Matt Pike has become a good friend to PropertyOfZack and we’re thrilled to have him back for a third Contributor Blog feature. Matt runs The Kenmore Agency and books bands like August Burns Red, Balance & Composure, Fireworks, and Man Overboard, among many others. In his third blog, Matt doesn’t quite blog. Instead he gives us the details on Give Up The Ghost’s (American Nightmare) first shows in eight years in additional to their vinyl reissues. Read the full details below!

FYF Fest, The Kenmore Agency, and Deathwish are proud to present two exclusive performances from Give Up The Ghost (American Nightmare).

Boston (Revere) MA: Thursday, December 29th @ Wonderland Ballroom
Los Angeles CA: Saturday December 31st @ At A Secret Location

These are the first Give Up The Ghost shows since their sudden hiatus taken almost eight years ago. The line-up will feature the definitive line-up of Wesley Eisold, Timothy Cossar, Joshua Holden, Brian Masek, and Alex Garcia-Rivera.

SHOW INFORMATION:
Tickets for both shows are $20 and will go on sale at 12:00pm (pst) / 3:00pm (est) on Saturday, October 29th.
Tickets for the LA show can also be purchased in person at Headline Records (Hollywood), Vacation Vinyl (Silverlake) and Glasshouse Records (Pomona). All stores will begin selling tickets at 12:00pm on Saturday, October 29th.

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Matt Pike has become a good friend to PropertyOfZack and we’re thrilled to have him back for a second Contributor Blog feature. Matt runs The Kenmore Agency and books bands like August Burns Red, Balance & Composure, Fireworks, and Man Overboard, among many others. In his second blog, Matt discusses how bands and other individuals in the music industry often make small mistakes in regards to doing possible business and how those smallest mistakes can become your worst enemy. It’s a great read because while not everyone can relate to the job of booking bands, the write-up is semi-universal in all fields of both the industry and life. Enjoy!

I don’t know about you but if I ever found myself in a position where I was submitting a body of work for someone’s consideration or critique I would do some serious do-diligence before sending it off.

I am well aware that by no means am I saving lives or curing cancer with the job I have however I do want to make an impression with my peers. So in that regard I take it serious and what to get a point across.

So off the top of my head I wanted to list off a few things that really turns me off when getting an email from a band, management company, promoter or whatever.

It’s the little things here and there that really get under my skin. I don’t always use proper grammar or punctuation, this I know. If it were not for the little squiggle line when I have a spelling error who the fuck knows what my emails would look like.

Again, I am not the smartest person in the world so what do I know…

-First and foremost please know whom it is that you’re emailing. If within the body of your email you’re asking me what I do, please just delete the email. Don’t bother sending it. Don’t ask me if I am a band manager, a promoter or an agent. What’s the point? Do some homework so you can take the right approach in your email.

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PropertyOfZack could not be more happy to be debuting our new Contributor Blog series with Matt Pike. Many of you might not know who he is by name, but Matt Pike and his Kenmore Agency book bands like Man Overboard, Fireworks, Balance & Composure, Title Fight, and all of those other bands that most of us could not be more stoked about in the beginnings of 2011. That being said, Matt certainly has a different perspective from many and an interesting mind, so we figured he’d be another perfect edition to the feature, and will continue to blog in multiple times per year. In his first blog, Matt discusses how he ended up in this part of the music industry, how things were never handed to him or taken for granted involving music, but most importantly of all, how he got here by never taking “no” as an answer for the thing he wanted most. Read up, we hope you enjoy it! 

“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that”

My name is Matt Pike, I am 36 years old and as of next spring I will have owned my own booking agency for a decade. My biggest downfall in life is that I love music.

Here’s the thing, I’ve never wanted to own my own business. It just kind of happened.  I am an awful business owner. I didn’t go to school for business. I hated math, in fact I never went to math class because my teacher was the head of the athletic dept. All he wanted me to do is practice my breaking pitches and my pick off move to first base. Who needed to learn anything more than addition and subtraction anyhow? Who knew that years later my life would be consumed with number crunching.  merch rates, door deals, Tax percentages, Gross door receipts…
This is the music “business” after all isn’t it?

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