In a recent post, roadie referred to the Features as "the biggest rock band in a town with 100,000 songwriters." I'm sure everyone here would agree that they are the best rock band in town. But are they the biggest? If they're not the biggest, then who would it be? Does someone else have a larger fan base? Is there another band that gets more exposure? Let's discuss!

IF we're talking about RIGHT NOW...Local bands with the biggest fan bases:

-the jam bands have big fan bases, Llama and Mile 8 come to mind
-Bonepony draws a big crowd
-Venus Hum draws a big crowd
-Joe, Marc's Brother, but are they still a band? If every show is a reunion, it's easy to draw big.
-Sixpence None the Richer will draw a big crowd when they play here, but are they really "local"?

The Features are right up there these days, and with virtually zero local media coverage beyond The Rage's stock write-ups. I mean, they can fill the Exit/In. Where is the next step up from there? The Ryman? Municipal Auditorium? I wish Nashville had more venues that were between clubs and auditoriums. I guess I miss 328.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 2:58 pm on Jun. 17, 2003)

Llama is dead. JMB is practically dead too, but they never drew as well as The Features are drawing now anyway.

what about fleming and john are they still around?

Fleming & John and Sixpence shouldn't count because they've graduated to a larger arena.

I keep hearing tons about Guy Smiley Blues Exchange (or at least I used to). Are they a draw? Are they any good?

What larger arena have Fleming & John havbe graduated to? Not one in these lower 48 states, at least that I know. I didn't realize they were still together and playing at bigger venues. Hearing that name so takes me back to 1996. When Subliminal Plastic Motives was coming out... it was a good time to work at a record store. Or was it 1995? I can't remember... somewhere in there.

A larger arena figuratively, in terms of record sales and popularity and all that crap. I could be wrong, though.

It was 1995 when Subliminal came out. October, I believe.

Although Fleming & John and Sixpence both had brief times in the national limelight, I would still consider them local bands. However, in the case of Fleming & John, I would consider them to be current. Have they played publicly in the last year? I never hear anything about them any more. Sixpence, though, may be a contender for the "Nashville's Biggest Rock Band" title.

What about De Novo Dahl? I've been hearing good things about them, and they've been playing lots of shows lately. Are they as big as (or bigger than) the Features? How would they compare?

I hear about F&J playing out every once in a while, but I think it's usually literally just Fleming and John and not a whole band. They don't draw a very big crowd compared to the old days. They haven't put out an album since 1999. But you can rest assured that John Painter stays busy - he produces and engineers and arranges lots of strings.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 1:01 pm on Jun. 18, 2003)

...for Ben Folds currently.

Graham from Guy Smiley was doing sound for Belcourt shows. They were a good band, but you would hate them. Definitely catered to the hippie crowd, but they weren't real jammy. They had a big horn section and did lots of long songs with complex arrangements and that kind of thing. None of them could sing for shit, so they mostly did instrumental stuff. They were an ok draw, but nothing compared to The Features, at least around here, but they did a lot of college touring and were successful to some extent. I don't see them around much anymore, but apparently they are playing here on the 4th of July at Mercy Lounge.

They seem to be getting bigger by the second- they just sold out Slow Bar for a release show- but they aren't drawing what The Features are. The Features can pretty much sell out The Exit/In at this point, and I don't think DND is at that point yet.

All this is compared to a somewhat hypothetical Features crowd. Yes, the Features have done it before...but I can't help but think the moderate amount they've actually played this year has hindered their growth. I realize I could be wrong about that.

I beg to differ....Sixpence does not in any way ROCK...they have to rock before they can be Nashville's Biggest Rock Band! maybe you were being sarcastic and I missed it...if so, sorry! I think we've yet to come up with a band to beat the features.

First of all, I think that calling them "rock" is fine. The lines between it and "pop" are too blurred, and they both reach for virtually the same markets, especially when compared with Fleming and John and even the Features. They're not country, they're not Lee Greenwood, they're not really CCM, they're not jazz...they fit best in this category that just happens to be called this.

Second, I think there's a lot more rocking, though very tame, outside of their singles and last two albums.

Don't take this as a slam or as an attack, just an opinion.

(Edited by YaDaDaDa at 5:15 pm on Jun. 18, 2003)

I think that they're rock/pop music, but they don't ROCK, per sea.

If they do, it's more in a Joshua Tree-era U2 than it is a distorted guitar jump around kind of rock.

Wow, Flemming and John... I need to listen to them again, dust of their two cds and play em out.

I first saw them at my elementary school, playing a gig for kids who'd been good for one grading period... how cool is that?

