Comments on: What It Takes To Get A Cover Feature In The “Phoenix New Times”: Little Talent, Big Ads?

By: Dan Gibson

Dan Gibson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:20:12 +0000

@kevoAZ: Honestly, I couldn't really care less about Hollywood Heartthrob (although I think they were better off plugging away as Faucet), but my irritation is more with the fact that the New Times ran a huge article that was basically an extended ad for the act.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:16:41 +0000

@kevoAZ: If they are just a pop band looking to sell records to teenagers, they are going about it all wrong. You don't sell pop records to teenagers with newspaper stories about your promoter. This cover story is not their big break; it's just boring. They may have been hoping for Tiger Beat, but they got Hit's magazine.

By: MrStarhead

MrStarhead — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:57:01 +0000

Read that ASU article above. The guy freaking works at the Phoenix New Times. So he runs all those ads with some sort of employee discount (or they're house ads), and the lazy music writer just had to walk down the hall to interview him.

Awesome.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:31:35 +0000

I wrote this about Ted Myers and his band right after he won the raffle money: [asuwebdevilarchive.asu.edu]

Now he's all famous and being mocked on Idolator, haha.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:32:23 +0000

While the ban absolutely Sucks and I agree that the Love Blisters should have had more coverage I would argue with the Paying for the cover story part. If this were the case Audio Express would have a cover story, don't they have like 5 full pages in the paper every week?

No, this warranted a story (maybe not the cover) because these kids are spending a ton of money to manufacture themselves into a good band. Look at the media coverage the Monkees got way back when, or what the Back Street Boys & NSync got. This story is just a sad tale of how people can piss money away, and could have done it so much better! It is not hard to get music on ITunes and CDBaby is even easier! This kid is just going about it all wrong to have a lasting impact on music and this is lining up to be an EPIC FAIL.

By: Lax Danja House

Lax Danja House — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:44:24 +0000

I can see why they went with the story, since it is a fairly interesting angle, but the article is so dry.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:59:19 +0000

Well, you guys aren't giving this band a fair shake. For one thing, they're admittedly making pop music geared at teenage girls, not brainy college-types who comment on music message boards. They've done the whole struggling band thing for almost ten years as Faucet; now they're focused on trying to make it as a national act, and that has meant being adaptive and paying more attention to things like image and self-promotion. As for musicianship, most of the guys exceed par for a rock band. Teddy for one is an extremely solid and well-practiced drummer, and Frank has the foundation in music theory to back up his shredding skills. And you don't achieve such a polished sound and coordinated performance without some serious rehearsal, so this nonsense about them "spending more time on their music instead of their image" is way off target.

It's fun to talk shit, but I happen to know these guys and know what they're really about, so I've got to speak up. Hollywood Heartthrob is not some group that was hand picked by money men to engineer as the "next big thing." They're a rock band from Glendale, AZ, that is trying to engineer ITSELF as the next big thing, and that makes all the difference. If you'd seen how far they had come before Teddy won that prize I don't think there would be such a negative reaction. And that Teddy had the balls to invest all that money in himself and his dream is fucking admirable.

This is the point where you're supposed to take a more balanced view and think, "Yeah, they're just a bunch of young guys taking a risk and really going for it in a big way. I guess that is pretty cool and worthy of some press." Sorry to ruin anyone's fun!

By: Captain Wrong

Captain Wrong — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:29:33 +0000

"Worse, Hollywood Heartthrob have no digital distribution whatsoever. The band's music isn't available to download on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, or any other Internet site, which is a basic first step for most bands."

Good grief. It's absolutely easy to upload your stuff to Tunecore, pay them $30 (or however much it is) and have your album out there. That's so incredibly basic and so pitifully easy in this day and age, it makes it hard to take these clowns seriously if they can't even do that.

By: moomintroll

moomintroll — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:03:58 +0000

@Dan Gibson: Man, this whole thing read like an Onion article, and it's real?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:50:25 +0000

It's the reciprocity of life and art. Not to go off on too much of a diatribe here, but what do we expect when we as a culture ogle at and fawn over talentless celebrities and devour their gossip relentlessly? It's inevitable that 'artists' would begin to rely more heavily on gimmick than on substance when popular culture seems to be demanding that they do so. It's actually clever marketing, it's just a shame that they don't have the courage to use that cleverness on something more praiseworthy; like, oh say, their music.

ps- thanks for the shout out to the loveblisters.