On Wed, 17 Feb 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Kip writes: But I suspect if you're in the Joe Blow Band from Scranton, PA
> and you try to convince a rep from Hightone to make your set, it's probably
> not gonna happen.
Smilin' Jim:
> Why not? Isn't the Joe Blow Band any good? Why are they making music then?
Let's assume the Joe Blow Band is good, but not well connected. I
could name one very good recently defunct St. Louis band that fell into
this category, a band that admittedly could have worked a little harder on
taking care of business. At any rate, since Mr. Label Rep most certainly
has 1,290 bands tugging on his sleeve to come see their show, what are
chances he's gonna come check out JBB? Slim.
> If the band REALLY cares about what
> they are doing you CAN communicate that with people who attending these
> things. I know I come across as a jaded f*ck sometimes, but really believe
> that you can make these things work to your advantage, if you TRY.
Agreed, you gotta make the effort. But lots of bands do and get no
where, anyway. Even good bands. I'm not whinning about that, it's just the
facts of the situation. That's not my beef. My gripe with many of these
huge mega showcase festivals is this: they feed off the (innocent or
naive) dreams of the musicians. The psychological atmosphere is the same
as state lottery. And it's the possibility of the big "pay off" that is
sold to a group of largely desperate people. Obviously, both sides have to
agree to the premise to make it work, so both sides are "guilty" in that
sense. But you can't tell me with a straight face that the organizers of
SXSW or CMJ aren't aware of what they're selling (and making money off
of).
Dale
> Watson and The Hot Club Of Cowtown both claim to be signed to Hightone
> after SXSW gigs, btw.
Hot Club had a huge buzz on them going into their gig. And Dale
had previously been on Curb Records before Hightone and was already a name
of sorts. It's not like they were these total unknowns and a talent scout
stumbled on them and went "ohmygod, I must sign these acts immediately! As
you know, it doesn't work that way anymore, if it ever did.
<But yeah, if you wanna sell your band, you need
> to concentrate on things other than music once in awhile.
Sure you do. But I'm seeing bands put more energy into marketing
themselves than into writing and playing their songs, these days.
I wrote:
> >>But when all is said and done, it's the music that matters. And that is
> not the message these mega-festivals send to the bands.The bands are sent a
> very different message.
And Jim retorted:
> What message do you get out of this?
What message do the bands get? Well, among others, "Send us a $10
non-refundable processing fee for consideration for a showcase slot"<g>.
But I'm talking more about the dream that is sold, and the environment
of desperation that is sustained. After all, a happy content person
makes a bad consumer, as any marketing major can tell you.
<oh and welcome to the music business.
Thank you. I've been here awhile and from different vantage
points. I've been the songwriter, the performer, the guy who books the
gigs, the club booker, the event organizer, and various combinations of
the aforementioned. I understand the club's need to sell beer as well as
the band's need to make gas money. I've known the frustation of working
with clueless musicians who actively resist helping themselves and I've
wanted to kill more than few bottom-line club bookers who have
so little regard for the music or the musicians that it's practically
immoral.
> It doesn't have to be this way, I guess, but it is and until or unless you
> change it, I think I behooves you to work inside the system.
I agree. And I do.
Kip
