A post stolen from the craigslist musicians section:

All right! So when I got back and read a couple of the rants on here labeling Albany as Smallbany, I kind of giggled and laughed. It wasn’t until I met with a few of the musicians from the area and attended a couple of Open Mics did I really begin to notice what was going on. I have lived all over the country. I have brushed elbows regularly with superstars whom ironically where some of the most humble and kind people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Since my arrival in the Capital district I have come across more inconsiderate, pompous ego maniacs than every before in my life. From the locals who monopolize open mic(with obvious minimal investment of time in the music craft) , to studios who who charge exorbitant amounts for piss poor quality recordings ,it’s all very laughable. I used to think it was important to support open mic night ,well after it is of no use to a musician personally. I felt it gave those developing the craft something to strive for, but now I am convinced it’s a waste of time. For someone who has worked tirelessly to perfect their art it’s a waste of time, because no one ultimately cares about the music. It’s it’s a big f%$^^ing popularity contest here and that’s all that it will ever be! Musicians suffer from the big fish little pond effect!The thought that a person could show up over hour early for an open mic and not even get a chance to sign the list is pathetic and reflects directly on local musicians! There is no time to, because the list goes from the hands of the local running it into the hands of his buddy. He in turn signs up all his buddies whom haven’t even arrived yet. It’s really quite a vicious little circle, but again laughable. Unless the place had a decent draft beer and cheeseburger the newcomer is SOL. This has brought me to the conclusion that most people who play music aren’t musicians but people with very damaged psyches who spent a lot of time alone. They have nothing else to do,so they learn to hack up a few songs on guitar! Welcome to the capital district! Does anyone know a travel agent?

This rant was posted on craigslist in the musicians forum and who ever this anonymous poster is right on target on the music scene here! He’s basically ranting about how open mics are around here which I absolutely agree with but he pretty much summed it up on how this music scene is as well.

This area is nothing but a popularity contest with music, and this area is full of pompous egomaniacs for sure!

What he explained above is why I don’t frequent open mics anymore. I used to frequent open mics all of the time when I was younger but I stopped going to them. Open mics are just for regulars who jerk themselves off and pretending to be professional musicians.

Open mics should be welcome for everybody no matter the level of talent. A lot of open mic hosts run them pretty horribly too.

Kev

I have always said that unsigned musicians can be very unfriendly people in any music scene in the United States. I know you’re getting tired of me talking down on musicians and being all “negative” on them but I’m not afraid to get the truth out. I’m no shrink but I have observed the way musicians socialize with people over the years and it’s pretty interesting to say the least. The way musicians communicate with each other especially online is really weird and strange to me. It’s mostly the more professional musicians… the more successful and talented musicians who can be unfriendly at times. When I mean, unfriendly… I mean “unfriendly”.

Short tempers, huge egos, and blah blah blah, you get the deal. They can be extremely rude to people when they are not even realizing it. Some of them can act like bullies to other musicians, yep.

It seems that the only time musicians are nice to you if you support their music and their playing. That’s the thing that I observed over the years. If you look around… a lot of musicians only care for themselves. A lot of them seem to enjoy having an ego problem and they like to feel important with themselves. A lot of them have strange behaviors and that includes me. The second you say something negative about them… if it’s something negative about their playing, their musicianship or themselves as a person… they will hate you forever. I know from my own experience. If you’re critical about the music scene or other bands… they will hate you for that too.

There are some musicians out there who has no reason to hate you. They just hate you for the sake of hating. They just like to join the bandwagon ’cause everyone else is doing it.

A lot of people mistakenly accuse me of being a hateful and negative person but the sad truth is that a lot of musicians out there can be a lot more hateful and negative than me. Believe me, I read what they write in social networking sites and craigslist. A lot of their writings aren’t directed at me but I see how they write about local music sometimes and there can be some pretty aggressive and heated discussions. Sometimes they end up resorting to name calling and swearing. Bashing other talent.

This scene always had a love & hate relationship. It’s nothing new. I’ve seen it for years. This is part of why most of the popular local music forums have been shut down ’cause musicians act so crazy on it.

