23 Acts, 4 Stages = Sat Nite in Carrboro
Mark Simonsen
fracas66 at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 1 18:10:20 EDT 2004
Touche! I appreciate a well reasoned/argued response. "Hypocritical," however, may be a bit strong considering I was not trying to defend the Independent (though I realize I probably should have stopped writing after the part about loving music) so much as respond to the statement "Yr high-priced communication-consultant brain. . . " which could not be further from the truth.
I do not believe that any of the bands you mentioned suck and I could add more to the list of "non-sucking" bands (I'll spare you that for the moment). "Playing in front of the right people" may have been an insensitive notion but I have accepted that I am personally doomed to not play in front of the "right people" (I have a garage band that meets on monday nights to loudly play the world's most unpopular music- free jazz. We were not surprised when Superchunk got nominated over our band "Japanese Lesbian Schoolgirls on Drugs" ("What's wrong with being 'sexy?")). Oh, now I'm gonna get trashed.
Otherwise, I pretty much agree with most of what you write- I am not some representative of the Independent trying to defend what they are doing. As a matter of fact, I cannot stand to see favoritism and competition because it leads to the very "exclusivity" problem that I started this whole thing about. When the Indy started doing "Indy Picks" beside their favorite musicians in the listings, I was disappointed. Especially if I saw the same people getting the "picks" every time.
This is a great scene and I don't mean to offend- I just get sick of the trashing- Mark
paok <bluefreaky at earthlink.net> wrote:
Look, I agree with you that Ross' comments to Catherine were way out of line and inappropriate. Cat is a wonderful, hardworking person who does truly care about the music community.
However, criticism of the Indy Awards is completely justified and is not based on mere grumblings that my favorite band (I don't have a favorite band, actually) did not make the Indy's cut.
The problem with the Indy Awards is not that they're not "Indy enough", whatever that is supposed to mean. One problem, in my opinion, is that the indy awards seem very out of touch with the real music scene. How were the bands nominated? You've got the Rosebuds mentioned about a hundred times and superchunk (?!)--what's your definition of "local scene" anyway? where's audabon park, the nein, cantwell, gomez & jordan, hotel/motel, lud, des_ark, cold sides, sorry about dresden, gerty, the torch marauder, the weather, the clang quartet, evil weiner, the holy roman empire, erie choir? where are all the bands in the local music scene? Do all of these noteworthy bands "suck" (to use your words) in the Indy's estimation? Does the Indy even know they exist?
If the Independent is going to be so presumptious as to present awards for local music, it had damn well know it's local music. And the awards at least, suggest it does not. Frankly, I am somewhat embarrassed for the Independent. (Let me make it very clear that I do not wish this to be interpreted as an attack on the music journalists of the indy who in my opinion do a very decent job of covering local music (and I'm not just saying that so chris toenes won't beat me up ;) )).
And its sort of hyprocritical for you to criticize Ross for not being involved with the Indy Awards when the only outlet I see that the Indy's created for people to be involved is a silly ballot. What was the nomination process? Who are the "right people", Mark, who get to make the decision about who gets to be on the silly ballot? They don't seem to be the people who actually go to the rock shows, do they?
Finally, there is the problem with having awards in the first place, the problem of the silly ballot. Why does the Indy want to create needless competition in a community that thrives on cooperation and supportive camraderie? Why can't the Indy just throw a music festival to highlight the local scene? Perhaps the Indy is more concerned with touting what it wants to be "the next big thing"? That is not what our local music community is about.
sincerely,
phaedra
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Simonsen
Sent: Oct 1, 2004 1:46 AM
To: RTP-area local music and culture
Subject: Re: 23 Acts, 4 Stages = Sat Nite in Carrboro
It is exactly this kind of petty comment that makes the Chapel Hill music scene seem so exclusive and cliquish. Why is it that every time people in this community try to get together to do something GOOD, somebody has to come along and completely trash it and the people who worked so hard to put it together?
I have watched Catherine Kerr work tirelessly to promote our music scene- much moreso than any other individual that I know (she is responsible for curating the displays of local rock memoribilia throughout Carrboro). I cannot sit back and have my friends be so thoughtlessly criticized when they are generously and voluntarily contributing something GOOD to our community. Cat does this because she loves music- same reason most of us are on this list. But instead of sitting in front of a computer screen bitching and moaning about every shakeup in the local status quo, she is actually out there doing the shaking.
Sorry Grady (if that is who wrote the post to which I am responding). What makes picking up the Independent so hard? It's FREE! It's at almost every club in town. How much easier can it be? Do we really need our inboxes choked up with the minutae of everyone's schedules?
So the Indy awards are not "Indy" enough for you? Well it's their first year doing it. Maybe you can get involved next time and make it better.
Your band didn't make it onto the ballot? Maybe you didn't play in front of the right people. Maybe you didn't do enough leg work (running a band is hard work and takes a lot of time). Or maybe your band just plain sucks.
It's enough to make a person want to simply bid this listserve a fond farewell. (By the way- i have never heard your band should you actually have one so the statement about your band "sucking" is completely hypothetical).
grady wrote:
Oh, I get it. Yr high-priced communication-consultant brain says "if I
post the full lineup here, I'll have no reason to tell them to pick up a
copy of the paper."
Tell me, who was the one with the brilliant idea to not print any
biographical information about the nominees until *after* the voting was
over? I'm sure there was some strategic thinking behind that one as
well, but I can't quite suss it out.
Probably the same person who didn't think to post MP3s of the nominated
songs to the website . . . heaven forbid anyone get to hear what they're
voting for.
catherine kerr wrote:
> Have Fun / Great Bands on Sat Nite - All this and more will be had at the
> Indy Music Awards - Sat, Oct 2nd from 6-1
> Tickets are $10 at the ArtsCenter and the Cat's Cradle.
> Check the complete schedule in this week's Indy.
> COME...support yourselves and your friends.
>
> www.indymusicawards.com
>
>
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