Here’s the gimmick: Each week, we’ll pick two local bands — an opening act and a headliner — link to a site where you can listen to their songs for free, then ask you to spend a few moments of your precious time to tell us what you think about them. Some may be great, others may be mediocre or awful — that’s for you to decide — all we ask is that you listen with an open mind.
Opening Act: DJ Scarlett
DJ Scarlett
So, when listening to someone like Spartanburg-based DJ Scarlett, it really helps to focus less on the specific samples, beats and songs and more on each track as a whole. And, having listened to the contents of her incredibly slow-loading MySpace page, I can say with some confidence that her music accomplishes exactly what it’s intended to do: Put you in the mood to move.
That said, while she’s clearly skilled and has a good ear for samples, there’s not much in her work that sets her apart from literally thousands of other such DJs in the country. She’s not using the samples to create a new musical message or idea, but is instead taking familiar pop, soul and hip-hop content and making it better for a dance club setting. That’s fine — it’s the whole point of being a house DJ, actually — but it’s also not something that stands up very well to critical scrutiny.
In fact, as far as I can tell, she’s not even interested in giving different kinds of mood to move to. A really good house DJ knows how to use the music to all but control the crowd at a very primal level. They’ll build up the beat to a frantic pace, then slow things down or completely change the mood, then slowly build you right back to the frenzied mood. If Scarlett is capable of this, she doesn’t showcase it on her available tracks.
If you’re looking to move — and that’s all you’re looking to do — Scarlett provides. If you’re looking for a DJ who can take the content to the next level and actually use the format as a means of true creative expression, don’t expect too find it on Scarlett’s discography.
Headliner: Will Reid and the Everyday Strangers
Will Reid
I wouldn’t call songs like “Love to See Her Face” innovative, exactly, but for the honky-tonk thing he’s going for it works just fine. It’s also a song that doesn’t overstay its welcome, barely lingering beyond the two-and-a-half minute mark. It’s not a deep or complex song, but it does everything it’s trying to accomplish and without so much as a wasted note.
Out of the three songs available on his profile page, “When you get the time” is my far the post powerful. It’s just Reid and his guitar — always a good test when trying to determine how competent a songwriter really is — and there’s nothing about it that doesn’t work. Sure, it’s another broken-heart song like you could hear from any number of roots-leaning singer/songwriters, and Reid clearly isn’t trying to break new ground here. And while I personally favor creative risk taking over relying on an established sound, it’s nice to see that Reid is at least very good at writing and performing in his niche.
That said, even after listening to his available songs several times, I’m not sure I could identify a Will Reid song if it was, say, on a compilation of acoustic country-oriented performers. While his songs are very well crafted, they’re also a not unlike many, many other such songs out there, performed by many similarly talented performers. And while Reid is quite a good performer, his music suffers from not having anything deeply memorable in lyrics, voice, phrasing or melody. It’s all quite well-put-together, but it’s not really striking.
That said, I do recommend you give him a listen, as there’s a lot to like in what he’s doing. It’s a shame so many other people are doing it at the same time.
Now, it’s your turn. I’ve put my views out here on the digital page, but you can correct, amend, disagree, refute and rebut any and all of it by commenting in the field below. Notice something about the bands that I missed? Write a comment. I’ve had my say, now it’s all about you.
Steve Shanafelt
I think your review of DJ Scarlett is pretty harsh. Perhaps one could argue this is true for all music, but I think it’s hard to fairly criticize a DJ without seeing them live. Or at least listening to a whole live set.
You can’t build a mood on a myspace page. DJs don’t create music, they take other people’s music and mix it together for a live crowd. Note: this is not the same as sampling! But you can get no idea on how well someone beat-matches and rides the energy of the dancers without seeing them live.
I wasn’t really trying to slam her or anything, it’s just an observation with the information I have at hand. If she’s good at controlling a dynamic mood over the course of a song, she doesn’t show it on her recordings. I’m not saying she can’t do it — I didn’t say that above, either — just that she didn’t do so on the tracks she uploaded.
