Update:
Wow, the show blew threw 60 bands in two hours, with very little filler. Lots of drama, and the trainwreck aspect was not over played. I found the show very entertaining. When Simon Cowell leaves Idol, (as he’s threatening to do) in 2009, I vote for Ian “Dicko” Dickenson as his replacement. Hell, Dicko could replace him NOW and I wouldn’t be too upset. As a judge, he is a perfect blend of snark (without the cliched over-used put-downs) and sharp criticism.
I was a bit aghast that it took 90 minutes for any African-Americans to take the stage. Up ’till then, the show was pretty much a sea of white faces. And, why in the 21st century, is a band that happens to be all female still a novelty? By the way, The Rockets sucked.
More later. Here is your top 12 (thanks hezz)
Tres Bien
Light of Doom
The Hatch
The Clark Brothers
Dot Dot Dot
The Muggs
Denver and the Mile High Orchestra
Sixwire
Cliff Wagner and the Ol’ #7
Franklin Bridge
Rocket
The Likes of You
Johnny Rzeznik, lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls and one of the judges (along with Sheila E and Ian Dickson) on the new Fox TV show The Next Great American Band, describes it as “basically like a big battle of the bands.”
Producer Nigel Lythgoe has this to say about the American Idol-like show premiering tomorrow night at 8 pm on FOX:
Nigel Lythgoe, an executive producer for both series, just wants viewers to give “American Band” a fair shot. He’s willing, even eager, to say that “Idol” contestants suffer by comparison to the band hopefuls.
“I can pick out five bands that I can go, `Wow, these guys are tremendous.’ You can’t do that with the top 12 Idols,” Lythgoe said. “We’re saying to the public, `Look at this talent and say you don’t appreciate it.’”
Why is it, that when TPTB have something new to pimp, whether it be a brand-new show, or a new season of Idol, they feel the need to disparage what came before it?
Maybe because the Idol producers are a little nervous that audiences will not embrace the band concept with as much fervor as they do individual singers on Idol. Mike Darnell, Fox’s president for alternative entertainment, says “The No. 1 status of American Idol doesn’t necessarily translate to the band show. … You can’t compare anything to American Idol.”
Producers are hedging their bets:
“It’s a little harder to get your arms around a group of people,” Darnell acknowledged. “Our job is to individualize as much as we can. If there’s a great lead singer or a great guitarist, someone with a great story, you focus on them.”
Right. Getting folks invested, getting them to care about these bands on a personal level will be the key to the show’s success. It’s an experiment, but with very little risk. The show is only on once a week, in a time slot where few shows would survive anyway. If Band takes off, it will be renewed and maybe even expanded to two nights a week.
If it fails–it won’t be canceled. (See: On The Lot). The producers of the show that saves the Fox network’s ass every season are not going to get their little experiment ended prematurely.
I’ll be watching (will you?) and recapping too…
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Country music is just the beginning, Hez. Soon you’ll be watching American football. *evil laugh*
Do you have coffee?
Nope, can’t do it. Bob comes with cupcakes. Chocolate ones. There’s no competing with that.
I must admit that I really liked Sixwire. They almost had an Eagles vibe. Great harmonies. I even checked out their MySpace.
The Clark Brothers were just wicked cool.
Finn save me I hope Bob doesn’t find out.
ETA *yells* PJ take that back!!! I HATE football.
Re: the show was pretty much a sea of white faces…
…with the exception of the two guitarist overshadowed by the ‘puckhog’ lead singer in Dot Dot Dot, the show was pretty much a sea of male white faces.
And that explains Rocket.
An all-girl band was going to be in the final 12 no matter what.
As for the role model comment, I got the impression Dick-O implied Rocket was an all-girl band that wasn’t going to be pushed arpound in a male dominated industry.
I’m not sure anything explains Rocket.
So do you think that once the theme shows start we’ll get a Daughtry night?