Everyone wants to see the Albany area as a friendly and lovable scene but technically, it’s not. Let me say that again… the reason musicians are unfriendly is because of ego and their self importance. Once again, not all musicians are unfriendly. I know. There are some very friendly, nice and down to earth musicians out there but there’s not enough. Just one thing to keep in mind that having a negative attitude in music is not going to get you very far. When musicians talk to me, I expect a friendly attitude as well. When they don’t act friendly to me, you can very well believe that I could be ranting about it on this blog. That’s why musicians are stuck here in Albany ’cause of their negative attitudes.

The secret to going forward in music and having a better career more positively… is being friendly to everyone. All the time. No matter if people are negative to you first, you still need to have a positive and professional attitude. This scene thinks they’re professional acting but they aren’t really. If everybody was positive and friendly, we could have a better scene.

Your attitude in music is pretty important. I’m learning myself about this and learning from my past mistakes so I don’t do them again in the future. Just be kind, have good karma and amazing things will happen in your music career, trust me. Nope. Musicians will never take this advice. Their egos will think that will give them the privilege to act how they want to. Also, ignoring the negativity at all costs will also help bring you forward on a positive note. I’m working on that too. I’m trying my best to be more positive myself.

Kev

Bands & artists around this area seem to have this problem of agreeing with everything. In other words, they feel the need to play the “yes man” and try to take every opportunity that is thrown at them ’cause they mistakenly believe that is a way to have a successful and positive career. Wrong. You have to be realistic and negative about some things. You can’t play the nice guy all of the time… you gotta do what’s right for your music and for yourself.

So here is a list of things that I WOULDN’T do in my own music world and maybe you should take the same suggestions. You may have seen me saying these things on these blogs before but I have no problem talking about them again…

Lets get right to it shall we???

Several things I would never do in local music are…

• Pay to play gigs – You really need to watch out for these things. Pay to play venues are on the rise in this area… there are more of them now. If you have a Reverb Nation account or any other social networking site for musicians, chances are you’re going to get scammers trying to book you a gig at Red Square and such by a company called AftonLive, and you’ve probably heard of it before. AftonLive is a huge problem. There are other pay to play scams around here like GorillaMusic which is associated to certain venues around this area. I would NEVER do pay to play. Bands & musicians fall for these things too easily. I am smart and careful enough to know what these things are. You don’t need to do pay to play gigs just to get your foot in the door of some crap venue. You’re only harming yourself if you go through these pay to play things. Don’t do it. This is one thing I avoid like the plague.
• Crowd funding for your albums and tours – This also seem to be a popular thing around local and unsigned musicians. Taking money from people to fund for your albums like through sites like PledgeMusic or Kickstarter. I’m sure those sites are legit and they work successfully but I would never do it. Nothing against other musicians doing it but I wouldn’t take money from fans just so they can enjoy your music. I understand that people have a tight budget financially which is why a lot of musicians do it but there are other ways of getting money to get your projects done besides taking money from your fanbase. Are you that greedy? I would like to make my own album someday sure but I would never do crowd funding stuff, ever.
• Make music videos – It’s understandable why bands/artists make MTV/VH1 styled professional videos but I would never do one. You would probably never see me doing one. The closest you’ll ever see me do music videos are those homemade videos that I have on youtube. That’s good enough. You’ll never see me do a video where I walk down the street moving my mouth to some song, dancing or snapping my fingers or whatever. I don’t see myself as a rock star like most do around here.
• Sign a record label – I’m happy being unsigned. I don’t really care for a big career in music. I just wanna play. Have fun and enjoy myself. I would like to be big and get recognized with my music but I don’t care whether I get there or not. I’m not that desperate.
• Pay a lot of money for studio time – I think it’s a bit ridiculous how bands spend thousands and thousands of dollars on studio time when you don’t need to. Like I always say you can make a decent sounding album right at your own home. Get some decent sounding home recording equipment, learn your DAW software, and off you go! At home you can record anytime and at low cost.
• Battle of the Bands and other ridiculous competitions – I would avoid these like the plague too! I just don’t agree with putting your music out there like this. You don’t have to do these things to go places with your music. I still say they are like a small version of those reality shows on TV like the Voice, Idol, America’s Got Talent, etc. Since those reality shows got popular… bars & clubs in different cities will start creating similar competitions for local talent. i don’t think you’ll ever see me doing these things at all. I saw one Battle of the Bands show once and I hated what I saw (I just went that one year to support this certain band that I was going to vote for, you know who that band is). Not hating that one band that I speak of but the rest of the show I hated.
• Over promote myself – I don’t need to promote myself too much. All I need for self-promotion of my musical projects are this blog, my twitter or facebook. Musicians seem to do it everywhere as much as possible and I don’t need to do that. I like to let people find me on their own. I don’t shove my music in everyone’s faces like so many bands do these days.

