A link to the full article can be found here

Full Results: Who They Are?

Full Results: What They Believe?

Well, it’s been a hell of a week! I was contacted by The New York Times, and took part in a joint poll with them and CBS News. Then, over the weekend the NYT web division requested I produce a video answering questions regarding my biggest concern about the country today, how it affects me personally, and how do you hope the Tea Party will address it?

To see the article & poll, click here

To see the video, click here

Me and Michelle had a great time producing the video. We decided to take it a step further than the run of the mill talking head shots you usually see, and really put together something special.

The bookends of the video were shot in my home studio, and then we headed off to do the rest of it on location. For the portion about my biggest concern, which is the continued financial irresponsibility perpetuated by the government, we decided to shoot in front of the Bank of America building. While we were there we also got some great shots of the Boston skyline, as well as the Boston Stock Exchange.

For the second piece, my commentary about the Tea Party movement, we wanted to shoot in front of the replica Boston Tea Party Ship, but unfortunately we found out that it has been moved to Gloucester for repairs.

We made due and set up in a beautiful location on the Boston Harbor Walk, and I’m pleased to say that the final product came out very well, with great backdrops around historical Boston.

I was really pleased to be asked to participate in this project, and you can be sure this won’t be the last you hear from me on this topic!

Watch the video here

Here is the text from the video:

Hi, my name is Roach McKrackin, and I’m a 30 year old musician from Boston Massachusetts.

The Boston Tea Party was one of the most iconic events in American history, and it happened right here in my hometown.

Since then, subsequent political protests have made repeated references to it, and today a new grassroots movement has taken the name and used it to promote fiscal conservatism and constitutionally limited government.

My biggest concern with the country today is the fiscal irresponsibility perpetuated by an ever expanding government.

The national deficit currently stands at over $12 trillion, and to pay it off today, each and every man, woman and child in the country would have to contribute over $41 thousand, more than the yearly median income of American workers.

Instead of cutting back, the government has racked up more than $1.8 trillion bailing out financial institutions, and is set to spend another $940 billion to pay for health care reform.

While I agree that health care should be reformed, my day job in the biopharmaceutical industry has made me keenly aware that through additional taxes levied as a result of the bill, medical devices are now more expensive.

An almost inevitable side effect of this legislation will be job cuts in the medical industry, something our already ailing economy can’t tolerate.

As an ideological supporter of the tea party movement I am hopeful that we will be able to enact real change in this country’s leadership.

Both Democrats and Republicans have continued to act against the wishes of their constituents, instead looking to further their own interests, rather than the interests of the people.

My hope is that this movement will give candidates who uphold the values of the constitution the support they need to get elected into office, and lead this country out of the mire of debt we currently find ourselves in.

Throughout the years, grassroots movements have been responsible for real change in the way this country is run, and my hope is that the Tea Party Movement will be no different.

Having my life and liberty is a right that many people worldwide don’t have, and it is an honor and a privilege to be able to speak my mind.

By supporting this movement, I’m hedging my bets that future generations will retain those same rights, free and without compromise.

“Were you at the counter-protest?” – countlibras

Um, no. Why would anyone in their right mind be protesting a rally demanding fiscal responsibility from our government?

“Maybe after the rich start paying their fair share of taxes and corporate fat cats stop getting million dollar bonuses, I might be inclined to agree.” – story-of-dani

I mean, the rich already pay more than their fair share, since they’re paying taxes at a higher rate than you or I. That is, assuming you’re part of the 53% of Americans that actually pay income tax.

As far as corporate “fat cats” getting million dollar bonuses, how much was the last paycheck of your favorite sports or entertainment figure?

“The wealthy only pay a higher rate on marginal income. A person paying 33% on income above $170K is still way ahead of someone not making $170K at all.

