Check out this video for you local readers. Ralph Renna posted this video on youtube of some drunk guy named Jim trying to get into a fight with people in the streets of Albany. This is Albany. Things like this is why I don’t play too many bar gigs, folks. This video is kind of funny though.

Kev

So a lot of us like to talk about how terrible the Albany Capital District music scene is. How can we make it better even though I know you all won’t follow it? I have some ideas here. I’ll list ’em. Feel free to add some suggestions in the comments below.

Ways to make the music scene better…

• More venues to play – Seriously, bands & acoustic acts don’t have to be stuck playing crap hole bar rooms all the time. If you have a business degree, I’d like to see some people open up more venues with a stage for local bands.
• Make the booking less difficult – I think it’s idiotic and stupid that a lot of venues want you to play one of their open mics first before booking you. That’s how a lot of venues seem to be booking here lately. The better way venues should book bands is, if they like your music, they should book you, no matter if you have a big following or not. This is just local music, all acts deserve a chance to gig.
• Leave your egos & bad attitudes out the door – I don’t want any of this, “Lets make fun of this guy because he’s funny looking”, “Your music is crap and you need to quit playing”, etc. You get the deal. No bashing other musicians & bands and no acting like you’re better than others. A positive attitude would make a good music scene. Just shut up and play the music, simple?
• Act like a total professional – Being polite, courteous and respectful to everyone at all times but nope, we don’t get any of that. I sometimes see facebook drama with other musicians and in craigslist, it’s pathetic really.
• Concentrate on the music only – There are too many so called musicians around here that concentrate on other people and other things when they should be worrying about their music alone.
• Respect all talent and their music, even if you don’t like it – Keep your negative opinions to yourself. I actually respect all music and what you play. If you want this to be a good music scene, you must respect all musicians. There are too many people who are critical of other talent and I just wish people would shut up and let us do our thing.
• Promote yourself more and get people out to your shows – I love how bands complain and whine they only play in front of a few people at a gig. Wanna know why that is? It’s probably because they aren’t promoting themselves hard enough. Bands don’t do any promoting around here. Maybe facebook but that’s about it, you must do more than that. Having more people at your gigs would make a great music scene.
• Just enjoy and have fun!!! – If you’re not having fun, then why bother doing this?

That’s it, enjoy.

Kev

I don’t mean to sound like a negative nancy about the Capital District of music scene but I just want to get a few things off my chest. Throughout the years, I have seen many great bands & solo acoustic acts come and go. Bands either break up or move out of this area to further their careers else where. A lot of solo acoustic acts that I used to like, you never hear much from them anymore either. They too either quit playing music or moved out of the area. Why do you see so many bands & solo artists come and go? Because Albany is a shit music scene and it’s not much of a scene anymore. Sorry but it’s true. Somebody had to say it.

This is part of the reason why I don’t gig much even though I would like to. I don’t want to be playing bars all the time because I hate bars & the club scene. All bands and local music fans seem to want to do is party and get drunk like high school teenagers. Whatever happened to enjoying the love of music? Where is the passion? I don’t see that here anymore.

This music scene is also the most unprofessional and childish acting music scene I’ve ever seen. It’s almost embarrassing. Too many assholes, drama queens and too much negativity around here. I wish people would concentrate on the music rather than bringing negativity and politics into shit. Where is the professionalism around here? There’s none of it.

Some of the egos in bands & musicians nowadays are out of this world. Everybody wants to think their so big & talented. It’s crazy. Don’t get me wrong there are still some bands & musicians around here that I like and respect but not many, only very few.

I wish this area could be a better music scene. If it was, I would be gigging a lot more, and supporting other band shows more other than my own music. I don’t go to local band shows much anymore for a reason, although I still go out and see a band once in a while that I really like. People need to cut the childish bullshit so we can enjoy the music scene better. Too much bullshit all over the area.

Kev

In facebook, I came across this young female guitarist, named, Kristen Capolino, who looks to be in her early 20’s. When I looked at her facebook profile, I saw that she was playing a flying V electric guitar on a big stage. So I’m thinking to myself, “This chick must play rock or metal, I must check her out”.

