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Today’s Pollstar has a piece on Dispatch, who will become the first unsigned band to headline Madison Square Garden when it plays a benefit show/reunion there in July. The article was supposedly predicated on this question:
Underneath the band’s noble efforts is a question that unifies most people in the music business: Who the hell is Dispatch? It was never signed, has one television appearance in its eight-year history (”Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn”) and had dismissive radio play.
We were wondering the same thing, but the article never gets to that point, instead hinting that Dispatch was beloved by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, and that “they’re not doing it for the reasons most people in the music business do things.” Which is all heartwarming and sweet and stuff, but, um, what about their music? Sure, Dispatch’s MySpace page claims that the band is “unclassifiable,” a boast that always makes us roll our eyes, but you’d think a music journalist wouldn’t be cowed by that sort of puffery. Giving at least a brief nod to Dispatch’s sound–and their fanbase–would help explain the band’s drawing power more than soft-focus anecdotes about how they’re into keeping things real.
P.S.: They sound pretty jammy to us. Which explains a lot, really. (See? Context!)
The Next Dispatch [Pollstar]
Dispatch [Official site]
I had never heard of Dispatch until I went to college. That, I think, explains a lot.
Dispatch used to be called “One Fell Swoop” if I remember correctly and they had the attention of the jam-band hordes, esp. around Boston. Then they started to get attention from frat boys who are afraid of urban areas in the Guster/OAR/DMB mode. They had one marginally popular song called “the general” again, if I remember correctly. I actually saw them play at the venue formally known as Harborlights (Fleet Boston Pavilion when I was last there). I should mention that I did not pay for the ticket…I was promised a couple Omaha steaks if I accompanied my fratastic buddy. Most of the audience was actually 14-year old girls who knew all the words to songs. The band was introduced by a WWF announcer in this boxing-match thing where they all came out wearing robes. They covered a Rage Against the Machine song and for the rest of the show they proffered their white-reggae safe-for-johnny-frat tripe and the little girls nearly screamed the tires out of Boston Harbor. But yeah that band sucks.
Dispatch are number 4 on my all-time “Top 10 Reasons Not To Date Sorority Girls” list. Dave Matthews, Hollister Clothing and the clap beat ‘em out for the top spot, though.
DMB and the clothes ranked higher than VD? Priorities, man.
Ahh, there’s nothing like a Dispatch post to bring my fellow Massholes out of their caves. Once knew a guy who called them “D-Patch,” as he was in too much of a hurry to enunciate the full name. It made him sound like a “D-Bag.”
back in the day, at my jewish summer camp circa 1998, this is all that got blasted in my bunk. i complained, but no one listened.
as Pollstar is a trade magazine, focusing on concerts & ticket sales, people don’t typically turn to Pollstar to read about the music. did you get lost?
That’s strange, I always found Craiggers to have pretty good taste in musical guests, Chris Isaac notwithstanding. At least Isaac was a pretty funny guest.