DbR will be hosting a Summer party this year featuring Cheap Spirits and the return of the glorious BUNNY!! It’s been many years since Bunny took to the stage in Doncaster as they’ve been split up! Such id the power of the DbR party that we’ve dragged them from their retirement chairs and back into action…

Venue and price details to follow shortly… Keep em peeled…

Cheap Spirits myspace page
Bunny Myspace

Summer is well upon us – what has South Yorkshire got to offer this year? Well, Sheffield has Tramlines – (see lineup here) and Doncaster has Doncaster Live…

Although this event attracts scoffs from so-called ’serious’ musicians who can all run it better, keep people better informed and attract better bands etc etc, they aren’t doing it are they? The fact that Doncaster Alive has attracted some of the biggest names outside of the enormoplex circuit over the years is testament to what can be achieved…

Doncaster Live has seen The Wedding Present, Magic Numbers, The Levellers over recent years with support from some respected local bands too… No line-up details for this year yet but we will keep you posted.

This year’s event takes place on 4th-5th September
Visit the official site: www.doncasterlive.co.uk

Cusworth music festival

Cusworth Hall & Country Park will host a new music event in 2010… bring on Cusworth Music Festival

This first, of what the organisers plan to be an annual addition to the calendar of open air summer festivals, will feature live music from a wide range of acts, and also promises to benefit local cancer patients with all profits donated to the Doncaster based Aurora Centre. Although not the usual DbR fodder this great cause makes this festival worthy of a BIG mention…

Acts performing on the day range from 70’s glam rock legends The Sweet to local rising stars The Wallbirds alongside seasoned pros like Stafford Galli and UV pop

Cusworth Country park is no stranger to live music and provides the ideal arena for this new music festival, and with day tickets at only £10…

Click here for more information and to buy tickets for Cusworth Festival tickets

We’ve been discussing this on the forum since December began but we’d love your opinions too.

The DbR Awards will take place in the New Year with the best Doncaster band having a full feature and a mystery prize! HOW EXCITING!?

RIGHT… a very easy system this year… Just pop your answers in the boxes and hit “Submit answers”… Enjoy! Fill your email in if you’d like to be notified when the awards are due to be announced. VOTE BELOW!

VOTE HERE!

All answers are optional – fill as many / few as you like…

Two BNP Candidates gained seats in the European Parliament in June on the back of low voter turn-out. This doesn’t represent a surge in support, they actually got less votes than in the last Euro-elections in 2004. What it does mean though, is that they now have greatly increased funding to step up their campaign in the run up to the council elections in May 2010.

But they ARE beatable. There is widespread anger and disgust from the vast majority of UK residents who totally reject the BNP’s thinly veiled bigotry and extremism; If we can turn this energy into action, we can show that the BNP do not represent Britain.

May is a long way off, but if we carry on building now, we can only get stronger:

www.hopenothate.org.uk

Sign the ‘Not In My Name’ petition and check the list of local groups to see how you can get involved to keep the BNP out of your area.

Anyone is welcome to add gigs to the calendar but you do need login details – If you need the details, just email us at mp3@destroybeforereading.com and I’ll mail them over, no problem. Alternatively, head over to the forum and make yourself known… (If I leave it open it will surely be vandalised… now I like a bit of free expression but… well.. you know)

Be sure you head over to the forum… Don’t be shy!

Q1. Devin, the subject of your new documentary is a very emotive one for a lot of people and particularly for those of an age that can remember a time before people held their entire collection of music on a hand held device. What inspired you to make this film and what kind of reaction are you receiving to it so far?

I guess my biggest inspiration for Firewall of Sound is just my love of music as a whole. I feel that, for the last fifteen years or so, the music industry has undergone this massive transition, and every aspect, from buying to selling, recording to listening, all of that has been changed. I ultimately want my documentary to act as a sort of snapshot of the independent music scene, to show what it has accomplished, what its current state is, and where it’s destined to go. So far, the reaction from people who I’ve told about the project and who’ve seen the trailer on YouTube has been very positive. I’ve been amazed at the number of people wanting to be interviewed for the film. Everyone wants to weigh in on this topic, and everyone has a different opinion on what the future will hold.

Q2. I have always been a massive admirer of the US underground scene which I believe to be unique to anywhere else on the planet in terms of local and national networking, self sustainability and freedom away from the influence of big business, do you think that if the decline of the independent store continues it will have a negative impact upon the local and national scenes?

As more and more record stores shut their doors, we will soon say goodbye to one of the most cherished retreats of the music lover. I fear it won’t be long before they build a replica of a record store at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, to show future generations how people used to buy their music, before the advent of iTunes and Myspace. But while that may seem like a negative attitude, I do feel like a lot has been gained. Local bands can now find a much wider audience than ever before. At the same time, fans can seek out an unprecedented amount of music on the web, and frankly, the weirder and more eclectic, the better. Whether its Belgian Satanic freak-folk or Japanese bikini-clad trombone players (both real; the latter played SXSW), I am constantly amazed at the wealth of bands I have found on the Internet, bands I would never have discovered otherwise. So while I am upset at what we are losing to the “digital revolution,” I am hopeful for the future of music.

Q3. I agree that it is now easier to seek out bands than ever before, Music is available on demand via your laptop, cell phone and also through your tv at anytime anywhere, but do you not think that the quicker and more accessible(perhaps even disposable?) music becomes to purchase that it is in danger of being devalued as an art form in the eyes of the consumer?

I totally agree with that statement. As more and more music is made available to the consumer, it has become harder and harder to keep the attention of the public on any one band or album. Even in indie circles, there have been many “next big thing” bands that have turned out less-than-stellar results. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve downloaded a song off a music blog, only to have it collect virtual dust at the bottom of my iTunes library. And while I do think music’s been slowly losing its value as an art form ever since groups of teen heartthrobs got together to pop-and-lock and lip sync in unison, it’s up to the consumer to search out the bands and the songs that he or she finds merit with. Before you chuck that MP3 file in the trash, give it a couple more listens. Revisit albums you haven’t taken off the shelf in a long time. Don’t feel obligated to speed through all of Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Music only loses its artistic value if we choose to treat it as something less than art.

Q4. What kind of release are you planning for the film and will you be doing the rounds of film festivals around the US and possibly in Europe?

My hope is to premiere the film at the Cucalorus Film Festival in my hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. From there, I would run the festival circuit here in the U.S., focusing mostly on documentary or music-based fests (SXSW, Full Frame, etc.) I can’t really go into any detail, mainly because I’m still focused on just finishing the film, which I hope to do before the end of 2009. The official website for Firewall of Sound (firewallofsound.com) will have any updates regarding the production and, ultimately, screenings of the film, so keep your eyes peeled.

www.firewallofsound.com

Andy Maddison

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How can you help ?

The Robot is nothing without you. We’re always looking for contributors to keep the site as fresh as possible. Whether you think you can contribute to writing reviews, interviewing bands or adding your own music, please get in touch. We are also interested in features of new music artists, graphic and fine artists, photographers and designers – If you think we might be interested in what you do – please get in touch.

Another way you can help is by simply adding “DestroyBeforeReading.com” to the bottom of your flyers, posters and web sites. This will help circulate traffic to the site and to articles relating to YOUR scene – the more links we have joining all our projects together, the bigger we are seen on the web. We will be building a page of reciprecol links to re-circulate traffic out again so please get in touch if you would like to exchange links.

!_EMAIL US HERE

Regular contributors:
Ruth Offord – Click here to see Ruth’s posts…
Andy Maddison – Click here to see Andy’s posts…
Andrew Kaye – Click here to see Andrew’s posts…

We’d love you to get involved too… mail me

Steve Albini

“Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit.I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.”

Steve Albini is revered throughout the punk rock world as the antithesis to the corporate, money hungry record ‘industry’… Some think his views are skewed and tainted by his own previous bad experiences, but when it comes down to it, Albini has spent more time than most picking up the pieces of bands left by Major Labels.

The opening quote is taken from Albini’s “The Problem with Music”, originally published in Maximum Rock’n'Roll Magazine and is his humorous but enlightening view of the Major Label industry. It’s a few years old now so doesn’t carry the same resonance in todays climate of MySpace self promotion, but still carries some very valid points. You have been warned!

Here’s the full article: The Problem with Music

Below is the video interview that the post title was taken from – DIY or DIE!