promoting yourself??

So, what advice to follow? What has worked for other bands is NOT clearly a way to have your own music succeed. And how frustrating to get advice related to these other successes that wind up harming your own path.

Juddy told me about this punk band that - quite purposefully - had ZERO internet presence. You can't stream their music, you can't read their blog, you can't see photos or find their list of upcoming shows. In 2009, this is really punk.

Which way do we flow, then? I'm so sick of the blatant self-promotion I get stuck doing for BL, having to push my music on people like a dealer. Don't want to be a salesperson, that's why I left Sam Goody. Don't want to tout my ego, it's really not big enough to hold any weight. This "you've gotta check out my band, we're really the next hot thing even though everyone else is saying that too" mindset is just not my thing, and is probably detrimental to the music we're writing and the interpersonal relationships in the band.

This all stemmed from a nighttime DJ at a local station complaining that we got too many requests. Due to the sheer quantity, I can understand that it seemed like we bribed our street team with free cd's or tickets or something... But, the thing is, we don't have a cohesive street team. The only requests we made were to our fans who were interested in helping us out, and we did this with one email, notice on our myspace and websites. How do you help your fans support the band WITHOUT giving notice of exciting things via these outlets? I'm at a loss. And, for the day, done trying to figure it out...