I try to support local musicians the best I can. I enjoy meeting different musicians all over the place, and I have met many local musicians over the years. They all have different personalities and they are all different. I have also spoken to many musicians online who I haven’t even met in person yet.

So what musicians get my respect and the ones that don’t? I’ll do a brief explanation with a list.
The Musicians That Do Get My Respect: 

• Are the ones who concentrate on the music alone. Just playing your gigs, and writing the songs
• Acting friendly and down to earth to people, even to me.
• Does not have an ego problem whatsoever.
• If you play music for the love of it alone, not worrying about fame, popularity, or money.
• Just acting like a true professional in music.
• If you have talent in what you do musically.
  

The Musicians Who DON’T Get My Respect:

• Are the ones who act like douchebags, musicians who act like assholes to people. They are out there.
• The ones who have a huge ego problem. Musicians who jerk themselves off with their self importance. Thinking they’re so talented and big, most of the time.
• Musicians that think it’s okay to attack and criticize other musicians. This has been a problem for years in the musicians community.
• Musicians that try to scam people money with their kickstarter projects and other fundraising stuff for their albums, tours, etc. A lot of them are capable of doing that stuff with their own budget.
• Musicians who act unprofessional either online or off.
• Musicians who don’t care about fans supporting them. I’ve seen it. Some bands are not good with their fans for shit, when their fans don’t even realize it.
• Musicians who fall for scams easily and non-trusting label signings. Musicians who actually go for pay to play gigs.
• Musicians who get upset at criticism easily and gets defensive over attacks aimed at them online. If you can’t take a bit of honesty, then being a musician isn’t for you. Sorry.

I can keep going with these lists all day.

The problem with the music community here, that a lot of musicians like to support every musician they set eyes upon. Not with me you see, I like to look at things with a bit of reality. Just gotta be real about stuff and not be a faker or a liar, you know?

I have been criticized for my negative rants at musicians over the years, and just wanted to clarify.

Kev

We hear stuff like this all the time. You ask yourself these questions. Why aren’t many people supporting my music? How come my mp3’s aren’t getting too many plays? How come not many people are coming to my gigs? Well, do you ever stop and think, that you need to step up your songwriting skills and improve your craft? If you’re getting lack of support of your music, you can’t put the blame on other people, when the reality is, you need to put the blame to yourself. You have to look at your songs and see what you need improved on. If you want your music to be at your best, you’ve got to be a perfectionist for a lot of reasons. Take everything in songwriting seriously. People are not going to support music if they don’t like it, that’s a fact that’s been proven for years. When a musician complains about lack of support, they get all defensive. Saying things like, “Waaaah, people don’t support me. I’m great and they should respect me”. I’ve been guilty of this myself before. Again that old saying, “You can’t beg for respect, you earn it”.

I’m trying everything I can to improve my songwriting skills. It’s a learning skill, indeed. While you can’t please everyone, there is a way to get everyone to like your music, it just needs to be really good. Good music draws people to your stuff. No other way around it, as I said plenty of times in the past. Someday, I would like to make the best music possible where I can make everyone happy, but it’s difficult to do. This is how EBJ is inspiring me. They’re inspiring me to write better music. If you want to get popularity and success in your music, step up your talent.

Writing a great song that grab a listener’s ear, will get people’s attention. Take your time with the music. No need to rush. You don’t have to have the best singing voice or the best guitar playing skills, all it takes is songwriting talent. I’m going to take lyric writing more seriously too and try to take to a different approach. Maybe make my lyrics more poetic, than storytelling. I’m going to start planning on reading more poetry too. You can’t beg people to enjoy your music, doesn’t work that way. They’ll let you know when you’re good. You don’t tell yourself that you’re good.

Kev

I’ll be going to this EBJ show tomorrow night at the Putnam Den in Saratoga Springs. Feel free to come on out if you got nothing going on, and want to see EBJ yourself.

See the show event, here.

I’ve been wanting to check out the Blind Owl Band and the Mallet Brothers for a long while. Both bands look interesting to me. Tomorrow night shall be a good night of music.

I don’t go out to support local music much anymore as I used to, but I like to go out to see EBJ ’cause they are a band that I respect more than anyone around here.

