The Internet may have leveled the playing field for bands looking to hit the big time, but it might have happened at the expense of local music scenes. “The iPod generation isn’t going to see live shows of bands they don’t know anymore,” Kevin Schneider, bassist for local indie rock band Reverie, tells Paste:Local. Under that assumption, Schneider and his Reverie bandmates have joined forces with eight other bands to form the Chicago Noise Machine, a musical collective that handles its own promotion, booking, compilation album releases in lieu of a record label.
“By creating a network, a talent-core – not just for struggling bands, but fans and businesses as well – we feel we can draw attention to the Chicago music scene, and get people to come out for reasons other than just to see their friend’s band… and then jet,” Schneider explains.
The bands that form CNM – Reverie, plus A Birdsong Valentine, Algren, Bullet Called Life, Echo Son,Heavy The Fall, Lucid Ground, 72 Hours, and Simplistic Urge – have all fought the good fight, gig after gig, on the same local stages. But for them, at least, the “monogamous,” go-it-alone band model is now a thing of the past. “Why other bands haven’t realized this is beyond us,” says Schneider. “Music is collective, not individual. Once we start remembering that, things ought to get better.”
To inspire locals to think the same, CNM will hold a launch party this Friday, Nov. 14th at 7 p.m. at The Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville. For $10, attendees can take in all nine bands’ 20-minute teaser sets (meant to, in Schneider’s words, “expose people to as much new music as possible without boring them”).Volume I of Chicago Noise Machine’s compilation series will make its complimentary debut, and the groups have pooled their own bank account to raffle off a guitar signed by each band member. When it comes to musical polygamy, this looks like one well-oiled Machine.
Tags: 72 Hours, A Birdsong Valentine, Algren, Bullet Called Life, Echo Son, Heavy The Fall, Lucid Ground, Model Stranger, Reverie, Simplistic urge