If you don’t have a website for your band, venue, music, or art, you’re missing out on a valuable way to legitimize yourself and keep your audience engaged. Social media is crucial, but a website elevates your game to the next level.

With a website, you can:

• Share upcoming shows, tour dates, and new releases
• Embed music streams + provide contact info for booking
• Showcase your creative process & artistic vision
• Make it easy for press & industry pros to find you

As a special for Extra Chill...

If you don’t have a website for your band, venue, music, or art, you’re missing out on a valuable way to legitimize yourself and keep your audience engaged. Social media is crucial, but a website elevates your game to the next level.

With a website, you can:

• Share upcoming shows, tour dates, and new releases
• Embed music streams + provide contact info for booking
• Showcase your creative process & artistic vision
• Make it easy for press & industry pros to find you

As a special for Extra Chill Community members, I’m offering affordable, high-quality custom websites tailored exactly to your style—plus a crash course on how to use your site to your advantage.

If you’ve been following Extra Chill for a while, you know I’ve built this forum, the main site, and a bunch of custom features to make this a digital hub for independent music.

I specialize in WordPress themes for musicians, artists, and music venues because that’s the game I know best.

You don’t need to go all-out like I have here—a simple site with just a few pages can make all the difference for your booking, promo, and branding.

Interested? Let’s make it happen.

Email me at [email protected] to get started.

Check out my portfolio at chubes.net to see my work.

As always, thanks for being part of the Extra Chill Community!

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@timayarlay Ah man, I will be in Charleston sometime this Spring! I would have been at Local 616 for sure.

Tell my doppleganger that if he wants to take some of my workload off my hands he is more than welcome! Haha.

I’ll hit you up when I’m in town. You know I’ll be looking to catch a show at both Royal and Pour House during my visit.

Hey Folks!

new single called “Screens” is out now! Also planning to make an appearance in chuck town soon 👀

 

@chubes Speaking of, I mentioned to Gardner at first glance I thought it was you at the 2 Slices closing out the Local 616 show the previous night. I know that you would have been there. Look forward to seeing ya again, brother…but not your “doppelganger” …Fuck that guy…HA

@rbswolfmask If that was your response directly after the show, you couldn’t remove my smile even if I was hit with a poison dart expelled from a bamboo blowgun…available on Etsy for 125…HA….THANKS for the reply.

I have never paid much attention to the Spoleto stuff but I saw they have MJ Lenderman performing this year at the Cistern Yard with Patterson Hood. Patti Smith, Yo La Tengo, Jeff Tweedy also caught my eye. Was curious what other people thought in relation to other years since I don’t have much Spoleto knowledge. Is anyone planning on going to any events this year?

Here is the full video for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet (have to watch on YT directly, unfortunately)

This is the most watched Super Bowl Halftime show of all time, breaking Michael Jackson’s previous record set in 1993.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kendrick-lamar-breaks-michael-jackson-150606966.html

Valentine’s Day “DreamGirl” will drop on all streaming platforms! Please stay tuned! Are you guys ready?

Thanks for coming and the kind words @timayarlay

Without getting too deep, the Super Bowl halftime show by Kendrick Lamar was exactly what I thought it would be: symbolic, envelope pushing, and genuine. Kendrick said a lot, without having to oversell or overplay the performance. Mission accomplished. I can see the conceptual framework of this performance going over people’s heads-but a few all encompassing factors that made this a great (not greatEST) Super Bowl performance, in my opinion, are:

1. a hip hop artist vocalizing without back...

Without getting too deep, the Super Bowl halftime show by Kendrick Lamar was exactly what I thought it would be: symbolic, envelope pushing, and genuine. Kendrick said a lot, without having to oversell or overplay the performance. Mission accomplished. I can see the conceptual framework of this performance going over people’s heads-but a few all encompassing factors that made this a great (not greatEST) Super Bowl performance, in my opinion, are:

1. a hip hop artist vocalizing without back track on a stage like Super Bowl is CRAZY

2. the constant plays with the dancers and them being representations of America

3. the effortless pairing of lyricism and a visual story that carries the context of what the artist is doing

4. it was simple, elegant, no monkey shining, and he didn’t water down his message, mission, or voice. He executed with style

5. A MINORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

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Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Sounded like an awesome show, wish i could have been there.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @timayarlay!