That said, if I wanted to throw down some night (really, really unlikely, I admit, but for the sake of argument), she’d be my local DJ of choice. And if she has some chill stuff, I’d love to hear it and revisit the review. It’s not that I disliked her mixes, I just didn’t find them all that dynamic or original. I doubt I could identify one of her mixes if you picked five random tracks from five random house DJs in the country and played them for me, whereas I could easily pick, say, a DJ Spec track (same subgenre, same kinds of musical references) out in a matter of seconds.
You do raise a good point, though, which is that these reviews — all of them — are limited to what recordings I can find online. That’s a limited way of coming up with an opinion about anything, and you’re absolutely right that it sometimes totally fails to capture an element of a performer’s talent, particularly when it comes to live performances. But you could say the exact same thing of an album, for instance, and few people would say that an album isn’t a fair means of judging a performer’s range.
But if the point of having a MySpace band page is to promote an artist, it’s really their job to make sure that what’s on that page truly represents their range and talents. Because it’s not just me who will draw the conclusion that Scarlett is a one-mode DJ, it’s anyone who listens to the music she decided to post to that page.
What we really need are some live music reviewers to contribute to the Spark, so we can get a different perspective. Having done that for many years already, I’m probably not the right guy for the job. Any volunteers?
Also, while I’m thinking of it, we do actually have some video of DJ Scarlett in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bndPl_Lr7MU
Pictures of women without much clothing is always a good idea. Just sayin’.
Browse her MySpace account’s photos page, and you’ll see plenty of revealing clothes, both on her and on her fans and friends. The photo I picked for the column is actually one of the more tame ones.
I would go off on a giant “Christopher George-original” rant about how much I HATE DJ’s, but in the spirit of using other people’s stuff to express one’s self, I think I’ll let Henry Rollins do it for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRDDOpKaLM
Doing shows with DJ Icey, AK1200, Baby Anne, and other big names is nothing to scoff at if you know anything about these kind of events. I totally give her props for hanging in there and doing her thing. I’m over due for some pop lockin’ to some good breaks, I’m inspired to make it out to a show now.
Thanks for featuring her, even though it’s a lukewarm review. It’s hard to apply the same critiquing formula for bands as for DJ’s, I understand, but she’s definitely making it.
May I comment on my own article? Yes, I believe I can
Hi guys, I am Scarlett and I just wanted to add a little to the comments about what I really do! Yes I am considered a musician being I have a band page as a myspace profile! May I say that over the last 2 years, myspace has kind of fallen off a little bc of things such as spam and fake profiles! And I will admit I had become slack about keeping my site organized and keeping people coming back to my page! Since this article, I have made changes to my site so by all means check it out again.
http://www.myspace.com/djscarlett
I have also teamed up with Tony Karma as we provide a monthly event called HIGH.LIGHTS. These parties are at Escape in Greenville and the 2 that we have done have been very successful. Event dates are on my profile page.
As for the tracks on my page, I have produced and created one track “Vivid” thats on my playlist! The others are just preview mixes of actual cds I have produced! Now I haven’t uploaded anything new in a while bc I have just been so busy with work and other things! There are other sites that us djs use to help promote ourselves. I have 2 mixes available for download at
http://www.soundcloud.com right now! I will be uploading 2 more in the next week!
I am that dj that can get you on the dancefloor and keep you there! If you check out some of my vids on http://www.youtube.com/scarlett8784 which includes the video shown on a previous comment, and many showing my energy.
I appreciate the comments and I will always take in to account that everyone has their own opinions about things. I have lots of improvements but I have come far, and hope to continue to provide people with bass dropping energy.
And also, I play house music, but I am a breaks dj!!! My videos and info on my page will tell you that! There is a big difference in the two genres when calling a dj either a house or breaks dj!
Breakbeats all the way!!!
I do play all type of genres which widens my availability. I also do weddings and birthday parties and such so I have taken my talent as a club dj to another level and made myself more open to opportunities.