I'm totally fed up with music in 2005

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

MY band played a gig tonight and nobody watched our set, but they all fucking huddled in for sub-reef rip off band who played not one but TWO songs about a "psychopathic woman". It was like some kind of trilogy for the lobotomised.

Now my band aren't special or amazing but we're not bad. We're pretty good even. So why is it no matter how hard we play or promote we still don't get paid if we can even get gigs. Yet about a billion emo and pop punk bands get gigs every night.

Argh!

Anybody else have any depressing tales?

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:36 (twenty years ago)

Did i mention that their bassist was wearing a t-shirt saying 'Anarchy' with the anarchy sign.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

i can't even get a fucking band together cuz every asshole out there's listening to shit like lil kim

― Michael Burble, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

I'm kind of tempted to start a hardcore punk band up and go in peoples faces all like "YOU BET I GOT SOMETHING PERSONAL AGAINST YOU

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

what does your band sound like Hari? do you have a link for it?

― breezy, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

i can't even get a fucking band together cuz not enuf assholes out there listen to lil kim

― g e o f f (gcannon), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

Hari, start a band that sounds like Antioch Arrow

― no tech! (ex machina), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Three cheers for Lil Kim!

― deej.., Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

No link at the moment. We kind of sound like some meeting ground between Gang of Four, Late 90s Dischord, and Beach Boys harmonies with added Synth.

We could easily be thrown in the whole bloc party bandwagon and stuff.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Haha I gotta say I kind of wish she was spending more time in jail (one year for blatantly fucking lying to the Grand Jury is a joke) but yeah yay yay yay Lil Kim!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

No link at the moment. We kind of sound like some meeting ground between Gang of Four, Late 90s Dischord, and Beach Boys harmonies with added Synth.
We could easily be thrown in the whole bloc party bandwagon and stuff.

-- Hari A$hur$t (lindseyloha...), July 6th, 2005.

This makes it sound like i just want us to be signed or something. I do love playing music and i'm lucky to have a band but it gets hard when you're actually losing money and morale trying to do the thing you love.

After all this band shit i stepped out of a venue and right into the path of this hooker woman who asks if i have a light and if she can do anything for me.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:45 (twenty years ago)

After all this band shit i stepped out of a venue and right into the path of this hooker woman who asks if i have a light and if she can do anything for me.

Is this where your depressing tale becomes a happy one?

― Cunga (Cunga), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

where did you play? your description sounds nice, esp the beach boys part, not the bloc party part tho

what are you called?

― breezy, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

Unfortunatly not. Even if i did want to diddle her STD ridden cootie what would i pay her with? Goodwill?

(xpost)

We are called The Tiny Girls and tonights scummy venue was Plymouth Phoenix, UK. We don't really sound like bloc party, but if a promoter wanted to promote us they could do so on the back of this NME new wave thing.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:51 (twenty years ago)

Don't worry about it, Hari - just remember for every crappy gig, there's a good one right around the corner.

But if it makes you feel any better, about five years ago the band I was in at the time opened for a Creed-type cover band at a airport out in the middle of nowhere. We were promised free food & drinks plus $100 so we took it. Well, we start playing our set and after five songs the manager asked us to stop! Fine, I thought. Pretty humiliating, but whatever. So the Creed band starts up and we decide to leave. Well, then the manager refuses to pay us AND says we owe him $40 bucks for beer and food. After all this I end up being driven home by the drummer who is fucking TOTALLY wasted and almost kills us both in the half hour drive back to Portland.

― darin (darin), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

Ok thats pretty bad!

My worst is when a venue called up to get us to play as a favour for them so we went all the way (30 odd miles) to play and when we got there they didnt need us but "we can fit you in for 15 minutes if you like".

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

I'm glad I'm reading this thread. I've always wanted to start a band, but every story I've read is so depressing. Now I think I'll just make some music by myself. I'm too old to be in a band anyway.

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Making music by yourself can be pretty depressing too.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

come to nyc, many may argue with me, but I think it's probably a lot easier to get people to listen to your show here than in the UK, from what I've heard...

― breezy, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

in my town getting gigs isn't difficult but finding likeminded bands is hard and getting people along to shows when you don't have a fashionable sound is really, really hard. live music used to be such a massive part of life here but that seems to be leaching away very fast.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

Hari, i don't know if this will make you happier or feel worse, but people will still love you *and* hate you once you've made it. Radio 4 exemplify this (more to the latter degree.) So, just have fun doing the band thing.. fuck an audience, or lack thereof!

― donut e- (donut), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Making music by yourself can be pretty depressing too.

Yeah, I guess. Actually, it's the playing live thing that sounds unappealing.

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

... for the reasons shine has mentioned.

