Some of you have been seeing me not liking the idea of a musician dating another musician. Why would I prefer not to date another musician? These things have been happening quite a bit around the scene. I’ve been seeing local musicians getting into romantic relationships with other female musicians around the scene, even as far as getting married to them and stuff. Musician & musician relationships usually never work out, and never last that long anyway. Why? For a few simple reasons: 1) It’s all ego 2) She could be using you and for more publicity of her own music 3) Both of them are usually busy all the time with life and music. The list goes on, ya know? On top of that, they can really hurt you and destroy you bad. This is why I kind of prefer to date someone who doesn’t play an instrument or knows nothing about songwriting at all. I think musician couples are pretty whacky anyway but who knows though, sometimes those kind of relationships do work out for them, but rarely. This is just my opinion, so no offense to anyone about this.

Kev

Whether you’re a professional musician, amateur/hobbyist, or if you’re not a musician at all and just a music lover, anyone is welcome to be an honest critic in music. I’ll repeat for the 100th time, this is what music is here for. Whether you want to say  that a band’s music is good or bad. If you want to judge their professionalism of how they act or play their shows, you have the right to do all that if you please. Honest feedback is good for the music world. The negative feedback can help. If everybody had to be 100% positive at everything, then that would make the music world boring, wouldn’t it? What ever is on your mind, you shouldn’t have to be afraid to say it, even if it might hurt people’s feelings.

It’s just that when ever a musician tries to be honest about something whether you’re a professional or amateur, they would get criticized in return. It’s almost like it’s a crime for musicians to be honest about stuff. Not only local musicians have a hard time trying to be honest about stuff, famous musicians too. For example, outspoken musicians like Dave Mustaine, Ted Nugent, Billy Corgan and Noel Gallagher. They try to be real about stuff in the industry and they get all kinds of shit back from the public, a backlash. It seems that regular music fans are welcome to be real about stuff, all they want to, but when a musician tries, it’s almost against the law.

If one musician comes out and says this band here sucks or these guys are a bunch of douche bags, everyone else will tell him stuff like, “You shouldn’t have the right to have an opinion on them, when you haven’t done anything in music ’cause your music sucks, anyway”. You get the deal, what I’m talking about. Then this musician all of a sudden becomes the most hated person in music, only for having an opinion! That’s the way music goes for a musician. It’s tougher for them to be honest about stuff ’cause music is world wide and everyone can read and hear their thoughts on stuff.

I know a lot of people have a lot to say about me or my music, either positive or negative. I can take the mixed reactions ’cause I know honest feedback can go both ways.

I get people criticizing me in return, all the time. I’m used to people telling me, that I don’t have the right to be real about music when they think I haven’t got the success or experience to back things up with. When I’m being honest about stuff, I’m doing that as a “music fan”. I’m a music lover just like everyone else. So why can’t I have an opinion? Other people are free to be honest all they want to, but when the Brock joins in, I’m all of a sudden a troll or the bad guy of the music scene.

See how the music world is messed up? See how insane people can be? People are gonna be crazy yes, but if you want to speak your mind in music, best thing to do is not care what anyone else thinks. I’m done talking about this topic now, just had to vent.
Kev

I’ve been a part of local music for years to know that it’s never been a positive scene. It never was and never will be. This music scene is full of short tempered people, and some of them also have huge egos, it’s crazy. A lot of them can also be pretty pretentious and unprofessional. Not all musicians are like this, I know some of them can be nice and professional, you just gotta find ’em. They’re all different. Once you put yourself out there publicly as a musician, you’re going to get jealous people trying to destroy your dreams and goals. Not only that musicians can be crazy people, bars/club owners/promoters can be much worse as well. I’m sure other music scenes around the U.S. are no different, but I’m tired of people thinking this is a positive scene when you know it’s a lie. I’ve seen how people do stuff at the shows and seen how local music people use the internet. I’ve seen it all.

If I see things with my own eyes, it’s pretty likely I’m going to respond and give my opinion on it. I don’t lie about things and don’t make things up. So after all these years, after some of the things I’ve seen in local music, the scene deserves to get called out on stuff on here. It is why I rant about local music. Trying to get people to have a more positive and better scene.

It’s getting even more difficult for bands & artists to get gigs these days ’cause of the bars & venues, all they care about is money. You don’t have a fanbase, you don’t get a gig. There are also too many big shot musicians who pretend to be celebrities or something.

I support local music yes, but honesty is what I’m all about. I am the Simon Cowell of the Capital District, and not ashamed of it. Sometimes this scene can be good, sometimes not. I just want whats best for musicians and for the music scene, that is all. Plus, I want what’s best for myself and my own music, that’s the big reason why I do it. If I get treated unfairly by other bands or clubs, I won’t be afraid to call out on that stuff. Nothing wrong with being real, ’cause it’s actually a pretty professional thing to do, if you think about it. Look it up yourself.

