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by Catherine Maldonado Independent musicians, small record labels, and music fans have a mutual respect for eachother and a mutual disdain for people who try to profit from them. With the introduction of the internet, the three have found new ways to communicate. Hopefully it will not become another avenue by which they are exploited. The hot "new music scene", usually referring to some variation of rock music, drifts around the United States every few years, but always seems to float back to New York City. The cycle is usually the same: a buzz is generated among obsessive music fans, then in the press, and before bands know what's happening, they are on covers of well-known music magazines and have major record companies knocking down their doors after only recording a five song EP. Lately, fans on the internet have been scooping the press. New bands struggling in New York City do not necessarily turn to familiar fans on the internet, or fans who happen to be involved with independent record labels, for promotional help. The fans approach the artists just like the press and major record companies. But instead of preying on the artist's talent to sustain themselves, promotional work becomes a hobby.
“Can someone buy me a Jack Daniel's?” Ad asks, shielding his eyes from the bright stage lights as he pulls his wallet from his back pocket. “I promise I’ll pay you back.” People hesitate. Nevertheless, by the end of the song, three drinks are scattered around the stage. One and a half have been consumed. One by Ad and the half by label-mate Paula Kelly who joined him onstage for a few songs. After reexamining the contents of his wallet, Ad discovers he’s made a mistake. “I don’t know if I can pay for all of these, but Paula has some money.” The day before, Ad was solo as part of the Powderfinger-Promotions showcase at North Square Lounge. Bands will take all the help they can get when they are first starting out, but Ad’s a little further in his career. He has developed a certain amount of confidence that comes across in his stage performance, even when he’s crashing into things, knocking mike stands over and accidentally disconnecting microphones mid-verse. Nothing fazes him. Not even promoters. “I’ve been doing this so long I pretty much know how to take it up to the level I’m at. I can certainly use the help [from promoters] making a phone call so I don’t have to do it and can spend more time on the music.” Tonight, instead of Ad Frank, it’s Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women. His backup band, oddly enough, consists of three other male members and one female keyboardist (who gave up being at an awards show that night where she was nominated in the category “best music in a video game” to perform with Ad). He explains that band members come and go for various reasons. Sometimes it’s because things aren’t moving fast enough. “Some of the other people I’ve been in bands with... it’s like, ‘What’s going on? Why aren’t we famous yet? Fire those stupid people!’ Well, maybe they’re not stupid, maybe we just have to rethink.” By “those stupid people,” he means promoters. “The problem is you can never really tell. It’s kind of like taking zinc tablets for a cold and then you get well. You never know whether it was the zinc tablets or what would have happened if you didn’t take them.” After his performance, Ad is approached by the wife of the brother of someone in his band. She immediately mentions she works for a digital radio station and gushes about how wonderful Ad was. She whispers his talent “is comparable to Bowie.” Ad kindly accepts the compliment but doesn’t get too excited. He’s relaxed and cracks jokes, to try and open the conversation up to everyone standing around. Many of the jokes are references to the day before when he made a comment about “going home in a taxi in disgrace.” His memory amidst the pressures of performing and talking to promoters at CMJ is pretty good even though he keeps apologizing for being slightly drunk. The comments pass by the woman with little note. She seems adamant to convince Ad she’s sincere in wanting to help him. Sarah, my CMJ partner in crime, and I decided Ad must be a Pulp fan with his mellow, glam-rock songs and somewhat comical lyrics like “I burned all your pots and pans/ I over-watered all your plants” sung with complete sincerity. But he claims his only long time influence is Welsh rocker John Cale. He coyly mentioned owning a bootleg of one of Cale’s concerts. “You can hear someone yell ‘I Love You!’ That’s me.” Ad has benefited from the chaos surrounding New York’s music scene without being swallowed up by it. He has had enough success to gain moderate notoriety in Boston and a stable fan base. His lack of involvement with the new music scene outside the realm of his band has been an asset, but he doesn’t scoff at genuine efforts by fans who have begun to use the internet as a promotional vehicle for their favorite artists nor at those who benefit. He’s had enough experience to know what’s effective. “I think anybody writing anything about anybody is always a good idea-- even if only one person reads it -- especially with the internet where it’s free. It’s not like taking out an ad for $200. Anything to get the word out, if there are people willing to put in the time.” It’s easy to get caught up in New York’s chaotic music scene, and there will always be eager fans willing to put in the time. Via e-mail, I was able to schedule an interview with one eager music fan named Jasper Coolidge while I was in New York City. The term “scenster” often has negative connotations. People dubbed scnesters are sometimes characterized as attending concerts because it is the popular thing to do rather than having any real interest in music. Jasper has the credibility of his website to back him up.
