Supporting bands

I wasted an opportunity a while back, with the Grammy Gig of a Lifetime contest.

Fall Out Boy were judges, which is how I knew about it, and I started thinking about bands to nominate. The problem was that the bands could only have four members. Grammys, what do you have against rock?

The standard rock band configuration is five people: singer, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. Yes, you can get away with four people if your singer also plays an instrument (which Fall Out Boy does), but then what if they want keyboards? Despite being four-member bands, All American Rejects and My Chemical Romance tend to have six people on stage, and it works.

I ended up nominating Prima Donna, because while they do have five people, they are based in Los Angeles, so transportation costs would not be an issue. I don't think the Grammys saw it that way. I probably should have looked harder for a four-person band. As it was, I was not aware of TEAM (whose singer does play an instrument) during the nomination period, but someone else did, and I was happy to give them my votes.

The winner ended up being Barrett Baber, a country singer from Arkansas. I didn't watch, and everything I remember people even talking about was not really musical. Well, what can you expect from a show that limits band size to four people?

There were still some interesting things. One reason I made the 5-member band I nominated Prima Donna, instead of Revenir (besides logistics) was that Prima Donna had live performance footage on line, and Revenir did not at that time, despite having other videos. Different opportunities may require having different things available, and so presenting your band in different ways, over different formats, is something to think about. And I think about these things all the time, because I care.

A band follows me (or I have always liked them, or they opened for someone I have always liked, or something), and I follow them and eventually a review happens. Those have been pretty good experiences. There is a lot of talent out there, and a lot of heart, and I do have a soft spot for musicians. I get attached and want good things for them.

I also have to move on, because there are more bands to review, and more music history to learn, and there is only so much time available. That's why I started doing the songs of the day. It's a chance to go back and remember, and maybe someone who didn't read the review will click on the song.

I have had hopes at times that my music reviews would be a way for people to discover new bands, and that hasn't really panned out. I think the actual role I fill is that the band can show the review to their parents and say "Look! Someone wrote about us." I can live with that. If I didn't believe in doing things for parents, I wouldn't have a mortgage.

There is generally this feeling of wanting to do more. So sometimes there are contests where you can vote, and they do get a slot in a Battle of the Bands, or they get ranked in AltPress. I did vote for these metal awards, and it was amazing to see that I recognized names in all of the main categories. A year ago, that would not have been the case. Sometimes you can support crowd-sourcing projects. Also, I take requests for music suggestions very seriously.

Another pointless story may help here. I was out for karaoke in December, and I was able to find some songs, but two I couldn't were "Mercy Me" by Alkaline Trio and "Saturday Night" by the Misfits. The KJ said they were just too obscure, and this is a KJ from a pair that has so many songs available they don't even use books.

"Saturday Night" may be legitimately obscure (and whenever I do get a chance to sing it, I will sound totally demented; I accept this); "Mercy Me" shouldn't be. It had a release and a video. It charted a little. It was featured in a video game.

The problem is that with the current musical landscape, it's hard to be noticed at all. They do get songs from Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga, but I don't want to sing that. Yes, there are many songs from the '80s and '90s that I can work with, but it shouldn't stop there, and it largely does. Country music does get updated, but they have their own separate channel.

There are things that can be kind of nice about this. Some of those connections, where a band can recognize a fan from Twitter, would be less likely with more mainstream success. There are things I like about shows in smaller venues. Financially, though, there can be issues, and some of the music is beautiful and helpful; it should reach more people.

I have written about this before, and I don't really know the answers. Certainly not downloading music illegally is important, but getting that bigger audience, and reaching more people, that's hard. And, it's not my job, really - bands need to be on top of that for their own sake - but I want to help.