Side gigs and The Posters
HARK!
I hear … a hustle.
Call it “a side gig,” “the sling” or “crutch,” hustling a job to make the rent is as old as creativity itself.
When he wasn’t befuddling authorities and critics with ponder-this questions, Socrates was a teacher and stoneworker. Not much dough in self-help books, back then. (Too bad: “How to Know You Know Nothing: A Guide to Self-Realization,” by J.A. Socrates.)
A few centuries later, Jesus -- moonlighting from saving the world -- was a carpenter.
Vincent van Gogh was an art dealer before saving the art world from itself.
On a far more modern front, the hilarious punkers of the Peacock show “This Is Lady Parts” all have side gigs: aggressive-aggressive (forget that passive-aggressive sh*t) butcher, pissed-off Uber driver, off-balance guitar teacher...
King of the artistic hustle? Gotta be Sean Combs. Started as a talent scout, then pimped himself as the artist P. Diddy; even after hitting the charts, he was working it on the side, juggling clothing lines, restaurants, vodka, energy drinks…
Unlike the billionaire money shuffler Combs, most HARK Valley musicians and artists are scuffling to get by -- especially coming out of the depths of the pandemic, when it became harder and harder to earn ANY bread from performing.
Case in point: The Posters.
“The Posters are a punk rock band in Phoenix. We inform and inspire through magic and fun!”
The solid trio -- Cody Folk - Bass Guitar; Anthony Jaroscak - Drums; Malachi Mullinax - Guitar -- plays fast and ferocious, old-school punk.
Check out “Ambush!” at
https://theposters.bandcamp.com/release
The Posters launched in 2019, starting to get some traction at local bars...and then the rug came out.
“The lockdown was really tough, we were getting ready to start touring when it hit and it halted our momentum,” Mullinax said.
On July 20, Malachi posted on The Posters Fb:
“Hey y'all I've got a side hustle mixing and mastering songs, who's out there sitting on a hit?”
He gave some more info to HARK Valley on this:
“That $20 mix and master deal is my little side hustle on Fiverr, I'm hoping it will turn into a part time job and maybe more.”
What’s the trick to a good vibe on a low budget?
“It's easy to sound good without spending a lot of money, you just need a decent computer or laptop and a DAW software like Protools, Logic, Ableton, etc to mix and master with. Unless you have a treated space to record it's probably more effective to find someone with a recording studio and pay them hourly, like our friend Jeremy Judy from Redoubt and Tenspot Recording built a floating room in his garage and only charges $25 an hour. The sound comes out pro and you're still only out a couple hundred dollars for a full length.”
https://www.facebook.com/jeremy.judy
https://www.facebook.com/redoubtband
Might have been a mixed blessing, having to stay home and get creative:
“We played some house parties and a couple shows here and there but most of our energy went into writing and recording ‘Ambush!’ so now we have a whole new record to play and promote.”
Indeed, the session birthed what may be the band’s best song: “This Is It”
“This is the beginning of the show that the cops shut down on the back door patio...it’s the moment you don’t want to let go”
And, just to show it’s not all party music, “Mar-a-la-go,” with a sinister reference to Adolf Eichmann and some hard-snarling irony:
hey won't let you on the news no more
they got what they wanted
threw away their dirty condom
negotiate a wage to pay the staff
hide behind the cameras and cash
you can afford it
Mar-a-lago
a million dollar mulligan clubhouse
Mar-a-lago
swimming trunks american flag
No dates yet in August, but here are some Posters’ shows in September:
9/4 Blooze Bar
9/8 The Grid
9/10 Chopper John's