Will

Ouch! I feel slammed...just kidding, no offense taken!

josh rouse and lambchop get a lot of favorable press outside of nashville. i don't know if that qualifies them as being "big rock bands" though, especially since 98.3% of nashvillians have never even heard of lambchop.

Yes, I would count Lambchop as bigger than The Features. They sold out the Belcourt last year with tickets going for $16 each. Do they rock? That's questionable. Also, since they only do one Nashville show a year at the most, it's hard to really say. Ok, apparently I have no point.

Submethod? I havent heard them but one of my friends last night was talking about them and how they were the biggest band in Nashville. He rarely knows what hes talking about, though.

Aren't they a Nxt Generation band? I always get them and Point Of You? mixed up...but I definitely wouldn't call Submethod the biggest band in Nashville...

I hate submethod and i havent even heard of them, I have some friends that talk about them alot and it's annoying

you mean "Nashville's Biggest Cover Band," right?

Touche, Sina.
After all I've said about them in this thread, I will now do my impression of Sixpence:

"Hey, I'm a guy who lets a girl sing all my songs. I wrote one song that got a lot of radio play. Now all our singles are covers, and our last album sucks."

It's not really completely fair to criticize Sixpence as a band for the abundance of covers. Many times (and this is one of those times) it is more the label's (or labels') decision than the band's. Do you think a label could make a band record a version of "Don't Dream It's Over"? Are you sure?

I think Divine Discontent is fantastic.

As far as Matt not singing goes, it is a formula that was put into place a long time ago - sometimes even the greatest songwriter isn't the best vocalist.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 1:44 am on Jun. 21, 2003)

I will now do my impression of jamicarroll:

"Wow, YDDD, you're an idiot. You're wrong about everything! I sure love to spoil all your fun!!"



(Edited by YaDaDaDa at 8:46 am on Jun. 21, 2003)

I would say Josh Rouse is bigger nationally but won't draw like the features locally. Lambchop might draw more locally but they only play once or twice a year so thats not a fair comparison. If there is one "local" band that can draw consistently like the features its Venus Hum.

De Novo Dahl is getting there, and whatever happened to Character?

Good question, and one I've been wondering about. Do you know anyone who might know?

Some possibilities:

a) None of the band members are sure they're actually still in the band so they don't tell their friends about upcoming shows.
B ) Every member of the band is in 5 different bands so they can't remember which band is playing on any given weekend.
c) They have been in the studio for approx. 2 years working on their follow-up to the EP.
d) They're instrumental which means they are a jam band so we don't care where they are.
e) Self-destructed after Ryan North left to pursue his side project.
f) All of the above.

(Edited by Keith at 8:15 pm on Jun. 21, 2003)

g) drugs

(Edited by thelawnwrangler at 7:50 pm on Jun. 22, 2003)

does f) include g) ?? I'm so confused...

h) yoko.

How about The Shazam

Luna Halo is up and coming as well.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAAHHAHA

you're fucking kidding me, right?

For real. They are fun to watch, though. Funny to watch.

fleming & john and ben folds are playin uptown mix on the 23 of july.

Wooooww, thank you very much. I'm sure I would have found out sooner or later, but you have made my week.

im glad. uptown mix is 21+.. just so you're prepared.

Great news! Thanks Rach.

More headliners were announced in the "Brad About You" column of the Tennessean today...

Flaming Lips!

That sounds like a show I would enjoy... Even though I've always been taught to beware of Osama ben Folds.

For awhile I considered starting a band called Osama Ben Harper. It would have featured qawwali singing and a Weissenborn. Alas, this never happened.

flaming lips? headlining what? uptown mix?

Yep! Here's that article from the Tennessean:

Flaming Lips, Blind Boys to hit Uptown

The Uptown Mix folks have copied Dancin' in the District in adding an admission charge — and in upping the talent level overall.

The Flaming Lips, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Todd Rundgren, Ben Folds and seminal L.A. punk-country band X are among those slated for this year's season.

Admission to the 21st Avenue area stage, in the parking lot next to South Street and Mario's restaurants, will be $5. Parking remains free (and easy, if you use the valet service between South Street and The Bound'ry, the two restaurants that bring you Uptown Mix).

