I am writing this blog not to complain but to talk about some of the things that I have observed being a member of one of the Heavy Metal Bands in the Underground Heavy Metal Scene. I also am writing this to offer some guidance to all of the bands that make up this scene. You know who you are. I bet some of the advice that I offer here can help other Metal scenes throughout the country or the world, but this is specific to NYC only because it is all I know.
The greatest thing about the underground is the freedom of musical expression that is so readily available. I mean lets face it...if you call up a local venue or promoter and tell them that you will bring 20 people to one of their events, you are pretty much guaranteed to play a show no matter how good or bad you are. And that shouldn't be too hard, 4 guys in a band all bring one girlfriend and 4 friends each you got your 20 right there. Like I said, this is a good thing because I think everyone should have a platform to express themselves musically. So if you are honest about the fact that all you are there to do is express yourself and you are not trying to reach a larger audience, the underground is a great place for you....however....
Most of the people that I run into are using the underground to get to another place. I would say a lot of them are looking for a record label to "discover" them and offer them some sort of recording deal, and an avenue for them to tour the world playing their music....Slam One Down is for sure.
The New York City Underground is a double edged sword. And when I say NYC underground I mean NYC, the 5 boroughs, Rockland etc., North Jersey & Long Island etc. The reason that it is a double edged sword is because there are a ton of places to play. This is a good thing and bad thing...the reason that it is a good thing is because it is very easy to get a show and play live. The reason that it is bad is because....
....So here is the problem...there are soooooo many bands and sooo many venues and we have a very small and concentrated scene (or better said, not a lot of people). SO what happens is every band takes their 10 or 20 people and take them to wherever they can get a show. Then what happens is the band plays 1 week in NYC, the next week in Brooklyn, the next week in Jersey and the next week in L.I. The problem is that now they keep asking their friends to follow them to every show and their friends go to the first 2 shows and then say to themselves I wont go this week, I'll go next week because they will obviously be playing again next week or so. I mean let's face it, even if Metallica played every Friday for 6 months at the Garden, by the end of the first month there would be like 100 people there. What Metallica does is plays once and then leaves and does not come back for a year and makes people come out everytime they play. It's a simple strategy.
You can ask anyone in the scene, I go to almost every underground show that I can. The only time i don't is if we have a show or practice. If someone invites me, I go and you don't even have to call me. I go on facebook and look at today's events and I go to whoever is playing wherever. But I have to, because I am a true supporter and I have to promote my band. I also hope and expect people to do the same for me. But guess what, most people are not like me and do not care about the scene the way I do.
So here is what is happening, their are about 20 or 30 solid bands that are really doing well and making some noise in the scene. They perform well, write good music, get the crowds involved, bring 20-60 people and throw a good party. But most of them are not getting anywhere because the whole scene is being watered down. Everyone is playing every week in the city and all the time. So I have a bit of a solution to the problem. This is not a perfect solution and is going to take time to organize but if we all start working together it can work well....to be continued!!!!-J.R.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Slam One Down to open for Devildriver
S1D needs your help...we were asked to open up for Devildriver & Kittie at Eleanor Rigby's in Jermyn, PA about 2 hours from NYC on Thurs Aug. 26th @ 7pm..tix are $20each we need to know if people are willing to come with us on a bus road trip again and if people near the PA venue will buy tix from us...otherwise we cannot afford to do the show, we need to sell 100 tix, this could be huge for us...please respond.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Who gets thrown out of the woods?
This has to be the most ridiculous story ever. We were asked to play a 3 day mini tour in upstate NY near Niagara Falls, called the campfire sessions by a management company called Kalamazoo Recording and Management Company. The company invites 10 metal type bands to campsites all over the country for 3 day mini tours. So what you do is go to a campsite and set up your tents and so on and then drive to three different venues, play a show and then return to the campsite to sleep and then do that for three days from Friday through Sunday. So we thought that sounds like a cool way to get out of the area and invite more people into the Slam One Down family.
So everyone tried to get out of work as early as possible and we hit the road to Niagara Falls which is about a 6 hour drive. Our navigation system told us that we were going to arrive at the campsite around 10 and when I told the promoter that he said we were going to miss the first show. We were kind of pissed about that but new we would make it up somehow. We finally arrive at the campsite at 10:00PM. And the whole place was closed and shut down. The promoter told us where to go and we found the site.
