17 Indie Artists on Their Oddest Odd Jobs That Pay the Bills When Music Doesn’t (not a poll)

Cass McCombs (born 1977 in Concord, California) is an American musician, best known for releasing 9 albums since 2002.

i don't know who wrote this wiki lede but it made me lol and i tip my hat to them

Oh yeah, that's the guy who put out 9 albums since 2002.

a pub quiz classic

not to be confused with gaz mccoombes

Gaz McCoombes also has strong opinions about talentless pop stars

Hold on, Cass McCombs is a man? Who was I confusing him with then?

Mamma Cass ?

mama cass, obv

fuck, beaten to it

No, Mama Cass never put out 9 albums.

ahem

The Big 3

1963: The Big 3
1964: Live at the Recording Studio

The Mugwumps

1965: The Mugwumps

The Mamas and the Papas

1966: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
1966: The Mamas & the Papas
1967: The Mamas and the Papas Deliver
1968: The Papas & The Mamas
1970: Monterey Pop Festival (Live)[43] (recorded in 1967)
1971: People Like Us

being the flamekeeper of "real music" and doing a job to pay for your neaps + tatties is a tough bloody gig, but those McCoombes boys are Made oot o' pure tough stuff!

neaps

it's 'neeps' u savage

lol soz!

Solo albums u savage.

too soon for Neepsy Hussle arguments, please

Everybody's gettin' fat 'cept McCombs, Cass

no neepsy hussle hassle, counsels noodle

I don't want to nitpick the folks in this article bc they all seem fine and some of them I am even fans of, but I lol'd at this bit in one of the blurbs:

I moved back home with my family just to take off the added stress of making rent [...]I don’t have a rich dad funding my career.

I mean... you literally do have a parent funding your career?

the Algiers blurb made me sad as they're one of the best bands currently going. glad I picked up both LPs when they came through but it's time to find a hoodie of theirs or something.

I was mildly surprised to see the guy from Budos Band on there, I would have figured that they do ok, but then I remembered that there are like 9 people in that band so touring is probably murder.

"Art teacher in a NYC high school for 17 years" is another one that seems like a stretch as a "side hustle".

btw, being a living museum of folk-music knowledge is it's own reward, right?

I like the guy who notes that being a webmaster for a group of old-school Seattle socialists doesn’t pay very well.

hmmm, sounds as if it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll

I've no trouble believing that it might be worse now but are we working from the premise that second-tier indie musicians did not need day jobs in the pre-Napster days?

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Wednesday, April 10, 2019 2:13 AM (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, yes, mediocre indie bands making mediocre indie music for a cupboard full of their friends may well have found it difficult to get the necessary break that would enable them to quit their day jobs and move into a full-time career recording and touring their music. I'm more talking about the wider picture.

And as much as Brad protests, it has had an effect. It's all well and good for people to spout hippyish nonsense like "well, people who feel the drive to make music will always want to make music", but if there's no money in your chosen profession then the idea of chasing after a career in music becomes less and less attractive. It's led to more people becoming totally apathetic about a career in music or even wanting to make any music of real quality. The artists currently making the big/blockbuster releases are either already fully established or are moneyed enough to do it. There's far too much music being made with a "this'll do" quality to it, because they can't be arsed, and because Spotify places any new release by Mr. Joe Experimentalbollocks-from-Coventry on the same pedestal as something of real quality, they don't feel any great need to be arsed. The amount of shit music I've heard this decade has been utterly embarrassing.

boy, "permalance" sure is a depressing term

maybe stop listening to shit music idk

man I remember the Napster days and how everyone on it was like "this is awesome, I'd gladly pay for this if I could"...like, this was the era of the $17.99 CD with one or two good songs on it, massive amounts of re-issues and greatest hits, etc etc. tempting to blame the consumer but you can't really fault us for feeling ripped off. like you can't really blame people too much for streaming a boxing match when you're charging $99.99 for pay-per-view. I used to think that the industry punting the digital side for a decade-plus was the big culprit, but now that we have Spotify where an artist gets paid a quarter per 100,000 plays, I'm starting to think capitalism might be the real problem here

what is ADP

― blokes you can't rust (sic), Wednesday, April 10, 2019 12:25 AM (seven hours ago)

probably about 30% - 40% of workers in the US have their payroll or (at least w-2s) processed by ADP -- in the company's own words:

"We are a comprehensive global provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions that unite HR, payroll, talent, time, tax and benefits administration, and a leader in business outsourcing services, analytics and compliance expertise."

lisa germano used to work at Whole Foods in WeHo like 10 years ago maybe i saw her there but not being really a fan i wouldn't know. but it would be nice to think she sliced my bread or packaged up my scallops or something

― velko, Wednesday, April 10, 2019 12:29 AM (seven hours ago)

I think my ex's brother worked at that Whole Foods around that time???! (not that you would have confused him for Lisa Germano ... like, maybe they were co-workers)

How far we've fallen since the '90s.

speaking of the 90s, the thing that's most "odd" to me about the jobs listed here, is that none of them are strippers / sex workers -- that was way more common in the 90s.

man I remember the Napster days and how everyone on it was like "this is awesome, I'd gladly pay for this if I could"...like, this was the era of the $17.99 CD with one or two good songs on it

I dunno, I kinda blame the consumer. I remember having that debate and hearing that line back in the day from friends who were students, working shit jobs, etc. And now 15 years later many of them have houses and good jobs and can afford a $17.99 CD or ten, yet they seem to have changed their tune on this point.

