RTP-area local music and culture

[Kevin Grealey <kevin.grealey AT mckinney.com>]

Grady, you are a jerk and wrong. For example and to wit: If R.E.M.  hadn't
had Jefferson Holt "manager" the revolution would not have been televised.
Take your "red flag" and go run with the bulls. Just try to avoid the
bullshit. Which, I might say, is unlikely.
Still love you though. Even though you are one jaundiced fuck.
                   


> From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
> Reply-To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:24:14 -0500
> To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: Re: Local music... who decides?
> 
> I don't book a club, but I play a variety of other (to use the honest
> word) gatekeeper roles--I make most of the recommendations as to what
> local CDs get playlisted at WXDU, for example. I book the bands who play
> live on my radio show. I decide what shows I list on trianglerock.com.
> 
> And to be perfectly honest, if a local band has a "manager," that's an
> instant red flag for me. I get a fair number of emails about shows &
> bands & whatnot, and as I'm skimming them for the tiny kernels of useful
> information (who/where/when), if I see "Manager" in connection with the
> sender's name, I'm inclined to stop reading.
> 
> This is especially true when the manager uses the collective "we" when
> referring to the band, as if he/she were a full-fledged bandmember, if
> in fact he or she does not get up onstage & play an instrument with the
> band.
> 
> Does this make me a bad person? Yes, sure, almost certainly. Thankfully
> I'm at least aware of this, so if the band sends a CD or has music on
> their MySpace, I'll probably listen to it anyway. But it'll be starting
> at a deficit with me.
> 
> The only rationale I can present by way of explanation is this one: I've
> listened to a couple of thousand CDs by an endless stream of local bands
> over the past 16 years, and with the exception of a brief period when
> Shawn Rogers was managing the Archers, I've almost never heard anything
> from a local band with "management" that was worth a shit.
> 
> (Now, obviously, once a band hits a certain level--like, say, Squirrel
> Nut Zippers, or Tift Merritt, or Ryan Adams--then management becomes a
> necessity. But that bar is pretty high, and if you're struggling to get
> booked into Local 506, I'm guessing you haven't hit it yet.)
> 
> I'll let Glenn speak for Local 506, as I'm sure he's hard at work
> composing a reply right-this-second.
> 
> To answer the more general question that you're asking (why do some
> bands get gigs more readily than others?), I can think of a couple of
> possible answers:
> 
> 1) the club owner has booked that band before, and they drew well, so
> he's gonna book them again
> 2) the club owner listened to that other band's CD, and your CD, and the
> other band's CD was better than your CD
> 
> What Glenn might say (I guess we'll find out in about 15 minutes) is
> that even though Local 506 seems like a small club, it's still not a
> starter-level club--it has a capacity of a couple hundred people. There
> are quite a few bars around here who do live music, and have a capacity
> of <100. Are you having the same amount of trouble getting booked at
> (for example) Jack Sprat, or Nightlight, or the Cave, or Dain's Place in
> Durham?
> 
> What Glenn will probably also say, because he's said it before, is that
> at any given time, there are a couple of hundred local bands trying to
> get booked into the dozen or so local clubs that book local bands.
> 
> I suppose if this were some kind of Rainbow Soccer version of a local
> music scene, then everybody would get to play at every club exactly 1.6
> times per year (but some peeps would still get stuck with Monday night).
> 
> Let me close with an age-old suggestion: make friends with one or more
> of those bands who get shows at all the clubs you want to get shows at.
> It's not uncommon for a local band who are known to draw well to get
> some input into who opens for them.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> Ross
> 
> chapelhillguitarist AT hotmail.com wrote:
>> Hi all.
>> 
>> Preface:  This is not 'sour grapes'.  My intention is to understand
>> the dynamic so that myself and others don't have to be frustrated
>> unnecessarily when trying to book a new band.
>> 
>> I recently received an email from Local 506 about the goin's on at
>> that venue.  Lots of great music acts and many of them local.  Kudos
>> to Local 506 for hosting local talent in more than a token way.
>> 
>> However, ( this is meant to be a serious question ) when all requests
>> to book a band are ignored by any club that books local acts
>> (including 506), how does a band manager avoid feeling like they are
>> fighting favoritism?
>> 
>> What do I mean 'favoritism'?  It seems the same local bands are
>> playing all of the local clubs yet when I try to book one of the local
>> bands that I manage, most of the time I don't even get a response.  I
>> have visited the clubs, introduced myself, politely inquired via
>> email, telephone and in-person yet all of these local clubs are
>> silent.
>> 
>> So what am I raving about?
>> 
>> If a band manager has a great local band but local clubs won't speak
>> with them about booking the local band, what advice can you offer to
>> ensure communication with the club manager short of firing the band
>> manager or stalking the club manager?
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene


MCKINNEY /