When we arrive we saw about 6 other bands with their campsites set up. It looked like everyone was having a good time. SO we start setting up immediately. We had a canopy, two tents, a beer pong table, acoustic guitars, a fire, 6 chairs and a cooler full of about 6 thirty packs, a beer funnel, a bottle of crown royal, and a bottle of Jagermeister.
So we start attacking the booze like every good metal band does. Now remember we are in the middle of the woods, with about 6 other metal bands, a cooler full of beer and its about 11:00 PM. We are now having a party in the middle of the woods. We were singing songs by the fire, playing beer pong, laughing and having a fucking amazing time. The weird thing was out of 6 bands only 2 people came over to hang out. All the other bands went to bed around 11:30PM. Now no-one said anything to us about noise or being loud. We just went about our partying like everything was OK. It didn't seem like there is anyone around us.
Then at around 2AM, out of nowhere in the pitch black night someone walks up to us yells, "What the FUCK are you guys doing." We were completely freaked out and didn't know where he came from. It was a cop in the middle of the woods and he snuck up on us. He was flashing a light at us and Bobby was flashing his light back at him, because we didn't know what was going on. That pissed the cop off. He starts asking for our IDs and what not....One of the guys in our group was mouthing off to him a little because the cope was very rude for no reason. Now think about this for a second. What kind of cop sneaks up on people in the middle of the woods. He didn't ever pull up in a cop car he came out of the blackness of the woods....who does that. So he takes our IDs and disappears back into the blackness of the woods. So we continue to drink and do funnels.
Then all of a sudden 3 more cop cars come pulling up. I guess he called for back-up. And returns to us and says he is not going to do anything and said we have to leave the campsite at 10AM tomorrow morning. SO we are like "Cool" now we will get a hotel room and not have to sleep in the fucking woods. Most of us passed out around 3-4 AM.
We wake up around 10:30 AM to pack up and now drive to the show that we were supposed to play. This time a different cop comes back around 10:30 and said that we need to leave around 1PM which was perfect because that was the time we needed to go to the show. However, he walks up to the promoters and tells them what happens. These two kids are like 17-years old and proceeds to tell us that we are off the tour and have to go home. We couldn't understand why, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't break any rules. See the way we look at it....if we were causing a problem, why didn't we get a warning. Someone should have come up to us and tell us we were being "TOO Loud" in the middle of the woods and we would have gladly brought it down a notch. So these 17 year olds who we have never met and apparently were at the campsite monitoring the campsite says to us well you guys were kind of loud but we didn't want to stop you from having a good time. They then allow someone to call the cops on us and then have the nerve to tell us that we cannot play the shows that we already paid $125 to play. They kept blaming it on their boss, but I didnt see any boss anywhere. At that point there was no reason to argue, we were dealing with morons.
Now that I think back, who the hell would call the cops on us. Was it one of the other "Metal" bands that we were camped out with. I mean is that the weakest thing ever. You call the cops on us and not ask us first to quiet down. That is pathetic. Or could it have been some neighboring campers who were not part of the group. Those people had to be pretty far away for our voices to travel that far and have them call the cops. Either way I would say that is the promoters fault because he should have made sure that we were far enough away from people that 10 metal bands couldnt bother them. I mean lets be realistic...there was hundreds of miles of open space I hope you didnt put us that close to other people. Plus these guys will not give back my $125.
Anyways we drove home around 11AM laughing the whole way home. I mean how does anybody manage to get thrown out of the woods by cops who sneak up on you in the black of the night. Only Slam One Down can. I guess this is the stuff that "Legends are made of" Thanks for reading....J.R.
http://www.slamonedown.com
http://www.myspace.com/slamonedown
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953?ref=ts
So everyone tried to get out of work as early as possible and we hit the road to Niagara Falls which is about a 6 hour drive. Our navigation system told us that we were going to arrive at the campsite around 10 and when I told the promoter that he said we were going to miss the first show. We were kind of pissed about that but new we would make it up somehow. We finally arrive at the campsite at 10:00PM. And the whole place was closed and shut down. The promoter told us where to go and we found the site.
