The Heat in Hottawa

[d_rawk]

Appreciate and respect the more detailed opining too, Freeker, even though I disagree. The over the top, kind of grating vocals (from the keyboardist cum new vocalist) are part of what turns me on about HHH. And they make me tap my foot and shake my butt a little, and I never question that ...

Not sure about the 'initial wave of mainstream infatuation with indie'. Seems to happen every couple of years. There was a bit of a garage revival with perhaps a bit of excessive attention from the mainstream press, certainly, but I like the idea that people sometimes manage to get paid for their efforts. Then again, the indie kid occupies about 2/3 of this body, so that's where I'm coming from on that. I try to not let what's hot and what's not affect me too much ... naive sincerity is the new cynicism (pass it on).

Anyways, cheers dude!

[Jaimoe]

One place where indie artists get a lot of notice is on TV via videos. With the proliferation of music video channels and Canada having more than 10, indie bands have a lot more opportunity to peddle their songs than they did back in the college radio era of the 80's and 90's.

[SaggyBalls]

anybody ever check out ZeD TV on the CBC?

indie acts and artsy acts get performances - there's the wedge and the new music on Much...the jam scene hasn't been able to crack that side of things. i don't know exactly what the reason is...

i'd wager a guess that it's due to meandering jams and sloppy, boring songwriting that shines through when people listen. I'm not churning out anything better myself, but there's a reason that there aren't a lot of phish videos on MTV or why moe. isn't a huge mainstream hit...let's face it - Jam isn't as paletteable as a lot of new rock is to the masses. I just wish the media would've pumped out more kinds of music in the past 15 years...listeners wouldn't have such large blinders and would be able to see more than just the middle of the road.

[Del]

Jam isn't on TV because they don't bother making music videos... Plain and simple... Phish made a video for Down With Disease, it got played twice (I think) before it was taken out of rotation... If the record company won't spend the cash on a good video, it won't get played (remember, image is everything...). A lot of jam bands aren't on a major label, or don't want to "sell out" by attempting to break the mold set by a band like Phish (who up until the album Hoist hadn't really tried to make it in the mainstream arena). Remember, Phish didn't need radio play or videos to make it big, and many, many jam bands try to follow the path they took. And as for jam not being paletteable, maybe the jams aren't as accessible to the mainstream, but there's plenty of great songs being written by jam bands that the masses would find appealling. You don't think that a jam band trying to make it would release a 15 minute track, do you? They would release the "studio" version of it... Think Street Sleeper by GTB... That's a catchy song. Or Kyle's Song by moe. Again, catchy... If anything these songs are just as paletteable if not more so than most of the formula music being mass produced today. The real problem is that the record companies aren't telling people to like jam music - yet. Once the big companies decide it's what's going to be popular, we'll all be fighting for tickets to shows... You can't honestly believe that everyone is as music saavy as most jam heads are... People are sheep, waiting to be herded... Fashion, music, etc. is all predetermined for the masses, because most people don't care to spend the time finding out what's good. They need to be told what's good...