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Previous posts have mentioned the ‘Bones and Skin’ Tour that Kisschasy are currently performing around Australia. This post is focusing on the success of the band who have also worked very hard to be where they are today. I remember not too long ago the only radio stations that Kisschasy’s songs were being played on were Triple J. The band have played various shows at the Bar on the Hill over the past 5 years or so and admitted that the show at the Enmore Theatre on Saturday the 24th May was officially the largest they had performed for. It wasn’t until last year (2007) that the band’s music actually took off commercially with their left-field antics surrounding politics, human rights issues and animal rights. This tour is the last for Kisschasy for a while as they are off to try their luck overseas in America. One thing I particularly like about the boys is the fact that they were asking fans on facebook and myspace if they knew anyone overseas that they could stay with. It is obvious that the band are not making the ‘big bucks’ from their music however they are still willing to try and have the courage to continue doing what they love. I just thought that this was a wonderful example of what can happen when local Australian bands are publicised and promoted through magazines such as ours.
Check out more Kisschasy info on their myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=11924263
To reiterate again what has already been said, the music industry is severly lacking academic research and evidence to support such opinions as the ones that have been made in this and previous posts.
This is Jess Smith signing off for The Musos 2008.
The concert I attended on Saturday night contained an all female rock band, The Donnas. As I saw women in rock was a suggested topic I thought that I would do some research into the frequency of female rock bands. After extensive searching for academic sources I came up with absolutely nothing. Now this band is probably one of the longest running female punk rock band of our time, starting approximately 15 years ago when the girls were only 15. The Americans contintued to pursue their chosen career path with a large amount of success.
Unfortunately, the Donna’s were booed by some of the underage fans who were eagerly awaiting the performance from headline act Kisschasy. As someone who had heard the Donnas before it is hard to believe that the young kids would be so derogatory towards a successful international band however it made me ponder whether the treatment would have been the same if the band had been publicised and published in magazines such as ours? Top 40 artists seem to frequent our pages and get the attention they do and sometimes do not deserve, if we could focus some of our energy into promoting bands that have truly worked hard to be where they are today we could possibly sell more magazines in the future. As I have noted in previous posts it is time for our magazine to raise the bar in the content we provide through some academic research and further interesting, left-field articles.
I totally agree that live music provides a more personal experience to the individuals listening to them. I went to a live gig on Saturday night at the Enmore theatre in Sydney. The headline act were ‘Kisschasy’ with supporting artists ‘The Getaway Plan’ and ‘The Donnas’. I have previously only heard a few songs from both the Getaway Plan and The Donnas however after Saturday night I was left wanting more!
I got back to Newcastle at about 3am and went straight onto Limewire and downloaded tracks, researched the artiists websites and went completely crazy as I have fallen head over heels in love with these two rock/punk/alternate bands (genres accoding to Limewire music sharing network).
I think that artists become more popular with live music..live music has more of an impact than recorded. I know that many of the bands that I am interested in today are a result of first seeing them live. I wonder if this is the same for many music lovers? It would be an interesting study to conduct and something that we, the writers and publishers here at The Popular Music Press should consider as a research topic.
After working here at Popular Music Express for some time now I have come the to realisation that top 40 artists, and mainstream music events receive enough publicity from mainstream, well-known magazines and believe it is time for a change. I am suggesting that we think outside the square and start to provide more entertaining, fresh topics for discussion.
I will start with a band in which one of my mates is in…THE WIREFLYS! They comprise of a three-man band, Chris on vocals and bass, Justin on guitar and Ben on drums. They are an indie/rock/alternative band and have performed various gigs over the past 2 years in Maitland, Newcastle, Canberra, Armidale, Sydney and Melborne. The boys seem to be very popular with 2474 friends on their myspace profile and with a profile on Triple J unearthed. However, the coverage by the media is just not adequate for these boys to be able to make it big quick! The only reason I have heard of them is through friends of the band members, and once introduced decided to have a listen. You should to, Brown suits, black ties.
This post is the first of many local bands that I will be trying to promote, so have a listen, look at their website, tell me what you think…