And if you really want to judge “fairness” you have to factor in not just what an individual pays toward government infrastructure but the benefit they draw out of it. The CEO of a corporation draws wealth from millions of paying customers who were educated in government schools, eat cheap government-subsidized food, drive to work in cars fueled with foreign oil courtesy the US military and on roads built and maintained by the government, live in houses supplied with water and electricity by the government and which are protected against fire and theft by the government, treat illnesses with medications which are required to be safe and effective by the government, and keep the money they use to pay for goods in banks which are insured and regulated by the government. If the wealthy somehow drew their income out of a vacuum then maybe you could say it was “fair” for them to keep the same percentage of it as a working poor person but they clearly don’t.” – stutts

To quote your hero Bill Clinton, it really comes down to what the definition of “is” is.

My point is why should there be tax brackets at all? Regardless of what the number is, X% should be applied across the board.

Even more fair would be a flat sales tax and elimination of the income tax, because then you are charged based on consumption, and regardless of whether you are a CEO or a janitor, you will pay the same rate of tax on the things you purchase. Since rich people will buy more in terms of both quantity and expense, they will be taxed more, but it is fair because it is at the same rate, and they are not forced to buy anything.

This model would also serve to eliminate the tax loopholes you are alluding to.

As far satisfaction, it’s really quite irrelevant that Joe McD gets more satisfaction from his dollar than Bill Gates, because it’s not the governments place to legislate that.

I truly believe that noone knows how to spend my money better than me, and certainly not an unwieldy and overbearing government who pisses away more money in an hour than I will ever see in my lifetime.

I believe in the American Dream, that each and every person can do better with their lot in life than they are currently, and I do not feel that it is right to punish success.

In a word, redistribution of wealth is just a fancy word for stealing. Robin Hood may have been a folk hero, but he was really just a fucking thief.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not anti-government, just anti-big government. By way of example, I work in the biopharmesutical industry, so I understand better than most the need for some sort of regulation to ensure the safety in our drug supply.

It really comes down to a question of how much is enough, and how much is too much?

“Yes, demanding fiscal responsibility by calling Obama a Nazi, crying about this country employing socialism, and wanting to lick all the tears off of Glen Beck’s crying face.” – sorethumb

Who called Obama a Nazi? Certainly not I. In fact, I’m pretty sure that most of the racisim and other ugly things you hear about the tea party movement is perpetuated by counterprotesters who have openly stated they will infiltrate the movement, so people like you have something to get huffy about.

Hitler was a fascist, and if you’d like I’d be more than happy to explain the world of difference between the two. Get your facts straight, you’re making yourself look foolish.

“Wow, you’re fucking delusional.” – jaybear

Nice, very succinct. Care to elaborate?

“He’s always been delusional…. he probably really thinks the Tea Party Movement is something else than the Sarah Palin Curmudgeon Party Publicity Tour.” – unquietsoul5

Is that what you really think? I’m not particularly pleased that Sarah Palin is riding on the coattails of the movement, but make no mistake, she’s not the one that founded it.

I lost respect for Sarah when she abandoned the governorship of Alaska. I would have understood if it was purely a money-making venture, but to give up one set of responsibilities and commitments and then go on to try to position yourself to get more responsibilities and commitments in the form of a presidential nomination? Utterly ridiculous, her advisers should be fired.

With that being said, Sarah Palin is not the idiot you all hope she is.

To answer your question head on: Yes, I truly believe that the core tea party movement is about limiting government and reigning in spending.

As with any large scale grassroots movement, you have all kinds of characters come out of the woodwork and inject ugliness and all kinds of ideas and rhetoric into the periphery. Traditionally, most ugliness of this type comes out at liberal movements, particularity those focusing on World Bank Summits and the like. I have yet to see a molotov cocktail thrown at a Tea Party rally, although from the bleating of the media and the vocal liberal counter-protesters, you would think a civil uprising is going to happen about 5 minutes from now.

“Could you please send me pictures of the rallies you attended demanding fiscal responsibility from our government when Bush was president? I will sit here waiting for your response. I can’t wait to see the crazy fashions at the Tea Bag Rallies of the mid 2000s!” – dj-underdog

Unfortunately I haven’t attended any of the rallies as of yet, so I won’t be able to send you any pictures.