Kev

After doing a little more research on “Local Legends Live” fest, that got local people talking in other blogs, I just wanted to find out what these festivals are originally supposed to be about. Basically, the whole point of “Local Legends Live” in Albany are for bands that are pretty hot around here. Getting bigger to the point where your band is about to make it big in the music industry. The show is for bands who have accomplished a lot. Some of these bands may not be legends to you, but from the area that they are from, they probably have created quite a legacy in their hometown. This is how EBJ and the other bands on the bill qualifies.

Mike Doughty, who is the former front man of Soul Coughing, he’s being attacked at Nippertown as well. They’re claiming that an out of towner musician shouldn’t headline a local legends fest, when there are other local bands who are legends around here. They think that Mike Doughty headlining the “Legends Fest” takes away the talent from around here, since he is from New York City, and he’s not actually from the Capital District. Excuse me, folks, but to be fair to Mike Doughty, he has performed around the area many times in the past. He has grew a pretty large following around here too, and he has made quite a name for himself in Capital District area. Just because a musician is not actually from this this area, doesn’t mean they aren’t welcome here. There have been out of area bands who have created a large following in the Capital District before, I’ve seen it. Whether you agree with it or not, when an out of town musician/band becomes well known here, that means they are considered Capital District established acts too. Right? Think about it. Mike Doughty is pretty big around here, no matter what you think of it. I listened to some of Mike’s music in youtube and it’s actually very good stuff. Sorry to say guys, but Mike headlining the fest is a good idea.

Some of you say that Mike Doughty is not a legendary musician? Of course, he is! Look at all the stuff he has accomplished over the years, even though it seems that he is unsigned. He did quite a lot and he’s a hard working guy.

Yep, the organizers of this festival are doing good, and they know what they’re doing, clearly. Don’t listen to Nippertown, that’s a shit blog anyway.

As for the previous posts, I was only trying to stick up for EBJ. If I see that the music scene treats EBJ unfairly or criticizes the band in any way, you can expect me to respond and defend them on this blog.

Kev

A lot of people are slamming the title of the Festival in Albany, “Local Legends” fest. They claim that the title is misleading and says that being a “local legend” doesn’t qualify here. You see, this where I disagree. Being a local legend can be possible in your home town. Just like you can be a national legend in whatever career someone does, whether you’re a music legend or sports legend, whatever, the same applies for being local. You may not be nationally famous but it can be possible that you can be “locally” famous in some way. A minor celebrity, type of thing. So I really think Albany knows what they’re doing when they call a Festival “Local Legends” and booking the most popular acts on the fest.

There has been local acts from the past who has been considered “legendary” before. Acts I can think of at the top of my head: Ernie Williams, Section 8, Attica, Small Axe, the Kamikaze Hearts, Phantogram, Conehead Buddha, the Figgs, Dryer, Hungry Jack, Super 400, the Lawn Sausages, etc. Those were just some of the bands that were considered legends around here.

Again, it is possible to have a “legacy” of a music career in your hometown. Usually when people attack the idea of being a “local legend”, they could possibly be a little jealous of their accomplishments.

I never saw myself as a “legend” or a rock star, whatever, but people have told me that stuff before. The fact of the matter is, that when you’re getting the whole town calling you a legend locally, then you probably are. I think Albany is doing the right things with their fest and I think they know what they’re doing.

Kev

EDIT TO ADD: Btw, Local Legends Fest looks pretty fun, and I’m probably gonna go, and support.

All local musicians and bands wants to become established and become recognized in your area.  A lot of people around here, are wondering how? You see the newspapers, music websites, and the local news marketing the same bands. You just wonder how they are getting the good stuff, and you aren’t. You see. The thing is, your music doesn’t necessarily have to be “really” good, to be popular. There are popular bands out there, that make shit music, not naming names. This post might piss some musicians off, some might even agree with it, whatever, I don’t care. The truth needs to be said.

So how are bands and artists in the area getting lots of fans and getting all this recognition in the local press? Why do the same bands become local media darlings?

The answer is really quite simple. If a band tries to make themselves look like mainstream material, when you’re not, that’s when the local media will start being all over you. If you market yourself as if you’re trying to be rock stars or celebrities, that’s a very good chance you’re going to get recognized for it. The local media likes a bands image, it’s the look. They also love the way a band markets themselves. Just write pop songs and you can be a “mainstream” hit in your local area. The local media likes to look at musicians as if they are local celebrities which is just wrong, in my opinion.

