Booku bands12/22/2023 In Bands do BK, Sam Sumpter explores Brooklyn from the unique perspective of the bands who live it and love it. But where is this happening? Where are the local musicians whose music, styles, and tastes we admire working, playing, and hanging out in Brooklyn? What spots do bands on tour stop by when they’re only in town for the night? What do their versions of Brooklyn look like? Somewhere in Brooklyn, and all over Brooklyn, your favorite, and soon-to-be favorite, bands are… Writing. “It was a supportive skepticism rather than thinking we’d abandon our creative ideals.Bands do BK: A Guide to Brooklyn, by Bands, for Everyone “The very local scene in Arizona was more concerned that we don’t get screwed over rather than selling out,” says singer Jim Adkins. Bands from culturally remote places, like Jimmy Eat World of Mesa, Ariz., faced a much weaker backlash. Not only did Jawbreaker not hit the big time, the band broke up.Īnother factor in weathering the sellout storm was location. But Jawbreaker, who repeatedly assured its fans it would never sell out and agonized over the decision, was practically pilloried for signing a deal with DGC. The boys in Blink-182 were wannabe rock stars who happened to play poppy punk rock. Not surprisingly, the bands that were the least worried about selling out became the most successful. As a result, the bulk of the stories in “Sellout” are cautionary tales. Part of the book’s appeal lies in rooting for bands to beat the odds - even when you know they won’t. It isn’t exactly a spoiler to say that none of the bands featured in “Sellout” became as big as Green Day. Ozzi not only provides a rigorously researched look at how labels targeted bands and fought to sign them he also amasses an impressive number of firsthand accounts of major-label talent scouts acting like major league sleazeballs. What makes “Sellout” so engrossing is that it profiles both the artists and the suits - the label heads and their A&R reps. These accolades came at a price: Green Day was banned from performing at Gilman Street and shunned by its original fans. When Green Day signed to Reprise Records, a subsidiary of what was then Warner Bros., the chart-topping singles, multiplatinum records and dozens of awards that followed set a new standard of success for punk bands. No one benefited more from this frenzy than Green Day, who rose to acclaim at the all-ages punk club 924 Gilman Street, the epicenter of the East Bay scene, where major-label bands were regarded as literal scum. After Nirvana, independent artists realized that not only could their band be their life, it could be their livelihood as well. Ozzi begins with the moment when the shifting sands of alternative rock made it possible for musicians to consider a career. Dan Ozzi’s “ Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007),” published recently by Mariner Books, offers a corrective, exploring how 11 bands emerged from obscurity to become major-label artists. Fans of Jawbreaker, Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance and other latter-day indie bands read about their struggles in the places where they’d found them: in fanzines or on the internet. In between then and now came the last great wave of major-label acquisitions - the twilight era of the sellouts. At a time when Metallica is cozying up with Mercedes-Benz and Megan Thee Stallion is collaborating with Popeyes on her signature brand of Hottie Sauce, the notion of a band pledging to stay indie forever seems prudishly strange, like a TikTok video of a pilgrim churning butter. To those who came of age during a great recession, a Trump presidency or a pandemic, selling out is as operative a concept as an eight-track tape. The decision to sign with a major label broke up bands, split scenes and made a handful of people very, very rich. Thirty years ago, when Nirvana broke down the barriers between the mainstream and the underground, the stigma of selling out - at least among certain groups and certain fans - was severe. “Selling out” is a phrase whose significance depends on the decade into which you were born. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores. Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |