2010 is already unfolding at a breakneck pace, and Icky’s Ego is feeling the pull to get our act together and get some resolutions in motion.

Our lovely Cela decided to enter Icky’s Ego in a blogging contest put on by Ariel Hyatt of Ariel’s Publicity, a PR firm for bands. The contest will follow several musician bloggers who are implementing the strategies from her book “Music Success in 9 Weeks”, which focuses on using social media and online tactics to build a fan base and to earn money as a musician.

The winner gets a free 3 month Cyber PR Campaign, and blogging about the book sounds like a good opportunity to share the tips we get with many of you guys who are also navigating this rather daunting business we call “show”.

So…stay tuned for the info, as we dive in and follow the course.
Now, by way of introduction, here’s a moment of pop-culture wisdom to set our scene:

There’s a sequence in James Cameron’s Avatar that depicts a young warrior-in-training trying to earn his status as a member of the tribe. His biggest challenge is to tame and pair up with an aggressive flying creature called a “Banshee”, that will be his bonded friend and personal mode of transportation for life.

He must use his intuition and strength to choose his beast. But the catch is, the beast must also choose him.
As he approaches a group of Banshees, he asks his mentor how he will know when his destined creature has chosen him.
“It will try to kill you”, she explains.

Well friends, we now feel certain that a life in music has chosen us. Because it’s definitely trying to kill us.

Icky’s member David pointed out how the metaphor from the movie relates to one’s chosen field. You can choose a profession of passion, a life doing something that you love—but if it’s really meant for you, you can’t expect it to yield itself up to your desires without a fight. You have to expect to be frustrated, burnt out, uninspired, to think you suck, to feel like giving up, to see your weaknesses as insurmountable. Until they’re not. And you have a success. Then, rinse and repeat.

Our band is realizing that to keep from going nuts, you have to learn to love this growth process, instead of focusing on the negative. But damn, it’s really tough right now.
We’re seeing that to really have any kind of shot at making a living as a musician in today’s oversaturated market and crumbling music business paradigm, you have to be really savvy and creative with marketing, promotion, and all kinds of non-music making things that right-brained artsy people know nothing about. You have to put in a lot of hours and energy, without letting your writing, recording and performing suffer. Right now we need about 12 more hours in a day.

Ariel talks a lot in the first chapter of the book about the mental preparation that it takes to be a musician. She advises you not to beat yourself up, to make a written list of the successes you had in your day (however small), and to celebrate your wins.

Well, we have the celebrating part down. Traditionally, Icky’s Ego celebrates our hard work with hard liquor. And while we like this very much, we will be spending less time at the corner pub and more at band work in 2010.
According to reality TV, most bands find success and then go through rehab…we just figure we’re doing it backwards, but it’ll all even out in the end.

Setting goals with due dates and a plan of attack is the key point in the first chapter of the “9 Weeks” book. Icky’s spent some quality time over New Year’s Eve brainstorming our intentions for this year…they go a little something like this:

• Have our first CD finished and pressed by April (that means recording about 8 new songs)
• Play out once a week
• Get our EPK together
• Post at least a 1-min video online weekly
• Get out 3 CD’s to radio and reviewers daily
• Practice at least 3 hours a day, and 2 rehearsals a week
• Create 4 music videos this year
• Put on our “big show” at the end of February (to be explained)
• Be touring in Europe in spring of 2011

That’s right…we made the massive, wild, inspired decision to move to Europe in spring of 2011, to tour with the band, for about a year. It’s big and unknown territory…50% of our band has never even been there. But we’ve really been feeling a pull in that direction. So it’s happening.
So let’s savor our quality time together this year you guys!

More on that to come. The idea of music success in 9 weeks, as proposed by the book, sounds really tasty, ‘cause we’re gonna have to get some serious work done before we jump over the pond.

Thanks as always for listening. And, please enjoy our second Icky webisode.

Love You Long Time.

Vreny & Icky’s Ego

Past Saturday, Nov 14th, The Swagger Sticks played a show at the infamous Bootleg Theater in Silverlake. I was there, and I’ve got to tell you: I am happy I did not miss this.

Seeing this band truly is an experience. The front man, Aron Gibson, is a charismatic entertainer whose hilariously funny demeanor on stage makes his shows THE MUST see in town.

I had a talk with the band’s bassist after the show, who told me he is a stand up comedian. No kidding!! I think EVERYONE in the band is. Aron had the audience in stitches when he, with a serious look on his face, accepted the Heineken someone handed him on stage and declared: ” I just finished my bottle of Jack Daniels back stage but THIS (pointing at his Heineken) is just for show”.

The crowd totally went berserk when minutes later he announced with a sad look on his face right before starting their first song: “Sorry we forgot to bring our extended light show and the hologram projections”.

Besides being very entertaining and funny, The Sticks (as their fans endearingly call the band) were really tight, energetic, powerful and punchy in their performance of the songs. They played the whole album, and concluded with a smoking version of the Kiss classic “Detroit Rock City”.

The Swagger Sticks seem to be building a strong following in LA really fast, cause they had an amazing turnout on this show. After all: this was really only their 3rd or 4th performance since they released their debut album.

Stick it!, the debut from The Swagger Sticks, was released in August 2009 and draws on class of ‘77 punk and a wide range of power pop and indie rock influences from bands like The White Stripes, Foo Fighters, Killers, Green Day and Material Issue.

I was glad to see Jeff join The Sticks on trumpet to perform “Worldwide Pop Star” with the band on this show. It was one of the many highlights of the show.

You HAVE to check this band out, and you won’t have to wait too long to do so cause I’ve got FAN-TASSS-TIC news for you:

The Sticks are playing a show Saturday the 28th Nov in The TRip in Santa Monica AND… I will be taking over bass duties with The Swagger Sticks for THAT show ONLY. (The Sticks bassist will be performing stand up comedy shows in Vegas that weekend).

YES… you read that correctly:

Icky’s Ego bassist performing LIVE with the Sticks.  BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

Saturday Nov 28th at 10pm

THE TRIP

2101 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405

This is going to be an amazingly fun show.

Come join me, Aron and The Sticks for what is going to be a great musical experience by a solid band that knows how to have fun and rock your socks off.