When we arrive we saw about 6 other bands with their campsites set up. It looked like everyone was having a good time. SO we start setting up immediately. We had a canopy, two tents, a beer pong table, acoustic guitars, a fire, 6 chairs and a cooler full of about 6 thirty packs, a beer funnel, a bottle of crown royal, and a bottle of Jagermeister.
So we start attacking the booze like every good metal band does. Now remember we are in the middle of the woods, with about 6 other metal bands, a cooler full of beer and its about 11:00 PM. We are now having a party in the middle of the woods. We were singing songs by the fire, playing beer pong, laughing and having a fucking amazing time. The weird thing was out of 6 bands only 2 people came over to hang out. All the other bands went to bed around 11:30PM. Now no-one said anything to us about noise or being loud. We just went about our partying like everything was OK. It didn't seem like there is anyone around us.
Then at around 2AM, out of nowhere in the pitch black night someone walks up to us yells, "What the FUCK are you guys doing." We were completely freaked out and didn't know where he came from. It was a cop in the middle of the woods and he snuck up on us. He was flashing a light at us and Bobby was flashing his light back at him, because we didn't know what was going on. That pissed the cop off. He starts asking for our IDs and what not....One of the guys in our group was mouthing off to him a little because the cope was very rude for no reason. Now think about this for a second. What kind of cop sneaks up on people in the middle of the woods. He didn't ever pull up in a cop car he came out of the blackness of the woods....who does that. So he takes our IDs and disappears back into the blackness of the woods. So we continue to drink and do funnels.
Then all of a sudden 3 more cop cars come pulling up. I guess he called for back-up. And returns to us and says he is not going to do anything and said we have to leave the campsite at 10AM tomorrow morning. SO we are like "Cool" now we will get a hotel room and not have to sleep in the fucking woods. Most of us passed out around 3-4 AM.
We wake up around 10:30 AM to pack up and now drive to the show that we were supposed to play. This time a different cop comes back around 10:30 and said that we need to leave around 1PM which was perfect because that was the time we needed to go to the show. However, he walks up to the promoters and tells them what happens. These two kids are like 17-years old and proceeds to tell us that we are off the tour and have to go home. We couldn't understand why, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't break any rules. See the way we look at it....if we were causing a problem, why didn't we get a warning. Someone should have come up to us and tell us we were being "TOO Loud" in the middle of the woods and we would have gladly brought it down a notch. So these 17 year olds who we have never met and apparently were at the campsite monitoring the campsite says to us well you guys were kind of loud but we didn't want to stop you from having a good time. They then allow someone to call the cops on us and then have the nerve to tell us that we cannot play the shows that we already paid $125 to play. They kept blaming it on their boss, but I didnt see any boss anywhere. At that point there was no reason to argue, we were dealing with morons.
Now that I think back, who the hell would call the cops on us. Was it one of the other "Metal" bands that we were camped out with. I mean is that the weakest thing ever. You call the cops on us and not ask us first to quiet down. That is pathetic. Or could it have been some neighboring campers who were not part of the group. Those people had to be pretty far away for our voices to travel that far and have them call the cops. Either way I would say that is the promoters fault because he should have made sure that we were far enough away from people that 10 metal bands couldnt bother them. I mean lets be realistic...there was hundreds of miles of open space I hope you didnt put us that close to other people. Plus these guys will not give back my $125.
Anyways we drove home around 11AM laughing the whole way home. I mean how does anybody manage to get thrown out of the woods by cops who sneak up on you in the black of the night. Only Slam One Down can. I guess this is the stuff that "Legends are made of" Thanks for reading....J.R.
http://www.slamonedown.com
http://www.myspace.com/slamonedown
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953?ref=ts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
show this last saturday. meeting Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister
So we had a show this past saturday night in honor of J.R. and Scott's birthdays. It was at a bar called The Blue Room. Nice place, nice stage. Thanks to our good friend and unofficial/official manager Stevie, a couple of people showed up to the place, including Eddie Ojeda. If that name doesn't ring a bell then I'll spell it out for you. He's the lead guitarist for Twisted Sister. Coolest fucking guy in the world. Now i have a bit of history with this guy before i even meet him.