That’s about all I can think of for now but if I can think of more… I might do a part 2 of this post. I’ve tried to think of more but these ones above are the only ones I can think of.

Enjoy!

Kev

When you want to criticize a band that a lot of people like or the music scene overall… chances are people aren’t going to like it. When you want to be critical like this — be ready for a negative response back by the band themselves or even their fans/supporters. I’ve been dealing with this for years. I’m no stranger to this. I’ve been criticizing local bands (not naming names) and the music scene for way over a decade so I know how people react to this stuff. What kind of negative response will you get back from the public? Well, bands will try to defend themselves and the fans will help defend them too. Usually, people will criticize you in return: they will either bash your music or bash you as a person. They will act like that you’re lower than them. When you bash the music scene overall… musicians will try to help defend the scene.

The thing that people can never understand is, it’s absolutely okay to criticize music of any kind. That’s what music is here for. Listen to it, say  whether you like it or not — discuss it — debate about music — whatever!!! I’ve been saying for a long time now that it seems to be okay to criticize the national music industry but when you criticize local music… people will be like, “WWAAAAaaaahhhhh, waaaaahhhh, oh no, he’s talking bad about local bands, he needs to shut his mouth….” blah blah blah blah, you get the deal. It seems that the only time people will be open to hating me is when I criticize a band that people like or criticize the music scene overall. Why do people respond back in a negative direction when it should absolutely be okay to discuss music how you want to? They simply do it in retaliation. It’s kind of like their way of giving you payback. It’s like a “you hurt me, I hurt you” kind of thing. When you’re an outspoken person, people will want to be all tough and they will think they have “Complete Control of Your Mind” (go back to my poem about it).

When musicians respond back to your criticism, all that’s doing is proving your point that musicians can be really selfish and ego-driven people. They want to think they’re good at everything they do and they expect everything to be positive about them — all of the time. They don’t like anything negative and they don’t like it when people get real about stuff. It really bothers them.

As far as the fans go, the supporters… they do it ’cause they hate to see their favorite band get put down. They’re pretty loyal to them and the fans would have their back no matter what is said about them. They help defend the band ’cause they know bands thrive over flattery and they do it to make them feel good.

It would be nice if we can all be opinionated and critical about music all we want to without people whining about it but that’s the internet. People are crazy on here. It just shows that people are bad at socializing.

EVERYBODY knows it’s absolutely okay to talk about music how you want to. That’s what music is about — Freedom of expression. If you can’t take the truth, then the music world isn’t for you. You also don’t deserve to be giving opinions about other music yourself if you can’t take other people giving the truth about your music.

When bands come after you and yell at you for your criticism about them, they’re just doing that for their own ego. They’re trying to force you to have a positive opinion and thought about them or they simply want you to shut up about them. It’s also an unprofessional thing to do is to respond to online criticism of any kind. A real musician would ignore all the negativity and criticism aimed at them. If you think you’re so big and and successful with your music… if you respond to the critics, then you’re not big and successful as you think you are.

