SCENE REPORT: CHARLOTTE
RECAP OF THE CHARLOTTE STOP ON THE EIY SPRING (INTO ACTION) TOUR
This was another show that confused me, but in the opposite way that the VA Beach show confused me. I’m still not sure exactly what was going on at the meet-up in Charlotte. For starters, I began feeling pretty crappy during the meet-up, with an insane headache (not knowing I was about to have the flu for three days), and this was the last show of a 10-show run. It’s possible I was just exhausted and misinterpreting the vibe, but it seemed to me (and to my tour manager) that a handful of the band members either didn’t know how they got booked on the show, didn’t understand the purpose behind the meet-up or the event, had never heard of the Warped Tour — or they DID know, and didn’t care. Or maybe they are not used to meeting new people and interfacing with strangers. Or maybe they felt like they were above it all. Or maybe they were just really tired. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I got a really stand-offish vibe from a handful of the people at the meet-up. I couldn’t tell if these kids hated my guts or were just really bored. Or both.
No skin off my back: I was just trying to help.
On one hand, there were a few people in attendance who were enthusiastic about the conversation, and wanted to talk about what they thought was going on locally, and what they were working on with their own projects. One kid is running a great little punk label in a small town a couple hours away. Another band had just gotten things going and were happy just to be playing music, and excited to talk about their goals and try to learn something from the conversation.
But then, for example, there was the girl who sat down in the middle of the conversation and demanded that I give her step-by-step instructions for “plugging in to the system” and “climbing the ladder” so she could get famous, faster. When I explained that there was no “way” and tried to offer advice about getting her music heard locally and building a following (and everything else that we all know already), she got frustrated and left the meet-up. Then there were the kids with stories about winning contests, and having friends who went to LA on a whim and ran in to Randy Jackson at a restaurant and got a record deal. These kids were not interested in discussing the community-based, DIY approach. And why should they be? They hold these fairy tales as the rule, not the exceptions, and probably are waiting for the day that they, too, will win a contest or run into Randy Jackson at a restaurant. Who am I to suggest that there’s any other way to go about building one’s career? Who am I to try to help good music get discovered through the muck? Maybe I’m wrong, maybe what every band should do is write the best music they can write and then hang out with their small group of friends playing local shows with only their friends’ bands, to their friends in the crowd, and never branch out or expand their network, and just wait for Serendipity to swoop in and do her part. Stranger things have happened.
This was a painful meet-up for me, physically and mentally. So when one of the stand-offish kids asked me, “Yeah, but what exactly can YOU do for US?” I realized the meet-up was over, and I wrapped it up so I could have my headache in peace.
Show time!
The first guy to play was a solo artist who filled in last-minute for a band that had dropped off — so he couldn’t be in the running for the Warped Tour spot, but he was probably my single favorite discovery of the entire tour. Or in my top three, at least. As soon as his set was over, I went online and bought his EP, and have listened to it every single day since the show. He goes by his last name, Margolnick, and you can check him out HERE.
Band: The Lost Boys from Charlotte
Lots of Radiohead-esque parts and good song structures.
Check them out HERE.
Band: The Collectives from Charlotte
A newborn band who wants to do it all, play every genre, every instrument, and try to appeal to the masses. Super nice and genuine guys who just need to land on their own sound/look/style. They’ll get there.
Check them out HERE.
Band: Alicia Camarata from Charlotte
Sweet, sugar pop folk songs played by a great band and sung by an adorable singer. Every song could be on an Apple commercial.
Check them out HERE.
Band: Older Brother from Charlotte
Modest Mouse meets Foals meets The Killers meets high school kids. The guitarist of this band is phenomenal, and the key ingredient in this seriously talented young band. Really great drummer, too. The singer/bassist is writing some great lyrics and has a lot of potential as a frontman — but why so unapproachable?
Check them out HERE.
We decided to invite Alicia Camarata to represent Charlotte at this year’s Warped Tour. We hope she will bring the sweetness and melt some punk rock hearts.
Love,
Sarah & EIY
10 Responses to “SCENE REPORT: CHARLOTTE”
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Good Job Alicia!
