Fresno Famous

Rademacher probably doesn't need any more media love.
The band has been featured in SF Weekly and the Arizona Daily Sun and its music was on the cable show “Icons,” (it's about video games). Billboard magazine said they have the “...potential to break into the big time,” and CMJ news called them “the musical equivalent of Jackie Chan,” whatever that means. The Bee's Mike Oz named them one of Fresno's 10 most signable bands.

And that's not counting the Internet, where they've become indie-darlings, with name drops on no less than a dozen music and blog sites.

Yes, Rademacher know how to work the techonology.
In fact, to promote its new album, “Stunts," (recorded by one-time Fresnan and Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza) the band turned to the Web, doing a month's worth of blog-residencies — teaming up with Los Angeles-based bloggers to promote upcoming shows and host tracks off the record each week. Check this week's out at www.aquariumdrunkard.com

But the band is no media whore.
They just work harder at it than most. They've been sending out press kits — lots of them, to all sorts of media outlets — since day one.
“So eventually....somebody's eye is caught and pen goes to paper,” says Brad Basmajian, the band's mustachioed guitar player (really, he's kinda famous for it).

Mostly it's getting out there and building relationships with the people who come to shows. Because those people write the blogs and do the reviews. Or they know the people who write the blogs and do the reviews (no need to sing, “It's a Small World”).

It doesn't hurt that Rademacher makes good music — quick little indie-rock songs you wish you'd written. Songs built to make you dance and sing along. Oh, the sing-alongs are great.

Plus, the band plays lots of shows.
Rademacher is the kind of band that dreams of sci-fi transporters, because driving back from San Francisco in the middle of the night, in the middle of the week, sucks, even with an Ipod loaded with “This American Life,” and “Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.”

A Yahoo-mapped version of a typical November weekend: Take 99 north to Sacramento. Then, take it south to Merced, then further south to the I-5 and into Los Angeles. Take 99 north back home.

Then, they pack up the gear and head back up to San Francisco for a mid-week residency at the Knockout. That sort of drive-and-play schedule keeps up into December.

But Fresno is still home. And Tokyo Garden is still Rademacher HQ — the place where they've played their best (and maybe worst) shows. The place where crowds rush the stage to sing along while drunken friends heckle from the bar.

It's the place where indie-icon John Vanderslice led an audience marching-band style down Fulton Street.
They turned back traffic that night.

“I love coming home to play,” Basmajian says. “Seeing those familiar faces in the crowd singing along ... drinking and enjoying it all with friends. Being able to show bands from out of town the type of place that we know Fresno to be is important. We've made some good friends, and have couches to sleep on for miles.”

So, what can your band learn from Rademacher?
Maybe start with html.