I don’t want to keep you waiting though, so I’ll let you know a little known secret: The first tea party rallies held were against the bailout bills that Bush signed. If you’re looking for someone to blame, blame the media for not picking up the story.

“The first tea party rallies were held under Bill Clinton. You know, that “fiscally irresponsible” neoliberal who had a budget surplus and who would have eventually paid down the national debt if his policies had been continued under Gore.

The tea party suddenly evaporated when we got George W. Bush, who ran budget deficits every year, pissed away trillions of dollars blowing up innocent people in countries that weren’t a threat to us and went into massive debt to China. Weird huh? Oh well, I’m sure it was just some random oversight on the part of those brave fiscally conservative tea partiers, and had nothing to do with the fact that the Tea Party is an astroturfing effort run by the same ultrawealthy shitheads who caused the subprime crisis and then reaped the benefits of the bank bailouts.” – stutts

This has so many holes in it I don’t even know where to start. To be perfectly honest, Clinton wasn’t really that liberal, I can admit it, hopefully you can too. He was sort of like a closet Republican.

Regardless, let’s take a look at this so called surplus. You don’t need to take any of my word for this, just go directly to the U.S. Treasury website. They keep a rolling tally on the national debt, day by day.

Now, keep in mind that the Government’s fiscal year ends in September, meaning that proposals take effect in October and end September. Still with me? Let’s take a look at the end of each year of Clinton’s term:

Fiscal Year          National Debt      Defecit
FY1993 		$4.411488 trillion
FY1994 	 	$4.692749 trillion 	$281.26 billion
FY1995              $4.973982 trillion 	$281.23 billion
FY1996 	 	$5.224810 trillion 	$250.83 billion
FY1997 		$5.413146 trillion 	$188.34 billion
FY1998 	 	$5.526193 trillion 	$113.05 billion
FY1999 	 	$5.656270 trillion 	$130.08 billion
FY2000 	 	$5.674178 trillion 	$17.91 billion
FY2001 	 	$5.807463 trillion 	$133.29 billion

Now, do me a favor and tell me where this so called surplus is? Bush took office in Jan 2001, meaning his first budget took effect in Oct 2001. So that $133.29b deficit? Yeah, that was Clinton’s.

I hate to keep throwing you under a bus with your facts, but now that we’ve cleared up the Clinton surplus myth let’s talk some tea.

The Tea Party movement actually started in early 2009, and the first protest held was to protest the Troubled Assets Relief Program bailout bill. Yeah, that was the one signed by none other than George W. Bush.

Finally, I don’t want to turn this into a discussion about the correctness of going to war in Afghanistan or Iraq, but right, wrong or indifferent, Bush’s budget, including the two wars (which were not originally included) were about 25% of what Obama’s projected budgets are, and that is based on data from last year, before health care passed.

Let me know if you need me to set you straight on anything else, and I’ll be happy to oblige

via LiveJournal

They name-checked me because I was apparently the first, and only one of four winners of the award in the schools history, something that I didn’t realize previously.

Either way, I’m a media whore, and it’s always nice to see my name in the paper.

View the article here

Doing a piece on conservatives in Jamaica Plain and their reaction to Obamacare, he interviewed myself, as well as Edward Wagner, Chairman of the Jamaica Plain Republicans and Aaron Goldstein, a Boston area political commentator.

What makes this story particularly interesting is that some say that Jamaica Plain is more liberal than San Fransisco, and I would be hard pressed to argue.

It was great to sit down and express my views. Simultaneously being a punk rocker and a young conservative in a decidedly blue state is definitely intersection to say the least, and it’s vindicating to have someone interested in what I have to say.

A link to the original posting can be found here

Decided to do a video demoing a couple different lines I’ve been playing with for a few months since most people don’t even realize I can play the upright. Enjoy!