"Whole Foods is the he best dead end job in the world" is a joke I've heard among musicians.

The artists currently making the big/blockbuster releases are either already fully established or are moneyed enough to do it.

otm. It's actually become frustratingly difficult to find exceptions to this.

I remember an old interview about Interpol where Paul Banks talked about how he would take dead, deader, dead-i-er end office jobs so that he would be forced to make his band successful. I don't recall if he was a rich kid where that action plan actually had no consequences.

Interesting to see Cass McCombs here. He averages 1.2 million Spotify listeners a month. I was under the impression that the payout for that was around $7000 or $8000; not enough to be rich obviously, but would seem to support some kind of middle class lifestyle when combined with other revenue streams that come from being a musician (merchandise/physical record sales, syncs, money from touring if any).

Honestly, if so many artists are making nothing from 1 million g'damn streams a month, then I wish it were possible to organize some kind of recording strike like in the early 1940s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942%E2%80%9344_musicians%27_strike

I was under the impression that the payout for that was around $7000 or $8000

*I should clarify that I meant monthly payout for the streaming number, as obviously 7 or 8 thousand a year would be woeful.

Honestly, if so many artists are making nothing from 1 million g'damn streams a month, then I wish it were possible to organize some kind of recording strike like in the early 1940s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942%E2%80%9344_musicians%27_strike

― klonman, Wednesday, April 10, 2019 1:01 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If this happened now, you would never see more strikebreakers in all your life

FYI

https://thetrichordist.com/2014/11/12/the-streaming-price-bible-spotify-youtube-and-what-1-million-plays-means-to-you/

Omg @ the rates for songwriters

Has anybody written a good book about the 1942/47 Petrillo strikes? I would love to read more about them. It is amazing that all musicians went on strike for over two years and you really couldn’t hear any new music (apart from reissues and acappellas). That would NEVER happen nowadays.

errr... ‘48, not ‘47.

none of them are strippers / sex workers -- that was way more common in the 90s

even if ppl would have publicly declared this, FOSTA/SESTA? also indie strip clubs are dead in Seattle and decimated in SF compared to the '90s aiui

$7000 or $8000; not enough to be rich obviously, but would seem to support some kind of middle class lifestyle when combined with other revenue streams that come from being a musician (merchandise/physical record sales, syncs, money from touring if any)

the $6,252/mo is not Cass McCombs the individual's income, it's the rights holder's gross. A quick squiz at Discogs suggests he only owns the publishing outright on one, maybe two of those nine records (so $625/mo if all the 1.2 million streams came from that one album), and the masters on none. with a four-piece backing band he'ss paying at least six people's wages on the road, plus all tour expenses, before he sees any touring income himself.

music industry's death seem greatly exaggerated

to put that chart in perspective, the 50% haircut roughly mirrors landline ownership.

How are you reading a 50% haircut? I'm looking at it on a phone but the 2017 figures look above 50% even relative to the 2000 peak, comparable to 1992 levels, and higher than 70s and 80s figures. Unless it's not inflation-adjusted? 90s was a bubble for the music industry.

It's led to more people becoming totally apathetic about a career in music or even wanting to make any music of real quality

he was serious

paul ponzi otm'ing any part of that post is truly water finding its level

"when there's no financial incentive artists just put out any garbage" is both historically untrue and capitalist bullshit

There's far too much music being made with a "this'll do" quality to it, because they can't be arsed, and because Spotify places any new release by Mr. Joe Experimentalbollocks-from-Coventry on the same pedestal as something of real quality, they don't feel any great need to be arsed

this is not a real or observable dynamic, everything you say is bullshit, please stop taking up so much space on this board with your fucking bullshit

Oh look, Brad's throwing their toys out of their pram because they don't like what they're reading. Tough shit.

You've be on your best behaviour for a while now, but you're coming out with some utter tosh itt.

Ringtones still raking in a cool 25 mil.

Karlheinz Stockhausen working as an *accompanist to a stage magician has to be up there in the oddest odd jobs department.

(*not assistant, sadly)

When I heard that Philip Glass and Steve Reich both worked as movers before they were able to make a living off their music, I invented a "joke". I pictured them moving a heavy wardrobe up a flight of stairs. Philip says, "Steve, you're always moving slightly faster than me and we're getting out of sync." Steve said, "Phil, that's the twentieth time you've said that and it's getting tiresome."

wow lol !

yeah, that's a really good joke! I may steal that one

i laughed irl

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lol

LOL!!!

:)