Usually a lot of young guitarists would play simple and basic stuff, but that’s not the case with Kristen Capolino. She’s a shred guitarist and she plays like an adult. So I took to youtube to watch a lot of her live videos and I just kept watching. Wanting more and more of Kristen. Her guitar playing is so impressive. She’s got her own style and when you hear her play, you know it’s her. She seems to have a great ear and never misses a note. Her phrasing in lead guitar is incredible and her technique is just phenomenal. When she plays on stage with other musicians, she plays with them well and if you watch the other musicians faces, you can see that they are in awe of her playing too. She’s doing a lot more than just shredding, she’s playing actual music.

She’s a fine player with a gift. I think she’s going to go very far in her career, hopefully get featured for Guitar World magazine, someday?

The only thing that people are complaining about her is that the way she moves on stage. A lot of people think she moves on stage in a pretty silly and weird way. Some even gone as far as calling her cocky and egotistical, but in her defense on the way she moves on stage, it’s just her way of showing people that she loves what she’s doing. Playing the guitar and performing live. Her dance moves and facial expressions, all that is showing her passion. That’s how you’re supposed to play the guitar, in my opinion. Just standing there like a zombie is not fun. You move around and act like you’re having fun. That’s what she’s doing there.

She’s a great player. I hope she gets the recognition she deserves and I wish her luck in her career. Keep up the great playing, Kristen! I’m impressed!

Kev

Whenever I don’t like a band’s music, whether it’s national or local, I usually keep negative opinions to myself these days. Why? Because, if you make opinions public, it’ll piss everyone off, and I’ll get called the badguy for it. All for just expressing an opinion on a band which is all I’ve done. Whether making opinions on their music, videos or image, whatever. Doesn’t matter what I say about a band, I get yelled at.

Usually this happens, when you criticize a popular band that everyone likes. Their fans would have their support and back them up. They would defend that band, no matter the negative things that is said about them. That’s how much of a joke the music world is sometimes.

Yes, there’s going to be bands that I will like and dislike. I’m certainly not going to like everything. Usually, when I discuss music online, I always think there is nothing wrong with expressing “honest” opinions on bands, but the second you say something about a band, it sparks controversy.

I would love to keep discussing bands, however I wanted like I did in the past but I’m done with that stuff. People just don’t understand that’s what music is here for, you either like some of it or don’t. I still stand by a lot of things I’ve said about certain bands in the past, too. I just keep them for myself.

People know there is nothing wrong with being honest about music, it’s just that their fans hate seeing someone else ripping on their favorite band. The fans don’t want their favorite band to feel upset and hurt, so they defend them to let them know they have their support. That’s why fans do what they do.

The irony of this is, people get upset when their favorite band is getting bashed on, yet some people don’t have a problem with bashing my music. You see what’s wrong with that picture? Think about it now.It seems I can’t have an opinion on music and everyone else can. That’s how messed up and weird the music world is. Sometimes I just scratch my head and say “what the fuck” at all of this.

Kev

You see this all the time in the music world. Bands & musicians complaining about other musicians having “huge egos”. Some musicians don’t want anything to do with egos of other musicians. They want to stay away from musicians who have ego problems as much as possible. You know what?

I find it pretty funny and hypocritical that bands complain about egos. Why?

Because as much as you hate to admit, we all have huge egos even if you think you don’t. That’s right, I said it. Every musician and band out there, we all have egos. That includes me as well.

Think about it. Everyone of us are desperate for more recognition, we all want to promote ourselves to death, we all want to get known and we all want our music heard. That’s not having an ego problem? Yeah, okay.

When you complain about other egos that kind of makes you an ego-maniac yourself. You think you’re better than that guy. Either that, or it kills you ’cause you can’t take it cause this musician is a better player than you.

When you want to put yourself out there as a musician, you’re gonna deal with ego-maniacal musicians all over. Best thing to do is have some balls and deal with it. Don’t let it get to you.

Kev

Over the years, I have seen plenty of musicians give up music or thinking about giving it up. It still continues with other musicians as well. My question is, why? Yes, some musicians feel guilty that they suck and don’t have what it takes to be a musician. Some musicians feel guilty that they can’t stay in a band. Some musicians get bored with music. Some musicians feel guilty when they can’t get success with their music. Some musicians give up because their career was treated in a negative direction by other musicians and music fans. There’s a lot more reasons why musicians give up or thinking about giving up music.

I came this close to giving up on my music for some of these reasons, honestly. Basically because, I thought I was going no where with it. I was having trouble booking gigs. Venues make booking gigs so difficult and ridiculous around here. Plus, I came close to hanging it up because I became fed up with the negativity I get from people in the music scene. You know, getting wrongly criticized and judge by other musicians and fans.

