Local 221 Site Launches

WASHINGTON (March 12, 2004) - In an effort to revive rock music in the nation's capital, a group of the area's top bands are launching a new cooperative effort to bring back the Washington music scene which not long ago made the nation's capital the place to be when it came to rock music.

Eight of the area's bands have formed a cooperative called Local 221 to promote their music and coordinate efforts to widen the venues where they can play.

If you'd like to find out more check out WWW.LOCAL221.COM

From the site (Gist has a couple of the owners [?] of Revolution Records in it, including the guy who was so super nice to me):

In addition to Los Hermanos Rodriguez, the current members of Local 221 include
Ape House, Confidence Man, Gist, The Goons, The Lime Twiggs, Morris, The Ready Steady Go and Snuggle.

Bands from any musical genre are invited to join the organization; but to become a member of Local 221, these groups must exhibit band stability, reliability, fairness and consistency in performances. Members also agree to display the Local 221 logo on their Web sites which is linked to the organizationâ??s own Web site at www.local221.com. Other Local 221 supporters include live music venue Chief Ikeâ??s Mambo Room, Internet magazine dcspore.com, The Raven Grill, retail music vendor Revolution Records and promotion company rudeindc.com.

As with other ventures like this, the guys have their hearts in the right places, but it is a tough road to hoe. These collaboratives often end up in disaster, with little to know positive change to the scene to be seen. In terms of other local disasters I give you:

www.sevenzerothree.com
www.dcska.com
www.pheer.com
www.arlingtonmusicscene.com

Now, all of the above have some very positive things about them, especially AMS, but I just don't see change coming from any of them, or 221 either. But good luck to them.

I think the problem is too much self promotion. Band members should not pretend to want to collaborate like that.

I found that in the club scene, when DJs tried to do stuff together, thier egos and own interests got in the way too much. But if someone from the outside (promoter, agent, PR person) did it, it worked out much better.

Originally posted by Bags:
Bands from any musical genre are invited to join the organization; but to become a member of Local 221, these groups must exhibit band stability, reliability, fairness and consistency in performances. ……Other Local 221 supporters include live music venue Chief Ike’s Mambo Room, Internet magazine dcspore.com, The Raven Grill, retail music vendor Revolution Records and promotion company rudeindc.com.

so who decides about the stability, reliability, fairness and consistency - the supporters, ie Velvet and the Raven Grill….what about some of the local music stores like Melody or CD Exchange?…perhaps Im oversteping