Sorry if I sound jaded...but if you had to look into the fresh young faces of these guys all the time, you might feel the same way. They are always so nice and so full of hope that their band will really "make it," and there is part of me that hopes they beat the odds. But I have to say, the odds are not in their favor.

When I worked at the big indie rock record label, we got bushels of demos from bands that sound like these guys who are currently occupying my living room. These demos never got a second glance from anyone at the label. In fact, in the 20 year history of this record label, they only signed one band on the strength of a demo. So the odds of a demo turning into a contract are slim to none.

The saddest, most pathetic thing was when someone from a band would call and ask if we got their demo, and what we thought of it. Ugh. How to tell these kids that probably the goombahs in the shipping department listened to their demo just for laughs and then tossed it in the garbage?? Sometimes we (the other staff members) would check something out, but it wasn't often. Whenever I had to talk to one of these people, I tried to be polite and non-committal, in hopes that they would get the message that there was no way we were putting out their record. Occasionally you'd get a really tenacious one who wouldn't take don't-call-us-we'll-call-you for an answer, and that was when I wanted to lay it on the line: "Look, buddy, what do you want? Do you want me to tell you your band sucks and we're not putting out your record?" It was policy at the label to try to let them down easy, so as not to cause hard feelings. But then, there's a fine line between letting them down easy and being a total coward...

I'm pretty glad that I don't have to deal with this kind of stuff that much anymore.

Now if C. would just get a studio space so these bands didn't have to come to our house, that would be great!