I watched some stuff from the show on YouTube today, since I’m unavailable to actually catch the show (in its horrible time-slot). I’m still hoping that it gets big, maybe if it gets a second season. I really, really want to see a successful band version of Idol on TV.
I’m also still wondering why Fox hasn’t done more with it. You’d think they would be pushing it for all it’s worth. I had a few ideas about why this might not be their next big cash cow (and therefore not deserving of much attention):
There aren’t as many amateur bands out there as there are amateur singers. This seems likely, just by default. My hairdresser or bus driver or chem professor can walk in to an audition room and start singing tomorrow. Doesn’t matter if they aren’t a singer today, they can attempt to be one tomorrow. And this makes for a very large Idol audition pool and better and worse) candidates. For American Band, you have to have assembled a group of people, you have to have instruments, and presumably, you have to have practiced. I don’t think you’ll get trainwreck show that Idol gets…not in the same way. Even the bad bands will have played together before in a basement or something. And maintaining a good* band is a lot tougher than just being a good singer. Interpersonal chemistry and dedication are more important. So yeah, fewer bands out there.
Logistics–bands are harder to set up than singers. All of the audition bands and all of the contestant bands means a lot of equipment setup and moving to deal with. That seems like additional expenses and trouble for the show.
Bands are extremely white and male. Well, these ones are. Dot Dot Dot is still bringing the estrogen, but Rocket was only on the show so they could have a token girl band, right? They were pretty bad. And Franklin Bridge was actually really good, but when they first went onstage, I thought, “Oh, this is the black band.” I think their audience just wasn’t there. I don’t know if I can see such a homogeneous show attracting the kind of heterogeneous audience that Idol has. Idol can pretty much pick their racial and gender mix each year–there are so many talented people to choose from.
It’s pretty unfortunate. They’re getting to cover some really great artists–I love Billy Joel, Elton John, and the Rolling Stones, et cetera. And I think a few of the bands are really good. Does anyone know the likelihood of a second season?
I wouldn’t count on it. From what I’ve heard, the ratings are pretty bad.
That’s too bad, because I enjoy watching bands a lot more than solo singers. And I think the Clark Brothers are about as talented as anyone I’ve seen on any of the big reality shows.
Light of Doom goes home (finally). The last three bands are SixWire, The Clark Brothers, and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra.
Each band did three songs last night - one the judges picked, one the producers picked, and one the band picked.
Denver and MHO bored me to tears. They’re technically excellent, but just so bland. The singer’s attempt to be edgy just comes across as ‘Vegas edgy’, like Wayne Newton trying have ‘street cred’. They’d be a fine live act, a great backing band for a TV show, and they’d probably make great Christmas albums, but I can’t see myself listening to them voluntarily on CD. I think they’re gone.
Sixwire was technically excellent as always, but they just have that ‘Nashville House Band’ vibe about them that makes them a little generic and forgettable. I could see them making it on the contemporary country charts, though.
The Clark Brothers had a strong night, and were pretty much anointed as the best by the judges. It will be a total shock if they don’t win. And I do think there’s something special in those three - chemistry and ability that takes them a notch above the average band these days. They deserve to win, and if they put out a CD I’ll buy it even though it’ll probably be bluegrass/gospel and I’m not religious.
Next week is the finale. Apparently, the Goo-Goo Dolls are going to play, and there will be other ‘special guests’. My guess is we’ll see the reappearance of one or two of the bands that the judges thought didn’t get a decent chance - Franklin Bridge, for example.
Yes. This was the right time to send the kiddies home. Next week will be the right time to send the Clark Brothers home. They. Just. Need. A drummer. I mean really. Even bluegrass uses snare drum and cymbal
I’m with Sam Stone on this one; regardless of how this turns out, i feel that The Clark Brothers are the deserving band.
Denver and the Mile High Band appeal to too small a listening segment and although i’ve been pleased with their performance, they don’t have the energy of say, The Brian Setzer Orchestra. They just don’t have the ‘snap’.
Sixwire is the most commercially viable contender (especially with Franklin Bridge no longer in the running), but i think that is also their greatest weakness. I mean, these guys are tighter than a cow’s ass at fly time, but it just feels a little too mainstream. It’s not that i can’t listen to them, it’s just that they don’t make me stand up and take notice (think of the difference between the original Mark Cohn version of Walking in Memphis and the Lonestar cover). They are technically without peer, but don’t have the emotional commitment. To me, there would be no reason to purchase their CD as i can hear exactly the same type of music from countless other established acts.