Here's what I know of the lineup for the weekly Wednesday event:

The Jayhawks and The Thorns play July 3 (the kickoff show is a Thursday); X and Jason and the Scorchers, July 9; rock band Indigenous and Todd Rundgren, July 16; piano man Ben Folds and Nashville hubby/wife duo Fleming & John, July 23; the soulful and sanctified Blind Boys of Alabama, July 30; Oklahoma quirksters The Flaming Lips and the Eels, Aug. 6; and The North Mississippi Allstars, Aug. 20.

im interested in seeing the eels, and how well the loud, drunk, annoying 20-something crowd in haltertops responds to them... i dont even want to recall the wilco show last summer. it was so painful for me to stand on the outside of the gate watching a bunch of morons make small talk over my favorite band.

is uptown mix 21+?

yep

but as Stopforme was saying, there is a railing around the area that under-21ers can come up to. You can see the show, just from a little ways back.

Yeah, when I went to the Wilco night, the railing was more of a rope tied to a tree with no one watching it. Pretty easy to scale, unless fall and get tangled up in it like a spider's web. That always happened in cartoons.

This is all VERY, VERY good news. DitD can go f**k itself.

do you have to pay to stand there at the rail?

If you pay to stand at that rail then you have officially been ripped off by a crackhead. Congrats.

I'm actually happy about the $5 charge...maybe this will keep all of the people who are there just to "be seen" at home or at least inside the bound'ry. I like to talk just as much or more than the next person (if you knew me, you would realize just how true this is!), but I was so annoyed at every uptown mix i went to last summer. You couldn't ever hear the bands for all of the people who didnt' care about the music and were just there to pick up a hot guy/gal. And all of the drunks hanging/hitting on you just isn't fun either. My two cents!

"July 16; piano man Ben Folds and Nashville hubby/wife duo Fleming & John"- Do you all realize that this is on a Wed. and then two days later....the features are playing?! Whoo hoo...what a fun week!

I'm late on commenting on this since I forgot....

Submethod was pretty damn big for awhile, whether they were a NXT Generation band or not. They still drew a lot of people to shows despite sucking.

Another N.G. band, Shun, was even bigger than that though. They drew huge amounts of people.and had a very large national audience in the underground rock scence. Then they broke up.

Does Los Straightjackets still exist? They were pretty big.

I think Ben Folds is the 23rd.

They moved into a parking lot, started charging admission, and still have crappy acts. Yes, Carl, I think DitD has done just that.

It has been sufficiently proven that Flaming Lips will be at Uptown Mix. I am no longer pissed at them. I am ecstatic as my anger recedes.

Are they from Nashville? I'm going to see them with Wilco at Summerfest next week.

Will

Yeah. If you aren't familiar with them, they all wear Mexican wrestling masks and play surf rock instrumentals mostly.

its actually not on in a parking lot, its on a field. and even though there is the three dollar charge, there are still a shitload of people there. they have crappy acts but none are worse then last year. not that its good now, but its definatley not any worse then it has been before. i dont think ditd fucked itself.

(Edited by rachel at 3:37 pm on Jun. 26, 2003)

I can't haterize on anyone that books P-Funk.

I don't think that the talent at DitD is any better or worse. I think that they have more big names now, but does that make it better? I don't think so. But I really have no beef with who they're booking.

What I do have a major beef with them about is moving it to the other side of the river. In doing that, they instantly took away whatever charm that DitD had left. Now it doesn't seem nearly as connected to downtown. Next thing you know, they'll move it to inside the stadium.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 4:19 pm on Jun. 26, 2003)

I don't like how they've moved away from booking good local bands. Where are the De Novo Dahls, The Features', The Luxury Liners', The Slacks, etc.?

A-friggen-men, brotha!

With regards to Joe, Marc's Brother- Joe Pisapia will be performing tonight with Guster on Last Call with Carson Daly.

I can't believe all of this...

DitD across the river, that you pay for, without Nashville's brightest local bands? There hardly seems to be a point...

If most cities in the nation can deal with a free concert series in the summer, Nashville should be able to as well.

Will

Well, the girl from Mad Booking who selected/booked all of the local acts for DitD went and quit or got fired right before the headliners were all confirmed. (They always booked the locals after the headliners were already on the bill).

So, the boss gave local/opener booking duties to someone their Atlanta office. That's why there are very few locals this year =(

It costs money b/c they couldn't get enough sponsorship for the event to pay the headliners and pay production to keep it free.

They also got use of Riverfront Park for free or just the permit cost every week because it was a free event that brought folks into downtown to spend money.

Once it was not going to be a free event anymore, the city wanted to charge them a ton for weekly use of the park. If DitD was going to cash in, the city wanted part of it.

So they had to move across the river where the Titans guys gave them a better deal - since they are making $5 per car on the parking for the event.

Jesus, man, what is wrong with this world. I don't blame the city at all for charging more for the permit. I blame the greedy organizers. 5 bucks for parking? the end of ditd is in sight....