You can agree or disagree with my local music discussions, it just needs to be said.

Kev

The CRUMBS radio, has always been a huge part of CRUMBS for years. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the CRUMBS website which is dedicated to local musicians, would have an embedded radio player for the site. Local musicians of all kinds would submit songs to the site owner to upload their music to that player. The songs would get voted on by the public, and it would compile  a chart, on which song that got the most positive feedback, like a Billboard chart kind of thing. I forgot how Andy, the previous owner, did the Crumbs radio thing, but the new owners did a little differently. The Crumbs radio thing is what keeps me on Crumbs, listening to music from other local musicians and bands. I think I got my own music played on the Crumbs radio before, when Andy used to run the site.

I wish they would get the Crumbs radio back. I believe they got rid of it ’cause that’s when WEXT 97.7 started working for them so they can air their “Crumbs Cafe” interviews for FM radio, so WEXT can get more listeners. WEXT is a local music radio station which I’m also not that crazy about.

I don’t think Guzzo, the new owner would be offended at my feedback, I think he would appreciate it, ’cause I believe he likes hearing feedback about CRUMBS positive or negative ’cause they like to find ways to make the site better for people. I hope, he’s not offended, he shouldn’t be. I’m sure, he’s man enough to take it.

I’m just disappointed that they got rid of CRUMBS radio ’cause that was a good opportunity for random musicians of all kinds to get their music heard, even my own music. CRUMBS radio was the whole point of the site, has been for years, and they just got rid of it like it was nothing since WEXT took over. Their online radio thing was special. Here’s an idea to improve CRUMBS, ditch WEXT and bring back CRUMBS Radio. Of course, they won’t do that, whatever makes them the money.

Kev

I just discovered this video from a local band who is from Glens Falls, N.Y. They are a band called, Cosmonauts. I just stumbled upon this video and it blew me away. This is one of the best music videos I’ve seen from a local band in years. Some of you know that I’m not a big fan of bands doing professionally made “music videos” ’cause a lot of them are badly done, but this one here, blew my mind. This is how you make a music video guys. I love the song too.

Warning though, the video can get pretty graphic at the end. The video is about a troubled girl. Enjoy.

Kev

I used to like and support CRUMBS.net, but with the new bloggers and owners over there, the site have recently gone way downhill, in my opinion. Whenever pop star, Lana Del Rey, releases something new, the CRUMBS blog would be all over it. Yes, Lana Del Rey was from this area, she grew up in Lake Placid, New York, so that’s considered, Capital District, yes. She wasn’t around this area for that long though. After doing a little reading about her life, she was actually born in New York City. So technically, she’s not a Capital District native. She stayed in Lake Placid for a while, but she moved to Connecticut at age 14 to battle alcohol dependence. She had a drinking problem even when she was underage. After this, Del Rey moved back to NYC at age 18 to pursue a career in music. She didn’t do anything for music when she was around here. So why is the local music scene here all over this woman? I don’t get it. Doesn’t make a bit of sense. Plus, her music is nothing all that special and doesn’t get to me.

I just go to CRUMBS for the Cafe radio interviews, but the blogs over there haven’t been that interesting. I’m honestly starting to miss, the previous owner, Andy Gallo, who used to run the site, and I think he ran the site, a lot better.

When people want to come for local music information or bands, most of the local music scene comes here to my own site more than the others anyway. I get more views than most local music blogs, not trying to sound like an egomaniac ’cause it is the truth.

Kev

I am amazed at the large number of local guitarists around here, who would either be good at rhythm or lead, when the truth is, you must be good at both, if you want to be a respected musician and be taken seriously. I’m all cool with bands who have two different guitarists, one that plays lead and the other that plays rhythm, but I think it’s pretty important, that you need to be good at both. Which is where I’m coming from. I’m doing my very best, to learn both rhythm and lead. Trying to get better at both. It’s good to do both ’cause you need to be versatile and do everything. Sure, you can still play professionally by just being good at rhythm and not play any lead guitar at all but playing guitar solos is a pretty important piece of music. If I ever get a band, I’m gonna do all guitar work myself. I don’t think I’m going to have a second guitarist, which is why I’m trying to get better at both. I’ll admit that I’m not a professional enough guitarist yet, but I’m on my way up there. Still have lots to learn and a lot of work to do.

One of the reasons I picked up the guitar, is that I wanted to be a great lead guitarist like my heroes. I wanted to become a hot lead guitarist. Trying to take lead guitar soloing more seriously. More than just pentatonic scales. I’m talking the modes, theory, arpeggios, and more difficult techniques. I’m slowly moving up to the advanced level. I want to be a great guitar player someday. I’m not saying I’ll ever become a guitar god, ’cause the guitar god thing ended since the 80’s when Van Halen was at the top of the game. I just want to be great. Some people may think I already am great, but I don’t think so. I still got way more to go.

