Music: Bomb the Music Industry!

Map It:   Gallery Pl-Chinatown 

When Bomb the Music Industry! frontman Jeff Rosenstock isn't busy touring the country, he spends his nights washing dishes at a pizzeria in Athens, Ga., which isn't exactly a traditional way for a rock star to make a living.

"If you have stars in your eyes and are like, 'Yeah man I want to [make music] for my career,' it'll affect the kind of music you make," Rosenstock says. "Music is too important to me to try and make it a career. If that just happens from how we're doing things, I have no problem not going to work tonight and being on tour."

"How we're doing things," as Rosenstock puts it, is unlike any other band operating today. Despite a legion of thousands of rabidly loyal fans, Rosenstock would rather work the graveyard shift washing dishes than charge money for his synth-heavy brand of ska, which he gives away for free via his online record label, Quote Unquote Records.

After parting ways with his old band, the Long-Island based ska outfit The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, Rosenstock needed a new outlet for his music.

His only rule?

No rules.

Rosenstock became fed up with the music industry and decided to operate in a new way, free of corporate influence.

"Major and indie labels can be guilty of the same [stuff] when it comes to commodifying this culture that a lot of us really enjoy," Rosenstock explains. "All of them have this idea that you should sue people for trying to download music, which is wrong."

In just over two years, Rosenstock has released three albums, free of charge, that were recorded on an Apple Macbook in a studio fashioned in his bathroom. Despite including a multitude of instruments that might make a marching band envious, he recorded each on his own, sometimes with the help of a friend or two.

Instead of having set band members, friends from previous bands tour with him whenever they have time. If they can't make it, Rosenstock has an iPod, or members from the crowd play the other instruments. "Nobody believes me when I say this, but we figure out what the tour lineup is going to be days before we leave for tour," he says.

Although crowds at his shows are growing, that doesn't mean Rosenstock is jacking up ticket prices. Instead, he charges meager fees for gas money. When it comes to merchandise, don't expect the traditional fare. Usually, Rosentock spray paints fans' T-shirts with the group's logo, which garners him a few bucks in donations — a practice he insists won't change. "I don't think we're ever going to make professional T-shirts because I like the creativity involved in the way we do it," he says. "Every shirt is different, and that's pretty rad."

There are hints, however, of the band going in a more traditional direction. His latest release, "Get Warmer," is his first proper CD release on Asian Man Records and was recorded in a professional studio with a full backing band.

Is he selling out? Hardly.

Asian Man is operated out of a garage, which fits well with Rosenstock's DIY mentality. "They're as inspirational to me as [D.C.-based] Dischord has been to a lot of people, so it's a real honor to be working with them."

He's in the studio because this album involves a lot more people's musical talents than past recordings.

"A bunch of people contributed from across the country and e-mailed it to us. In the end, 24 people are on this record," Rosenstock says.

Don't fret: He insists there will be more songs recorded by himself in his bathroom. "I like the immediacy of bathroom recording," he says.

Now that's a lovely thought.

» Warehouse Next Door, 1021 7th St. NW; with Chotto Ghetto, Tue., 9:30 p.m., $8; 202-783-3933. (Gallery Place-Chinatown)

Written by Express contributor Jason Koebler
Photos courtesy of Bomb the Music Industry!