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I started off of a mockup provided to me by the client of just a couple beer bottles on their mixing desk. After I finished that I took a step back and decided to kick it up a notch, and I’m really happy that I did.

Apparently Absolut Vodka is making special vodka blends, with one city a year (I guess LA and New Orleans were chosen previously). This year it would appear Boston is the city of choice, and being the townie that I am, I decided immediately that I should invent some drinks with a Boston theme. After all, my wife may be the cook in the family, but I strive to be the mixologist, or maybe just the drunk, but I digress.

Now Absolute Boston is pretty interesting. It’s a vodka infused with Black Tea and Elderflower, which has a taste similar to blue or blackberries. Now, being Boston themed I understand exactly why they’d choose black tea, but elderflower? Strange. Either way, after a little bit of experimentation and feedback from Dan and Doug, my panel of tasters, I came up with my masterpiece:

Boston Tea Party

1.5 – 2 shots Absolut Boston
Unsweetened Iced Tea
Splash of Simple Syrup

Serve in a pint glass, garnish with Lemon

Let me tell you, this is a fantastic drink on a hot summer day. It was a little difficult to conceive of something that would go well with the elderflower, but I think we did it in spades. Of course, this was after trying it out with iced tea and lemonade, which wasn’t so great, but like Julia Child says, the joy of cooking drinking is that you can get plastered doing it… Is that it?

But I digress, once I had come up with my masterpiece everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. Dan suggested that there should be a drink with Absolut Boston and Kahlua, so we tried one with equal parts Kahlua, Absolut Boston and Cola. It was pretty good, but wasn’t quite what we were looking for. After some deliberation, we came up with something that works, substituting Bailey’s Irish Creme for the Kahlua, and viola, our second masterpiece. A great name is required for a great drink, so we present to you:

The Muddy Charles

1 Part Absolut Boston
1 Part Bailey’s Irish Creme
1 Part Cola

Serve in a rocks glass over ice

The drink has the texture we were looking for, but was slightly light in color in comparison to the Charles, but you can’t win ‘em all. I threw out the idea that a swirl of chocolate syrup on top might be the way to go, but I leave that to your discretion, dear reader.

We were feeling pretty good by this time, but I felt that to cap off the afternoon we must achieve the trifecta, not to mention that Doug had continually been saying that there needed to be a drink called The Red Line.

After some deliberation, I took it upon myself to try to nail it down, and while some feel it is still unrefined, I believe that I have a winner:

The Red Line

1 Shot Absolut Boston
Splash of Grenedine

Serve in a Shot Glass with a Maraschino Cherry at the bottom

It was pretty smooth, with a slight bite at the end, which is fitting given it’s namesake. Unfortunately I was the only one to try this drink, so I don’t know what other people’s feelings on it are, but if you try it, please let me know your thoughts!

While we were inventing these drinks, Christine took a Boston Tea Party for her manager to try, and he enjoyed it alot. So much, in fact, that Absolut Boston is going to be the Drink Special of the Month at the Summer Shack in Cambridge, so if you find yourself in the area, get down there and have a Boston Tea Party!

Also, if anyone from Absolut is reading this, I’d love to be the recipient of a case of Absolut Boston.

Feel free to use my drink recipes as you will!

Club Hell Flyer

Having been in the Boston music scene for the better part of 15 years, I’ve seen more than my fair share of concert flyers. Few things can take my breath away like a crisp, well designed flyer that not only promotes an event, but is a work of art in it’s own right. Truly, artists like Frank Kozik, Jermaine Rogers and James Rheem Davis exhibit artistry that should have (and have) been included in some of the most prestigious galleries in the world! With that being said, it pains my heart to say that about 95% of the flyers I have seen in my life SUCK.

Bad Flyers

Believe me when I tell you I’ve seen it all, from flyers with just block text, to ones scribbled out on notebook paper and colored in with crayon. Do you really think so little of your band that you can’t take the time to make a decent flyer? You would think that with the advent of computers becoming a household item, and the ready availability of graphic design programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (Or Free Software alternatives The Gimp and Inkscape, if you don’t have the money to plunk down) that even the lowliest basement shows would have a passable flyer associated with them. This has not been the case, and in fact, quite the opposite has happened. If one were to be interested in the fundamentals of design, all they need do is look at the electronic flyers posted all over the comments section of myspace and understand that the exact opposite is pretty much in the ballpark of good design.

A well designed concert poster should have a certain fluidity of design: There is a limited amount of real estate to work with, and alot of information to get across: Day, time, venue (including the complete address), price, age limit and other bands playing… Whew! On top of that, there it should all be tied together with a complementary color scheme, and there should be enough space left over for an eye catching graphic. Now, I know that most of you aren’t graphic designers, but still, it’s not difficult to come up with something sharp looking, and even if you feel it’s a bit bland, remember that sometimes less is more, and simplicity is beautiful.

Midway Cafe Flyer

To sum up today’s lesson, please take more than 5 minutes to create a half decent flyer. Ask the bands on the bill for high resolution copies of their logos, or search them out on the web (Who doesn’t have a MySpace these days, at the very least?). If you truly believe you aren’t capable of creating something that isn’t completely hideous, do yourself a favor and find someone who can. Everyone knows someone who is an artist, or at the very least adept at using simple computer graphics applications. Worst case scenario hire someone to do it for you; trust me, it will be to your benefit in the end.

Speaking of which, now seems like a good time for some shameless self-promotion (stick with what you know, right people?):

Charlie's Kitchen Flyer

If you would like a flyer designed I offer graphic design services for a flat rate of $50 for a full color (or B&W, your choice) 8.5×11 or 11×17 show flyer, delivered within 2 weeks of payment (or 1 week for an extra $25) in Web Ready JPEG and Print Ready PDF formats. I can also refer you to a high quality printer with a fast 24-48 hour turnaround, if necessary.

Get in touch with me through this site, or on the contact page and we can discuss your project. $50 for a high quality flyer is cheaper than you’ll find pretty much anywhere, and if it’s advertising a $10 show and the flyer attracts 5 additional people, then you’ve made a wise investment.

CD Release Show Flyer

Either way, let’s raise the bar for what concert flyers should look like! As always, leave me any comments, positive or negative, and let me know what you think about these articles. Also, if you would like further information and examples of exemplary flyer design, check out this Smashing Magazine article, or any of these resources:

• GigPosters.com
  • The most definitive collection I’ve ever found!

• 125 Concert Posters (Pt 1 | Pt 2)
  • Collection of exemplary designs

• Design Inspiration: Concert Posters
  • A few examples, plus TONS of other links!

• COLOURlovers
  • Great for color pallet inspiration

One final word: Once you have a great looking flyer, USE IT! Plaster it everywhere, both in the real world and online. A promotional flyer is absolutely worthless if noone sees it. Trust me, if you can’t be bothered to even post a flyer at the venue you’re promoting a show for, you should probably be flipping burgers instead.

The Murder - Merchandise Display Close Up

Today’s topic is the importance of effective branding. Like it or not, this crazy thing we’re involved with is called the music business for a reason; that’s because it’s exactly that — a business. Back when I first got started playing music almost 20 years ago, any band perceived to be making any profit off of their music would be chastised and labeled a sell-out, among other things. However, in the age of electronic distribution, DIY ethos and cutting out the middle-men (IE: record stores and labels) the term sell-out is somewhat antiquated, especially since what we’re selling is effectively ourselves.

Even if you’re lucky enough to make a living doing this, you still need to keep food on the table and if it’s still just a hobby or something you’re working toward, you should at least get some form of reimbursement for what you do. This can come in many forms, from the obvious ones like the money you get paid for performing and selling CD’s and T-shirts, to some not so common things like endorsements and sponsorships.

This post will focus on your image and branding through effective merchandising (we’ll save endorsement deals for another post) because it is one of the things over which you can have 100% control. First and foremost, this entire concept can be summed up in one sentence:

Your Band Is Your Brand.

