigs, and doing all they can to promote them to the right crowds. From what I saw last night, all that hard work paid off. All the production work they did at Q Division really helped hone their songs from somewhat boring white-boy funk into 3 minute catchy pop ditties. I definitely noticed the change even in their older material. It is so easy as a band to write songs that are fun to play or are technically challenging but to completely forget about making them interesting. This is why producers exist, and that's yet another skill I look forward to honing at school in the fall. This is why Bridge (song 1) on our album is one of my favorites... because we took the time to make it a tight pop song rather than a self-gratifying wankfest (not to say that our other songs are wankfests, but there is a definite distinction in production between that song and the others...). Plus recording your songs is guaranteed to make you tighter than ever when you perform them, and that definitely showed in the Suckas' performance. And Brendan has definitely been working on his singing... he is leagues more confident and capable with his vocals than he was even a few months ago.

Unfortunately since I'm leaving in mere weeks (eeek) I don't think Focusin can have our third or fourth renaissance and realign our goals and form proactive strategolutions to shift to a more effective paradigm of marketing. Plus... I'm not that tall. I suppose I could go to China for some black market leg lengthening surgery (um... owch?), and I suppose I could start hitting the gym to work on the skinnyfication part (um... maybe tomorrow), but I think I'd be perfectly happy becoming one of those guys behind the scenes- like, say, Rik Rueben- whose art is to help others hone their lumps of clay into beautiful sonic sculptures. Especially if the bands are willing to share their groupies.


BTW, Sucka Brown finished up mixing their CD last night after the show. It's supposed to be coming out in late July-- keep an eye out for it! And it sounds like my other favorite local band, Raymond, is almost done with theirs, too...