problematic concepts: "Battle of the Bands

There is nothing laaaammmmmeeeeerrrrr then a "Battle of Bands". Why are young bands forced to compete against each other in a quasi-competitive environment? What is the fucking point of that? Referring to last night's quotation- Horkheimer/Adorno are demontrating how professionals, artists and audience co-operate- unwittingly at times- to support this uneccesarily corporate(nay, militaritic) culture industry.

Think about it in terms of the "battle of the bands":
- professionals(event promoter) chooses which bands to "compete"; and stage the event in hopes of spurring attendance by arousing the "patrioism" of the respective band's fan base('come out and vote for us in the battle of the bands!')
- bands AGREE TO PARTICIPATE in the hopes that they will be chosen for whatever lame prize is on offer.
- audience ATTENDS the event and VOTES- reinforcing the choices by the professionals to stage the event and the bands to particpate.

so there is a message here for everyone- bands- don't play in a battle of the bands- what are you- a soldier in the army? promoters- don't hold "battle of the band" style events- surely you can come with a better way to feature "unsigned" and/or local acts then to make them "compete" against one another. and audience members- don't go to these bullshit events. FUCK BATTLES OF THE BANDS!

the artist and his role in the production of mass culture

But any trace of spontaneity from the public in official broadcasting is
controlled and absorbed by talent scouts, studio competitions and official
programs of every kind selected by professionals. Talented performers belong to
the industry long before it displays them; otherwise they would not be so eager
to fit in. The attitude of the public, which ostensibly and actually favours the
system of the culture industry, is a part of the system and not an excuse for
it.
-The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass DeceptionTheodor Adorno and Max
Horkheimer

ah- i found my favorite, favorite essay on line- so now i can quote from it whenever. it's like a holy text to me. i consider this one the foundational documents of the d.i.y. movement in music... in a sort of roundabout way. unforch, the essay is pretty heavy lifting, so i thought i would take a page from the religious right and analyze it biblical style- with a little portion and then an interpretation of the text.

ok- so is from page 2- early on in the essay- and they are discussing RADIO- which is a form of media that i talk about alot on CAT DIRT SEZ. "official broadcasting" refers to radio stations- am and fm- they would probably include pubilc broadcasting in that mix. i don't think internet radio would count- that would be outside the ambit of what they're talking about. so by "trace of spontaneity from the public" they probably are talking about non-corporate forms of art/music- the experimental, the non professional.

the second sentence- starting with the phrase "talented performers" is interesting- because it demonstrates how people who are currently OUTSIDE of the described system seek to join the system through a process of "selection"- and therefore reinforce the system even as they are excluded- kind of like the tradtional marxist concept of "false consciousness" whereby industrial workers support their owners(their oppressors). the selection process is of course controlled by the professionals in the first sentence- the same one responsible for programming the radio.

notice, in the third and final sentence, horkheimer and adorno acknowledge that the public supports the status quo that they find so rephrensible. here you can see some relationship to the elistism of the cultural avant garde in movements like punk rock and hard core, etc. you are familiar with it in the attitude of the indie blogger nation guy who sneers at pop music, "the public gets what it deserves, only WE know what is really good."

so if you a performer- ask yourself- is my goal to gain access to the "official programs... selected by professioinals"? If that's the case, there is no use in adopting a purposeful ignorance in your relationship with those official programs and those professions. if it's not- you need to ask yourself- what's the alternative?

show review: The Prayers, Jeremy Jay & The Muslims @ Ken Club

i KNOW y'all aren't sleeping on the Muslims. Attention Journalists, Radio Station Employees and Venue Bookers- The Muslims are the new san diego band hotness, and you need to check them out ASAP. Next opportunity- Beauty Bar San Diego next Saturday- more details on that on tuesday...

last night it was the prayers, jeremy jay (los angeles) and the musliims, but the focus of the crowd was clearly the muslims. as one patron commented- "i've never seen the bar so empty and the concert area so full!" pretty much all in attendance agreed on two propositions: 1) the muslims are good. 2) the muslims sound like the velvet underground- the late era, poppy velvet underground-- not "black angel death song" era velvet underground. unforch i didn't bring my camera, but i DID upgrade my photo bucket account, so i welcome the return of photomagraphs to cat dirt sez with these three photos of the members of the muslims(minus the drummer- sorry!)


matt, lead singer, songwriter of the muslims. buddies with the whole art fag/plot posse. sounds like lou reed. positive attitude! a winner!


i totally forgot the name of the guitarist- even though i was introduced to him last night. guitar interplay with matt's guitar reminds one of the interplay between lou reed and john cale. lou reed played guitar in the velvet underground, right?


emily- bassist, the muslims. also in the clockwork army. skilled playing, indeed. also give them that "female band member" edge.

after the muslims set i chatted a little with kristin gundred of grand ole party. hey crazy kristin stalkers- she looooooovesssss the prayers so if you want to see her "out" a prayers show is a good bet. also- she's taken- so- just so you know. also chatted with andrew millers(the prayers)- he is quite a gentleman. mario and i had a brief conversation about next saturday @ the beauty bar- the muslims- some cool band from los angeles in the vein of mika miko & skulll kontrol djs. it should be the hotness. we actually went to the show with dialed in rosie- matt vinyl radio was there- mike jezebel... um... the energy was GREAT last night. in the past i've kind of felt like the whole art fag/plot crew was kind of, sort of stand offish, but last night it was just all positive energy. it's nice to see those cats relax and enjoy the fact that they totally have it going on and people are digging it.

jeremy jay played second- they are a three piece from los angeles and all i know about them is that they played the smell the night before, and have cds and 7"s for sale. they had a sound that was difficult for me to categorize. cdw said joy division- matt vinyl radio said the singer kind of reminded him of morrisey- i just couldn't place it. they fit in well with the other two bands on the bill. i wouldn't mind checking them out again and maybe picking up that 7".

the prayers played last for a crowd that had thinned out noticeably- ahh... the ken club- i expect nothing less from your super-jaded patrons. oh- yeah- i've seen the prayers before- i don't need to watch them again. ha-ha. that's people who hang out at the ken club. the prayers sounded great- as andrew told me- they've learned that they need to turn down those amps a touch and they live show has benefited from it. brandon and andrew both have genuine front man charisma, and the fact that switch off on lead vox mitigates the fact that there isn't a whole lot of activity up there. which is funny if you've seen the plot to blow up the eiffel tower- brandon is all over the place in that band.

i didn't hear it directly but someone told me that the prayers 4 song ep wasn't coming out for another couple months- which would be march. does a four song ep qualify for a nomination for best album? our six song ep did last year, so i don't see why not, but i can see that leading to some hating. what about fifty's two song 7"- holiday/i am the riot? i think THAT should be nominated too, if four songs count, why not two songs? it's not like there's some regulation.

i will be interested to read dialed in rosie's take on the muslims... maybe on monday?