My goal is to hopefully break the misconception that many punk rock bands have, that if you’re punk your graphics and merchandise have to look like shit. You can have a nice slick package and still be “punk”. Look at some of your favorite bands: take a really close look at the design of their merchandise and CD’s (and I’m not talking about Blink-182 or Green Day, although, to be honest, their graphic designers should be commended) and you’ll see that there’s a certain level of professionalism there. This is important.

Your Logo

The first thing to do, if you already haven’t done so, is to make a striking and visually impacting logo, or find a friend to help you out if you’re not artistically inclined. (My good friend Bliss helped me with the crows in ours.) It should be visually striking, and it’s main purpose is to sum up your entire band in a nice tidy graphic. Think of it as your ambassador, because it will be the single thing drawing new fans to you before they even hear your music. (Robert Burke wrote a great article on The Greatest Punk Rock Logos a couple months ago)

The Murder Logo

Take a look at The Murder logo. I chose black, white and red because it is quite possibly the strongest color combination there is. (Not to mention the fact that you can get a discount when ordering black and red stickers on white vinyl from StickerGuy!)

It is strong, legible, and conveys the double-entendre of the band’s name, with the flock of crows and blood splatter.

When designing a logo make sure you make a vector graphic. I recommend Adobe Illustrator. The reason you want to make it a vector as opposed to raster (like Photoshop) is so you can scale it and reproduce it at any size you want. Trust me on this.

The Murder - O'Brien's Flyer

Once you have a slick looking logo, put it EVERYWHERE!

Whenever you book a show, make a flyer with your logo prominently displayed. You can also do other clever things, like theming your flyers to fit your bands name and/or image, like our good friend Shawn Refuse did on one of our recent flyers.

If you book a show though someone else, send them a high resolution copy of your logo. You should have one with a black background, a white background and a chroma green background, to accommodate whatever type of flyer they make. We did this by making a booking page on our website and keeping all relevant materials in that one place, so we can just link promoters to it.

Promotional Materials

You should also get stickers made with your logo, and URL on it. You can get 500 4.25×2.25″ black red and white stickers for about $86 from StickerGuy! (Jen, I expect a discount on our next order!) but I recommend getting at least 1000 or 1500 to start off with, if your budget allows. Give these away to your family, friends, fans, everyone. Leave them at music stores and other local hangouts to get the word out about your group. Don’t be stingy! Think of them like business cards to get the word out.

The Murder - Business Card

Speaking of which, while you’re ordering stickers you should also put in an order for business cards. The first couple of years in The Murder I didn’t have any, thinking that stickers were enough, but low and behold, I never actually had stickers on me. I recently got some cards made up, and I’ve already handed out about 100 or so in the past month. They are fairly simple, yet still eye catching, with our logo on the back and our website and the phone number to our booking line on the front. You can get about 5000 of them on glossy UV coated card stock for about $45, shipping included, from Flyer Studios. (Tell Larry that Roach sent you.)

As an aside, I have a personal policy that anything we give away as a promotional item has our URL prominently displayed on it, while any merchandise that we sell for profit does not (with the exception of music releases). It is my feeling that if someone gives you money for your merchandise with your logo they are essentially advertising for you anyway, and there is no need to be more blatant than necessary about it. Again, this is just my personal view on the subject, and your mileage may vary.

The Murder - Jeremy & Banner

Another thing to do is to get a large vinyl banner printed with your logo and URL, to hang behind the band when you play live. It will probably cost you about $140 for a nice quality 4′x6′ banner with eye holes, but it will be worth every penny, and then some. How many times have you gone to a show and asked yourself “Who is this band?”. Even if they were really good, I’m willing to bet they were forgotten soon after their set. It is worth the investment to stay in people’s minds. (Flyer Studios can help you with this as well.)

