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

Yup, they do.

Training. Our folks shelled out for 15 years of piano and guitar lessons (times two of us!). These days, we're spending $250 to $500 a month on voice lessons. Cost to date: $30,000.

...

Harper (a freelance writer) has to turn down writing assignments worth around $400 a week.

dare i post the last paragraph, which is the most hilarious thing i have read in a week at least ?

In short, the School of Rock is expensive. Then again, class can be a lot of fun, and some of the homework is pretty cool. And of course, if we do graduate — if we make it in the music business — we'll soon be earning a lot more money than even doctors and lawyers. Or so we tell ourselves...

I'm so glad I managed to avoid them (and avoid hearing of them) when I lived In Maine.

Sadly, Portland has become Williamsburg North over the past several years, and these two are unfortunately not the exception with their stellar attitudes and expectations of a privileged existence.

Our family has invested in dozens of musical instruments and other gear (pianos, guitars, drum sets, keyboards, mandolins, PA systems, amplifiers...).

My brother bought me a ukelele once, and Xmas before last I got a pennywhistle from my sister

what a pair of assholes

i'm still getting over "abner"

.. with their stellar attitudes and expectations of a privileged existence.

Once upon a time, the suits at the record labels funded the enterprise. Your band would play local clubs in a major city, make a buzz, and an A&R (artists and repertory) guy would sign you and write you a blank check.

Yeah, that's exactly how indie bands used to operate

make a buzz

wonder if they considered including his nyu tuition on that list

Whatever cash we earn beyond that usually goes to our current drummer.

I should hope so, guy deserves a medal for hanging out with these two assholes

is nyu an advertiser?

ha, a friend of mine knows them and posted the story on fb. I responded with this.

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

We pay a guy to send email blasts to databases of hip music blogs.

The phrase, "more money than sense" comes to mind

i was gonna write something furrow-browed about the extent to which journalists and editors can make interviewees look like dicks, but then i found out they wrote the piece themselves

i can't even

these young handsome brothers have ... got ... IT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DsjzTfeQAc&feature=related

well that video totally underlines the good review in the indie press thats linked to :

"Their bittersweet, sugary indie pop songs tie the future of careers and relationships with the past of high school and teen angst. "

Our manager has snagged me an extra VIP pass to a show by a Grammy-winning British pop star she also manages. We make our way through the NYC crowd (2,000 or so jammed into the venue) toward the door that leads backstage. An imposing bouncer guarding the door sees our passes and steps aside, opening the door for us. This is the good life, I think.

What meets me backstage is nothing like what I pictured. No fountains of champagne, no elegant lounges. It's just as dingy as the venue itself, with a printed sign taped to the star's dressing room door. The band is hanging out on a couch that someone obviously found on the street, and there are some catered snacks that look like they could have come from the NYU dining hall I try to avoid.

It occurs to me that if any part of me is doing this for the good life, I should let that go. I'm sure this pop star's touring budget is substantially bigger than our own, but so are her expenses. Hmmm...

have these guys never been backstage in a venue before???????????????

I hear why they're taking vocal lessons.

http://www.tributebandreviews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/22/kings-of-leon-tribute-bands-kings-of-lyon/kings-of-leon-kings-of-lyon1jpeg-320x258.jpg

I mean, I am just puzzled here; did these guys never go to any shows in high school and, more importantly, did they never do any performances ever while high school or college? I don't see how the fantasy of lush extravagant accommodations can survive one or two performances.

still loling about

make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz make a buzz

that entire paragraph is just flat-out stupid

much like the rest of the piece

Guy's a freelance writer, man, he ain't stupid

I noticed there's no mention of tour costs in his list of expenses. He just talks about how they "rocked" some of the top clubs in NYC.

that's because they haven't gone on tour

•Performing. For gigs here in New York, we hire taxis to lug our keyboards, stands, guitars,basses, amplifiers and drums to and from the venue. Whatever cash we earn beyond that usually goes to our current drummer. And expenses soar when we hit the road. Cost to date: $1,000.

Hit the road in a NY taxi that is. I assume they're hoping to make a buzz before they tour.

soar all the way to $1000

I think their tour must have run the gamut from Hempstead to Uniondale

they actually just take ny taxis across the country

v poor budgeting decision

I stand corrected. Sort of.

that's because they haven't gone on tour

watch the video.
they have been on the subway.
surely that's a touring cost he should include in their career-to-date rundown ?

(xpost)

Maybe their parents bought a subway train for them

oh yeah the TL line I always forget about that one

it's not very useful it runs from NYU to all the most rockin clubs in manhattan

If you want to have REAL fun, please to enjoy their Twitter feed and some of their...selective RTs.

https://twitter.com/#!/twolightsband

78 followers. glad to see that publicity $$ was well-spent.

Once upon a time, the suits at the record labels funded the enterprise. Your band would play local clubs in a major city, make a buzz, and an A&R (artists and repertory) guy would sign you and write you a blank check.

Yeah, that's exactly how indie bands used to operate

― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 January 2012 16:00 (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Also: repertory?

I guess this is proof that boys like to play dress up and make believe too. It's a little late for that, but I get it.

