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Comment
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Tamas
Jun 14, 06 - 9:59 PM |
Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
I was wondering what type of advice people have around here for getting involved in the music/art scene in Vancouver.
The only things I know of besides open mic nights is the Laptop Battle, but that only happens once a year.
I eventually want to play shows but I assume all I would have to do to get gigs is send a CD of what my live set would sound like to the organizers at bars and such, but I want to do other stuff as well.
About a month or two ago I went to this art initiative where they wanted to help musicians and other local artists get noticed, and it was fun and I gave them my email address (and even preordered a CD of their artists) but when I asked them how I could get involved they didn't really give me a straight answer.
Really I just want some good experiences with collaboration or even just help with events and the sort (ie, putting up posters whenever there are shows) like for Music Waste.
Like one thing, Andy, the stuff we talked about that night at Music Waste about the sampling project and so on, for example getting the samples, has it been done? I would have a lot of fun going around collecting sounds, or doing anything really.
I find I learn and work a lot more at art whenever I'm doing it for other people, so it'd be great to know if anyone has any idea of where I could start looking.
Hell, if anyone around here wants to start some sort of project/collaboration with people, it would be cool to start talking about something and see where it goes...
Where are you from: Vancouver BC, Canada
Website: http://www.terrestrialcouncil.com/
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nick
Jun 15th, 2006 - 2:36 AM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
hey, i hear ya.
I want to collaborate with some like-minded individuals from around here, i've been meaning to start booking shows and doing fundrasers but dont know how to go about it all. it would be nice to start building a stronger sense of unity amongst underground artists/musicians from vancouver.
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Andy
Jun 19th, 2006 - 12:28 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
I think maybe part of the problem is just that there isn't that much going on in Vancouver to help out with... sounds like I'm down on my city, which I'm totally not, I just think it needs a little kick in the ass when it comes to getting organized and doing ****. We need more venues for one thing. I would LOVE to see a small all ages venue open in the city... like a store front, basement, or small wearhouse space or something - 10 years ago that kind of stuff was happening all over the city... and now people seem to be fine with just playing the same 2 or 3 bars.
About the collection of samples... I'll let you know.. I'm in no rush to start that project. Thanks!!
Email: info@acherecords.com
Where are you from: Vancouver
Website: www.acherecords.com
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Tamas
Jun 23rd, 2006 - 10:39 AM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
I think some people are doing it Nick, but they're not really opening it up to growth I don't think. Or I guess it takes time to make something big.
I've been brainstorming about ideas to bring some people together, I had this one idea where we would choose a key and tempo and then everyone would make a short 1 minute thing, that we could put together. I don't know how great it would sound but it'd be cool to have a few people work on something together like that. We could even coordinate it through these message boards or something like that, but I'm still thinking about what types of things a bunch of artists could do together that hasn't already been done a hundred times...
I've also given organizing some sort of music night a thought. I know that Square Root of Evil would welcome playing at a show, and there are some bands in different genres that I can get as well, it would be interesting to have a concert somewhere with like 4 or 5 different genres, in one night...
Yeah Andy I definitely agree, there should be more venues. It really sucks that the Mesa Luna apparently closed down, and it was also sucky to see the Butchershop close... I wonder how much it costs to rent places like the Ukrainian Hall and the Croatian Cultural Centre, but if the pricing is anything like the WISE Hall I can imagine it must be pretty expensive.. Me and my friends have set up some nice little concerts in our backyards that supported like 80 or so people, but the sucky thing about those is that you have to be careful about not inviting too many people...
I don't know how supportive the Vancouver city council is about doing things to make the music/art scene better though - I mean, from what I hear they forced the Butchershop to close, but I don't know exactly how true that is. I have heard of one case where the city seemed to welcome an idea by this guy to utilize a small alley type space as an experimental store, but I'm sure it'd be harder to get them to agree to open any sort of hall, especially because of fire safety and stuff like that..
And yeah, participation is key I think, so I'd definitely be looking forward to that if help is needed...
