Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Alright, with the start of the summer concert season, I knew it wouldn’t be long until I gave up on keeping this website under wraps.

I’ve decided to officially bring Big Rock Finish back in a whole new way… which is basically what we’ve been doing while “on hiatus.”

Big Rock Finish will now concentrate mainly on the music/live photography of me, Angela (rokky/lilfunky1) where I will post my photography from bands I’ve seen while going to different shows. And with each photograph I post, I’ll try to write a little something about the show, the artist, or just what I think of the photograph. Hopefully this will result in more hits/visits to BRF, more bands knowing I exist, and overall more awesome music and more awesome photography.

I’ll be posting about the shows I’m definitely going to, as well as shows I really want to (and will try desperately) to get to. If you want me to post about your upcoming show, drop me an e-mail and I’ll post about that as well (whether I can make it or not, but hey, I might!… especially if you have the power to GL me, because you know… recession and all.)

On average I seem to be posting one new photo every three days. I will try my best to keep up this schedule, but if I run out of content, I run out of content. I’ll do CD reviews still sporadically, but at this time I am not accepting new albums because I still have a stack to go through from a while back.

In short, BABY WE’RE BACK!

Unfortunately, due to a lack of writers (i.e. people who say they’ll write, and never do) and the increasing constraints on my personal time, Big Rock Finish has been put on hiatus.

For the time being, I will be populating this blog with band photography I’ve taken. I’ll try to keep current, and even throw in some sort of a write-up along with the photos when I can.

If you are a band with fan-written reviews of your studio or live work, I would gladly publish on their behalf. My apologies, especially for the bands who have sent me material to review that I haven’t written and published about. I will continue to write when a spare moment hits me (but since that is currently few and far between, I am unable to make promises) And thank you to everyone who has supported Big Rock Finish over the past two years!

Hopefully I will be back in short order with a vengeance!

~Angela (rokky)

Me being me, I’ve come to realize that I’ve been neglectful to the world of independent music.

That sucks.

I suck!

Boo-urns to me.

Seeing as how I’ve gone through the month of May with nary a post, I will be working on new material, writing about a bunch of great shows I’ve been a part of watching, and reviewing some albums that have unfortunately been long collecting dust on my desk.

In happier news, I am writing from a shiny new LCD monitor (like you all care) which makes reviewing that much easier since everything looks prettier! I’ve also cleaned my room which makes realizing just how MANY albums I have yet to review… more organized.

If a little daunting.

So give me just a few more days and the reviews continue!

Quick post for today. Not too long ago it was announced one of my long time friends was getting into some heavier marketing tactics for his online company. As well as having sold off one of his companies to close friends of his, they basically went halfsies on a button making machine. The minute that was posted I started badgering them for… badgers. I mean badges. I made it my mission to have some funny buttons for my friends who were playing show that week, on the 16th and 19th of the month.

I ended up designing a short run of 1-1/4″ buttons for S.N.A.K., Señor Kasio and [Perversion:] just because they were all friends of mine who I thought could benefit from funny buttons that didn’t need to be run in quantities of 100+.

At the same time I thought why not design some of my own for Big Rock Finish just to give away with the ones I made for these bands. So in my one sheet of 30 buttons, I ended up with 6 for each of the bands, and 12 for Big Rock Finish.

Arriving on the 16th at the show for The City (new band I’d never met), S.N.A.K. & Señor Kasio at the Rivoli (check later for reviews on the shows), I was pretty dead tired. Around when The City started their set I finally started to wake up thanks partially in large part to an energy drink purchased for me by Steve after stealing a sip of his own. (Heh, sorry about that!) Anyways, for the rest of the night I was thinking “I should give these guys some of my Big Rock Finish buttons so they know who I am!” and spent countless minutes between sets looking for boys who resembled their appearance on stage.

Finally figured out they were likely hiding out in the back room for most of the show, as I did not see them until after all the bands had finished performing. Ran outside and interrupted them chatting at the bar to present them with some buttons & tell them about the site. They managed to get me a copy of their album, also an ingenius marketing tactic of its own right, and we exchanged pleasantries and went on our way.

I decided that I definitely need to produce more of these buttons, if anything to have something tangible when I go up to bands as a personal cold-call to introduce myself and let them know what Big Rock finish is here for. I’m excited. I’m scared. I’m finally starting to market!

For anyone who has a Steinway grand or any other sort of piano they need restored, they really should check this out. I only say this because I have had a piano since I was 5 years old, spent about nine years hating the hell out of it, about ten years ignoring it, and I’m sure by now it needs some restoration done to it if anyone would ever want to play more than “chopsticks” on it ever again. Piano restoration is a very important part to finding older, or “more experienced” pianos and getting them back into their prime. From what I’ve heard, tuning and restoring old pianos is better than buying new. Since it’s gone through all of it’s aging process the sound is supposed to be richer. I should restore mine, and write a review on that! I will definitely let you all know how it goes!

Just to step out of the reviewing sector for a moment, I wanted to mention how many websites there are that cater towards this type of industry. The music industry is big bucks. And the internet is the greatest marketing tool there is for new and upcoming musicians to get heard and find listeners. And I’ve always been a strong supporter for independent music for a good long while now, and it can’t just be because I think commercial music has totally gone down the drain.

In an effort to support music, and websites based around music, I want to mention the rap forum, a forum where hip-hop artists and rappers get together and discuss all sorts of concerns regarding the industry, and more specifically their genre of music. Since networking is so very important, I think it’s fantastic there’s a central place for these artists to get together. Whether it be to look for someone new to work with, to find some people to put a show together, to even just a bitch-fest on how you think you’re better than the 99% of the crap that is making 100 times more money than you. And I think the coolest part? From my impressions of rap, a big part is the battles that goes on, and I can’t imagine something more interesting than an online battle. Sure it’s no Eminem playing the starring role of 6 mile, but whatever!

Alright so I’ve figured it out.

I will celebrate a blogging lifestyle through blogging.

Starting February 13th, the first birthday of Big Rock Finish, and subsequently, Robbie Williams birthday, I will be doing a week of posts. One for every day.

A few will be re-posts of older shows I had gone to since they were sort of written and inserted into the site long before it officially released.

A few will be new posts I’d written but based around bands that I have already reviewed before. But it’s a different situation, senario and show so why not.

I believe I will finish off by taking Monday the 18th as my finale for the posting blitz. And will be making that my post on a new band called Awaking State. They just finished mixing and mastering, they’ve got posts on their Facebook, and I look forward to hearing them.

After that, we will get back to our regularly scheduled postings!

Here’s to everyone!

Let’s look forward to many more bands and much more reviewing going on!