NCS supporter and budding contributor Grant Skelton wrote me to propose an idea that I thought was cool. But it will become a reality only if we get some help.
Grant’s idea was for NCS to invite guest contributors to write a showcase on bands from their cities/states/regions within the U.S. The bands wouldn’t necessarily have to be unsigned and independent bands, but the mission of the series would be to put the spotlight on lesser known names — bands who don’t get much media coverage, and maybe even don’t have any official releases (beyond demos) under their belts.
The goal would be to post installments in the series once or twice a month, with the lofty aim of eventually trying to cover all 50 states. Grant also suggested that we consider inviting international contributors — which makes sense to me, given that we write about bands outside the U.S. at least as often (and maybe more frequently) as we do home-grown products. So this invitation includes people who live outside the U.S., too.
Grant decided to kick off the series by submitting a piece on bands from the city where he lives — Memphis, Tennessee — and I’ll be posting that tomorrow.
Now to repeat, this idea will become moribund if people don’t work up the nerve to contribute. All I can do is put out the feelers and hope we get a positive response. You can use Grant’s piece as a model — it really doesn’t have to include a whole lot of verbiage, though sample music that we can stream is critical. I’ll add a link to Grant’s piece tomorrow after it goes up. UPDATE: Here’s the link to Grant’s piece focusing on bands from Memphis, Tennessee (and elsewhere in the State):
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2015/02/25/local-focus-memphis/
It probably also goes without saying, but let’s try to keep the musical focus on the kind of metal we tend to write about around here. That’s a very broad spectrum, but it’s not limitless.
If you’ve got any questions about the idea, please leave a Comment below. Thanks.
P.S. Dumbass that I am, I forgot to include info on how to submit pieces. Here’s how: Just e-mail me the text, either in an attached document or in the body of the e-mail, and provide links to any music you want to stream along with the write-up and social media links for the bands as well. If you want to include links for band photos or album/demo art, that would be great, but I can find that stuff on my own usually. Here’s the e-mail to use:
islander@nocleansinging.com
30 Responses to “LOCAL FOCUS: AN INVITATION”
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This sounds like a rad idea. I would definitely be interested in possibly contributing to something like this.
Cool — I think the idea will be even clearer once we post Grant’s piece on Memphis tomorrow. It won’t require a ton of words — the knowledge of the scene, to me, is the main thing.
I actually shot you an email with a submission a little earlier this morning. Being from Seattle, I know that may conflict with some of the NCS writers already but I decided to give it the old college try. Pretty short and to the point stuff.
Got it and just wrote you back (what you sent in looks great — and even better that it’s about one of my favorite Seattle bands, who are also very cool people).
What’s the submission process?
I updated the post to provide those details (sorry for not doing it at the outset).
I think this is a great idea!
I definitely have a number of bands down here I could think of, especially pertaining to NCS. I’m completely down for this.
Fantastic. Would love to see your recommendations.
I’ll try to write something up on my spring break, which is coming up in about three weeks. Kinda did something similar with one of my first few posts here, but it’s time for updates anyhow 🙂
I remember. A few other folks have done somewhat similar things in the past. And yes, if we magically did cover all 50 States (for example), by the time we finished we’d have to start over, because good new bands spring up all the time.
this is a great idea!
I’ll rep St. Louis, MO. Let me know how I can submit
Check my comment below, and sorry for not including the submission details in the post.
Dumbass that I am, I forgot to include info on how to submit pieces. Here’s how (and I’ll update the main post, too): Just e-mail me the text, either in an attached document or in the body of the e-mail, and provide links to any music you want to stream along with the write-up and social media links for the band as well. If you want to include links for band photos or album/demo art, that would be great, but I can find that stuff on my own usually. Here’s the e-mail:
islander@nocleansinging.com
Reception seems pretty warm so far.
It does, and I will do more to spread the word, including re-posting this periodically.
Great! Can’t wait to read the submissions.
This is a great idea. I look forward to Grant’s piece to see if what I have in mind for what I’d do is appropriate. I live in the Dallas metroplex, and there are 2-3 Dallas bands I could rep hard, that I absolutely love, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on the scene overall.
Hope you feel up to doing one for us for Dallas and the metroplex area. I think Grant’s piece shows that you can bring bands to wider attention without spilling a thousand words doing it (in other words, writing more succinctly than all of us here do).
Here’s a link to Grant Skelton’s inaugural installment for this series, which can serve as a model for what other submissions might look like:
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2015/02/25/local-focus-memphis/
It would be fun to contribute something, but our metal scene sucks. It was great in the 90s and early 2000s but most of the bands have gone under or have mysteriously stopped making music. We have a huge indie scene here, but metal isn’t part of it.
I’ve forgotten where you’re located.
I’m no writer but if nobody steps up from Colorado, I would love to take a shot at it.
You should do it!
There is some great stuff to talk about on Colorado.
Yeah, there seems to be a lot recently. I feel like a lot of it has been covered on here before.
I couldn’t do the entire state, but I could contribute something about Pittsburgh and central PA.
That would be cool.
I could probably do one about Nordland, but it would feature a few dead bands aswell.