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

Making music by yourself can be pretty depressing too.

Not for me! I've been doing so for two years and I'm pretty pleased. No band members to quarrel with, no pressure to perform live -- I just record away and before the end of the month I plan to send out a demo containing every single song with decent sound quality (where no particular instrument is too loud, rather -- I'll probably send some of my really lo-fi earliest compositions) to 5 Rue Christine.

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:56 (twenty years ago)

If you've gotten to the point where you have a group and you're writing songs and playing gigs (even if they are shitty songs and shitty gigs), consider yourself lucky.

I've been playing music since I was a kid and only once did I *really* get it together with a group, and even that only lasted a little over a year. And it was never for lack of trying (or talent, if I may say so).

At the time, when you're packing up your stuff at 1am on a weeknight after playing for 12 people (most who are your friends) in a shitty bar in the middle of nowhere, it can be pretty depressing. But if you do it long enough there's bound to be moments of glory (however small) that make the whole stupid thing worth it. After it's all over (and it will end), you'll be glad you did it.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

-- in a decorative envelope with a written document/press kit on how Moraine is simply a stepping stone to gaining recognition from the majors (and selling demo tapes of previously recorded tracks to them) before making chart-hits (streamlined for maximum promotion/success) in order to rip off the mainstream music industry under the name The Pop Carousel, where, once I've made about six hit singles and two successful albums, I'll stop, give a whole fuckload of money to various independent labels (from 5RC to LTM to Siltbreeze and so on), live a minimal and healthy lifestyle, record the music I really want to (in a studio built from the advance), demand the abolition of work and request that everyone retire in order to bring about anarchy and mortally wound the economy (or at least to make people reconsider materialism and consumerism), become the next great post-modern theorist, and stay perfectly cheeky until death. (xpost to myself)

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:03 (twenty years ago)

MTV News - you heard it here first!

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

Not for me! I've been doing so for two years and I'm pretty pleased. No band members to quarrel with, no pressure to perform live.

Except that sooner or later you'll hear the advise that there's no point in sending out demos if you aren't out there performing live consistently. Or maybe a label will be interested in your demo and want to know when they can come see your next gig.

For two years it is fun. Even 10 years is fun. Beyond that you sometimes start to wonder what exactly you're doing. That's not to say that music making itself is any less fun but working alone definitely has it's own depressing qualities.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

i couldn't work alone. i *can't* work alone. it feels completely pointless, like i'm just mucking around. for me, adding someone else to the mix gives it purpose and a reason to try.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

Hence the reason for the extensive statement and the reason why I want to send something to 5 Rue Christine. As I said on another thread, if they signed Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu, they'll fucking sign anything!

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

They signed The Punks. Ian is right.

― donut e- (donut), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

that said, Deerhoof are a gazillion times better than the rest of the 5RC roster, pretty much, excepting the rather dormat Replikants.

― donut e- (donut), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

dormant! Sorry.

― donut e- (donut), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

(Xiu Xiu ain't that bad)

The last Replikants record was dope.

― no tech! (ex machina), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

They signed XBXRX, too, donut. Yeesh.

I do like Xiu Xiu, but as I said elsewhere, no-one else would've signed them.

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:37 (twenty years ago)

Maybe Kranky might've signed Deerhoof.

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

Or Emperor Norton.

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

Or any of the dozens of noise/weird rock labels?

― no tech! (ex machina), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

sub-reef rip off band
Just reading those words has made me lose the will to live.

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Thursday, 7 July 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

sorry, "not bad"'s not good enough. not these days when cds can cost £16. for that kind of money musicians have to be "special" and "amazing."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:31 (twenty years ago)

you are "special"

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:39 (twenty years ago)

the razorlight cd costs that

― charltonlido (gareth), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:39 (twenty years ago)

i'd have to agree that for sixteen quid i'd want something pretty amazing too. i hesistated over spending that much on a judee sill cd.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:42 (twenty years ago)

i think you will just have to romanticize these times as best you can...till things change. i agree also that you have to just do it, and even if folks aren't interested, one day you'll be glad you persisted-so keep that in mind.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

sorry, "not bad"'s not good enough. not these days when cds can cost £16. for that kind of money musicians have to be "special" and "amazing."

Haha not in fucking Plymouth they don't

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 7 July 2005 07:52 (twenty years ago)

this is why mike westbrook & john surman & keith rowe got the hell out of plymouth as soon as they could.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 July 2005 07:54 (twenty years ago)

I support Argyle but I don't recognise any of those players names. Sixties lads were they?

― snotty moore, Thursday, 7 July 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

Just popping in to note that one of my kids and all of her friends are absolutely nuts for Deerhoof. They seem to have a pretty substantial cult following -- not that I get why -- as does Xiu Xiu, (although not in my house); both groups can draw in the mid-hundreds easily here for shows. So not very curious signings at all.

