Transmission Entertainment Launches New Web Site Today

What is so "unique" about Transmission's approach to live music entertainment? The fact that they are squeezing out the local bars and venues that you fail to mention as much as once in a blue moon? The fact that they are renting a 6th St. location for a reported $18,000 per month? That's unique?

What Austinist and Austin Chronicle, with all of their fawning over shows at all 3 Emo's stages vs. shows at the Mohawk/Red 7/Club Deville, fail to realize are the other live music venues in town, many of which have been doing business a lot longer than Mohawk et al. What in fact you have done, Paige, and continue to do is bring a Home Depot vs. Lowe's approach to the local music scene, with the Room 710s, Flamingo Cantinas, Red Eyed Flys and Beerlands playing the role of the struggling Mom and Pop hardware stores.

That isn't anything new, it's not refreshing, and it sure as hell isn't anything unique. It's pure capitalism, plain and simple, and ironically, that goes against just about every basic notion of the original intent of a live music industry built for both musicians and their fans.

ummmmmm...

yeah. i just clicked around a bit and its actually kinda sweet. there are some insane shows on the schedule. not sure about all the hub bub. tastes like chocolate to me.

I'm just one music fan among many, but these guys are booking a lot of shows I want to see. I think their tickets are fairly priced. Getting my hands around a good stiff drink has never been a problem. Frankly, that's all this guy is looking for. Pretty easy to please. Keep doing what you do, that's what I say. As for the site, badass. I'm really impressed. I can't believe how much good music is on here.

Indie slap-fight drama aside, my biggest complaint about last year's F3F was the transient artist merchandise setup. First, it was not lit well enough to see anything after dark. More frustrating was seeing a great band play (for the first time) and then going to look for a t-shirt or CD only to find they had already packed up all their crap and left. How stupid is that? I purchased two t-shirts and three CDs over both days, but would have picked up way more stuff if their vendor had stuck around.

I just checked my bank account. I just paid 20 bucks for a c3 emos show. if i plan on continuing to watch live music in this town, i say yay to competition and boo to monopolies.

TRANSMISSION isn't an evil tyrant in Austin's booking industry. They've increased the diversity of out-of-town acts visiting Austin. Beerland hasn't suffered at the hands of Transmission OR the smoking ban. Somehow, Room 710 also has stayed in business.

It's not like they're a monopoly. There are plenty of non-Transmission venues that are continuing to book interesting live entertainment.

Hooray for Graham Williams! Last year's fun!fun!fun! was amazing. I don't give a shit about ACL-- I want to know who's playing this year's FFF!

Seth

I would have to agree with Seth here. I don't really see a problem with Transmission and what they do. As a practicing artist I am acutely aware that in order to make art (or in this case music) you have to generate money to pay for space, electricity, materials, etc. The idealism that anti-capitalism holds for some artists doens't hold much water if you're a working artist and it never really has. These are just people trying to make a living around doing something they love.

I'd rather go to Mohawk and pay more than Emo's any day of the week. I'm happy Transmission is here and I am always impressed with the bands they book.

holy shit. not that the austinist is spossed to be an objective, journalistic outlet - but this transmission piece is brutal, pandering, and just wrong. and it really kills any shred of credibility i ever gave this site - which was next to nothing. c'mon. i have nothing against transmission, other than their gay-ass lofty minded bullshit - if you don't know what i'm talking about, read their mission statement(you're a promoter - and not even a good one), and fff fest is fun and had some good bands. and i don't have any problem with making money or grabbing a bit of the market. i applaud the effort, but the fact is their bands are, on average, forgettable, and and 75% of their shows are almost embarrassing from lack of attendance. so here's the rub: they AREN'T making money. they're losing money, yet are lifelined by deep pockets. that's a problem because the austin music fans are voting NO by omission - yet transmission's failed model and can't-cut-it-ness survive to help raise rents, ticket prices, and engender a lamer music scene. so boo austinist for such a shitty article.

