Anyone who has been in a promising local band knows about the tricky situation of trying to promote your music act–sure to be the pride of Toledo or Yuma or whatever–while not throughly irritating every person you know or meet. Sacramento act We Prick You faced the same dilemma; however, in trying to get the word out to local reporter Eddie Jorgensen, they might have gone just a step too far.

A quick lesson for you up-and-coming rock stars: if you pester a journalist to the point where he writes an entire article about how irritating you are, that’s a bad sign.

I should never have given Marcus Cortez my phone number.

But I thought, as someone who writes about music, why not make myself available to the lead singer and guitarist for the hard-driving, Bowie-allusive local rock trio We Prick You? Really, what harm could come from it?

We first met outside the entrance to Old Ironsides, one of the many locales at which Cortez and his band like to wreak havoc. By then, I’d already heard them–serious rockers in the great tradition of early Local H and Queens of the Stone Age. So far, so good in my book.

And as he madly papered cars outside the venue with his show fliers, Cortez seemed like a nice enough guy…

Without missing a beat, Cortez then asked, “Can I get your number?”

Carelessly, I obliged. First mistake, last mistake. Since that first chance meeting more than a year ago, I’ve received somewhere near 1,000 We Prick You-related text messages.

One time I woke up to a text about a Blue Lamp show at 1:30 a.m. and just about threw my phone out the window. Another time, my girlfriend and I were enjoying a movie and my cell phone registered five texts before the end credits rolled. I even received a phone call directly after a text from Cortez after already receiving a flier on my car, an e-mail and a MySpace bulletin.

And I know I’m not alone.

Although Cortez isn’t willing to give out the total number of contacts now forever trapped in his cell-phone, he does mention there are “at least a baker’s dozen.”


So what on Earth gave him this seemingly limitless energy to promote? “Substances may or may not be involved,” he said vaguely, “but I meet a lot of really cool people, catch a lot of good music and support a lot of my friends in doing so.”

Maybe in the end, Cortez’s methods can be considered successful, since his band’s upcoming show was featured, even after all the writer’s complaints. However, when you’re forcing those who might publicize your band to change their phone number (as Jorgensen eventually did), you might not see any sort of favorable coverage (or coverage at all) in the future. We Prick You, consider focusing on your manners for a bit, or you’ll never become the next Vampire Weekend.

Here’s Your Stinking Press, Now Stop Calling Me [my58.com]