My Page: Mark Maher
Do-It-Yourself-Promotion
Myspace, Missoula Style
Snippets of hip-hop and rock blast down the hallway from his cracked-open door. Inside, band posters plastered along the walls add to the scruffy-bed, stale-beer stench, and general reckless abandonment rocker ambiance to which he’s clearly aspiring. Alone, he stares as if in a trance, moving only to re-hydrate with another swig of a warm Pabst Blue Ribbon beer or command another click of the mouse, to take him to another place, in his space. Chad Ekergen, bass player for local Missoula band LP and the Federales, is doing what all good band members these days are doing in their spare time. He’s networking on MySpace.
Ekergen, like hundreds of other Missoula musicians, is on board the digital music revolution, which has exploded across the country. Bands that only a few years ago had little if any chance of making it out of their grandma’s garage are re-inventing the way music is listened to, sold, marketed and packaged. MySpace and YouTube are just two of dozens of Web sites that have shaped their digital music revolution.
“There is a seamless connection between bands and venues," says Mike Gill, local promoter of the Raven Café and guitar and vocalist for Missoula locals Victory Smokes.
“Why do you need a booking agent?” he asks.
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wildfire photography
Inside Fire Camp On the Glacier’s Red Eagle Blaze
As my Toyota Corolla came screaming down toward St. Mary on the east side of Glacier National park, I saw the first smoke plumes from the fire across the lake. I pulled over and took some hurried pics of the smoke, eager to get back on the road and closer to the fire.
Not knowing what to expect I pulled into the Red Eagle Fire Camp six miles north of St. Mary, I found my way to the press tent where a helpful crew of informative information officers told me the best shots would be south on Highway 89 toward Browning.
One of the officers I met up with was Timber Weller who showed me around camp and answered all my questions and then some. Weller’s story is typical of most who fight fires for a living. The money isn’t great and the hours are long but they do their job for other reasons.
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