       |
     |
|
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
||
Academics
 Curriculum and Areas of Study
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Jacob Wolf ’07 talks about bands at Bennington and the booking agency he launched
Photo: Architecture in Helsinki plays at Bennington. Photo by Jacqueline Kramer. Forming a band—it’s a milestone. But forming a band, launching your own booking agency, and organizing national tours for your band and several others? We’ve just moved out of the land of “colorful college experiences” and into the land of “When do you have time to eat?” Unlikely as it sounds, that’s exactly what Jacob Wolf ’07 has done. He created Holy Smokes! Booking two years ago as a way to line up shows for his band The Extraordinaires. During one Field Work Term, Wolf and the band went on a national tour, which he booked himself, and it wasn’t long before he was expanding his reach. “The tour was really the catalyst for what I’m doing now,” he says, “which is booking for a half a dozen bands and a lot of other projects. This past Field Work Term, I did an independent study which entailed a lot of research to create a database of more than 700 venues around the country, along with other databases of radio shows, blogs, labels, booking agencies—anybody I think might be interested in helping to generate press for these bands. “What I’m doing is laying the groundwork for a business that I hope one day will be profitable—not that I think of it entirely in business terms. I’m trying to maintain artistic integrity and credibility by booking musicians I personally like and believe in.”
The 22-year-old Wolf has also spent time on the flip side of the booking process: the venue. In his case, the venue is Bennington College. As the Band Coordinator for the Campus Activities Board (CAB), the student body that plans campus events, Wolf’s job is to organize a lineup of about a dozen shows per term. “I’ve been doing that for two years, and it’s fantastic. I probably have more autonomy than any other campus booking agent in the country—I get a budget every semester to bring whatever bands I want to Bennington, which is an incredibly rare opportunity.” Wolf says he follows music “really closely, almost obsessively,” so he usually has a good idea of what bands he’d like to invite, but he also draws on suggestions from other students. The feedback, he says, has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s always really rewarding when we book somebody and another student says to me, ‘Oh, that’s my favorite band.’ Or someone tells me they came and saw this band they had never heard of, ended up loving them, and bought the CD.” The twenty-five shows that Wolf booked for the 2006-07 year included such indie-rock and -pop favorites as Architecture in Helsinki, Man Man, and Joanna Newsom, the quirky harpist/songstress who has broken new ground in folk-rock over the past few years. The Newsom show, Wolf says, was “probably the biggest event I’ve ever seen at Bennington, hands down.... I’ve had the opportunity to bring some really awesome people here.”
Bands from outside the College are only a part of the campus music scene. Student bands don’t have to go through Wolf’s selection process; they can (and do) reserve campus venues for any night of the week and put on their own shows, which consistently draw crowds. As of this year, both on- and off-campus bands are taking advantage of the new Student Center, which Wolf says has “an amazing sound system,” as well as a green room for bands. Students are involved in all aspects of setting up the concerts; those studying sound design, for example, can apply for paid positions where they run the board and learn live sound. Upcoming shows include a Battle of the Bands, with the winner earning the right to play at Sunfest, a yearly all-day concert held in May, alongside prominent and up-and-coming indie rock bands. “Everybody’s really supportive of other student performers,” Wolf says. “I’ve been surprised to find that sometimes more people will come to watch their friends in an acoustic show than to see some of the more major bands that are brought here. There have been a few campus bands who’ve really won over a big following. Whenever a student is playing a show, you can always count on the fact that there will be a really enthusiastic audience.”
When Wolf graduates this June, the Band Coordinator position will open up for another student, and Wolf will take to the road. He’s leaving the position behind, but he’s taking the experience with him, and planning to use it as he continues to promote bands through Holy Smokes! Booking. “By observing the bands that contact me all the time, the bands who want to come and play at Bennington, I’ve learned a lot about how you do and don’t get chosen,” he says. “Presentation is so much, and I think that’s true for artists in general. You need to not only have good art, but know how to present yourelf.” That knowledge should also come in handy with the other big project he’s currently planning: a touring production of Ribbons of War, the rock opera concept album recorded by his band The Extraordinaires. The original album version of Ribbons—“a tragic romance story about a sea captain and an aviatrix”—earned a hearty thumbs-up in independent newspapers and the blogosphere, with bonus points for its elaborate packaging: an ink-illustrated hardcover book complete with fake library card. The staged version is a collaboration that will include several other Bennington students. “I'm actually a theater major but I consider music business my unofficial minor," says Wolf. "So this Ribbons of War project is sort of a combination of those two things. It’s a pretty ambitious project that I’m throwing a lot of energy into right now.” Amibitous, indeed—Wolf is both directing the production and playing in the band. And, of course, booking all the tour dates. Which brings us back to the question: When do you have time to eat? More:
Click here to browse the archive of campus feature stories. * * * Bands that came to Bennington in the 2006-07 year:
A few other artists who have played at Bennington over the years:
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Bennington College One College Drive, Bennington, Vermont 05201 802-442-5401[tel] |
| Site by Myriad Media, Inc. |
