Photos by Ryan Barkan via BrooklynVegan

It's difficult to be a buzzband in the modern world. It seems like every1 is just trying to do stuff on the internet to 'go viral'/capture ur attention for 1-4 minutes, but they are forgetting about the spirit of music. The spirit of humanity. Music is here to lift us up, and help us enjoy life...sometimes even 2 help us escape from how much we h8 the trappings of modern society. My buzzband decided to do something new and original. We decided to go to the people. Instead of playing in a club or bar or church auditorium, we were going to find real people to play our real music. We went to a meaningful subway portal.

Playing our music to people who use public transportation will help us connect with real people, living real lives' in this real city of ours. First, we will succeed as a local band, playing rush hour every day for the next year. Then we will be signed and go 'national', and hopefully 'international.' It seems plausible that record label CEOs chill on this bus stop. In addition, this meaningful public space means provided us with some sweet acoustics that really helped our sound.

It was kinda inconvenient though, bc my female band mate has a really zany vintage piano thingy. Sucked 2 lug it down the stairs.

A lot of people didn't 'get' us and our music though. Maybe this is indicative of mainstream markets and their expectation of 'how music should sound.' So many bros were just like 'I want to get on my day without all of this hipster scum making my life hell.'

I think some of them confused us for 'beggars'. They didn't look at us or listen to us, as if we were less than human. Maybe they hated buskers (people who play music 4 money) because they don't have a solid track record.

We made $1. I wonder if it would be easier to maintain this business model, or to try to sell digital copies + exploit commercial licensing on the internet.

It was about more than just 'making money.' We used HD flip cams to cover the event, so we could get tons of internet media. Youtube, tweets, flickr fotos. We are social. We are social media.

Tons of people were twitpicing and dropping mad hashtags. Some people even used a tumblr app to live microblog that (Thank G-d for 3G wireless networks).

Wonder if the Bedford L Platform the altest place to play a meaningful live impromptu performance, or if we should have gone to a stop with a mainstream audience?

It seemed like we had invented something new. A new movement. The busker wave scene had been born, and we felt like we were the ones taking it to the mainstream.

Everything was going really chill. We had a lot of fans, and people were mad stoked to see us playing our cutesy indie music in a live zany context...

but then some ass hole African American came over and started banging on empty Home Depot buckets

Then some other African american came along and started banging on even more buckets, creating an ambient sound that sorta felt like Phil Spector recording Animal Collective.

Then things got weird when another busker band came along and started playing

Then some AZN bro came and started riffing on his acoustic

The vibe was texturous, and another African American busker came to riff on his sax.

We were fortunate enough to have a keyboard player there to really add some cute jingles. Her yamaha keyboard + amp + power generator really came in handy in the 3rd hour of our jam sesh.

Another AZN came out of nowhere and jammed hard on his sterling silver electro saxophone

Two of the founding members of the busker wave movement were sort of resentful of the new found popularity of our busker wave super group. They had been in the industry for 20 years, but didn't understand how our busker group had monetized so well.

Then a cello bro got off the subway, and we wrote a 'sad' song. Really mellowed out the whole subway platform.

Then wrote a dance anthem with the help of a zany guy + another accordion player

It seems like tons of foreign tourists really got into our band. They took pictures on their digital cameras, then uploaded them to their picasa accounts.

Overall, I think our experiment was successful. We made a lot of new fans, met some real people, and we felt like we reconnected with the spirit of music. Indie music no longer just lives on the internet. Indie music lives on the streets, in the subways, and in the sewers [via the Ninja Turtles].

Not sure if our next show should be in a city bus

or on an airplane?

Feel like city bus might 'reach real people', but people who are flying probably have tons of spending money that they are willing 2 spend on CDs + band merch.

1 indie band. 1 dream

Was it a 'good idea' for this indie band to play a show at a subway stop to create internet media?
Where would yall play to make the most amount of fans? The Super Bowl?
Do yall think buskers are annoying because they play shitty music?
How do u feel about black men who bang on buckets as if it is a 'real art form'?
Would yall rather give money to a busker, a beggar with a witty sign, or an indie band?