― Vornado, Thursday, 7 July 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

many many xposts to donut: i was under the impression that THE PUNKS was slim moon's new band? haven't heard anything of theirs yet. they're touring with friends of mine at some point--R.L. Stein.

― Ian John50n (orion), Thursday, 7 July 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Is there much of a DIY scene near where you live, Hari? Not punk necessarily, but just open and enthusiastic?

― Ian John50n (orion), Thursday, 7 July 2005 22:29 (twenty years ago)

I keep reading this as:

I'm TOTALLY F'ED UP...

and I like it that way.

― Stoner-Guy, Thursday, 7 July 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

Now my band aren't special or amazing but we're not bad.

Hate to break it to you, but it's highly likely that you suck.

― bombs, Thursday, 7 July 2005 23:38 (twenty years ago)

i was under the impression that THE PUNKS was slim moon's new band?

Yes, and they're not new.

― jobb, Thursday, 7 July 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

I can sympathize to an extent. The last hardcore band I had was really popular in our area. We pulled at least 30 kids (by ourselves) locally and usually got some kind of small draw out of the area. Granted, this band formed just as hardcore became the high school hobby of choice in the tri-state area. Last month I "toured" with my noise band. We played 3 basements, 1 apartment, and a record store (where we had our largest draw of 20 as opposed to 2 in the apartment)... and I had more fun than ever playing in the last band. I suppose I can credit it to the fact that it's something newer to me, sets are mostly improvised, more enjoyable people to play with, but most of all the kids who would wind up coming to our shows and enjoying it were really on our level. Less scene politics. No idea what the point of writing that out was.

PS This thread made me want to listen to Judge.

― - (smile), Friday, 8 July 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

Now my band aren't special or amazing but we're not bad.
Hate to break it to you, but it's highly likely that you suck.

-- bombs (bomb...), July 8th, 2005.

Whatever, tell it to your blog.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 8 July 2005 09:55 (twenty years ago)

My point here is that we aren't trying to sell CDs for 16 quid. We're just trying to have a little fun and have people engage us a bit. Plymouth is not the place where music like ours is encouraged to thrive. And that's what I'm fed up with.

Also, we're better than not bad.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 8 July 2005 09:58 (twenty years ago)

Hari, it's possible that it's just not the right town for you, or the right venue.

It's also possible that the reason everyone rushed the stage for the other band is that they've put a lot of effort into building up a fan base/mailing list/twisting all their friends' arms to come to their show.

In my experience there's only a certain percentage of an audience who's going to notice you with no prior knowledge of who you are, even if you play your best show. A couple of times my band has opened for pretty big acts, and of course I'm thinking what great exposure it is, but then it seems like the crowd is really just anxious for the band they paid to see. If they listen to us at all I feel like it's a small victory.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

I'm a big fan right now of doing solo and group stuff simultaneously. Being in a band is FANTASTIC when it's good, but pretty depressing when it's bad. But if you have the solo stuff, when the band stuff is bad you can go into your room and fuck around with your 4-track or sequencer where you have total control over everything and no particular pressure and when you're done, you've got this bright shiny new thing that you made by yourself. Plus, it counts as "practice," whee!

Also, yes, from what people are saying, it does sound like you should move. Trust me, even if you don't go with your bandmates, there'll be lots of people who could use you in a band in a big city.

― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 8 July 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

Also, not to be harsh, but there's a bajillion bands out there, half a million of whom are probably doing something sort of similar to what you're doing. Practice a lot and get really good at it, get really tight. Then people will notice.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 8 July 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

Or maybe a label will be interested in your demo and want to know when they can come see your next gig.

I don't understand why is it mandatory for an artist (form the label point of view) to play live. What's wrong with just making records?

― daavid (daavid), Friday, 8 July 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

Nobody buys records anymore, that's why.

― cdwill, Friday, 8 July 2005 15:34 (twenty years ago)

I think it's because labels still operate under the assumption that touring is the best way to promote an album. Which it probably is in some cases, but not in others. There are a lot of odd, traditional sorts of practices that seem to have survived in the music industry, even if they're not needed.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 8 July 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, my current band has only had one "real" label express interest in us. Sadly, that interest disappeared after we told them we couldn't tour. So yeah, it counts a lot.

― darin (darin), Friday, 8 July 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

Apart from electronic music, most music still relies on stars, image and performance. So I'd imagine a label that might be interested in your music wants to see how you look, how you move on stage, how you interact with the audience, what kind of people come to your show, etc. I wish there were more of an outlet for faceless studio wizards but I just don't think there is.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 8 July 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.