If participating in a battle of the bands competition counted as units toward graduation, it would be a college band’s dream come true.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and balancing school with music can be difficult. But that doesn’t stop scores of UCLA-based bands from playing music and finding outlets for exposure.
With online contests such as Rebels With a Cause, launched by nonprofit AIDS awareness organization Keep A Child Alive, bands can get the word out with greater ease than was possible in the past.
“College bands are looking for an outlet and they have to get their music out there and be heard, outside of their immediate crowds,” said Evan Vogel, a member of the Keep a Child Alive board of supervisors. “The attractive part of a contest like this is it allows (college bands) to be featured, to be heard and increase a band’s fan base.”
Bands can submit MP3s at www.kcarebels.com, and the winning band is determined through a combination of online voting and panelist judges. Winners get a deal to cut an EP with independent label Stone Crow Records, coverage in Blender magazine and a chance to perform at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
Keep a Child Alive’s marketing strategy for Rebels involves responding to the popularity of online networking among college bands (as with MySpace) and coming up with a quick, hassle-free way for bands to participate rather than having to pack up and compete live.
Events such as Rebels, however, allow bands to get their music heard without having to go through the machinations of scheduling an actual live show – which is hard enough to accomplish without worrying about classes.
“We want to get a solid foundation before we go out there to actually perform in a live battle,” said Nathan Longdon, a third-year UCLA theater student and member of the acoustic jazz band That Was Then.
“Every charity event put out there to promote young people’s music is a great idea. We want to take part in these things because any exposure is good exposure, and the Internet is a great way to do it,” Longdon said.
Another UCLA student’s group, fourth-year theater student Blake Stokes’ ironic glam rock band Klusterfuk, has found online contests useful as well. The band submitted a track to a KROQ contest and won a performance slot at the station’s Inland Invasion concert. The band has been in motion since Stokes’ high school years and until recently resorted to recording and touring during the summer.
“It’s certainly more work being a student and having a band,” Stokes said. “But I’ve been doing Klusterfuk for three years. It’s a huge labor of love, so I don’t mind it at all. Now that things are starting to move instead of me pushing the reset button every summer, it’s more day-to-day-work. But it’s more enjoyable because you’re seeing the results.”
Stokes is also the producer of “The Mike & Ben Show,” which operates under ASUCLA Student Media, an umbrella organization that includes the Daily Bruin.
For bands both in and outside of UCLA, the results of their labors can be seen soon. The winning group of Rebels With a Cause will be announced on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day.
“(The participants) will be a part of this first campaign, which I think will have a lot of arms and legs and I think will exist and grow for many years,” Vogel said. “It’s not just your average Web contest for fame – there’s a lot of other things going on out there. It’s a combination of musicians coming together and competing for the sake of a cause. When you bring those two together, it’s extremely powerful.”
As both Klusterfuk and That Was Then are busy managing their own tour dates even while school is in session, an event like Rebels is beneficial to busy bands as well as the charity itself.
“It’s for a good cause and you get to play for a different audience,” Stokes said. “I don’t really see how anybody could say no.”