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May 19, 2004
Hey, bands: For
$500, a radio promotions company will put your band on a
12-city tour from L.A. to Chicago and pay for airfare, a
tour bus, meals and hotel accommodations. The company will
also promote your music to radio stations in the markets
where you'll be performing.
Is it worth a
shot? 34Below figured it was.
The Carlsbad-based pop-rock quartet
was recruited last fall by an Arizona company called 97
Radio for a promotional tour featuring six bands. It wasn't
the first time 97 Radio contacted the band, said
guitarist/singer Chris James, but this time 34Below was no
longer with a record label and figured the relatively modest
financial risk was worth taking.
The tour never happened. James said he
became suspicious in January, when details of the imminent
tour were still unknown.
"They took everybody's money, then
stopped returning e-mails or phone calls," said James. "I
kept calling, 'Where's the itinerary on this?' They talked a
real good game, even to sucker us into the thing."
Finally after unreturned calls and
vague assurances, James said, he received an e-mail
announcing the tour was off because funding fell through.
James said his credit card company
credited him the $500 when he reported it as an improper
charge. James said 34Below's experience mirrored that of
more than 20 other bands who had also booked with 97 Radio
for either a six-band winter club tour or a spring beach
tour.
James said reps of clubs slated on the
winter tour ---- venues such as the Roxy in L.A., Galaxy
Theatre in Santa Ana and Launchpad in Albuquerque ---- told
him that they had never heard of 97 Radio. Local chamber of
commerces for cities listed on the spring break tour didn't
know of any beach concerts coming to their towns, he said.
In his research, James came across a
series of articles written by online reporter John Foxworthy
that were highly critical of 97 Radio. James said Foxworthy
fed him more bands with similar complaints and adds that he
is still getting e-mails.
The bands filed a complaint with the
Phoenix district attorney's office in February, James said.
James is waiting for news on that end,
but said he has cause for some satisfaction.
"I helped maybe 20 bands get their
money back," James said, tallying the cumulative dollar
amount at more than $15,000. "I could have just walked away,
but I was so p---- at the situation."
William Foreman, 97 Radio founder
Carlo K. Oddo's attorney, said Monday that his client
"vehemently denies any improper or illegal conduct, and he's
doing his best to actively review 97 Radio's situation and
to make people who were involved in it made whole."
Rolling Stone published a story in
March about 97 Radio's canceled spring tour.
Twenty-eight-year-old singer Ellee Ven told the magazine
that she paid 97 Radio $3,600 for a slot on the tour
scheduled to visit coastal cities from Miami Beach to Rocky
Point, Mexico. The magazine said it talked to seven
musicians who paid a combined $10,500 to appear on the beach
tour.
"I take strong exception to the
accusations that my company 'ripped off' or 'scammed'
artists who used the services of 97 Radio and by
implication, Talent 2K," Oddo wrote in a letter published by
Rolling Stone in its May 27 edition.
Talent 2K is a company owned by Oddo
that charges bands to shop their demos to record labels.
Oddo blamed the beach tour's demise on an "overzealous
independent salesman and by a competitor who, through his
web site, sabotaged the tour while it was still being
organized."
"We have refunded many participants
who paid in advance, and we are in the process of reviewing
any claims that are sent to us," Oddo wrote.
34Below signed off on the tour, James
said, because it didn't seem that unrealistic that a radio
promotions company could put together a tour perhaps funded
by sponsors. 97 Radio's tour lined up markets in which
34Below had garnered radio play, so that made it appear the
company was knowledgeable about the band.
"I didn't even think to go to Yahoo
and type in 97 Radio," James said.
This is not the first time that the
band's plans have been tripped up by outside forces. A few
years ago, 34Below was gunning for a big breakthrough when
the EMI-affiliated label NFE released the band's polished
debut, "Is It You?"
"They told us, 'Stop selling CDs, stop
playing out live,' " James said of what was a start-up label
that eventually ran out of money.
The idea was to go into hiding, record
and write songs and resurface when NFE hopefully had radio
stations hooked on a song.
"We went from 200 shows a year to
maybe six shows a year. We opened up for Sugar Ray and the
Calling ... but we felt like we really lost momentum," James
said.
Today, however, 34Below ---- James,
singer Steve Ybarra, drummer Mike Trout and bassist Brian
Maples ---- is taking care of itself. The band's latest CD,
an all-acoustic set called "Live at Dublin Square," came out
on its own record label, Blue Crown Records. The band has
some West Coast dates planned before it heads east in August
to perform at some Wyland galleries, where the famous marine
artist will be giving painting demonstrations and signing
books and paintings.
James said "Live at Dublin Square" is
selling well despite being available only on
cdbaby.com,
amazon.com, the band's web site and at shows.
Chances are you've heard 34Below
without realizing it. The band's song "It's All Right Here"
was featured in a prominent Sycuan Casino TV spot for a year
and a half.
"We were doing it at Street Scene. We
came to the chorus and you see everyone's heads turn and
look at us and they started singing it."
Even more impressive than that
confirmation of advertising's power is what steady touring
in certain markets will achieve for a band.
"We're big in Coos Bay," James said with a laugh.
It's not Japan, but a coastal Oregon tourist town will do
for now.
— Stephen
Rubin (NCTimes.com)
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