The Good Music Club - Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas; famous for South by Southwest, famous for Austin City Limits Music Festival, famous as the live music capital of the world. But who knows bands who actually come from Austin. Whilst this city is visited by bands of all levels from all over the world, bands who are based out of Austin, often get swamped and overwhelmed in trying to get their music out and heard by the world. 
So that's where Laurie Gallardo, Producer & DJ at KUTX radio, Austins music incarnation of NPR, publicly funded radio. In 2012 they started filming their own live shows and putting the music of local Austin bands online, Think Jools Holland curating Other Voices with the local music knowledge of Myles O'Reilly.
How easy or difficult is it for bands in Austin to get heard above the noise of Austin City Limits and SXSW?
"I'm not certain if it's necessarily that hard as it is for bands to be motivated and not become complacent. We are hopefully serving as a reminder, you have this wonderful footage that you can share with people, not just locally, but across the country, send it across the world and I really think that's where the challenge is. You can't just make music and stay in Austin and rely on ACL and South By. I tell everyone to concentrate on what they love playing, don't be something that you're not. But that is the challenge"
How important is it for a local scene to get help from organizations like The Good Music Club in promoting itself?
"If you have the resources, use them. We film these bands for free and the quality is superb. Bands need to use these resources. If you've heard about it, put the word out, it doesn't hurt to ask, it is very important. As far as bands being complacent, because of so much talent playing here, the bands, the fans get complacent. One of the good things about South By, is having bands come in from other countries, not just other cities in the US. The whole point of musical discover is going further, that's what The Good Music Club is trying to do."
What are future plans for the good music club?
"We want to go to Europe. The thing I'm thinking of is, are we going to take Austin bands with us or are we going to film bands in the cities that we go to visit, I think it would be a good idea to have both. This is something that we love doing. We do plan to take it outside of Austin, the same way that bands should be doing with their music"
The Good Music Club event that TheThinAir visited was at a 19th century Freemason lodge opera house, and was a week before Austin Psych Fest, a music festival dedicated to Psychadelic Rock. so the three Austin bands selected for the show were Obscured by Echoes, Kay Leotard and The Wolf.
More information and all the videos can be found at:
OBSCURED BY ECHOES - "Living Social"
THE WOLF "Tied By The Roots"
KAY LEOTARD "Burn"
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete