Indie Ambassador

(WGS Feed) – What a year it has been… Not only was 2009 one of our busiest years in business, it laid the foundation for what looks to be a monumental year for us. I’ll try to wrap up all that happened as quickly as possible to leave you revved up for the announcements we have slated for 2010. The year began with a strong showcase at South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin,TX. We drove two buses loaded with SWAG, rented a hip venue on 7th street called Creekside Lounge, and showcased 11 of the best bands in Boston as well as a select few from LA, and New York. The Thickness toured down to Austin in support of their 4th record Recession Special, and teamed up with Humankind to launch the “Rock’n’Roll SIDEshow” Tour, loaded with contortion and escape acts by The Human Knot and Jason Escape. Check out the behind the scenes videos of the Rock’n’Roll SIDEshow tour HERE! Soon after returning from Austin, Piebald drummer and Antler Agency Founder, Luke Garro, invited us to move our operations to an office on Boylston Street in the Back Bay district of Boston. Our first day in the new location was marked by a Boston Marathon party with a terrific view of the finish line! Since moving our living room operation into an actual office space, we have been able to expand our internship program to an average of 5 interns per semester. This has accelerated our productivity tenfold by further allowing us to tap into the limitless resources of local university students. Chris and I share an office, while Lucas (our lead developer of Indie Ambassador) has his own nook to work his magic. Our interns each have their own cubical and enjoy treats from our kitchen and frequent jam sessions with any of the office instruments lying around. Henry Hobbs, our office Beagle, is always demanding attention, and our Monday morning meeting in the conference room is a perfect stage for new ideas and creative brainstorms. In an effort to raise additional capital for our software project Indie Ambassador, we teamed up with Luke Garro to form a music marketing division. Within the first few months, our clients included Wilco, Daniel Lanois (producer: U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, etc.), Folk Festival 50 (aka – the Newport Folk Festival) and a variety of independent record labels and alternative brands. We will continue to work on building this division to its full capacity, offering the best in alternative marketing for the entertainment industry. Stemming from the demand to reach a greater market, we launched the online home for Wicked Good Scene, and are moving toward quarterly and special issue prints only. Since launching wickedgoodscene.com, our readership has continued to grow by the hundreds. We recently began to focus on the (Y)OURscene section of the site. This is where contributing writers and artists report from their scene, wherever it may be. We added a (Y)OURscene ambassador in Austin, TX, as well as an animated ‘zine from Long Island. If you or anyone you know would like to become a (Y)OUR scene Ambassador, please feel free to contact us through the website. Additionally, wickedgoodscene.com continues to publish industry specific articles and exclusive interviews on a weekly basis. Currently you can follow Kevin Rheault on tour with the Dropkick Murphys by way of “Kevsman’s Corner”, and soon you will be able to go on the set of the Semi Precious Weapons’ video shoot for a new section of the site we are calling “Destination : Rock Show”. Our waste-vegetable-oil bus saw both ups and downs this year. The ups consisted of taking countless bands on tour across the country, playing a huge role in the success of our SXSW campaign, and driving Bean Snowboards’ annual Beanloaf adventure. Because of the grease system installed in the bus, we prevented thousands of pounds of CO2 from entering our atmosphere and thousands of dollars in gas money! The downs consisted of a few breakdowns and regular maintenance costs. Currently, the SIDEbus needs a new transmission and is useless until it gets one. We recently launched a fundraising campaign to raise the funds necessary to get the bus back on the road in time for this years Beanloaf and SXSW. We’re hoping it works. We continue to make tremendous progress in the development of our software platform, Indie Ambassador. We began development on December 8th, 2008, and building a system such as this has proved much more challenging than previously anticipated. However, it has been equally as adventurous. We are nearing the private beta phase and are looking forward to begin testing the system with active musicians, managers, and producers, very soon. Over the last 13 months, we have secured relationships with several 3rd party suppliers, built a strong foundation for our software platform, tightened our branding, strengthened our message, and are in the middle of pitching for seed funding. As we jump into the first quarter of 2010, we will continue to develop the graphic user interface, add new features and align with partners that we feel embody the same forward-looking ideas that give control and credibility to independent artists. We have been very “hush hush” about Indie Ambassador, and will continue to be until we are ready to begin inviting users for our private beta testing. In the meantime, I would like to invite you to checkout our new homepage. For 2010 we are looking ahead with a fresh perspective and unwavering focus. We are honored to be releasing the highly anticipated Piebald documentary & live concert DVD titled, Nobody’s Robots : A Farewell To Piebald later this spring. This band has been together for over 14 years and has created a loyal following as well as sprung many bands into mainstream success. They are one of the most highly respected bands in recent history and we are very excited to be working with them on this project. The DVD is being edited by Mike Gill of Circumvision and mixed/mastered by Chris Thomas of Sidehatch & Strewnshank Studios. Additionally, the band just announced that they will make a guest appearance at this years Bamboozle festival in New Jersey. We will be releasing the The Thickness’ 5th record called Karaoke Headliner in March, as well as the The Murder Mile sophomore release, Rebel Hearts in May. Both bands are highly respected punkers in the local scene and we look forward to pushing them to even greater audiences across the country and throughout the world. In between these projects, we plan to head down to SXSW in March to begin seeding the Indie Ambassador brand. Instead of renting a venue as we did last year, we will remain mobile, giving popup presentations and demos from our veggie buses around the city and at local parties to reach a greater audience. The point is to be immersed in the festivities and not be tied down to a single venue, rather be as mobile as possible and interact with people organically. In closing, none of the awesome work and accomplishments outlined above would come to fruition without the tireless work ethic and dedication we receive from our staff and interns. We are truly blessed to have such a terrific team in place who believe in what we do and want to help make it even better. We have interns that finished their studies and graduated who still come in and help on a weekly basis. For this, we will be forever grateful. As we blast into 2010, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support for what we do and what we are striving to accomplish. This year looks to be one of the most exciting in the six year history of Sidehatch Entertainment Group. I’m happy you’re with us! Best wishes, Ben!