Rockin' Night in the City

I definitely deserved to have a champagne flute in hand a couple weeks ago. I would have looked completely legit. It was one of those mild nights in Manhattan. Clear sky. Even a few stars among all the lights. On the rooftop on 35th and 5th Ave with the Empire State as the backdrop, we jammed to some sweet tunes by Atomic Tom. There was no duct tape in sight.

For those who haven't heard of Atomic Tom—which I confess included myself not too long ago—they deserve a shout out. Several years ago, four guys from Brooklyn signed a record label and waited for their big break. Years went by with no mention of Atomic Tom on the charts or elsewhere.

On a whim (or I suppose you could call it a Duct tape moment :), the band filmed themselves playing on the NYC subway flash-mob style. Instead of real instruments, they played under the guise of having their instruments stolen...left only to play their iPhone apps. Hoping that a few hundred fans would watch, they quietly slipped the video on YouTube.




Within two days, the video was watched nearly 2 million times. Shortly after, the label dropped their album, and it reached No. 11 on the iTunes chart.

The coolest part was listening to the guys tell their story. You can hear the passion for their craft, plus the amusement that this actually worked. Despite the great music they'd been playing (on real instruments) they just needed a little creativity to grab a lot of attention.  They're hilarious. Authentic. Cool. And Did I mention the sweet 'stash?

If you squint, you can tell that—just for a second—they make me look cool too.