Two Lights! They're a band! They worry about money!

To be fair I have occassionally received an actual meal from a club.

Two Lights how's my ass taste?

the dining hall, just the hinting at it....god it's devastating stuff, it's like the missing lyric from 'tonight's the night'

Late at night when the people were gone they used to avoid the dining hall at all costs

"The Tweeting And the Damage Done"

Bruce Berry was a working man he used send out a 1000 emails of spam

'a man needs a maid'

"my dad pays the maid"

two lights, two lights

You know, I spend 20 hours a week doing music when I could be making $10/hr doing data processing, so I decided to figure that in. So now I can tell people I spent an extra $10k in the last year on my music career.

I could have invented facebook instead of posting on ilx so ilx has really cost me $100 billion dollars

it's called opportunity cost I learned about it at nyu

Losing money playing music is like the easiest thing ever.

― chr1sb3singer, Friday, January 27, 2012 2:08 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is true. The fact that we mostly broke even over the course of five years was a huge point of pride for my band.

Early in the mornin'
at the break of day
He used to go get a spinach scramble at the dining hall and also an orange juice

He didn't pay cash for that, and I guess he won't too soon

Then again, class can be a lot of fun, and some of the homework is pretty cool.

*Eddie Van Halen riff on a toy piano*

Abner Willis was a workin' man, he used to load that New York cab
Delusions were in his mind, but his money was his dad's.

Well, it wasn't supposed to go down that way.
But they burned his omelette, you know,
And they left it lying in on the plate.
They left him down with nothin' to eat.

lol irony of using bazillionaire Neil Young to ridicule thousandaires' sense of entitlement

If I had spent $100,000 on my music in the last year, I bet I'd be in a better spot than these jokers.

Isn't that the timeframe they're talking about here? This is all stuff that's happened in the past year, right?

At the end of the night the venue charged us a "rental fee" for using their PA.

^^this is awful but kind of amazing

"Here's $300. Also you owe us $150 for using the PA"

Now that I think about Two Lights brings up some good points

Namely: money! It's good!

LOL that reminds me of the time I was in a band and we didn't have a PA so we only played shows with a friend's band because he owned a PA. Why? because the venues we played at didn't provide amenities like "their own sound system." The trade-off was we always had to open.

This wasn't even in the gritty real world of NYC!

Over on the fake Facebook page:

Nicholas James Baker
hey guys.. was just thinkign about the name "two lights" and how it sums up your bright futures. thanks for the great music.
Like · · 19 minutes ago ·

Two Lights thanks bro!
17 minutes ago · Like

Nicholas James Baker ‎...HOLY FUCK, TWO LIGHTS REPLIED TO ME!!! thank you so much guys!! this made my day, seriously!! so glad that a band that puts as much time and effort into your music cares about your fans!
15 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights ok!
8 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights
were thinking of doing a kickstarter for our next EP. what would be some good prizes for donators? anything but copies of the cd, we cant give those away.

3 people like this.

Joe Stadler How about some expense reports? Or, starbucks receipts?
about an hour ago · Like · 1

Nicholas Rejack POSTCARDS
59 minutes ago · Like

Thomas Owens email blasts?
59 minutes ago · Like

Thomas Owens starbucks receipts with digital download codes on the back?
58 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights Maybe for like.... the $400 tier, I can write articles for people. I'm still a freelance.
58 minutes ago · Like

Nicholas Rejack taxi rides
57 minutes ago · Like

Hoang Trong Tran mcnuggets
44 minutes ago · Like

Michael T. Fournier Piano moving services.
28 minutes ago · Like

Mike Smail A handwritten guide to which cabbies are the best at handling gear.
15 minutes ago · Like

Seth Robert Babb Trying to raise $2,000 for your "just got out of bed" haircuts?
14 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights mike, the best cabbies are the mini vans. the trick is to call for one but tell them youre a family and you need the van, otherwise they dont want to bother with bands. little trick we learned.
13 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights come on, our haircuts arent THAT expensive. image is important.
11 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights its the JEANS that are expensive.
11 minutes ago · Like

Lorin Jones Freelance is New York Twenty-Something for unemployed.
9 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights our job is this band, so were employed by the tunes.
3 minutes ago · Like

Two Lights and business is good.
3 minutes ago · Like

I am now feeling better about things. "business is good"!

Losing money playing music is like the easiest thing ever.

― chr1sb3singer, Friday, January 27, 2012 2:08 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is why it's beneficial to think of your band as a hobby instead of a job. It's ok to spend money on hobbies.

did not read anything about this until norman weighed in, which, his thing about it is totally excellent http://nervousacid.org/post/16569305161/youre-doing-it-wrong

That is a fantastic read. I want to staple it to Abner's and whatshisfuck's foreheads.

