MRR #269-reprint Bob Suren's classic "turd bands go home"
This month I want to revist two column penned by Bob Suren just over ten years ago. Bob is one of the most stand up guys in DIY hardcore, he's been running Sound Idea Record store in Florida for over ten years and doing a label and shows for longer than that. Bob wrote these columns at a time when hardcore/punk was exploding after some slow and dismal times in the late 80's and early 90s. If you've followed my column over the last few years, I've alluded to this columns and expounded upon the points made therein numerous times. But now, lets let Bob have the floor.





I HAVE THE FLOOR!



Turd Bands--STAY HOME!



By Bob Suren-Originally appeared in Heavy Rotation Fanzine, 1995



Never fails. Every summer some kid from Idaho who sings for some band that I've never heard of calls me in the middle of the night and asks if there's any place to play in my area. Well, yeah. There are lots of places.



Never fails. In fact this happens so often that I keep a list of contacts on my computer and I update the list as needed. I almost always try to be as helpful as possible because booking a tour is hard work. And that's only half of it. Then there's the actual tour. Bad shows, no money, no gas, broken vehicles. Shows fall through. People flake out. It is tough to do a good tour. Do you want to know why? Because there are so many goddam turd bands out there.



Every summer, scores of bands that shouldn't even be playing local shows get the cotton-pickin' notion that they should jump into dad's work van and drive around the country. All of the turd bands on the road are taking shows from good bands. Bands that have been around for a few years and have a few release to their credit deserve to tour. In fact, they should tour to promote their band.



But, the good bands are finding it harder and harder to get shows because Larry Cowfuck from Wisconsin is on the road with the band he put together in his parents' garage two months ago.



"Hey," says Larry, "we have a record out, Actually it's a tape. We recorded it ourselves a month ago in my parent's garage." Maybe Larry Cowfuck's band (let's call them the Floating Doo Doo Balls) does have a record. They put it out themselves a month ago. Guess where it was recorded?



From the perspective of good, established bands, the Floading Doo Doo Balls are an obstacle. The Floating Doo Doo Balls cheat them out of some good shows. They have to split the gas money with the Floating Doo Doo Balls. They have to sit through the Floating Doo Doo Balls hour long set. They have to lend the Floadting Doo Doo Balls and bass amp and drum sticks. The Floating Doo Doo Balls must be killed.



Now, let's take it from the fans perspective. He goes to a show and pays $5 to get in. The guy at the door says, "it's five bucks because there are three out-of-town bands." OK, he can see that. But what if the three out-of-town bands are the Floating Doo Doo Balls and two equally terrible bands? The fan feels like wasted his money. Maybe he even hd to stand outside because the Floating Doo Doo Balls sucked so fucking much. You laugh, but it happens. I've seen touring bands in my town that shouldn't have left dad's garage.



I completely support the DIY ethic, but before you start booking that cool summer tour, ask yourself, "Does anyone give a fuck about us?"



I HAVE THE FLOOR!



The death of the demo tape and the birth of the shitty 7"



By Bob Suren-Originally appeared in Heavy Rotation Fanzine, 1994



Although I have never been much of a collector of demo tapes, the things do have a valid place in underground music. The demo tape should serve as practice for a band's first vinyl or CD release. However, the very nature of the demo tape is what nearly has wiped it out all together. In the ealry days of punk rock, demo collectors were fanatical. Now, It seems demo collectors only exist in remote locations in Asia and South America, where vinyl and CDs are hard to come by. Eventually, nobody took demo tapes very seriously because--well, anybody could put one out. Bands began putting out tapes of their first practice, recorded in a garage on a portable stereo. It was cool that is could happen, but it wasn't cool that it actually did. A lot of seriously shitty demo tapes have come my way, and I don't actively seek them out. The demo tape lost credibility. Maximum Rock N Roll refused to review demo tapes any more then they repealed the decision. Then MRR repealed the repeal! They just got burned out on hearing one awful recording after another.



Now, the 7" record is facing the same dilemma. It's getting too easy for bands to put out records. Bands that aren't ready to record, bands that have never played a show, are putting out 7" records. Why? Because the demo tape became a joke. To be taken seriously, a band has to conquer vinyl. Now, instead of a flood of crappy demo tapes, there's a flood of crappy 7"s. Sure, they're DIY, but if they suck, what's the point? The band will give some to their friends, sell a few through the mail and be stuck with hundreds of copies, without a clue as to how to distribute them. There used to be a time when if a band had a record out (especially if someone else put it out) one could be reasonably sure that the record in question did not indeed suck the big one. Now, that test does not exist. Any fool with 500$ can put out a record of any old crap. Again, the fact this is possible is cool. THE FACT THAT IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IS NOT.



What does the future hold? I'll tell you Soon record buyers and labels will be burnt out on crappy 7"s and resort to putting out crappy CDs. It's actually not that big of a jump and it is already starting to happen. CDs look a lot more "professional" than a 7" And, I must admit when I see and independent produced CD I am pretty impressed. But, bras=ss tacks is, if you've got the money, you can do anything you want. However, maybe the higher costs of releasing a CD will make a few bands and labels re-think the idea before they go for it.



The bottom line is, a band should ask. "Is this stuff good enough to be released?" It would be more prudent to just listen too and learn from those early recordings. A band should take it's time. It should go into the studio and do it right before blowing a wad of cash on a release that no on is going to care about.



I hope the demotape makes a comeback. The good demo tape, that is, and there have been hundreds. Band shouldn't be afraid of putting out demos. If the music is good, it will stand on it's own. And, I hope the bands and labels exorcise some restraint in putting out 7"s. There are thousands of records the world can live without. Hey, I've been responsible for a few. I really don't care what medium a band cnoses for it's releases, as long as some time and thought went into it. And personally, I'd rather see a demo tape of a band in it's infancy than a glossy, shrinkwrapped CD of a band in it's infancy.



As we can see, Bob's breathless report from the front lines also turned out to be remarkably prescient. In the years that followed these columns there has been an explosion of bands, records, CDs, tours and shows. As Bob feared, the shitty CD has replaced the shitty 7" which displaced the shitty demo tape. And Turd bands can just be replaced with "myspace bands" and multiplied by one thousand to get todays booking scene. Furthermore, the signal to noise ratio continues diminish. It used to be bands strove to put out records that were "all killer, no filler" nowadays I see mostly "all sleeper, no keeper" releases .I think the world of DIY hardcore would be a lot better off if a vast number of ill conceived bands broke up, labels folded and distributors went under. A frequent complaint I hear from labels and distros is that bootlegs and re issues outsell all the current releases. On one hand, the volume of stuff coming out today is so large, that hard earned money tends to go to bands that are known rippers. But on the other hand, maybe a lot of todays hardcore just....lacks? Maybe the fire has gone out in many of these bands. Maybe there was no fire to begin with. Just going through the motions of putting out a 7" and touring as some sort of rite de passage between college and a career.



I have visited and re visited these points in this column and I can see one plausible direction this could be heading. Implosion. That is to say, the DIY hardcore scene is crushed under it's own weight. Bands come home from unsuccessful tours and break up. Labels with thousands of unsold records just pack it in. Distributors who don't get any orders go under. While I hate to see good people who are making an effort give up in disgust and frustration, I'm also kind of glad to see peddlers of low quality schlock punished by their own arrogance and poor taste. I think there will be time of chaos and perhaps what economists call a "correction" I hope that people making and releasing music will start to slow down put more thought into what they are doing and release more records that can stand on their own. ALL KILLER, NO FILLER.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1984

Previous | All articles in this category | Next