so, i was listening to a podcast today and it was talking about the fine line between journalism, blogs and the personal connections to the people being talked about. how much does your knowledge of a person jade or change what you may or may not say about a person or team or thing.
as i listened, i thought about my relationship as a blogger and friend to the band rademacher, as well as a few other fresno bands. and, i'm not trying to say i'm bff with any of these people, but i do sit and talk with many of them. we trade text messages. they've been to my house, i've been in some of theirs. i hear things from bands, or people in bands about what's going on in their lives, both private and public. as i blogger/citizen journalist/gossip, i want to immediately write stuff. as a friend/person/good human being i want to handle material with appropriate sensitivity and timeliness. so when i hear potential bombshells, i run a bunch of filters and decide what to say about these people and bands.
a little while back, i heard that eli would be rejoining the band. shoot, i heard he was first leaving the band and had to wait to talk about it because i wanted to do it right, to get the band's perspective, to get eli's perspective, and to write it well. so, when i heard he was coming back i didn't mind waiting a few days to be able to write about it here and be respectful to the band and to my friends.
recently, i heard that greer was leaving rademacher. she was going to do a final few tour stops, and then was moving on, both from the band and in life. she had some gigs lined up with a band she toured with last year and was moving from fresno. now, i must admit that at this point i haven't talked to greer about this. i've heard it from several reliable sources, and the news of this has been circling fresno long enough that i felt that it might be okay to talk about here (even without talking to her or the band specifically about it).
i wish greer all the best in her future endeavors. i've enjoyed the few times she's come on the podcast and i definitely enjoyed her music. she's a tremendous bass player, a great musician, and an all around cool human being. and i loved her on the tiny tots piano. i'm sure she will do well in her next things.
so, what does this all mean for rademacher? well, that's up in the air from what i've hear. malcom may play bass and bring in another guitar player. maybe they'll find a bass player here in fresno that is tour ready, although fresno seems scarce of those. maybe eli can play bass and drums? or maybe they'll go as a two piece.
will this hurt rademacher's chance of making it big? well, only time will tell. i know that as they went out on tour a little bit back with airborne toxic event and henry clay people i really felt that they were about to get huge. then they didn't play sxsw and have made changes. who knows?
finally, will this stop bands from talking to bloggers? i highly doubt it. my blog is far from grandiose enough to make that happen, and i doubt i'm really stepping on any toes.
7 comments:
Your relationship with Rademacher is like the little kid in Almost Famous with out Kate Hudson.
Sweet post, early bloggy moment candidate for sure.
Another thing, I'm the guitarist in the most awesome band Fresno has ever spawned (Chewbacca and the Rhythm Wookiees), does this mean I can't blog about them? Nuts.
I was gonna write (what I thought would've been the funny and pithy) "Dude, can I be your bff?",
but then all those filters you spoke of started buzzing.
It's actually a very interesting subject. We all have run into one or two folks who don't seem to have the normal set of filters---especially when it comes to online postings. Sometimes they can be just fine, but sometimes they can stir up havoc and destruction (and some seem to be ok with this or even get off on this.)
I've never really detected that problem 'round this here blog, but I don't pretend to know you all that well--a few 'hello's and a cool conversation about your art---so maybe you *are* a big dumb trouble maker! (I'll tell the yard duty teacher.)
I think having filters and making sure your sources are correct is good journalism. It's good writing and all around best for everything. :)
I hope Rademacher can continue to make good music :)
yeah, filters are good.
as for rademacher, they're still chugging along. i hear their practice is going alright with their new set up, so we'll see how it all goes.
but yeah, another point being toyed with here is that 'having an inside track' and how much to use it. It's tricky I'm sure. On one hand, the report-ee can use his connection with writers to sort of telephone his/her news. On the other hand the reporter can 'get the scoop' on stuff. But what happens when they aren't reportErs/and EEs and are just kicking back and laughing about stuff in the livingroom----how much of that stuff is fair game to publish? That's the rub, right?
blake,
i definitely think that bands tell bloggers some stuff to spread the word. in fact, i sometimes think they may tell bloggers more stuff because it can start a buzz (at least good info). so, they let you know about shows, upcoming albums and more.
we're actually getting a bit of that over @ the podcast, people contacting us to be on it. this is hella cool, because we're just doing it for fun, and were having on people we'd like to talk to, now we're getting some requests.
another thing to throw in, a wrote about a guy that played @ tokyo garden one time. he liked what i wrote here, and wanted to use some of it on his myspace, which i said sure. he recently sent me his new e.p. i haven't reviewed it yet, and keep meaning to. i figure he sent it to me because i'm a blogger. i'm fine with that.
finally, you're right on the rub about knowing what's fair game to print, what's just some guys kicking it on the couch or at the bar shooting the breeze and so on. which is why i've typically asked if it's cool for me to write stuff if it's not already public knowledge.
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