Year: 2008

Jagged Spiral is pulled from bill, but still rocks the house!

Posted on by Zero

Thanks to the blazing-fast response time of the Jagged Spiral Internet E-mail Gig Retraction Service, disaster was averted for many loyal Jagged Spiral fans, when it was announced that their Nov 29th performance at the Terminal Bar was canceled.

Not so much canceled as…well, let’s be honest: we got fucking canceled. My understanding is that because of the (former) booking agent at the Terminal Bar, the show was double-booked (technically octuple-booked), and many bands had to be dropped. SBI and Pygar performed as scheduled, but Jagged Spiral and Gedwik were pulled off the bill to make room for a cover band.

No, I’m serious.

No hard feelings towards SBI or the Terminal Bar, but we do hope that their former booking agent has a 140lb Ampeg 8×10 Bass Cabinet fall on her.

Meanwhile, the number of sound mixers for the show was strangely underbooked. In fact, there were none. Random members of the crowd were pulled out and forced to work the sound board at gunpoint. Josh bravely volunteered himself and myself to mix sound for SBI. (Colin did not make the show, choosing to stay at home instead and get laid.)

So while Jagged Spiral did not actually *play* at the Terminal Bar, we certainly did make the walls shake when Josh managed to turn SBI’s kick drum up to One-Hundred and Eleven.

Props go to my good friend James, who made it to the show because he didn’t get the notice that the show was canceled. His diligence and dedication to the Spiral has awarded James the dubious honor of being at more Jagged Spiral shows than Colin.

We’re trying to get SBI and/or the Terminal Bar to feel sorry enough for us that they offer up a sympathy gig, and we’ll keep you posted on how that works out.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Jagged Spiral Incorporated?

Posted on by Zero

We’re pleased as punch that Jagged Spiral Incorporated has been listed at Hot Frog.  Apparently, our products and services are classified as “Heavy Metals”! Isn’t that nice!

As much as I’d love to thank the brainless meatstick who put this together, its no doubt the work of a scraper site, pulled together by a computer simply to waste space on the internet.

Thankfully, a Google Search for Jagged Spiral still turns up the truth.

Meanwhile a quick search on the owner of Hot Frog turns up a piece of trash called Reed Business Information, providers of Variety Magazine, Asia Food Journal and many other periodicals that kill trees, weigh down your mail-carrier, and clog up your mailbox and recycle bin.

Sorry, Reed Business Information, but our Publicity Policy clearly states that we have to point out Weapons-Grade Fucknuttery when we see it.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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PS: Thanks to our good friend Saveau for the stellar classification of “Weapons-Grade Fucknuttery”, we’ll be using that one A LOT here at jaggedspiral.com

Musicians Jump on the TorrentWagon

Posted on by Zero

Seems other bands are beginning to realize what Jagged Spiral knew a long time ago: the recording industry is dead, and Do-It-Yourself is the new Black.

Before bands were only seeing their music as a ‘product’ something that they ‘sold’. But not anymore. Bands like Jagged Spiral, NIN, Radiohead, and Atmosphere have broken the paradigm: they front all the costs themselves: engineering, production, mastering, duplication, graphics, packaging, etc…  They have a pro-quality ‘product’, but they give it away for free.

This article on TorrentFreak points out that artists are catching on. They are realizing that the possibility of popularity is more likely than the possibility they can sell one-thousand CDs.  They drop their music on bittorrent and other file-sharing clients in the hopes of publicity (which is free) versus advertising (which costs $$$$).

This is great news for fans of real music. Leave the music industry behind for suckas who will gladly pay $18 for the latest piece of over-hyped, over-processesed, under-talented garbage. Dive into myspace, torrent and band websites to find the real thing . Music that the creators care about, and gatekeepers-be-damned.

What do you think? Is this behavior undercutting the perceived value of music?  Will the internet drown in a deluge of crap-rock? Is this empowering artists to usher in a Renaissance of music? Drop your comments below.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Not Enough Bullets picked by MN Spin!

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MNartists.org has a contest called MNSpin. Each week, three songs are picked by members of the local music industry.

I set up a profile on mnartists.org a while ago, and uploaded the tracks “Monsters”, “Not Enough Bullets” and “Let It Out”. I entered the tracks in the MNSpin contest sometime early in 2008. It seems that Dana Raidt, the music director for Radio K has great taste in music, because she chose “Not Enough Bullets” as one of the three winning songs for this week’s MNSPin contest! http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=208156

Here’s more info about MNSpin:

Winning tracks from each contest are selected by panelists from within the music industry. Each week a three-song playlist from the winning submissions will be featured on the mnartists.org and Summit Brewery web sites. Quarterly listening parties at area venues will take place and a compilation CD of music from the yearlong contest will be produced.

Submission Specifications and Entry Process Any and all types of music accepted; only three tracks per musician will be reviewed for possible inclusion on the CD. Tracks can be uploaded to artist pages on mnartists.org, and a URL of the page can then be e-mailed to mnspin@mnartists.org. Submissions must come from mnartists.org members. To sign up for membership, visit www.mnartists.org/join.do?action=join.

mnSPIN is sponsored by mnartists.org, Summit Brewery, Springboard for the Arts, and McNally Smith College of Music.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Not Enough Bullets will get picked for inclusion on the yearly CD compilation…although it is quite difficult to play bass with my fingers crossed…

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Review From Evil

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Thanks to all those who made it out to the “Days From Evil” CD Release Party last Friday. It really means a lot to us to see our Friends and Fans brave the strange weather. Jess informed me that the puce-colored sky was conjured up by the Dark Lord herself, and those of you coming to the show would be spared, and would not perish in a burst of purple lightning.

