JaxBands.com

I'm looking for constructive criticism regarding my band's music, image, and website.  Please, no personal attacks or berating remarks.  I just want helpful comments/questions that will help out both of us.  I will help others by answering their questions with feedback of my own... Kick ass... haha

TJ of Doppler
www.dopplerband.com
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"I know when I started I would have been happy to sound like the Beatles or Joe Tex or whoever. You want to sound like most bands, you want to sound like their records and that's how you learn your chops."
 
- Jon Anderson of Yes
 

Please don't take offense, I like your music, but you did ask for constructive criticism.

First, your clothes.  I don't like the guy, but Gene Simmons is an expert at making money from music.

I read an interview with him where he said "You wanna play little bars all your life? Wear jeans and a t-shirt (I would add a trucker hat to that) to all your gigs.  You have to have an image.  There are 10,000 struggling bands playing gigs wearing jeans and (usually) some other band's tour t-shirt.  The kilt was great!   That's the kind of thinking you need to be successful or at least stand out from the crowd.

Next, the music - what really interested me were the keys - especially piano with "heavy" type music - this gave you a unique sound that really impressed me.  The thing that I thought detracted from the music was the alternating melodic/heavy metal, melodic/heavy metal.   This is now a cliche, in that so many bands do it.  Soundgarten was doing it in the 80's.  If it was up to me, I'd have stayed in the melodic mode the whole song through, except for maybe one "Semi-heavy" guitar solo.

Sure hope this helps, and I wish you all the success and good luck in the world!

John

Hey Ishabaka, are you a fashion critic or a musician?  Go get a job sitting next to Joan Rivers rating celebrities fashion "do's and dont's" on the "E" channel.  Listen to what really matters THE MUSIC wich to me sounded great, a little too polished and perfect for my taste (I'm a little darker and gritty) but, it was good stuff.  If you're truely in it for making music then PLEASE  do not get caught up in image, its whats terribly wrong with music today. 

tidalwave - with all due respect, you are demonstrating EXACTLY why so many great bands/musicians fail.

If you want to be and artist, and only care about the music, you can play in your bedroom or band practice room the rest of your life.

If you want to be a successful musician or band, you must be an artist, an entertainer, and a businessperson.

Parts of being an entertainer include your image, your stage act, what you say to the crowd, your posters/CD cover art, etc. etc. etc..  I see this aspect of music totally ignored by great bands over and over and over again.

Finally, your superior attitude, and desire to trash other people who are trying to help a band are; in the end, not going to help your musical career.

Look man, its no big deal.  Sorry if I offended you, I posted a few things on here a while ago and my only aim was to inspire somone to look at music in a different light.  If you wanna mold your music and sound after words from Gene Simmons or any other rockstar be my guest.  And you're right, I more than likely will never ever make it as an entertainer.  If you measure musical success only from a bussiness standpoint, then go and be the next Donald Trump of Rock n' Roll.  I was just trying to get people to dedicate themselves to thier craft a little more and not worry so much about how they look while they're doing it.

Tidalwave, please READ my posts again.  I never told anyone to sound like, look like, or think like Gene Simmons - actually I don't like the guy or his band.  I just thought he had a point when he suggested you try and separate yourself from every other bar band by having an image.  The Beatles had an image in '64 that was as different back then as the first punk rockers in the 70's, and they cycled through many images - and no one can say their music was junk.

As for people paying more attention to image than the music - I totally agree.  The foundation of any great band is great music.

As for success - how do YOU define it?   Having lots of people come to a free gig you put on?Having lots of people coming to a paying gig?   Selling recordings?   There's many ways to define success, but they all depend on other people (not counting your Mom!) liking your music.  That doesn't necessarily mean selling a million recordings or making millions of dollars. 

As for clothes, stage acts, etc.., these are enhancements to the music, not replacements.  I saw the Derek Trucks band live two years ago.   Now, I think Mr. Trucks is a superb blues guitarist.   But the WHOLE show he never moved - didn't even tap a toe or crack a smile - just stared at his fretboard.

I thought "I should have just bought a CD".  If you want to put on live shows, you should offer the audience something more than what they can get from buying a CD.

Lastly - and again, this is what I think is a big mistake I see Many bands commit - spend some time after your show - does anyone want their picture taken with you?  Do it!  Same with autographs.   If you played with other bands, complement them and exchange info - they just might want to give you a gig or play a gig with them if they see you're nice people.  Thank the venue owner for having you.  If you have them, thank the sound guy and the lighting guy.  It doesn't cost anything to be pleasant.  I remember one band in particular - they started 1 1/2 hours late - no apologies, and the guitar player complained to the sound guy during their set.  Do you think the club owner would want this act to play his club again?

EVERY PERSON in the band should carry business cards with contact/booking info.  Again, I've seen bands do really well at a gig, people ask them for a card because they want to book them - they don't even have a card - they don't have a pen to write on a napkin.  (Carry Sharpies for autographing - and why carry a black one - they come in all colors?).

Finally, I wish you the best of success with your music - they way YOU define success.