The Great Demo Review 2010

Be careful what you ask for—it's our annual critique of stuff submitted by San Diego County's very, very brave musicians

Recently, when I asked some opinionated acquaintances in the music scene what CityBeat’s Local Music Issue meant to them, I got some rather, well, opinionated answers. Halfway through their responses, I had to remind myself: I asked for this.

It’s so every band in town, no matter how crappy, can have their 15 minutes.

I think it’s an excuse for your paper to sell more ads.

It’s a chance for snotty music critics to shit on a bunch of local bands.

Geez, sorry I asked. But then one voice piped up and gave me exactly what I wanted to hear:

For me, it’s one of the few issues I keep of CityBeat. I’ll keep it near my computer and read the reviews when I have time and check out some of the ones that sound cool.

Well, at least that person’s keeping it by the computer and not the toilet. But, for me, that comment encapsulated what the Local Music Issue and, specifically, the Great Demo Review are really all about. It’s about discovery. For the seventh year now, I’ve participated in this issue, only to watch more and more local CDs roll in every year while also discovering for myself some of the best new talent in town. Some have gone on to do great things (Transfer, Anya Marina), while some blew our minds and then seemed to disappear (The Nowhere Men, Wilderness Survival).

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One of my favorite stories was when former music editor Troy Johnson, fashionista that he is, showed up at Buffalo Exchange one year and was greeted by a diminutive shopgirl who’d just moved here from San Francisco with her band. She slipped him their demo and within a few days, he was raving about it on FM 94/9 and in the local music issue.

That band, Grand Ole Party, was on the cover of the local music issue the next year. And while they’ve since split, it’s still a revealing tale of what this issue is all about. Some of these discoveries blew our minds. Some made us wanna blow our heads off. But we know that there’s gold in the hills of submissions that come in every year.

Either way, I know you’ll have your own opinion and I look forward to reading your comments and letters. Well, some of them.

—Seth Combs

Great Demo Review, Part One

Great Demo Review, Part Two

Great Demo Review, Part Three

03.11.2010 at 12:17 Reply

Kramer34

For a magazine that claims to support local music, you sure spent alot of time in this issue putting down alot of really good/hard working bands. I mean, really? Like it's not hard enough to get gig in this town? The people that are supposed to have their backs need to crap on them to? Way to support local music. How do YOU like your review? Of coarse this will be deleted....but, like you said. you asked for it

03.11.2010 at 03:16 Reply

Seth

Why would I ever delete your comment? This isn't the Reader. The question of whether a band if good or not is certainly subjective. I can be painfully and brutally blunt in my reviews, but would you rather me lie? I won't apologize that I don't find a silver lining in every band I review or that I don't subscribe to the "if you don't have something nice to say..." philosophy of other writers. If you want that, check out sddialedin.com. We have music features on local bands almost every week in our paper. Maybe your contention that we or I don't support local music just stems from the opinion that we're not covering the right ones. If you have suggestions, then I'm open to listening to them. Even if I don't like them personally, it won't stop me from doing a feature on them. CityBeat has done plenty of features on bands and artists that I don't necessary enjoy. Hell, I did a story in this issue on A City Serene, a band whose music I don't particularly care for but who are "hard working" and have a great story. The idea that I'm supposed to have a band's back just because they live in the same town is ludicrous. I wouldn't be doing my job if I did that and it's not fair to readers.

03.11.2010 at 03:18 Reply

Thank you for your feedback by the way.

03.11.2010 at 10:20 Reply

Nick

The only reason citybeat comes off as negative is due to the unfortunate fact that most bands are crappy. i'd rather dig through a trash can than dig through all the lousey demos the writers got for this issue. From outta tune and outta time art rock, to out of date Stevie Ray Vaugh guitar center shredding, from pop-punk, cliche indie, contrived hip-hop/rasta, and finally a legion of boring coffee shop singer-songwriters. All of whom think what they're doing is something great and new. It's crap. It's boring. It's gotta be mostly all mediocre. And as a reader, (or a band submitting) it's a great read. If you can't take some flak stop making music. If you need encouragment, call your mom

03.12.2010 at 01:10 Reply

lemonverbena

I think I will call my mom! Thanks. I thought these reviews were hilarious. The music industry isn't kind to the thin-skinned, and most bands--even good ones--go nowhere. If a blurb in a alternative weekly crushes your dreams then you weren't too invested in them in the first place.

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