Every city has an underground music scene and I found ours
How a book about major label sellouts helped me understand and appreciate a live show from a trio of Kiwi bands
On a recommendation from my boss/friend, I’ve been reading a book this week called Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore by Los Angeles writer Dan Ozzi, a look at how punk and hardcore music swept pop culture in the wake of Nirvana’s Nevermind, and the Big 6 (EMI, CBS, BMG, PolyGram, WEA and MCA) search for the next big thing. And the next big profit windfall, of course.
Each chapter of the book is about the major label debut of a band who hit big in that scene, starting in 1994 with Green Day’s Dookie, then moving through bands like Jimmy Eat World, the short-lived At The Drive-In, girl band The Donnas, Blink-182 and the Warped Tour, emo deities My Chemical Romance, and more.
It’s interesting to hear about how the groups formed, who helped them come up, and how they developed their sound.
But it’s FASCINATING to hear about the scenes they came out of.
Green Day, for example, came up in the Bay Area (San Francisco) and released their first albums on independent label Lookout, supporting them with shows at local punk rock venues, and building a following by working hard. But once they signed to a major label, the scene essentially rejected them as sellouts, and they were no longer allowed to play the same venues due to in-house rules about not allowing bands signed to major labels onto their stage.
By contrast, Jimmy Eat World came up in Mesa, Arizona - a town with no scene to speak of - and got signed super early to Capitol Records because a guy there really liked their sound. As a result, they didn’t have an existing following to lean on, but they built their reputation over two albums with Capitol, started getting some radio play and making appearances on movie soundtracks. Capitol dropped them after their 1999 album Clarity … then Jimmy Eat World self-released their next album, 2001’s Bleed American, their brilliant breakout record which spawned the single “The Middle”.
(Everyone knows “The Middle”. Sing it with me: ‘it just takes some time, little girl you’re in the middle of the ride, everything everything will be just fine, everything everything will be alright, alright’.)
As interesting as it is to hear about how they got signed and how they found producers and how their first forays on major record labels went (did you know that Blink-182’s original drummer recorded Dude Ranch while recovering from two broken feet?!) , I’m also fascinated by the stories from before - the types of shows they were taking, the bands they were gigging, how hard they worked.
The book is full of stories about bands playing shows in the most unlikely of venues with the most unlikely of bands. Jimmy Eat World spent time opening for At The Drive-In. The Donnas got chased away from a show they were playing in the basement of a bagel factory. Thursday’s first shows were in front of a couple dozen people alongside groups like Saves The Day and Poison The Well, and took place in the basement of singer Geoff Rickly’s flat; concrete-walled and fairly soundproof, Rickly asked bands to park their vans as close to the house as possible top act as a further sound barrier.
It reminded me of a band I was in back in 1999; one of our first shows was a backyard party at the home of a friend of our singer’s flatmate.
As I say, Sellout is fascinating - I thoroughly encourage you to have a listen if this sounds at all interesting to you; the audio is available on Audible and for free on Spotify Premium (Spotify has audiobooks now), physical copies at your library or wherever good books are sold.
I think every city has a scene like this, tiny venues that draw small crowds, but which up and coming bands can use to slowly build up an audience. And on Saturday night I was lucky enough to be one of the few dozen attending such a show at UFO in New Lynn, a tiny venue operated by indie label Powertool Records, a foot high stage setup among shelves packed with vinyl, CDs and cassettes and a dancefloor surrounded by old but comfortable couches.
The show was being put on by Palmerston North metalcore band Bad Schematics, whose album C O L L I D E was released during May, and which I reviewed at the time saying ‘songs like opener "Yours Forever" and highlight "Ghost" rock hard behind the guitar work of Tane Butler and a solid rhythm section … a really good debut for a band that show a ton of promise’.
A link to the full week of reviews is below.
As a live act, Bad Schematics are even better than on record: singer Caleb Williams is a ball of energy, strutting the stage and playing with the crowd and nailing every note. Bass player Caitlin Sorenson and guitarist Tane Butler doesn’t stop moving and grinning for the entire set; Bad Schematics might be the happiest metalcore band on earth, and they clearly love what they are doing.
In my review, I named two songs as favourites - album opener “Yours Forever” and highlight track “Ghost” - so was delighted when both were played back-to-back toward the end of the show. The group played opener “Pilots Or Passengers” twice after Dead Empire’s vocalist called for it as an encore, which they obliged.
The group were joined at the show by openers Seismic State, a Wellington rock group with an expansive sound, and Dead Empire, a prog-rock/metal group from the eastern Bay Of Plenty.
Both groups were clearly up for it. Seismic State worked their way through a collection of broad tracks while refusing to be put in a specific genre, and ended their set with great new single “Blinded By The Sun”. Dead Empire played second, rocking the crowd behind the energy of singer Kaine Harkins, his stage antics evoking At The Drive-in, while tracks like “Buckley” show a penchant for post-hardcore prog-rock that is rare to find in any country, let alone here.
The crowd were into it too: a couple dozen faithful up dancing to every track across the three sets. I’m not a dance-in-front-of-the-stage guy but even I found myself bouncing my head and moving around a little. It was a great night.
It also made me think, often, of the Dan Ozzi book. Ozzi repeatedly tells how bands work so hard to play their music for people. Every chapter features band members living in squalor, taking full time jobs to pay for recording studio time, driving from state to state for shows in front of the other bands and a couple of their friends, dropping out of college to pursue potential success. It’s brutal what these bands do: trying to get a foothold in the music industry is hard work.
I am absolutely sure that Bad Schematics, Dead Empire and Seismic State have done some of the same things. Bad Schematics drove up from Palmerston North, stopping at Tauranga for a show on Friday night. Seismic State drove up here from Wellington, stopping at Taupo for a show as well.
Dead Empire drove up from Mt Maunganui too, but that is just up SH2 so not as big a deal - it would’ve cost a bit on gas though.
It struck me that New Zealand bands face the same obstacles as the bands in Ozzi’s book with two added challenges: travel distance and limited record label presence. I am sure that Warner Bros Music thinks of New Zealand as a curious musical outpost. Same for all the majors. And that makes the work that places like Powertool Records are doing all the more important.
It also struck me that there should have been more people there. Or that it could’ve been in a bigger and more central venue. The question is how to make supporting local music more profitable for venues who want to do it but can’t make it work for them financially.
Population is certainly a factor: Green Day’s rise in the Bay Area was possible thanks to a population almost twice that of the entire country of New Zealand. Even Jimmy Eat World’s rise in scene-less Mesa, Arizona, took place in a county with about 4.6 million people. Auckland, meanwhile, is approaching 1.7 million.
There are people out there doing their best. Music journalism is an issue but there are writers (like Chris Schulz, who is one of our country’s best music writers) and websites (like 13th Floor, whose site is one of the best ways to find new Kiwi music) and Instagram accounts (like Poco Moto, whose weekly city gig calendar is amazing) doing their best to interview and review and promote local venues and shows. But there just aren’t enough boots on the ground.
The best thing we can do, as individual music fans, is to go out and support bands and talk about them when we feel moved to. I know that I’ll certainly be trying to do that more over the coming weeks and months.
In the meantime, check out Bad Schematics, Dead Empire and Seismic State on your music platform of choice (I found them on mine, YouTube Music). You never know, you might find a new favourite band.
Thanks for reading everyone; I’ve been quiet this past week due to a bit of personal life turmoil (maybe more on that later in the week) but I haven’t forgotten about all of you. Thank you for reading and supporting my work here. See you soon.
Chris
**aww shucks**