It's a rainy Friday, so that means I'm feeling particularly lazy. I did manage to cobble together a review of the excellent upcoming album from London's Shopping, which you can check out over at Speak Into My Good Eye. After that, though, I'm kind of spent. That makes it a perfect day to turn things over to Mike V.
This weekend is weekend number 2 of the Austin City Limits Festival. The CBGB Music and Film Festival is, right this minute, in its second year in New York with CMJ following closely on its heels.
The Everymen have played a few festivals in their time, so I decided to ask frontman Mike V his opinion on the whole festival thing. See what he has to say about making a living as a band and the corporate dystopia in our future.
CDM: Z. Cole Smith of DIIV said earlier this year that SXSW was a "glorified corporate networking event" and "bullshit." You've played -- and been well-received at -- a few festivals this year. What do you think of music festivals as a band? As a music fan?
MV: Well, before I get into anything I have to point out that you should probably take anything that Zachary Cole Smith says with a pretty decent grain of salt. One cursory glance over this completely asinine Pitchfork interview (and his subsequent actions) prove that much.
Having said that, he is right on this point. It is a corporate shitshow. Vans this and Converse that. Doritos, Fader, Vice, Coca-Cola... fuck. Even Goo Goo Clusters had their own day party this year (which is awesome because Goo Goo Clusters fucking RULE). But that's the name of the game these days. And it ain't just in music. It's everywhere. No longer to do we have Comiskey Park, Shea Stadium, Cleveland Municipal or even Giants fucking Stadium. Now we have the M&T Bank Stadium, The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, and -- of course -- MetLife Stadium (much to the Jets chagrin, I'm sure). Corporations are so deeply ingrained in our culture that, one day, we might actually be listening to commercial jingles as radio entertainment (SEE: Demolition Man) or wearing shirts adorned with Reese's Pieces and Clorox logos (SEE: Idiocracy).
But back to SXSW. There has to be some sort of conflicting ideology when a "punk" or "indie" band (sarcastic quotations) are playing inside of a fucking giant Doritos vending machine. There has to be some sort of disconnect when a DIY or die band is playing a show sponsored by Spotify. And there is. There is a major disconnect when a band you saw play in a basement last summer is now main support at a major sponsored party. But what's the easiest way to bridge a disconnect? Cold fucking cash.
Would I want The Everymen to be the face of Mountain Dew? No. Would I take $10,000 to play a forty five minute set at the Mountain Dew / Goodyear Tires / Rdio / Stay Free Maxi day party? Absofuckinglutely. Some bands use these "money shows," as they're called, to finance entire tours or albums; and so long as the artist in question has no moral or ideological opposition to the sponsor, then no one should chastise them for taking the money and running. We're all trying to make a living here, and until you have that fat stack of cash on your table (and maybe rent to pay back home or even a family to support, say), you should hold your fucking tongue about corporate sponsorships. Don't like the corporate presence at SXSW? Play the show. Take the money, and then find yourself a basement show to play for the real kids out there. Or just play the basement show. Collect your gas money and head on out.
So to put it more plainly, I have no problem with these greedy corporate fucks. And I have even less of a problem if they wanna give me a few grand to play my guitar for less than an hour. I was gonna do that for free anyway.
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