MATT DRISCOLL: THINKS GIRL TROUBLE IS THE COOLEST >>>

Yesterday I posted an interview with www.myspace.com/dickrossette ">Dick Rossetti, former 107.7 the End personality and frontman of www.myspace.com/gunsrossetti ">Guns & Rossetti, a top notch garage band that will play Club SOTA in Tacoma on Friday, Feb. 29. Tacoma’s Girl Trouble will headline the show, and the entire evening is designed to get the word out about GT drummer Bon Von Wheelie’s “Stay Away from Pay to Play” campaign. Along with Girl Trouble and Guns & Rossetti, www.myspace.com/freakouts ">the Freakouts and www.myspace.com/ttlf ">Trip the Light Fantasticwww.myspace.com/ttlf "> are also on the bill.

Today I spoke with Von Wheelie, once again through the magic of the internet, about how her efforts to thwart pay to play scams in the area have been going, and what the hell Girl Trouble has been up to.

Enjoy.

Weekly Volcano: Can you give people an update on your anti pay-to-play campaign? Are you making headway? What scams are currently taking advantage of people?

Von Wheelie: Well, since I started this campaign over a year ago, it’s been really interesting. After 6 months or so I ended up getting kicked off Myspace. When they delete you, you are just finished, everything is gone. They don’t tell you why, and when you write them asking to give you the reason, they don’t reply. Hey, they are Myspace. They don’t have to give you a reason! So that was a little upsetting.

I thought about giving up but it only took about an hour of soul searching to decide I wasn’t going to stop. I still thought an anti pay-to-play site was needed and useful. So I started the new site, "Stay Away from Pay To Play" which is still going. The main changes I made are to keep the real specific hard-hitting facts/gripes on the Girl Trouble website. The Stay Away from Pay to Play site has been up and running for about 8 months with no problems. We’ve got over a thousand friends in the US and Europe too. Apparently paying to play is a problem worldwide.

Originally my biggest gripe was with Big Time Entertainment. That’s the company that rents the club for a crappy night, spam emails new bands to "play" shows, gives them tickets to sell and takes the biggest share for themselves. I’m happy to say that Big Time sort of fizzled out here in Tacoma. They do a few shows in Seattle, mostly at the Pay-to-play Mecca, Studio 7. I like to think I was helpful in hipping new bands to the scam of paying to play but it’s hard to say. A company like Big Time can probably only last so long continuously in one location. Eventually they saturate their market.

(Von Wheelie continued)

Besides Big Time going national, there are tons of other (pay to play schemes) operating. They mostly fall into two categories:

- The Battle of the Bands (sell tickets, give all money to the promoter for a chance to go to other rounds to sell more tickets and give more money to the promoter for a chance to "win" recording contracts, playing at big Euro Fests, fame/fortune). It’s a pay-to-play pyramid scheme since all the bands on the bottom are propping up the winner. These include Emergenza (the Euro fest that has come to the US in the last several years), Bodog (run by a gaming tycoon who can’t enter the US for tax evasion), Gorilla (cheapest BOTB, you win $500 and 20 hours of "studio time" - from Cincinnati OH), and www.myspace.com/jamsolidtucson ">Jam Solid (a band is taking them to court on Judge Mathis in the spring!). Just check out the Studio 7 website. They host them all. Gorilla is the worst right now. They’ve contacted Girl Trouble (wow, we’d just love to win that $500!) about four different times.

- The CD compilation. A company contacts the band and tells them they can be on their cool comp for $600. The band will get 50 copies to sell and they will be sent to record execs. They usually feature about 20 bands (I’ll let you do the math) and the only copies made are the ones sent to the bands. Illumina Records "Rockers for Life" is the worst. They claim they are benefiting a drunk driving campaign but there’s evidence to the contrary.

WV: Did you ever imagine there would come a time when Girl Trouble was influencing and mentoring so many young musicians in Tacoma? Is it gratifying?

Von Wheelie: I think there have been times when we’ve influenced people we knew, but we never thought about influencing the younger bands. I guess after being in a band 24 years (our anniversary is coming up, March 9th) people will listen to us a little bit. And of course, when we talk about stuff like paying-to-play, we have only the best interest of these young bands in mind. I think they appreciate that. Nobody wants to be scammed. And I have to admit that this new generation doesn’t seem to do that "you’re too old and out of touch" routine. They treat us like one of them, and we feel that way too. We’re all in this together, no matter how long we’ve been plugging away at it, a couple months, a couple years, a couple decades... we all face the same challenges.

It’s great for us to see so many good bands coming out of Tacoma and all of the Northwest. We felt there was a little bit of a dry period for awhile. I mean there were some good bands but not this many! It seems like there are tons of young bands now and they are all really good and all really great people to know. They’ll go their own way and make mistakes like we did, but we want them to have a clean start without getting exploited by pay-to-play companies.

WV: How about a Girl Trouble update? What have you guys been working on and what can people expect from you in ’08?

Von Wheelie: Well, we better get an album out here or nobody will remember who the hell we are. We’ve got about half an album all done. We’ve probably got songs enough for the rest, but it’s been hard to find the time... and why you might ask?

Our own K. P. Kendall and our other nephew Isaac Olsen have been making a full-length independent movie called Quiet Shoes. It’s taken over a year, everything has been filmed and they are working on the audio/soundtrack. KP and Isaac have been entering the Grand Cinema 72 Hour Film Competition for several years with good success. They decided to "go big" with this full-length feature and have commandeered everybody they know to be part of it. GT bass player Dale Phillips is the star and they’ve pretty much beat the crap out of him for the sake of the film. He’s a trooper. Our guitarist Kahuna also figures prominently with a big part and also built most of the special props that were needed. I’ve been in charge of special graphics when they are needed, usually in a moment’s notice. Movies take up a lot of time, but this is a project we’ve all enjoyed working on. When we have a big premier we will be sure to let you know.

Once the movie is done and the album comes out, we might even hit the road again. After 24 years, we never count anything out.