A band i was in two years ago recorded in a studio in Long Island run by a guy named George Marshall. That name is not familiar to you, but he's the guy who does ALL the sound for Twisted Sister on their tours. They take him everywhere. We instantly became family with this guy and we had a blast at the studio. He told us stories of touring with Twisted Sister and all the places they went in the world. So seeing a member of the band was doubly amazing for me.
After he had a conversation with J.R. I sat next to him and introduced myself. I mention that i recorded with George Marshall and he immediately lights up and i knew right away that this was the right thing to do. We get into a conversation about playing on the road when Steve comes back into the picture and mentions were both Puerto Rican. We look at each other and give each other five. We start talking about the Puerto Rican Day parade, being young and Puerto Rican in the city, about being close with family, and even how the Italians treated us like family as well. In summation, Eddie Ojeda is the coolest fucking guy I've ever met.
Its our turn to go up on stage. We set up everything and this was a special performance. It was our first one hour set show so we were debuting some new songs, including Hell Doesn't Want Me, which marks the first time Bobby Brazen sings instead of screams. He was obviously nervous and we had rehearse the song hundreds of times before the show trying to get it perfect, but i was confident he would pull it off. The opening goes fine, we're getting into it, then comes time for HDWM. The minute Bobby started singing, I knew he hit it. He was on point with every note and he didn't crack once. Even the part where I jump in sounded amazing.
The rest of the show went without a hitch, Eddie and company loved every minute of it and the birthday show was a complete success. Afterwards the crew went next door to AJ's, which is a strip club connected with the bar. That story can't be told by me, probably because it would get some people in trouble, but mostly because I didn't get to go. I had to hop on the 2:18AM train back into NY (last one for the night) so i can get home and get some sleep. I had a funeral and a procession to play the next day. Me and my endless weeks.
So thats it. Met a bonafide rock star and he was awesome, great show, and great friends to hang with. stay tuned for more from SLAM...ONE...DOWN!
-Roach
www.slamonedown.com
www.myspace.com/slamonedown
www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953
A band i was in two years ago recorded in a studio in Long Island run by a guy named George Marshall. That name is not familiar to you, but he's the guy who does ALL the sound for Twisted Sister on their tours. They take him everywhere. We instantly became family with this guy and we had a blast at the studio. He told us stories of touring with Twisted Sister and all the places they went in the world. So seeing a member of the band was doubly amazing for me.
After he had a conversation with J.R. I sat next to him and introduced myself. I mention that i recorded with George Marshall and he immediately lights up and i knew right away that this was the right thing to do. We get into a conversation about playing on the road when Steve comes back into the picture and mentions were both Puerto Rican. We look at each other and give each other five. We start talking about the Puerto Rican Day parade, being young and Puerto Rican in the city, about being close with family, and even how the Italians treated us like family as well. In summation, Eddie Ojeda is the coolest fucking guy I've ever met.
Its our turn to go up on stage. We set up everything and this was a special performance. It was our first one hour set show so we were debuting some new songs, including Hell Doesn't Want Me, which marks the first time Bobby Brazen sings instead of screams. He was obviously nervous and we had rehearse the song hundreds of times before the show trying to get it perfect, but i was confident he would pull it off. The opening goes fine, we're getting into it, then comes time for HDWM. The minute Bobby started singing, I knew he hit it. He was on point with every note and he didn't crack once. Even the part where I jump in sounded amazing.
The rest of the show went without a hitch, Eddie and company loved every minute of it and the birthday show was a complete success. Afterwards the crew went next door to AJ's, which is a strip club connected with the bar. That story can't be told by me, probably because it would get some people in trouble, but mostly because I didn't get to go. I had to hop on the 2:18AM train back into NY (last one for the night) so i can get home and get some sleep. I had a funeral and a procession to play the next day. Me and my endless weeks.
So thats it. Met a bonafide rock star and he was awesome, great show, and great friends to hang with. stay tuned for more from SLAM...ONE...DOWN!
-Roach
www.slamonedown.com
www.myspace.com/slamonedown
www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953
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