If you want to bash the critic in return (that’s me), that’s okay. It just shows that you’re hypocrites when you do that. I mean, isn’t it funny how people can say all kinds of negative stuff about me all they want to but I can’t say negative stuff about others? I’ve always tried to figure that one out, it always confuses me. I mean, people always say stuff how it’s wrong to bash bands, bashing the music scene but what about myself? Doesn’t that make you hypocritical? People just don’t realize how bad they treat me online… they don’t even read before they post. They don’t realize I’m a human being myself and would like to be treated how you like to be treated. Really, I can be a really nice guy if you give me a chance but whatever. HA!

Seriously, people say all kinds of nasty stuff about me online. I never understood why… I just learned to ignore all the haters over the years.

I don’t have to please every single person on this planet. That’s not how life works. Leaving the comments closed in this post ’cause it’s just a read and do not reply thing ’cause all I know that you’re going to do is bash me like the hypocrites you are.

Kev

Music is music. Whether it’s local or national, you have every right to be real about everything as much as you want to. I love “constructive criticism”, it’s what I do. That’s what this blog is all about. This blog have always been about “constructive criticism” on all topics. Being real about things. The reason I’m like this is because I’m one of those who feel that if you don’t like something and if you don’t agree with something… you feel the need to say it. Get it out of you and don’t hold it in. A lot of people seem to be keeping their thoughts and honesty to themselves. I don’t want to be one of those who pretends to be positive and lovable about everything. In other words, I don’t want to be a “fake” like most people. I like to be real. Being real helps makes my life much easier. Trust me… I am not afraid of the truth and not afraid to say stuff that everyone else is afraid to say.

If I want to believe that playing music shouldn’t be about the money, I have that right. It’s just what I believe in. That opinion wasn’t meant to offend or upset other musicians… I was just speaking of what I believe in. I never did music for the money… I am in it for the love of it… and there is nothing wrong with believing in that. I don’t care to get a big career in music. That’s not my goal. My goal is trying to become the best songwriter I can be and try to get better.

If I want to think this band and that band there is shit, I have that right. If I want to believe that musicians around here are complete assholes and unprofessional, I have that right to believe in that. If I want to disagree with the things they do like Battle of The Bands (and other competitions), going for pay to play gigs, playing shit venues, etc. I have that right to say it. If I want to criticize the way bands write songs and make their music, I have that right too.

For example, I am not into this band called Phantogram. A lot of people enjoy them but not me. I started to like that band at first but got bored of ’em quick. Their music is not my cup of tea. I can’t get into that techno electronica stuff they do. They are too pop for me. I think Phantogram is a bit over hyped as well. People seem to enjoy them ’cause they’re from Greenwich/Saratoga area and a lot of people around here support them for that reason plus a lot of Greenwich people who are friends with them like them too. I don’t have to enjoy them ’cause they are from around here. No hating… just giving you an example of “constructive criticism”. I don’t get all the hype of this band. I was sitting at the table at the Healthy Living store at the mall having a cold drink and heard Phantogram twice on the radio… they’re also all over commercials on TV.

With all this being said, there is really no music scene around here if you think about it. Nobody really goes to original shows anymore. There are hardly any venues around. Most went out of business. It’s almost impossible to get gigs these days. Especially with all the pay to play venues and scams all over the place. Crazy!!!!!!!!

There are so much talent around the Albany area but we pretty much have a dead music scene. We always have had a dead music scene and always will. It will never change.

I think it’s best to be real about music. I’m the one paying bands & artists for what they do and I wanna makes my money’s worth. I also want to do what’s best for myself since I’m a musician and songwriter as well.

The reason a lot of musicians get angry at my criticism is ’cause a lot of them feel that I haven’t had much experience in the music scene to prove my points so they wanna think they’re bigger and better than me all the time. Sorry to say but that’s all pretty assumptive. I’ve had years of experience in the music scene. You may not see it but I do. My years of local music go way back. I think I started supporting the scene somewhere in early 2000, maybe earlier than that. If I’m the one going to the gigs, I have every right to review of what I see there. I’ve been supporting local bands for years and played some gigs of my own as well. I played many open mics over the years.

