Here's the scoop: Formed in 1997, Beatnik Turtle, which has been dubbed "remarkably prolific and fiercely independent" by NPR, has created 20 albums and produced music for TV, commercials, films, podcasts, and theater productions (including Disney, Viacom, and Chicago’s world-famous Second City).
In 2007, they decided to take on a major creative challenge: release one original song for every day of the year. The result was 365 songs totaling 14 hours 57 minutes and 22 seconds of music that crossed genres, topics, and styles, all based on their horn-powered geek rock sound.
They've also written three critically-acclaimed how-to books for musicians, The Indie Band Survival Guide (1st and 2nd Editions) and The DIY Music Manual, created a 15-hour online course called "Making Money With Music" (CreativeLive),and also are regular contributors to Electronic Musician Magazine, including writing the weekly column, The DIY Advisor.
Sounds Like: They Might Be Giants, Fountains of Wayne, Barenaked Ladies, The Saw Doctors.
If You Had To Pick Only One Song: Tell Me Ma (from the album Sham Rock, one of the "Top Ten Celtic Albums of 2008" by Celtic MP3 Music Magazine).
Notables: National Public Radio dubbed Beatnik Turtle "remarkably prolific and fiercely independent". That’s because they've:
- Produced 20 albums.
- Released nearly 500 songs.
- Successfully completed a song-of-the-day project where they released 365 songs every day of 2007 as a daily podcast from their website, TheSongOfTheDay.com.
- Written three books as a how-to guide for musicians in a post-label world, The Indie Band Survival Guide (St. Martin's Press/Macmillan, US) and The DIY Music Manual (Ebury/Random House, worldwide).
In addition, Beatnik Turtle has written music for TV shows, commercials, films, podcasts, theatre (including Chicago's Second City), and have licensed music to companies such as Disney/ABC Family and AtomFilms/Viacom. Other notable achievements include:
- Broadcasting their video Star Wars (A Film Like No Other) on SpikeTV for the 32nd Anniversary of Star Wars (see the video on SpikeTV).
- Having their album Sham Rock being awarded Top Ten Celtic album of 2008 by Celtic MP3 Music Magazine and also being a finalist for Best Celtic Album by the Just Plain Folks Music Awards.
- Being interviewed by MTV 120 Minutes icon, Matt Pinfield about their book, The Indie Band Survival Guide and the band.
- Two of the band members, Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan, are columnists at Electronic Musician Magazine.
- Have been on the web since 1998.
- Written theme songs to a dozen podcasts and have had hundreds of podcast plays of their music (and counting).
SHOWS: Beatnik Turtle has performed live at such venues as Martyrs’, The Elbo Room, Schubas, Subterranean, etc. as well as pubs in Dublin, Ireland. They have participated in the International Pop Overthrow Festival and have also played theatrical venues such as the world-famous Second City and at comedy festivals such as Chicago Sketchfest.
QUOTABLES:
"Beatnik Turtle is remarkably prolific and fiercely independent." - NPR, National Public Radio.
"There have been a bunch of concept albums about dystopian scenarios (Styx’s Kilroy Was Here, Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero) and inner explorations of hopelessness (Pink Floyd’s The Wall), but Beatnik Turtle’s All in a Day’s Work, which attempts both, is the most effective. The Barenaked Ladies-esque ensemble has crafted a concept album about white-collar workers and office work. Paeans to wireless mouses and blog reading are paired with laments about waking up early, conformity and other symptoms of days spent out of the sun. It’s the mellow-harsher of the year". — Adam Bulger, Hartford Advocate
"The music is upbeat (even when the lyrics aren't!), and the entire album is simply fun to listen to." -Erik Arneson, boardgames.about
"A fun album that is easy to recommend...Take these faves and add some truly rocked-out arrangements and it makes for a really fun ride...The fun part is discovering what this band has decided to do with songs such as “Finnegan’s Wake” and “Mary Mac”. Tune in–and be surprised!" - Celtic MP3s Music Magazine.
Creative Commons: Beatnik Turtle is a big supporter of Creative Commons. All of Beatnik Turtle's music is podsafe and sharable under a Creative Commons license. That means it can be used in any non-commercial podcasts, videos, remixes, mash-ups, and shared with your friends.