Just in case anyone is interested in hearing more from any of these bands, here is an easy list of links to all their myspace sites (gawd I need a life). In no particular order:
Dot Dot Dot
http://www.myspace.com/dotdotdotonline
Tres Bien
http://www.myspace.com/tresbien
The Hatch
http://www.myspace.com/thehatchmusic
Franklin Bridge
http://www.myspace.com/franklinbridge
Sixwire
http://www.myspace.com/sixwire
The Muggs
http://www.myspace.com/themuggs
Denver and the Mile High Orchestra
http://www.myspace.com/denvermilehigh
The Clark Brothers
http://www.myspace.com/ashleyclarkmusic
Cliff Wagner and the Old #7
http://www.myspace.com/cliffwagnertheold7
Light of Doom
http://www.myspace.com/lightofdoom
http://www.lightofdoom.com/
The Likes of You
http://www.thelikesofyou.com
Rocket
http://www.myspace.com/rocket
http://www.rocketrocks.com/
Didn’t make it but still slightly interesting:
Northmont
http://www.myspace.com/northmont
Are there 12 songs on his cd? If not, they’ll have to wait until they eliminate some bands so there will be enough songs to go around.
Really enjoyed the show!
Liked all three judges. Even liked the host. (He didn’t have any of Seacrest’s smarminess, which was refreshing.)
Have to agree with the majority, thought Rocket was terrible. Loved the country and bluegrass bands.
Some talented bands, actually. Glad we didn’t have to suffer through “Idolesque” auditions.
Think it’s going to be pretty humorous watching the bands try to make it through the different theme nights.
Hope the ratings don’t doom it.
Ratings suck. They better work fast if they are going to have a Daughtry night. Or an anybody night, for that matter.
I want to see the Little Metalheads tackle some ABBA myself.
I would rather see the little tinfoil heads put some shirts on.
Thanks Marco. I’ll probably be posting those links on the front page at some point.
Agreed!
Leave the shirts on until you have an actual body to display.
Chiming in a little late here. I actually enjoyed the show last night. My favorites were Sixwire, The Muggs,and Franklin Bridge.I too am so glad that we aren’t being tortured with the pre Idol auditions. DickO the wanna be Simon, can take a slow boat back to where ever he came from.
I finally got a chance to see the show & I thought it was pretty good. There were some entertaining bands but only one who I would consider buying a CD of (at this point anyway). And that was Tres Bien. I liked the whole retro early Beatles/Who/Kinks vibe. And for some reason they make me want to talk like Austin Powers. Yeah, groovy baby.
I am in the minority I was not as interested in it.I watched parts of it and it was ok to me..My opinion.
Apparently, Gina G (from AI Season 6) used to be in an all girl band called Catfight with the two women in Dot Dot Dot. Guess the universe of women in local bar bands is pretty small.
I watched the whole dang thing and only came out with two possible top 10 finalists from the show, the 12 yr old and Franklin Bridge. The others could go home. although I did like the 12 pce big band, they were super.
Other than that, most of them just seemed like ordinary bar bands. Nothing special.
Considering there are only 12 bands to vote for I’d say coming up with the top 10 should be pretty damn easy.
The 12 year olds were just so very wrong and the big band was a big bore. Get rid of them and we have our top 10.
Not difficult at all.
Oh and point me in the direction of the bar that The Clark Brothers play at will you because they were effing brilliant.
Okay, I watched the show finally.
A lot of them have potential. The ones I liked most: The Clark Brothers, Franklin Bridge, Tres Bien, Dot Dot Dot, The Hatch, Sixwire, and The Muggs. I’d like to hear more from The Likes of You since the show just blew through their audition.
The 12 year olds are just too young, and even though I like Big Band, I just wasn’t crazy about that band. I think it was what the judges said - the music was fantastic, but the lead guy is just not that charasmatic at all. I couldn’t connect with him.
My tivo says that each band will do 2 songs this week? Perhaps an original and a song within the theme?? I haven’t read up a lot on it yet… I wanted to watch the show first.
The Clark Brothers sent out a myspace bulletin saying that their picture made it into USA Today in the Lifestyles section. So, I sent them a message saying yay about that and also telling them that I really liked their debut on NGAB, good luck in the competition, etc, and they messaged me back. So yay about that too! :)
BTW, the fiddle playin’ brother is not a part of this particular group.
There’s like 6-8 of the Clark boys (!) and the running joke is that they look so much alike (except the dobro player??), we swore that they’re cloned…. LOL!
The only contest my old band played in (circa 1986) was sponsored by Malboro and we pissed off alot of country bands by coming in second…heaven forbid they would have allowed a bluegrass band win a “country” contest LOL!
Good luck to them though!!!
BTW, if you truly want to hear a fantastic bluegrass band, check out Cadillac Sky on CMT or Myspace…kickass bluegrass!
Actually, the fiddle playin brother IS part of this group! Ashley, was playing the acoustic guitar last Friday on the show when he sang, “This little light of mine” but he also plays the fiddle.