Vibes blog

First off, I’m not going to be bashing cover bands. I’ve played in cover bands and can think of many songs that I’d like to cover in my band. Instead, what I’d like to do is pose a question that I hope will get some discussion going.

Charlotte has many cover bands and many events that pay them well to perform. They pay them well because there is a reliable cover-band audience in Charlotte. A classic-rock tribute band is a guaranteed sell in the Queen City but an indie band that plays it’s original music is often a risk.

Not all cities are like this. Audiences in Asheville and Athens, Ga., for example, would likely laugh a cover-band off of the stage since they only want to hear original music. They simply don’t want to hear a band that is trying to sound like an established act. Now that’s a curious fact and I don’t want to speculate too much about it. After all, it’s difficult to make safe generalizations about a city since many individuals and groups feed into a city’s identity. I’d like to look at this another way. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I went out to Find Your Muse Open Mic on Monday night and checked out a good number of talented musicians. One of them was a young white guy — maybe 17 or 18 years old — who wore something of a suit, a black leather hat and a pair of bright red converse shoes. His first song was a conventional ballad and was quite good.

His second song stood out because it was a blues. Not a blues form, but a blues in the sense that it was slow and its lyrics were depressing. In the refrain, he sang about “how much death he had seen” in a deep gravely voice, a voice that was surprising to hear welling up out of a white teenager with wavy blond hair and loud shoes. The crowd gave him a resounding round of applause when he finished the song.

What to make of a young white kid singing such a blue song about death? I suppose it depends on what kind of aesthetic ideal you have in mind when you see the performance. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

So, you’ve got a band that’s doing ok in your hometown and now you’re thinking about playing out of town. If you give it a try, you’ll probably find out that playing in a new town is just like starting over from scratch. No one knows who you are and you have a hard time getting folks in the door.

Many bands get around this by getting exchanges going with bands from other towns. You invite them to open up for you in your hometown and get them some exposure and then they hit you back and invite you to open up for them in their hometown. Problem solved!

Well, nothing’s that easy. My group, Actual Proof, has been working with regional bands over the past year or so and we’ve found that it can be a mixed bag. Here are some thoughts: (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Artist communities can do many things — give individual artists the chance to collaborate with one another, put on events to get an artist’s work across to the public and help shape a city’s identity. One of the most important things that an artist community can do, it seems to me, is to simply support one another by going to each other’s shows.

With regard to local music, it’s often difficult to get regular gigs, to make a name for yourself and to cultivate a fan-base. Simply put, it’s easy to be a good band that no one in your home-town has ever heard of. But an easy way to spread the word is for musicians to support their fellow musicians by making an effort to make it out to shows and to con unsuspecting folks into going along.

We are fortunate enough to have two showcase events that make this easy to do — The Crown Town Showdown and the weekly Open Mic at the Evening Muse. The Salvador Deli also helps out by giving local bands exposure in front of the folks who mill around NoDa on Friday and Saturday nights.

I make this point because over the last year or so I’ve made an effort to get a sense of what’s going on in the Charlotte local music scene. I’ve done so because I’m curious and because I enjoy a good show. As a musician, I also like to see what bands are doing well whether they have good stage presence, compositions, musicianship, or a unique approach to an established genre. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Picking up on the blogging trend has gotten me thinking about publishing work whether it be music, articles or just random thoughts. I don’t think any of my observations are terribly original, but they are on my mind since I’ve recently gotten myself involved in regular blogging, music writing and writing in general.

Publishing your thoughts in a blog or putting your music up on a Web site such as MySpace takes only a few seconds and you can immediately share it with friends and whoever takes the time to find your page. I recently blogged from China and was wowed by the fact that I could relate my experiences to friends and family on the other side of the world. I went to see live music and was able to relate my experience by writing down my thoughts and by posting video. Likewise, I can record a track on my computer in my living room and have it up on a website in a few minutes.

This is cool, but it makes traditional publishing seem terribly slow. You have to wait for an editor to review it, look at the revisions, send them back and wait for the finished piece to show up in print, whether it be in a journal, magazine or book. The same goes for publishing music. You have to record, edit, re-record, send off your master, wait for it to be pressed and shipped. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

We wrapped up our trip in China’s capital city, Beijing. Beijing is just as international as
Shanghai, but has a much longer cultural history. The Forbidden City is there as is the
Temple of Heaven and sections of the Great Wall.

After checking out Beijing’s rock scene, I wanted to see some live jazz. As it happens,
Beijing was having it’s yearly “Nine Gates Festival” which is named after the nine gates
of the Forbidden City. The festival had events in the Forbidden City itself and in jazz
clubs around the city. I caught the Canadian Yannick Rieu Quartet which played for
two nights at the East Shore Jazz Cafe. The cafe sits on Hou Hai, a fabulous outdoor
lake area that sits behind the Forbidden City. Indeed, the club has a terrace that
you can go up on in between sets for fresh and a great view of the lake. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

The acts that followed Black Tiger got better and better. Super VC was a large group; rhythm and lead guitars, bass guitar, drums and a singer who played keys. I was surprised to find that the group’s music had a mellow intensity that was welcome after Black Tiger’s set. Indeed, after hearing a few songs, I was reminded of Coldplay and, by the end of their set, I was sure the leader of Super VC must be a fan of Chris Martin. Super VC was more intense than Coldlpay though, as the guitars would build and the lead guitarist would tear up his guitar. It was great to see a Chinese group take a western sound and make it its own.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I picked up a copy of Beijing’s version of Creative Loafing, The Beijinger, and found a long list of music venues. I went this route since my Lonely Planet led me to places that had evidently been shut down for some time.

The Mao Live House was billed as “the capital’s premier live music venue” and it just happened to have a rock showcase that night. So, I headed down to the DongCheng district and found the Live House on a street that was lined with small shops, restaurants and street vendors.

The Live House is named after Chairman Mao and I think the name is a nod to Beijing’s gradual forgetting of the infamous figure. On the wall behind the stage hangs a large red flag that has an image only of Mao’s hair — Mao’s face is missing from the picture, as it were. The venue was medium-sized and had a Visulite feel — a standing area in front of the stage and raised bar-stools in the back. Before getting into the music hall, you pass through a bar area and a hallway that has a foosball table and a bunch of friendly Chinese hipsters guzzling down bottles of Tsing-Tao. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province and it’s known for it’s laid-back life-style
and blazingly spicy food. I asked around about live music venues and was told to check out
The Little Bar (xiao jiu guan) which is known as the Chengdu home of Chinese punk.

After taking a harrowing taxi ride downtown (Chengdu drivers don’t pay attention to the lines, pedestrians or cyclists on the road) I arrived at the bar. It had a Snug Harbor vibe, but had a brighter atmosphere. The stage set-up was good, as was the sound system. The crowd wasn’t as diverse as that in Shanghai since Chengdu isn’t an international city. In fact, even though it’s the fourth largest city in China, before the big earthquake in Sichuan last year, not many westerners had even heard of Chengdu! (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I asked around in Shanghai about the best place to catch live music and I found out that there are many venues and that Shanghai has many genres to choose from: jazz, blues, r&b, soul, electronica, rock, punk and so on. One venue that was suggested several times was the Cotton Club which has a long history in Shanghai and has a reputation for hosting top-notch musicians. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites