Just had a real mindtrip a sec ago....craigslist related.
 

BACKSTORY: So in recent months, what's been unfolding is one guy I knew who I guess you could call a "pioneer" for "the scene" (he was a show promoter) has finally been going through a divorce as his wife put up the wall of "it's the band or me". Apparently a few more guys saw that his band was getting out and gigging, and decided they wanted to jump that wagon. Hanging out with all these bands is kind of like something out of Hot Tub Time Machine; We're all a decade older, we all still listen to the same ****, and honestly it's nice to see something that went away for so many years come back.

CURRENT: So I'm reading the posts of another band guy and this guy's going "I put out the LINKS, I put up the TRACKS, and I STILL get ****in morons that have reading comprehension problems that don't know what I'm even talking about!" Facebook as it is, the conversation whirred and winded down to its usual state of nothingness, but I had a thought to myself:

"What if bands like SOD (Stormtroopers of Death) or DRI (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) had to deal with craigslist in the 80s? What if they had to describe just WHAT IT'S ABOUT? Would they even be able to do it?"

It was crossover; the genre that got it's name from the fact that it took parts of metal, parts of punk, that while people were jamming to one or the other people would "cross over it" in developing either one of the styles, would ultimately turn that mishmash into a style!

And I guess what I'm trying to get at is, how do you describe just what it is that gets you off in the music game, and avoid art of running into comments like "I don't know what the **** you're talking about"?

Even though you typed a lot of words, this is still fairly vague and kind of all over the place.
But I think I see your point.
As an aging underground (punk) musician myself I say this: People don't always understand, some don't care to know their history. Play/write the music you want to hear. If it alienates people, who cares? You don't owe an explanation to anyone.
My current project is fairly genre-less and confuses a lot of people, but the people who get it, get it. Know what I mean?

Is that what you were getting at? :eyebrow:

I've read this a few times and I'm still confused.
Are you asking how to explain a new style of music to someone? Or how the old school guys did it when they were starting these bands in the days of want ads, flyers, and bulletin boards?

see, I would agree with that, but I'm to the point where I've gone so far off the deep edge (we're talking about trying to take gabber, grindcore, and club music, and wrap them all into one) that I have no members. I'm looking at starting something else up with a new focused genre..........which people will probably not get that either lol. Then again, it's stuff like this that most people WOULDN'T want to touch with a ten foot pole that has some staining power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJnH...Ed3ttEbVUrhjEQ

http://youtu.be/Tqk6ZyCgOwc

exactly. Because honestly I've always been amazed that despite these bands put themselves "on the map" as far as a style, so few bands after them manage to perpetuate a good thing like that, unless it's Municipal Waste or something.

Every band I've been in has just called itself a Rock & Roll band, and then cited some of our influences. All these genres, and sub-genres are counter productive, especially when looking for new musicians. Half the time people don't know what you'e talking about, so they don't respond. Just cite your influences.

MarkMgibson I agree with you 100%




Ya know, I've been in several bands where we said: "Let's be a _____ band". But it wasn't until we just decided to let the music "write itself" that we started to feel truly fulfilled. Plus there's nothing "punk rock" about being "punk rock". The whole point is to evolve and challenge.

Sounds like:

" The cookie monster mewling and puking into a strong head-wind"

Is as good as any

Well this guy's complaint in particular was he was getting guys that just weren't into the same **** but could somehow pull off things. So idk lol i've lost interest in trying to figure out the whole band thing.

isn't that an interesting concept lol.

lol I wasn't specifically thinking of the friend I noted as I posted this video.

But honestly, why do we work so hard to be taken seriously? We lose it so much faster than we make it.

+1000. Amen.

I honestly wonder how many great musical partnerships have never happened because of all this genre stuff. What exactly is "hard rock", "heavy metal", punk, etc? I reckon those terms are quite subjective. Not only that, perhaps musicians who listen to different styles of music might gel into something unique. That's why I hate these myriad genres, especially when you're trying to get a band together.

It's just a thought, but really great collaborations could be going by the wayside because musicians are missing each other due to far too specific definitions of music.

I play in a band that was once described as "If the Velvet Underground had formed an alt-country band then found a sampler." We really didn't try to describe it, when we were getting together our goal was to make music. It's always a bit of a tossup when people ask us what our music is like or what style of music we play.

When my band was auditioning drummers, we made the mistake of saying we were 'metal/hard rock'. It was truly amusing what kind of players called - half thought we'd be some sort of Foo Fighters soundalike (???) and the other half just wanted to double-kick and blast-beat the band into oblivion. We put our primary influences up in the ad (Alice in Chains, Pantera, Soundgarden, Tool, Queensryche), so I was genuinely puzzled by their confusion regarding how we would sound. I found out for myself the frustration many folks feel with Craigslist and the like :)

Yah, what MarkMGibson said.
State your influences and keep the new jargon out.

When I think pantera I think about Pathology's latest album, the time of great purification or whatever the title is. Why? The drums sound like jackhammers between the two artists.

I get what you're saying but you don't feel you have a challenge of finding a scene?
I think that's specifically why this occurs.

We're working with a lot of local bands that also somewhat defy genre to build a scene. So far we work with about a dozen bands that each have their own sound, but all sort of defy a narrow classification. We also try to welcome younger, newer, or up and coming bands as long as their intentions are similar. There's a certain subset of non-musicians or non-professional musicians that also work very hard at promotion and cohesion within the music scene here. It feels like a really good time to be part of music here in Pittsburgh.

Just play the music that's in your heart and let someone else come up with a label for it.

Uhhhh ... wut?

I think what they're saying is refuse to cooperate with norms and they'll "win"



:D