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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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Re: Tuesday Indie Rock at the Library and bigger issues

From: Sarah Freeman <sfree18 AT gmail.com>
To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: Tuesday Indie Rock at the Library and bigger issues
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:26:35 -0500

As a duke student (cue the booos) my perception is that the chronicle is not well read, especially Recess (the weekly entertainment section). Also, they have started covering more mainstream pop and less local stuff. I know that there IS a group of kids who love music, but do not realize that there's so much to offer around here... this is probably because of duke's seclusive and sheltered nature. it's gonna take a lot of word of mouth and what not to change things. in short, i would not have been aware of the music opportunities offered by this area if i had not done the leg work to meet local musicians. so yes, there is some sort of gap and the curiosity is there, though limited. s

On Jan 30, 2006, at 8:46 PM, grady wrote:

http://www.heardtogether.com

Oh wait, that domain expired. Didn't that CD come out less than 1 year
ago? Am I to assume that it wasn't considered a success by whatever
metric they decided to judge it by?

https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/ch-scene/2004-December/002940.html

Been years since I was a college student, so maybe I'm off-base, but is
the local music scene that hard to find? Or, put another way, given the
character of a lot of local music, without the relatively minimal level
of curiosity needed to find it, is one going to possess the comparably
minimal (but nonzero) level of curiosity required to enjoy it?

And where the heck do the DTH and the Chronicle come into all of this? I
don't remember how often I read the weekly paper in my town when I was a
freshman, but I do know that I read our college paper religiously, and
so did everybody else. Is that no longer the case? Do they not provide
even unreliable coverage of music (I guess Hep's experience would
suggest not)?

Ross

Jeremy Blair wrote:

We need a compilation CD of local bands to hand out at the bars during
enrollment or other grab-bag type events. You could get to the target
audience where they are, at the bars. Anyone have a spare $20k laying around
to sponsor this?

On 1/30/06, Katherine Carpenter <wwkd AT hotmail.com> wrote:

Actually most folks agree that the issue that made the powers that be
support Fetzer in '93 was not the scheduling czar, but the public
financing
of practice space rent. Wayne even agrees on that one.

----Original Message Follows----
From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
Reply-To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch- scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: Tuesday Indie Rock at the Library and bigger issues
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 18:55:39 -0500

Can't we all just get along?

Back when Wayne Taylor was running for Raleigh Mayor, one of his
platform planks was the appointment of a rockshow scheduling czar who'd
make sure we'd never have to pick between 2 great shows on the same
night again. Needless to say, the vested Raleigh political interests
couldn't afford to let that happen, and they went so far as to throw the
election to Tom Fetzer as punishment for Wayne even bringing it up.

Remember when we used to joke on this very list about the indie-rock
cabal? Hoo boy, that really brings back some memories. Good times.

Oops, shit, gotta run, I'm late for the *real* indie-rock board meeting,
the one Calloway's pissed that we never tell him the location of.

xo

Ross

Katherine Carpenter wrote:

Actually, there's already such a 'Board' that has been meeting, at 7:30
a.m.

the second and fourth Saturdays of every month, in the Durham public
library. Please feel free to come on out!

----Original Message Follows----
From: Sarah Freeman <sfree18 AT gmail.com>
Reply-To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch- scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: Tuesday Indie Rock at the Library and bigger issues
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 17:59:27 -0500

maybe this sounds completely lame and would just hit a dead end, but
what about some board/group made up of club owners (both durham and
chapel hill), musicians, and duke and unc students, whose purpose
would be to take a good look at the situation and see what can be done
to improve it (if anything). something big enough to have a decent
supply of ideas and brainpower, but small enough to cut out
bureaucratic nonsense and worthless sidetracking on trivial issues.
it seems like there is a lack of communication between the students
and the local music scene... is there any interest out there for
something like this? s

On 1/30/06, James Hepler <jameshepler AT yahoo.com> wrote:

I didn't think I had any expectations at all. Maybe a
reply. That was it.

--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

Did you really expect the DTH to leap up & take
notice? "Flash! -- Local
Band to Perform at Local 506!"

Please tell me you didn't send an email encouraging
them to check out
your www.myspace.com/engarde webpage again. Hasn't
that chick gotten
enough play already?

I mean, I have lately taken to checking out as many
local bands' Myspace
pages as I can find, and downloading (whenever
possible -- c'mon y'all,
I don't know exactly how it works, but if it's up to
you, enable the
freaking "download" option on your Myspace mp3s --
you're not going to
lose a sale of your precious 4-tracked demo) mp3s to
play on the radio,
but I'm willing to bet that most folks aren't
necessarily willing to go
to the trouble, even those who're ostensibly
responsible for doing that
sort of thing. Other than Grayson, I mean; I'm
convinced that cat has
taken to hanging around outside various
practice-spaces, so eager is he
to hear the latest from every-fucking-band in town.
But he is clearly in
the minority.

I could provide you a fairly long list of local
bands whose CDs we've
never even received at WXDU. What's the matter,
y'all, afraid of blowing
up BIG in northwestern Durham and the unincorporated
portions of
northern Durham & Orange counties?

I don't know that it's time for me to resend my
primer on how to send
your CD to radio (DO: send a full-size jewel box,
with something
resembling cover art. bonus points for marking
tracks with dirty words.
DON'T: bother with the highschool portfolio-folder
with the B&W glossy &
your manager's business card stuck in the little
slits). I also don't
know if anybody listens to radio. Actually, scratch
that: the guys who
built my house, honest-to-god Chatham County
construction workers, did
the entire thing while flipping back and forth
between XDU & XYC as the
mood struck them. And no, I had nothing to do with
it.

Of course, they don't go to a lot of rockshows. Hmm.

Ross

James Hepler wrote:

Maybe the marketplace is cluttered, but I don't

buy

it. I mean, that's probably why WXYC was so

behind

the curve on new releases. But I don't buy it for

the

other guys.

--- Glenn Boothe / Local 506

<gboothe2 AT earthlink.net>

wrote:

Sorry, should have merged these last two

responses:

So before the En Garde/Criteria show, I

emailed

the
DTH about either writing a blurb about the

show...I

never
got a response.... Business, laziness, apathy,
scorn, who knows? It's
not
ignorance.

Although I have been disappointed at times with

the

various student
media infrastructure (radio and press) in this

area,

having been a
college music director myself, one thing to keep

in

mind is just the
amount of stuff that is out now.

I can really only speak about radio, but back

during

my heyday, there
were only a handful of local releases per year

and

most releases were
met with great fanfare by the station, the press,
the stores and the
clubs. That number comes out monthly now.

Heck,I

can't even do all
the CD release shows that come my way (and those

are

usually the bigger
shows!)

For example, I just noticed on the wxyc playlist
that was just posted
that they are now playing The Strugglers and

Physics

of Meanings. Both
of those bands had their CD release shows at 506,
one in late October,
the other early November...and it appears that

the

station is just now
getting around to playing them. Disappointing

yes,

but at least they
didn't get entirely overlooked.

Anyway, I don't think it's ignorance or any of

the

other attributes you
describe, but just the fact that the marketplace

is

cluttered...glenn

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Re: Tuesday Indie Rock at the Library and bigger issues , (continued)