Where are you from: Vancouver BC, Canada
Website: http://www.terrestrialcouncil.com/
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Jen
Jun 27th, 2006 - 11:26 AM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
I agree that this city is going through a pretty bad slump, I only know of one regular event that happens the first Friday of the month at Soma, it's pretty good but tends to focus on more downtempo. The listing and some past mp3s are at www.soundsimple.ca. There is also a dub night sometimes at the Jewel of India, but again, more mellow (obviously).
This city is sometimes weird, people want to get things going but at the same time they want to do it themselves so you get like 3 things that happen at once and then they all fizzle because realistically the community is small and can't support too many regular events. I would totally be up for getting some shows together and having some sort of community building meetups, we could get together and talk about setting stuff up as well as maybe do some collabs or remixes or projects. And try to find a new venue.
Email: jen@thesquarerootofevil.com
Where are you from: Vancouver
Website: www.thesquarerootofevil.com
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Emma Hendrix
Jul 4th, 2006 - 3:17 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
Hey all,
I just discovered this site... and came across this discussion. my name is emma... i play with coin gutter. Ive met most of you before. I just wanted to pipe in and say that there are many things happening in the city... it s a pretty exciting time. believe me, 6 years ago there was very little in the 'underground' or 'experimental' scene happening. i work at video in (www.videoinstudios.com) and the punk scene has long ago learned to tap into the video in 'all-ages' availability. we re now pushing for other audio artists (and performance, multi-media etc) to utilize the space. we re working to upgrade the studio and the equipment in it and im attempting to build an 8-channel diffusion suite there for artists to use. im also involved at co-op radio in the media arts committee (www.mac-cfro@mac-cfro.org). MAC pays audio artists to make audio! yup... 3-4 times a year. in both places, i invite anyone and everyone to become involved. MAC are striving to promote varying forms of (mostly) electronic music and video in is striving to provide a space to both make and perform music.
seriously... anyone wanting to get involved can drop by video in or co-op radio. MAC isnt around much at co-op (we tend to work off-site...) but yo can drop us a line through the website. yo can also hear former Artists in residence work there etc.
video in offers tech internships and work exchange programs so you can access edit suites for free...meet artists in the community... make stuff.
i do agree though that it would be great to have even more people working together to promote non-competing shows... i love the idea of sample exchanges... track remixes etc.
hope to see you around!!
em
Email: slacklavish@gmail.com
Where are you from: Vancouver
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Tamas
Jul 4th, 2006 - 7:18 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
Jen, yeah, that definitely is a good point. Even the larger venues can't seem to coordinate, I guess it's nice to have like 3 festivals happening at once in Vancouver, but I think it'd be even cooler if they were spread out a bit.
Emma, yeah, that's really cool. I saw The Winks and a few other good bands at Video In once, I really liked the environment, it's definitely a good place to have some music playing. I didn't know how it worked in terms of playing there but I'll definitely keep that in mind when I want to do a live show.
Getting meets organized or some sort of huge collaboration would be pretty complicated without some sort of larger body helping, do you know if MAC would be interested in doing some sort of music event for artists looking to get involved? I don't really have any completely solid ideas but it would be interesting to try something new. For example, one thing I was thinking of, I remember a while ago there was a "headphone party", where they transmitted the music through the radio and everyone danced in a quiet room... The radio transmission idea could be used to transmit samples to all the musicians there, and then they could all do something with the samples while the event is going on.
But yeah, overall, it's good to know that things are definitely happening, I bookmarked the Video In website and I'll definitely look into getting involved soon. =)
Where are you from: Vancouver BC, Canada
Website: http://www.terrestrialcouncil.com/
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Emma
Jul 5th, 2006 - 12:20 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
hello again,
re:MAC-at one point we were trying to put together shows etc., but we all work on a volunteer basis and it took up too much of our time... we decided we would work better as a funding body so to speak... we strive to help financially.. as in we have a certain amount of money per year to support artists/events.
being out of co-op radio, its of course better if the events are both sonic and have radio friendly components... we can utilize the stations wattage for events if we want...
i like the idea of transmissions...i heard this really great piece done live over the airwaves in europe... i think scanner was involved... they basically transmitted source material to each other and manipulated it live... i think (im not sure) that in the end they put it all together and released it...
but do keep in mind that both mac and video in are open to proposals at all times. it doesnt mean we can afford to support everything, but we ll help however we can.
might be worth getting some heads together to brainstorm.
em
Email: slacklavish@gmail.com
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Andy
Jul 6th, 2006 - 12:43 AM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
Yay for Video In... I've done lots of shows there... it's great for all sorts of stuff that's going on in Vancouver.. .I've seen some amazing punk shows there, and some great experimental stuff too (too bad it never works when you try to put them together).