The party was great fun, and those who missed it…missed it. For the first time ever we had a merch table with real merch on it! (Thanks Xtna!) The hard copy of Days From Evil was there in all its long-awaited, hard-earned, shrink-wrapped glory. (Thanks Tim!) Band buttons too! (Thanks Karrie!)

Fortunately, Jagged Spiral was there too, somehow managing to mix loud music with theatre; both comic and tragic. Colin’s brand-new Gibson Explorer made it’s first public appearance. Josh got into a fight with his own drum set, and I poured a half a pitcher of beer over myself and jumped into the boy’s moshpit with my bass. (Yes, there was a girl’s moshpit too.) Like I said, if you missed it, you missed it.

Josh, Colin and myself would like to publicly thank all the people who made the CD Release party a big success:

  • Uber-Thanks go to Josh at Club Underground (no relation to Josh from Jagged Spiral) for having us out and running the soundboard.
  • Thanks to SBI for taking the “sober slot” and playing first to warm up the room. Thanks for firing up the moshpit, and for the pitcher of beer, some of which I actually got in my mouth….
  • Thanks to Sick Machine for coming down from St Cloud to rock out with us! I picked up their new CD “Ready To Burn” and you should too, check out the single “Black Out Sunday” on their Myspace Page…
  • Thanks to Something To Fear for taking the fourth shift and closing out the night with some wicked, double-female-fronted metal! You did a fantastic job, and we look forward to seeing/playing with you again!
  • Special thanks to Xtna for putting together the merch table and sign, and to Jess for helping her keep it running through the event!
  • Thanks to Jeremy for acting as the human “meat shield” between the boys and girls mosh pits! Who knows what might have happened if they had mixed…? Combined with Jagged Spiral’s music, it’s probably better that we didn’t find out, at least until we can look over our liability insurance contract…
  • Finally, thanks to all the people who came to the show: Nancy, Sarah, Jess, Xtna, Jim, Reid, Denise, Karrie, Teresa, Boog, Tara, Dan, Pat, Tim, Jeremy, Lisa, and many more who came out to support the Spiral! You people get the Jagged Spiral Seal of Approval!

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Jagged Spiral Presents – Days From Evil CD Release

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CDs are on order, and three years of hard work are about to pay off. We are excited to announce that Jagged Spiral’s debut masterwork, “Days From Evil” will be available in CD form on 11 July 2008!

“Days From Evil” is a concept album which tells the story of a hero confronting monsters only he can see. The music covers a wide range of genres, including Gothic Hard Rock, Acoustic Ballads, and Majestic Epic Metal. Much of the music on “Days From Evil” was also used by Jagged Spiral in the movie score for the local vampire movie “Pray For Daylight” from Stone Soup Films.

Ha, and my guidance councilor said I’d never accomplish anything! Now he owes me five bucks! Not surprisingly, that’s the same price as admission to the upcoming Days From Evil CD Release Party! For the price of 1.25 gallons of gas, (which won’t even get you halfway up to the lake for the 4th of July,) you can experience an entire evening of devastating music, as Jagged Spiral takes the stage at Club Underground on Friday, July 11th, to celebrate the release of our new CD.

Our live show will contain some stripped-down selections from “Days From Evil”, (Sorry, no acoustic guitars and no string orchestras!) and plenty of new material, all of it dark metallic rock fueled by adrenaline and Jag-Bombs. Bring earplugs.

Details:
Friday, 11 July 2008 – Doors at 9PM, – Music at 9:30
Club Underground – 355 Monroe St, Mpls MN
21+ (Bring ID!) – Cover $5

The Days From Evil CD will be available for purchase at the show for $8. All proceeds from the sale of the CD will go towards the following:

  • Josh’s Red Bull addiction
  • Fines from the City of Minneapolis for ‘disturbing the peace’
  • The massive debt we ran up during the three years it took us to get this project finished

Also, we have some very special guests joining us for the event: S.B.I., Sick Machine and Something To Fear (who just got done kicking tail at the Flight of the Valkyries festival!) so come out and celebrate with us!

-Jagged Spiral

PS: If you know anyone who likes loud guitars, please pass the message along! Share the Spiral!

Days From Evil Press Release has been… Released

Posted on by Zero

We’ve been working on Days From Evil for years now, but I won’t feel a sense of completion until

  1. I hold the physical, shrinkwrapped CD in my hand
  2. We celebrate the CD with an Release Party.

Thankfully, those things are coming to fruition. Very soon, the order will be placed for CD copies of ‘Days From Evil’. Almost three years of effort are drawing to their long-overdue conclusion.

Promotional copies of the disk are finished, (sans the insert booklet). Just seeing the physical CD with printing on it has made me quite happy. Now, I’m just working on the insert artwork, which should be done this weekend, and the order can be placed next week.

As I mentioned previously, the “Days From Evil” CD Release party has been booked at Club Underground for 11 July 2008. Three other bands will be there to help us celebrate: S.B.I., Sick Machine, and Something To Fear. Jagged Spiral has gone through a significant upgrade in gear since our last live set, and we’re focusing on pulling together a nice, tight, and loud show. Bring earplugs.

I’ve completed the press release about the event which you can check out here: https://jaggedspiral.com/forms/dfe1.pdf and I’ve distributed it (with a copy of the CD) to all the usual suspects. With any luck we can expect some honest and objective reviews of “Days From Evil”.

Even if we don’t move a single copy of the CD, even if the critics slaughter it, even if no one comes to the release party, we will finally have payback for three years of hard work, and I’ll have a sense of completion that will let me (mentally at least) move on to other things… like the next album!

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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