Upcoming Concerts

  • Apr 18
    Felton Music Hall
    Felton, CA
  • Apr 19
    Rancho Nicasio
    Nicasio, CA
  • Apr 20
    HopMonk Tavern
    Sebastopol, CA
  • May 25
    BottleRock Napa Valley Festival
    Napa, CA
  • Jul 27
    Petaluma Music Festival
    Petaluma, CA
Apr 18
Felton Music Hall - Felton, CA
Apr 19
Rancho Nicasio - Nicasio, CA
Apr 20
HopMonk Tavern - Sebastopol, CA
May 25
BottleRock Napa Valley Festival - Napa, CA
Jul 27
Petaluma Music Festival - Petaluma, CA

Moonalice News

  • Let's Rock The World One Tree At A Time!
  • Commemorating the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival!!!
  • Moonalice Minute: Lester & Dylan Chambers (Episode 1)
  • Poster Artist Feature: Dennis Larkins Interview
  • Acoustic Guitar reviews Full Moonalice, Volume 2!!
  • Moonalice plays a set on Jam In The Van
  • Glide Magazine interviews Pete Sears!
  • Acoustic Guitar Magazine: Barry, Roger and T’s play Nick and Woo Woo
  • PopMatters: Bottlerock Napa review … featuring Moonalice
  • Moonalice Will Not Play Indoors Until Further Notice
Let's Rock The World One Tree At A Time!
Commemorating the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival!!!
Moonalice Minute: Lester & Dylan Chambers (Episode 1)
Poster Artist Feature: Dennis Larkins Interview
Acoustic Guitar reviews Full Moonalice, Volume 2!!
Moonalice plays a set on Jam In The Van
Glide Magazine interviews Pete Sears!
Acoustic Guitar Magazine: Barry, Roger and T’s play Nick and Woo Woo
PopMatters: Bottlerock Napa review … featuring Moonalice
Moonalice Will Not Play Indoors Until Further Notice

What To Watch (Archive)

  • Aug 19, 2023 / Saturday Stream (Howling Moon Studio)
  • Feb 3, 2024 / Saturday Stream (Howling Moon Studio)
  • Aug 27, 2023 / Terrapin Crossroads Presents: Sunday Daydream Vol. 2 @ Stafford Lake Park (Novato)
    According to Moonalice legend, we have gathered here at Stafford Lake for Sunshine Daydream 2. It is a b...
  • Nov 30, 2023 / The Guild Theatre (Menlo Park)
    According to Moonalice legend, the Peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose has many beautiful places...
  • Sep 1, 2023 / The Chapel (San Francisco)
    According to Moonalice legend, we are totally psyched to be back at the Chapel. People showed us the secu...
  • Aug 31, 2023 / Rebroadcast of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 22 with new Audio & Video (San Francisco)
    This rebroadcast of the 2022 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass show with new and im...
  • Aug 26, 2023 / Saturday Stream (Howling Moon Studio)
  • Sep 2, 2023 / Felton Music Hall (Felton)
    According to Moonalice legend, we are really happy we are not at Burning Man. Apparently, a huge storm de...
  • Dec 2, 2023 / HopMonk Tavern (Sebastopol)
    According to Moonalice legend, every member of the tribe has a spirit animal. Some are Siamese cats, oth...
  • Dec 1, 2023 / Odd Fellows Lodge (Auburn)
    According to Moonalice Legend, dinosaurs once roamed the foothills of the Sierras. Recent fossil discover...
Aug 19, 2023 / Saturday Stream (Howling Moon Studio)
Feb 3, 2024 / Saturday Stream (Howling Moon Studio)
Aug 27, 2023 / Terrapin Crossroads Presents: Sunday Daydream Vol. 2 @ Stafford Lake Park (Novato)
According to Moonalice legend, we have gathered here at Stafford Lake for Sunshine Daydream 2. It is a b...
Nov 30, 2023 / The Guild Theatre (Menlo Park)
According to Moonalice legend, the Peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose has many beautiful places...
Sep 1, 2023 / The Chapel (San Francisco)
According to Moonalice legend, we are totally psyched to be back at the Chapel. People showed us the secu...
Aug 31, 2023 / Rebroadcast of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 22 with new Audio & Video (San Francisco)
This rebroadcast of the 2022 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass show with new and im...
Aug 26, 2023 / Saturday Stream (Howling Moon Studio)
Sep 2, 2023 / Felton Music Hall (Felton)
According to Moonalice legend, we are really happy we are not at Burning Man. Apparently, a huge storm de...
Dec 2, 2023 / HopMonk Tavern (Sebastopol)
According to Moonalice legend, every member of the tribe has a spirit animal. Some are Siamese cats, oth...
Dec 1, 2023 / Odd Fellows Lodge (Auburn)
According to Moonalice Legend, dinosaurs once roamed the foothills of the Sierras. Recent fossil discover...

How Moonalice came to be . . .

How Moonalice came to be . . .

According to Moonalice legend, we have never shared the backstory on Moonalice. Here it is, from my perspective:

When Elevation Partners started in 2004, Bono and I began a project to help recording artists. Known as "Project Independence," the idea was to enable artists to do something they had never done before: use the balance sheet value of their copyrights and publishing. Artists have always collected royalties, but few have used the present value of their assets. (Historically, record labels and music publishers have gotten all the balance sheet value.) By sharing that balance sheet value in Project Independence, artists would be positioned to buy back the rest of their copyrights from labels that go under. It was a good idea, but a huge threat to the status quo in the music industry. After three years of hard work, we were ready to sign the first two mega-artists to Project Independence when a music lawyer persuaded one of the bands not to sign, which effectively killed the project.

What I discovered was that the leaders of the music industry do not want to change anything. The only way to have a positive impact would be by example. One of my partners on Project Independence, the amazing T Bone Burnett, offered to produce an album if we would create a "new band, with new music and new legend." That's how Moonalice was born.

The idea was simple: create a band the way I would a tech start-up, leveraging technology wherever possible. Thanks to T Bone, our first album was destined to be pretty amazing. Sadly, the music industry had no interest in it. That's when we decided we could no longer afford our manager, publicist and label. We put all of our energy into social networks. I started a group on Facebook and Tracy Sheridan got me started on Twitter. We tried a few things and built the beginnings of our social net. Soon thereafter, I discovered the amazing Gail Barnes who taught me most of what I know about Facebook and Twitter. The experiments were really fun: Twittercasts, Twitter Radio, Moonalice Forum. Then Glenn Evans bought a video camera and things got really interesting. Tim Stiegler introduced us to Livestream. Jon Luini helped me figure out a web strategy, then he brought in PROD to design a site and MobileRider to implement our satellite network and HTML 5. Together, Jon, PROD, and MobileRider created a site with integrated social networking and HTML audio and video players. And somehow along the way, 1.1 million people downloaded "It's 4:20 Somewhere."

That's the story so far . . .

3 comments | Login or Register to post comments

Tribe Comments

Bob Aronson's picture

Happy Birthday, Roger!

shaman's picture

hey, Chubby - just wanna say thanx for the great 420 party at Slims and for all you do. it's a great perspective you shared on your bio page. peace and keep it up

larzap1545's picture

A great story, and the rest,as they say, is history. I'm very glad to have rode along on your journey. I love the music. Thanks for sharing your story. Larry