I’ll never change who I am just because a bunch of musicians don’t like my honesty. That’s what a critic is supposed to do. Piss people off and get ’em going. If you can’t handle my criticism on here… then you won’t be able to handle criticism of other bloggers and music critics. Sorry to say but the bigger you get in the music industry… the more critics and bloggers will be writing bad stuff about you. That’s the name of the game in the music business. Not all music critics out there are gonna be positive about everything you do musically. You will get a few negative reviews of your music and your band. You have to learn to have balls and stay above the critics. If you can’t… then you won’t get very far at all and you’ll let the critics win.

My criticism and honesty maybe cynical and harsh — yes — but at least people are reading, paying attention, and I’m getting the job done. I’m happy what I do. No regrets at all!

Kev

Ya know, I am pretty disgusted at the way a lot of bands and venues are pricing the admission to get into shows in this day and age. I look at all the show flyers and sometimes when I go to actual shows myself, I see venues pricing gigs at around $10 – $15. This is one thing I really hate about the music scene is the pricing for shows. I think $10 or a little more is a bit too high. In my opinion, “local gigs” don’t need to be priced that high. A price like that should be good enough to go see some crappy indie band at some craphole club. I miss the days when local music shows used to cost like $3 – $5 dollars to get in. The reason the pricing of shows are going up is because there is so much talent around this area and a lot of people are going to shows. As long as the scene is thriving, they’ll raise the price.

Money. *sigh*

That’s all this scene seem to care about these days. It seems that it’s okay to play music for the money the way this scene is going. Why do you think Pay to Play gigs are on the rise in the Capital area? Pay to play is all over this area now which is why it’s almost pointless to be gigging these days.

I was never about the money when it comes to music. I’m willing to play shows where I don’t get paid at all and I don’t care how much I get paid. I’m one of those who feel that if you play music for money, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. I think musicians are a bit greedy when it comes to money and stuff.

Free shows are slowly fading away, I notice as well. I was always willing to play free gigs. Most of my gigs from the past were free shows. I only got paid from very few of them.

Music is not a day job for me. I don’t need extra income for that. I don’t want to make money out of my art. Something I’m proud of.

If I were to ever get back to playing live again, I would make sure I would play a free gig somewhere.

This is part of the reason why I don’t go out too much to see bands at local gigs ’cause I feel that the admission pricing these days are pretty ridiculous. $10 is too much to see some local band at some craphole bar — seriously, think about it for a few minutes.

Kev

That’s what I’ve been trying to say about music for years. It is about the music. It is not about the fame, popularity or money. If you do music for those three things, then you don’t deserve to call yourself a musician, in my opinion. It’s about the love and passion for music. That’s me. I play music ’cause I care about it and see it as a passion. If I don’t get any publicity or any press with my music or if I don’t get signed, I’m all good with that. That’s not what I do music for. I do music ’cause it’s in my blood. It’s just as simple as that!

Kev

I know I can be a pretty dislikable guy in the world of local musicians. Some musicians like me and some don’t. Either way, I don’t give a shit. So, you’re a musician wanting to play your music either in a band or solo acoustic but all of a sudden, you start seeing other fellow musicians talking all kinds of trash about you online. You ask yourself… “Why am I being hated on, all of a sudden?”. It’s not you. It’s them. It isn’t because you’re a bad person. It isn’t because your music is crap. Over the last several years or more of experiencing this myself, I have come to a conclusion on why this is. Musicians could be hating on you for a couple of these good reasons:

• They know that you are more talented – They know that you play better and make better music — they will never admit that you are good and it’s killing them.
• They know that you are too good of a person – Another reason why I can think of why musicians attack you is that you are probably too nice of a person. They just want to act like tough guys and try to make you feel bad. They’re like bullies in high school.
• They know that you are more honest – Musicians know that it’s okay to be yourself and they know it’s okay to speak your mind. The second you say something wrong, you’re the enemy of a lot of people you don’t know. You have to be on everyone’s side all of the time if you want to be respected. If you don’t side with them on something, that makes you the badguy.  They hate honest people. They’re jealous of that too.
• They might be jealous of your accomplishments in music – enough said?

You get the idea, I think. I think it’s a pretty healthy thing to be disliked by a lot of musicians. It’s letting you know that you are well-known and getting somewhere. Haters make you popular, ha!

Not all musicians will hate you, though — you’ll have some who will be willing to support you every step of the way. I have some musicians who have supported me throughout the years no matter the negativity/controversy that happened and I’m actually honored and grateful for that. I like musicians who will stay loyal and supportive. If you show me support, I will show you loyal support in return. It’s just as simple as that.

Kev

When I say things like “popularity in music is dumb” and “it’s something I would never care for”… I’m not really talking down on popularity. Hey, I would love to get lots of fans and move forward to a big career… that would be great; however, to make things a little more clear if I don’t get there at all, I’m all fine and good with that. I think that’s what I mean. Bands get all disappointed and offended when they get small crowds at shows or when they get a small amount of plays of their music online. You should be proud of that, anyway. People aren’t going to like everything you do, so get over it.

Again, a big career would be awesome… I’m just not worried about it, right now. You just gotta learn to enjoy being an unsigned musician and stop taking yourself so seriously. That’s all I’ve been trying to teach musicians over the years. Music and life should be a first priority. All the popularity and the good stuff bands get should be secondary. Don’t worry about popularity, fame or money. Just enjoy making the music and sharing it. That’s how “local music” should be but in this day and age musicians see local music differently. They just want to keep going forward and hoping to “make it” (I still totally blame that on the internet and the media). Local music used to be just a group of musicians getting together online to show each other songs and critique it. These days everyone wants to be rock stars.

Kev

A lot of musicians out there wanna be big, popular or famous. Is popularity always a good thing in music? A lot of people want to mistakenly believe it’s a wonderful and glorifying thing to have lots of fans and recognition but at the same time it can be bad in some way. There’s too many musicians out there who will never admit they don’t enjoy being popular themselves. Allow me to explain the pros and cons when becoming a popular/well-known act in music.

The Pros

Getting lots of fans and recognition can mean a lot of good things. You’re getting your music heard and getting it out there. You get a lot of gigs that come out of it. Getting a lot of good opportunities. You meet a lot of nice people and moving forward to the next level in your careers. You can also make a lot more money by becoming well-known.

The Cons

HMmmmm, I can go on all day with this one. Becoming an established act would mean that you’re going to have to say goodbye to your privacy. You’re never gonna be left alone by local media or your die-hard fans. You’re like a mini-celebrity — you’re a public figure now. You could also get a lot more haters & doubters, people saying negative things about you. You have to watch what you do or watch what you say most of the time. It might be a little stressful and overwhelming for ya (it’ll get to you, believe me). You would also get accused of becoming “sell-outs”. The more popular and bigger you become, the more you’ll get looked as a pop act, no matter the genre. You will also get looked at as pretentious and will get criticized a lot. These are some reasons that popularity can be lame sometimes.

Some may not enjoy the popularity but whether they enjoy it or not… they’re gonna get it if enough people like their music.

Like I always say, I don’t care if I get the popularity or become well-known for my music or not. I’m all fine with playing music for just a few people or none at all. Music shouldn’t really be about getting as many fans as possible, anyways. Music should really be for you and that’s what I’ve been trying to explain for years. Too many musicians thrive on popularity when they really shouldn’t. The last thing you wanna do is call yourself a “successful” musician even if you know you are. Letting the music speak on it’s own and leaving your ego at the door.

Nothing wrong with musicians wanting to get big but don’t ever think you will be or you are. I give the most respect to bands/artists who act like they are nothing in music when they don’t realize they are a pretty big act. That’s a good attitude to have as a musician.

The point of this post is that don’t always believe that getting big in music is a good thing. It’s not always good, and you know it. Getting big with your music can be pretty risky if you aren’t careful with things. No need to worry about getting big in music, ya know? I never cared to move forward to a bigger career. Just wanna write songs, that’s the end of it.

Kev