$75,000 Jackpot

February 20, 2009 7:28 AM

Josh Freese shows all how to promote an album in 2009.

Previously

posted by chuckdarwin (48 comments total)

Genius.
posted by Jofus at 7:30 AM on February 20, 2009

Great drummer. Cute idea to raise the price points. Think he might be undervaluing himself however for some of those tiers!
posted by cavalier at 7:36 AM on February 20, 2009

I just want to go to Tijuana with him!
posted by chuckdarwin at 7:39 AM on February 20, 2009

That is genius.
posted by davebushe at 7:42 AM on February 20, 2009

Cavalier: I think for a good number of them, he's doing it for the experiences and entertainment value. I mean, sure, if you want to make a guy rub your feet, the price will be high. But if you already want to hang out with strangers and give them footrubs? And you can get them to pay for it? SCORE!
posted by explosion at 7:42 AM on February 20, 2009

This is sad.
posted by mark242 at 7:44 AM on February 20, 2009

Yet another thing I was prepared to hate that's actually pretty awesome.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:45 AM on February 20, 2009 [3 favorites]

Oh man, and I really want to go to Club 33. But for just $65,000 more, I could use a cabana boy. Decisions.
posted by jabberjaw at 7:48 AM on February 20, 2009

$10,000 (limited edition of 1)
[...]
* Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band and Josh take you and a guest to Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Long Beach for dinner

Dude. ROSCOE'S! Fuckin' A! Roscoe's is awesome.
posted by egypturnash at 7:49 AM on February 20, 2009

Now, if this isn’t changing the way music business works, I don’t know what is.

See, we've evolved from conventional prostitution to edgy, guerrilla arthaus prostitution.
posted by kid ichorous at 7:56 AM on February 20, 2009 [8 favorites]

I am just looking for a used car, what is all this?

$10,000 (limited edition of 1) . . .

* At the end of the day at Disneyland, drive away in Josh’s Volvo station wagon. It’s all yours … take it. Just drop him off on your way home, though, please.

Finally!
posted by ND¢ at 8:00 AM on February 20, 2009 [5 favorites]

When the seller rather than the buyer defines the activities for sale, is it still prostitution?
posted by DU at 8:00 AM on February 20, 2009

Josh's dad Stan is one of the worlds greatest tuba players, and the former entertainmentbooking guy for all the disney theme parks so coolness runs in the family.
posted by wheelieman at 8:02 AM on February 20, 2009

Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from Tool’s Lamborghini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while

What a disappointment. I figured the weirdest member of Tool would have some mad-scientist-mobile like Thomas Dolby's boat-studio in the middle of a field.
posted by mkb at 8:03 AM on February 20, 2009

When the seller rather than the buyer defines the activities for sale, is it still prostitution?

I'm going to go with yeah, but I also think that expanding the definition of prostitution from "person who has sex for money" to "person who does something for money" is completely unhelpful because when you do so it loses all meaning and might as well be called "existing".
posted by ND¢ at 8:05 AM on February 20, 2009 [3 favorites]

I also think it makes one sound like a 14 year old.
posted by ND¢ at 8:06 AM on February 20, 2009

I sense a few SLYT posts coming in the near future ...
posted by mannequito at 8:08 AM on February 20, 2009

WILL EXIST FOR $$$
posted by voltairemodern at 8:12 AM on February 20, 2009 [2 favorites]

Whore!
posted by ND¢ at 8:18 AM on February 20, 2009

I like this guy.
posted by orme at 8:24 AM on February 20, 2009

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prostitute%5B1%5DND¢: "...I also think that expanding the definition of prostitution from "person who has sex for money" to "person who does something for money" is completely unhelpful because when you do so it loses all meaning and might as well be called "existing"."

prostitute¹, tr.v.
2 : to devote to corrupt or unworthy purposes : debase

No sex required!
posted by Plutor at 8:26 AM on February 20, 2009 [2 favorites]

Look what you did there, Plutor. *rubs own nose in bad html*
posted by Plutor at 8:27 AM on February 20, 2009

Yeah, I love this guy. I hope somebody takes him up on the super fan packages. I want to hear the reports.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 8:27 AM on February 20, 2009

You'll notice that there's no amount of money you can pay him to play a quinceañera--he learned his lesson after the tragic 1996 Goldberg-Stein bar mitzvah where Trent hoisted up Hiram and bounced him around on a 3 inch spike.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:31 AM on February 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Former Nine Inch Nails drummer

It does other things!
posted by Sys Rq at 8:48 AM on February 20, 2009

(All I have to say is that I really wish I had $20,000 right now.)
posted by Sys Rq at 8:52 AM on February 20, 2009

Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band

Doesn't he play in Metallica now?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:12 AM on February 20, 2009

Well, getting ytcracker and mc lars to give you a shirt, the download, the USB flash drive of their complete discography, and performing the LP at your house is much cheaper.
posted by ShawnStruck at 9:29 AM on February 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Dude, if I had $2500, I would so go to a Wax Museum with Josh Freese and Jerry Casale of DEVO.
posted by SansPoint at 9:32 AM on February 20, 2009

ZenMasterThis, you are confusing Twiggy (who played with NIN and A Perfect Circle) with Robert Trujillo (who played with Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Suicidal Tendencies)
posted by mkb at 9:39 AM on February 20, 2009

I think I'd prefer to bail out some dodgy old goth than have my taxes spent on the banking industry.
posted by tapeguy at 9:42 AM on February 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Former Nine Inch Nails drummer

So many people have been in NiN sometimes I'm not sure I was in it for a while. (It gets hazy back there).