After many short, sometimes frantic e-mails we decided to meet Friday upstairs at Pianos at 7:00 PM which conveniently happened to be the time and place of the closing party for his photography exhibit. Not being familiar with New York City, I assumed Pianos was a quiet, intimate gallery. The lights would be soft. Wine and cheese would be served (some kind of cider for those of us who are under 21). To my surprise, Pianos was a bar and music venue on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side. The lights were so dim I began to question if they were malfunctioning. The first obstacle was getting in. I tried to assure the doorman I had a reason to be there and wasn't trying to partake in some underage drinking. Luckily, he had my friend Sarah to hold hostage while I ran inside to find Eello, the owner. While Sarah sat in what she christened "the punishment chair," situated in limbo between the bar and the doorman, I pushed my way through the crowd. Even though Eello seemed not to know who Jasper was, Sarah and I eventually sat down on the worn couches in the less crowded upstairs area. Jasper Coolidge was kneeling on a chair, rehanging one of his photographs which had fallen from the wall. The dimly lit room had become his gallery. The walls were filled with smokey, slightly colored photos that looked as though they had absorbed the room’s atmosphere. Anyone in the room could have walked out of one of Jasper’s photos. As he stepped down, I began to understand why he decided to start taking photographs. “I’m pretty short, so I was always up front anyway” he said. Jasper stands a little over five feet tall. As Jasper handed me a mix CD of some of the bands he’s photographed, he apologized for the noise and explained that another band was added late to the CMJ showcase at Pianos, interrupting his plans for a closing party. The DJ he hired was looking bored in the corner, blocking out the din by listening to music on his headphones.
Jasper continued running around, handing out mix CDs and greeting his friends as Elbow started to play. Radio station executives and CMJ attendees who arrived too late to enter the larger room just off the bar room downstairs grudgingly settled in to watch a live video feed from the performance downstairs projected onto a white stage backdrop. Sarah and I noticed a sign hung above one of the only lit areas in the room that said in bold red letters “Thank You for Not Dancing.” Apparently, the sign was effective because everyone was standing still, seemingly mesmerized by the blurry images projected onto the white sheet. Whether it was meant as a joke or not, the “Thank You for Not Dancing” sign hung next to Jasper’s photos captured Pianos essence. The New York Post dubbed Pianos the 7th of the “Top 10 Bars and Clubs” in May saying, "Bar opens, caters to hipster crowd, becomes too hip for itself and thus becomes ironic -- T-shirts sporting the slogan 'anywhere But Pianos' have already been spotted among the faux-hawk set." For a place that had become passé, there sure were a lot of people. Jasper started taking pictures and posting them on his web site, jenyk.com, in 1999. Now he books regular showcases at Sin-é along with his partner Audry, who has a web site of her own. Both web sites surpass what would be expected of people taking pictures for fun. After Elbow and before the next band was ready to play, Jasper sat down long enough to tell me why he spends so much time helping out bands. “I don’t get paid. I’m just doing it to help expose the band to more people and to show people, to show the world really, what’s going on, because not everyone can be in New York.” He admits the full time effort put into keeping up with the new music scene can become taxing, but that’s what helps him, and those like him, earn the respect and trust of the bands he promotes. “We’re constantly tired, we’re constantly burned out, but what fuels us is the love for the music. We’re all young. I just turned 30. Everyone else is under 30, the fact that we’re young, we have this energy. It’s not going to be forever, but we want to be able to keep it up for as long as we can.” Jasper told me he believes that people who want to know about the New York scene will and do turn to the internet. “The latest statistics are, like, 65% of America is online, but people who are really avid about music, I’d say the numbers are around 80 to 90. Right now it’s such a vital time. Once Napster backed down, the media, no matter what media it was -- radio, print or internet -- has a much bigger role in what breaks and what gets exposed. Napster was a total democracy. You could just go onto someone’s list and see what they liked and then you could find out about bands [on the internet].” “My day job is graphic design. I work for a small firm. It’s really boring stuff. It basically helps me to sustain my night lifestyle.” Jasper is a little too quick to dismiss his paying gig. In addition to providing him with enough money to be out in New York City whenever he wants, it has helped him make some connections. It isn’t a coincidence that all of the Vicious, aka Jasper and Audry, showcases have been at Sin-é, whose web site is one of the many Jasper maintains. I asked where Jasper wass headed to next, and he pulled out a folded typed list he’d prepared that had him at a different venue in the area every hour until 2 am. He pointed out a few bands I would have liked, but we realized they were at venues listed as 21+ and I didn’t want to make Sarah face another round with the punishment chair. Jasper’s website style is a variation on what is called a blog (origionally called a “web log” and shortened to “blog”). The style is basically a format used by individuals on personal websites they share with friends. Blogs consists of news stories, personal stories, and opinons expressed by the owner with links to relavent articles or blogs on the internet. Jasper’s short reviews that accompany his photographs include links to the bands in the photographs along with links to references of other events or bands. After meeting Jasper, it’s difficult to imagine someone on the other end of the blogging spectrum. Someone blogging and getting paid for it.
