By Ezra Gale, Jennifer Maerz, Shawn Reynaldo
via SFWeekly.com
Stay
• Smaller is better. Less competition means more space for creativity and collaboration. Identifying the key players and then networking is fairly easy.
• San Francisco remains riddled with misfits. You and your band can get as weird as you want to be.
• Proximity to Northern Cali means weed is cheaper.
• San Francisco's great network of small- and medium-sized venues continues to support local bands. Add in the constant flux of warehouses, basements, and galleries, and there are plenty of places to play.
• Late-night postgig Mission burritos.
•Different music festivals promote local acts on practically a monthly basis.
Go
• Bigger is better. More competition means more creativity, cross-pollination, and opportunity.
• The scene often operates like a high school clique. If you can't penetrate tightly guarded social circles, you just might be shit out of luck.
• Every Bay Area jazz club would fit on one block in Brooklyn. Every Bay Area rock club would fit on the next two blocks.
• San Francisco's cost of living is already ridiculous, but factor in paying for equipment and practice space on top of sky-high rents and overpriced food, and the city isn't exactly artist-friendly.
• People nationwide don't pay attention to our local media the way they do to outlets in New York and Los Angeles.
• Look at the Bay Area bands that have "blown up" over the past decade: Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind, Train, Trapt ... yikes. (Punk rockers can point to Green Day and AFI. E-40 gets props outside the Bay, but the hyphy movement went nowhere and the rest of the rap world just steals our lingo and gets paid.)
via SFWeekly.com
Stay
• Smaller is better. Less competition means more space for creativity and collaboration. Identifying the key players and then networking is fairly easy.
• San Francisco remains riddled with misfits. You and your band can get as weird as you want to be.
• Proximity to Northern Cali means weed is cheaper.
• San Francisco's great network of small- and medium-sized venues continues to support local bands. Add in the constant flux of warehouses, basements, and galleries, and there are plenty of places to play.
• Late-night postgig Mission burritos.
•Different music festivals promote local acts on practically a monthly basis.
Go
• Bigger is better. More competition means more creativity, cross-pollination, and opportunity.
• The scene often operates like a high school clique. If you can't penetrate tightly guarded social circles, you just might be shit out of luck.
• Every Bay Area jazz club would fit on one block in Brooklyn. Every Bay Area rock club would fit on the next two blocks.
• San Francisco's cost of living is already ridiculous, but factor in paying for equipment and practice space on top of sky-high rents and overpriced food, and the city isn't exactly artist-friendly.
• People nationwide don't pay attention to our local media the way they do to outlets in New York and Los Angeles.
• Look at the Bay Area bands that have "blown up" over the past decade: Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind, Train, Trapt ... yikes. (Punk rockers can point to Green Day and AFI. E-40 gets props outside the Bay, but the hyphy movement went nowhere and the rest of the rap world just steals our lingo and gets paid.)