The Clark Brothers i feel in my gut. They are invested, not in the commercial aspect of the music, but in the music itself. It’s telling that they would choose to play a gospel song as their finale; this is not a band that’s choosing their material in a calculated attempt to pander to the masses. I think their music is more ‘immediate’, that each time they play it’s going to be different then any other, that they will never play a song the same way twice; it’s more about the emotion than the content.
That said, i think that Sixwire will carry the day. They are more ‘comfortable’, they fit in a box that already exists, they are easier to market, and they have a ready-made fan base. Inevitably, that they easily fall into an established genre makes them ultimately forgettable. Honestly, i wouldn’t, with any degree of certainty, be able to identify them should i hear them on the radio.
I don’t have anything to add. Just that I watch the show too. I was glad to see the kiddie band go home. I like all the bands left. I think DAMHO has the worst chance of winning. Sixwire is ready to go. Clark Bros. have the emotion but not an obvious commercial niche.
I think the Clark Brothers can actually invent their own niche. They can make Gospel music young and cool the same way Elvis made it cool. There are, if polls are to be believed, about 250 million Christians in the United States. Most the them don’t listen to "Christian Rock’ because frankly, it generally sucks really badly. It’s “Jesus is my boyfriend” music (you can take half the contemporary Christian songs, replace the word “Jesus” with boyfriend/girlfriend, and get basically the same kind of sappy love song bad 70’s bands made).
The Clark Brothers could do to Gospel and Christian music what someone like Eminem did for urban rap, or what Dylan did for folk music - blow it wide open and create a new market for it outside of the core demographic. I’m not religious, but I love old time gospel songs for the passion they bring. Elvis’ gospel albums were some of his best. If these guys can make Christian/gospel music young and cool, they’ve got millions of devout Christian teens who are aching to find something a little better than the pap they’re fed, and that their parents will let them listen to.
Not that I necessarily think this will happen, but these guys seriously are good enough to carry a genre to a new audience. If I were a record producer, I’d be thinking about how to market that. It also doesn’t hurt that the three of them are attractive and all have a fair bit of charisma.
Hell, they could probably make a career just playing Branson and the various gospel/bluegrass festivals and tours. I could seriously see them opening for Carrie Underwood, Lee Ann Rimes, or one of the other young country stars with overtly religious roots. And those types are HUGE in the south.
Don’t forget, they were part of the ‘Clark Family Experience’ which already had a top-10 record. And these three were probably the talent of the family.
Out of those who are left, I prefer Sixwire. We were watching Friday’s show on TiVo last night during halftime, and I mentioned to my husband that Sixwire sounds like they’ve done every song 800 times in some smoky bar, even if they haven’t. They managed to take a song that I hate (“Really Want to See You Tonight”) and make it tolerable, even though they realized how ridiculous it was. I doubt they ever actually performed that song before this week, and they nailed a sucky song to the wall.
DMHO needed to go home when Franklin Bridge did. I’m pissed that it’s not Franklin Bridge in the finale. God, I loved them. Denver has improved, but there’s a ceiling to his talent and he’s reached it. There’s no edge there and never will be. I was listening to Cake’s excellent version of “Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps” this morning and trying to picture DMHO doing it. Ostensibly it would be perfect for them, but they just couldn’t muster that toughness it needs. Ditto for Goo Goo’s suggestion of “Bitch” during Rolling Stones week. Musically that song would have been made for them, but they just can’t get that emotion. America doesn’t want smiling goofballs with trombones, jackass.
The Clark Brothers are fun to watch, but I’m still pissed off at them for taking “Change the World” and turning it into a tuneless screamfest. Am I the only person who thought they should have stuck with something vaguely recognizable? What they did had no melody at all. My husband, who actually likes the Clark Brothers (I’ve been anti-CB since “Gimme Shelter”) even thought that version was horrific. I was shocked to hear it pimped. Their version of Lonestar was good, although Dicko was right in that it was more a Sixwire song. I’m just really not sure why everyone liked “Change the World” so much.
Just got back from Phoenix and watched the DVR of the finale. I’m very pleased with the choice, despite my prior reservations. The band really won me over in the end. It was the best of all of them. Now, go and get a drummer.