I originally published this on my personal blog in January 2024, before building this forum. I decided to move it here because it fits better. It was part of my inspiration phase that led me to create this space here.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what the world is going to look like in the future, and something that strikes me as incredibly important, at least from the American perspective, is having independent business owners. An all-too-common story in the modern era is when a corporation comes in and buys up valuable properties or assets and ruins a good thing. Living in Charleston, I’ve seen evidence of it on King Street & more, with independent shops being pushed out for the next franchise to open up, for triple the rent!

I originally published this on my personal blog in January 2024, before building this forum. I decided to move it here because it fits better. It was part of my inspiration phase that led me to create this space here.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what the world is going to look like in the future, and something that strikes me as incredibly important, at least from the American perspective, is having independent business owners. An all-too-common story in the modern era is when a corporation comes in and buys up valuable properties or assets and ruins a good thing. Living in Charleston, I’ve seen evidence of it on King Street & more, with independent shops being pushed out for the next franchise to open up, for triple the rent!

Especially in the Music Industry

Another place where the value of independent business shines through brightly is the music industry, where Live Nation has control over just about everything that fans and musicians once held near and dear. The house that Bill Graham built has become rotten to its very core. There are examples across the board of Live Nation coming in to buy a once-great venue that had fallen onto hard times. Even if they were doing well, Live Nation is still knocking. They take old, beloved venues that are in need of love, gut the soul out of them, slap some paint on, and open the doors. Everything is shined and packaged tightly, and they fill the rooms with tours that they also own.

Live Nation = C.R.E.A.M.

Sure, sometimes Live Nation brings good shows to cities that are desperately in need of live music, and and keeps beloved venues open. However, that aspect does not make up for the blatant disrespect for the artistry at the core of the industry. In the end, their involvement homogenizes the music industry and removes the variety and joy from it. The cost is simply passed on to the consumer, who will continue to buy simply because they love the music. Live Nation makes everything all about money, without regard for the heart of music. Not only do they own the venues and the tours, but they also own the ticketing company, Ticketmaster, and charge exorbitant fees on ticket sales that they simply pocket under the guise of operating costs. What happens is, genuine fans can’t afford the ticket prices, and the shows become social hour for yuppies. They talk through the whole set and the experience is less genuine for the fans and artists alike. Thanks, Live Nation.

Festivals

Ever noticed how every summer, all the lineups for all the festivals look very similar? That’s because Live Nation also owns almost every music festival in America. When you look back in the past, at a festival like Bonnaroo, for example. If you look back at their past lineups, knowing that Live Nation bought them out in 2016, you can see a marked difference as soon as LN comes on board. The lineups went from being creative, carefully crafted, and wonderful depths of exploration, to being pop-oriented, data-driven for ticket sales only, with little respect for the creativity that fans of the festival value. There are still some great acts to be found each year, but this is just one example of Live Nation taking a once-great thing and turning it into a corporate ad-fest. Not to mention all the festivals that they buy only to shut down just a few years later (like Peach, which quietly disappeared in 2024). So, they take your favorite events, homogenize them, and then remove them completely, successfully consolidating their own competition.

So What Can We Do?

As a fan of music, you can prioritize supporting independent venues and artists in your city. Find out which venues are not owned by Live Nation, and support them. In Charleston, this would mean supporting venues like the Royal American and Charleston Pour House, as if you needed another reason to do that. As a music industry professional, you can prioritize working with independent artists and venues, ensuring that the best bookings and acts are placed in rooms that have nothing to do with the corporate entities. Thus, increasing the value of independent music, and taking money from Live Nation’s pocket. Ultimately, independent music industry businesses, and independent businesses in general, must band together, collaborate, and stay true to their values to succeed in this increasingly corporate business world. I personally believe that there are enough people out there who are tired of Live Nation and other corporate BS that there just needs to be a tipping point for things to swing back in the direction of independent music. Corporate interests ruin everything, especially the arts. Here’s to independent ventures!

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We strive to be hollow pieces of bamboo for spirit to sing through, the ceremony is whenever you hear it.

 

On Valentine’s Day, I will be dropping a new single called “DreamGirl”. This song is inspired by a movie called “DreamGirls”. Remember, Valentine’s Day, it will be released! New music coming soon!!!!! Yes it will be streaming on all platforms! 

 

You can get into my social media and music from this link right here. New music will be coming soon!

https://linktr.ee/singerjmichael?utm_source=linktree_admin_share