I wanna just put them in a room with Colin Langenus (ex-USAisaMonster now CSC Funk Band/10 other things) and hear them explain themselves line by line.

Again, your family’s investment is not your own. But even if it were, you’re paying too much. I owned just one guitar throughout most of the ’90s — a Gibson SG that I paid $300 for — and a Marshall half-stack that I found at a pawn shop for $500. I spent another $150 on pedals.

pfff this guy wouldn't know PRO GEAR if it bit him in the ass

I wouldn't be surprised if many semi and fully-successful bands have had money put into them by their wealthy families. The fact is that music is largely a middle-class business, moreso than it was 20 years ago. Most bands wouldn't be so stupid as to blurt it across Time magazine though.

― JLB Credit (Jack BS), Friday, 27 January 2012 17:29 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

miles got supported by his dad a lot iirc?, prob not on this scale but yknow so he could concentrate on it.

it's sorta just fun to infer lazy prejudices against these guys but the thing that's frustrating about seeing how much they've spent isn't just them trumpeting it but that it's like $X on years of voice lessons, not necessarily to overcome & learn to perfect your voice but to BECOME A WELL OILED SUCCESSFUL MUSIC MACHINE capable of hitting crowdpleasers. not the lessons but the weird thrusting intent.

If I had more time ATM I would write an in depth challops defense of these guys. Short version is that yes they are whiney entitled douchebags and also idiots, but at the same time it does in fact take some resources to bring a band from hobby level to making a record / creating a live show that people other than your friends will take interest in. It's a little either po-faced or obtuse for people to be like "dude just play through a $200 amp and practice on Saturday when you're not working your day job" because most people who do that have shitty sounding bands with shaky drummers.

that's kind of how I feel too tbh. the piece is stupid and they aren't really worth defending, at the same time all the derision heaped on them seems rather cruel and misplaced. if anything, it's weird to me how so many people - and not just these guys, but the general public at large - still thing this weird rock-star-lifestyle-archetype exists and is attainable. cuz it's not, and it hasn't been for quite a long time now.

still THINK

you guys should've seen the snacks this one club my band played at had. cheetos, fritos, doritos, you name it.

basically the whole frito lay family of snacks.

they weren't for us, though, they were for the headliner.

I would literally rather burn $109,000 in a fire then only be able to play on an SG through pawnshop pedals into a Marshall, Twin Lights or whoever OTM

Like you know for example I remember reading an interview with a member of Fugazi who said that in their heyday they practiced TOGETHER something like 5 times a week for five hours. I mean that's a big part of why they were an awesome, tight live band. And you can't really have a dayjob while doing that sort of thing.

OTOH, a big manager type who had brand name acts once told me that a couple of his acts basically just lived with their parents until they were making significant money, i.e. even while he was first managing them. So the whole "we need spend the money to live in NYC" thing is a bit dumb, yeah.

pro gear is nothing without pro tude and industry hookups brah

also it seems somewhat relevant that they aren't even listed on their own management company's website (and their manager seems to have moved on to a different job entirely)

Hahah.

I would literally rather burn $109,000 in a fire then only be able to play on an SG through pawnshop pedals into a Marshall, Twin Lights or whoever OTM

I played at one rehearsal studio that had a new Marshall half-stack in it and it was the WORST AMP I'VE EVER PLAYED THROUGH.

i've had good results using a marshall head but using a fender twin as the cab, and using a clean tone on the marshall, they have a surprisingly good clean tone (this was a vintage one tho)

The funny thing about the headline is that they're not remotely fucking rock stars $100,000 in.

Want To Be A Rock Star? You'll Need Someone To Give A Shit seems more accurate

It's a little either po-faced or obtuse for people to be like "dude just play through a $200 amp and practice on Saturday when you're not working your day job" because most people who do that have shitty sounding bands with shaky drummers.

i dont think anyone who plays music would begrudge them the money theyve spent on their band. i mean just kinda averaging some of these numbers out over the several years theyve playing they actually havent spent that much, really, even if they were just doing it as a hobby! and lots of these numbers are not really related to being a band. even if he was working a day job hed... still be paying rent. and his parents would still have paid for piano lessons when he was 12.

its not really the money theyve spent its the attitude the writer of the article has, his presumption that he deserves tremendous success for no real reason, or things like his snobbish aside about eating cafeteria food and turning down freelance writing jobs that makes everyone realize what a total pos he is

Yep, this is the thing. As a middle-class kid, my mum was able to get me some cool gear for birthdays and/or Xmases, and I have ended up with a nice array of synths of varying coolness. The difference is that I would NEVER count that as 'costs' for my band. They are AWESOME THINGS THAT I HAVE. Jesus, if you're going to count all that fun cool stuff that you get to do as 'costs', then maybe you don't really like doing it, then maybe you just shouldn't fucking do it, you twats?