Ditto for custom kick drum heads. It’ll cost about $100 but again, it’s worth every penny. If you don’t have the cash to spend on both get one or the other, but make sure people know who the hell you are when you’re playing live without them having to ask someone.

One big part of promotional materials that is conspicuously absent from this article is your press kit. I have left this crucial element out intentionally, because I believe it is so important that it deserves an entire post of it’s own, which will be forthcoming.

Merchandise

Now that you have a logo and have been using it on all your promotional materials, it’s time to think about the next thing: merchandise. Sure, every band has a CD and t-shirt, and so should you, but you need to think beyond that as well! Besides good quality music and a solid stage presence, nothing will attract people to your group more than great looking, high quality merchandise. Look at it this way, you’re asking people to spend their hard earned dollars on your vision (and by proxy, you). Make it worth their while.

The Murder - Poker Chips

At a bare minimum, you should have at least 1 CD and 2 different t-shirt designs, but don’t stop there! At the moment we have 2 different shirt designs with 2 shirt colors for each design (Def-Star, ask for Steve), guitar picks (Steve Clatyon, one of our endorsements) drum sticks (CustomDrumSticks.com, ask for Jeff) and embroidered patches (Quality Embroidered Patches), just to name a few items. Another thing to try is to try to gear some merchandise to fit specific songs or themes you have. For instance, we have a song called “Rounders” about professional poker players. Everyone in the band is a poker player (our former bassist quit to move to Las Vegas to play professionally), so we had some custom chips made, and they generate a lot of interest because they’re so much different than the norm.

Another example would be the suggestion I made to my friends in The Designer Drugs, which was to get custom pill fobs made, since it goes perfectly with their name and image. Leverage your creativity and imagination and there’s no limit to the ideas you can come up with! Don’t do things just because everyone else is doing it. The market is flooded with good bands, and the only way to get ahead is to work hard, and think outside of the box, and be more creative than the next guy. (For those of you who are interested, you can see all of the merchandise I was talking about on our web shop.)

Presentation

This brings me to the last topic I’m going to discuss today: presentation. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been to shows, including record release shows and shows by big name bands, where the merch table was little more than a folding card table with CDs and shirts thrown haphazardly all over it. Once I even saw a band that had a really nice display case, with only 1 CD in it. It looked amateurish and certainly did not entice me to buy anything. Perfect example of not leveraging your resources to their fullest potential.

The Murder - Merch Display

I have also seen very well conceived merch displays, and the bands that have those have consistently had more people around their table than their card-table bearing brethren. My good friends Bad Ash come to mind, as they had an incredible Halloween display, with all sorts of kitsch and horror related items interspersed with their wide variety of merch.

For The Murder’s merch display, we chose to make an entire display unit from the ground up. We first got a nice merchandise case from eBay and added some cork covered in fabric to the bottom as our base. We then used pushpins to mount everything tastefully so people could come by and browse our wares. For smaller shows, this may be all you need.

We took it a step further and got a mannequin torso (also from eBay) to display our t-shirts. We also have a tiered CD display holder and some latex crows to spice things up a bit.

The Murder - Display Case

Our most recent addition was a 3 piece 2′x5′ gridwall system that we got from a retail display outlet. It is an excellent way to display all of your merchandise, and you never have to worry about finding a table to set up with, as the entire setup is self-sufficient. Besides merchandise we have a laptop with email list software for people to sign up, Mp3 players for people to preview the CD before they buy it and free handouts, like stickers, flyers for upcoming shows and lyric sheets. This may seem a bit excessive (and pricey) but search around and find deals, and add on as time and money allow.

To wrap up, keep your brand consistent across everything you do. Even if something doesn’t have your name on it it should be easily identified as having come from your group. Also, just because you’re punk rock doesn’t mean your image has to look like crap. Put time and effort into your craft and people will respond by putting time and effort into your project!

I hope this article helps you out, and if it does, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I’d love to hear all about your experiences, good or bad, with trying out these suggestions, and more importantly, trying your own original ideas!

Good luck!