But it would also be cool to get a place like Crosstown Traffic in the 'good ol days' - a small all ages venue in a coffee shop or something, where the people who run the place are just stoked to have people in their shop, so rent is crazy cheap (or free like Miss Ts!)... but that's the punk in me talking. You know what I mean?
The problem is, if there's a rad band coming through town, like say, D Yellow Swans or Gorge Trio or something, and they want to play a show, but not in some stinky bar to a half-assed crowd, there's really no place to point them, as far as I know... ALF house, I guess?
Email: info@acherecords.com
Where are you from: Vancouver
Website: www.acherecords.com
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Tamas
Jul 6th, 2006 - 3:00 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
That's pretty great, it sounds like a good place to get into it for sure. The main thing for me is I want to find ways to bring out more of Vancouver's new musicians, especially electronic or experimental ones. Like it'd be hard for those bands to start playing shows unless they have some sort of name behind them. But imagine all the great artists that would be opened up to everyone in these types of situations.. My favourite example is with the Laptop battles, I saw Square Root of Evil there for the first time, and she was already pretty great, but then when I saw her again at the Secret Mommy CD release party she improved sooooo much, and when I talked to her about it she said that the Laptop battle really encouraged her to get even better. Things like that, I think, is what Vancouver needs more of. I think if there were more events like that, there might even be people who have access to venues who might realize that they could be apart of it as well, and have an awesome show of some sort at their venue.
And haha, I definitely agree with the punk in you talking! The biggest issue for most people when doing shows is financing. It's always a tough decision on what you want your ticket prices to be, because it sucks if you lose a bunch of money to the rent, but then you don't want to rip the people off either.. I wonder about those warehouses that seem to be abandoned too, this New Years I went to this crazy party inside a warehouse, and that type of setting would be perfect for a live show or event as well.
Where are you from: Vancouver BC, Canada
Website: http://terrestrialcouncil.com
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Brett
Jul 6th, 2006 - 10:58 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
I've seen some shows at this place called bloodstone press on georgia and clark.It was a pretty good warehouse venue. I think they print shirts there. It's really hard finding house shows. I was trying to get this band Ikebana a show here and it was impossible. Oh yeah, i'm new here. Hi!
Email: brett_threats@hotmail.com
Where are you from: Vancouver
Website: www.myspace.com/brettskiskiski
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Emma
Jul 7th, 2006 - 8:50 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
`i see what you mean about the regular venue... many people have considered opening a spot, but very few can make it happen or sustain it. im not so into the punk scene here, but in the experimental scene, it might be worth coming up with a collective of people who can share costs/responsibilites etc of a space... one that simply exists... sells coffee... the sugar refinery was great like that when it first opened... super late nights, good coffee... strange atmosphere....
theres a group of people called ICAN (cant remember what it stands for... artists network.....) who have all had spaces and have all been kicked out by the city. theyre trying to put pressure on the city to relax a little so we can support some kind of culture in this city... theyll be doing a nice presentation at swarm.
hope to see you all around... and welcome to vancouver brett!
em
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Andy
Jul 13th, 2006 - 1:58 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
Actually - there's this really cool venue that I've played a couple of times at with Lee Hutzulak called WRKS DVSN on powell (I think)... right by the park there. The guy running it was super cool and seemed really into putting on shows for more fringe type stuff... someone should look into that!
Email: info@acherecords.com
Where are you from: Vnacouver
Website: www.acherecords.com
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Tamas
Jul 13th, 2006 - 5:36 PM |
Re: Getting involved in the Vancouver music/art scene
Yeahh! That sounds pretty cool. I'm going to Hungary for a month in September and after that I want to think about organizing something during the autumn months, so all this information will really come in handy. :)
Where are you from: Vancouver BC, Canada
Website: http://www.terrestrialcouncil.com/
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