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The Internet may be the best thing to happen to music since the days when a handful of guys could take a tape to a DJ and have a shot at letting the listeners decide. One splendid site, Garageband.com, provides a Cyber Age boost to such listener democracy in an industry long dominated by megalomaniacal fat cats. Garageband is among the most promising of a series of sites that bet the music industry can do better joining the Web than fighting it. The site itself is a round-the-clock open-mike night where bands can post their songs. Then users vote for their favorites -- and once every two months or so, the winning band gets a $250,000 recording contract with Garageband, which plans to release its first record in the first quarter of 2001, Chairman Tom Zito says. "FINAL COUNTDOWN." Zito has lined up a team of all-stars to build a company that will get revenue from advertising, the record business, market research, and selling CDs by bands without major record deals. Sir George Martin, who signed The Beatles and produced all their records, chairs Garageband's advisory board. Jerry Harrison, the former Talking Head and studio maestro, is a company co-founder, and former Grateful Dead CEO Cameron Sears is the vice-president for music affairs, in charge of relations with existing major labels. The company raised $15 million in venture capital in March. Me, I'm rooting for an Atlanta band called Ultraphonic. I'm typing right along to its tasty blend of acoustic and electric guitars called Our World, a song with a dynamite back beat sung in a raspy voice that recalls some of the best stuff by Soul Asylum. I'd never heard the song or even heard of Ultraphonic before now. These guys have a better shot than most: They're ranked No. 1 in mid-June in the "Final Countdown" of the 75 bands that have gotten the best recent reviews. (Zito says Ultraphonic's record deal is soon to be announced.) And the beauty of it is that ranking didn't happen merely because of slick promotion, or because MTV liked a boy band's consultant-designed matching haircuts. "The process," the site promises, "is 100% merit-based, 100% driven by the reviews of music lovers and -- we believe -- the fairest way ever devised to decide which bands get big breaks." Talk about music to the ears of every kid with a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and a four-track recorder (and, yes, at 38, I admit I'm still one, though I never got far beyond copping Keith Richards and Chuck Berry riffs). Here's how it works. Each time you log on to do some listening and voting, Garageband randomly selects two songs in a category you pick, including alternative, pop/rock, metal, and folk/country. Without knowing the name of the bands or songs, you listen to the tracks, then write your own headlines and reviews. Songs that do well enough are promoted to a "final countdown" of 75 finalists who vie (on the same random, anonymous system) for each recording deal. The random selection and anonymous review system is based on an algorithm designed to head off the most common ways that bands and their backers would try to stuff the virtual ballot box. The goal is to give out a record deal once a month, but the site isn't there yet. Four deals have been decided on by site users (including Ultraphonic's), and Zito says two other bands have been signed because they impressed Garageband executives despite not winning the user poll. PULLING OUT THE STRAT. Will you get some duds? Unquestionably. I suffered through a number by the aptly named Juvenocracy called The Road to Nowhere, an equally fitting title since the song goes nowhere fast with a few power chords, predictable heavy-metal lead riffs, and a voice only a Metallica fan could love. (You can listen to bands you pick out, but you can't vote without going through the randomized process). Another cut, by Buddahbean, had me going for the Advil to stop the pounding in my head long after the thumping bassist and the Jimi Hendrix-wannabe playing lead guitar finally quit. Still, Garageband is promising enough to make me want to pull out the Strat, the acoustic, and all those lyrics gathering dust in a drawer. Until I do, I can create my own customized play list of my favorites, which Garageband stores for me. The bands get an audience. I get a charge out of my discovery -- and lots of dynamite free music. Garageband boils the Byzantine recording process back down to the relationship that matters most: Musician meets listener. With this site barely off the ground, garage bands have already come out of the garages and basement rooms and into the PCs of Net surfers everywhere. You've got to hear this track called Dust-bin Parade by the Dallas band Stara Zagora. I'm thinking John Lennon would sound something like this but for a lunatic named Mark Chapman. Sir George Martin might not share my opinion of this one garage band, but I'm convinced John himself would dig Garageband.com. Gately writes about travel, music, and the Web from Baltimore |