I once knew a "former" keyboard player for Nine Inch Nails. For the longest time, I didn't understand why this dude from Cleveland who was in Nine Inch Nails was just hanging around in DeKalb, IL. Wasn't he a rock star or something? Finally I asked him about it and he explained. Trent Reznor basically goes through members of his "band" like we go through tissue paper. There's not much to be said for being a "former" member of Nine Inch Nails.

Also he said that Reznor got over his issues years ago as the checks started rolling in and that he's just regurgitating from a period in the past for his songs.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:56 AM on February 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Sorry it should read I'm not sure I wasn't in it for a while.

obviously never in that band.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:57 AM on February 20, 2009

Also he said that Reznor got over his issues years ago as the checks started rolling in and that he's just regurgitating from a period in the past for his songs.

Yeah, unless money makes you unhappy then I think many successful artists run into that same situation.
posted by Liquidwolf at 10:29 AM on February 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Trent Reznor basically goes through members of his "band" like we go through tissue paper.

I seem to remember regular stories of him injuring his bandmates when he got all excited playing live - for example, I think he seriously cracked open one guitarists head with a microphone stand.

I guess that would make me quit my band.
posted by mannequito at 10:44 AM on February 20, 2009

Trent Reznor basically goes through members of his "band" like we go through tissue paper.

Well, it isn't a band per se, since Trent writes everything and plays almost everything on the albums. It's just a touring band. As such it's more about being a good session drummer/keyboardist/guitarist than being "part of a band". NIN is Trent Reznor, end of story, and you know that going in.

Since returning from self-imposed exile a few years ago he's also discovered how lucrative nearly-constant touring can be, accounting for the heavy replacement schedule, as some of these guys like Freese also have solid careers of their own.

Freese was a pretty good drummer in that context.

Reznor got over his issues years ago

Well, he did finally get sober. No doubt that helped.
posted by dhartung at 10:59 AM on February 20, 2009

This is awesome.

And Josh Freese is one of my favorite drummers, so that makes it doubly awesome.
posted by alligatorman at 11:08 AM on February 20, 2009

Reznor got over his issues years ago as the checks started rolling in and that he's just regurgitating from a period in the past for his songs.

Also this is an absurd statement given the revelation and change in form of the fantastic 2005 comeback album and his production last year on the Saul Williams record. In some ways you can argue he's doing his best work now.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:33 AM on February 20, 2009

he said that Reznor got over his issues years ago as the checks started rolling in and that he's just regurgitating from a period in the past for his songs

Well, my disillusionment with the music industry is now total. I thought for sure the guy spent most of his days writhing around in puddles of his own vomit choking on his existential agony, emerging from the dungeon beneath his gothic mansion only long enough to drink the occasional pig's blood smoothie and cast hexes on passersby down on Sunset Boulevard. I am shocked and appalled to learn that there is actual artifice to his persona. I also believe that all actors must be method actors and that you can write a novel about war only if you've actually been wounded in one. I call myself Captain Authenticity, Lord of the Real, and mine is a hard lonely road but the only one I consider worthy of my firm steady footfalls.

That said, I haven't cared one whit about Nine Inch Nails or its castoffs since Closer, but if I lived the kind of life where 75 grand could be spent on a single lost weekend, I'm pretty confident that final package of Josh's would be money well spent.
posted by gompa at 11:40 AM on February 20, 2009 [7 favorites]

You know what..I don't know who this dude is (but I know his bands). I think this is awesome. Now I don't have 75 grand to spend on this, but this is genuinely creative.

I think MeFi meetups in SoCal should employ some of these ideas. Rather than drinking till exhaustion, we can do almost any of the stuff that groups can do from the $1,000 ideas onward.

That's badass.

Whats kinda sucky is the perponderance of sizzler, pf changs, cheesecake factory and disney. jeezus...WTF is that about?
posted by hal_c_on at 1:18 PM on February 20, 2009

"In some ways you can argue he's doing his best work now."

Yeah, the same way you can argue that REM's last album was a "return to form." Just because you can argue it, doesn't make it true.
posted by klangklangston at 2:27 PM on February 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Note of speculation: if you are not already a talented drummer who has played with a commercially successful band or two, this type of self-promotion might seem desperate and overpriced.
posted by asfuller at 2:35 PM on February 20, 2009

I knew some day I would regret blowing all my money on Vincent Gallo's escort services.
posted by cazoo at 3:05 PM on February 20, 2009

Well, check this out: for only 10 lousy bucks, you can get my brand new album, PLUS, I will (if you can get yourself to the Higashi Nippori area of Tokyo) join you for okonomiaki at my favorite local haunt. We'll split the tab on the okonmiaki. The buta-kimchi there is also excellent.

And who am I? Why, I am the former drummer of Semantics. You had to ask?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:39 PM on February 20, 2009

Damn, I've been doing it wrong. I thought posting to music.mefi was my road to fame...
posted by wastelands at 4:10 PM on February 20, 2009

John Freese responds. Check it our here. Rarely do you get to hear the artist's side of this. He sounds like an interesting guy.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:39 PM on February 24, 2009

John?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:40 PM on February 25, 2009

Ok, Josh. I am very used to that John thing.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:58 PM on February 25, 2009