“I swear my whole career hinges on whether or not blogs are successful,” Kristen Beam said jokingly, with a scincere nervousness in her voice. Kristen works part-time as the Listings Coordinator for masslive.com, one of many community based websites which has adopted the blogging format for part of their Entertainment section. Along with linking to blogs maintained by Massachusetts locals, masslive hosts several blogs such as Kristen’s “Sound Check.” Even though masslive is a part-time job for Kristen, she is eager to discover new sources of information on the internet she can link to. She arrived to the interview, pen and paper in hand, ready to note any blogs I mentioned that she was not familiar with. Kristen explained that her personal blog, Sigh Club, served as an informal resumé that helped her get her current job with masslive. “The editor of masslive started reading my blog and started linking out to it. Really, we started connecting through our blogs. He was able to see that I was able to write, that I could put a sentence together, so he hired me.” The biggest reason for criticism targeted at bloggers, especially music bloggers, is that they are using musicians in order to further their own carreers. “I wouldn't know as much as I know about music unless I knew other people who were in the music scene. I have them to thank. I was able to turn it into something that wasn't there before. That's why I started my personal blog.” Kristen’s passion and respect for music and musicians is evident. When she first mentioned that her blog was called Sigh Club, I envisioned a Northampton based band named Cyclub. She was quick to resolve the confusion by confirming they had been the inspiration for her blog title. Kristen carefully printed out C-Y-C-L-U-B and then the words "Sigh Club" underneath to illustrate how she came up with the name for her blog. The band was the reason she started blogging. Like Jasper, Kristen said she wanted her blog to say, “Look, everybody. This is an awesome place to live.” Kristen still has not come to a definite conclusion on where blogs stand. She spent the first few months writing in her personal blog getting used to the format and what was expected from a blog. “I think over time, as there becomes more management of the blog sphere, that there will be a better defintion of what they have to offer. I mean, it's not journalism. It's also not a journal. It's somewhere in between. It's just fascinating.” Keeping a blog for masslive has imposed some restrictions on Kristen’s regular blogging habits. Masslive’s editor, Scot Brodeur, has a vision of what blogs should offer. Kristen said, “Scott's take on blogs is that people want something quick. It's like candy. They just want to grab something and then go away from it. His concern was that if I had a long, drawn out interview it would really limit my readership to people who were really interested in that artist. We're all about creating this whole "blog culture" but we also want to increase the number of hits we get.” Masslive.com averages 12 million page views and 160 thousand unique visitors a month. The large number of visitors keeps advertisers interested in the site which adds an interest group to the site most bloggers never need to consider. “There's sort of a different side of this sphere where blogs could become so commercial. It's just interesting being on the cusp of everything because you can say whatever you want in a blog and it's all about being cutting edge and talking about controversial things but then there's always this outlying thing in my head that we're trying to keep this company going.” While acknowledging the difference between commercial and non-commercial blogs, Kristen brought up an often overlooked similarity: “Aren't blogs mostly self-promotion? Don't people usually go from their blog to something else?” In his article “Like Falling Off a Blog,” written for the on-line British newspaper Guardian Unlimited, Rob Young perfectly captured what draws people to music blogs and what will eventually happen to the writers when he said “Above all, music blogs are free from the business plans and targeted readerships that determine the content of commercial publications. It may be, as one blogger recently admitted, a "hermetically sealed and potentially borderline-autistic pursuit", but this unregulated zone contains fantastic, stimulating and piercingly acute writing. Savour the moment before its protagonists have to find proper jobs.,” Finding those “propper jobs” does not always equal the traditional 9 to 5 job Young seems to imply. In an interview for Artrocker, Lio Cerrazo tried to sum up the philosophy of his independent record label Kanine Records. He said, “This isn’t about becoming rich, this is about finding a way to take what we love and turn it into a career.”
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