Buzz means just about everything to an indie musician. In an era when a single link or rating from the right blog can land you a slot at Sasquatch!, South By Southwest or some other relevant music festival, you’d think musicians would have their eyes peeled at all times for that “break” into the industry.
But between touring, writing and promoting, there’s really no time to take note of many opportunities that exist.
But when George Schultz, guitarist in the Eugene band Adventure Galley, casually signed up for the Toyota Music Rock the Space II competition on MySpace, he hit the jackpot.
“(George) told me that he entered us in it, and I was like ‘Well was it free?’,” drummer Brock Grenfell recalled. “Like, ‘You didn’t waste money on it, did you?’ And now I look seriously foolish, very, very foolish.”
On Sept. 7, Adventure Galley found out it won the competition that included more than 17,000 bands.
Schultz saw an online ad for the competition and entered. He mentioned it to his four bandmates, but no one really took note.
A month later, Schultz got a voicemail from MySpace Records, the MySpace music label, saying that the band had made the semi-finals.
Adventure Galley’s single “Addict,” the song Schultz entered, was chosen by a judging panel of “industry professionals and MySpace Records executives,” according to the contest rules, to be one of 10 semi-finalists.
About a month later, the Los Angeles label sent a camera crew to Eugene and filmed a music video for “Addict,” complete with interviews of the band members, Schultz, Grenfell, David Mills, Aaron Johnson and Jesse Suihkonen.
“We chose the Lorax as our location, so we filmed the video on top of the Lorax and that came out really good,” Schultz said.
After all 10 semi-finalists had their videos posted on the Rock the Space website, registered MySpace users could vote from early July to late August. Voters chose Adventure Galley as the grand prize winner, garnering the band $10,000 in Fender gear, $10,000 cash and $20,000 toward recording a new album.
“It’s just starting to hit me right now,” Grenfell said, somewhat flabbergasted.
And who wouldn’t be? The band budgeted a mere $2,000 for its EP and produced and engineered it at Jackpot! Recording Studio in Portland.
A national tour will be set to kick off as soon as Adventure Galley begins contract agreements with the label.
The band was asked to make a “wishlist” of other bands it wishes to tour with. Some names: MGMT, Passion Pit, YACHT, Neon Indian, LCD Soundsystem and Empire of the Sun.
“I feel like we need to get on stage with someone who can also keep the energy level really high so we don’t seem like we’re totally going over the top for people,” Grenfell said.
Opening for electronically driven musicians like Passion Pit or Neon Indian sounds suitable for a band like Adventure Galley, which encompasses the post-punk revival sound of The Killers or Modest Mouse, but with a more electronic feel.
On Sept. 9, the band kicked off its celebrations with an impromptu free show at WOW Hall. The same camera crew that shot the band’s music video at Lorax Manner was there, and things got pretty wild. At one point, lead vocalist Mills invited the 200-plus fans to come up on stage, resulting in the stage almost collapsing.
But that’s just part of what Grenfell terms “social irresponsibility,” an attribute that is integral to the band and rock ‘n’ roll in general.
“There has to be a necessary level of chaos,” Grenfell said. “There has to be a little bit of ‘fuck the man’ in everything you say and do.”
When all’s said and done, though, Adventure Galley wants everyone to know that this win is simply water under the bridge.
The band wants to go to Sasquatch!, Bonnaroo and beyond into the far reaches of indie wonderland.
“We don’t want to be the dudes that win American Idol and have a career as the winners of American Idol,” Grenfell said.
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