Telling us what we already know

Nick And Trevor have brought up some excellent points. Ambition and connecting with what is hot national scene is an important part of the PR puzzle. A good relationship with the press is also important.

Something that has helped CAH/Desolatevoid in a major way is that we've impressed some of the influential writters in the metal scene. Nick C has a reputation for putting out quality acts and now most reviewers look foward to anything he puts out.

If it wasn't for guys like Scott Alisoglu, Dave Brenner, Erik Thomas and even our own Andy Patrie believing in what we do, we wouldn't have gotten the attention we have.

Agreed, the PR is solid – they know how to make themselves available and make it easier to get covered (available music, good photos, good copy writing, good design, good looking MySpace pages, etc.) But I think the PR from the Crimes Against Humanity metal camp (Desolatevoid, etc) has been strong too. As have the efforts of some other local groups – though the VAST majority are pathetically lazy and un-savvy.

The Amble Down "sound," if there is one, IS closer to some of what's getting bigger in the "indie mainstream" market though, so there's that. That helps.

And to Andy Moore – so awesome you chimed in here. I totally get what you're saying and understand. And thanks for the kind words. Let us know if you ever want to dig any deeper, we might be able to help!

Speaking only from what I've seen personally, it's because of some stellar and ambitious marketing. Just making an album isn't enough; you have to send it all over the place with the hope that a few will crack it open and get it "out there." Amble Down does that.

Just a question - regardless of what should be happening, the fact of the matter is that the Amble Down group has gotten more press. Why is that? Is it just because their musical genre more trendy nationally now than others? Or, while we have several "scenes" that are thriving, is our indie scene "better" compared to other's indie scenes than our hardcore scene is when compared to other hardcore scenes?

I'm not trying to disparage anyone, I'm just honestly curious why Amble Down has been the focus...

I name-checked Justin because he deserves it and because I knew it would hook more readers in Madison; readers who would then learn about others in Eau Claire. I'm grateful for his participation. I never set out to describe the entire Eau Claire scene--no more possible a task that it would be to describe Madison or Minneapolis in 1,500 words. Instead, I wanted to open people's eyes downstate to a heartly slice of it, hence, Amble Down. I do regret, however, not mentioning Volume One and the intelligent, important news and cultural reporting contained in its pages and cyber-space. Thanks for reading ISTHMUS, everyone, and for sharing the fruits of your prolific artistic community with the rest of us.
Andy Moore

I agree with Nick said as well. One might get the impression from the article that Amble Down is the only thing going on around here but as we all know that's not the case.
Overall, not a bad article though.

Kyle, if we ever bump into each other at the Joynt, lets grab a pitcher and talk shop. It would be interesting to compare and contrast how the indie folk and underground metal scenes do business and also share ideas about the future of the music industry.

Historical note for Jizoe: The valley blues scene used to be pretty strong back when Jim Solberg still lived here and the Joynt used to feature blues legends.
I'd say that reemerging would be a better term to describe what's going on now. I'm looking forward to the Tuesday night blues shows that are in the works this summer at Owen Park.

Hey everybody, I thought I'd chime in and note that The Isthmus approached me about doing this feature strictly on Amble Down, and in an attempt to steer the writer's focus away from "me", I expressed Amble Down's sense of community and its family-like nature. This was captured well I thought, though, in certain areas, and in reading the headlines, I can see where the message might have gotten a bit blurry; the article was not attempting to cover the entire Eau Claire music scene - just a small part of it.

With that said, I am very happy with the article and hope that it will open more eyes elsewhere to what we have going on up here!

Hey just wanted to throw it out there that I've been living in Madison for a couple years now, and I do appreciate the Isthmus, but I do still miss Volume One a TON, and I think the Isthmus could benefit by following its lead. :-) Eau Claire, keep up the good work!

I agree with Nick - the only bands in the area they really focused on were the amble down bands. There are great bands here and lots of great places to see music, but it doesn't stop with the indie/sad boy stuff. there's great metal, great jambands, great punk, and a blossoming blues band scene here, hip hop, among other things. The author seems to have just read the Amble Down marketing material and gone from there.

January - What are you talking about? "Snobby"? I think you're projecting there a bit. Obviously the EC community "already knows" about the talent here, there's nothing snobby about saying that. And you're right, they did a fantastic job of portraying PART of the EC family.

Volume One is TOTALLY rejoicing in the article, it's a great indicator that this area's talent is again getting recognized outside our own community (that is if people need the outside recognition to feel good about it, which sometimes we all do).

However,it should be noted this article isn't really about the greater Eau Claire music community - though it's billed as such – it's basically about Amble Down and IT'S family. One totally worth the attention and accolades for sure.

But I'm a little disappointed that the research basically stopped there. Though I understand restraints in terms of space and time, if you're going to bill an article as about the "Eau Claire scene," there are so many more musical projects in many genres around here worth name dropping and getting outsiders interested in. And no, I'm not going to try to list them here.

But if we ALL really want to have a largely successful scene, we're going to have to shed light on each other (in our own circles and out) as much as we can. The Amble Down catalog might not be for everyone, but maybe something else is. When we can start doing that – that's when things could really take hold...

Regardless, a great article coming at a great time in the history of the Chippewa Valley's creative scene.

I thought it was a nice article. Sure, they didn't delve into everything that our scene has to offer (an awesome hardcore scene, other harder rocking options,) but I don't think they were trying to encapsulate everything that we are. A nice piece that I hope gets people from the "big cities" booking bands from here on better and better bills. Learn what Minneapolis has known for years!

I wonder when the Milwaukee-centric group that is known as Wisconsin Area Music Industry will start finally start giving this area attention.

Well that sounded a little snobby (when the Isthmus itself commented on the humility of our community...) We should be rejoicing in this wonderful article! And as for their "crush" on Bon Iver-- had Justin's name gone unmentioned, most probably wouldn't have even read the article. The Isthmus did a fantastic job in portraying our family.