Band Review: In Passing

So, the final post of the Rejects concert, written slightly over two months after it happened.

While we were waiting in line there was this guy working his way through the line, and he was in a band, In Passing, that had nothing to do with anything happening in the concert hall. He had a small speaker hooked up to, I think it was his phone, and he would let people listen to a track, and selling downloads.

Basically, for $10 you could get a card with their site and a download code, so you can go and download the album. That is actually kind of brilliant. Overhead is low, people in line for a concert may indeed be willing to buy your music, and a lot of people are moving away from ever having CDs, though I am not one of them.

He was also selling band necklaces for $10, and you could get the album and the necklace together for $15, which he said they called “the happy meal”. That seems a little presumptuous, because I think I will need to listen to the whole CD a few times before I know that I want to wear your necklace. Also, I don’t really wear necklaces that much. Anyway, Rebecca and I each bought the album. I would be curious to know how he did overall. It’s an interesting strategy.

Having researched a little more, I am assuming it was the drummer, Troy, because although they are from Orlando, he seems to be living in Portland now. Actually, I am going to another concert at the Crystal tonight (Keane), so that will be funny if I run into him again.

I still wouldn’t buy the necklace, but checking some tweets and blog posts, it looks like this fits in with their overall strategy and has been somewhat successful. They borrowed an RV and followed Warped Tour around, selling CDs and necklaces, and people seeing the necklaces and recognizing them when they would run into band members was helpful.

It is not easy establishing a presence, and you need to be open to some creative thinking. It looks like they used a Kickstarter to fund their album, and basically they are doing their own thing.

Looking at some Youtube videos, I heard them describe their music as “radio rock”. I have not heard this term before, but I would expect that to mean music that is very listenable as background, but probably not with a lot of experimental or high concept tracks. That would probably be a fair assessment.

This is not a slam on the music. I have enjoyed listening to it, but it hasn’t necessarily made a lasting impression on me the way some other bands have. If you go to their web site, it plays Lost Your Faith, and that’s a good starting point, and probably the one that makes the strongest impression. Qualms about their edginess aside, there is a definite undercurrent of funk in general, the songs do sound sincere, and also, the very last of the MP3s downloaded, “Home”, sounds decidedly different and makes we wonder if they are branching out.

Anyway, I am sure I will listen again, because I do like the album, and I own it, and I like their pluckiness in going for it by making their own plans rather than hoping for a deal, which means completely different things than it did ten years ago.

http://inpassingmusic.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/inpassingrock
http://www.facebook.com/inpassing
http://twitter.com/inpassing

http://journeytobecomingone.tumblr.com/