Hey I'm moving in September and I have a list of cities in mind but I wanted Sup Forums's opinion on whether they would be a good place to start a band. Quick background: i've been playing guitar for 12 years, singing for 2-ish years, and I wanna make music in a scene that isn't totally saturated AND is somewhat affordable. Bonus pts if you actually live in the city and can give me details about what you like/dislike.
Here is the list: Seattle Detroit Nashville Minneapolis Baltimore Philidelphia Chicago Memphis New Orleans Portland
come to Jersey City and start a Fugazi rip off band with me
Sebastian Robinson
Is legal weed not important? Why not Austin?
Alexander Moore
>Detroit >Baltimore >Chicago Are you fucking high?
Gabriel Perez
Come to Austin.
Connor Myers
>Chicago Pros >Diverse scenes (hip hop, rock, electronic) >Down to earth people when compared to New York or West Coast >Club/bar patrons are honest (you'll get booed off stage if youre bad)
Cons >You might get your gear stolen >Hipsters who venture out from Logan Square and Lincoln Park >You might get shot
Isaac Parker
DOnt move to Portland it sucks.
Landon Brown
I guess you don't need affordable rent when you live in your parents basement and never show anyone anything you've ever made.
Easton Brooks
Burials and Smoke Rings are two of my favorite bands among others active there right now.
Luke Myers
The top of the list is Seattle so literally stfu
Dominic Rivera
Legal weed is relevant actually, Austin is cool but it seems to be getting more expensive and I can't think of any recent bands that have "broken through" in any meaningful way that I actually like-also SXSW seems nightmarish and not worth whatever limited "exposure" it might bring to struggling bands.
Jaxon Morris
Beacon hill appears to be semi-affordable based on the listings I've looked at. If you have any affordable areas to recommend, please, share them.
Brody Price
>getting mot expensive But that's mitigated in ways
Last year was fucking insane for local bands. I haven't actually found any albums this year though.
Nah sxsw is fine and last year was very fucking awesome. I'd recommend it but I suppose it's all what you make of it.
Jackson Parker
Thank you this is very helpful actually.
Eli Lewis
This is also insightful, thank you. Do you have any up and coming bands from last year that you really liked and would recommend as representative of the current Austin scene?
Jonathan Gomez
I was implying that Seattle is expensive as fuck. Beacon Hill is showing $1,200 for 600 sq ft. Not to mention Boeing just laid off 10,000 fucking people which basically got a media blackout. I strongly suggest staying away from Seattle
Samuel Butler
Listening to Smoke Rings now, I like it. Do you have any Portland area Doom bands to recommend?
Samuel Anderson
>aoty Cross Record - Wabi Sabi
>runner up Street Sects - End Position
>honorable mention The Wild Now - Tides
Hudson Diaz
Not offhand
The Smoke Rings album Boxes is my favorite.
William Phillips
Why does it suck for you? I visited in December and thought it was really obnoxious in some areas but I liked the weather (i'm from the upper midwest and it felt like spring).
David Phillips
Listening to High Rise and if the rest of Wabi Sabi is consistent with this i'm impressed. Thanks.
Evan Stewart
Awesome glad you like it. That is one of my favorite songs though. My 2nd favorite is Two Rings which has Thor the drummer from Swans playing marimba or something
Isaiah Butler
I have lived in 2 of your cities >Nashville somewhat affordable: yes isn't totally saturated: hell no. they don't call it music city for nothing. every teenager who thinks they can make it big moved to nashville 5 years ago. and the scene is mostly radio-country oriented.
>Detroit don't know what you know about Detroit but I would heavily recommend checking it out. very affordable in most areas with a thriving and tightly interconnected art/music scene. despite the stereotypes if you're not an idiot it's not more dangerous than any other big city, all of the neighborhoods where young white folks live are 100% safe. never felt unsafe walking alone at night downtown, midtown, corktown, greektown, plus the hip young suburbs like Royal Oak and Ferndale.
Angel Williams
Yeah that Boeing thing is news to me. And yes that is a bit out of my price range. Should have clarified, the cities were presented in no particular order.
Christopher Morales
Just cause the bands are good doesn't mean the city isn't shit. It's literally just Mexicans Muslims and niggers Oh yea then the white hipsters who gentrify the whole city and think they aren't racists.