Being popular, may sound all cool and fun, but the reality is, not always. Who cares, you know? Music shouldn’t be a popularity contest anyway. Even though I don’t have the popularity and I’m not an established act yet, I just continue to entertain the small fan base that I have. I would like to get popular sometime with my music, but I’m not so worried about it. I’m just enjoying myself and not taking the music thing seriously. If a band or artist is not popular, that doesn’t necessarily mean they suck either. There are plenty of talented bands & artists around here who don’t get any recognition at all. They don’t care to get popular either ’cause they play music for the love of it. That’s where I come from, ya know?

I’m proud with a small amount of people that support my music still. I’m trying to get back out there for them, ’cause I’m still getting people asking me when am I ever going to back out there. I’m not worried about becoming a big musical act. I just want to play. That’s it.

Kev

Edit to add: Btw, this post isn’t aimed at anyone, just being real about the music scene.

When I first started gigging out, I’ll admit that I lost some of my supporters and a small group of people stopped respecting me, which could explain why I have too many haters to this day, lol. Why? Because I’ll confess, that I promoted myself pretty irresponsibly back in the day. I’ll admit that I was dumb. I’m learning to do much better, as you can see. I may have done several of these things on this list in the past, and I could learn not to do them again in the future.

I would think other bands should learn this stuff, and how to run their social networking pages when doing your marketing.

Check out this excellent written article on, “10 Reasons Why You’re Losing Fans” in Facebook or wherever.

I agree with all of it. I may have been guilty on a few of those things myself.

In my facebook fan page @ Kev Brock, I would try to run it as best as possible.

These days, I would post something on there only if I feel that it’s worth posting. Like if I put out a new song I want everyone to hear, I’ll put it there. If I have a show booking, I’ll put it there. I would use that page for promotional material and I would entertain my little following I have on there. I may have a small following on my page for now, but I’m hoping to build even more when I get back out playing live again.

The last thing a band and musician wants to do is beg people for “likes”. If people like you, they will like your page on their own terms. Let your music do the talking. When I get my music back out there, I will be sure to be more professional as ever before.

I see plenty of bands run their pages irresponsibly too. Your professionalism matters people. If you want to keep your fan base, gotta do your marketing right.

Kev

I just posted this status in facebook today: “I believe that those musicians who act like unprofessional losers shouldn’t even be playing music and they shouldn’t be supported. Not naming names. Just a rant.”

I meant what I said too. That post wasn’t aimed at any band or musician in particular. It was directed at the entire music scene in general. Any band or musician that acts unprofessional, I want nothing to do with. Too many so called musicians with the worst attitudes I’ve ever seen and it still goes on. People don’t change. Musicians and their huge egos, too many of them.

Proves my point that this area is not music appreciative when it should be. If you’re wasting time online with so much bullshit, then you’re not a musician. End of story.

Kev

This is pretty freakin’ cool! As Sharon makes her way over seas as part of her world tour, she’ll be making a stop to play for us Capital District people in Albany for Restoration Fest in Sept. I really would like to make that show, I just gotta find people who are willing to go with me. Would be cool to see her live though. I’m hoping!

See the link, here.

I would go to the Fest just to see her alone, although it would be cool to see the reunited Kamikaze Hearts who are also my all time favorite. I would like to see the Parlor too.

Kev

So everyone is talking about “Jillian’s” of Albany closing down. Everywhere I go lately, people are talking about it, on and off the computer. I’m sure you’re wondering about my thoughts on this. Quite honestly, I’m not surprised. Venues and clubs come and go around here. That’s how it always been in the Capital District. I may have been to Jillians like once or twice in my life, but honestly, my experiences there wasn’t very good. I pretty much hated being there, and thought the place was a shit hole, no offense, just an opinion.

Even the owner somewhat admitted it saying that “people are afraid to go there” and “lost customers”. People claimed it closed down ’cause of violence on Pearl St, but I don’t see how. There has to be a reason people stopped going there, right?

This just goes to show that the music scene is fading. No places to play anymore. Which is one of the reasons why I haven’t gigged out in a while.

Kev

Edit to add: Btw, I’m not trying to do any hating or trolling, just keeping it real. So no offense to the owner or anyone else that support it.