A: By telling myself it's more of a supporting venture.
My life, by itself, is rather boring.
However, I'm (blessed?) fortunate enough to know people with much richer lives than my own. I get added joy from those friends (or acquaintances) that I know who are highly creative. Rarely do I pass up an opportunity to help support their creativity.
For example, when my friend got a short story published - I quickly ordered the literary magazine (see picture of me astounded). Or, if I happen to see local Achievers coordinating a Burlesque show, I try my best to help spread the word.It's time for me to try to spread the word again on a friend's creative endeavor. I've mentioned Machine Gun Mojo before on this blog shortly after I saw them live for the first time.
They are about to release their first full length album: Souvenirs from the other side of here. However, seeing how this is the band's first album, they did it themselves and without the help of Simon Cowell or whatever entities churn out music to the masses nowadays. Which leads me to my point: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1395913352/souvenirs-from-the-other-side-of-here-new-record-f
I never knew of Kickstarter before, but it's a great vessel that helps bands raise funds by allowing fans to essentially pre-ordering albums during the recording phase - by having the money go straight to the studio bill. It makes wonderful sense. This was an album I was going to buy anyways - but now I don't have to have the band go more into debt then they already are before they reap the benefit my album purchase.
Now, there was another motive for my donation. Every time I hear of a band going through problems with recording music - I love thinking about my favorite scene from Boogie Nights. (By the way, if you haven't seen Boogie Nights - you should. Yeah, it's got a large amount of Sex, Nudity, explicit drug use and all the horrible consequences of such actions - but it's got a character played by John C. Reily that is just a pure comedic gem.)
I posted that link both on the band's facebook page and also the "event" to help gain momentum for their effort. There was no way I could post that YouTube video without donating. Yes, I'm the kind of guy that will pay $10 just to try to make someone laugh without personal guilt.
Back to Machine Gun Mojo:
I'm not telling you to [virtually] run over and donate to their cause. I know you dear reader is not looking to be sold anything when you clicked on this post. What I am asking is that you read the story about them from the blog Windy City Rock. In that story are links to free downloads of the band (both songs from the new album). If you like those tracks, consider pre-ordering the album by making a donation on their kickstarter page.