The haters are people who own/work at shitty clubs or play in shitty bands. There's a reason you don't get coverage in any of the local media outlets. You suck. Come to grips with it.

Seth: The only reason that Room 710 is still in existence is the massive amount of personal sacrifice made by its management. I know that for a fact because I am a big part of management at Room 710.

Having said that, Transmission is doing what Transmission does. They are bring shows like Fu Manchu to the Mohawk, which everyone who knows that band and has been to the Mohawk felt was a strange bedfellow for the night. In fact, that show might have done better at.... an indoor live music venue known for its acoustics in the hard rock set? Maybe?

At full disclosure, Fu Manchu never talked to 710 about putting their show there. Hence, the speak of being "squeezed". When national touring bands are being offered guaranteed money that a small club cannot afford, that is not "unique". Yes, Graham has power, and no one is denying that his years in and for the Austin scene shouldn't bring benefits. But now that he's booking Red 7, he is going for the 710 crowd. That's called competition, which is based in capitalism, and isn't in any way "unique".

As to you, Paige, I will invite you AGAIN to come out to Room 710. In less than two weeks, we will be celebrating 8 years in business. That is a big deal. That is news worthy. Let's see if you write anything about it.

As to Circumlocution, you wouldn't like Room 710. It's on a crack corner, and they cater to people with neck tattoos. In short, it's too scary a place for someone with as lame an outlook on life as you have chosen broadcast. So stay away.

Ok, after all of this chatter yesterday, I decided to help out and do some investigative reporting. I went out last night on RR and learned this:

Transmission Sucks.

But Im not sure why. I just know they suck. There were 400+ people at the mohawk frightened rabbit (who also sucked) show and they were all having a shitty time (fist bumping and head bobbing and boozing like idiots). It looked like there were over 700 people at CDV looking like they were having a shitty time too. The laughing was annoying. Plus, that club has only been there for ten years or so, which makes it totally suck big time.

Also, this Transmission guy who booked those shows was riding around on his capitalist pig bike with his mainstream tattoos plotting and scheming about booking even more shows in these shitholes. I can see right through that shit.

I bet they also totally lost money last night. That failed model of booking great music can lick my balls. I prefer crap and Jack Johnson. Boo Transmission. Boo change.

I just checked the calendar -- that Valient Thorr show and King Khan show are gonna totally blow donkey nuts.

To be fair, Red Eyed Fly has the most upfront payment system of any club in Austin. They ask every single person entering the back venue area who they are there to see and they pay the bands for exactly their turn out.

This is an awesome system if you draw really well and the other bands draw 2 people, because you get all your fans' money and it's not redistributed to bands that didn't promote at all. The flipside is if you had an off night in terms of draw, you can wind up with $8 after your share of the soundman fees are paid out. The other negative to this approach is that if you're playing with bands that share fans, the $5 isn't split between all the bands so your fans are forced to commit to Band A and then Band B gets $0.

Red Eyed *does* make you wait until 2am to get paid, probably because they do that more complicated accounting as opposed to handing the headliner (or whomever booked the show) all the money and saying "go split it yourself."

And yeah, it sucks to get only 2 drink tickets per band member at REF compared to a metric assload at Emo's, Stubbs, and Mohawk. But that's how Red Eyed operates and it is what it is. Never had a problem with the soundguy or bartenders there though.

Yeah we essentially did that show as a favor to another band, and ended up getting jerked around on an unprecedented level.

As far as their "complicated accounting", I've never played another show in town (at places inc. Emo's, Red 7, Beerland, Mohawk, Hole in the Wall, etc...) where they hand the headliner all the cash to pay out to other bands. Typically we get $50-$200 depending on the crowd, which is completely fine.

As far as CdV goes, totally agree that it was an awesome bar, but at least for my band, they allowed us to negotiate down to putting on a free show and splitting a portion of the bar with all the bands. They even had a 'show manager' or some such making sure the bands were kept happy and everything was squared away. Everyone that played that night couldn't have been happier, and we ended up making more than we would've made charging $5 cover and having half as many people show up and buy drinks.

