Pop Cop Comments – Avalanche Records

Somebody seems to have done all the leg work already commenting on the Pop Cop blog http://thepopcop.co.uk/2011/05/t-break-2011-the-chosen-ones/ . I’d spotted that The Lafontaines were “connected” to Raw Power Management but that was about as far as I had got and to be honest I was already rapidly losing interest. On first inspection it looks like there are a few homers, a few who have somebody put in a good word and then some completely “unconnected” bands to show the whole thing isn’t a complete fix. That is just how it looks when somebody who isn’t in a band and doesn’t have any vested interest in any of the bands looks at it from the outside. I could of course be completely wrong.

Ill Will Says:May 16th, 2011 at 09:36My gripe isn’t with the bands themselves but I think the selection process is a pretty flawed.
Take 2 of the bands chosen as an example.

Example 1: The La Fontaines – I think they make terrible, terrible music but I would agree that they are 100% a band that should be playing T-Break this year. They’re up and coming, they’re getting a name for themselves. They’ve just come off a tour playing to sell out crowds in support of Twin Atlantic (who I also think are terrible), they had that Biffy Christmas mashup remix whatever you want to call it song at Xmas time which got a lot of attention from big hitters in the UK music press. Not my cup of tea but you can’t argue that they’re making waves.

T-Break should reward and promote up and coming bands by giving them a slot at Scotland’s largest music festival right? A chance to play to lots of people (whether they’re industry or can benefit their career or not). Right?

Ok then.

Example 2: Boycotts – how can you consider them to be an up and coming band or a ‘ones to watch’ unsigned act that stand out from the other unsigned acts in Scotland when they have only played 1 gig in the last year and have not released any new music? I’ll hold my hands up and admit I’m wrong if they’ve played more or put out a single that I’ve missed but you can’t exactly say they’ve done much. Now is it the case that because their bass player’s sister is Aimmi Dunsmuir who manages Twin Atlantic, La Fontaines and probably has a lot of influence in big decisions in the Scottish music scene has put a word in here and that’s how they’ve got the gig?

This isn’t a dig at Aimmi, she has a job to do and she does it very well. And this is not a dig at Boycotts either, I actually quite like some of their tunes. But you can’t honestly say that it’s right that they get to have this great opportunity over plenty of hard working, hard touring unsigned Scottish bands who put out music and are actually good just because they’re in the DF pals club.

Have to be honest, the same thing happened last year. I seem to remember that 4 or 5 bands were either managed by Jen Anderson or had released music through her Euphonious Label, or supported acts that she managed / were on her label. Jen is one of the T-Break judges isn’t she?

Aren’t Fatherson managed by the head of DF? Want to say Dave here but again I will hold my hands up if I’m wrong.

My point here – why ask for bands to submit when the decision has already been made?

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