Mixed Bag Productions: The Name Explains It All

“We aim to work with a multitude of different live musical genres, making each event an independent and unique experience,” says the mission statement of Mixed Bag Productions.

Mixed Bag is a progressive, guerilla-style mélange of production, management, and promotion.  “We bring a complete package that nobody else has,” said founder Lee Anderson via Blackberry message.  More specifically, they cover untapped markets such as Rhode Island, Maine, and Vermont, to where not many major music production companies bother heading. 

Dan Wilf, co-director of Mixed Bag has his roots in the Philly-area where he moved back to after graduating from University of Vermont.  Lee Anderson started the company out of Burlington, Vermont in 2004.  Lee worked closely with Dan’s college band Panda Watch as an opening act on various occasions.  After understanding as well as appreciating Dan’s business-savvy nature, Lee asked him to come in as a partner in December 2006 after Dan returned from a semester abroad in Prague.  Lee admits the importance of being a team because, “[the music business] takes a certain amount of energy, drive, and insanity to keep your stuff fresh…[Dan] sparked the fire in me that had been burning out.”

Let’s take a few steps back to 2004.  Lee had been running the marketing, street team, booking, and PR for a bar called Nectars in Burlington.  You may have heard of this little band called Phish who got their start in Nectars.  Anyways, Lee’s ability and foresight to figure out, “’what’s hot’ before everyone know ‘it’s hot’”, led him to utilize the intimate settings of Nectars as well as the upstairs Club Metronome to develop and nurture local acts by starting Mixed Bag.  As a result, Mixed Bag was created and its first event was the Pnuma Trio who has gradually risen in status in the underground trance-fusion scene.

Fast forward to December 2007, Philly’s own The Disco Biscuits hired Mixed Bag to promote their New Years Eve run.  In addition, Mixed Bag threw a SOLD OUT after-party at Highline Ballroom with Future Rock and Orchard Lounge for the Biscuits’ Hammerstein Ballroom show in New York City.  This was such a seminal event for Lee and the Mixed Bag crew because both bands, especially Future Rock, have grown together side-by-side with Mixed Bag.  Future Rock manager, Leif Morave, believes that “played a major part developing our fan base.”

So what’s on Mixed Bag’s plate for the up coming month?  First off, they’re producing and promoting a Northeast run of shows for jam band RAQ.  Also, they’re throwin’ a party at Brooklyn’s rising star venue, Studio B, with improvised, live drum n bass act BioDiesel (featuring Clay Parnell from Brothers Past and drummer extraordinaire Johnny Rabb) and The Join (2/3 The New Deal with guests Tom Hamilton and Clay Parnell).  For me, the night is highlighted by interlocking sets meaning the musicians switch instruments, so that the music does not stop in between bands.  This incarnation of The Join played at Camp Bisco and was arguably the set of the festival.