When you want to become a full time musician and put yourself out there for the world to see, yes, you’re going to get your share of love and hate. If you want to succeed in music and make your dreams come true, you have to be strong, and ignore all the bullshit. Simply put, fuck everybody. You only care about your music, the love of playing your instrument and that’s it. You have to be strong. Have to have balls if you want to get out there.

You can’t let negativity bring you down. You only care about the people who support you as a musician and care about your fans. Ignore all the haters & doubters.That’s why people talk shit about you because they want to put you down and put your dreams to an end. Don’t let it get to you. Stay out of drama of any kind.

Yes, you will get musicians who you thought they supported you when they really didn’t, but fuck ’em, right? While Albany continues to be a shit music scene, just keep playing your music. Don’t be a quitter. You shouldn’t give up something you love. Those musicians who did give it up (not naming names), you will regret it down the road, trust me. One day you’ll wish you never gave it up.

That’s why I came back to music. I thought to myself, “You know, I shouldn’t be a quitter”.

Kev

I think Sean Rowe has a very good chance in hitting the big time very quickly. I predict Sean will make it big before Phantogram makes it. I mean, hell, Sean is on the same label as Tom Waits and Nick Cave, which is pretty impressive. I’m such a huge fan of Sean’s music that I can’t stop listening to his album “Magic” on my Ipod. That album is such a masterpiece. It’s the best album I ever heard by a musician in the Albany area, period. That album has so much passion and intensity to it, how come other bands aren’t writing like that?

Sean has an Albany show in Aug. at the Market Place and I’m going to do my best to make it out to this one. Ya never know, this could be the only time you’ll see Sean in Albany and then he could hit the big time, next year. I’ve supported his music for years, been reading his blogs about “nature” and “foraging” is interesting stuff, and I watch his youtube videos too.

Sean is the only music artist in this area that deserves fame more than anybody, in my opinion. I’m sure most would agree with me on this one. He works hard, promotes hard, travels hard, and he has lots of fans every where. That’s why he gets my respect.

I’m sure we’ll see Sean perform on Jimmy Fallon pretty soon, just give it time. I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t performed on national TV yet, but he will, I’m sure.

Kev

If you need proof on how the people over at CRUMBS are big supporters of me, here it is:

Check it out.

When other local musicians do interviews for the local papers, I never get mentioned.  So thanks Guzzo for the shout out.

Yes, I post at CRUMBS on a regular basis. It’s the only Times Union blog that I read and post on. I don’t pay attention to other TU blogs, just the CRUMBS one.

I’m pretty flattered.

Kev

A lot of solo musicians & bands want to think they are big, and a lot of them want to think that they are so talented. Is that a good thing? In my opinion, no, it is not. Sure, there is nothing wrong with thinking your own music is good, but the one thing you don’t want to do is go around acting like you’re more talented than everyone else. A lot of bands seem to have this problem. Not naming names, I see it all the time in facebook. A lot of them think they are god’s gift to music. A lot of them live in this “rock star” fantasy world that I talked about before.

How can I tell that they have an ego problem? It’s easy. Bands get desperate for popularity and more recognition. They act like they are bigger than other bands. They look and dress like rock stars (is image all that important, people? We’re just local music here). A lot of them think they are too good to share a gig with you. They try to force people to think they are talented by saying, “Listen to us, we’re good”. Plus, a lot of bands are rude and act like assholes. I can go on all day.

The point I’m trying to make with this post, if you want to think of yourself as a rock star or a superstar, DON’T!!!! You let the public do the judging. You put your music out there and that’s it. Let the music speak for itself. When you call yourself a rock star, and you only have a few fans, there’s something wrong with that picture. You don’t force people to like your music. Let the people decide if they like your music or not. If you don’t get many listeners, that’s fine, it’s not the end of the world. Keep making the music. If you get a big fanbase, that’s great.

I’m not worried about being popular or getting recognition, who cares. To be honest, I can’t really tell if people enjoy my music. I let the people do the talking. That’s how you do it. On top of that, there is no such thing as being a rock star or a superstar in the world of local music. We’re all just unsigned. Thinking of yourself as a “star” just makes you looks like an asshole.

Just play the music and enjoy it. Quit being a delusional rock star wannabe.

Kev