Sounds like some people REALLY had the wrong attitude and just don’t understand the whole DIY thing.
I’m sure I’m not the only person to ask.. but I had about 10 songs on the Earn It Yourself site that I dont have backups on a computer (computer died) I’d really like to re-trieve these songs.. What can I do?
We’ve got a back-up of the old site/database, so we *should* have everyone’s songs, info, etc. I’ve emailed the new programming team to find out for sure!
I like that you’re being totally honest about everything that happened on the tour.
Can’t wait to hear the rest.
Darn… “should” ?? Crap. I guess I should have double backed up my files.
Don’t get sad yet! I’m 99% sure we have it somewhere.
You know what? Living here for about 7 years now and checking out the local scene for about 5 years now, you are pretty spot on regarding the local scene here and the attitude of it all.
I dunno if you were filled in prior to coming to Charlotte, but there is a massively ugly and foul monster that has been sucking the scene dry of new talent and new bands. And it’s called Gorilla Productions.
They pretty much promise the bands (and the newer bands for that matter), a bigger fanbase/audience, fame, recording time, ect. if they do these shows for them. Basically, they promise them the world and then dick them out at the last minute with them overbooking shows, giving bands a very tiny pay (granted pay is not all important but when starting out it is a priority) or not even paying them at all. Plus, they put the responsibilities of ticket sales on the band (which is normal I guess.) But what’s not normal is that if they don’t come up with the tickets, the band owes the difference (100 tickets X 10 bucks = 1000.00).
Basically, after going through that hell of a promotion, they are kinda left disenchanted and they mostly stick with playing with their friend’s bands and such to be safe. Of course, there are bands that go out and play in other towns with different bands and they do network out of here. And we do have some great NC/SC bands that put in the hard work to get to where they are now (Between the Buried and Me, Scapegoat, Your Chance to Die, Wretched, Before the Ancients, Alesana, Paper Tongues, ect.).
But I guess that some of these kids and bands are sorta missing the point, thinking that they are still promised the world if they find the right connections or if they just happen to get lucky with meeting a producer who produced such and such and somehow manages to dig what you have.
They have to put in the work and find a way to make this scene grow. However, this needs to be a community effort, rather have some out of town production company that thinks they can take advantage of this city. Charlotte has great potential to have a great music scene, it’s just that these kids need to get rid of these pipe dreams that they can land a record deal from the safety of their couch.
Also, on a side note, I wish I would’ve attended so I can at least kick some of them in their teeth for being dumb. But work was being a dirty whore, but I needed that paper so it wasn’t like I could’ve skipped out.
Any chance I can download the manual via pdf?
I wasn’t able to attend the meet up but I was able to make the show. Good compilation of bands show casing the decent side of the Charlotte scene. And i have to agree with Josh, those people are what make the scene suck and Gorilla Productions is no good. I’ve personally dealt with them in my bands (Lyra Shines and The Local Traumatic) and they suck balls. It makes the experience of performing music discouraging and disillusioned. The only decent thing they did for us was get us into the larger Charlotte venues where we may have had a difficult time with getting into (and know play regularly) and meet other bands and form good friendships.
But from an inside view of the Charlotte scene, it’s got it’s highs and lows like every scene. Its got a very strong metal scene as well as a fairly decent indie side. But unfortuntly, Charlotte is basically a musical black hole of sorts. There is so much brilliant music (Junior Astronomers, Campbell, Sugar Glyder etc..) it’s just difficult to really do anything within the city. Most bands have to leave Charlotte to really get anywhere and a lot of people just can’t be bothered.
Enough venting though. I really enjoyed the show and hope it comes back around next year. EIY is a great concept.
Please dont think that everyone in NC is as dumb as those few people at the meetup seemed to be. There really is a great music scene in NC, and had the EIY tour been in Raleigh, i would have been the first one to sign up for the meet up. Like everyone else has said, these “big time” production companies are killing the scene here. They are turning bands into everything the music industry is NOT. While i cant vouch for the ignorance of those people that attended the meet up, i can say with confidance that there are MANY bands and people in NC who want to be in the industry for the right reasons, and they deserve too! Apparently they just didnt catch on to the EIY tour ideas…