I am practicing and learning still. Studying music is awesome. I love it. Being good at rhythm and lead at the same time, will open many doors to your music life. That’s why it’s important to do both. Just throwing a little two cents in.

Kev

There’s a few readers who try to start an argument, on whether or not I am a hypocrite for saying that I am a positive person, and yet, I continue to be negative on my site. When I say I’m trying to have a positive life and be at my best ever, I was actually referring to that in real life, off the computer. On the computer, I mostly try to be positive but I still go on rants and raves like I always do, and be honest about stuff, but I try not to be as aggressive as I used to be. I still have negative opinions and will continue to have them. A lot of people misinterpret things I say on here.

On top of that, this is my personal site. If you don’t like the way I run things on here, you don’t have to read. Coming here to criticize the way I write is not welcome here. You can have your opinions about me else where, but not here. I started posting on blogs years ago as my own little personal message board, where I can discuss anything I please. Rants, rave, be as negative as I want and all that stuff. That’s part of what a blog is for, a place where you can vent about stuff.

The previous blog post about “supporting local music” was just explaining to people that I’m not just a local music promoter/critic, I’m an actual fan and supporter. That was the point of it. I like to go out and see bands, be supportive of the scene. I’m not one of those desperate promoters trying to jerk themselves off and get more publicity for their promoting company, that’s not me at all. I like to be real about music. A lot of people think it’s a bad thing, but in my eyes, it’s okay. It’s actually good to be real and honest. It really helps a musicians career and that’s part of the reason why I like to be real. You need to do what’s best for yourself as a person and musician.

I never cared if other people didn’t like it or not. I have a thick skin and really didn’t have to change for anybody. Being yourself is the way to go.

Kev

Some people mistakenly believe that I like to use my site to help promote local music. Help support bands at random as a way to help make the scene better. Yes, I like to help promote local music and local bands, but I never saw myself, as a “promoter”. I’m not CRUMBS, Nippertown or Ralph’s Capital Underground, I am me. I’ve always saw myself as a local music fan and supporter. I don’t support bands at random just to be friendly or just because they have a huge following, like those other promoting web sites do. I would only support a local band or a solo artist if I like the music. I know what great talent is. I can tell whether or not someone is gifted and talented. If their music grabs me, then I’ll become an immediate fan. I’m the same with all music whether local, in the independent scene or the major labels. Whatever grabs me, I’ll support it.

If there are bands or artists, I don’t care for musically, I won’t be afraid to say that they are crap. There is so much music out there that I can’t support everything as much as I would like to. So I just support the music that I like. When you see me giving artists shout outs, giving them reviews on their albums or shows, or spreading the word on their music, that’s when you’ll know that you just made a new fan. I’m a fan. Not a promoter, or manager like so many want to pretend to be these days.

I just enjoy supporting bands and musicians. I enjoy becoming part of the scene. When I enjoy a band or artist of any kind, I really mean it that I support them. I’m not that the kind of person that will pretend to enjoy a band, then talk trash about them behind their backs which that seems to be happening a lot around here. I’m a true local music supporter, probably better than anyone around here, and not trying to be an egomaniac, just being real.

Kev

There’s a certain few in facebook that should be nameless, that love to slam bands for moving forward in their careers. Getting bigger to the point where the band is about to go indie and about ready to make the big time. When people do this, I would usually defend the bands decision for moving forward and getting bigger in their careers. I would say stuff like, this is what all bands do. They all want to get big and become more successful. A lot of them don’t want to stay as local bands forever, and all of this is true if you think about it. The band would get accused of becoming sell outs ’cause they would sign to an indie label and all that stuff.

I never understood why local musicians slam other bands for getting bigger. I never understood why you won’t like a band anymore ’cause of their success. I’m never the one that would do that to a band. If I’m a fan of a band, I’ll stay loyal to them, no matter how popular and big they get. I’m happy for all talent for their success. When ever you see local musicians slamming the more successful bands, chances are, this certain local musician has gotten no where with his music and he’s mad at other bands for getting more success than him. He’s sitting at home writing about that stuff on the computer, while those bigger bands are out there making a name for themselves.

If us local musicians want to get bigger to the point where you aren’t local anymore by signing with a big indie label, I’ll wish them congratulations and feel happy for them. I wish all talent for success. I really mean that ’cause I’m a true supporter of music, all around. I enjoy seeing musicians getting together playing music and making their dreams come true. Getting successful and getting big doesn’t fall in your lap. You really have to do the work and get it yourself, if that’s what you want. Success just happens for a band as long as the music is good.

Would I want the same success that all these bands are getting? I do want it someday, honestly, but taking my slow time. Baby steps. If success or a label signing doesn’t happen to me at all, I’ll be cool with that, I just want to play. I don’t attack bands for their success. I always liked to treat music in a positive direction, and that’s the way to be.

Kev