Honeybone Sells Out.

Hi beloved readers

The concept of selling out is quite the tricky one. Does one:

a) Take the money and admit to oneself they were never quite the creative genius their mother told them they were
b) Act horrified someone would even suggest one would defile their 'art' for the sake of something so material as money
c) Give ones 'art' away for free as the ultimate protest against capitalism and the materialistic manner of the western world, and thus move back to ones parent's home because of lack of actual money, becoming what's known as a 'boomerang kid'.

'I'm still allowed out on school nights right?'

Now, I am not sure what I would do, as the concept of 'selling out' has been well documented in the music industry over the past 60 years. When Bob Dylan went electric, many of his fans protested in anger, as it was his  rustic acoustic strummings and mad poetry that defined his folk legend status. A slightly different example of selling out could be that of the case of Metallica vs. Napster, wen drummer Lars Ulrich got his knickers in a twist because he found out millions of people were downloading his beloved music for free. Which I could understand if he weren't a multi-millionaire.

I need a new industrial sized pool cleaner so YOU'RE PAYING

 BUT 'selling out' can also make one rich (which would be nice), and popular across many different groups of people, instead of having one devoted group of fans (or none at all).

Now I bet you're wondering why the title of this blog is 'Honeybone Sells Out'. Well, no we didn't get offered a major label record deal, nor did we sell one of our songs to an advertising company. We're doing the lesser of two evils... learning a bunch of covers. I don't think this is selling out at all, but I know some people who look down on bands who just play covers. As if they aren't as competent musicians because they don't write their own music. Sure, covers bands get paid a lot more than originals bands, maybe thats why all the dedicated originals kids are so judgemental. But to be honest, I would rather listen to a great covers band than a complete shit originals band.

These guys do both

Anyway, Honeybone got asked to play the Brass Monkey motorcycle rally in Oterehua, Central Otago. I was pretty stoked about it, as my Dad and brother are mad about bikes and go every year. We've played covers gigs before, weddings and such, but this is a different kind of gig. This is the type of gig where the audience will be mostly older male bikers, so we probably won't be playing 'Brown Eyed Girl'. We get to pull out the Sabbath and Zeppelin and it's awesome. We started learning the first 20 or so songs on our list last week, and I have to say, it's definitely going to keep our chops up. Some of these songs aren't the easiest to play, and it's great because I've been getting lazy. Also, the gig pays very well. We use covers gigs to pay for our costs such as touring and recording, so no one is personally out of pocket. The money from this gig is probably going towards airfares to the North Island once we get our asses into gear and organise a tour. More on that later.

Also we've got a gig this weekend with the Scurvy Dogs, so come along if you're in town, its at the Crown and features Drew and his orange cast.

Party On.