Isaac Stewart
No Milwaukee? Shame, great little scene
Wyatt Hill
Philthadelphia used to be really cheap, but it gentrifies constantly. The ghetto where we'd go for basement shows is now Yuppie town.
Very punk city. If you aren't up for living in depravity with actual danger walking home, riding a bike everywhere, and basically being filthy, don't come. And make sure you do drugs before you get here or you're gonna be in for a ride
Josiah Rogers
>tfw middle class city in england with no music scene whatsoever
Brody Nguyen
Detroit is very intriguing to me, if you have more in-depth information to provide i'd love to hear it-how bad is it without a car considering how large the city is, and is public transit improving?
William Bailey
Other than that the list looks fine but Seattle is a big no. Last year was pretty bad for them in general from what I could tell. Otherwise I had thought about Federal Way just outside of Seattle and working at Xerox but now I think the whole state is out of the question.
Benjamin Ortiz
I'm moving from Madison, trying to get farther afield than Milwaukee. I agree though, it's pretty good based on what I've seen.
Joseph Bell
Fair enough but this is the music board so put enough awesome bands there and I'll put up with a war zone.
Samuel Harris
Enjoy the elistist 2good4u crowd. Fuck them all to hell.
Easton Reyes
Child Bite from Detroit put out the most relevant punk album last year. Very fucking awesome band.
Hunter Sullivan
Wow thanks for that super insightful opinion I learned nothing about the city in question but I know you lurk on stormfront now!
Jack Reyes
Yea try having a job you'll learn a lot about race relations and the kind of people that commit crimes. Retard.
David Bailey
I've lived in a fairly shitty housing cooperative so I have a fair amount of tolerance for grime, and i'm used to bad neighborhoods-not trying to have a life-ruining drug problem at the moment but I will keep that in mind.
Aaron Flores
I had a car when I lived there so I can't speak from personal experience, but I would say it should be doable though probably not ideal. Detroit is certainly not a city known for great public transportation. Ferndale/Royal Oak/Birmingham are building their own public transportation infrastructure and are generally walkable and very young and hip. Detroit proper I would say should be doable downtown/midtown, making sure you have somewhere to buy groceries nearby because otherwise you'd have to go out to the suburbs. Don't really know the bus system, but the people mover is a joke. they're putting in a light rail going up and down woodward, which is the main street in detroit, but I don't know what the plans are beyond that
music wise techno is still big, there's a rap scene, but there's a pretty interesting rock scene, lot of garage sort of stuff with good metal and punk scenes. tons of young people who want to make music or art in a place with the amenities and culture of a major city but on the budget of a struggling artist are moving there
Matthew Moore
I worked retail for 2 1/2 years and frankly everyone and anyone can be a shoplifter, but especially white sorority girls...You sound like someone who pisses themselves a little when you see a black person walking towards you desu.
Hudson Ward
Madison is nice.I live in Eau Claire, and it has a cute little scene, but a lot of it is Justin Vernon wannabes
Grayson Gomez
check out Bloomington, the scene there was pretty cool when i lived there five or six years ago. Not sure how it is now, haven't visited in a while, but last time I did I went to a pretty cool house show.
Blake Robinson
To be fair that was just the projected estimate from Boeing last year for upcoming layoffs which even then was only 8,000 but I'm factoring in the domino effect of other industries affected for around 10,000. As of right now Boeing is refusing to disclose the actual numbers for non-union layoffs so thats probably not a good sign. In the last 5 years Boeing employment is down a whopping 16,500 jobs and that number is still growing.
Noah Evans
actually now that I think about it I had a few coworkers who lived downtown near campus martius who didn't have cars and said it was fine.
Christian Allen
If public transportation is important to you then I strongly suggest Austin
Ethan King
>Austin >not totally oversaturated
Owen Bailey
With bands? I wish. I haven't found one good album this year so far. There are way too many venues for this place to ever be oversaturated.
As for people in general I can think of at least one thing that's gonna help solve that problem. Either way it's all about planning whether it's 3 people or 3 million and that goes for city planning as well as personal responsibility.
Nicholas Rivera
...
Ayden Fisher
just don't go to shitty areas in chicago and you'll be fine
Noah Ross
this actually sounds kind of fun but i'm not straight edge :(