These guys are obv doofuses but this is the obvious endpoint of the idea that everyone who wants to play music deserves/has to be a career musician.

On one level, their "treat it all like a business" approach isn't that far removed from Big Black or Fugazi. On another level, DIE IN A FIRE.

Hmm, this is basically Raygun 2.0: Rich Parent's Edition.

My brother bought me a ukelele once, and Xmas before last I got a pennywhistle from my sister

― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, January 26, 2012 3:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what a pair of assholes

― SELF DEPORTATION (Z S), Thursday, January 26, 2012 3:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Bit harsh on my brother and sister, don't you think?

lol

Once again Mark E Smith displays his psychic prowess. From "Winter 2" off Hex Enduction Hour:

The mad kid had 4 lights, the average is 2.5 lights
The mediocre has 2 lights, the sign of genius is three lights
There's one light left, that's the one light
That's the science law

i'm just saying i don't think "cream rises to the top" is really a myth

especially since "word of mouth" is way more of a thing now in the age of endless internet discussion and RYM

i guess i go back and forth on it. half the time i hear something and think "that's amazing, why doesn't everybody know about this?", it ends up getting some shine sooner or later. but most everyone has friends or local artists that do great work and never get heard on a wide level.

i mean, by definition you're only going to know about the cream that does in fact rise to the top, right?

yeah but a. there's no universal definition of cream b. there's too much music made and people only care so much

I've seen a ton of random opening bands and it always seems like the ones that I enjoyed were the ones I'd see discussed on ILX/making 2nd or 3rd albums (Holy Fuck, Man Man, and Future Islands come to mind)

― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Monday, 30 January 2012 18:02 (20 minutes ago) Permalink

Those bands are all on pretty decent-sized labels though!

And unknown bands rarely even get opening spots for name bands without some kind of manager/publicist/booking agent/label

maybe they will when publicists don't have jobs anymore

just wait it out

just concentrate on being sexy and drugs is my advice

2 U 2 LITES

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/4/4f/Madred,_four_lights.jpg

it feels so right that this band has come to ILX about one year after we first received the gift of pomplemousse

all we need is googlers and its the new dave matthews band thread

oh did the dmb thread get googlers?

thats kind of what made the dmb thread what it is

Any real or musical reasons to hate two lights? They do all sorts of music. Acoustic stuff, good improvisational stuff, are great live, have the respect of fellow musicians like astronautalis and Santana. All the mebers are great musicians. And the actual songs are good.
They wouldn't have been featured by TIME - MONEY or spent $100,000 if they weren't any good. The likes of Pomplamoose would love to work with them.

^^yo buzza get in this thread and type this dude's name out in the add a post box

They wouldn't have been featured by TIME - MONEY or spent $100,000 if they weren't any good.

Show your working.

gonna take a wild stab that the 'working' is that it's c+p'd from a comment box somrwhere

gonna take a wild stab that the commenter was named Lou Tights

Sufjan Grafton only has two other posts besides that, and one of them is making fun of two lights itt, so i'd assume that's c+p'd

c+p'd from DMB:NYRWTASBAH. Was just trying to be your random googler, but I can't afford the associated lost wages. How does one ILX and hold down a full time job?

I'm way behind the curve, but the Two Lights parody is legit awesome.

Beyond them sucking, I find it hard to believe anyone thinks that kind of sugary pop in the Youtube video linked near the top would be the basis for a money-making career. It's like an even more watered down and inoffensive Phantom Planet - and what happened to them after they lost the Coppola connection?

Sufjan Grafton

and what happened to them after they lost the Coppola connection?

They're hoping for a resurgence of The O.C..

aaaaaand the two lights bandcamp has been pulled ;_;

keep working hard, two lights. live your dream. http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

Sufjan Grafton

― ⚓ (gr8080)

The Twolight Saga: Bandcamp Down

lol am0n

I'm sorry gr8080 and buzza, but I cannot pay you for your efforts toward creating a Sufjan Grafton "buzz"

Sufjan Grafton

Two Lights would be a good name for a venture capital fund, which is kind of what these guys look like anyway.

Sufjan Grafton's "I is for Indie"

something about this reminds me of that endlessly sad harper's story from years ago about when the guy from sabalon glitz tried to "go pop."

i guess there are dozens of similarly sad stories. (at least that dude seemed to have a shred of self-awareness.) they're just not usually written from the artist's perspective.

ha wow I didn't know anything abt the Sabalon Glitz guy's career trajectory but reading up on it it's fairly bonkers

fake facebook got pulled too

i gotta say their lawyers are really earning their money today

their lawyers came up w/ their cool name iirc

they are lawyers iirc, in the future

Someday they will be earning more than those lawyers! Just you wait!

someday they will be earning the same as lawyers as lawyers

How many unearned wages were lost in the past 12 days since this thread's been updated?

won't somebody please think of the children who won't be born because two lights won't have the money to support music lessons for their own family? don't you want the unborn sons and daughters of two lights to have a firm grasp of harmony and phrasing? shame on us all!

lol

Gotta be them:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mar/3282106595.html

douches be janglin

They should do a Kickstarter