I was scheduled to play at Sentosa's in Kirkland, but they decided to stop doing music before I got a chance. However, I've been unable to remove the dates from calendar, even though I've deleted them they still show up on the myspace page.

So, don't go there expecting to see me (or anyone else) playing music.

I was sitting in a bar the other night, and one of my bandmates asked who was playing on the jukebox. Someone said "Iron Maiden", and I commented that "Maiden" really covered it. The "Iron" part is not needed to differentiate them from say, "Fair Maiden".

It then became apparent that despite the amount of effort put forth by musicians into finding the unique combination of words to serve as their nom de Rock, that only ONE word is required in virtually any circumstance--the Stones, Priest, Zep, Tull, ZZ, Floyd, Miles, Duran, the Roses--is there any question what act I'm referring to? The only exceptions that came to mind were, strangely enough, two variations on the same act: Joy Division and New Order.

Which makes the motivation behind "Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force" all the more baffling.

Is "Yngwie Malmsteen" so common a name in Sweden that the "J." is necessary? Screw that--is "Malmsteen" such a common performer's name that "Yngwie" is necessary? Bonus points for considering that Yngwie's birth name is actually "Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck".

If you are a musician, and you have to list your influences, that does not mean a list of every musician you've enjoyed in the last fifteen years, plus a few hip name-droppings. It means a succinct list of the primary influences on your music--perhaps that might be discernable to someone other than that annoying Jack Black character in "High Fidelity" (note: if you didn't find his character annoying, stop reading now and go back to fingering your metal box copy of PiL's second album while sneering at today's Pitchfork reviews).

The longer your list of cited influences, the less meaningful it becomes to the reader, i.e. your audience for said list. You might as well answer the question by taking a long drag off your American Spirit and say "Gosh man, like everything good, ya know?"

Today I was disappointed to discover that the Sonic Boom CD store in Fremont will be closing at the end of February, and they'll be shifting their center of retail operations to the Ballard location. For the last eight years or so I've gone into the Fremont store three or four times a week during my lunch, but I guess that's coming to an end. Which means that it's highly unlikely that'll I'll buy another CD from a brick-and-mortar outlet going forward. I'm not going to travel three miles to Ballard to browse CD's, so I guess Amazon will be seeing an uptick in purchases from my account. C'est la vie.

The term "pay to play" gets tossed around a lot in discussions of the Seattle music scene, almost always incorrectly.

Your classic "pay to play" scenario was developed in the 80's L.A. hair metal scene, where there were a huge number of bands (many of whom had moved to L.A. from all other points in the country) trying to "make it". Supply so outstripped demand, to the point where club owners realised that the bands were desperate enough that they could be convinced to pre-buy all the tickets for the evening and take on on all the financial risk themselves, usually to the tune of $1000 dollars paid upfront to the club owner several weeks before the show. The owner would provide several hundred tickets, which the band could then give away or sell as they saw fit.

In essence, the band was renting the hall for the evening, and the club still kept the money from the bar, and often kept any door money from people who showed up without a pre-bought ticket.

Today in Seattle, and in virtually all towns with a national-level music scene, that sort of arrangement doesn't exist. In Seattle's there is the Jewel Box Theatre, which can be rented for the evening for $75, which includes the services of the sound guy. But $75 in 2008 is a far cry from a thousand 1986 dollars.

There are a few other Seattle clubs which use the "ticket" system, where each band receives a few hundred tickets (for free!) which they then have to hand out to folks, who typically receive a dollar off the cover charge. The club keeps track of which band brings in the most tickets (the tickets are color coded by band) and uses that as one way to gage who to invite back. It's a system which greatly favors bands with a lot of friends who are still not jaded to seeing their friends from work or school play rock music in a club.

Some people use the "pay to play" label to describe your typical evening for a band, where the amount of money paid to the band doesn't cover the costs of gas, lost wages (many musicians work evening jobs where they don't get paid leave), monthly rehearsal space rent, etc. In essence, the band is "paying to play".

See, if you're the drummer in a band-- no, make that two bands who are playing at the same club during an evening, and you ask the third band if you can borrow a drum throne, hihat stand and ride cymbal stand, because you forgot yours, which means that you will be UNABLE TO PLAY unless someone helps you out, and then they do, you are then obligated to stay for the entirety of the third band's set. Seriously.

Not infrequently, one will come across a plea from a band wanting an opening slot in a town other than their hometown. "Kickass Portland Band Seeks Seattle Show!!!" or something similar. Don't they realise that "out of town unknown band"="no-one comes to see them"? Even if a band with some say in the booking of a show (which usually equates to a band that has some draw of its own) likes the music of these out-of-town hopefuls, they undeniably represent a weakening of the bill from a business standpoint.

At best, they can hope that people who are coming to see the band following them, i.e. the second band, will arrive mid-way through the last song. If your set-closing tune is jaw-droppingly brilliant, three people might take notice. Those three people will not be instantly converted to rabid fans who will come to you next out-of-town show in...three months? Or more likely, who knows--you had to beg a favor to get this show, who knows when next you'll be able to make the 360 mile round trip treck for $25 in sympathy money from the bar.

The majority of music-goers actively seek to avoid hearing opening bands.

Dear Friend,

SUGARCANE MUTINY will be playing next Wednesday (12/5) at the Nectar Lounge
in Fremont. The show will be filmed by local videographer Jesse Zesbaugh.
The show starts at 9:00 pm -- also appearing on the bill are Wimbleweather
and Brier Rose.

BOOKING NEWS: Darryn, Casey, Travis and myself were pleased to get an offer
from the City of Tacoma to play their First Night Celebration. The event
takes place on New Year's Eve in multiple venues around Tacoma's downtown
core. Should be cool.

MUSIC AWARD: Casey's bass part on Your Town was voted "the best bass in pop
rock for the week of Nov. 19th" at Garageband.com, out of several hundred
entries. One reviewer raved, "...the best part of the song. Great (bass)
tone coupled with great playing moves this song along."

Hope to see you in our movie next Wednesday!

WHO: Sugarcane Mutiny, Wimbleweather, Brier Rose
WHERE: The Nectar Lounge (412 N. 36th Street in Fremont)
WHAT: Live rock video shoot
WHEN: Wednesday, December 5th at 9:00 p.m.
WHY: Because rock and roll heals!

For the band,

Jess Grant
SUGARCANE MUTINY
"Hard Pop Confections"
www.myspace.com/sugarcanemutiny
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sugarcanemutiny
www.sonicbids.com/sugarcanemutiny

Tomorrow the David Bavas 2007 tour kicks off, in support of his new release "Songs About Love, Death, and Trains", featuring many fine musicians and myself. We'll be in all the towns in the title starting Thursday, October 25. Check out David's site for tour details and music: http://www.davidbavas.com

Be seeing you,

Travis

This Sunday, October 7th, David Bavas and the Down Comforter (featuring me on lead guitar) will have the CD release party for our second album at the Highdive in Fremont. It'll probably be our last show in Seattle for this year since we're going on tour the end of this month.

More info at:

David Bavas and the Down Comforter: http://www.myspace.com/davidbavas

and

http://www.davidbavas.com