So, getting back to the article, I'd say TE indeed has a different way of doing business, one which in my experience is MUCH better for talent than other bars' policies.

Wow - the ignorance on here sometimes is ridiculous. You might want to put some thought into who those tattooed TE people are and rethink calling them people with mainstream tattoos and on their capitalist pig bikes. I'm going to venture to guess that they have done more for music in this town before you were around the scene anywhere and those mainstream tattoos are now mainstream because of people like that "booking guy".

werd, bad day. Apologies Blink...

long live grape ape. my mom says my sarcasm is elusive at times. i think TE is doing a great job in town. i dont think anyone can disagree that we all have more choices now than we did 2 years ago. donkey nuts.

I think transmission puts on some great shows.

I think that Room 710 puts on great shows too, just not as often. I am in several bands and some of the most fun shows I've played have been at 710. I actually think that 710 is one of the better sounding rooms in the city. And the soundguy is very good and helpful. Some of the best sounding shows I've seen have been at 710. However, they just don't put together great cohesive nights of music as often as transmission in my opinion. When they do, it's fantastic. I was at a show a few months ago with a touring band called "Downtown Brown" and locals "Foot Patrol," and it was one of the best shows I've been to in Austin. Perfect lineup, perfect sound, and no hipster boys wearing women's blouses and skin-tight tappered black jeans. You get a lot of that at transmission shows.

Here's the thing though. I do booking from time to time, and you don't have to have a big touring band in order to put together a great, well-attended show. There are lots of great, interesting bands in Austin and in surrounding areas. This is what you do. You put together a night of music with bands that have a similar enough sound that each band's fans will like the other bands. But different enough sound that the bands probably don't already have the same fans, so you get several groups of fans, and that adds up. Then you promote the hell out of it. Tell you friends, tell them to tell their friends, and if you do it right, you get a crowd. It's a lot of work, and transmission has the buzz on their side. My experiments with this have bore much fruit, but I only do it about 2 or 3 times a month with the bands I play in, so I realize that it's difficult to keep that going when you're booking every night.

I guess all I'm saying is that Austin is a very difficult town to book in. There are lots and lots of venues to compete with and way too many crappy bands to sift through. But if you work hard at getting the buzz on your side, like transmission seems to have done, then you can put together good shows with good bands and get good attendance. Then, once you earn a little money, you can start investing that into bigger bands from time to time. I see where the older clubs are coming from, but transmission is just doing the same thing they're doing, and doing a very good job. They are working hard and getting rewarded with success. That's the way the world works.

seth -

i know so many of their shows lack attendance b/c i go to a ton of'm(in the industry and go to a shitton of shows i don't like). and no, i'm not t's accountant, but thru really good, multiple sources and more importantly, simple monkey math - i know they ain't makin' money overall on shows. but they'll keep keepin' on as long as those deep pockets keep spendin'. so its just annoying when the music editor, who must be the most pandering in the business, just takes, rote, what is given her by a failing-model promotions company and calls them unique and important when in fact they are inept, and annoyingly arrogant at the same time.

Transmission Entertainment isn't squeezing life out of a bunch of do-gooders in a "home depot vs. mom and pop's hardware store" fashion... it's (finally) offering people a choice between a well-prepared meal and a 3-day old bowl of ramen that your roommate left next to the toilet.

The businesses that are now touting the flag of nobility in their struggle against the evil empire are simply failing to realize who's fault it is that they're failing in the first place.

Transmission isn't a bloodthirsty chickenhawk aiming for your jugular, it's just somebody who knows how to do their job WAY better than you. I'm sure that'll be chalked up to their deep pockets with roots in the seedy underworld of financial superiority spearheaded by the illuminati, but whatever helps you sleep at night.

If your poor, struggling business hasn't been able to cut it and you're watching your crowd head elsewhere after realizing they have better options..... maybe it's time to update your routine, sport.